Sovereign of the Ashes

The Insectoids’ offensive was fierce.

With three overlords leading the charge and billions of insects sweeping across most of the Divine Descendants Star Domain, nearly every planar battlefield instantly sank into the quagmire of war.

The strongest Bladeist charged straight toward Venerable Tianyang.

The Insectoids did not seem to rely on world-class secret treasures. Their bodies themselves were their sharpest weapons and sturdiest shields.

Fighting relentlessly with their own bodies and maximizing their passive evolutionary abilities was the path these creatures had chosen.

When the overlord-level Bladeist charged directly at Venerable Tianyang, he fought using nothing but his own body.

Opposite him, Venerable Tianyang, who was constantly being forced back, relied on a crimson orb and a special mirror disc as his weapons. Both items emitted the law fluctuations unique to world-class secret treasures.

When the Insectoids launched their charge, the Dawn Empire legions and the Quatar Star Pirates on the Divine Descendants Star Domain battlefield reacted with lightning speed.

They almost instantly identified these Insectoids as allies.

Their combined offensive dealt another devastating blow to Myriad Manifestations World’s legions.

The ratio of overlord-level beings instantly shifted from three against three to six against three.

And that was not even counting Fermont the Deathspawn, who had yet to truly mobilize, or the two additional overlord-level combatants inside Fermont’s body who had yet to reveal themselves.

One of those overlord-level powerhouses, in particular, was the presence Venerable Tianyang feared the most.

She was even more formidable than Fermont the Deathspawn.

She was the Empress of Blades.

***

As the overlord-level battle began once again, Sein, who was on Buros Plane, was also greatly affected by the shifting situation across the surrounding battlefields.

Originally, Buros Plane where he was stationed had been under attack by the legions of Myriad Manifestations World.

However, after the Insectoid swarms appeared, the offensive momentum of Myriad Manifestations World’s legions outside the plane noticeably weakened.

Faced with the sudden arrival of enemies who outnumbered them several times over, even the powerhouses of Myriad Manifestations World were unsure whether they should continue attacking or retreat and regroup.

Sein reacted quickly.

He did not know whether the Insectoids were friend or foe. But thanks to the battlefield intelligence capabilities of the Faceless Mask, Sein discovered that in the outermost regions, the Insectoid legions were directly attacking Myriad Manifestations World’s legions.

Therefore, Sein decisively ordered his own legions on Buros World to launch an all-out assault against Myriad Manifestations World’s legions.

His goal was to hold them back and prevent them from retreating so easily.

A civilizational battlefield was not some place they could enter and leave as they pleased!

With the Insectoids entering the fray, Myriad Manifestations World’s legions were effectively surrounded. It would be difficult for them to evacuate the Divine Descendants Star Domain in the short term.

Unless, of course, they immediately broke through the encirclement at any cost.

The orders that soon arrived from the Dawn Empire confirmed the foresight behind Sein’s command.

Having long since undone his fusion with Fermera, Sein activated his Ashen Demon True Body and soared to the highest reaches of Buros World.

This low-level plane had already been reduced to ruins by the chaotic melee of numerous Rank Four beings, and its planar laws had been torn to shreds.

A massive, ethereal mask gradually materialized before Sein.

Powerful fluctuations of laws and elemental energy soon gathered around the outline of the mask.

A dazzling flash of fire erupted from the tip of Sein’s magic scepter.

As he murmured an incantation under his breath, the flames multiplied and grew even more intense!

Soon, a dense shower of fiery light rained down from the skies above the battlefield of this low-level plane.

The Cascading Light spell had descended.

***

The Buros Plane battlefield was located right next to the medium-sized Phylis Plane.

At this very moment, an overlord-level battle had erupted naer that medium-sized plane.

Although Sein was only at Rank Five, that did not stop him from paying close attention to such high-level battle.

Amidst the chaotic melee, Sein kept a close eye on the battle between the Holy Dragon King, Venerable Muge, and the Swiftling King.

The Holy Dragon King was the totem of the Dawn Empire’s Valiant Dragon Army. Sein had been fortunate enough to witness the Emperor’s mount during their departure from the Dawn Empire.

Venerable Muge clearly wielded dendro elemental powers.

In battle, he directly transformed into a towering green phantom.

These massive lawful bodies created an overwhelming visual impact on lower-ranking creatures. In battle, they seemed no different from gods.

Creatures below Rank Four regarded law-wielding beings as gods. Little did they know that, in the eyes of Rank Four and Rank Five creatures, overlord-level beings who had pushed their power to the absolute limit seemed even more godlike.

Perhaps, in the eyes of overlord-level beings, there were also existences they regarded as gods?

The path of power and evolution seemed to have no end.

The Swiftling King, who had newly joined the battlefield, possessed astonishing speed and agility.

Even with the Faceless Mask assisting him, Sein found it difficult to catch a clear glimpse of his opponent.

All he could see was a blood-red shadow, relentlessly slamming into and tearing apart Venerable Muge’s lawful body.

While observing the overlord battle up close, what shocked Sein the most was not the vast, overwhelming power possessed by these overlord-level beings. Rather, it was the fact that no matter what injuries or losses they suffered in combat, they could instantly recover to their original state!

