Sovereign of the Ashes

After the first clash with the Divine Descendants World ended, Gongsun Wudi immediately dispatched messengers to report the battle results to the Emperor.

Not long afterward, the Dawn Emperor issued new orders for the army to continue advancing.

The Divine Descendants World was already dealing with the Quatar Star Pirates within its own territory while also having to face the advance of the Dawn Empire’s massive army.

For the Divine Descendants, the situation could only be described as disastrous.

Fortunately for them, the Dawn Empire still showed no intention of pushing directly toward their core territories.

Otherwise, the pressure on their civilization would have become even more overwhelming.

As the Dawn Empire continued its advance, the Divine Descendants World forces—having suffered heavily in the earlier battle—did establish several defensive lines along the way.

Still, their tactics had clearly become much more cautious.

Whenever possible, they avoided prolonged close-range engagements with the Dawn Empire Army.

The moment the Gallant Federation’s long-range weapons were deployed on the battlefield, the enemy deities would retreat almost immediately.

They would only leave behind a few legions as expendable cannon fodder to cover their withdrawal.

Because of this, the Dawn Empire vanguard legions’ gains began to shrink noticeably.

On the other hand, the number of Gallant Federation warships and technological equipment they obtained continued to increase.

It seemed the Dawn Empire had not encountered many advanced technological civilizations near its original home star domain.

Sein noticed that many ordinary Dawn Empire soldiers were extremely curious about these federation-made technological devices and showed great enthusiasm toward them.

However, that enthusiasm was mostly limited to the lower ranks.

The Rank Four and above generals of the Dawn Empire were becoming increasingly dissatisfied with these small victories.

Many powerhouses were eager to pursue the enemy and throw themselves into larger battles.

Yet their Grand General, Gongsun Wudi, remained calm throughout it all.

On top of that, no new orders had arrived from the Dawn Emperor, who still remained at the main command center.

As a result, no matter how impatient the Dawn Empire powerhouses grew, they could only suppress their desire for battle.

Sein also stopped recklessly charging into combat. Compared to the Dawn Empire powerhouses, he was far better at remaining patient.

There were still many issues with his fusion with Fermera that required careful study and experimentation back in the laboratory.

As for the specimens and materials collected from Divine Descendants World, they served as a rather enjoyable way for Sein to pass the time during the march.

***

At the very heart of the Divine Descendants Star Domain lay the Divine Descendants World itself.

As an ancient and massive civilization, it had long remained trapped in a cycle of self-isolation, where old deities fell and new ones rose in endless succession.

This situation only began to change after they came into contact with the Gallant Federation.

Divine Descendants World’s circumstances were somewhat different from those of Faeloria.

There were no especially powerful laws sealing it off.

Although the outer boundaries of the Divine Descendants World’s home star domain were indeed surrounded by a ring of strange, law-imbued rocks—named the “Boundary Rocks” by the ancient deities hundreds of thousands of years ago—they were not the true reason the civilization had failed to expand outward!

The true cause behind Divine Descendants World’s stagnant, self-consuming state was its strongest deity—Marduk, the Overgod.

Marduk was an extremely unusual overlord-level being.

To his followers, he appeared omniscient and omnipotent—a supreme god who held dominion over all things.

And in many ways, that description was not entirely wrong. Marduk wielded an astonishing variety of laws and divine powers.

Over countless ages, through continuous exploration of faith and divine powers, the overlord laws he wielded had gradually expanded far beyond his original law of thunderstorms.

He eventually came to grasp the laws of rivers, vitality, fury, land, hurricanes, and many others.

In recent years, after coming into contact with the Gallant Federation, he had even begun developing his own understanding of the laws of technology.

By merging technological power with the law of faith, Marduk created the Divine Descendants World’s first true secret treasure—the Ark.

The Ark was a world-class secret treasure that remained unfinished. Yet even in its incomplete state, it was already considered a top-tier mid-grade world-class artifact.

More than one Gallant Federation scientist involved in the project believed that once fully completed, the Ark would be powerful enough to rank among the Astral Realm’s high-grade world-class secret treasures!

Naturally, Marduk himself believed the same.

