Sovereign of the Ashes

The skeletal dragons formed a breathtaking and terrifying sight across the starry battlefield.

Amid this vast tide, a single Rank Four skeletal dragon with pale gray bones blended in seamlessly.

After all, within this legion of millions, more than fifty skeletal dragons were Rank Four or higher!

The strongest among them had reached the peak of Rank Six. It was a monstrous, pitch-black skeletal dragon whose very presence inspired awe and dread.

That Rank Four skeletal dragon was named Sanchez. Roughly a hundred thousand skeletal dragons gathered around it.

Every one of them was its direct subordinate.

The Clash of Civilizations had shaken Sanchez to its core.

Not long ago, it had witnessed a powerful Rank Five undead creature get blown apart in the sky by a concentrated beam from the Gallant Federation’s fleet.

Clatter! Clatter!

Sanchez could not tell whether the noise came from the undead creatures’ bone armor or from its own trembling jaws.

Most undead creatures had no fear of death, especially the low-ranking ones.

Ironically, it was the more evolved, intelligent, higher-ranking undead who pondered the meaning of life and feared losing it.

“Damn it, if I survive this, I’m going to mount that female zombie dragon back in the Undead Canyon!” Sanchez cursed, turning around before charging forward.

Sexual pleasure was practically a foreign concept among the undead.

Both parties were just bags of bones at this point; even if they wanted to, it was... physically impossible.

Sanchez’s urge was not physical but purely psychological.

Dragons were lustful creatures. Even on a battlefield where death loomed overhead, this one still managed to think about stuff like that.

As the skeletal dragon legions surged forward, Aeluna stirred deep within the rear ranks.

The God of Elves wielded a silver harp, adorned with radiant moonstones all around its frame.

Being a Rank Eight overlord, every move Aeluna made drew the attention of the Gallant Federation’s fleets.

When they saw her moving again, with millions of skeletal dragons lunging forward like a massive gray spear, a five-star federal general sank into his seat inside his battered capital ship.

“It’s over,” he muttered.

***

The northern region of the Netherworld Star Domain...[1]

This was currently the most critical battleground in the entire star domain because the Magus Civilization had entrenched itself here, taking advantage of the terrain and deploying elite forces to block every attempt the Gallant Federation made to reinforce their troops trapped inside the Netherworld Star Domain.

The Magus Civilization’s defensive line operated on two fronts.

On one side, they had to stop the federation’s reinforcements from breaking through.

On the other, they had to prevent scattered remnants of the federation’s vanguard fleets from slipping out.

Ever since a badly damaged fragment of an overlord-class federal fleet managed to escape four centuries ago, not a single enemy fleet had broken out of this region again.

The Magus Civilization’s strategy of “locking the enemy in” had proven extremely effective.

As for the gains from this early stage of the war, many Magus Civilization powerhouses believed the rewards were already in their tummies—they just needed another three or four hundred years to finish digesting them.

Stationed in the northern expanse of the Netherworld Star Domain, alongside the Magus Civilization’s most elite legions, were troops from Titan World.

The burly Titans repeatedly repelled the Gallant Federation’s warships and mobile suits.

Some higher-ranking Titan Gods had bodies that, when enlarged, could rival even the federation’s massive mobile suits.

Across the starry battlefield, countless titan corpses and metallic ship wreckage drifted in silence as evidence of the brutal battles that had raged here for centuries.

Of the two confirmed overlord-class federal forces that had been annihilated, one had fallen to Odin.

Behind Titan World’s defensive lines, Hela—an overlord who had recently withdrawn from the front—glared at her two younger brothers who had shown up before her.

“Who gave you two the permission to be here?” she asked, clearly displeased.

Thor and Loki exchanged glances but stayed silent for a long moment.

They had secretly come here on their own, each bringing a legion of followers.

Thor, being stronger, commanded a larger army.

Loki was nowhere near as powerful as his elder brother, but he easily surpassed Thor in one aspect—the sheer number of treasures in his possession.

On top of that, Loki commanded a pegasus knight legion. These were the personal guards of their mother, Andaelle, the Divine Titan Queen.

The presence of this legion made one thing obvious: Titan World was not entirely unaware that the two sons of the Divine King had slipped away.

At the very least, their mother knew.

Hela shot another fierce glare at her two foolish younger brothers before snapping, “Do not make things worse! Your mission is to join the God of Order and the others, and block any remnant forces trying to break out of the Netherworld Star Domain.”

Soft snake hisses came from Hela’s hair.

Jormungandr, the World Serpent, manifested her fury perfectly in that moment.

The boorish Thor looked ready to argue, but before he could get a word out, Loki grabbed him and dragged him away.

Despite being younger, he was clearly far more sensible than Thor, and far better at reading their parents’ and sister’s intentions.

Thor, that idiot, wanted to charge straight to the frontlines to clash with the Gallant Federation’s newly arrived elite reinforcements instead of dealing with the remnant forces.

But that decision was not his to make.

Unless he ever became strong enough to defy his sister, Hela would always keep him under her thumb.

As Thor and Loki left, Hela’s anger cooled a little. She called out after them, “Make sure you visit your aunt later. She’s on this battlefield as well.”

Hearing Hela’s words, Thor’s spirits visibly lifted, and even Loki showed a flash of joy.

Their paternal aunt had always been kind to them both.

She never scolded Thor and was a gentle woman who supported him no matter what.

Loki, too, often received treasures from her.

Whenever they traveled to Magus World, they almost always visited their aunt in Marmett Union Alliance.

“Aunt Bev is here? Let’s go see her now!” Loki tugged Thor along with ease, even though his older brother was a whole size larger.

1. Author’s Note: The directions mentioned here follow Magus World’s own sense of orientation. The Astral Plane is vast, boundless, and three-dimensional. With no reference points in the region, concepts like north, south, east, or west no longer apply. ☜