750 Shadow Lord Of Mars
How does it feel to have all your hard work of a lifetime snatched by a teeny brat?
By a kid whose age was less than the time you spent sleeping?
Soul crushing. Depressing. But most of all, infuriating.
The Seven Shadow Lords were living with these emotions for a while now. Every time they saw someone praise Dreamer, their hearts burnt with rage.
In their last meeting, they unanimously decided to do everything in their power for revenge.
And recently, they were actually looking into something.
The old maid of Mars' president was their ex-agent. She joined the Order almost a century earlier when her parents were killed by humans for resources.
With the help of Order, she took revenge and left. But there's only one way into the Order.
Even though she left, and expressed no interest in working for them, through benefits and threats, they pulled her into working for them.
With their help, she climbed to be the head maid of mars' president and was living a lavish life.
When the lockdown of mars started, the Shadow Lord of Mars, Timal, got in touch with her and started collecting some important news.
The president left for Sovereign Kreo's residence the same day. The president had been drinking heavily since.
Even when the war was initiated by mars, instead of being confident, the president was cautious. There's always a frown on his face.
Of course, most of these signs wouldn't be found by a person. No matter what, the president was still an experienced person and put on a mask.
But as a maid who served him for decades, she was able to see the minute details that most would miss.
For a hefty sum of money that Shadow Lord Tamal promised, the head maid sold away all the information.
She didn't realize the implications of her actions. In her mind, only a few hundred lives would be lost in exchange for a lot of wealth that she would win in a 'lottery'.
With this wealth, her incompetent grandson would be able to live in luxury for the rest of his life.
That's all she cared about.
— — —
"Greetings, Your Majesty." Tamal knelt on a single knee as he addressed the ruler of Mirage abyss.
"Report."
Mirage Queen glossed over the report and her eyes narrowed. "Credible?"
"After getting the first-hand sources of my informant, I cross-checked with other agents working in the upper echelons of the mars' bureaucracy."
She nodded, prompting him to continue.
"Only the top most officers have some changes. The rest have normal reactions. They are surprised at the sudden lockdowns, then this unexpected war." Tamal said.
Mirage Queen immediately grasped the implications and her face lit up. "That means?"
"It's exactly as you're thinking. There is a big secret that they can't afford anyone else to know. It's either very positive or negative. Everything that happened on mars so far should be a cover."
"Yes!" Mirage Queen slapped her armrest.
"Y-Your Majesty?" Tamal looked at her in confusion.
Mirage Queen didn't care about how her lack of decorum. Instead, she laughed like a drunken man. "I'm almost sure it's bad news!"
Coupled with Kreo's disappearance, she decided that something happened to Kreo. Either he couldn't come out now or he's out of commission.
Of course, the possibility of his death didn't even cross her mind.
The possibility of this all being a trap still exists. But as an abyssal, it's not in her blood to watch on as war unfolded.
The fact that she didn't go to the war until now was thanks to Varian's "Threat" against the holy altar.
But this report showed her an exciting possibility. She'd start by attacking an unexpected planetoid that certainly wouldn't have any traps.
If her guess was verified, then today would be the turning point for abyssals.
Before she left, Mirage Queen smiled at the dog. "If this turns out well, you'll be conferred the status of a noble in my kingdom."
Tamal's face lit up and he nodded fervently.
Even though he was conflicted if siding with abyssals was still the right thing to do when his own race had a monster like Varian, he decided not to risk it.
The Shadow Lords were vaguely aware that the abyssal race had one supreme ruler whose power far surpassed even the strongest sovereign.
"Varian, this is my payback." Tamal grinned.
— — —
A dazzling blue light enveloped a high castle. The hundreds of abyssals inside weren't even able to put up any resistance before they were frozen alive.
Varian threw a spear made of lightning and the frozen castle exploded into countless ice blocks.
A few seconds later, the city under the mountain was crushed.
"Thirteenth city." Standing in the clouds, Varian smiled.
"Can we keep doing this? Even though the upper echelons of the abyssal army wouldn't have any change, we can essentially destroy the bulk of the army." Sia mused.
Varian gave it a serious thought.
If the low and mid awakeners of abyssals were destroyed, abyssals would surely encounter a lot of problems in maintaining the planetoids.
In fact, many planetoids that were headed by only level 6 abyssals would be gone.
Abyssals would end up losing a significant amount of planetoids.
However, they'd still retain the high-end combat power. The war stakes still wouldn't change.
"Even though this doesn't really benefit us in the bigger picture, I want to turn the eight abysses into lands with only high awakeners." Varian finally said.
"When abyssals lose most of their army, then our army too can withdraw from the planetoids."
Of course, many low and mid awakeners would still be retained on the planetoids, but they won't be participating in the wars anymore.
And humans could solidify their grip on a few planetoids and make them their permanent military bases.
When they invade abysses, these permanent military bases would serve as their launchpad.
Sia was about to speak when an aura shot up in the sky and locked onto them.
The pressure of a peak level 9 fell on them, but Varian and Sia didn't bat an eye and entered the ghost ship as if it was a routine.
"Boo is really of great help." Sia giggled.
Varian was about to chuckle when his comm flashed with a message.
A chill shot down his spine.
