Sovereign of the Ashes

“It’s quite a unique world. The federation’s technological industry and the native pantheon seem to have merged rather harmoniously,” Sein commented as he gazed down from the starry sky.

“Although this world’s planar will and barrier feel rather fragile to me, its natives’ faith doesn’t seem to have collapsed,” Mel said as she studied the scene below with keen interest.

Despite her young age and small stature, Mel was a true seeker of truth.

Sometimes, Sein could even find common ground with her—unlike Belphane, whom he had only just met.

The Rank Six female knight had already pulled two heavy maces out of nowhere and was scanning the area for enemies, clearly ready to charge into battle at any moment.

For this conquest of the Kales Star Domain, there were only three law-wielding knights and mages on their side: Sein, Mel, and Belphane.

Of course, Sein also had Fermera, the God of Dusk Desire, and the Ashen Star Pirates serving as additional combat forces.

As for the half-million-strong army dispatched by the Dawn Empire, it did not have a single law-wielding general among its ranks.

Gongsun Wudi seemed to have complete confidence in Sein and was not worried that mistakes in his command would lead to heavy losses for the Dawn Empire’s legions.

In fact, with two Rank Six combatants present on a small star domain battlefield that currently had no notable threats, major losses were unlikely, no matter how poorly Sein commanded his forces.

After taking one last look at the plane below, Sein said, “This plane seems to be guarded by only a single Rank Four being, and it doesn’t look particularly powerful. Mel, you take care of it.”

He turned to Belphane and continued, “The rest of us will head to the other battlefields in this star domain. We should try not to let too many native deities escape.”

“No problem!” Belphane replied, raising her iron maces.

After so many years of fighting the Gallant Federation, Sein had long since realized that, under normal circumstances, the federation’s combat legions and vassal creatures would not abandon their posts easily in the heat of battle.

After all, they were bound by military discipline and martial law. If they collapsed at the first sign of trouble, the federation’s high command would never let them off lightly.

Unless, of course, their mission had been to carry out a planned ambush or harassment operation from the very beginning.

The central plane of the Kales Star Domain was known as Black Mist World

It was a plane where the power of water vapor was exceptionally dense, and it was also where the Rank Five God of Black Mist resided.

By the time Sein and his group arrived, the planar barrier surrounding the entire Black Mist World had already been fully activated, and the plane’s power had been pushed to its absolute limit.

Thick mist shrouded both the inside and outside of this low-level plane.

At first glance, the entire world seemed wrapped in a gray haze.

On his way here, Sein had also noticed quite a few federal ships within the Kales Star Domain. It seemed this small star domain was actually fairly important to the Gallant Federation.

If the Gallant Federation decided to support Divine Descendants World, the Kales Star Domain would likely become one of its priority deployment zones.

There were five law-wielding beings in the Kales Star Domain. Excluding the two deities who each presided over a separate low-level plane, the remaining three—including the God of Black Mist—were all inside this mist-shrouded world.

Sein and Belphane were both ambitious powerhouses, so naturally, ordinary Rank Four beings held little interest for them.

More importantly, they were worried that the deities in Black Mist World might escape.

Because of that, when assigning forces to the battlefield on the other low-level plane, Sein could only send the God of Dusk Desire, whose combat ability was merely average.

As for this foreign god who had only recently pledged allegiance to him, Sein could not set his expectations too high.

He did not demand that the God of Dusk Desire defeat the enemy. He merely instructed him to hold the enemy back.

The Kales Star Domain consisted of seven complete planes, but only three of them were low-level planes. The other four were microplanes.

Sein was not in a hurry to deal with those microplanes, as none of them were guarded by deities.

Once the main battlefields were secured, there would be plenty of time to deal with those planar battlefields that law-wielding beings could not enter.

“So it’s not just that outermost world. All the planes in this star domain have already integrated technology deeply into their societies! And yet, their primitive social structures still seem to operate under a theocratic system...?” Sein mused with a trace of admiration after arriving outside Black Mist World.

“As expected of a world guarded by a Rank Five being, its planar will hasn’t been too badly damaged by technological pollution.”

He then turned to the female knight beside him. “Are you handling this, or should I?”

The planar barrier below was quite strong.

Without the support of a space fortress, they could only rely on the power of a Rank Six being to break through by force.

Just as Belphane was about to answer, Sein added, as if answering his own question, “Never mind. I’ll handle it. Your main task is to make sure the native Rank Five being doesn’t escape.”

Belphane rolled her eyes at him.

Still, she was curious to see what tactics Sein would use in battle.

Sein then exchanged a glance with Fermera.

Fermera immediately understood his intentions. With a faint blush on her cheeks, she flew in front of him.

