Humans watched the Varian fight the Thunder King and the Undead Leader. When he finally crushed the abyssal ruler, the crowd cheered. The retired military officers wept in joy while the adults celebrated. Children simply clapped as they didn't understand the immensity of what just transpired.
But the happiest of them all were the refugees of Neptune. They're mostly on Uranus after the evacuation and when they learned Thunder King and Undead Leader were fighting Varian, they flooded the parks, stadiums, public theaters, and every place where the battle was shown.
Clutching their hearts tight, they watched Varian fight the two villains responsible for the horrendous tragedy they just experienced.
On the other hand, the people of Uranus themselves lost all the army members. Thunder King and Undead Leader casually slaughtered the army and were about to attack the planet when Varian's incident stopped them in their tracks.
So, Uranians also watched the battle with bloodshot eyes. Thankfully, they could watch from the comfort of their own homes. And it reminded them--the reason they could be so safe in their little nest was because of a young man who stopped the two evils before they could do to Uranus what they did to Neptune.
In a way, every Uranian deeply owed to Varian. Including Sovereign Irene. She threw herself into the healing cabin and kept her eyes open for the battle.
Under the encouragement and subtle help of the two, she was nearly pushed to death by her archenemy Despair Queen.
But when Despair Queen watched the brutal treatment of Thunder King, she fled. Yes. She fled like a mouse encountering a cat. All the abyssal army that was marching toward Uranus was hurriedly withdrawn.
Thanks to her enemy's last-minute abandonment, she survived. If not...
Not just her, the rest of the surviving abyssal rulers also withdrew their army and fled to their abyss.
There wasn't a shred of hesitation when they gave up the planetoids, and heck, stopped short of destroying the planet they always dreamed of.
The emergence of Varian flipped the board. The abyssals were suddenly faced with an existential threat. If Sin King was alive, as the strongest abyssal ruler, he might've had a good chance at killing Varian.
But with him gone, no one was 'confident' enough to fight Varian. He's no longer weaker than them. If they still fought, not only would they die, they'd make him stronger.
'One man...just one man scared all the abyssal predators back into their nests.' Irene stared at the figure fighting the two strong abyssals with a complicated smile.
The battle video was several minutes or perhaps even thirty minutes behind real-time. Even with some of the best artificial intelligence, a battle of this level wasn't easy to be captured. They had to cover large areas of space, join the individual pictures from each drone and create an approximate video.
Still, the scenes from the battle just a minute in caused Irene to gasp. "This child..."
Varian's strength was outrageous. Even more monstrous than his strength was his stamina. Even though he kept using highly taxing attacks, his momentum didn't change at all.
He matched the two powerful beings and soon overpowered them. Then there was no mercy.
The Undead had his head cracked open while the Thunder King received the most gore beating Irene had ever seen in her life.
The cameras censored the gore for the public but with her authority, she saw the hell that happened to Thunder King.
Instinctively, she curled herself as spasms of fear jolted her.
She knew Varian was ruthless against abyssals. Or he wouldn't kill millions of those abyssals in the cities.
But this...
Irene stared at Varian's indifferent eyes even as he did the deed and sighed. 'What did he experience to be so indifferent? How much did he suffer?'
She realized that even though they had several small talks after he returned, neither she nor any other Sovereign asked him about what he experienced after he went missing.
'It wasn't easy, was it?' While the other high awakeners watching the battle stared at him with fear and awe, Irene stared at him with pity.
The blood of abyssals dried on Varian's arms, chest, and face. Thunder King under him was beaten to something that was no longer even abyssal.
Many people retched watching that wriggling' thing'. Their hearts thumped with fear as they wondered if it was even possible to reduce a living creature to that state.
Thunder King had his head and a few organs intact, the rest were pummeled to paste. Rather than being beaten to paste, it appeared as if someone simply placed a head on a corpse that was run over by a road leveler. It was absolutely disgusting.
The one responsible for this gory sight stared at his masterpiece with an indifferent expression as if he was staring at a common sight on the road.
'Bastard.' Varian wasn't happy even after all the pain he inflicted upon this bastard. The billions that died weren't coming back. Billions of families were wrecked and there was nothing he could do to change it.
He glanced at Thunder King and noticed his eyes.
This abyssal was very strong and arrogant when he first returned. But now, he was pleading. Pleading for death. There wasn't even a shred of light in those dead eyes.
All of his pride, hope and perseverance were cruelly beaten and pulverized.
"Why bother?" Looking at the gaze of the abyssal, Varian sighed inwardly.
Since he's going to die anyway, just give him a peaceful death. Anyway, he won and however Thunder King died wouldn't change anything.
A crackling lightning sword appeared above Thunder King's head. The abyssal ruler squirmed and tried to jump at it. His eyes were fixated on the golden sword and he sought death.
The lighting sword pierced his skin and was about to finish him off. Thunder King's face relaxed and he showed a relieved smile.
For some reason, it reminded Varian of all the bloodshed on Neptune. A shiver shot up Varian's spine and the scenes of that baby dying in the pregnant mother's womb flashed in his mind repeatedly.
"You don't deserve it!" Varian swatted away the lightning sword and poured down a couple of healing potions onto the abyssal ruler and threw him into the ghostship.
A few minutes later, they stopped in front of a large lightning wall--the entrance to Thunder Abyss.
