865 One More
"W-What happened?" Far away from the Holy Altar, Irene gasped.
Her focus was devoted to battling the Abyss Will and the Despair Queen. Due to the injuries inflicted by the Undead, she was being suppressed by the Despair Queen despite the advantage of two artifacts.
So, she put all her focus on defending herself and didn't even realize what happened at the critical battle just a few hundred miles away.
The only reason she even sensed something went wrong was the chaotic fluctuations from a space-time crack.
As the wielder of the gravity path, she was also sensitive to the fluctuations of space. But the other power, it felt like the dilation of time.
Even though Irene wasn't sure if there was really a Time Awakener, she for sure sensed Time dilations.
Space. Gravity. Time.
Something big happened!
"Hey, do you really want to space out now and die?" Following a mocking laughter, giant vines filled with blade-like thorns reached her.
Irene raised her hand and a blue light flashed. The vines that were about to hit her suddenly changed trajectory and hit each other.
Using the chance, Irene spread her gravity sense and checked the situation where the fluctuations occurred.
"…What the hell?"
She saw the corpse of an Abyssal in crimson armor melting into dust and a few hundred miles farther, the unconscious figure of the Undead lay on the ground, tended to by some special medical plants!
Losing half of his torso, the Undead was nearly half-dead! It's only thanks to his strong level 9 body that he's still alive.
His aura right now was so low that Irene doubted if it was the same person who came close to killing her.
Forget Sovereign, forget level 9, the Undead's aura had regressed to a level 7!
Enigma and Sarah disappeared and so did the effects of their suppression. This meant the Undead had lost his powers at the base level.
Irene's heavy heart lightened up after finding the plight of the Undead. With such a condition, the Undead might never recover.
'…And even if he could, we'll have enough time to prevent him.' Irene's eyes flashed as she dodged the vines attacking her.
Occasionally, one or two vines would come close to hitting her, only to be repelled by her last-second shields. But one in a ten would manage to break her shield and injure her.
Thus, Irene's injuries slowly rose and so did the toll on her body.
Her fighting power was also dropping and it wouldn't be long before she'd be truly overwhelmed by the joint assault of Despair Queen and Abyss Will.
Once that happened, her chances of survival would plummet.
More importantly…
'Why did they come back? No matter, if they stay here, they're going to die once Despair Queen overpowers me!' Sensing the Human Army facing off against the Abyssals, Irene was first surprised before panicking.
In a few minutes at most, Despair Queen would overpower her. They'd have to retreat before that or face death.
"Retreat! Retreat, everyone!" Irene issued the order.
"But M'am, Varian said—" A troubled voice replied.
"Varian?!" It was like a lightning bolt struck her on the head, Irene stiffened and scanned the area again.
"That crack…"
She saw Varian, Sarah, and Enigma here, fighting against the Undead. Now, she couldn't sense them at all.
Subconsciously, she thought they left in Ghostship and that's why they're off her radar.
But what if that's not the case?
What if something happened to them due to the Dimension Crack?
Irene's eyes turned red and she shot at the giant tree like a cannonball. "What did you do to them?"
Despair Queen's giant tree form wrapped its trunk with branches and connected them together, forming a very sturdy shield.
Even if someone like Albert fought her, he'd be hard-pressed to break her defense. This was a specialty of her Plantae form and was even famously called the Iron Grid.
But Irene wasn't Despair Queen's nemesis for no reason.
With a wave of her hand, Irene created a strong repulsion between the branches and the trunk as well as between the branches.
The branches were supposed to be connected together and wrapped around the trunk to create the Iron Grid defense. But thanks to Irene's gravity powers, it quickly fell apart.
Even though Despair Queen managed to save some of the formations, Irene struck the vulnerable parts and caused a huge dent in the trunk.
But due to the risk she took, Irene was slapped away by a vine and crashed into a mountain.
"You crazy bitch!" Despair Queen turned back into her humanoid form as she
clutched her bleeding neck.
Irene got up from the rubble of the mountain and locked eyes with her enemy. "If something happens to them, I will make sure you and your Abyss go down."
"I'm really scared. Do you dare to stay here and continue fighting for another minute?" Despair Queen sneered.