They had done this more than once by now, and their coordination had grown increasingly refined. It was nothing like their awkward early attempts.

As Fermera moved into position, the eight wings on her back unfurled at once. Mechanical structures shifted and transformed across the surface of her body.

This time, she did not merge directly with Sein. Guided by the light of Sein’s mana and the Magic Cube, she gradually transformed into a weapon made up of eight narrow energy panels instead.

The core emitter of this device came from the main cannon that had once been located beneath Fermera’s chest, while the eight energy panels were formed from her metallic wings.

A ring-shaped metal structure also formed around the emitter.

Sein now stood behind that metal ring, holding his magic scepter and aiming it at the world below.

This Stargate Cannon had been inspired by a fragment of a secret artifact from the Eiyurant Papillon Civilization, which the Magic Cube had once absorbed.

Even its name came from that civilization.

Suddenly, brilliant light began to gather at the tip of Sein’s magic scepter. An incredibly intense surge of elemental energy started converging around him.

A forbidden spell began to take shape as Sein chanted the incantation.

Faced with such overwhelming elemental fluctuations, the three native deities of Black Mist World did not even try to break through the planar barrier for a last desperate stand.

Perhaps they, too, were intimidated by the powerful elemental fluctuations coming from beyond their plane.

Instead, a barrage of energy attacks erupted from below and shot toward Sein and his companions.

The Dawn Empire’s legions were indeed highly elite.

Even after part of their forces had been diverted elsewhere, the remaining Dawn Empire troops—only around three hundred thousand in number—swiftly formed a battle formation on their own.

With their vigorous qi, they managed to neutralize a significant portion of the federation’s low and mid-tier energy beams.

Sein had not paid much attention to them during the earlier stages of the battle.

Now, seeing it up close, he suddenly realized that the Dawn Empire troops’ battle formation bore some resemblance to the one used by his own angel robots.

Both gathered the limited strength of individual combatants and condensed it into a far more solid collective force.

Belphane also stepped forward, intercepting some of the attacks that posed a slight threat to Sein and ensuring that his forbidden spell could be unleashed smoothly.

Before long, Sein completed the incantation.

It was only an ordinary forbidden spell, but with Sein’s elemental power behind it, it was more than enough to pierce through the planar barrier of the low-level plane below.

However, if he wanted to achieve truly significant results, that alone would still be somewhat difficult.

But after being focused and amplified by Fermera’s alternate form, the destructive power of the forbidden-level beam fired from the tip of Sein’s magic scepter reached an entirely different level!

The eight energy-focusing panels first drew in and gathered vast amounts of energy from the surrounding starry sky.

That energy split into eight separate columns, each pouring into the Stargate Convergence Core.

Combined with Fermera’s own Rank Six power, the energy within the convergence core surged to an astonishing level in an instant.

The Magic Cube spun ceaselessly above the device Fermera had transformed into, letting out a soft whirring sound.

As the immense energy gathered, the deep-blue glow of law power shone with breathtaking beauty.

Belphane stared at Sein in shock.

With Fermera and the Magic Cube lending their power, the elemental energy unleashed by Sein’s forbidden spell reached a level that stunned even the Rank Six female knight.

Given Belphane’s current strength, even she might not be able to withstand the attack if she took it head-on!

At the very least, she would be severely injured!

“Is that guy really only a Rank Five mage?!” she could not help but wonder.

Whoosh!

As the forbidden spell passed through the central ring of the Stargate, its destructive power surged dramatically!

Even the size of the energy beam expanded to more than ten times its original scale!

This was probably what it would look like if one of Magus World’s latest standard space fortresses fired its main cannon in a focused strike.

The surging torrent of energy plunged straight down toward the mist-shrouded world below.

The raging elemental energy instantly vaporized vast amounts of black water vapor both inside and outside the low-level plane, leaving the entire world much clearer than before.

Below, countless living beings in Black Mist World could not help looking up at the magnificent, multicolored pillar of energy.

The primary core of that energy pillar was still Sein’s Ashen Flame. But because it was mixed with so much of Fermera’s power, as well as the free elemental particles gathered from the surrounding starry sky, its overall appearance was far more varied and mottled.

Upon witnessing such a magnificent display of elemental power and seeing the energy pillar tear through the clouds and mist, many lesser beings in Black Mist World could not help but fall to their knees and chant, “A miracle...!”

As for the Rank Five God of Black Mist, ruler of this lower plane, the moment he sensed the increasingly terrifying energy fluctuations coming from beyond the plane’s borders, he muttered bitterly, “It’s over!”

There were at least two foreign greater deities present, and one of them possessed a power so immense that even the God of Black Mist could not fully comprehend it.

He did not believe he could hold out until reinforcements from the Gallant Federation arrived.