The waters of the ocean were split as an Abyssal dashed above them at supersonic speed.

His right arm was barely hanging to the shoulder socket while the large gash on his back continued to bleed profusely.

“Who? Who interfered at the critical moment?” The Abyssal clenched his fists as he increased his speed.

He already crossed half of the ocean and once he reached the shore, the military base would shield him from the monster chasing him.

“Once I find you, I’ll give you a gruesome de—”

The world suddenly shook and it started raining.

Or at least, that’s how it appeared as the part of the ocean behind the Abyssal was blown away and started to return like a drizzle.

Enigma’s figure shot through the rising waves and quickly reduced the distance between them.

“I can’t escape.” The Abyssal gritted his teeth and pointed his hand at the woman.

An invisible force radiated out of him and turned into ten thousand small needles. At the tip of each needle was a glowing green liquid.

This was a trump card the Nightmare Abyssal wanted to use against the Fairies after he returned to the Abyss Empire.

But as the strongest and last surviving Nightmare, he was forced to use it just to survive!

‘But no worries, under the rain of these ultra poison needles, even Enigma will be helpless. I just need to—arggh.’

As expected, a psychic force attacked his mind and tried to prevent him from launching the attack.

But he already expected Enigma’s psychic attack and was also ready for the ‘third party’ to attack him using telekinetic or mind powers.

For some reason, the third party didn’t intervene.

Still vigilant, the Abyssal fired the poisonous needles at Enigma in a blink. They encircled her from every direction.

If these needles formed a sphere, then Enigma would be at its center. No matter how she tried, she’d be hit!

The Nightmare Abyssal smiled brightly as he prepared to witness the sight of Enigma undergoing critical injuries.

But to his shock, the space around Enigma trembled at the last moment and she disappeared.

“Oh damn!” He hurriedly pulled back the needles, but a presence appeared behind him right then.

The air turned sharp for a second and the Abyssal felt a sting on his neck. The presence behind him disappeared without a word.

“Huh? What the hell?” The Abyssal turned back to check.

Everything appeared normal…wait!

His body was still in place, only his head moved!

‘What a sharp swordsmanship!’

The Abyssal’s body fell into the ocean powerlessly.

— — —

“Are we done?” Enigma asked as she lay down for minor healing.

Varian looked through the holograms and sighed.

He and Enigma had already killed all the new level 9s that arrived on Mars. But the time they started this operation was quite late as already thirty of the sixty planetoids fell to them.

Moreover, the condition forced some level 9 humans to deal with two or more Abyssals with strengths equaling their own.

As a result, these level 9 humans were either killed, seriously injured, or in the middle of a bitter battle.

“With the Nightmare group dying, a lot of troubles are gone.” Varian shrugged. “But a lot of our level 9s are facing pressure, they’ll need a hand or they’ll fall.”

Listening to his words, Enigma’s chest heaved up and down as a sense of fatigue rose in her heart.

Now, she’d have to move from planetoid to planetoid in a bid to prevent human level 9s from falling and help them suppress the level 9 Abyssals.

Why not try and kill more low level 9?

She could. But by the time she killed a couple of them, a high level 9 or a couple of mid level 9 humans might die.

The balance would tip in their favor and the consequences would be far more disastrous.

So, what Enigma now had to do was assist mid and high level 9 humans.

Moreover, half of the sixty Mars’ planetoids have fallen! Of course, it didn’t mean the human armies on these planetoids were completely exterminated. But they were currently being crushed.

Even on the ‘Fallen planetoids’ where the human army performed their best, they were only at 80% of the Abyssal army numbers.

Some of these fallen planetoids had human armies with numbers only 40% that of the Abyssal army!

With such conditions, these Abyssal armies would soon decimate the human armies. Even if they didn’t finish off the humans, they could easily manage to send a couple of ten thousand Abyssals as reinforcements.

These reinforcements would reach the remaining thirty planetoids where Humans and Abyssals were about the same strength and break the balance.

‘How many reinforcements? How many planetoids?’ Enigma rubbed her forehead.

She’d also have to take up the job of either destroying or suppressing the Abyssal reinforcements.

“…Too much,” Enigma said in a depressed tone.

“Yeah,” Varian nodded with an equally depressed expression. “The Abyssals got us good. Even if we survive this war, the human army would have to go on a defensive for at least five years to regain the pre-war strength.”

“That long?”

“Entire planetoids are wiped out, Enigma,” Varian gave a wry smile. “We and they lost roughly the same amount of level 9s and level 8s. But for level 7s and below, the Human Army experienced terrible losses.”

Enigma pursed her lips and nodded.

The casualties in this war were likely in tens of millions. She wouldn’t be surprised if it touched a hundred million.

What’s worse? These were the casualties of the war only so far! And it’s barely a day since the war began!

“Don’t think too much.” Varian seemed to know what she was thinking and said in a consoling tone. “We can’t fight wars without casualties.”

Enigma paused at his words and observed Varian carefully. ‘He’s too calm about this.’

On second thought, Varian personally led a crusade against the Abyssals and was responsible for killing more than twenty million Abyssals.

Unlike her, perhaps he already got used to death at scale.

A saying from Old Earth flashed in her mind.

‘Death of a single man is a loss, of a dozen is a tragedy, of a hundred is a horror. But the death of a million is a statistic.’

Enigma shook her head.

Varian might’ve grown stable, but he wasn’t apathetic.

When she woke up, she could see the turmoil of emotions in his eyes.

Worry. Grief. Guilt. Fear.

Only after Boo told her about Batran did she realize why he was in chaos.

Enigma was unwilling to believe such a man could become completely cold-blooded.

Varian didn’t know what was going on in her mind. He focused on the hologram in front of him and highlighted a spot between six planetoids.

“Enigma, you go help out the level 9s. And I’ll take up the task of stopping the reinforcements. If I beat back the armies of ten planetoids, the remnants of our armies on their planetoids can handle the rest.”

“What about them?” Enigma’s eyes flashed with a tinge of coldness. “The Abyssals in red armor.”

“Four of them appeared. I killed one. Another disappeared for some reason. Two are left.” Varian explained. “If I prioritize killing them, then there’s a risk of these reinforcements swallowing up Mars’ planetoids. If we lose all the planetoids, Mars’ might be invaded.”

“…I see.” Enigma nodded with a complicated expression.

Those two Abyssals would kill millions and lead to the fall of a couple of planetoids, no doubt. But Varian preferred it over a possible Mars invasion.

A sacrifice he deemed unavoidable.

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