Sovereign of the Ashes

More legions, more Rank Six beings—these were clear signs that the battle within this subspace secret realm was only going to grow fiercer.

These Rank Six knights and Rank Six allied creatures did not arrive alone.

Under their command came vast combat legions, along with vassal deities and subordinate forces.

For example, Schalk, the Rank Six knight, brought with him more than ten Rank Four and Rank Five knights from the Ylli Knight Alliance.

Harrison of the Jehannah Kingdom commanded several Rank Four and Rank Five desert knights as well, but the bulk of his forces came from the allied foreign deities gathered under his banner.

As for the King of Mount Hoplon, the Fire Spirit, and the God of Decay, there was little need for further introduction.

Each possessed considerable renown within their respective planes.

Naturally, their retinues included subordinate deities and large numbers of vassal followers.

The law-wielding Magus World powerhouses brought relatively modest knight and mage legions.

A single Rank Four knight might command only tens of thousands, or at most a hundred thousand, troops.

The alliance’s foreign deities, however, were an entirely different matter. Nearly every one of them brought hundreds of thousands, sometimes even millions, of low-tier cannon fodder into battle.

They had no choice.

After the Magus Alliance declared war on the Gallant Federation, every allied foreign deity received a mobilization order.

Immediately after the Magus Alliance Conference concluded, they were forced to raise combat forces that met strict quotas.

The war against the Gallant Federation had now dragged on for more than a thousand years.

Countless had perished in the conflict, yet the Magus Civilization’s conscription demands toward the allied planes remained unchanged.

The Magus Civilization did not care how much population or how many low-tier combatants a foreign plane had already lost.

Magus World’s high command looked only into the eyes of those foreign deities and demanded that they supply the required number of troops for the war effort!

Anyone who failed to meet that quota would quickly learn the consequences.

Throughout this Clash of Civilizations, many allied planes had indeed reaped enormous spoils and benefits, receiving generous rewards from the Magus Alliance.

Yet a handful of allied planes had also been branded as traitors to the Magus Alliance, or outright defectors from it.

Of these planes, some had truly betrayed the alliance by colluding with the Gallant Federation, while others defected simply for failing to perform on the battlefield or mobilize sufficient troops.

If a foreign deity truly found themselves unable to continue serving the Magus Alliance, or could not scrape together enough legions from their plane to participate in the war, that was not a problem.

The Magus Civilization was fair and reasonable; it would simply support another Rank Four deity to take their place on that plane.

As for the fate of the replaced Rank Four deity?

They might be reduced to cannon fodder on the fringes of some overlord battlefield, dispatched by the Magus Civilization on suicidal missions, or sacrificed as an offering to empower newly ascended Rank Four beings on their plane.

In truth, some low-level planes had already been completely drained, with nothing left to give.

For those planes to nurture new Rank Four deities under such conditions was virtually impossible!

In those cases, the divine relics, divine abilities, divinity, and other accumulated treasures of the former deities became indispensable resources for the rise of their successors.

Indeed, after the Magus Civilization adopted this approach and replaced a batch of underperforming allied foreign deities, the Magus Alliance’s governance became noticeably more efficient.

Whatever demands or combat assignments the Magus Civilization’s high command issued, the allied beings carried them out with absolute dedication.

In terms of sheer war potential, although the Magus Civilization and the Gallant Federation had only been at war for a little over a thousand years, both sides displayed overwhelming momentum on the frontlines, as though their reserves were inexhaustible.

At present, the combined strength of the opposing legions on this subspace battlefield had long since surpassed one hundred million.

Fortunately, the depth of resources and sheer scale of this subspace rivaled that of a large-sized world.

Otherwise, a small world like the Marvelous Plane could never have sustained so many Rank Four, Rank Five, and Rank Six beings, along with more than a hundred million troops, locked in unrestrained slaughter.

At the same time, the arrival of these massive legions and elite forces dramatically accelerated the exploration of the Eiyurant Papillon Civilization’s secret realm, pushing it from roughly three percent explored to nearly ten percent in a short span of time.

And that number was still rising.

The energy barriers erected by the Eiyurant Papillon Civilization tens of millions of years ago proved insufficient to stop the relentless advance of the clashing armies.

During this process, the Magus Civilization’s powerhouses also detected traces left behind by Sein and his group.

Unfortunately, they were unable to establish contact with Sein’s group, knowing only that they were steadily moving deeper toward the core of the secret realm.

At first, they suspected that interference from the Gallant Federation’s disruptive light-wave technology was preventing communication with Sein’s group.

However, several Rank Six powerhouses of the Magus World later realized that the cause lay in the laws and energies inherent to the subspace secret realm itself.

At close range, communication remained unobstructed, but as the distance increased, the interference grew significantly stronger.

The fact that so many energy barriers within the Eiyurant Papillon Civilization’s ruins remained active after tens of millions of years left the high commands on both sides utterly astonished.

“We’ve received word. The overlord-level combatant arriving to reinforce this battlefield is a Rank Seven psychic from the Rosen Dynasty Civilization, which has only recently joined the Magus Alliance,” Schalk told Feylis after the latest battle came to an end.

“Aside from that overlord-level psychic, numerous mobile suits and psychic legions from the Rosen Dynasty Civilization have also arrived,” he added.

“Despite the destruction of their homeplane, the Rosen Dynasty Civilization’s remaining strength is still formidable. No wonder those Burning Sanoras are so wary and hostile toward their new neighbors,” Feylis commented with a smile.

“Historical factors likely play a role. My wife once mentioned that more than a hundred thousand years ago, the Sanoras had a falling out with the Rosen Dynasty Civilization,” Schalk mused as he stroked his chin.

His wife was a Rank Five mage.

Marrying a mage meant that even a brawny knight like Schalk was familiar with many secrets buried in ancient history.

“That could certainly be part of it. For now, we should keep up the pressure. Don’t give the Gallant Federation any breathing room,” Feylis said.

“By the way, when will their overlord-class war fleet arrive? Any intel from the rear?” Feylis asked.

The Magus Civilization had been monitoring the Gallant Federation’s overlord-class war fleets closely.

Not only had specialized reconnaissance units been deployed, but methods such as astrology had also been employed.

At the same time, the Magus Civilization had also planted covert operatives within the Gallant Federation.

Likewise, whenever an overlord-class force was mobilized by the Magus Civilization, the federation could, with some effort, learn of it in advance.

By now, it was likely that the Gallant Federation already knew that the overlord-level force about to enter the Eiyurant Papillon Civilization’s secret realm to face them was none other than their old adversary, the Rosen Dynasty Civilization.

Faced with Feylis’s question, Schalk paused for a couple of seconds before replying, “I think the overlord-level forces from both sides will arrive at roughly the same time.”

Feylis glanced at Schalk and fell silent for a moment.

After a long pause, she sighed. “I wonder how far my grand apprentice has progressed in exploring this top-tier civilization’s secret realm.”