763 Let It Begin

High above Mars, Mirage Queen waited for the inevitable.

[00:10]

Her earliest memory of mars surfaced for some reason.

The second planet to be colonized by humans, Mars was akin to a second heart to the human race.

Her predecessor, Illusion Queen, tried hard but failed to destroy this planet. It wasn't just her alone. Experienced Archdukes, wise strategists, brilliant geniuses—in the past hundred years, many had tried but all failed to conquer a planet.

Their best result—Pluto—was only possible due to many factors, including the 'traitor' Sovereign.

Thinking of that man, Mirage Queen's eyes flashed with anger. As a Sovereign, he must have known that something was wrong with Mars, yet he didn't inform her or the rest of the abyssals.

'You are playing double games. You want to gain the artifacts while keeping humanity intact. For your goal, you are using us.'

Every abyss ruler knew this. No one really thought of that man as their ally. He was using them. But so were they.

'Once Mars falls, you can be discarded.' Mirage Queen's lips curled into a cruel smile.

[00:05]

"Your Majesty," Timal suddenly called, interrupting her thoughts of revenge.

"Hm?"

"My suicide squad blocked Varian and Enigma in a power grid."

Mirage Queen narrowed her eyes and her mind sense checked the big battle on the planet.

The two level 9 fire abyssals were currently fighting against the warriors that came out of the ghost ship.

With her occasional help, three of the ten warriors were already dead.

Mirage Queen already knew that Timal had prepared contingency against his archnemesis Varian.

So, she wasn't worried about him stopping her plan.

'Varian and Enigma will die there. Even if they don't, once the explosion is finished, I can always hunt them down.'

Mirage Queen wasn't worried about them escaping her clutches. When they entered the power plant, their fates were sealed.

[00:01]

Mirage Queen held her breath as she looked at the red planet through her spaceship.

The shining cities were blasted into—

"Huh?"

[00:00]

Mirage Queen blinked in confusion.

Nothing happened.

From space, she could still see the bright cities. The spaceships that were sneaking out were still intact. The crowded places that her mental sense was monitoring weren't affected the slightest.

Timal, who was waiting for the explosions with clenched fists, was also confused. He quickly contacted the expert overseeing the operation.

But the other party didn't even respond.

"What the…" Timal had an ominous premonition and contacted his suicide squad.

A hologram popped in front of him, showing the base of an underground power plant.

Mutilated and charred bodies were strewn across the rough floor. Some of them had their necks sliced off. Others had dark wisps oozing out of their lifeless eyes.

And the one attending the call was—

"So it's you." Enigma's cold tri-color eyes stared at Timal.

"I—" Even though he was planets away, Timal felt his entire body go cold under her gaze.

'No, no. I'm going to die! She'll kill me!'

His mind screamed as fear engulfed his heart. Enigma didn't even bother to spare him a second glance and turned to the hologram behind him.

"Mirage Queen," Enigma's tone hardened. "Give up or you'll regret it."

"Ho?" Mirage Queen rested her chin on her palm as she smiled. "Do you really think your actions saved this planet?"

As if she was finding this whole situation funny, the abyssal snapped her fingers.

One of the seven remaining warriors fighting the fire abyssals suddenly went limp and collapsed onto the ground.

A fire spear pierced his head and burnt him into ashes.

Enigma clenched her fists as her comm informed her of one of the warrior's death.

"No matter how much you struggle," Mirage Queen clenched her smooth fist.

A warrior was pulled into an illusion and was killed without any resistance.

Enigma's comm rang again and a sense of powerlessness filled her heart.

"You can't change anything." Mirage Queen's eyes flashed and her mental sense swept towards the power plant Enigma was staying at.

During their short conversation, she telepathically communicated with Timal and gained the accurate location of the underground power plant.

Enigma suddenly felt a shiver down her spine and without hesitation, used the artifact.

The space around her body twisted and she teleported next to the unconscious Varian.

By then, Mirage Queen's mind sense already reached the power plant.

She glanced at the small ring that was now attached to one of the computers and recognized it right away.

Boo!

"Hm, Enigma?" Boo's confused voice sounded in the hall.

Thanks to Varian, Boo barged into the power grid network at the last second and forcibly shut everything off. It was just about to breathe a sigh of relief when Enigma teleported.

