783 Creating A New Status Quo
Varian blasted the space around the Abyssal crawling out of the destroyed base.
The peak level 8 Abyssal who survived Bali's attack through sheer will and tenacity looked at Varian with an unwilling expression before his body broke into pieces.
To his right, three Abyssals died with their tongues hanging out.
"Haa~" Sia took a deep breath as she rubbed her forehead. Ignoring the pain in her head, she covered the base with her psychic sense and nodded at Varian. "The level 8s here are done."
"Let's go." Varian entered the Ghostship and stretched his hand in a gesture to help her up using his telekinetic power.
Sia shook her head and rejected his offer.
Enigma fainted due to exhaustion and Sia was also hit by fatigue. She wouldn't be able to use Enigma's gravity power to its fullest, for now.
Despite her weakened state, she was of great help to clear the level 8s.
"I can still work just fine," Sia muttered and rose into the air while she swept her psychic sense across the planetoid.
Except for ten bases other than this one, none were damaged in the slightest.
Those bases would have a couple of level 8s in total. If she attacked them now, Sia was confident of killing them all.
But.
"Let's go!" She entered the Ghost Ship and slumped on the chair.
The Ghost Ship headed to the planetoid Bali visited next.
Even though destroying the Abyss army and recapturing the planetoids was important, ensuring the deaths of level 9s and killing as many injured level 8s was even more so.
Sia wasn't delusional to think the planetoid they just exited from would fall back into the army's hands.
Not just this, none of the planetoids that Bali would clean up would be conquered by the federation.
When Mirage Queen attacked the planetoids, she also destroyed the army of the entire planetoids.
Tens of Millions of soldiers were wiped out in all but hours.
Simply put, the army didn't have enough manpower to take the planetoids from the existing army.
However, the planetoids wouldn't fall to Abyssals either.
"Bali isn't giving his all," Varian muttered as he cleaned up the third planetoid Bali just left.
"If he teleported without holding back, we wouldn't be able to keep up with him," Sia replied as she killed the last survivor of the base—a level 8 Abyssal hiding in an underground safe.
"True that," Varian agreed with her words as they set off to the fourth planetoid.
Bali was conserving his strength for the inevitable battle that would soon unfold.
If he got too exhausted from the travel, then he might be severely injured under the Abyssal Queen's onslaught. His death wasn't impossible either.
After all, Bali was only a new Sovereign and was yet to completely familiarize himself with his new powers.
Five minutes later, they departed from the fourth planetoid amidst the cheers of the Abyssals.
"Go back!"
"Cowardly humans!"
"You don't dare to attack this daddy!"
Hearing the taunts due to his extraordinary senses, Varian's lips curled into an evil smile. "Poor lambs, it seems like they weren't informed yet."
Sia shuddered as she looked at that smile that half-attracted and half-scared her. But after a moment, she too joined him with an evil smile.
The Abyssal armies, at least the normal officers, weren't informed about Varian's raids in the Mirage Abyss.
So, naturally, they didn't know their ambition of conquering these planetoids was impossible.
Sia knew the federation wouldn't be able to keep these planetoids.
But neither could the Abyssals.
With the tremendous losses of Mirage Abyss from the multiple raids headed by Varian, Mirage Abyss took a significant hit in its upper middle and middle-upper ranges of manpower.
So, both humans and Abyssals lost a significant number of awakeners from level 4 to level 8.
"Since armies of both sides took losses, they're rough of equal strength. But right now, Abyssals are occupying more planetoids," Sia pointed out to the obvious weakness.
Due to their occupancy, Abyssal forces per planetoid were lower than humans. It worked so far because Abyssals had extra level 9s.
But once they're gone, the human army on any planetoid would be significantly larger and more powerful than the Abyssal army.
"With slow wars, the Abyssal armies would soon be overpowered by the human army. The only way to prevent this is to give up the planetoids and concentrate forces. But will they?" Sia tilted her head as her eyes shone with curiosity.
Varian chuckled in anticipation. Whatever choice they made, he'd come out as the winner.
— — —
"Go! Go! Faster!" Mirage Queen growled as she read the report of the fourth planetoid's fall.
Her spaceship was already moving at the highest speed, but unfortunately, it would still take some time before she could get there.
"Arghh! Bali, I'll make you regret it!" Mirage Queen's eyes shone with killing intent.
Whatever benefit she created for Mirage Abyss was slowly sapped away by this new Sovereign and she could only watch.
If the level 9s fell even more, even if the Mirage Abyss had an edge, they could no longer consider waging a war.
"Damn it! All because of you, Varian!" Mirage Queen's teeth chattered as she swiped away the reports about the hateful human.
She took great risks, paid a big price, and essentially closed off the Mirage Abyss to safeguard it against this evil incarnate's attacks.
Yet, this human was going against her, and her race over and over.
"Even if I have to stoop to the lowest of low, I'll make sure the Emperor will kill you." Mirage Queen vowed.
— — —
After killing the thirteenth level 9, Bali wiped the sweat off his forehead and took deep breaths.
"If I'm a bit more experienced, I shouldn't be this tired," He muttered with a bitter smile.
To be honest, he felt like he was playing life in hard mode.
Right after he became the Sovereign, he had to fight Mirage Queen without any preparation.
Then, he had to enter the Abyss, sneak attack a city, and be subjected to a terrible illusion by the Abyss Will that nearly shook him.
Now, he had to speed run to the planetoids and kill the level 9s before engaging with Mirage Queen who was significantly stronger than him and would likely be itching to torture him to death.
"Varian, you'll be the death of me," Bali gritted his teeth as he decided to slap that boy until he begged for mercy.
But for now, he had to keep goin—
"Sovereign Bali, Mirage Queen will reach Donxu planetoid in two minutes. You can reach it in time if you start now."
His comm lit up and Mars' Athena chief informed him.
"Yeah," Bali nodded and spread out his space sense.
He pushed down the feeling of fatigue and figured the shortest way to the planetoid.
As he moved thousands of miles with each teleportation, he decided to give a call to a certain someone.
"Varian?"
"Yes, thanks to your hard work, Mirage Abyss won't start the war."
Bali's lips curled up slightly. Yes, even though he killed only thirteen level 9s, they were the strongest of the bunch.
The disparity between Mars and Mirage Abyss still existed, but Mirage Abyss could no longer defeat Mars with an overwhelming advantage.
"They can still go ahead with their plan," Bali said.
"Even if they do, our side can hold them back for a few months or even a year. That is a goddamn long time. By then, I can kill them myself."
"Big words, but I'm the one doing the job now."
"I'll give you an option to retire soon."
"Heh," Bali smirked. "If I don't die to this crazy bitch, then I will really ask for a vacation."
Varian's voice turned serious and he said in a sincere tone.
"Thank you. And don't die."
Bali paused for a moment before he burst out laughing.
He also conducted his last teleport and arrived in front of a planetoid.
In the distance, he saw Mirage Queen's ship.
Bali's eyes shone with war intent and he asked a single question before he headed off for the critical battle.
"Little bastard, who do you not to die? Me or Mars' Sovereign?"
"I don't want the Bali who finally realized his lifelong wish to die."
"Hahahaha!" With a hearty laugh, Sovereign Bali welcomed his second battle with Mirage Queen.