The reason she was even willing to talk was that she was receiving information from the informants about Varian's battle.
According to them, Varian and his girls fell into the crack. But Despair Queen couldn't be sure about it. And before he did, Varian was attacked by Sanguik. So, on top of the assassination, Varian was thrown into a space crack.
But Despair Queen didn't go happy yet. Every time they thought they were going to win, Varian came out on top.
This one man thwarted all their plans, he single-handedly ruined decades of hard work and was the first human to invade their homes.
His record was nothing short of groundbreaking. If a list was to be made for the most fearsome geniuses, Varian would undoubtedly be the first. But that's not the scary part.
The scary part was that even if the next ten, twenty, or even fifty geniuses were to be combined and weighed against him, he'd still come out on top.
When Abyssals invaded the Solar System, not even in their worst nightmares did they anticipate such a monster.
So, Despair Queen asked the Abyss Will to scan the entire Abyss and see if their nightmare really ended.
On the other hand, Irene was clear about it. "Retreat now!"
If Varian was really fine, then he'd never leave the Undead in one piece. Something happened and Varian…might be gone.
Irene swallowed back the sadness bubbling up in her chest and ordered the team to retreat.
The original mission was to stop the Abyssals from their plan. The plan turned out to be a Sovereign Undead. Thanks to Varian, the mission was a success.
But would the Undead not revert to his previous strength?
Maybe. Maybe not.
But if they stayed here for another minute, they'd all die.
And Irene was also aware that even if the Human army tried their best, they couldn't assassinate the Undead.
Despair Queen was keeping a tight watch on them. So was the Abyssal Army themselves.
So, staying here was tantamount to suicide.
"Retreat now!"
Under her insistence, the Human army rushed back and exited the Abyss. The Abyssals didn't chase them back and instead guarded the Undead.
Irene was the last to retreat. But she was chased by Despair Queen.
So, her exit wasn't easy and by the time she was out, she was filled with terrible injuries and was bleeding all over.
Thankfully, the Abyss Will's influence ended outside and she could now use the Nature's Seed artifact for her defense.
So, Irene wasn't worried about her safety anymore.
The fight continued even on the outside and bit by bit, Irene retreated from the Abyss.
She wasn't severely suppressed anymore. But Despair Queen went crazy and fought a bloody battle.
Despair Queen's tactics were such that 'I will injure you in exchange for taking an injury.'
Since she was a Plantae Awakener, she had the edge in bearing injuries.
Usually, this wouldn't be a problem. But Irene was already fighting for too long.
Standing in the space in her bloodied uniform, the heavily injured Irene looked at the Despair Queen with a tired gaze.
"Aren't you worried I'll send my people to assassinate that abomination?" She asked, hoping to send Despair Queen back.
But the latter only chuckled in contempt and continued the attacks.
Thankfully, Irene's artifact provided a defense. So, Despair Queen's tactics ended up causing her more injuries.
"Hope you learned the lesson today! I will be back soon!" Despair Queen spat and dashed toward the Abyss.
But before she did, her sinister laughter reached Irene. "Your guess is right. He really died."
Irene clenched her fists. 'No way…'
The reason he didn't kill Undead might simply be something else. He might've been seriously injured. He might've had an advancement. There could be other reasons.
'I'll wait for him to contact me.' Irene thought and summoned her spaceship.
But as she was about to step in, a powerful aura appeared behind her.
Irene turned around halfway and was about to attack when a huge force hit her from the back.
She was blasted into her spaceship and the AI, having realized the threat, drove the spaceship away at full speed.
The man who attacked Irene stood in the space with a straight back. In his hands were two artifacts.
A crystal armor. An exotic seed.
He infused his aura into them and formed a connection with the artifacts.
Heaven's Will recognized his progress and with its blessings, a tremendous aura surged in his body.
With every artifact, he got closer and closer to the next level. Now, he's almost on the verge of a new domain.
Demon Sword of Neptune. Crystal Armor of Uranus. Nature Seed of Jupiter. Aether Pendant of Mars.
"And my own artifact." The Sovereign smiled at the tremendous power surging in his body.
"Just one more and I'll able to come out safely and destroy the Abyss Emperor. Just one more and peace will be established forever."
