1002 A Painful Decision

Demon King clutched his limp arm and took deep breaths. Blood was still pouring from the gap between his right shoulder and the arm. In fact, it still looked like a badly attached extension to the joint, as if someone had ripped it away and then sticked it together.

While the healing potions worked on completely healing his arm, every bit of pain from his arm surged the tides of Demon King's anger higher and higher, turning it into an unforgiving tsunami.

Injuries were common. Pain was fleeting. But…

"Looks like you aren't in a good shape. How about you call it quits and go home today?" Varian's voice came from the ghost ship in the distance.

Demon King ignored the annoying human and  s chest heaved up and down as he recalled the gaze of Julius. That look of utter contempt, as if he was staring at a lump of trash, no, it was a look of contempt as well as an undisguised mockery.

'You fools, you really thought I'd obey your pathetic race?'

At least that's what Demon King felt a while ago when Julius suddenly attacked with a far higher strength and nearly ripped his arm apart.

Before he could even counter, Julius gave two seemingly casual punches to his chest and stomach.

That's it.

Demon King, the Sovereign in body path, with a physique praised to be the very epitome of perfect, cowered in pain and writhed helplessly in front of his 'archenemy.'

Despite Julius belonging to their side, Demon King never trusted him and even treated him with contempt. Yet, as he floated in the space, bending in pain in front of that very human, death felt like a solace. When he finally recovered and looked around, Julius was gone.

When he realized that Julius didn't even bother to finish him off, Demon King experienced the greatest humiliation of his life.

In a fit of rage, he decided to find that bastard on Earth and seek revenge. It did occur to him that he'd just be sending himself to death. But Demon King didn't care. He wanted to die in a battle rather than live by his enemy's mercy.

That's why, he wanted to seek revenge. But—

"I had a brawl with one of your friends and trust me, it didn't end well for him." That confident voice rang again, striking the nerve of the Demon King who just had his own self-confidence crushed.

Even though Varian didn't mean it, Demon King felt as if the young human was mocking him.

'No! I am not a weakling! I am strong! I know my strength! I am—' Demon King's eyes grew crazy as he clenched his fists.

His killing intent spread out like a raging flood and enveloped the ghost ship, declaring his intent.

Varian's voice wasn't pleased. "There is one less Abyss King in the solar system from today. Why are you so eager to push it lower?"

"Hah." Demon King opened his mouth in surprise then he burst out into a fit of disbelieving laughter. "You…You conceited weakling, you're not even a Sovereign. You can't even catch one of my punches. How blind are you to issue threats to me—the King of Demon Abyss, the Sovereign of body path, the greatest warrior of all eight abysses?"

In the ghost ship, Varian stared at the crazed Demon King and frowned. This idiot had gone nuts. There's no doubt about it.

'He's so…offended by it. Why?' Varian narrowed his eyes.

Considering that Varian learnt about Albert's death, travelled to mercury, fought Sin King for a considerably long time, returned to Earth and the arm still hadn't recovered should be proof enough how badly Demon King fared against Julius.

'I see.' Varian sighed.

There's no way out of this today. Either he stopped Demon King or the latter would go to Earth to find Julius and destroy all the planetoids in the way.

If Julius really gave a fuck about the millions of soldiers lives, then he would've appeared here by now. Worse, he could've killed Demon King when he had the chance.

Varian wasn't ready to bet millions of lives on the 'humanity' of Julius.

"Focus on your recovery, I'll try if I can stall him." He said and walked to the exit with heavy steps. But before he could open the door, his arms were grabbed by the girls.

"You're not going anywhere." Sarah gripped him with both arms, her firm gaze locking with his.

"Even with a heavily damaged arm, he's too much for us." Sia hugged him hard as if she was trying to hold him in place. But her worried eyes both pleaded and declared. "If you go, you'll die. Even if we both join, the end result won't change . There's just no way we can come out on top of this. Varian, this is beyond what we can do now."

Their actions and words put a pause on Varian's intention and caused him to rethink.

He's been in a mode of unending fighting. From Neptune to Pluto, Pluto to Mercury and now Mercury to Earth. He fought strong opponents and ended them. After all these battles, he's stronger than any peak level 9.

What's more, he not only fought a Sovereign, but killed him. Perhaps that's why, he didn't hesitate in battling a Sovereign.

That'd would've been a huge mistake.

Even if Demon King's arm was out of commission for a while, the abyssal was an experienced Sovereign. And unlike Sin King, he's already healed enough to exert a good chunk of his strength.

Varian might not even last five minutes against him. And in those five minutes, he certainly won't reach the strength of a veteran Sovereign, even if the latter was currently weakened.

It's not like there's no probability. But it wouldn't exceed double digit.

To win in this situation, Varian would've to hope for his enemy to make some mistakes and exploit those mistakes to prolong the battle for at least a few hours and finally kill him.

It's a gamble on his life. And a bad gamble since it depended on not how well he did but how badly his enemy performed.

As the thoughts flashed in his mind, Varian took a step back but immediately moved forward again. His voice dropped to a low. "If we let him go, the soldiers…tens of millions will die."

"There's nothing we can do." Sia said without any hesitation. "If you can save them without putting your life at absurd risk, then go ahead. But if you try to step out of now and get yourself killed, then you'll also be taking me down with you—you'll be killing me."

Sarah had a helpless expression as she nodded. "You can't fight the wars you can't win. At least, not the ones that don't serve any purpose. Even if we three go and die, nothing will change."

"That's not what General Skad thought. If he did, Mars would've ended that day." Varian countered.

"Maybe." Sarah put her hand on his heart and looked into his eyes. "But Varian, not everyone is a hero. Not everyone can be like General Skad. Some people are selfish, they'd rather protect their family than save millions. I used to hate such people, but now I've become the one I hated."

Varian looked at her in shock.

"You know what'll happen if you step out. But I won't stop you. But then you shouldn't stop me when I follow you."

"Now, choose." Sarah and Sia gave him an ultimatum.

The lives of his little family or the lives of dozens of millions.