"Queen, we'll destroy the cities on your order." I half kneeled to an abyssal woman and said with a lowered head.
"Prince Abrax, you may stand."
I raised my head and saw the Despair Queen lazily laying on her vine throne—built from precious level 9 plantae.
Propping her chin on her hand, she gazed at me with approval. "Your service made a difference."
"I did whatever little I could." I gave a modest smile.
It's better to be humble and gain her favor. If this mission is successful, Despair Queen would gain a huge merit.
"Little?" Despair Queen raised a brow and chuckled. "If it weren't for you, then we would've resorted to using our own soldiers to take down the cities."
I agree. If Colin wasn't coerced, then there would be four cities abyssals had to destroy. The chaos families and order wouldn't be able to finish it and ultimately, abyssals had to send their own forces to assist them.
This was prevented by me.
"That's already a plan set in my motion. The kidnap was supposed to happen anyway. I merely convinced everyone to postpone the attack until Valos is in our hands." I didn't take much credit.
This might just be a test for me. I heard Despair Queen doesn't like proud people.
Despair Queen's smile widened. "Good. But you are the one majorly responsible for this situation, aren't you?
We just wanted you to distract Shadow Guardians and Athena agents. But you…"
I finally smiled. I couldn't help it. This was definitely the biggest achievement I had in my career.
In the beginning, my only task was to prevent human spies from figuring out their bombing plan.
But I went above and beyond.
Not only did I distract the spies with a false alarm of 'Sequoias', my scheme of fake Sequoia army put tremendous pressure over the human federation.
If not for the Sequoia threat, there would be a lot of reinforcements in Uranus and could've affected their plan.
"Without your support, this could've never been accomplished." I didn't deny my own achievements, that would be just pathetic. But I put my emphasis on the Queen and praised her.
"Hm." Despair Queen nodded in satisfaction. As expected, flattery did work. Trashy humans really had some nice lessons on this.
But really, I sold all my fortune for this mission and even took on great debt. I mean, the more I contribute, the greater my merit.
"We'll talk about your reward after the mission." She said.
I don't need your reward, Queen. I'm doing this for his majesty. But I wouldn't refuse.
"I'll thrown the bait. The fish will hook anytime. After you receive the signal, execute the mission properly." Despair Queen stood up.
"There will be no errors." I promised.
'If there are problems even after this much planning, I should just die.'
"I have one order." Despair Queen's green lips curled up and she said in sweet voice. "Kill every single one of them."
"Yes." I took a deep breath and answered. I liked ruling more than killing, but even I know full well that humans must be killed.
Speaking of which, the Shadow Order seems to be run by morons. Did they really think we'll allow them to live after we destroy the federation?
They are living in the utopia that we'll allow them to rule over the solar system. Even then, they'd only be puppet leaders. They all know it and are willing.
Idiots, they can't accept the truth that we have the intention, power and plan to exterminate them.
But…let them dream, I'll also support their beliefs. The more they work for us, the better.
And I wonder if my current achievements will get me any praise from the emperor.
That'd be better than any reward.
*** *** ***
Despair Queen reached a special set of asteroids. It was a chain of asteroids present in a ring order.
They were only a few minutes away from the Despair Abyss. This was also the place where Irene Nial approached last time and backed off.
From the outside, they all looked like normal asteroids.
But with her keen senses, Despair Queen could sense the 'prana' from them. There were several peak level 8 pranas.
This was also the bait she had thrown to Irene.
"That bitch is more cautious." Despair Queen shook her head and with a single step, landed on an asteroid.
The moment she did, the surroundings changed and she was surrounded by tall , grotesque Sequoias.
Most of them were level 7s. A few were peak level 8s.
"Good boys." Despair Queen's hands morphed into countless branches and she patted the level 8s.
"Kee." They responded like an obedient puppy and shook their body.
Then their roots shook lightly and the soil cracked, exposing tens of thousands of skeletons.
"You finished? Just wait a day, you'll have more than enough." She said with a caring expression.
Sequoias didn't grow up through aura crystals. They grew up by feeding on corpses. The higher the quality of the corpse, the better.
Strictly speaking, they were terrible at efficiency. For a Sequoia to reach level 6, it'd have to consume dozens of level 6s.
So, trying to raise an army of Sequoia as main force was stupid. But they made something out of the corpses that were otherwise useless.
Despair Queen thus just kept feeding them, though their growth was rather slow and unsatisfactory.
Most of the times, it was abyssal corpses used as fertilizers. After all, if human corpses went missing, their army would definitely investigate.
Her move drew a lot of criticism from her people. But she kept doing it. Her reasoning at that time was rather simple.
"What we need is strength, not dead bodies. If you want the bodies, then win humans and I'll give you the bodies. This is how I do things. If you don't like, then you'll join the dead bodies."
She shut the opposition.
But who knew they would be so useful today.
"Babies, three of you were about to breakthrough, right?" Despair Queen asked with a gentle expression.
Three giant Sequoias nodded their mouth in response.
"The time has come." She caressed them gently with her branches.
"Do it."