764 The Result Of Many Sacrifices

As Skyla's heart crumbled as the lightning was about to descend on her and the crowd, the air shook.

The officer's eyes clouded eyes trembled as if the one controlling him was losing focus. As a result, the lightning bolt he was conjuring dissipated into thin air.

"Huh?" Skyla raised her head, realizing that the danger was averted for some reason.

But she didn't intend to stay here. She quickly tapped her comm and contacted her husband.

If she wasn't pregnant, she could've fought. But if she dared to do it now, she'd be risking her baby.

'Husband, please be quick!' Skyla prayed as she took hurried footsteps away from the spaceship and towards her home in the district.

Her home had enough defenses to block against a level 8. Even though it wouldn't save her when Mirage Queen's attacks descend, Skyla was certain of safeguarding herself and her baby for a while.

But when she had only walked a few meters from the spaceship, the ground began to shake.

"An-Another attack?" Skyla alerted herself and looked around for an earth awakener.

But she found none.

Even the military officers near the spaceship were looking around in confusion. Some of them even stared up at the sky, perhaps trying to find the earth awakener…flying?

Skyla followed their gaze to look at the sky and froze.

The sky…was clearing up. The clouds were shaking as they moved away and no longer blocked the suns.

The bright sunlight shone on the citizens who stood over trembling earth and under a shaking sky.

Then the world suddenly stilled.

The sunlight dimmed, the ground stopped shaking and the clouds froze in position.

The next moment, a burst of light filled the world as if a sun lit up in front of mars. The ground shook violently and the air heated up as if it was peak summer.

Everyone looked at the sky as they noticed a third sun beside the original two.

"H-He!" Skyla gaped.

The entire mars looked at the third sun in awe as a guess formed in their minds.

The three surviving level 9 warriors, who were still embroiled in a fight with fire abyssals, started crying

"B-Brothers, Sisters, we did it."

"Yes, we saved them."

"We saved everyone!"

When Skad took them for a suicide mission, there were fifty of them. They fought with their tooth and nail and with the support of the ghost ship, they stalled the Mirage Queen for hours.

Only ten of them were left.

When they returned to Mars and once again fought the forces of Mirage Queen, only three of them were left standing.

But.

They did it.

After all those sacrifices, all those wounds, all those fears.

They started to fight the fire abyssals with renewed vigor.

"Bastards, don't even dream of leaving now."

The fire abyssals were bewildered at the development, but they weren't going to give up.

"Just you? Even without the Queen's help, we're even." The first fire abyssal sneered as he launched hundreds of fire spears on the three warriors.

The trio dodged some, blocked some, and was attacked by a few.

As the abyssal said, despite fighting three to two, due to their heavier injuries, they were roughly at the same level.

Unless someone broke the balance, the situation would continue as much.

But how could the balance be brok—

One of the fire abyssals was suddenly engulfed in darkness before he was crushed to the ground, forming a huge crater.

Due to the final minute defensive fire coat the abyssal created, he didn't suffer any serious injuries.

But he was out of focus for a moment.

On the battlefield, a moment of lapse was enough.

A spear broke through his chest and the first fire abyssal died.

Passing them by, a ghost ship shot into the skies. Enigma's back slid down the wall as she panted for breath.

The reason she dared to attack was the third sun.

"Finally," Enigma looked at the burning red sphere in the sky as the ghost ship went closer and closer to it.

When the distance was only a hundred miles, it was crystal clear. It wasn't a sun.

It was a man.

What everyone saw was only a sphere of fire. But an invisible sphere of space with a diameter of hundred miles hummed with him as the center.

The man was currently facing the spaceship of Mirage Queen.

Even though nothing seemed to happen, they were already embroiled in a deadly conflict in the mindscape.

Using her own mind sense, Enigma barely caught the glimpse of the battle through the mental shockwaves.

It's a huge, huge world with a white sky and a silver sky.

Under the white sky, Bali was using his Sovereign space path as well as peak level 9 fire path.

The world before him cracked as if it was just a big, big mirror and was swallowed by a sea of fire.

"If only you didn't appear in time, I would have taken Mars! Damn you!" Mirage Queen gnashed her teeth as she glared at the new Sovereign with hatred.

"I didn't appear in time," Bali said with a sad smile. "They created that time for me. Our heroes."

Mirage Queen recalled the fifty warriors that stalled her for hours and her body exploded with rage. Those fuckers knew they'd die, yet they stalled her by fighting tooth and nail.

As a result, she was late to mars by hours. If they didn't appear, if they feared for their lives, then she'd have conquered Mars already!

"Fuck you and your filthy heroes! You pests! You should all just die!" Mirage Queen waved her hand and a water tide taller than a hundred meters appeared and engulfed Bali's attacks.

Despite his double paths, Bali's attacks were nullified.

"Once this farce ends, I'll kill the families of those fifty members. Their children, their grandchildren, and even their friends. I won't spare a single person, I swear." Mirage Queen's eyes glowed with burning rage.

As if signifying her rage, three red-lightning dragons, longer than a hundred meters materialized in front of Bali and opened their mouth to devour him whole.

Before he could escape, the space around him solidified.

"If you think you can lay your hands on them, then bitch, you're dreaming!" Bali clenched his fists and used his own space power to loosen the space.

Then, he teleported in front of the Mirage Queen and sliced her neck with a space blade.

