After coming out of the special building, Varian encountered Minerva, Ares’ disciple.
“Sir Varian!” She lunged at him with an excited expression.
Varian dodged her hug and rubbed his forehead.
Neptune people were famous for revering their idols. This culture was almost cult-like and was one of the reasons famous awakeners would rather stay on the battlefield than return home.
Varian had heard of this, but he didn’t really understand the extent of this idol worship due to cultural differences.
Earthlings admired strong families and wealthy corporations more than an individual.
The only exception to this rule had been Julius whose individual fame exceeded that of the Xander family.
But even then, the Xanders was a highly respected bunch. Of course, now that Varian showed their dark deeds, that respect plummeted.
“Can I get an autograph?” Minerva asked with glittering eyes.
Varian’s lips twitched at the question. But considering that she did help him regarding Ares, he signed his first autograph.
“Yay!” Minvera cheered. “I’ll start a Fanclub after this war! Let’s goooo!”
Speechless, Varian saw the girl board her spaceship as she set out to her post.
She was a bit too enthusiastic in this wartime. Thankfully, she didn’t forget that they were actually in the midst of a deadly war!
‘Speaking of enthusiasm, how is Sia, no, it’s Enigma now, how is she doing?’ Varian pursed his lips and tapped his comm.
A few minutes passed.
“Enigma?”
Even when she was so busy with her Shadow Guardian duty, Enigma usually picked up his call in a minute or two.
But now…
‘Is she in the middle of a battle?’
That’s a possibility, but since Enigma was a mind awakener, she could just command her comm with just a thought and let him know she’s currently fighting.
‘Could it be…’ A negative thought rose in his heart.
Varian shook his head and suppressed the dangerous thought. “Boo, find Enigma’s location and her latest records! Now!”
“Yes.” Boo heard the seriousness in his voice and got to work.
Varian boarded the ghost ship and headed straight to Neptune’s spaceport.
A few minutes later, Boo gave the report.
“Master, Enigma was last seen on planetoid Argos of Mars. But…”
“But w-what?” Varian gripped his armrest and asked in a shaky voice.
“The records are cut off abruptly.” Boo appeared in front of Varian and bowed its head with a pitiful face.
“What are the last records?” Varian gulped in fear as he asked.
“This.” Boo raised its small hand and a hologram started playing.
Enigma was seen fighting three Abyssals. She was having a hard time but wasn’t overwhelmed. She had plenty of room to teleport away and protect herself.
Her battle was captured by thousands of cameras across the planetoid.
Then suddenly, a red light flashed and all the surveillance was cut off.
“Wha…”
Varian opened his mouth to speak but no words came out. Clenching his fist, he asked in a low voice. “Boo, a while ago, you reported there was no major news, didn’t you?”
“…yes. This news was locked and the relevant data was encrypted by Athena. According to the official records, Enigma had won the battle and is currently resting.”
“Fuck!” Varian punched the wall and a shockwave spread in the room, destroying all the accessories.
Mars officials were already in a pinch since they lost level 9s due to Mirage Queen. Now, if news got out that Enigma might be in trouble, the morale would go down. So, they decided to hide it entirely!
“Search! Where’s she last spotted? Quick!” Varian growled.
Boo nodded as it entered the surveillance devices of Argos planetoid and every planetoid nearby.
A few minutes later, Boo revealed the locations of the planetoid near which Enigma’s spaceship was last seen.
Elone!
…It was the farthest planetoid from Mars!
Varian patted his chest to calm his racing heart and contacted the Athena agency.
The hologram of a man in his thirties popped up. The details on the side revealed his basic information. A level 5….dammit!
“Mr. Varian? What can I do—?”
“I want the fastest route to planetoid Elone!” Varian said.
The man scratched his head and said. “You should teleport from Uranus all the way to Mars. Then you can use a teleportation formation which will take you to a planetoid an hour away from Argos. If you don’t use the teleportation formation, it’ll take two hours to reach Elone.”
“I don’t have one goddamn hour!” Varian said in a chilling voice. “I want the fastest route!”
“B-But…”
“Fastest!” Varian’s eyes turned cold. “There must be emergency routes! Half of Mars’ population was evacuated in a few hours. If you only used the routes on paper, there’s no way it could happen.”
The Athena agent fell silent before giving him a wry smile. “I don’t have any knowledge of that route.”
‘Someone else does.’
Varian grasped the meaning and immediately ended the call. Then, he called the Sovereigns.
Ares just went to sleep and didn’t lift the call. Irene was busy fighting.
Varian didn’t want to dial up Micheal Caron who was a suspected traitor.
Thankfully, Sovereign Kevin answered and his hologram popped up.
Sovereign Kevin was also in a healing tube, but his injuries weren’t as bad as Ares, even though they’re terrible nonetheless.
Kevin smiled lightly and said. “Varian, your Pluto mission—”
“Sovereign, I need the fastest route to planetoid Elone,” Varian said. “Please.”
Kevin checked the location of Elone and fell silent.
Varian’s heart grew heavy when Kevin suddenly asked. “Did you really fight a hundred and eighty level 8 wyverns?”
“Sorry?”
“Say ‘Yes’. If you do it, do it all the way.” Kevin laughed.
Varian grew angry and asked. “I need the—”
“The route is your comm.”
“Yes?”
“Yes, Yes is the answer.” Kevin smiled and ended the call.
Varian shook his head and quickly checked his comm.
Sure enough, there was a hidden route for emergencies.
He needed to board a planetoid on Neptune, then he’d be teleported to a secret realm near Neptune and Uranus. Then, he’d reach a Uranus planetoid, another secret realm, and finally Saturn.
Then Saturn’s planetoid to Jupiter’s and Jupiter’s to Mars’!
The reason this route was a top secret was that all the teleportation formations he was going to use were ‘hidden’.
“A one-hour journey will be reduced to ten minutes. Great!” Varian grinned and headed for a particular planetoid of Neptune.
It was nearby, so Ghostship only took two minutes to secretly land at the bottom of an ocean.
The war was in full swing in this planetoid as well. Both sides were giving their best. But without the advantage of wyverns, the Abyssals didn’t gain any special advantage over Humans.
Varian didn’t intend to intervene in this battle. They might get suspicious if he suddenly appeared here and then disappeared.
‘Who am I kidding? I just want to get to Sia as soon as I can.’ Varian snickered as the ghost ship entered a seemingly ordinary cave and reached a huge wall.
A mechanical arm extended out and tapped on a specific place in a pattern. In response, a holographic screen appeared.
Boo typed in the dynamic passcode from Varian’s comm and the ‘wall’ disappeared, revealing a teleportation formation behind it.
The teleportation formation lit up and in a second, the Ghost ship reached an obscure secret realm between Neptune and Uranus.
This secret realm had no teleportation formation.
Ghost ship exited the secret realm and in a minute, found the secret realm. This one had a teleportation formation!
The ghost ship teleported once again and landed underground in a Uranus’ planetoid.
As expected, there was no teleportation formation on this planetoid either. Instead, they’d have to reach a nearby planetoid.
In that planetoid, the teleportation formation was present inside a fortress!
“What’s the planetoid name again?”
Boo checked the map and answered in a low voice.
“Hellsong.”