"She's coming! Quick!" Enigma yelled.

Right then, Mirage Queen's mind sense reached the building they were at.

"What?!" Boo quickly responded and pulled the two into the ghost ship and put them in the celestial room.

"Tch!" Mirage Queen clicked her tongue as she felt a metal blocking her mind sense.

Even though she lost the chance to kill Varian with her own hands, she wasn't too worried.

She informed the two fire abyssals about the power plant's location and asked them to end the dangerous human once and for all.

The two fire abyssals were about to end another human warrior's life when they received the message.

Without hesitation, they turned into fire phoenixes and rushed to the location.

The five warriors didn't even think before they launched attacks on the abyssals, in an attempt to stop them from whatever they were planning.

Meanwhile, ghost ship rushed out of the power plant. The fire abyssals sensed its presence and wanted to attack it when the five warriors barely stopped them.

"Woo! Boo can't take attacks now, woo!" Boo cried out. "Or Boo will explode, woo!"

Enigma's brows furrowed. "Then Varian should stop using you."

Boo gave Enigma a resentful gaze and explained. "Boo can repair itself in an hour. Then it can take beatings."

"But they won't leave us alone." Enigma glanced out and saw the fire abyssals were approaching them despite the warriors trying to hold them back.

The ghost ship tried to escape using its super speed, but no matter how much it moved away, it was always tracked by the mirage queen, who was moving her spaceship to keep monitoring the ghost ship.

The fire abyssals created several walls of fire to prevent ghost ship from escaping. They were even almost successful in attacking ghost ship if not for the warriors delaying them.

The warriors realized what was happening and tried to hold the fire abyssals back. But mirage queen had enough and quickly killed off two of them.

Now, only three level 9s remained. However, they kept fighting.

But all they were doing was delaying the inevitable. Once one more warrior fell, the fire abyssals would be able to attack the ghost ship.

Once that happened, the ghost ship that was currently in a vulnerable state would crumble.

Even though they'd still be in the celestial room and wouldn't be killed right away, they'd fall into their enemy's hands.

If they ever come out of the room, what would await them was a fate worse than death.

"We have to break the deadlock." Enigma looked at the unconscious Varian who was being treated and stared at the seclusion room where Sarah was undergoing a breakthrough.

With a sigh, she said. "Decrease your size as much as you can."

The card in her body shone and a silverly light covered ghost ship. Enigma's face quickly paled as if she was drawn out of all blood.

In the next second, a ghost ship appeared on the opposite side of mars.

"Bastards!" Mirage Queen slammed her armrest.

She didn't know how, but the ghost ship disappeared from her radar!

"Fine, if you want to escape, then escape." Mirage Queen's lips curled into a cruel smile as she eyed the three billion people still under evacuation.

"They can't escape."

The abyss ruler waved her hand and the soldiers responsible for evacuation in a hundred districts stiffened.

Then, without hesitation, ten thousand soldiers channeled their powers as they eyed the civilians with killing intent.

"No!"

"Stop!"

"Dare you!"

The three warriors that were still fighting the fire abyssals panicked at the situation. They were about to rush to the nearest district and stop the slaughter that was about to commence. But the fire abyssals held them back easily.

"Even though it'll take more time than the original plan, I will thoroughly enjoy the feast." Mirage Queen laughed and clapped.

In one of the districts, Skyla's face paled as she saw the military officer on the plane using his powers.

One by one, the people in the spaceship started to collapse to the floor as the sounds of bones breaking reverberated.

People with weaker constitutions were almost on the verge of death.

Skyla got onto her feet and wanted to escape, but so did the rest.

As she was pregnant and expecting, she couldn't even risk running in the crowd.

'I must escape!'

If her womb faces that gravity, it'll be damaged and her baby will die.

Since the spaceship wasn't in flight, Skyla was able to open the emergency exit and run out of the spaceship.

Like here, hundreds of others also left the spaceship and landed on the ground.

But, once she reached the ground, however, she was quickly forced to stop as a military officer with blank eyes started to summon a huge lightning bolt.

Once it smashes, even if Skyla survives, her baby would die.

As tears dripped down the corner of her eyes, Skyla, along with the rest of the Martians heard a demonic chuckle.

"Let it begin."