Mirage Queen's body collapsed and Bali caught his breath.

If someone died in the mindscape, their mental avatar would be weakened. So, Bali could be considered to have won this round.

But Bali didn't really think so.

For some reason, he felt an ominous premonition. So, he quickly teleported far away from the broken body of Mirage Queen.

The very next second, her corpse blasted and a hundred miles surrounding her were swallowed in lightning.

"Tch."

Bali quickly turned around and saw the source of the sound.

"I knew it." Bali gritted his teeth as Mirage Queen materialized a few miles away from him.

It's ridiculous and almost impossible to do, but Mirage Queen created an illusion inside an illusion.

"Three billion humans. The dream of my ancestors. The first step in fulfilling the goal of my race." Mirage Queen's eyes shone with a crazed light. "I was there. I was almost there. Just a bit."

Following her words, gravity increased and Bali's feet sank into the ground.

Bali covered himself with space armor and waved his hand at her. The space around Mirage Queen exploded. "And you want to know the goal of my race? We'll kill every single one of you damn invaders!"

Mirage Queen's body appeared a few hundred miles away, apparently having escaped the explosion.

Bali's words didn't seem to have any effect on her. Mirage Queen's eyes still shone with a crazy light as she pulled her hair. "Forget those idiot warriors, if only Varian didn't appear! Then I'd have at least killed everyone on Mars! Arghhh! Damnit! Fucking damn it!"

Bali didn't converse with her as he kept launching attacks on her.

Fire explosions. Space blades. Everything he could, he did.

Mirage Queen kept blocking or dodging his attacks and it was clear that he wasn't able to hurt her.

Bali didn't care. He was a newly promoted Sovereign and he was the weakest of them all.

He had no chance of defeating her. But that's fine.

Mirage Queen ranted for a few more minutes before she looked at him in disdain. "Even Kreo wasn't able to do it, are you delusional enough to think you can defeat me? In fact, you're so weak that you can't even break out of the illusion. If I want, you will be trapped here for years, decades!"

"I will be trapped, yes. But you will also be trapped with me." Bali gave a refreshing smile.

"What do you—" Mirage Queen suddenly paused as her eyes widened. Then, her face contorted with rage as she glared. "Is this the plan of that boy? To trap me so that he can run amok in my abyss?"

The moment that thought appeared in her mind, Mirage Queen felt a jolt of fear down her spine.

She already failed in her mission of conquering Mars. If she at least started mass slaughter right after reaching the planet, she was confident she could've killed at least a hundred million people.

But no. She went with another plan and wasted two damn minutes.

Still, even if this plan failed, the number of level 7s, 8s, and 9s she killed was many.

Even if Bali returned, the situation of planetoids was forever changed.

Abyssals would be able to occupy 80% of the planetoids without any problem and if they pushed for conquest, then they'd conquer all the planetoids!

It might take only three months for this result.

That's how big of a disparity was created between the two sides.

But.

If she stayed trapped here with Bali, and Varian went to Mirage Abyss, then Mirage Queen couldn't guarantee whether he'd something crazy.

If it's him, then even she didn't dare to guarantee that she could keep her advantage.

Because she saw the final messages received by Timal from his subordinates.

Varian was a fucking level 8!

At that revelation, Mirage Queen nearly went crazy.

He was a level 7 a few weeks ago and now, he jumped to level 8!

It didn't make any fucking sense!

What now?

Would he reach level 9 after a few more weeks?

And a few more weeks later, Sovereign state?

Then, she and the rest of the abyssals could forget conquering humanity.

In a few years, she feared that the monster might reach Celestial Rank and exterminate them!

'Yes, forget Mars, I already inflicted enough damage here. They're crippled!' Mirage Queen gritted her teeth.

'Even if we occupy all planetoids, even if we conquer all planets, if we leave that one human arrives, he'll be the death of us all!'

Even if they exterminated humans, they wouldn't win this war.

Mirage Queen didn't know why, but when she saw the confidence in Bali's eyes when he mentioned 'him', she was certain that Varian was the greatest threat to abyssals.

Forget Enigma. Forget that traitor Sovereign. Forget every goddamn genius.

This man that deceived her into staying in the mirage abyss for two days was not only growing insanely strong insanely fast, but he was also sinisterly clever.

Mirage Queen was only grasping the motives of his actions now.

'He destroyed the cities and used the excuse of destroying holy altar just to keep me in the abyss.

If he didn't do that, I would've entered the battlefield one or two days before Bali became a Sovereign.

Then, I would've won!'

Rage and helplessness filled her heart as Mirage Queen made a decision.

"It's your lucky day," The Abyss ruler glared at Bali and the illusion started crumbling.

Bali grinned. "Not yet. But I will make it."

He rushed to her and launched a flurry of attacks.

Mirage Queen was forced to maintain the illusion. "Are you crazy? If you keep this up, you'll be seriously injured!"

"Then injured I'll be. I'm not letting you go back!" Bali laughed as he forcibly prolonged the battle despite his growing injuries.

All he had to and wanted to do was hold her back without dying.

If he did that, and even just that, even if he didn't inform him of what to do, Bali was confident that a teenager would do exploit this situation and do what's best.

When this thought appeared in his mind, Bali didn't know that a few hundred miles away from them above Mars, Varian's eyes fluttered open.