Chapter 386 - Pre-War [1]

The federation traced its roots back to Human Alliance—a peace initiative born shortly after Blink.

Human Alliance governed all humans and under its reign, humanity survived asteroids, Murlocs and terrifying viruses.

Then finally in 300 YAB, Dungeons appeared.

Everyone, including the alliance were understandably perplexed and cautious. But as humanity explored the unknown, their fear was replaced with ambition.

In a matter of decades, humanity found the special treasures in ruins that helped in 'terraforming' a planet.

Thus began the colonization and it was all over in one single generation. That generation enjoyed abundant resources like no other.

People had more kids to help them 'manage' the new properties and encouraged their kids to have more kids.

A population explosion unseen in the history of mankind unfolded and using the dungeons as a springboard, humanity's power skyrocketed.

Since then, the Human Alliance called itself as the Federation.

Culturally, economically, militarily, it was on a different scale compared to Human Alliance.

It was like leveling up.

Unfortunately, their difficultly also seemed to have leveled up.

Abyssals.

Since their arrival in 400 YAB, the federation fought the Abyssals countless times.

Countless times the wars big and small maybe, an all out war was fought only once and that was the first war which humanity bitterly survived.

There were times when tensions escalated and a few times, all the planets and abyssals fought simultaneously, similar to the first war. But none came close to the tension and fear.

Until now.

Human Armed Forces announced a red alert and increased their deployments. The reserve personnel were undergoing a short training to be deployable should the need arise.

It all started with a few days ago.

The Abyssals stopped skirmishes across all the planetoids. No ambushes on the space patrols. No short or long wars.

Everything was peaceful or so it seemed.

Abyssals started deploying more and more weapons. Their formation changed to offensive and they started bringing in warriors that were usually kept in reserve.

Unwilling to be outmatched, the military matched their deployments. They went toe to toe with abyssals in manpower, logistics and infrastructure.

Then they waited. 

The Abyssals didn't start the conflict as expected.

They all did one thing. Right from mercury to Neptune, they started calling in more and more forces before they finally stopped.

Or rather, had to stop.

Both sides deployed their full forces.

Teen Children bade farewell to their old parents, Middle-aged parents bade farewell to their little children, old people bade farewell to their families.

Finally, even Abyssal ships no longer patrolled the space. They were all on the planetoids. As a result, humans were also forced to bring their space shuttles to neutralize Abyssals' advantage.

It was as if a string was stretched to its limit and with just a bit more push, it'd snap.

But that one final push never came.

Be it Mercury or Neptune, every single army member—be it a level 2 soldier or a level 9 high general, all had serious faces.

Every soldier could feel the tension in the air as they patrolled the border.

Just a few miles from them were Abyssals—prepared, aggressive and strong.

They didn't attack. But that only made their inevitable attack more serious.

Like all other reinforcements, Richard and Eve Xander were deployed on a planetoid.

Forget the soldiers, even they had no idea when the inevitable was going to happen.

Tension was like fuel. It grew everyday. Bit by bit. All it took was a single spark for everything to go Boom.

Unfortunately, that one spark never occurred. It only made the situation worse. The longer the tension remained, the greater the subsequent damage.

As powerhouses that were part of reinforcements, Richard and Eve Xander were deployed on a planetoid.

For better or worse, it was still with Anna.

"…."

"…."

The old men would've protested at any other time, but with how matters stood, they would beat up anyone who protested now.

They were one of the few people that knew the 'real' reason for this crazy situation.

"They're really serious, huh." Richard muttered from the top of a tall red tower. His mental sense was locked onto his comm to act immediately after notice. He also kept an eye on the borders.

"Since they're trying to take down the planetoids, they have to be serious." Eve's gloomy voice sounded from the comm.

After Athena group submitted their findings along with evidence, the military was flabbergasted. There was also the evidence irrefutable aura measurer.

Of course, there was an accident that the space shuttle lost a few of their drones. This gave them hope.

Maybe something went wrong?

So, they sent a few more exploration teams.

Nope. Every observation gave the same dreary result.

Sequoias were real.

After verifying the threat, the army decided to send reinforcements to Uranus planetoids. It also planned the dispatch of special forces that would hunt down the Sequoias.

But all came to naught when Abyssals suddenly turned aggressive and started their crazy deployments.

Most of the reinforcements were called back and Uranus only received a fraction of the intended help.

Abyssals weren't trying to start a war. Not an all out war at least.

Their deployments were there just to hold down human forces from supporting Uranus.

"I'm still doubtful. We didn't find any areas holding level 6 or level 7 Sequoias, much less level 8" Richard tried to argue.

Eve pierced his shallow argument. "Sovereign Irene found them in the asteroids near the Abyss. Level 6, level 7 and even level 8. She said she sensed some stronger fields deep in the asteroid belt, but didn't enter.

The threat of sequoias is real."

"Haa~" Richard sighed deeply. "I…If we were only stronger."

"…"

Eve didn't reply as he put down the comm and gazed into he distance. "If I was stronger…."

He reached a lofty height in his life. His back was the assurance to tens of thousands of souls standing behind him.

But even then, he wished he was stronger.

In this epic conflict, even a level 9 was helpless, much less him.

"Hope in my soul lasts forever."