Sovereign of the Ashes

Led by the Empress of Blades, the overlords aligned with the Magus Civilization refused to yield.

Venerable Weiwu narrowed his eyes at them.

As the Empress of Blades slowly approached him, the overlords behind her moved without being told. They spread out into a semicircle, surrounding Venerable Weiwu and Venerable Tianyang at the center of the battlefield.

The Rank Eight venerable remained outwardly calm. Venerable Tianyang, however, was another matter.

Still held in Venerable Weiwu’s grasp, his pale and weakened face gradually filled with disbelief and panic.

He could not understand it. Venerable Weiwu had already appeared, yet these overlords of the Magus Civilization still had no intention of backing down?!

Battle intent depended heavily on momentum. The first surge was the strongest. The second was weaker. By the third, little remained.

Only moments earlier, when Venerable Tianyang had been driven into a desperate situation, he had displayed astonishing ferocity. He had even been prepared to sacrifice himself and take an enemy overlord down with him.

How heroic he had seemed then!

But after being struck by Gongsun Wuji and rescued at the final moment by Venerable Weiwu, his state of mind had completely changed.

He no longer wanted to die!

His weakened body and renewed fear of death had already overwhelmed the courage he had summoned earlier.

As he watched the Empress of Blades and the other overlords close in, Venerable Tianyang’s body began trembling faintly.

A horrifying vision suddenly flashed through his mind.

He saw his body being torn apart and his overlord blood spilling across the land.

Overlord-level beings were deeply connected to the fundamental essence of the Astral Realm. Having reached extraordinary heights within their respective domains, some could occasionally sense fragments of the future even without mastering divination or prophecy.

Could the vision in Venerable Tianyang’s mind be something that was about to happen?

“Release Venerable Tianyang and Venerable Muge, and Myriad Manifestations World will withdraw from the hostile alliance opposing the Magus Civilization,” Venerable Weiwu declared solemnly.

“Consider me personally indebted to the Magus Civilization,” he added.

Those seemed to be the same words he had said many years ago. Back then, another overlord born in Myriad Manifestations World had become entangled in a war against the Magus Civilization and nearly been killed by its powerhouses.

Representing the Insectoids, her family, and the Magus Civilization, Liese stared at Venerable Weiwu with a cold, mocking smile.

“Who do you think you are?”

The instant those words left her lips, the Empress of Blades moved.

Already in her full combat form, she transformed into an elusive brown streak that tore through the starry sky and appeared before Venerable Weiwu in the blink of an eye.

“You—!”

Venerable Weiwu’s expression changed as shock and fury filled his face.

***

The battle between the overlords beyond the plane was still far beyond Sein’s reach.

Even so, merely observing it from a distance offered tremendous benefits to those below the overlord realm.

Of course, that only applied to beings between Rank Four and Rank Six.

Those below Rank Four could not even make out the battle itself. They could only sense that the plane’s environment was deteriorating and that the world around them was growing increasingly hostile.

As for ordinary creatures below Rank One, their situation was the most miserable of all.

The end of the world had arrived.

Mountains collapsed, oceans surged, and the landscape changed beyond recognition. Countless living beings suffered beneath disasters they could neither understand nor resist.

Such was the fate of the weakest creatures in Divine Descendants World.

And this tragedy was not limited to the main plane. Many medium- and low-level planes throughout the Divine Descendants Star Domain were facing the same devastation!

This was a catastrophe threatening the very survival of their civilization.

Even if Divine Descendants World somehow endured the war, the progress of its civilization might still be set back by a million years.

“So this is what a true war looks like...” Sein gazed toward the distant horizon and let out a quiet sigh.

“I need to become stronger.”

***

In the eleventh year of the war in Divine Descendants World...

A tremendous disturbance erupted beyond the plane.

Powerhouses aligned with the Magus Civilization raised their heads one after another.

A brilliant star streaked across the heavens. The moment it struck the planar barrier of Divine Descendants World, it burst apart in an explosion.

Countless fragments scattered across the world.

At that instant, the temperature throughout the entire plane seemed to rise sharply.

A faint scent of blood gradually spread through the air.

Sein had seen this same falling star several years earlier.

Back then, after reaching the height of its brilliance, it had suddenly dimmed and disappeared.

Now that it had erupted once more, there could be no mistake...

This time, it had truly fallen!

A faint reddish-gold glow entered Sein’s field of vision.

At first, he could not identify it.

However, the moment the Faceless Mask finished analyzing its nature, his expression changed dramatically.

“Overlord flesh?!”

Whoosh!

Sein immediately poured every ounce of mana into his flight and raced toward the nearest golden fragment.

A number of law-wielding powerhouses across the battlefields of Divine Descendants World also reacted quickly and shot toward the nearest landing sites one after another.

A frantic struggle for resources began in Divine Descendants World.

The participants were not limited to Magus Civilization powerhouses like Sein.

The few remaining native powerhouses of Divine Descendants World joined the scramble as well, along with remnants of Myriad Manifestations World and the tiny number of surviving Gallant Federation forces.

Among them, the natives possessed a natural advantage.

No matter how fiercely the Dawn Empire and the Insectoids had fought, the number of native creatures inhabiting this vast world remained overwhelming.

The Insectoids had not slaughtered every living creature without restraint. None of them dared violate the Empress of Blades’ orders.

During the chaos, many native creatures were inexplicably enveloped in golden light. Within an astonishingly short time, their life levels began rising to heights that ordinary beings could only look up to.

However, this was not necessarily a blessing!

On the contrary, any creature enveloped by the golden light and displaying obvious signs of evolution immediately became a prized target of the Magus Civilization’s legions.

Another wave of slaughter swept across the vast plane.

The scattered remains of an overlord rained down upon Divine Descendants World, triggering tides of bloodshed wherever they landed.

Divine Descendants World was truly a plane plagued by endless calamity.

First, it had suffered beneath Overgod Marduk’s tyranny.

Now, it had become a battlefield in the clash between the Magus Civilization and the Gallant Federation, two of the most powerful civilizations in the Astral Realm.

Beneath these waves of devastation, even the planar will of Divine Descendants World seemed to groan in agony.

When would war finally leave this world behind?

***

“That overlord blood is mine!”

A potbellied Rank Six Demon King stretched out his hand toward an irregular golden mass of overlord blood.

Nearby, swarms of Insectoids, warriors of the Dawn Empire, and even native deities of Divine Descendants World were all rushing toward the same prize.

“Heheheh... I never expected to find a straggler here.”

A long-eared Rank Five bat demon cackled as he looked over the hostile powerhouses gathered before him.

“You think this is yours to take?” he asked.

A severely wounded Rank Four Wanderer stepped forward. Despite his terrible condition, fierce battle intent still burned within him.

“This is the sacred remains of Venerable Tianyang of Myriad Manifestations World! I must protect his body at all costs!”