743 Three, Two, On—
"Even if you have to lay down your life, make sure the holy altar doesn't get a scratch. Do I make myself clear?" An old but fierce abyssal said as he looked at the new batch.
"Yes, Sir!"
The voices of the new guardians echoed in the underground hall.
The sharp gaze of the old guardian softened as he sighed. "We're leaving our treasure in your hands. Protect it, please."
"With our lives."
The new guardians placed their fists on their hearts and lowered their heads.
The old guardian nodded slightly and left the underground hall where he met up with the previous guardians of the holy altar.
Two mid level 9s and two high level 9s, including himself.
"Let's go, brothers." He said with a smile.
"Yes! If Mars wants an all-out war, then we will give them an all-out war." The other high-level 9 said.
"Death or Victory!"
"Death or Victory!"
As the situation on mars grew tenser and tenser, the existing guardians of the holy altar were sent to the planetoids while a new batch of weaker guardians replaced them to protect the holy altar.
…Just as planned.
*** *** ***
One by one, officials from all parts of the abyss rushed into the courtroom, knelt, and thumped their heads to the floor as they yelled in a tone mixed with rage and grief.
"Queen, the sunset city—"
"Your Majesty, the Tribunal cit—"
"The Lusina ci—"
"SHUT UP!"
Mirage Queen's voice was like a hypnotic song. The moment it reached their ears, the officials froze like puppets.
A tense atmosphere filled the courtroom before a deep sigh escaped the queen's purple lips.
The eyes of the high-ranking officials flashed with a complicated gaze as they felt the emotions of their ruler.
Grief. Rage. Helplessness.
With a swipe of her finger, a huge hologram popped in the courtroom displaying a 3-D map of the entire mirage abyss.
The capital city and the top-tier cities with level 9s were marked in red.
The first-class cities with a strong level 7 were marked in orange.
But there were six gray dots in addition to the orange dots.
"Coming to my kingdom and killing my people!" Mirage Queen's eyes shone with a cold light.
"Your Majesty, they're obviously provoking you!"
"Certainly! Now is the time for the war. They want you to stay here!"
"Please go to the battlefield!"
The officials gave their suggestions. In their opinion, the war was more important.
Mirage Queen propped her chin on her palm and asked. "Is there any news from the archduke?"
The court suddenly fell silent.
The Queen swept her gaze across the officials before she noticed the one holding a communication crystal.
The crystal shone brightly and displayed an abyssal rushing through the silver clouds.
"Stop!"
"You bastards!"
"Don't escape!"
"You cowards! Come out and fight if you dare!"
Eventually, the archduke lost the trail of the ghost ship. But he seemed intent on finding it.
Mirage Queen tapped her chin with her index finger as she pondered whether to go fight or stay and hunt down the ghost ship.
"Except for the minimum strength, mobilize the troops!"
A spaceship covered the abyssal queen and she appeared above the castle. With a speed far surpassing that of sound, the spaceship shot out of the abyss, heading for mars' planetoids.
Following her, the strong abyssals—level 8s and level 9s also left.
Of course, they weren't foolish to let Varian take advantage of their absence. Two high 9s stayed in the capital for any emergencies.
The two high level 9s as well as the fleet were observed by a man and woman in a spaceship far away.
— — —
"Let's do our best," Varian said.
Sia nodded with a determined expression and the ghost ship quickly entered the capital.
Varian held his breath as they inched closer and closer to the floating castle.
This was the most crucial part of the plan.
He needed to attack the holy altar way before the mirage queen reached the planetoids.
If she reached the planetoids and received the news that the altar was attacked, her first reaction might be attacking the planetoids.
'I don't want to take that risk. So, we have to make it quick. As quickly as possible.'
The ghost ship slowly slid into the castle to avoid the prying senses of the high level 9s.
Boo fully understood the severity of the situation. So, it went above and beyond to infiltrate the castle as soon as possible.
Time was ticking and the ghost ship entered the underground hall ten minutes later.
"Haa~"
Varian took a deep breath and scanned the levels of the guardians through the system.
[Macrokinetic Mid Level 9]
[Psychic Low Level 9]
[Psychic Low Level 9]
[Macrokinetic Low Level 9]
He informed Sia of the composition and asked her opinion.
"Since I can sneak attack on them, I'm confident of taking down the leader." She bit her lip. "But I'm not confident of escaping."
They only needed to stage a play of attacking the holy altar. However, the abyssals shouldn't know that.
So, the plan was for Sia to hold off the abyssals as Varian attacked the holy altar—only to realize that the abyssals were stronger than they estimated and escape.
But with the two strong level 9s in the capital, Sia would have to ensure she would be able to escape without being slowed down.
If she's slowed down even for a moment than necessary, the strong level 9s in the capital would reach the underground hall and kill her.
So, Varian wanted Sia to be 100% certain.
But she wasn't.
So, Varian took a deep breath and said. "What about her?"
"…She's certain."
"Call her." Varian sighed.
With a flash of purple light enveloping her, Sia's body underwood a significant change.
A slightly older woman with silvery hair and purple eyes appeared in front of him. Her hair and eyes changed into tricolor the next second and she walked to the exit without a word.
Enigma watched Varian enter the illusions in the mirage abyss and fall into illusions endlessly.
After the end of every illusion, he showed his hatred toward her more and more.
Enigma guessed the illusion he must be falling into was where she killed his mother.
'How much hatred are you hiding?' She softly sighed before her lips parted. "I can destroy the altar as well."
Varian's body stiffened hearing her voice. Yet, he forced himself to shake his head. "Don't."
Enigma nodded lightly and prepared herself.
"Get Ready. Opening in…"
"Three,"
"Two,"
"On—"
