776 One Last Shot

Mirage Queen's eyes turned red as she watched her capital in ruins. She clutched her heart and gritted her teeth to prevent the tears from falling.

As a Queen, she mustn't cry.

Even if the city of her ancestors was destroyed.

Even if the Castle that the Emperor personally gifted was smashed to bits.

Even if her heart broke into pieces and was crushed to powder, she shouldn't cry.

"Gather the survivors. Maintain contact with all cities. Stay alert." Mirage Queen issued the orders in an emotionless tone.

The entourage that returned with her couldn't even utter a word. They only responded with a 'hm.'

Mirage Queen didn't bother to reprimand them and landed her spaceship in the place where her castle used to be.

Due to Archduke Laren's outburst, the bits and pieces of the castle were scattered across the city.

She stepped out of the spaceship and scanned through the debris with hunched shoulders. She was like a refugee returning to her destroyed city, hoping to find the remains of her own past.

And find she did. But with every item she found, Mirage Queen's shoulders hunched further.

One by one, each finding her heart like a hammer.

The paintings of her homeland.

'I let down your expectations.' Mirage Queen bit her lip until she bled.

The sculptures of her late parents.

'I am a failure. Sorry, mom, dad.'

The remains of the throne that was passed down in her lineage.

'I am a disgrace to my great ancestors.'

And finally…

The broken holy altar that stood out from the other debris because of the level 8 fluctuations on it.

'I…' Mirage Queen's eyes went blank as she felt suffocated.

Then, finally, she lowered her head and started to sob.

Subconsciously, she created an illusion to hide her fragile self. To anyone watching her, they'd only see the straight back of a Queen who's unfazed by the setbacks.

But only inside the illusion, could she cry.

For letting down everyone, for being such a disappointment, and for being unable to stop so many deaths.

Even though she'd quickly hide that self behind her emotionless mask, for now, she vented her grievances.

— — —

"Only twenty million," Varian munched on some fried meat as he mumbled with a disappointed expression.

He was seated on the main seat of a large dining table. Seated across the table were the twenty-three old men and women.

They ate and drank as if there was no tomorrow.

After the mission ended, Varian met them for the first time and threw a feast.

Seeing the crazy guy in person, the old guys were shocked, to say the least. He was anything but normal.

Also, what the fuck? He's level 8 for fuck's sake!

Level 8 at what? 18 years!

It's so outrageous that two old men and three old women fainted from high blood pressure.

After giving them some emergency treatment, Varian began the feast.

By being in the same room as them, Varian also implied that he was now trusting them.

Sort of.

Enigma was seated the closest to him. And unlike others, she was only sipping some wine while keeping an eye out on the situation.

On the onset of any danger, she'd teleport him and herself out of the ghost ship. Then, Boo would trap the old guys in celestial walls.

Varian felt that they were being too cautious. But Enigma was adamant. So, he relented.

She was being overprotective and that's fine.

So far, the feast proceeded smoothly.

With jugs clinking and delicious dishes devoured, everyone was enjoying themselves.

The teams bragged about their battles and burst into laughter from their outdated jokes from time to time.

Perhaps it was due to their mental image of him, or his temperament, no one talked to Varian much other than a few words.

Varian himself didn't understand why it was the case.

But Enigma was able to see it clearly.

Varian…even though he was sitting with them, he gave off an aloof and distant feeling. Like a mirage that could be seen but not touched.

The old men and women were stuck on how to treat him.

As a colleague? He's only 18.

As a junior? He's level 8 and commanded them!

As a senior? It'd be embarrassing for them to address someone their grandchildren's age as a senior.

So, they just shut up and enjoyed themselves.

Until Varian suddenly said. "Only twenty million."

The chats stopped and the table fell silent.

"What's that?" A short old man asked. He was someone who initially had the idea of extorting Varian and using those resources to create more Sovereigns for the federation.

But after seeing the boy's performance in person, he trusted Varian. And he's level 8 already. He'd be a Sovereign sooner or later. So, unconsciously, he also started to place hopes on Varian and was even ready to help him if he could.

"Twenty million casualties," Varian replied as he gazed at the twenty-three warriors along with seven empty chairs. "It's not bad, but a hundred million would've been good."

The ones drinking nearly spat out at his words.

Hu-Hundred million?

If they could kill that many, then Mirage Abyss would be crippled.

They could forget about recovering for two decades at least.

"That's impossible," An old woman sighed as she finished the fifth cup of fine wine. "Mirage Queen would prepare safeguards against any such invasion in the future."

Varian shrugged.

When he was Prince Var, he learned that Abyss Will could also be controlled by the Abyss Rulers to some extent.

If Mirage Queen used that authority, she'd be able to find that they used CTF to enter the Abyss and somehow also hid the spatial fluctuations.

Could she take measures against that?

"Even if she does, she'd stay in the Abyss," Varian's eyes shone with a cunning glint. "Then the planetoids are ours to taking."

The veterans were surprised at his words before they shook their heads. "After this, we'll all have to return to our planets."

The remaining Abysses would've been alerted by Mirage Abyss. To prevent this tragedy from happening again, they'd surely send all their forces to the planetoids and as a consequence, force them to return to the planetoids as well.

For example, Uranus had almost 100 level 9s. Despair Abyss had roughly the same number.

Since around 10-15 level 9s in both Uranus and Despair Abyss were 'resting', Varian was able to use them for this raid.

So, what Despair Abyss would do now was to send even these resting level 9s to the frontlines.

That way, the level 9s of Uranus couldn't rest either.

So, Varian would've no more 'soldiers' for his crazy attacks.

It's a bit extreme, but a perfect solution for the problem.

"Well, I know you all have to go. I even got the messages from your Sovereigns already." Varian chuckled.

His words confused the veterans. Without the support of any level 9s, how was Varian still confident in changing the planetoids situation?

Varian smiled at their confusion but didn't answer.

Even though the disparity between Mars and Mirage Abyss was cut down through this mission, it was still big enough to start and conquer Mars.

He needed one more shot.

One big shot to bridge the disparity or at least make it insignificant.