Despite gaining an equal footing with abyssals, humans didn't even entertain the idea of invading the abysses.
The primary reason was the abyss will.
It had three very annoying functions.
If an enemy of higher-level was attacking a lower level abyssal and there's no equal or higher level abyssal in the vicinity, it'd inform the nearest qualified abyssal.
For instance, if a level 5 human attacked a town, governed by say, level 4 abyssal, then the abyssal will would inform the nearest level 5 abyssal.
The second function was its psychological suppression. Unlike Heaven's Will, it couldn't directly reduce the combat power of hostile units.
However, the psychological challenges it posed were a headache in the case of large-scale military operations.
What's more, the fiercer the conflict, the greater the mental suppression. This meant the combat units wouldn't be able to exert their full power.
The third and most dangerous of them all was its boost to abyssals.
While the rule of thumb was a 5% increase, it only applied to low abyssals. For mid abyssals, it was 3% and for high awakeners, it was 1%.
While it might not seem much at first glance, it changed everything when applied on a Sovereign.
Even the high awakeners from humans could win against their abyssal equivalents.
This was why, even though the experts were optimistic of humanity gaining a decisive edge over abyssals in the next two decades, there were barely any discussions of invading the abyssals and ending them for good.
And now, ghost ship sneaked into such a dangerous place. Due to its specialty, the ghost ship was capable of hiding from Thunder Abyss' will.
But it couldn't hide the tracker from Enigma.
Thus, ghost ship was exposed right when it approached the abyss' entrance—a huge, huge dark mouth.
From there, it was chased and with almost a thousand patrol ships and a few thousand abyssals behind its back, ghost ship barged into the Thunder Abyss.
The sky of thunder abyss was eternally covered by black clouds.
Zap!
A Lightning bolt with the thickness of a bucket struck down a tree a couple of hundred meters away from the ghost ship.
Contrary to what one would expect, the tree wasn't burnt to ashes. In fact, the golden-leaved tree started giving off a blinding light as it absorbed as much as lightning mana it could from the lightning.
Normal lightning didn't possess much mana, but Thunder Abyss' lightning was a different matter.
Even the huge tree only absorbed only 30% of the mana and discharged 70% into the surroundings.
The mana quickly spread into its vicinity and was absorbed by the greedy grass, flowers, and plants.
Varian would've appreciated the scenery, only if a huge aura pressure didn't lock on them.
"Archdukes…" He muttered as auras rivaling Bali pressed down on them. Needless to say, they all detected Enigma's arrival and were about to arrive.
If they did, it'd be over.
Varian turned to Blue Flash and said. "Now!"
Blue Flash hurriedly nodded as she checked the formation on a metal sheet. It was filled with intricate carvings and exquisite materials shaped in a special order. In the center were a bunch of space stones—the most expensive materials of the formation.
"It's ready." She nodded with a serious face.
Varian put away the formation into his storage ring and nodded. "Now."
The next moment, he was out of ghost ship. The ship itself shrunk and turned into a ring.
Once Varian was out, he felt a terrifying pressure descend on him, threatening to crush him to pieces.
Even though they were thousands of miles away, Varian knew he was staring at death in the eye.
Forcing his body that threatened to freeze under the pressure, he summoned the formation from the storage ring and then snapped his fingers.
The space distorted and Varian immediately felt a strong pull. He didn't struggle and let himself be carried away.
And before he lost control over himself, he threw a few blocks of durasium and Ragnarok into the air with precision.
And as his vision started to blur, he saw four silhouettes on the horizon. Just by a single look, the pressure on him rose multi-fold.
His bones were on the verge of being crushed, and thankfully, the cross tunneling was finished.
Right when he vanished, the durasium connected with ragnarork, and a small, but concentrated explosion covered the cross tunneling formation, breaking it into pieces.
A moment later, four abyssals exuding a terrifying breath appeared in the location.
A huge crater was formed due to the explosion, extending for hundreds of meters.
"Where is he?"
The leading archduke scrutinized everything with his lightning sense and was baffled to find that he only found metal powder.
Whatever formation they used was right in the middle of the explosion and was timed perfectly.
They knew the power of ragnarork very well. They were very proud of it once. Now it was used against them by that fucking dreamer!
He ensured that even traces weren't left.
But that didn't mean they had no clue.
"Cross Tunneling!" The leading archduke growled and looked at his peers.
They nodded in agreement. For if not for Cross Tunneling, why would he risk entering the abyss?
But what was the target?
"He needs to go to other abysses." The leading archduke frowned.
"Let's alert all forces and keep more focus on the tracker. Enigma isn't a major threat anymore. Dreamer is nothing without his ghost ship. Whatever they do, they're bound to fail." Another archduke advised.
"Right." The leading archduke nodded and tapped his comm, informing all the abysses of the situation.
Right then, the youngest archduke said. "Maybe he's trying to tunnel into a dungeon?"
"With that? A broken level 8 and his power which wasn't even strong to fight us?" The leading archduke said and the rest nodded in agreement.
Narrowing his eyes at the damaged place, the archduke sneered. "For helping Enigma, he's also termed as a mortal enemy of humans.
If he left Enigma, well and good.. If he insisted on helping her, no matter how far he runs, no matter what he tries, Dreamer will be buried with her."