"There is no Sequoia army."
As Varian dropped the bombshell, Enigma stood up in shock.
Her eyes fluctuated widely and even with her mask on, she seemed to be undergoing a huge shock.
Even with tight black clothes on, her ample chest heaved up and down as she tried to calm herself down.
This was the first time he saw her so…out of calm.
'Does that count as an achievement?' Varian thought as he looked at her hologram silently.
Meanwhile, Enigma's mind was erratic as a million thoughts flew over her head.
If this was the truth, then everything…
"Proof." As expected of her, Enigma calmed down already and questioned him.
With a single tap, videos of the level 6 plants being taken to warehouse in secret realms, then suppressed to level 5 and then taken to asteroids and rising to level 6 played in front of Enigma.
Of course, Varian had to buy a couple of aura measuring treasures for this matter, which he gladly did.
It's not uncommon to restrain your aura. In fact, with good training, anyone could do it. But the greater the gap, the harder it was to conceal your level.
But showing a lower level than the original?
Now that was exceeding rare and needed complex treasures. In case of the spy maid Fina in the auction house, she had to bear unimaginable pain to keep her second path suppressed.
Because she knew how difficult it was, the thought that all Sequoias were fake never crossed Enigma's mind.
Besides, who would even think of faking levels of thousands of plants?
Abyssals did.
Enigma was sure the price to do so must be extremely heavy. Many precious treasures must have been spent.
But the result they achieved was worth it.
They fooled the entire federation!
Realizing the truth, the usually sharp Enigma was at a loss for words. As clever as she was, she felt like a fool. She never even thought in this direction.
How could she? There were real level 8 Sequoias that showed up on planetoids. There were real level 6 fields and even their aura testers showed these plants have clearly went from level 5 to level 6.
"Hm." Varian leaned back in his throne. This was the reason he only told her about the Sequoia plants and not the Abyss Prince.
He had solid evidence.
Regarding the prince, he only knew that an attack was staged on cluster cities. He didn't know the exact plan.
"This…is crazy." Enigma muttered as she rubbed her forehead. "Abyssals…they're putting pressure on all planets using Sequoias, but they don't even have any Sequoias. So their goal must be…"
"Preventing any reinforcements to Uranus." Varian finished her words and continued. "And why do that?"
Enigma didn't speak and stared at him. Her stunning eyes glittered with the three colors as they said. 'You know something, don't you?'
"Haa~" Varian shrugged. "My conjecture is they're going to attack the cluster cities. Before dismissing it, check this out."
With a snap, Enigma saw the meeting of the Shadow Lord Draven with the heads of Chaos families.
They were going to attack the cluster cities.
It was crystal clear. And dumb.
Even when she saw the videos of 'ragnarok' bombs, and was explained about their speciality, she still didn't understand how they could possibly win against cluster cities.
"What's their confidence?" Enigma muttered in confusion.
"No idea, but they got something up their sleeves." Varian leaned back in his throne and sighed. "I was…supposed to follow a certain guy, but Sequoia came up."
Enigma didn't ask anymore and instead suggested. "You have the coordinates of the one with ragnaroks, right? Send them and I'll have the secret realms destroyed. The army is too stretched at the moment to spend time on explosives."
Before he could answer, she shook her head. "No. Premature attack would only alert them."
Varian raised a brow at her behavior, but nodded nonetheless. "Get your team ready and give me a few more days. If we can find out their complete plan, we can prevent a full scale war."
Enigma squinted her eyes at him.
"What?" Varian felt like he was standing in front of his classmates and was about to lectured.
She was still pissed from last time, huh.
"Don't risk your life."
"Yeah?" Varian nodded. Enigma had a habit of nagging, even if it's due to Sia.
"I have to beat you up before you die." Enigma said coldly and hung up the call.
"…" Varian sat in silence for a few minutes and touched his face. "To beat this handsome face, how cruel and ruthless must she be? Enigma is Enigma."
"…" Boo prayed for its master to be beaten. How dare he call himself handsome in front of such a cute ghost?
Master, unlike you, I'm not shameless to proclaim I'm cute. But of course, I can't deny facts either.
Slowly, even the once innocent ghost was being corrupted by a certain someone.
Varian shook his head and they continued their detective work.
He reached a conclusion on Sequoias. There were no new Sequoias. It's the same old ones again and again.
But they created an illusion that it was new Sequoias were growing stronger everyday.
Other than that, he found nothing else. The Sequoias thread met with a dead end.
On the other hand, Boo broke down the ragnarok bomb.
While it was made of many metals, the two main ingredients were familiar names.
Goreiki—the rare metal stolen from mercury ruins.
Roshnium—the metal exclusive to earth and something that the Shadow Order were procuring recently.
Before leaving for Valos, Roshnium smugglers barged into his home and were taken care of.
Varian was still a bit skeptical about Abyssals' and Shadow Order's true intentions. But after knowing these precious metals were used in the bomb, he was certain that their plan surely centered around these bombs.
So, he visited the secret realm again.
Last time, while the dome was still active, they weren't producing anything. Their focus was on displaying the ragnarok.
But now…
Varian watched in silence as aura crystals were taken out of black storage rings and were crushed in a special formation, concentrating it to a high level.
The almost liquified aura was further compressed and injected into the molte mix of Roshnium and Goreiki.
As the metals cooled down, intricate designs were carved on the sphere and some more alloys were added.
After grueling hours of insane focus and intense work, the blue sphere—ragnarok was created.
"Haa~" Varian narrowed his eyes.
Before him were three holograms.
One showed the process of ragnarok creation.
Second showed the reserves of roshnium and goreiki.
Third showed…rooms full of black storage rings—each storage ring had a heap of aura crystals.
"The theft of these metals, the kidnappings for ransoms…all of it for these bombs."
Varian realized he was dangerously close to the actual plan of Abyssals. Since they invested so much on these bombs, then he must decode everything he could.
But still, he felt like he was missing something.
However, they already checked everything they could check. There was nothing more to be learnt.
Varian tapped his chin as he racked his brain. No thought came out. The researchers went on with their work while some tested the ragnaroks from time to time on the test sites.
"Ah!" Varian punched his palm. All of the test sites were covered by a metal sheet.
"Boo, check the metal sheet." He ordered.
Every second of the thirty eight minutes he waited was excruciating. But on the thirty ninth minute, Boo finally gave the answer.
"Master, it is the same metal used to protect the core facilities of military region.. The metal is Durasium."