Sovereign of the Ashes

The Crab King—or more accurately, the leader of the void-wandering Cerulean Crabs—was roughly at the mid-stage of Rank Five.

The Cerulean Crabs were comparable in power to the Huusians. Aside from the Rank Five Crab King himself, they also boasted three formidable Rank Four powerhouses.

During the years when the Klytherans struggled to survive in the Chaos Sea, scarce resources and limited living space frequently led to clashes with other nomadic races in the Astral Realm.

Weak, lower-tier interstellar races never dared to provoke the Klytherans.

The Cerulean Crabs, however, were among the few Astral Realm forces bold enough to challenge the Klytherans.

The Crab King had fought against Karazo on multiple occasions.

Back then, the Cerulean Crab King had been no match for Karazo. The gap between its clan and the warriors of Planet Klythera was simply too wide.

As a result, their clashes ended more often in defeat than victory for the Cerulean Crabs.

Now, meeting once again on the battlefield, fresh resentment was layered atop old grudges on both sides.

“Ah, it’s you!” the Cerulean Crab King snarled, squinting its small eyes as it glared up at Karazo, who was hovering in midair.

These crabs had once lived arrogantly in the Chaos Sea.

Unfortunately, their good old days ended the moment the Klytheran survivors migrated into the region.

The newly arrived Klytherans needed space to survive, and smaller interstellar species were powerless to resist them.

Already at the bottom of the ecological hierarchy, these weaker groups suffered little direct impact.

The ones truly affected were the stronger interstellar races like the Cerulean Crabs.

The Chaos Sea was officially known to have no Rank Six lifeforms, though rumors had long circulated about one residing in Freedom Star City.

Yet when the Magus Civilization seized control of Freedom Star City and much of the Chaos Sea Star Domain, no Rank Six entity ever appeared. This proved that those rumors were indeed nothing more than speculation.

Or perhaps that being had fled long before the Magus Civilization arrived.

Rank Five beings were already considered the strongest figures in the Chaos Sea and its surrounding star domains.

Now, with so many Rank Five powerhouses converging on Marvelous Plane at once, this low-level world felt unbearably cramped.

When enemies met face to face, old hatred only burned hotter.

Karazo and the Cerulean Crab King were never on friendly terms, so the moment they met, they went straight for each other.

Massive azure claws, blazing with the radiance of laws, came flying toward Karazo in the sky.

From a distance, it looked like an entire mountain hurtling through the air.

Karazo thrust one hand forward, unleashing a dense barrage of energy blasts from his palm.

Back when the Klytherans had not yet secured the Gray Quartz deposits around Blue Star, the Cerulean Crabs had already been no match for them.

Now, with the Klytherans fully restored to peak condition through abundant inert crystals, the Cerulean Crabs naturally stood even less of a chance.

Even so, the Cerulean Crabs’ carapaces were truly tough!

Thanks to this formidable natural armor, many Cerulean Crabs below Rank One were able to endure the harsh, ever-changing environment of the Astral Realm.

Their survival capabilities were equally impressive.

When proper food sources were scarce, these Cerulean Crabs could even subsist by gnawing on the minerals within drifting meteoroids, barely sustaining their bodily functions.

This peculiar “dirt eating” racial trait was something Sein had previously seen only among the minotaurlings of Centaurworld.

“Your armor seems to have grown tougher,” Karazo remarked as he continued firing energy blasts into the gaps of the Cerulean Crab King’s carapace.

“Hmph. You Klytherans may have the Magus Civilization’s support now... but we Cerulean Crabs have our own backing as well,” the Crab King said coldly.

A vast cloud of pale blue bubbles sprayed from the Crab King’s mouth.

Beyond their inherent toxicity, the bubbles carried hallucinogenic law effects.

“Your backing?” Karazo sneered. “Are you talking about Arid Expanse World, or the Gallant Federation behind them?”

As one of Planet Klythera’s leaders who had worked with Sein for years, Karazo knew exactly who their true enemy was.

At that moment, a layer of bright silver metallic sheen spread across the Cerulean Crab King’s body.

At first glance, it did not seem especially remarkable.

But on closer inspection, the silver plating bore a striking resemblance to the outer armor of the Gallant Federation’s massive warships.

The Gallant Federation had directly integrated this special alloy into the Cerulean Crab King’s exoskeleton, greatly enhancing its resistance to physical impacts!

And it was not just the Cerulean Crab King. Across the marsh battlefield below, more than two million Cerulean Crabs were roaming and patrolling.

Those creatures had clearly undergone varying degrees of evolutionary mutation.

Indeed, only by aligning themselves with a far more powerful world civilization could a species achieve such a qualitative leap in strength within such a short span of time.

Both the Klytherans and the Cerulean Crabs had made their choices in this war.

Karazo had brought about four hundred thousand Klytheran fighters to Marvelous Plane.

The entire remaining population of Planet Klythera numbered just over seven hundred thousand fighters of Rank One or above.

Many had already fallen in the Sanok Star Domain—this was the price they paid for their submission to the Magus Civilization.

Even when facing two million enemies with only four hundred thousand troops, Karazo still believed the odds favored him.

That was because the individually formidable fighters of Planet Klythera were far beyond what ordinary alien cannon fodder could hope to match.

The same was true of Sein’s nearly million-strong legion. Every one of its units was elite.

Perhaps the Magus Civilization had deliberately prioritized the battlefronts surrounding the Chaos Sea. In any case, whether the tens of millions dispatched under Feylis or the forces redeployed to guard Blue Star, all were considered elite by the Magus Civilization’s standards.

Still, these Cerulean Crabs, genetically enhanced by the Gallant Federation, would undoubtedly inflict heavier losses on Planet Klythera’s forces.

With that in mind, Karazo turned to several Rank Four Klytherans and ordered, “Tell everyone to stay sharp and keep their guard up.”

***

The Cerulean Crabs were not the only ones who received special technological enhancements from the Gallant Federation.

The Arid Expanse World Army, the Aquarian Legion, and even several smaller interstellar mercenary groups had all received varying degrees of power augmentation.

The two hundred thousand knights that surged out from the three space fortresses were immediately met with long-range bombardment from the Arid Expanse World and Aquarian legions.

The Arid Expanse World Army employed a unique projectile-based weapon system, capable of launching highly destructive bombs and specialized crystalline munitions at the Magus Civilization’s forces.

Though these weapons appeared “primitive” at first glance, their destructive power was nothing to scoff at.

Those specially formulated particle bombs, in particular, were far from crude. They were standard military aid supplied directly by the Gallant Federation to Arid Expanse World.

Meanwhile, Planet Aquaria’s technological arsenal was no less impressive.

Beyond individual electronic spears, their forces also deployed massive metallic sharks that could roll through the skies and plunge into the ocean depths!