"Thanks." Varian nodded in respect at the maid that did her job.
After the auction, through the surveillance in the central room, he realized the green haired old man was the target.
After marking the space shuttle of that old fellow, he toured the secret realm one last time before leaving.
He learnt of one more news.
The Shadow Order was going to conduct a meeting with the Chaos families. There was no information on the content, but the meeting itself was enough content.
On the way out, Varian inadvertently caught glimpse of the maid's secretive actions.
"Master, her comm can't be found with normal tests. She…she also has another treasure in her stomach."
"…" Varian exhaled lightly.
"I can't estimate it for sure, but according to the database I collected so far, such treasures have heavy costs. Hence no one uses them. She might feel the pain of fractures every moment."
"Hm. Humans aren't just weak and corrupt, they can also be strong and righteous." Varian said.
"Hum. Hum." Boo nodded.
"Like me." Varian pointed to himself.
"Come again?"
"I'm also tough and righteous." Varian stared at Boo and added. "If there's a candidate for ruling the federation, I will totally fit."
"…are you trying to get into politics now?"
"No. It was my childhood dream, alongside driving Abyssals out.
You know the three titles right?
The 'Savior' who will drive the Abyssals out.
The 'Peerless' who is the strongest human.
The 'Emperor' who will lead the federation to glory."
"But why?"
"…" Varian fell silent and thought seriously. Then he raised his head.
"After my dad passed away, I wanted to be the 'Savior'. I told this to my…er, acquaintances in school."
'….acquaintances?' Boo gave Varian a stare.
Varian pretended not to see it. "They laughed it off. But I was really serious. I even swore to Heaven's will."
For kids, swearing on Heaven's will was a big deal. Even naughty children wouldn't lie during the swearing.
Adults…well, they acted like adults and broke every oath.
"….you were pretty serious, master." Boo nodded in understanding.
"Yep. Seeing that I was serious. So, the other kids also got serious. Then said Peerless and Emperor are better than being a Savior.
I got angry. Even I couldn't decide if the other two are better. So, instead of wasting time like a kid, I did what an adult would've done.
I picked them all." Varian said with a smirk.
"…weren't you like 10 then?" Boo resisted the urge to bang its head against the wall.
"I matured early on." Varian smiled widely.
"…." Boo silently started ghost ship and exited the secret realm. Anyway, he was marked and couldn't escape.
The ghost ship slowly trailed the target ship and thus, didn't notice another space shuttle in stealth.
Boo looked at Varian seated on his throne and sighed lightly. 'So, master had no friends in his school. Even now, except for Kyle and Maya, he doesn't have any other friends.
William can be counted as friend, but not too much. Dhruv, Mia…they are just close acquittances.
Sarah is his girlfriend. Sia…?
Anyway, master is lonely. So, as a cute ghost, I shall take up the responsibility and be master's best friend.'
Time passed in silence and after two hours, the target ship stopped.
Varian raised a brow "What the—"
*** *** ***
"What the fuck?!" Seth sprang to his feet and rushed to the hologram depicting the target ship.
It approached a huge asteroid and vanished.
"It entered another secret realm. Or it could be something else." Violent replayed the clip of target's disappearance and narrowed her eyes.
Seth thought for a moment and shook his head. "We haven't gotten access to all the secret realms, but we know their exact number. None of them are in this location. This is too far from the cluster cities."
He paused and looked at the green crack in the distance space. "And too close the Despair Abyss."
Violet nodded and turned to the crew. "Let's get in. What'll happen will happen. We can't give up now."
"Yes, cap." The pilots nodded and the ship slowly approached the asteroid.
After they passed a certain point, their view blurred and the plain-looking, grey asteroid was replaced by an asteroid filled with medical fields.
'Illusion formations.' Seth understood. They were similar to what Varian faced in the Solar Trial, but much stronger and on a larger scale.
'The cost is very high.' He thought as he stared at the space shuttle swiftly landing.
The green haired old man got out and handed the aura crystals to the twenty men and women who gathered outside the space shuttle.
Each member got an average of 1 million aura crystals. They bowed to him and rushed to their respective medical fields.
After separating the aura crystals into batches, they fed them to the green plants with huge mouths.
Each member had to feed around thousand of them and thus, each plant got around 20,000 aura crystals.
The plants swallowed the aura crystals with their huge mouths.
The feeders quickly rushed out of the fields and the next moment, the asteroid shook as the plants began to visibly grow.
Their aura rose rapidly.
As the Guardians and Athena agents gaped incredulously, the plants went from low level 5 to high level 5 in a matter of minutes.
Out of the 20000 plants, 18000 stopped there. But 2000 rose higher and advanced to level 6.
"I-Impossible." Violet fell back to her seat and muttered absentmindedly. She gazed blankly at the asteroid and in one last attempt, she carefully swept her lightning sense just a bit.
She didn't dare to be too brazen or they'd be found out. But even the aura in the distance space was telling her one thing.
Accept reality.
"N-No…this is…NO!." Violent covered her face and yelled.
In the Athena department, she was hailed for her calmness. Even under high pressure, she would take the right choices.
But now…
With her beautiful violent hair disheveled, lips quivering and violently shaking her head, she looked like a mad woman.
In fact, she had the best composure even now.
The other Athena agents straight up fainted. Only two old men were able to be conscious.
But they too chanted like broken records. "Impossible. Impossible."
Shadow Guardians also faced the same situation. Seth collapsed in his seat with a heavy expression.
The fat man was the only other person who didn't faint. Unlike his usual carefreeness, he had an expression of vivid horror.
His mind played the destruction of pluto and this time again and again. But with each play, pluto was slowly replaced by Uranus.
"B-Boss…" The fat man crawled to Seth with a little hope in his eyes. "Maybe this is all. The level 8 we saw on battle field are not—"
An announcement on the asteroid cut off his words.
"Send the matured ones to next one. The new batch will arrive tomorrow. Our success rate is the lowest, work harder. I will inspect after finishing my rounds."
That was the last nail of the coffin.
Seth wanted to pull his hair…but he was bald. So, he pulled the fat man's hair. The fat man just fainted and refused to wake up.
Violet closed her eyes as her face paled with every second. The old men fainted in shock.
The green-haired old man boarded the shuttle and left. But Seth and Violet couldn't move an inch.
Their hearts were crushed and they saw doom.
Seth stood up abruptly and violently grabbed Violet's arm. "W-We will follow them and see where they are taking level 6 Sequoias.
Then we'll follow them to level 7 fields and then…then we'll get to level 8 Sequoias."
Seth's eyes turned red. "We'll kill those level 8s before they reach the planetoids.
…We must."
Violet looked at him blankly and laughed in despair. "There are many such sites. Even if we try out best, it'd take months to find them.
It's inevitable. We can't stop it."
"No. NO!" Seth roared and tightened the grip on her arm. Violet's body instinctively used lightning to protect herself, but didn't bother withdrawing her arm.
Even as her arm started to bleed, Violet's expression didn't change.
She looked at the bald man and smiled in melancholy. "It was an honor working with you.
I…I hope we can face this catastrophe.
Uranus…must not fall.
Let's do our best.
…War is here."