843 A Decades Old Promise

The Abyssal Emperor's plan was brilliant.

First, the Eight Abysses would release the extra forces and disrupt the status quo of the planetoids.

On Neptune, this extra force—Lightning Wyverns were strong enough to conquer the whole planet.

Second, while the Human army was still recovering from disruption and recuperating, the Undead Army would rise and deal them a critical blow.

Once the Undead army 'woke' up, any dead member on the battlefield would also turn into an Undead in seconds, provided they had a relatively intact corpse.

The Human Army wouldn't be able to destroy all corpses.

What's more, Humans would be outnumbered facing Abyssals and Undead. Even then, in the case that 100 humans killed 100 Abyssals despite being outnumbered, out of every 200 deaths, at least 60 would return as Undead. So, for every 100 soldiers that the human army lost, the Undead would gain 30.

The difference wouldn't be apparent in the beginning. But it'd quickly snowball into an outrageous challenge.

Once the Undead reaches even half of the Human army numbers, even if Humans tried their best, they wouldn't be able to escape immediate extinction.

It was a beautiful plan.

But.

Varian completely screwed it up.

First, he saved Neptune, blood-bathed the conquered planetoids, and dealt a heavy blow to the Abyssal army.

While not as outrageous, Enigma saved Mars.

Thus, it wasn't just the Human army that got disrupted by the sudden war, it was also the Abyssals.

Second, Varian didn't just stop the Undead. If it was only that, the Abyssals would only be confronted with a weakened Human army.

What Varian did was actually flip the board and turn Undead into a common enemy for both Humans and Abyssals.

Since Abyssals were in the middle of fighting the Human Army alongside the Undead, they were hard hit by the sudden 'betrayal'.

In fact, right after this incident happened on Noir planetoid, the plant awakeners there shared their experience with the rest.

In just minutes, the situation across the planetoids was reversed.

The Abyssals scrambled as they retreated to their base.

Thankfully, after several such incidents, most of the Abyssal armies were preparing themselves.

They were still hit hard by the Undead, but not as hard as the ones that were totally taken in by surprise.

At this moment, the Abyssal armies across the Solar System were in the middle of retreat.

They had mostly disjoined themselves from the Undead and were obliterating them with all their might.

Since the crystal was already destroyed, no new Undead was coming. So, even though they were in the tens of thousands, the Undead's numbers quickly diminished.

The Abyssals, however, couldn't catch a break.

Because the Undead were the lesser evil.

Just like in Noir.

"Kick their asses!"

Following the commander's roar, the Human army began their long-distance attacks.

The sky was filled with thousands of humans who positioned themselves far away from the battlefield to avoid being targetted by the Undead while they themselves launched deadly attacks on the Abyssals from the side.

But as if that wasn't enough, the Humans attacked the Abyssals that were primarily responsible for defending against the Undead.

Fireballs rained down and ice bullets shot up. The earth crumbled and thunder rumbled.

Under the Elemental attacks, the solid Abyssal defense against the Undead began to crack.

As if that wasn't enough, the human Psychics pulled some of the Abyssals behind the defenders into an illusion and made them kill the defenders, resulting in mayhem.

The Abyssal Commander growled at the Humans in the sky far away. He was tempted to send his Space Awakeners to assassinate them, but he suppressed the temptation and ordered the army to strengthen their defense while continuing the retreat.

The Abyssals continued to die in great numbers due to the combined attack of Humans and the Undead.

But the Undead were dying even faster due to the full wrath of the Abyssals.

After losing more than a quarter of their troops, the Abyssals finished off the Undead and scrambled to their base.

"Tsk. Guess his brain still works." Noir's Commander clicked his tongue in frustration as he waved his hand at the ground below.

The soil disappeared and an underground base came into view. Right now, it had more than three thousand soldiers.

While a portion of the Undead was still attacking the Human base, since it was a defensive structure, there was a lot of room to transfer troops.

These three thousand were part of the plan. If the Abyssal commander sent his warriors to assassinate the Elementals and Psychics, they'd be ambushed and decimated.

Once the Space Awakeners were gone, the Human army would gain a significant edge against the Abyssals.

