Sovereign of the Ashes

After gazing eastward for a long while, Sein finally withdrew his eyes.

That intense surge of energy had arrived swiftly and vanished just as quickly.

For its fluctuations to travel such a vast distance, it could only have been the result of combat between Rank Six beings or higher.

And they were certainly not the ordinary Rank Six existences Sein had encountered before!

When clouds tinged with verdant green rose along the distant horizon, the Ashen Flame within Sein’s body stirred in faint resonance.

“Could it be that Grandmaster Feylis and the others have arrived?” he murmured.

Countless tiny black specks began to appear along the horizon too. Sein could not help but wonder whether those were the Gallant Federation fleets.

Fortunately, innumerable energy barriers were scattered across the secret realm.

Even if the Gallant Federation’s main fleet had entered this subspace, it would be impossible for them to cross such an immense distance and reach the Steel Ruins in a short time unless they possessed a native guide like HALL-E.

Just as the Gallant Federation could not rapidly invade this region, Sein and his group were also unable to return immediately to reinforce Feylis and the others.

Suspecting that the main forces of both civilizations were gradually shifting the battlefield deeper into this subspace, Sein knew their group could no longer afford to linger.

All the ruins, facilities, and nodes they had identified and recorded over the past year with HALL-E’s guidance would become invaluable intelligence to submit to the Magus Civilization later.

Being the very heart of the subspace, the Steel Ruins, in Sein’s view, must conceal even greater secrets.

Uncovering those mysteries would be one of their next objectives.

Of course, if they happened to uncover more fragments of world-class secret treasures or other rare artifacts along the way, that would be an excellent bonus.

“Let’s go,” Sein said, turning to the group. “We’re heading to the site where PAL was discovered.”

***

The area where HALL-E had first discovered PAL was a deeply pitted landscape with complex terrain.

Over the course of millions of years, HALL-E had returned to this place again and again, hoping to find another living being.

It had been unbearably lonely. Without PAL’s companionship, who knew how desolate those millions of years would have felt?

It was precisely this bond, forged through countless years of shared existence, that created an unbreakable connection between PAL and HALL-E.

After absorbing the Energy Amethyst and the Black Merlot Civilization’s genetic mucus, PAL entered a state of metamorphosis and refused to leave HALL-E’s side. Instead, it crawled straight into a crevice in HALL-E’s frame and settled there.

PAL appeared intimately familiar with HALL-E’s internal structure. Its behavior likely also stemmed from fear that HALL-E might disappear again for years on end without explanation while it slept.

Sein was rather surprised that a semi-mechanical being still required sleep.

PAL’s unusual constitution, combined with the biological blood essence of the Black Merlot Civilization within it, ignited a strong research impulse in Sein.

Unfortunately, the current conditions and time constraints made an in-depth study impossible.

Only after leaving this subspace secret realm would he be able to conduct proper research in the laboratories of a space fortress or divine tower.

For now, the real issue was that HALL-E showed no inclination to leave this subspace ruin.

HALL-E also carried many secrets within its body!

Its owner, and the source of its sentience, were both matters Sein intended to investigate.

He would likely need Burning Flame’s help to persuade it later.

Unless absolutely necessary, Sein had no intention of resorting to force against a robot that had aided him and his companions.

Upon reaching the site where PAL had been discovered, Qixiu took charge of the excavation.

Sein had already indicated that this location likely concealed a large-scale Black Merlot Civilization ruin—one far greater than anything the group had previously uncovered.

In response, Black Oblivion and Hanliu also activated their true dragon forms and joined the excavation.

Having several powerful Rank Four dragonkins excavating ancient ruins was something Gilbert, Grethel, and the others had never even dared to imagine.

HALL-E observed the bustling activity with evident curiosity.

Meanwhile, the rest of the group did not remain idle.

Some assisted with excavation along the outer perimeter, while Sein and the others guided Black Oblivion and his cousins as they dug steadily toward the very heart of the ruins.

The excavation progress of the Magus World knights and mages far surpassed anything HALL-E had managed back in the day.

More importantly, Sein and his group worked with clear organization and purpose, rather than relying on the blind luck that had once led HALL-E to PAL.

Before long, the overall outline of the ruins emerged.

When the true form of this deeply buried Black Merlot Civilization ruin was revealed, not only did HALL-E freeze in place with its wide, unblinking eyes, but Sein and the others also drew in sharp breaths.

“This was... a biological warship?” Sein asked uncertainly.

Beside him, the older and far more experienced Gilbert held his breath and nodded. “It seems so.”

The wreckage resembled a massive black-scaled beast with horns. Its elongated body was lined with segmented limbs, resembling an enormous centipede.

The area where Sein and the others had first begun excavating lay along the creature’s lower abdomen. HALL-E had first discovered PAL in a massive gap there.

However, the most severe damage was concentrated around the head of the creature... or more precisely, the vessel.

A deep dent marred the area, scorched with lingering energy traces that bore witness to the devastating blow it had once endured.

In sheer size, this black-scaled colossus dwarfed even Black Oblivion in his complete form, stretching nearly ten kilometers in length.

It lay sprawled across the ground like White Stella, its size easily rivaling a Magus World space fortress.

The Gallant Federation did possess battleships exceeding ten thousand meters in length, but most of those belonged to overlord-class fleets.

Standard flagship vessels fielded by Rank Five or Rank Six forces typically measured only two to three thousand meters.

Sein referred to this monstrosity as a “biological warship” because it was far more than a law-wielding creature. It was a combat platform, capable of transporting lower-tier legions and coordinating the movements of allied forces across the battlefield.

Turning a living, law-wielding beast into something akin to a Magus World space fortress?!

It was a proven reality.

Sein had even stumbled across similar concepts in certain Magus World tomes.

“A hundred thousand years ago, around the time I advanced to Rank Four, the Insectoids from the Magus Alliance attended that year’s Alliance Conference. I heard that even back then, they were already comparable in strength to the titans—one of the two most formidable members within the alliance,” Gilbert said.

“Back then, the Empress of Blades and her legion arrived at the conference aboard biological warships just like this,” he added.

Living long enough was, in itself, a form of knowledge.

Even Grethel, a Rank Four mage more than sixty thousand years old, knew little about the Insectoids.

For tens of thousands of years, information about them had been scarce within the Magus Civilization.

It was as though the entire race had migrated elsewhere.

“The Insectoids, huh?” Sein mused. “I think I heard a little about them back in Sky City.”