814 Cleaning Up Neptune's Planetoids
Seth underwent the final security test before he entered the teleportation formation to Mars.
As he entered the large intricate circular design along with a couple of men and women, his eyebrows remained wrinkled as his thoughts grew heavy.
'How did this happen? I thought Enigma could pull it off…'
Giving off the sound of a paper being born, the space around the formation began to twist.
A white light covered everyone in the formation and pushed them into the inside space.
Everything went black for a split second and when Seth came to his senses, he was standing in a similar but entirely new teleportation formation on Mars.
Taking a deep breath, the dual awakener rushed into the Command Office and was about to show the officer his ID.
But the man in charge didn't even bother to check and hurried Seth to another teleportation formation.
"Please," The Commander bowed his head. "Stay alive."
Seth took a deep breath as his heart shook.
He hadn't told Varian something very important. It also wasn't revealed in the military database.
The level 9s that were supposed to hold back the Nightmare Abyssals on Mars—two of them: an Athena agent and a Shadow Guardian died just an hour ago.
Not only that, Enigma went missing. There was more than a 70% chance that she died.
'Enigma, did you really die? Just like this?' Seth didn't think she was someone to die so easily.
Of course, his belief wasn't out of blind worship like many Guardian members.
As much as he admired her actions as the leader of Shadow Guardians, he had seen how cold-blooded she could be.
During Valos, when he had to enter the ghost ship and stay in proximity with Varian, Enigma forced him to take an explosive. In her words, it was a protective measure in case he tried to attack Varian.
Even during Pluto, she let him go of all people. Why? Because she knew that he wouldn't mind dying on Pluto because his wife and unborn daughter breathed their last on that planet.
That way, Varian's survival chances would be higher than with anyone else.
In other words, she didn't care if he died, as long as Varian was safe.
'You're such a cold-blooded woman, other than Varian, I haven't seen you exhibit a such strong interest in anything else. I don't think you'll die for Mars. At least, not like this.'
Maybe she would have. After all, her mission in joining Shadow Guardians was 'protecting humanity'.
But things have changed a lot since she joined.
Enigma was demonized, spurned, and hunted by the entire human race. Varian pulled her out of the abyss.
If he was in Enigma's condition, Seth felt that he might abandon the human race and only work to repay Varian.
'Whatever it is, I hope you survived…we can't lose people like you.' Seth prayed.
The formation kicked off and a few seconds later, Seth was on a planetoid.
His aura shot into the sky to announce his arrival.
Two slightly weaker Abyssal auras responded.
Seth's eyes shone with war intent.
"Come."
— — —
The first planetoid that Varian visited recently—Planetoid Corrinth, Neptune.
"Sir, Sir!" An Abyssal adjutant slammed the door of a special room.
The door opened and an injured level 8 resting on a comfortable chair came into sight.
The Abyssal healing from injuries. The battle on the planetoid was still going on, but he was too injured to carry on fighting.
In his defense, he managed to kill a level 8 human officer and in the process got severe injuries that forced him to retire.
Of course, even with him not participating, the war was set.
With the second batch of wyverns on this planetoid, Abyssals were almost on the verge of crushing human level 8s.
It'd happen in an hour or even ten minutes. It was only a matter of when.
That's why the Abyssal was chilling without any anxiety.
But his adjutant's condition gave an ominous premonition.
The usually calm-headed adjutant was now gasping with a flushed face and bloodshot eyes.
To make a man like him so flustered, the news ought to be terrible.
The Senior Abyssal gulped his saliva as he awaited the inevitable.
The adjutant stuttered. "V-Varian did Pluto! The formations are gone! Wyverns can't reach us!"
The Senior Abyssal jerked up from the chair in a breath. He hadn't yet grasped what exactly happened.
He only understood that Varian messed up their Pluto wyverns.
The wyverns were their first assurance of victory. Emotionally, he couldn't accept this result. So, he wanted to say something, maybe roar in anger or laugh in denial.
But his brain just caught up and comprehended the implications of what the adjutant just said.
"I…" Something unpleasant and bitter seemed to be stuck in his throat as no matter how much he tried, he couldn't utter another word.
If…
If Varian was able to crush their grand plan by going all the way to Pluto, then would he let their subsequent schemes materialize?
They already labeled this human as extremely dangerous. On the target list Emperor personally drafted, Varian was the first Non-Sovereign target.
Even Enigma had to settle for the second spot.
Yet, the Senior Abyssal realized they had still underestimated him.
Varian's name should be placed together with the Sovereigns.
He's as dangerous as them.
…No. He's more dangerous.
Every Sovereign has an Abyss King or Queen to counter them.
But Varian?
No human or Abyssal could restrain him.
He could easily escape from the level 9s and he took special care not to collide with Abyss Kings.
And level 8s?
"Hah. That monster…" The Senior Abyssal smiled wryly.
The strength Varian showed when slaying the wyverns wasn't that of a new level 8. It rivaled that of a high level 8!
And what's with the different divine paths?
How many powers did he actually have?
The Abyssals weren't active in interstellar politics since their decline. So, their general knowledge regarding contemporary hybrid research was nearly non-existent.
So, they attributed Varian's specialty to either hybrids or the deva legacy.
The reasonings weren't that important. What mattered was ensuring he didn't grow up to be an uncontrollable threat.
The Abyssal remembered a secret order he had the privilege to see and prayed. "I thought it's too much to pay that price to kill him, but maybe it's good for us. No one can stop Varian from dying."
"S-Sir?" The adjutant called in curiosity. "Varian dying?"
The Senior Abyssal nodded with a smile. "I can't tell you the details, but we're hatching an infallible plan. Varian, oh, Varian your death is inevit—"
The building the Abyssal was staying at was blasted to pieces, and the lightning strikes that followed burnt the Senior Abyssal and his adjutant to death.
A few hundred miles away, Varian sensed that his casual lightning attacks had killed off the stray level 8.
'All the resting level 8 Abyssals are dead. Now, there are only active ones.' Varian shifted his focus onto the creatures that just surrounded him.
A group of twenty wyverns. Significantly stronger than the first batch.
But after facing a hundred and eighty of them, all Varian could say was. "Too little, too weak."
