Sovereign of the Ashes

After leaving the research facility, Sein and his group continued deeper into the Steel Ruins.

They had now entered the central region of the ruins. Going any further would bring them to the true core of this subspace secret realm.

Even HALL-E had rarely ventured into this area over the past tens of millions of years.

Cleaning up the junk around the outskirts of the Steel Ruins keeps me busy enough. I usually don’t come here—that was what it said.

The only time HALL-E would venture here was when it was searching for replacement parts after its body components had suffered severe damage.

On the surface, HALL-E might look like nothing more than a trash-cleaning robot, but it was anything but ordinary!

What kind of ordinary machine could endure tens of millions of years of erosion?

What trash-cleaning robot could withstand even a single strike from an eight-winged angel?

Although there were numerous laboratories and concealed research facilities in the outer regions of the Steel Ruins, Sein believed this still was not the true core of the Eiyurant Papillon Civilization.

The Magus Civilization itself was also a top-tier civilization.

Putting himself in their position, Sein concluded that HALL-E and its owner must have been extraordinary figures within the Eiyurant Papillon Civilization.

At the very least, they should have stood among the upper echelons of that civilization—perhaps even above them.

The robots HALL-E chose as sources of replacement components had undoubtedly been combat units of Rank Four and above in their prime, countless millennia ago.

“Technological civilization treasures are just too hard to preserve. Why is everything we have found so far only fragments of secret treasures? When will we ever find a complete world-class secret treasure like that bone staff? Even if it is lower grade, it would still be fine,” Black Oblivion said.

“How about we go check out the remnants of the Black Merlot Civilization instead? Who knows, we might uncover other treasures,” he suggested.

After coming this far and reaping so many gains, Black Oblivion’s appetite had grown bigger.

Mere fragments could no longer impress him. He had set his sights on complete world-class secret treasures.

Sein found Black Oblivion’s attitude both amusing and exasperating.

World-class secret treasures were artifacts that embodied the pinnacle of laws and functionality, far surpassing ordinary “divine artifacts”.

Most medium-sized world civilizations possessed only one or two such treasures, and they were usually held by Rank Six beings.

Yet in poorer medium-sized worlds, such as the Phantom Crow World, even their Rank Six beings did not possess a single world-class secret treasure.

When Black Oblivion talked about them, however, these world-class secret treasures suddenly seemed so “cheap”.

He made it sound as if they were something he could randomly find on a walk.

“Our unusually efficient exploration is due to HALL-E and the Magic Cube’s guidance. We’ve only stumbled upon the bone staff because that happened to be PAL’s birthplace. Do you even know where the other Black Merlot Civilization ruins are?” Sein asked.

He continued, “Besides, I don’t believe the Black Merlot Civilization ever made it into the very heart of these Steel Ruins. If you want to search for their ruins, you would have to try your luck on the outskirts of the Steel Ruins.”

“I’d advise against it, though. You might end up with nothing. It would be better to stay with us and secure these tangible gains first,” he added.

Sein’s advice clearly hit home. Black Oblivion never brought up the idea of searching for Black Merlot Civilization ruins again after that.

And he had enough self-awareness to mutter under his breath, “Luck? That has never been on my side.”

That comment reminded Sein of the time when Black Oblivion had taken him to the famous Reyno Star City, also known as “Locke Starport”, on the outskirts of Magus World for a night of indulgence.

Beyond its vast size and immense commercial and military value, Reyno Star City had become most famous in recent years for its “gambling city”, as well as for hosting the largest auctions in the Magus Alliance.

Black Oblivion’s performance in the gambling city... well, it certainly had nothing to do with good luck.

By contrast, it was Sein who, after advancing to Rank Four, made his first fortune there and even obtained the coordinates for White Sand World.

That discovery later led to his expeditions to Eternal Sand World, Phantom Crow World, and beyond.

Perhaps Sein’s luck was actually better than Black Oblivion’s?

Shaking his head, Sein pushed the thought aside and led the group swiftly toward their next point of interest.

***

The outer reaches of the subspace...

The intensity of the fighting here surpassed even what Feylis and the others had experienced when they first entered this realm.

On the Magus Civilization side, in addition to Feylis, White Stella, and the others who had entered the subspace earlier, two more Rank Six knights had arrived along with three Rank Six alliance deities.

Schalk, a Rank Six knight of the Ylli Knight Alliance, hailed from a region bordering the Pyro Secret Society within Magus World’s territory.

He appeared to be an old acquaintance of Feylis, and the two fought together with flawless coordination.

Harrison, on the other hand, came from the Desert Kingdom of Jehannah in Magus World. He was a burly knight who wielded a heavy axe and had little interest in wearing armor.

Harrison was noticeably balding, with only a sparse ring of messy hair clinging to his head and the top completely bare.

Yet he seemed utterly unconcerned with his appearance.

Frankly speaking, a fully shaved head would have looked far better than what he had now.

Still, his combat prowess more than made up for his lack of looks.

With a heavy axe in one hand, his ferocious and relentless fighting style placed far greater pressure on the Gallant Federation than the refined, noble approach of Sir Schalk.

Moreover, Harrison never wore armor, fighting instead in nothing more than a brown singlet that made him look like a greasy old man.

For a high-ranking Rank Six knight to live and fight like this was truly peculiar.

Harrison himself did not seem to care in the slightest. His carefree nature had even earned him a fair number of friends and admirers.

“That guy doesn’t look like a knight. He looks more like a butcher.”

More than one foreign god of the Alliance could not help but mutter such thoughts to themselves while watching Harrison swing a massive axe with one hand, dressed like that.

The King of Mount Hoplon[1] was a well-known Rank Six geo elemental monarch from the Grand Amethyst World.

The Fire Spirit hailed from the Violet Ember World. It was a newly ascended Rank Six pyro elemental creature that maintained excellent relations with many powerhouses in the Magus Civilization and held a deep desire to restore its homeworld to its former glory.

The God of Decay originated from an allied medium-sized world known as Decaying Plane. This unusual deity wielded rare law attributes related to “death”, “decay”, and “pollution”.

Originally, it had been slated for deployment to the main civilizational battlefronts, or even deep within the Gallant Federation’s star domains.

However, after an unknown series of reassignments, the Magus Alliance abruptly canceled its previous mission and instead dispatched it to the peripheral battlefields surrounding the top-tier civilizational secret realm overseen by Feylis.

1. Translator’s Note: King of Mount Hoplon was actually King of Shan-Rong in the raws. The character for “Shan” means “mountain”, while “Rong” is an archaic word for weapons. To preserve both meanings, I took some creative liberty and used the Greek word “Hoplon” (which means armament). ☜