Akrylis, the foundational realm of Krystal Arts, had just gotten a second chance.
Moments ago, the vast domain extending billions of miles was surrounded by three thousand devil ships headed by three bone dragons and a death lord himself.
If the early rank 1 bone dragons were not troublesome enough, a mid rank 1 death lord crushed any hopes of their escape.
The most depressed being was of course Adsher. Most of the people here would die and get converted into Undead. As the leader of the Kyrstal Arts, if he could flee from this region and meet up with the genesis army, he could use his riches to secure himself a proper citizenship.
His escape couldn't be hidden from the death lord. What he could do was push all the living beings of Akrylis in another direction and hope these leaders think he's not worth the chase.
The rate of survival through the brutal tactic was still less than 10%. And Adsher did not wish to gamble on his life.
Pushing onto his desk, he stood up and waved away all the holograms displaying the devil ships approaching the realm.
"Lady Cyris, come with me."'
The abyssal woman nodded, her gray eyes dull and lifeless. Her outfit was elegant, noble even and she was seated in a chair as luxurious as the leader of Krystal Arts.
Not too long ago, she was Adsher's slave. Now, she was someone he couldn't help but respect.
After Varian's confrontation with Adsher that day, the slave mark on her was erased inexplicably. But Adsher, who was supposed to report it to the military and have her enslaved or executed kept silent.
He was already thankful for remaining alive after offending the divine ranker who sneaked in as an appraiser.
The competition of the princes was a disaster thanks to the culprit who appeared out of nowhere.
Adsher was certain that Hand'sum, no, Varian sneaked in through his company. Since the chaos there killed so many people, including the appraisers, Adsher covered up the disappearence of Hand'sum with a fake death.
To this day, no one knew that Varian sneaked in as an appraiser. And since she brought him into the company, Adsher believed Cyris to have some sort of acquintance with Varian and treated her with equal amounts of fear and respect.
Cyris herself learned a lot of things after that day with the help of Adsher.
Each finding was more depressing than the one before.
The culprit race of Abyssal extinction other than fairies and zions was a new race called humans.
Even though they entered genesis just a few decades ago, they had quite a few rank 9s. Despite being persecuted these days, rumors speak of the presence of a pseudo divine powerhouse among them.
Some say that while most humans could be killed by genesis, the surivors were sure to return one day and enact revenge. That time, they wouldn't just be celestials the empire could suppress but divine rankers.
Cyris, with all her talent, couldn't even hope to win against some strong rank 9s of humans. And they had more than a couple rank 9s.
If the culprit race was depressing enough, the killer of Haedon gave her suicidal thoughts.
Varian.
Varian Konstant.
Lord of mythical Hortus, Heir of old rulers, Master of logos, Slayer of immortal, Destroyer of Jai princes...
The titles just only grew more and more outrageous. And they were still not enough to justify the myths surrounding the man.
Some say he's an ancient creature wielding enormous power.
The most outrageous myths proclaim he was born just a thousand years ago and reached the divine ranks within a millenia.
A relatively reasonable myth puts him over twenty thousand years old.
The tales of Varian slaying a foreign race called abyssals was delegated to his childhood adventures.
A common myth was him slaying the emperor of abyssals at the age of one, after awakening at birth.
Cyris termed it ridiculous. Some advanced races were born mature and would start living off right months after their birth.
So, Varian fighting Haedon within a year of birth itself wasn't very surprising. But reaching celestial rank in a year? In a barren world the myths mention?
The devil ships surrounded her and charged powerful beams of red soul fire. Harvested from dying souls, these were great short range weapons.
Once hit by these devil beams, her soul would be infused with waves of shocks rendering her aura chaotic and mind clouded. Enough shocks and she'd be knocked out.
"Two."
Some voice seemed to be ringing across the region. It must be her hallucination.
Cyris' eyes reflected the blazing red as she raised her arms and welcomed death.
"One."
The nail-sized red spheres grew larger and larger until they reached the size of a house. Then, they fired at her.
Or they were supposed to.
"Zero."
A golden light suddenly lit up the entire region, blinding Cyris for a moment.
When she opened her eyes, everything seemed to be the same as before.
Yet somehow, in the back of her mind, something changed.
The devil ships also seemed confused as they remained still without firing at her.
"Huh?"
Cyris blinked, wondering if they decided to toy with her.
A few more seconds passed, each second feeling longer than a year.
Finally, Cyris moved closer and peeked through the translucent openings of the ship.
The Undead inside were...
"Where did they go?"
She turned in bewilderment, checking the other ships. The Undead vanished.
'No way!'
A thought flashed in her mind and she teleported back to the command quarters of Akrylis.
The devil ships that were advancing aggressively were deadly still, like insects that were suddenly deprived of life.
The warriors of Akrylis who were putting up their final resistance looked around and at each other in shock.
It had been a full minute but no one was able to digest what really happened.
"Arghhh! Nooo! King! Damn yo—Damn you!"
The screams of a powerful being echoed and a man in regal clothes—Death King—who somehow managed to resist so far scattered into golden light and vanished.
Witnessing that scene, the warriors gasped and collapsed to the floor.
The silence continued for a minute before before a young man stood up and raised his fist.
All of a sudden, the crowd erupted in defeaning cheers.
Cyris watched this scene, eyes wet and heart in turmoil.
'If Abyssals had a miracle like this, they too would've survived...'
A gust of wind blew out of nowhere and Cyris looked up to see a familiar man in front of her. He appeared without sound and looked at her without saying a word.