Regardless, this was a total victory for their planetoid's army.

The Commander's lips curled up and he glanced at their military base in the distance.

A few thousand Undead were still left.

"Let's finish off the Undead first."

An adjutant asked. "Sir, the Abyssals…"

The Commander slapped his shoulders hard and grinned like a devil. "Once we're done with the Undead, we'll be smash their gates."

The Commander then shot toward the base and started decimating the Undead. In face of his overwhelming strength, the Undead crowd shrunk at a visible rate.

The remaining awakeners joined and attacked the Undead from the back. Soon, the Undead was destroyed.

Instead of going to fight the Abyssals right away, the Commander sent the fire awakeners to burn the Undead into ashes.

The army checked their supplies and readied for the deciding battle.

Looking at the spirited men and women, the Commander took a deep breath and began. "Today is a chance of our lifetime."

The soldiers raised their heads and looked in the direction of the Abyss base. Their archenemy had retreated after a critical blow and was recuperating.

Every minute given to them was a minute the Abyssals would use to restore power to strike back at them.

So, they have to attack. And attack them now!

Compared to them, the Abyssals had only three-fourths of their army remaining.

Even though attacking them would result in significant casualties, they'd be able to wipe out the Abyssals from the face of this planetoid!

"Since Noir was militarized, there were fifteen great wars. A million brave hearts sacrificed their lives on this soil." The Commander said slowly as he gazed at the soldiers.

His eyes looked past the soldiers and saw the people he knew but were no more.

Young, promising newcomers. Harsh but Kind veterans. Brothers and Sisters in arms that once fought alongside him before meeting an early end.

Time seemed to reverse as the years flowed backward.

The majestic base turned slightly shabby with every previous year. The soldiers got younger. Some newcomers disappeared. The deceased appeared.

Slowly but surely, even the martyrs got younger and time turned to the years before even they joined the army.

The base became a small outpost.

And the Commander saw a group of young recruits.

Four boys and two girls.

Humans had recently claimed a stake in the planetoid and were barely holding against the Abyssals.

During that critical time, the six new recruits were grouped as a team.

They came to rely on each other as they survived countless hardships and fought to protect each other's lives.

"Brothers…" The Commander's eyes turned wet as he saw the bright smiles of the boys.

The calm and cool-headed Captain. The energetic assassin. The proud but kind warrior.

"Sisters…"

A girl who always put others' lives above hers. And a young girl who was the youngest of them but was the bravest.

And finally him.

An optimistic young boy with a lot of naivety but even more enthusiasm.

That day, when they met for the first time, they made a promise.

Humanity had just begun to take root in the planetoid. They wanted to ensure that by the time the last one of them passed away, they'd see that this planetoid was conquered!

Decades passed.

Except for him, all of them fell one by one.

The Captain sacrificed himself to save them during an Abyssal ambush.

The assassin teleported them to safety at the expense of his own life.

The warrior held back the horde to let them escape.

The kind girl he came to love sacrificed her life to save his.

The youngest girl went into the Abyss camp alone and faced terrible death. But only after killing five Abyssals.

All of them left.

Except for him.

Maybe they're all watching him from afar. Waiting for him to fulfill the promise they made many, many years ago.

The Commander smiled brightly as tears flowed down his cheeks. This time, he saw the soldiers of the present.

"No more blood shall be shed on this soil. We will end the war on this planetoid! Even at the cost of death!" The Commander raised his hand and pointed at the Abyssal base.

"Even at the cost of death!" The Soldiers roared.

"This is the gloriest day of our lives! Attack!" The Commander roared and shot towards the Abyss base.

"Kill!"

The army roared and dashed toward the Abyss base.

A harsh war broke out as the cornered Abyssals fought fiercely, discarding their life and death. But Humans were fiercer.

The spirit burning inside them pushed them above and beyond.

Pain, Suffering, and Death were no longer hindrances.

They fought for the promise of the past.

They fought for the glory of the present.

They fought for the safety of the future.

That day, Noir was conquered by Humans.

And a promise made decades ago was finally fulfilled.