744 Subterfuge

The Mirage Queen and her fleet had already crossed 20% of the distance from the abyss to the planetoids.

After noticing their movements from the spy planes, Irene Nial panicked.

Clasping her hands, she prayed to Heaven's Will.

At the same time in the mirage abyss:

The underground hall went dark for a split second before a loud clap echoed.

As the darkness faded away, the corpse of an abyssal was found on the floor, and stepping on the corpse's head was a woman in black.

"Enigma!"

The psychics were already using their full power to control her movements.

Enigma fought back the mind control with her own mental powers.

What's more, these two psychics were significantly stronger than her who recently reached level 9 and this was a one-vs-two battle.

So, she couldn't use her darkness power at all and could barely move.

Yet, she forcibly raised a finger in the direction of the third abyssal—the macro kinetic

With a hum, a sharp field of gravity formed the abyssal. It created a gravity a hundred times more powerful than normal.

So, if the abyssal was exposed to it even for a moment, his body would be paste.

Since he already got the time to prepare, the abyssal created a force field around him and forcibly canceled the gravity.

But since Enigma kept pressuring him, he had to keep fighting back to survive.

Just like that, Enigma managed to create a deadlock with the guardians.

Right when Enigma's sneak attacked, the two high level 9s staying in the capital, felt something was amiss.

Their mind senses quickly swept into the underground hall and locked onto Enigma.

Her face instantly paled and beads of sweat rolled down her forehead. Gritting her teeth, she yelled.

"Hurry!"

"On it!"

A golden light flashed as a spear of lightning shot toward the holy altar.

"STOP!"

"Bastard!"

"DIE!"

The guardians wanted to rip Varian to pieces but they were locked down by Enigma and could only watch as the spear reached the altar.

The spear struck the altar and the lightning danced on it.

The sacred altar, revered by every abyssal, now had small but visible cracks on it.

"F-Fuck!" Varian's eyes widened as he 'realized' the altar wasn't destroyed by his attack.

So, he hurriedly summoned another lightning spear and was about to throw it when—

"Brat!"

"STOP!"

Two voices sounded in his mind and Varian's eyes went blank in an instant.

The two high level 9s that were attacking Enigma forcibly shifted their target at the last moment and stopped Varian.

But before they could make another move, an invisible ring on Varian's finger shone and their connection to him was cut off.

"What?!"

Varian crashed onto the floor of the ghost ship as he started to bleed heavily from his mouth and nose.

A searing pain spread through his head and his brain seemed to be on the verge of explosion.

[+1000 XP]

Two blue screens flashed in front of Varian's eyes before he lost consciousness.

"He's in the ghost ship!"

"You take him! I'll kill her!"

The two high level 9 abyssals communicated in a split second before they went after their respective targets.

Enigma was on a knee as her eyes started to lose focus.

With the high level 9 psychic that was attacking her, she was quickly losing ground.

"Bitch! Die!"

A bright light flashed as an explosive was shot toward the holy altar out of nowhere.

"Fuck!"

The macro kinetic quickly wrapped the bomb in a barrier and prevented it from damaging the altar.

Right when he switched his target, a silver light flashed in the underground hall and Enigma disappeared.

"ENIGMA!" An enraged voice sounded in the minds of every abyssal in the capital.

"VARIAN!" Another shout followed shortly after.

The high level 9 trying to attack the ghost ship quickly found out something. While his mind power was able to penetrate the ghost ship, it wasn't able to reach Varian.

Something was blocking his power.

"Phew!"

Boo wiped its forehead as it added another two celestial walls for assurance. Varian lay in the center of the makeshift room as the bots fed him healing potions.

"Damn it! I'll fucking kill you!"

The psychic targetting the ghost ship chased after the ghost ship. But too bad, their distance only grew higher with each passing second.

A few seconds passed by and the ghost ship reached a pre-agreed mountain and grazed its peak.

Boo swiftly picked up the unconscious Enigma lying on the mountain top and pushed her into the same room.

Then, it looked at the spaceship receding in the distance and giggled. "Ehehehe~"

Taking a deep breath, Boo opened its mouth and its voice converted into Varian's, reverberating for hundreds of miles.

"I, Varian, swear on the heavens that I'll take revenge for this humiliation.

Before the fourth sunset from now, I'll destroy your holy altar, kill your brightest genius prince, and slaughter thirty cities!"

The more Boo spoke, the more excited it got. Puffing out its chest, it added its own line.

"Your green blood will form a river, your bones will heap into a mountain and your wails will fill the abyss."

Varian, who had just regained consciousness, heard Boo's words and coughed out blood before falling unconscious again.

Yet, those words had a tremendous impact.

The abyssals in the capital city heard each and every word of Varian's poisonous oath.

Who was Varian?

The guy who single-handedly foiled their plan in Valos!

The human who dared to enter Pluto and safely return!

He's the man who made the impossible possible.

To abyssals, Varian wasn't the strongest enemy. Not by a long shot.

But he certainly was the most dangerous.

Now, since he made such an oath, every abyssal believed he'd do what he said.

Including the Abyss Queen who just received news of the attack.

She just crossed 33% of the distance from the abyss to planetoids when the news reached her. The first thing she enquired about was the condition of the holy altar.

"…There are a few cracks, but it's fine." The guardian told her through the communication crystal. "Varian underestimated the resilience of the holy altar. But if he attacked a few more times, it'd have been gone."

Mirage queen's chest heaved up and down as she wiped the sweat off her forehead.

"Thankfully…Thankfully…the holy altar is still safe." Mirage Queen patted her chest and sighed in relief.

"Queen, why did you stop?"

The high-ranking abyssals asked through the communicator.

Mirage Queen sent them the news along with Varian's poisonous oath.

"T-This…"

"Thankfully, the holy altar is fine…"

"B-But what do we do now? War or…?"

Mirage Queen slapped the communicator away and her ship turned back to the mirage abyss.

What war?

She'd go to the frontlines when her spies detect Kreo leaving for the planetoids.

Until then, she'd search every inch of the abyss and find that fucking rat!