Unfortunately, the sudden outbreak of war with the Magus Civilization had severely delayed the Ark’s completion.

At the time, the Gallant Federation had no intention of altering its civilization-wide war strategy merely for the sake of a single world-class battleship belonging to one of its vassal civilizations.

From the information currently available, Marduk appeared exceptionally wise. His accomplishments had already reached heights unattainable for nearly all beings in the Astral Realm.

Even within the talent-filled Magus Alliance, few overlords possessed a breadth of knowledge comparable to his.

And yet, in truth, Marduk was an overlord who lacked confidence in himself to an almost extreme degree.

Back when he first ascended to the rank of overgod, Marduk had once been intoxicated by his own glory.

He was the pioneer of his civilization—the one who had led the Divine Descendants World toward becoming a large-sized civilization.

Billions upon billions worshipped him, revered him, and treated him as the supreme deity above all others.

For a time, the endless worship of countless beings completely consumed him.

But after emerging from that intoxicating sense of superiority, Marduk came to a horrifying realization.

Although he had been the first being in Divine Descendants World to reach Rank Seven, he was not the most talented.

Behind him, and all around him, countless rising geniuses were emerging—any one of whom might one day surpass him.

In Divine Descendants World, the long-established faith-based system had shaped its inhabitants in a particular way.

Once beings reached a certain level of power, they rarely developed any real sense of belonging to the world itself. Instead, most became increasingly self-centered.

After all, there could only be one supreme god. The rise of another deity would inevitably lead to conflict over authority, faith, and followers.

Whether driven by selfish ambition, deep-seated insecurity, or resentment over his own mediocre talent, Marduk ultimately turned to murder.

Two thousand years following his ascension to overlord, Marduk began eliminating powerhouses who had once fought beside him during the Ancient War of the Gods.

He even killed his own right-hand man, Vugaru—a peak Rank Six being known as the God of War Heroes.

He also personally severed the head of his wife, Venagu, the peak Rank Six Goddess of the Sea.

The bloodbath began within Marduk’s own pantheon.

Afterward, he extended the purge to every deity in Divine Descendants World who might one day threaten his position.

It was a divine catastrophe that had been almost completely erased from history.

Aside from Divine Descendants World’s planar will and Marduk himself, almost no one still knew about it.

All records of the event had long since been destroyed.

When Marduk killed Vugaru, he devoured his divine relic and absorbed the secrets of the laws he wielded.

Rather than feeling guilt over his action, Marduk instead felt relieved because he realized something terrifying...

Vugaru, who wielded divine abilities such as War and Valor, possessed greater potential than Marduk himself, whose divine ability lay in Thunderstorms.

After killing his wife, Marduk also uncovered fragments of her memories.

Venagu had never betrayed him. Yet deep in her heart, she had once admired Vugaru. In the end, however, she still became Marduk’s wife.

That discovery strangely eased Marduk’s guilt over betraying his sworn brother and killing his own wife.

From that point onward, he became even more unrestrained.

Wave after wave of deities fell to his purge.

Eventually, even that no longer satisfied him.

Marduk remained deeply insecure because mortals could also become gods.

So he expanded the purge to encompass the entire world itself!

Hundreds of thousands of years ago, Divine Descendants World was known by another name.

It was later renamed because the Divine Descendants—the dominant race of this world—all carried traces of Marduk’s bloodline within them, though the purity varied greatly from person to person.

As for all other races, they were either exterminated outright or reduced to second-class beings.

After more than a hundred thousand years of relentless purges, Marduk finally believed the situation had been brought under control.

It was only then that he suspended this endless cleansing and began artificially controlling the cycle of divine succession within Divine Descendants World, orchestrating it once every fifty thousand years.

Anyone who carefully studied the pantheon wars that had erupted within the Divine Descendants World over the past three hundred thousand years would eventually learn the same thing—Overgod Marduk was behind every single one of them.

Only gods who truly submitted to him were allowed to survive in Divine Descendants World.

Judging from the historical evidence, Marduk was undoubtedly a psychopath.

His twisted nature was even more extreme and aggressive than that of Magus World mages.

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