793 The Sudden Change
Sam covered his body in flames and flew over a secured road. His fire sense keenly observed the Abyss patrollers east of the Damel river while he patrolled the western side.
On this planetoid Bellstar under Mercury's jurisdiction, the boundary between Humans and Abyssals was decided by the Damel river.
This was one of the few planetoids stationed with level 9s. So, both the Mercury army and the Sin Abyss paid great attention to it.
There would be at least a single minor war on a province and around fifty skirmishes every month.
After so much experience, the Soldiers were very alert to even the slightest of changes.
And that's why, even though the Abyss Patrol team on the other side of the border seemed normal, Sam couldn't shake off the feeling that something seemed wrong.
Sam suddenly stopped.
The soldiers patrolling a mile before and after him also halted due to his action and their voices sounded in his earpiece.
"Explain yourself."
Sam didn't hesitate to say. "I feel something is off."
If it was any other planet, especially the ones like Venus, such words would've been scoffed at.
But Bellstar was a planet that honed the soldiers' instincts to crazy degrees. If Sam, a soldier who served on this planet for five years, felt something was wrong, then it's worth looking into.
The patrol team in the surrounding ten miles quickly gathered near Sam and held a quick meeting.
This was clearly observed by the Monster Lions and Devil Tigers patrolling the east of the river.
Sin Abyss, the nemesis of Mercury, was ruled by Sin King. Like all the Abysses, Sin Abyss had its own path that it excelled at.
Beast Morpher Path.
So, even though they only saw beasts on the other side of the river, the soldiers treated them like enemy soldiers that they were.
"Sam, what happened?" The Captain of the patrol team asked with a frown.
"Sir, I…the patrol creatures give me an uneasy feeling. It's like they're preparing for something." Sam tried to explain his gut feeling.
"An ambush? But isn't our meeting the perfect time?" The Captain looked at the monsters patrolling on the other side of the river and frowned.
In contrast to the fortified buildings on their side, there was an endless forest on the other side of the river along with countless mountain ranges.
Due to the wide range of sneaky beasts, they had a hard time infiltrating the forest and gathering information to prepare against ambushes.
But if a patrol team met like this, it was usually a good plan to ambush.
"No," Sam shook his head. "Not an ambush. I scanned them with my fire sense like always. Maybe it's their eyes or their demeanor, I can't tell for sure, but all I felt was brimming confidence."
The Captain channeled his aura and decided to act based on the answer. "Confident of what?"
"Victory."
The moment those words left his mouth, the sky went dark.
The ground began to shake and the sound of strong footsteps began to grow closer.
"Charge!"
Before Sam knew it, he crossed the river along with his team and was attacking the beasts.
His body moved instinctively and due to the cooperation of his teammates, he managed to kill his enemy in thirty seconds.
But the sound of footsteps, no, sounds of hooves, paws, and roars, grew louder and louder.
Countless patrol teams were alerted by the movement and rushed to the other side of the border to take the initiative.
When they came to it, tens of thousands of beasts appeared in their sight along with the usual Abyssal forces.
Even though there was no level 9 leading them, the giant beasts leading the beast army were a bunch of level 8s.
In this planetoid where the forces were evenly matched, the addition of this new force broke all the boundaries.
"Fuck!" Sam cursed as a hard war kicked off on Bellstar.
— — —
The comms in Mercury's army headquarters rang without stopping as the news of 'beast armies' on the planetoids kept coming.
Sovereign Albert ordered the planetoid armies to hold them off the best they could while he called for the retired veterans to give them a hand.
Most of these old men and women were suffering from internal injuries and were unable to exert their peak strength.
But whenever Mercury was in trouble, they gladly lent their strength and if needed, lives.
Before he set off for a battle with Sin King, Albert looked at the messages from the other Sovereigns and sighed with a heavy heart.
"What is happening?"
— — —
The planetoids of all planets were attacked at the same time.
While Mercury's planetoids grappled with the new beasts, Venus' struggled with corrosive rains from Sea Abyss.
Earth faced the same number of Abyssals—who were mostly Body Awakeners. But for some reason, some of them got a boost in strength and attacked in endless rage—as if they lost their reason.
Named as Berserkers, these Abyssals, limited up to level 8, started to push back the Earth forces.
The forces on Mars' planetoids, barely balancing out the level 9s, were hit strongly when they encountered a bunch of large-scale illusions.
What's more, unlike any other planet, Mars had to face a couple of new level 9 Abyssals.
This broke the delicate balance and pushed Mars into a dangerous situation.
Jupiter suffered under the release of tyrannical fires by the Fire Abyss.
Saturn didn't fare any better as chaotic spaces and attacks created a huge trouble for the armed forces.
Uranus, on the other hand, despite facing a wave of new species of Plantae enemies, wasn't as troubled due to the edge they gained during the Valos event.
Lastly, Neptune.
Despite being the planet with the strongest forces, Neptune was stretched thin to balance the attacks from the two fronts of Thunder Abyss and Pluto.
A warring species previously only bred in Thunder Abyss—Lightning Wyverns—was recently transferred to Pluto after Varian infiltrated the little planet.
Now, the Lightning Wyverns got a sudden boost in strength for some reason and were starting to overwhelm Neptune's forces.
And Varian was still halfway through his journey to Neptune as the unexpected situation caused him to stop at Mars.