This was a capability beyond Sein’s comprehension.

Earlier, within the secret realm of the Eiyurant Papillon Civilization, the overlord-level Psychic of the Rosen Dynasty had battled the Gallant Federation’s Erebus-class war fleet.

However, that battle had seemed more like a rough-and-tumble play. Neither side had truly fought with their full strength.

Only this melee allowed Sein to truly understand what an overlord-level battlefield was like.

It was like a game that could go on forever. If both sides could constantly restore themselves to peak condition in an instant, how could there ever be a loser?

Still, Sein was a firm believer in the laws of balance within the Astral Realm.

Ever since his initiate days, when he had first come into contact with magic and elemental powers, his mentor had taught him the major laws of conservation.

“There must be some kind of energy that sustains overlord-level creatures through their battles. But what exactly is it?” Sein could not help but mumble to himself as he watched Venerable Muge’s phantom right arm, which had just been torn apart by the Holy Dragon King and the Swiftling King, return to its original state.

Rumble!

Just as he was wondering about this, two Insectoid Void Motherships arrived near Phylis Plane and Buros Plane.

Surrounding the two Void Motherships were dozens of massive queen insects, as well as a high-tier Insectoid legion numbering at least three hundred thousand.

The larger of the two Void Motherships, which carried more than half of the swarm, headed toward Phylis Plane.

The other Void Mothership, carrying the smaller remaining half of the swarm, rushed toward Buros Plane where Sein was.

As the Insectoid legions drew near, piercing screeches and the sonic waves from countless flapping wings rang out in rapid succession.

Although the size of these Insectoid legions currently in sight seemed limited, when they arrived directly above Buros Plane, more than ten queen insects split open their abdominal walls.

A large amount of purple viscous substance that seemed thick and slimy gushed out, accompanied by a tide of hideous low-level Insectoids.

After descending from the sky, these Insectoids swarmed across the Buros Plane battlefield in overwhelming numbers.

At the same time, the Void Mothership had already reached the breach in Buros Plane’s defenses.

It began deploying troops onto Buros Plane.

This deployment involved even greater numbers and an even wider variety of units.

Hordes of Winged Drakons flapped their wings and burst forth from both sides of the Void Mothership, while massive Thunder Beasts surged out from its forward hatches.

Although there was only one Void Mothership and a dozen or so queen insects, the number of Insectoids deployed into this world was staggering.

A rough estimate put the number at nearly one million.

But that was not all.

After deploying the entire Insectoid legion from within the ship, something happened that left Sein utterly astonished.

The Insectoid Void Mothership suddenly changed course and plunged downward, like a falling tree, straight toward the Buros Plane below!

It plummeted directly toward the most resource-rich region of Buros Plane.

Having occupied Buros Plane for some time, Sein knew that this area was rich in all types of energy crystals, as well as various metallic ores.

The Void Mothership did not simply crash into the ground.

Instead, after partially embedding itself into the ground, a strange crimson glow flashed across its hull. The ship then began to disintegrate from the center, twisting and warping until it gradually transformed into a massive platform that resembled a base.

Then, a vast number of Insectoids surged out from within the base.

At the moment, only a small fraction of these Insectoid creatures were combat units.

The rest were a much larger group of flat, worm-like creatures with two white, bone-like spikes protruding from their bodies. They clearly did not possess much combat strength.

In fact, based on their life level and the aura of power they gave off, Sein felt that they were only comparable to low-tier magic beasts of Magus World.

Generally speaking, creatures of this level were not even qualified to serve as cannon fodder in the Magus Civilization’s past wars.

Only certain planes of the Magus Alliance that had truly exhausted all other options would be forced to use such low-tier creatures as cannon fodder.

Obviously, the Insectoids were not using these creatures as combat units.

Sein watched as the flat-bodied Insectoids seemed completely unaffected by the war raging around them. Some slipped into the forests, some burrowed deep underground, and others even entered nearby lakes and oceans. Before long, they returned carrying various energy crystals and raw materials.

Not only was Sein, who was watching from high above the plane, stunned, but even the Dawn Empire legions on the battlefield below were somewhat bewildered.

These creatures clearly possessed considerable intelligence. At present, their activities were limited to the territories controlled by Sein’s forces and the Dawn Empire legions.

When it came to gathering resources, the Insectoids were not picky at all.

They did not even spare corpses. Many remains of creatures from Myriad Manifestations World were dragged directly back to the Insectoid base.

Even Sein’s robots were not spared. Several Insectoid worker insects used their hard, ossified spikes to cautiously prod them.

When the mindless robots turned around, and the surrounding mechanical angels moved in, those Insectoid worker insects quickly retreated.

Who would have thought these little workers were actually rather timid?

Just as Sein was still stunned by the scene before him, a fluctuation of law power appeared once again in the void.

Deep in the distant cosmos, that colossal pitch-black shadow surged forward once again, drawing much closer than before.

It was Fermont the Deathspawn, who had finally forced its way through the wormhole.

Fermont’s arrival meant that the other two overlord-level beings within his body had also reached this interstellar battlefield!

A fierce gale swept through, triggering massive upheavals across the land.

Buros Plane seemed unable to withstand the full impact of this war any longer and let out a groan of its own.