Sovereign of the Ashes

Chapter 1805: Foolishly Stubborn

The four planes under Sein’s responsibility were not difficult to assault.

That included Firesheen Port Plane, which was heavily garrisoned by the federation’s forces.

Aside from Gin, the most outstanding fighter in Sein’s legion was undoubtedly Karl, the Rank Five Klytheran warrior.

Thinking back on Karl’s past, he had once stood against his own people to protect the Blue Star natives.

He was a Rank Five warrior driven by both ambition and conviction.

And yet, ever since joining the Magus Alliance, Karl’s mentality seemed to have changed quite a bit.

At the very least, when he struck at the Gallant Federation legions once again, there was no trace of hesitation or inner conflict.

Scorching rays shot from Karl’s eyes one after another.

The combat strength of the Klytherans truly was remarkable.

As Sein watched the Rank Five Klytheran warrior lead his legion in slaughtering enemies on the frontlines, he could not help wondering whether, when the Gallant Federation destroyed Planet Klythera all those years ago, they had been interested not only in the Klytherite within their bodies, but also in the Klytherans’ exceptional combat genes.

Sein himself had dissected and studied many of the Gallant Federation’s super soldiers, so he understood their genetic enhancement technology to a certain extent.

Through the crystal ball inside the space fortress, Sein issued a direct order.

“Inform Gin and Karl on the frontlines that I do not care how many spoils or kills they end up with. What matters is that they prevent as many factories as possible from activating their self-destruction protocols!”

The gap in strength between the two parties was simply too great. It was almost impossible for the Gallant Federation to put up any meaningful resistance against the Magus Civilization’s assault legions.

But these garrison forces had chosen a method of resistance of their own—to destroy everything, leaving the Magus Civilization no chance to reclaim and reuse those technological heavy industry factories.

And this was not limited to Sein’s sector alone.

In fact, throughout the entire Golden Rock Worlds, many heavy industrial planes had already entered self-destruct mode under the federation’s preset programs after the Magus Civilization completed its encirclement.

This tactic of destroying valuable assets rather than letting the enemy take them left many of the Magus Civilization’s higher-ups furious.

Under such circumstances, there was little Sein and the others could do except order their legions to minimize the losses as much as possible.

***

The four target planes originally assigned to Sein by Fathis took his legions a full six years to completely secure.

After the war, the destruction rates of those four federation planes stood at 71%, 54%, 47%, and 38% respectively.

Among them, Firesheen Port Plane suffered the heaviest damage. The Gallant Federation forces stationed there put up especially fierce resistance, and by the end of the battle, nearly three-quarters of the plane had been reduced to a wasteland of ruins and fire.

In some respects, the federation legions had earned the Magus Civilization’s respect.

The surrender rate among federal soldiers on the battlefield had always been extremely low.

As for commanders at the general level, cases of surrender were even rarer.

During the war, many federation generals whose flagship fleets had been destroyed chose death over capture rather than allow themselves to become prisoners of the Magus Civilization.

The moment Magus Civilization forces broke into their capital ships, they ended their own lives with a bullet.

Of course, some resourceful necromancers later made use of the corpses or genetic data of those high-ranking federal officers to stop the self-destruct protocols already activated on heavy industrial planes, or to force the remaining pockets of resistance to surrender.

But that all came later.

Sein did not personally take action, nor did he deploy Fermera. The wars across those four planes were brought to an end in just six years. In a way, this was also Sein’s way of preserving Master Fathis’ dignity.

He knew very well that this Rank Six luminancer was not particularly fond of him, so he deliberately avoided acting too conspicuously on the frontlines under her command.

Master Fathis showed no obvious sign of slighting Sein in the missions that followed.

On the contrary, she regularly assigned combat duties to his legion and made sure they received sufficient logistical support. Because of this, Sein realized something about her.

Master Fathis seems like the type who’s cold on the outside but warm on the inside. Then again, lumimancers rarely have especially extreme personalities.

The influence of elemental affinity on temperament had long since been established as a matter of scientific fact in Magus World, hundreds of thousands of years ago.

Just as umbramancers and necromancers often tended toward darker and more extreme dispositions, dendromaners and lumimancers were generally more approachable than other types of mages.

Of course, that influence was never absolute.

There were also lumimancers with twisted natures, and necromancers who deeply cherished life in Magus World.

After Sein joined the war sweeping across the Golden Rock Worlds, another forty-two years passed in the blink of an eye.

During this period, Sein led his legions across seventeen planar and stellar battlefields.

Capturing one battlefield every two to three years was more than enough to show how smoothly the campaign here was progressing.

Firesheen Port Plane, Aliz Industrial Planet, Hydra-3 Satellite, Capricorn I Research Base...

Many of these battlefields had originally been named by the Gallant Federation, and the Magus Civilization never bothered to change those designations.

In truth, very few of those battlefields left behind any heavy industry factories worth taking over.

Although the Magus Civilization had sent out many defection operatives to persuade the federation creatures to “abandon the darkness and join the light”, very few were willing to surrender.

Instead, some small federal units even attempted fake defections in order to inflict further losses on the Magus Civilization.

These federation creatures were truly foolishly stubborn to the end!

***

Thomas Industries—T3 Drone Manufacturing Base.

This was the last heavy industrial plane that the legions under Sein’s command needed to capture for the time being.

Originally, this plane had been a relatively small sandy demiplane. After the federation’s technological modifications, however, the plane’s desertification had gradually receded.

In its place, paved roads and reinforced specialized runways now stretched across many regions of the demiplane.

During the decades of war leading up to this point, a portion of the dense drone swarms encountered by the Magus Civilization on the frontlines had been produced on this very industrial plane.

“Let’s secure this area as quickly as possible,” Sein ordered as he looked down at the T3 Drone Manufacturing Base below. “Once the battle here is over, we need to move on to the Flame Star-5 of the Golden Rock Worlds and rendezvous with the legion led by Welks, the Rank Six mechanic.”

The one receiving Sein’s order was Gin.

This time, however, the Rank Four knight was also accompanied by a centaur legion that Sein had specifically assigned to him.

Led by Maya and Luna, this centaur legion had been tempered through years of repeated civilizational battles. Maya had already begun her “Ascension of Long Stairway to Godhood” to reach Rank Four.

Luna’s progress was slower than her grandmother’s, but she too had already reached demigod level.

Many alliance creatures speculated that the centaur tribe’s rapid rise in recent years had something to do with Luna’s relationship with Master Sein.

Otherwise, why would this centaur legion keep receiving some of the most lucrative combat assignments?

Holding a silver-tipped staff, Luna bent her knees slightly and answered, “Yes, Master Sein.”