Sovereign of the Ashes

HALL-E, who had been silently observing the battle from the shadows, saw the black mushroom cloud rise into the sky at the center of the battlefield. It also watched as Sein and his companions fled, with the Gallant Federation legions pressing in behind them.

In terms of fundamental composition, the Burning Flame Unit was essentially a metallic construct—a “robot”.

The eight-winged angel pursuing Sein and his group likewise belonged to the same category.

HALL-E had indeed sensed a similar robotic resonance emanating from Fermera, the eight-winged angel.

Yet when it came to identifying its own “kind”, HALL-E leaned more toward Burning Flame.

It was not merely because Burning Flame triggered a faint tingling sensation within HALL-E’s body. Rather, it was that deeper, inexplicable connection—Burning Flame, awakened to self-awareness by the Magic Cube, was alive.

No matter how powerful the eight-winged angel Fermera might be, she remained a lifeless machine.

Thus, HALL-E made its decision without hesitation. It would aid Burning Flame and Sein’s group.

Having endured tens of millions of years of solitude, HALL-E would never abandon such a rare encounter with its own “kind”.

To Sein and the others, the core ruins of the Eiyurant Papillon Civilization were vast enough to rival a large-sized plane.

HALL-E, however, had thoroughly explored this space and was deeply familiar with it after countless years of existence.

Although HALL-E spent most of its time diligently carrying out its duty of clearing trash, even its occasional explorations during rare moments of leisure were enough for it to know the entire secret realm like the back of its mechanical hand.

The Magus Civilization, by contrast, had only entered these ruins recently, and their research efforts had focused primarily on excavating the ancient civilizational sites themselves.

As a highly prosperous, top-tier technological civilization, the Eiyurant Papillon Civilization had not only built an immensely powerful and advanced fleet to conquer the stars but also governed its many planar worlds with remarkable efficiency.

An extraordinarily complex and comprehensive network of underground passages spanned nearly every world under the Eiyurant Papillon Civilization’s control.

Though the vast majority of these passages had long since been buried by the ravages of time, a small number remained relatively well preserved.

The metallic passageway Sein and his companions entered was one such remnant.

More remarkably still, these extremely narrow metal tunnels appeared to bypass many of the energy barriers that had previously halted the Magus Civilization’s explorations.

Had they known this earlier, uncovering and acquiring detailed blueprints of these underground metal passages in advance would have saved them an immense amount of effort.

Not long after entering the underground passage, Sein began to notice from various details that this area was likely not a primary activity zone for the Eiyurant Papillon Civilization’s inhabitants in the past.

Aged metal debris lay scattered everywhere, and Sein also spotted many corroded remnants resembling old railway tracks.

Unfortunately, no relatively intact relic specimens had survived. Otherwise, this would have been an excellent avenue for studying the Eiyurant Papillon Civilization in greater depth.

After leading Sein and the others into the underground metal passage, the cube-shaped robot fell silent, simply guiding the way ahead.

Sein was deeply curious about where this strange robot had come from, but with the pursuers close behind and the other party saying nothing, he could only suppress his questions for the time being.

In truth, HALL-E’s silence stemmed largely from shyness.

Having not encountered another living being in over ten million years, and now in the presence of Burning Flame that stirred such profound emotions within it, HALL-E was already doing remarkably well just to guide them forward at fast speed.

After traveling a considerable distance and sensing that they were nearing the coverage zone of another energy barrier, Sein halted and said, “You go on ahead. I need to find a way to blow this place up. We cannot let the Gallant Federation legions keep chasing us.”

The knights and mages who had fought alongside Sein voiced no objections.

Sein then turned to HALL-E and asked, “How much of this passage have we already covered? If I destroy this place, could it trigger the collapse of the entire underground passage and cause unforeseen consequences?”

Sein communicated with HALL-E using both the Magus World language and mental focus.

The robot seemed to understand him. It extended its two mechanical arms and then gestured to indicate roughly half the length, telling that Sein and the others had already traversed about half of the underground passage.

As for Sein’s second question, HALL-E tilted its head slightly, either failing to understand or simply lacking the information to answer.

A wave of heat that made the hair on the backs of their necks stand on end swept through the passage. The heavily damaged eight-winged angel was still in relentless pursuit.

The underground metal passage was cramped and seemingly endless.

Large federal warships could not possibly enter this space. Even medium and small vessels would struggle to squeeze through. Only drones and single-seater pods could be deployed here with relative ease.

Beyond that, only the angel robot legions under the command of the eight-winged angel Fermera could follow them into this passage.

Sein’s main objective in destroying the underground passage was to stop Fermera’s pursuit.

Before entering the passage, Sein had already attempted to target Fermera with the Magic Cube.

Unfortunately, the manufacturing technology and foundational code of the eight-winged angel appeared fundamentally different from those of Nexon’s intelligent robots.

Alternatively, the Gallant Federation might have upgraded all subordinate robot legions in response to Nexon’s rebellion, with law-wielding combat units like Fermera receiving the most extensive enhancements.

As a result, Sein’s Magic Cube had no discernible effect on Fermera at all.

Her pursuit of Sein showed no sign of slowing.

What a pity. Had they been able to awaken Fermera’s intellect and turn her against her own side, Sein and the others would surely have faced a very different outcome.

Sein, Yuri, and Qixiu stayed behind to carry out the demolition of the passageway.

Sein possessed the greatest raw strength, while Qixiu was in the best physical condition thanks to his tough constitution.

Yuri had suffered significant injuries, yet she insisted on remaining as well.

For the demolition work, in addition to the few magic bombs Sein still had on hand, Yuri even removed two of the four thrusters mounted on the back of her Burning Flame Unit.

Sein’s costly upgrades to the Burning Flame Unit had clearly paid off.

Those thrusters were propulsion units originally designed for space fortresses. Even when used purely for demolition, their destructive power was nothing short of terrifying.

For reasons unknown, after Yuri chose to stay behind, the cube-shaped robot that had guided them earlier also remained.

After a brief electromagnetic exchange, Sein learned that its name was HALL-E.

It was a pretty quiet robot, rarely speaking unless necessary.

Without giving it much thought, Sein agreed to keep it around.

Sein did not judge HALL-E by its outwardly “rusty” appearance.

He was eager to discover just how formidable the robot that had suddenly appeared truly was, particularly given that it seemed to be a relic of the Eiyurant Papillon Civilization.