664 A World Shattering Secret: Artifacts

There were six artifacts found from the ruins, each held by a Sovereign.

Except for Vianne of Venus and Kevin of Saturn—the leaders of Trade Union and Adventure Guild, the rest of the sovereigns wielded an artifact each.

It always stayed with them. Not even their closest family member could touch it.

This was a tradition since the artifacts were found by the first generation of Sovereigns.

"Gather the six artifacts…but to do that, there's no other way but kill the other Sovereigns," Varian muttered in confusion and gazed at Sia.

"It's not common. But Sovereigns do die, don't they?" Sia replied back with a sigh.

"Of course. The last Sovereign died during…Pluto attack!" Varian slapped his thigh and his eyes widened.

"Wait…that artifact was missing since then, right?" He asked in a heavy tone.

The artifact was wielded by the Sovereign of Neptune, the predecessor of Ares.

Demon Sword.

The sword that drank the blood of its owner to grow powerful.

A legendary weapon that won many critical battles and saved Neptune from becoming a second Pluto.

In the Pluto War, the old sovereign was killed and no matter how many special search teams the federation sent, no one found a trace of his artifact.

Until now, Varian thought it was all due to the abyssals. But now…

"…Holy shit." Varian covered his face as the heaviness of the revelation hit him.

Sia's shoulders also slumped as a bitter smile formed on her face. It was one thing to have enmity with the guardians of your race, but it was another thing to find out that one of them murdered their fellow guardian for power.

"Whoever fuck that is…" Varian raised his head and clenched his fist. "He needs to die a gruesome death. I'll make sure he does."

"…Who do you think it might be?" Sia asked in an uncertain tone. "Julius or Kreo?"

Varian thought for a deep moment and shrugged. "Anyone is possible. While I personally think these two are the biggest sons of bitches, I can't let my emotions cloud my judgment, right?"

Sia looked at him for a second before breaking into a giggle.

Varian titled his head in confusion. "What?"

"Hehe. It's my first time seeing you swear. I feel like we're adults now." Sia answered with a smile.

"That…" Varian rubbed the back of his neck. "I didn't want to be a bad influence on you, you know? The curse words and all."

"Now you are okay being a bad influence?" Sia asked with a teasing smile. Even though she still felt a sense of distance from him, she also felt his closeness.

"…Yeah. I'm the bad guy now. I'll make you a bad girl." Varian smirked before continuing. "While the probability is high on Julius and Kreo, we can't rule out Ares. He's the successor of Neptune.

Besides, we don't know which Sovereign will go to what lengths for power. Their personal lives are hidden from the public. We can't even find their life history to make any judgments."

"…So we're in the dark?" Sia gave him a grumpy look.

"Well, that person should be someone who entered all the ruins and got these messages. We can narrow down the list." Varian pointed out an obvious clue.

They'd just need to search the records of the ruins' entries.

Sovereigns didn't have many opportunities to enter the ruins. The few times they did was during special periods in which their abyssal counterpart couldn't attack the planetoids. Even then, the planetoids would be on full alert.

"We can do a full search once we get out of—" Sia's words were cut off abruptly.

"No need to wait. Let me remove the restrictions." Varian closed his eyes and connected himself to the 'library'. Using the temporary authority, he removed all restrictions on Boo and the external devices.

"Master!" Boo's cute voice was heard and it jumped out of the ring.

Boo saw Sia staring at it in curiosity.

"Oh? Oooh? Sia? Master, she's the girl you were crazy abou—"

"Shut up and search for the ruin entry records of Sovereigns." Varian gave a gentle smile and ordered.

"…Crazy about? What's that?" Sia asked with glittering eyes.

"Nothing much." Varian shook his head.

"He's lying! He cried after reading Roxannae's diary and almost went cra—" Like the neighbor kid revealing your secrets to your mother, Boo started pouring out the secrets.

Varian wouldn't have minded much but the content was too sensitive.

"Enough. Get inside and do the job." Varian said with a serious face.

Both Sia and Boo flinched at his words. He looked scary all of a sudden.

Boo jumped into the ring leaving the words. "Scary master~"

"Haa~" Varian sighed and looked at Sia.

She interlocked her fingers on her knees and stared at the red carpet. "Y-You…"

"Boo is a bit naive. I'm sorry on his behalf for bringing up that…" Varian bit his lip as he struggled to utter that word. "N-nightmare."

"I'm really, really sorry." He bowed his head.

Sia's body shivered and her face paled.

Seeing her like this, Varian felt like someone was piercing his heart. 'I'm sorry…I couldn't protect you.'

Sia remained silent. But from the way she bit her lips to the point they bled, she wasn't having an easy time.

Closing his eyes in pain, Varian waited for things to settle down.

After a few minutes, a hologram popped up in front of them showing the list of Sovereigns who visited all the ruins at least once.

1. Albert

2. Ares

"Julius and Kreo…" Varian was unconvinced. "Maybe they figured the whole thing from a few towers, you know?"

Sia shook her head. "The deva language is complicated. The message is structured in a way that you need all the parts to understand. That's why Enigma had to tour all the ruins."

Varian made an expression showing that he had difficulty accepting the current situation.

He never interacted with Albert except knowing that he was Sarah's grandfather.

He had intersections with Ares. Not once but twice.

The first time during the Solar banquet.

The second time, Ares saved them when they were escaping from the Thunder Abyss. He personally stopped the Thunder King and created them an opportunity to escape.

Even during the banquet, the golden-haired Sovereign gave him a card and invited him to the frontlines.

Either way, one of them was Sarah's grandfather and the other was a 'nice' Sovereign.

To think one of them could be a traitor…

"My luck is bull…" Varian collapsed in his chair.

Hearing his words, Sia used her gravity force and patted in the air.

"Hmm." Varian felt the air above him flow towards his head in a particular shape. It felt like someone was patting him gently.

He smiled at Sia. "It's a bit weird, but it feels like your touch."

Sia shrugged. "I learned from what you did with Enigma."

"Argh, Enigma, huh." Varian's face turned awkward. All said and done, she was the one who killed his mother.

Even though Varian didn't intend to kill her for it, he was very uncomfortable about it.

His mind too conveniently shifted all the responsibility of the incident to Enigma.

'…Control your emotions. Rationally, she wasn't the only one doing it. And even though she did it, she wasn't awake.' Varian chided himself.

But his emotions just didn't go away. Instead, they loomed and sunk him deeper.

'Argh, Fuck!'

To shake off his emotions, he looked at the silver table and said. "Sia, the Sovereign issue will take time. For now, let's check what's in this table."

A light shone out of his palm and the table glowed.