980 The Secrets Of Venus And The Heritage Of Xanders

Venus was always a planet overshadowed by the strict Mercury and the home planet of humans, Earth.

But it had its own strengths.

Sovereign Vianne, the Head of Trade Union, had one strength that no one could deny her.

Treasures.

Rare, precious, and great treasures that she collected overtime from merchants, antique shops and ruins.

As the richest person in the federation, she was the first choice for people selling those treasures.

The result?

When the abyssals attacked and pushed back the army, she opened her vault and used all the treasures.

Venus had 50 planetoids and even after Vianne contributed all her treasures, the share for each planetoids was far less.

However, even that shocked the abyssals and humans alike.

Too many injuries?

There's a defensive tower that can reduce injuries to all allied forces by 10%. It's not really high, but it's enough to make a difference!

Too slow recovery?

There's a gas sprayed in the air that'll increase recovery speed by 30%!

Too weak?

There's a drink that'd increase your strength for thirty minutes by 15%!

Too low endurance?

Take this one drop.

But the abyssals facing the Venus soldiers weren't a joke. Other than the depressing fact that every high awakener had a small breakthrough, all the planetoids of Venus now had a special ash altar.

This altar did just one thing. It increased the strength of abyssals by 10%.That's it. No fancy effects, no wider utility. It was that plain.

But as almost all the fifty planetoids an altar each, the Venus army faced a tremendous challenge.

In the overall picture, the abyssals of Venus were still strong, the humans were still weak.

Even with all these treasures, they were still losing. But with the way things were going, they might be the last standing humans.

— — —

Earth, origin planet of humans, was always a contender when the strongest planet was brought up.

While many thought Neptune should be the de facto leader, the high awakeners inclined towards Earth.

And the results so far upheld that decision.

While Earth army couldn't protect the boundaries and was pushed back like everyone else, they displayed incredible resilience while fighting the abyssals.

Unlike the Legion of 6,000 soldiers with special bracelets of Mercury or strengthening altars of Venus, abyssals picked the crudest approach to deal with Earth.

The 'special' challenge was more level 9s. Demon Abyss called up more level 9s from other abysses and ordered them to fight the Earth army.

Earth had roughly 130 level 9s. 20 died in the last war. 30 new level 9s joined thanks to the potion by Kyle. So, it's 140 level 9s.

But these 140 now had to face almost 180 level 9 abyssals! And each of them had a sub-level breakthrough! It was a dire situation without any solution in sight.

When Demon King thought Earth would be finished in the end, he realized what it actually meant to be the strongest family in the federation.

The Xanders opened their coffers and used up their treasures. They didn't hold back. They couldn't.

Any hesitation might lead to total annihilation of earth. Heck, even 99.9% might not be enough. They must give 100%.

So, a wave of new boosts spread across the Earth's army. Even though Xanders still picked their own to give these treasures and elixirs whenever they could, a lot of others too benefitted.

As a result, Earth added thirty level 9s and 40% of the existing level 9s went through a sub-level advancement.

For this monumental achievement, the Xanders were left with no treasures. Nearly 500 years of accumulation was gone just like that.

But this 500 years of accumulation, possibly the greatest in all human powers, still wasn't enough to overwhelm abyssals that had a heritage of thousands of years.

Earthlings fought hard and they managed to reach a sort of stalemate against the abyssals. They were the most successful lot of all the federation.

Unlike other planets, earth army was confident of holding the stalemate indefinitely. But the precondition was no external factors.

With the ways things were going, other planets would fall eventually and when they do, the abyssals would gang up on earth and destroy it.

So, even though they achieved the best results, earthlings remained pessimistic about the future and were in a frantic pursuit to find solutions to the current problem.

But they spent everything they could and barely pushed their own army to match up with the abyssals. They had nothing more to spend for other planets to equalize them with the abyssals.

Locked in a stalemate and with the time to think through things, Earthlings grew desperate at the future they couldn't seem to change.

— — —-

Mars had been through a lot this year. It lost a Sovereign, tens of millions of soldiers, entire planetoids were slaughtered and almost got destroyed.

Perhaps for that reason, the abyssals weren't as keen on Mars as they were on Earth.

That's something Sovereign Bali was infinitely grateful and angry for.

"Old bitch, even if I die, I'll take you down with me!"

Above a giant shining blue planetoid, he growled as he waved his hands at a spaceship in the outer space.

The spaceship retreated back with impressive speed and an illusion pulled Bali into a dream space.

In this illusory domain that resembled a red ocean, Mirage Queen unleashed a torrent of attacks on Bali.

The sky cracked, the air burned with flames, and countless predatory creatures jumped from the ocean to attack him.

Bali channeled his powers and waved his hand. A space crack opened around him and swallowed up the attacks.

But a few still managed to go past the defense and penetrated his shoulders, legs and chest.

Bali wiped the blood dripping from his mouth and shot a flame of fire at the cocky Mirage Queen.

The female abyssal chuckled as she flew into the sky and rained another round of attacks over him. "Dual awakeners are troublesome. But without the artifact, I can keep you engaged all day."

Bali's pupils stagnated for a moment before his attacks intensified.

The Mirage Queen cackled at his desperation and gloated. "I remember you were so brave, so adventurous and so…confident when you and that little bastard entered my abyss, killed my people and left arrogantly. Not so arrogant, are we? Look at you, your planetoids are going to wiped out one by one and you can't even go save them."

Bali's eyes grew red but his mind calmed down. Losing himself in rage against a Psychic Sovereign in an illusion space wasn't a good idea.

Conversely, t's not good for a Psychic Sovereign to lose control over the dream space.

Bali's eyes flashed and he grinned. "Little bastard? Who might that be? Are you scared of him that you can't even utter his name?"

The Mirage Queen's bossom heaved up and down as she gnashed her teeth. "You still have the energy to talk?"

With a wave of her hand, the gravity on Bali rose ten fold and his feet sank into the ground that's now made of snow.

"Kuuu," Bali groaned at the pressure but continued. "Let me correct you. When Varian first came and slaughtered that ten or twenty million, he didn't bring me in. He brought a bunch of level 9s and he did it after he fooled you out of your abyss. Fooled your fucking numb skull!

Don't give me credit. You are just trying to rationalize your failure by involving a Sovereign. But the truth is, you lose to a level 9, no, a level 8 guy or maybe he was a level 7 at that time."

"Shut up!" Mirage Queen slapped down.

An invisible force knocked Bali back but he laughed out loud. "You are the biggest failure in your peers. Even your capital is gone. You're a joke! A pathetic joke!"

"I said SHUT UP!"

The roar of Mirage Queen reverberated across the dream scape before the world cracked apart.

Bali didn't even think for another second before he dashed to the glowing blue planetoid.

The planetoid originally was brown in color. But abyssals activated a treasure that engulfed the whole planetoid in heavy ice mana.

This was the challenge abyssals brought to Mars and also the easiest of them all.

Bali wanted to destroy the treasure.

Only then will Mars army will not be quickly destroyed.

"You are not going anywhere!" A shrill voice came from behind and Bali's view twisted as he was pulled into another illusion.

But before he lost himself in it, he managed to lock onto the treasure on the planetoid and exploded the space around it.

Kacha!

The blue planetoid turned back to brown in a few hours and the army that was on the verge of defeat now managed to fight back.

They'd still lose. But they could hold on for a few more days. Maybe a week?

Even that's good.

In the current circumstances, that's the best Bali could've asked for.