Chapter 81 - Him
"Varian... might be alive." Sarah bit her lip and said.
"What?!" Seth's body stiffened and he couldn't respond for a moment.
"W-what do you mean? Didn't he die in the blast?" He stuttered.
"That white light ended just before me." Sarah recalled the scene she'd never forget.
"But the reports said it engulfed him." Seth countered. He only wanted to know about Varian now.
"It was dangerous, but what he had to face was the edge of the blast, not the center." She looked at Seth and saw him looking at her with disappointment..
"This is due to self-destruction of CTF." Seth's hopes vanished and he sighed.
Indeed, staying at the edge of normal blasts meant receiving least damage.
But after research on site, it was concluded that these blasts maintained a high intensity even before the end.
CTF blasts weren't normal explosions. They worked on a space range. It was like the energy was confined to a particular space.
That was the reason the white light disappeared just before Sarah. A normal explosion would've engulfed everyone there.
"Still, we didn't find any traces of him." Sarah continued.
"The Abyssal's body evaporated, and a majority of his cells were still present in the air. However, there's nothing of Varian except his blood." She said. No, almost yelled.
"..." Seth was silent for a moment and shook his head.
"Where is he then? He just can't disappear, right?"
She looked at him and hesitated. She wanted to reveal that Varian was a space awakener, and had chances to be fine.
However, realizing that even Seth didn't know about it, she hesitated.
"You know space cracks, right? Cross Tunneling Formation is essentially a set up for space travel. Its blasting could lead to opening of space cracks." She looked at the setting sun and hoped.
"The word hope is too heavy for me to bear." Seth shook his head and walked away.
His back was lonely. He didn't hope, or rather didn't dare to hope.
The bigger the hope, the bigger the disappointment.
Space cracks were like random doors in space. They could lead to anywhere and nowhere.
They could teleport half your body and leave the other half. They might leave you in a distance star system or even right above a star.
No one knew.
The only thing they did know was that unless one was a very high level space awakener, chances of surviving space cracks was rarer than being born into the four powers.
So, even hoping that he was alive was too much.
"I asked my father and even grandfather to search. If he is in Solar System, we'll find… whatever condition he is in." Her final words were the weakest.
Her father was the general of Earth's armed forces. Her grandfather was one of the three marshals and a Sovereign.
With their influence, finding a person would be too easy.
Of course, if only said person was in the human federation.
Seth stopped in his tracks and muttered, "It's not your fault he died. Don't blame yourself."
Sarah stood there silently. She wished she could go back in time. But not even time awakeners could do that.
All sorrow slowly turned to rage.
"Traitors."
***
In an unknown location, two women in black were sitting.
Enigma and Blue Flash.
This time, their eyes were not covered.
Enigma's eyes were full of indifference.
Blue flash's eyes were calm and composed.
Blue Flash looked at Enigma stirring her coffee and sighed. "They attacked the cadets with Abyssals."
"I know." Enigma said. Her voice was cold and aloof.
She wasn't like this. But it was who she eventually turned into.
"Cross Tunneling Formation is lost." Blue Flash shrugged.
They were trying to acquire it since long. Sarah's team was the closest to acquiring it, but they, too, failed.
Enigma didn't answer, and the scene fell silent.
"Are you sure you about that?" Blue Flash finally asked.
"What?" Enigma shot her a glance and sipped her coffee.
"Is it really possible for a creature stronger than Abyss King to exist? Aren't Sovereigns the power ceiling?" She asked what everyone thought they had an answer to.
A wrong answer.
"Kings aren't highest in the hierarchy." She said and tapped the cup with her little finger. "Besides, Sovereign is just a transition stage. It's not a ceiling."
Blue Flash fell silent.
If Abyssals really had such a strong person, then why did they resort to fighting humans with Sovereign equivalents?
If they used the higher power, they'd have defeated humanity years ago.
Despite that, the situation was particularly disadvantageous to humans. Even though humanity gained the ability to protect themselves, they were still incapable of defeating abyssal.
Not a single offensive on Abyss was successful.
This was the case with the overall powers of Abyssals staying nearly the same for the past 120 years!
They must break the game or risk losing planets one by one like Pluto.
The key to that was the girl in front.
Enigma.
"Cross Tunneling Formation." Enigma uttered. "We need it. I destroyed that thing once. Now they're guarding it strictly. To get in, there's no other way."
Blue Flash nodded.
Since they couldn't do anything if the power beyond Sovereign level intervenes, then they should do whatever they could to neutralize the main power.
Enigma was proclaimed the leader of Shadow Order after 'that' incident. She was chased by the Archduke of demon abyss.
Even though she escaped, the Archduke slaughtered 10,000 humans in a breath.
Then a few of her 'friendly powers' took the chance and branded her as the terrorist.
From then on, there were multiple terrorist incidents under the name of Enigma orchestrated by some in the Big powers, from both Prime Families and the small two.
"I found someone who can help us with Cross Tunneling Formations. She is a genius." Blue Flash smiled.
Enigma merely nodded in response.
She was always silent unless she had to speak. That was the case for today as well, but somehow, there was a different feeling to her silence.
It was like…
"Gather the info of Xander's vassals." Enigma stood up and exited the room.
"Pardon?" Blue Flash followed.
Enigma looked at the fourteen moons in the sky. Neptune was beautiful. Its Ruin was even more so.
"Julius Xander should live. However, his subordinates can die." Enigma's voice chilled.
"Yes." Blue Flash nodded and disappeared with a blue flash.
She was aware of the animosity between the two. However, it seemed Enigma was busy these days and focused on her immediate goals.
With Blue Flash gone, Enigma stood alone. It hurt at first, but now, she got used to it.
The only thing that kept her going was the conviction that she was right.
She clicked on her comm, and saw the highlighted information.
[The Army has announced a federation wide search for the cadet named Varian. The details are below. If you find him, alive or dead, please report to the Imperial Earth Defense Academy. The reward is personally guaranteed by Evander, Steelheart.]
Enigma glanced at the name and questioned. "Varian, where are you?"
