Sovereign of the Ashes

Sein did not know if his mentor and the others were safe, but he knew trouble was closing in on him.

Just before reaching the Alpha-007 Star Domain, Sein and his group finally ran into a federal fleet large enough to pose a real threat.

It was an exceptionally massive mixed formation, made up of various federal warship models and the giant mobile suits Sein had seen before.

At the same time, Sein learned that the enemy had set up extensive defensive lines and massive mechanical fortifications along the fleet’s outer perimeter.

Defensive warfare had always been the technological civilization’s specialty.

Back in his early days on the Wild Gorilla World’s battlefield, Sein had experienced the Gallant Federation’s tactics firsthand.

The federation’s elite forces relied heavily on their fleets, giant mobile suits, and interstellar fortresses.

These technological marvels made it hard to judge their true strength at a glance.

To make matters worse, Sein’s limited knowledge of the federal military left him unable to accurately gauge the strength of every formation they fielded.

Still, for the enemy to dare stand in his way, their strength had to be considerable.

Comparing the Nexon robots’ current forces to those of the federation, the formation deployed here likely contained no fewer than a hundred combatants ranked at Rank Four or above.

What made Sein and his companions even grimmer was that this was not only the force blocking their path forward.

In reality, they were also hemmed in by large numbers of federal fleets on the flanks and to the rear.

The pursuit from behind was especially relentless, as the Gallant Federation had concentrated most of its forces there outside the main battlefield.

There was no need for deep analysis—it was obvious the Gallant Federation intended to completely encircle and annihilate this large force of defected robots.

“We have no choice but to charge forward with everything we’ve got! Only by tearing open the net the federation has cast on the main battlefield can we hope to break out!” Sein said to Titanfang and the others.

Titanfang’s eyes lingered on him, as if silently asking where the Magus Civilization’s reinforcements he had spoken of were now.

If another Magus World legion had shown up to coordinate with them, their combined strength might have been enough to break the forces standing in their way.

But Titanfang held back.

If Sein had something to say, he would not wait for Titanfang to ask.

After all this time together, not only had Sein grown familiar with Titanfang and the other robots, but they had also come to understand his personality.

The light in Titanfang’s eyes burned brighter. It drew a deep breath, then addressed Sein and all the high-tier intelligent robots gathered there.

“Alright, we’ll charge forward and break through!”

***

The intelligent robots moved as one. Since Nexon’s destruction, their unity had only grown stronger.

For now, none of them entertained the fantasy of returning to the Gallant Federation’s fold.

No, more accurately, they had never truly belonged to the Gallant Federation—not since the moment they first developed self-awareness.

Once the order to break through the front lines was given, Nexon’s robots mobilized without hesitation.

Without sturdy ships and heavy cannons like the Gallant Federation’s, they could not form solid fleet formations, nor did they have the overwhelming firepower of the Magus Civilization’s space fortresses.

All they had were their own steel bodies.

After the charge order was confirmed, the vanguard was once again led by high-tier robots of Rank Four and above.

Titanfang and Skyhold did send waves of ordinary robots forward as cannon fodder to draw enemy fire, but it still fell to the elite units to pierce the federation’s hardened defenses.

As the lone Magus World mage in the robotic legion, Sein positioned himself in the middle of the vanguard.

He chose the position of his own accord, and neither Titanfang nor Skyhold objected.

Charging too far ahead would have been nothing short of suicide. Sein had no desire for such needless sacrifice, nor did he harbor illusions about the federal fleet’s firepower.

Yet he also refused to hide in the middle or the rear of the formation.

His reasoning was simple. If Nexon’s robot legion exhausted itself at the front and still failed to break the blockade, there would be no point in continuing. That path led only to death.

The front and middle of the vanguard offered the best chance of escaping, while the rest was at constant risk of being overwhelmed by the federation’s flanking fleets.

Titanfang’s choice to concentrate nearly all of their elite high-intelligence robots at the vanguard only confirmed Sein’s judgment.

The battle erupted almost immediately!

The strength of the robots lay not just in their firepower, but in their sheer momentum and unyielding will.

Sein had fought in countless interplanar wars and seen countless fearless warriors.

Yet he had never seen anything like the Nexon robots, charging with perfect composure into a storm of energy projectiles raining down on them.

Perhaps it was because they lacked faces that could convey fear.

Titanfang remained the unstoppable vanguard.

But in this battle, it did not immediately shift into its gigantic form that stretched a thousand meters tall.

Instead, it kept itself to just a few dozen meters in height, charging straight into the federation’s most concentrated fire zone like a silver-black meteor.

In this battlefield among the stars, there were no safe areas. Everywhere was raining fire!

The Gallant Federation forces had clearly been preparing for this for a long time. In addition to their staggering array of warships, spacecraft, and interstellar fortresses, they had spread an incredibly dense autonomous fire network through the surrounding asteroid belts.

Most of the robots charging behind Titanfang were from its own command, though a handful belonged to Skyhold.

By now, Sein could name nearly all of these robots.

From his position, he had a clear view of the battlefield.

In just the blink of an eye, three high-tier robots with Rank Four combat strength were obliterated in midair by a rain of beams!

Most of those beams were not even especially powerful.

The thick metal shells of these advanced robots could easily repel blasts with power comparable to that of Rank One to Three beings.

On top of that, many had already activated multiple layers of energy shields.

They were destroyed instantly because of the sheer volume of beams striking them at once, overwhelming even their defenses.

It was the same principle as water wearing down stone—not through force, but through persistence.

And not all of the federation’s fire was low-grade.

Scattered among the dense fleets were destroyers armed with main cannons powerful enough to rival the full-force strikes of Rank Five, or even Rank Six, lifeforms.

Overhead, massive federal fortresses loomed menacingly across the starry battlefield.

They rivaled the Magus Civilization’s in size, with some even larger, and the firepower they unleashed was terrifying.

Before long, the robots near Sein would be forced to step into the fray.

Sein swept his gaze around. There were two high-intelligence robots near him, one with the combat strength of a Rank Five, the other rivaling a Rank Four.

If he recalled, their names were Gilded Beast and Impact.