The world turned into twisting space in an explosion of colors and a few impossibly long minutes laters, the spaceship landed in green plains.
A handsome black-haired man appeared in the plains and rushed to the space crack before they could even respond.
Mystical white and black lights shot out of his palm, barely stabilizing the collapsing space crack.
It must've been an exceedingly difficult task, as evident from the man's face which had gone incredibly pale.
But the captain didn't care.
'A rank 4, huh. He's already weak, but now he's further weakened. He'll be easy to control. Maybe we force him to win more rights in this new land.'
After abandoning their families, killing their comrades and undertaking a treacherous journey for the promised future, there was little conscience left in their hearts.
The captain clenched his fists and the spaceship was ripped into shreds.
Tap!
Tap!
Tap!
The powerful aura of the captain locked onto the young man and he seemed to freeze.
"As long as you obey us and tell us everything about this location, you'll be left alive, got it?"
The young man didn't respond. He didn't even move.
The captain grew furious for a moment and raised his hand to tear one of the young man's limbs.
"Cap, Cap, he can't move!" A squad leader whispered.
"Ah, my bad." The captain chuckled and loosened his pressure.
The young man slowly turned around. There was a wide, bright smile on his face.
"Have you gone insane from my pressure?" The captain was dumbfounded. 'I am so strong, damn!'
"Hehehehe," Creepy laughter began to leak out of the man's mouth.
"Hahahahah! Welcome, welcome to Hortus! Thanks in advance for helping me grow!"
The world seemed to blink as the 'lights' turned off for a moment and then…
Then there was nothing. Their consciousness sank into darkness and everyone fainted.
With a snap of his fingers, the space above them tore apart and sucked them in. A similar space crack appeared in a forbidden region of Hortus and they were dropped.
In that place, just like them, there were already a hundred zions.
Back in the duchy, the commanders could still check the basic condition.
Alive.
But they wouldn't know what the biometrics couldn't show.
— — — —
Varian's assimilator power swept through the hundred unconscious rank 4s. It'd be best if Hazel could swindle some rank 5s here.
Given their path of gravity, even if he used dozens of rank 5s, the best he could do was advance quickly in space and time paths.
With the slivers, he could sprint in energy and matter paths. And for the Adept path, those two 'trainers' were more than enough.
The zions kept unconscious twitched violently as Varian's senses dug into their body and studied their aura bit by bit.
When necessary, Varian devoured that aura, broke it down with slivers and analyzed it.
This went for a full day and full nights before his aura suddenly spiked.
[ Time Rank 5: 10/2500
< Gravity is an integral part of space-time. But if your path had been gravity instead, you'd have reached at least mid rank 5 by now. >]
Varian shrugged.
If the insights didn't help him, they'd help Sia. But it's not like she needed them anway.
Varian glanced at the zion pile and realized there were now almost 200 of them!
He handed the task of recieving and neutrlalizing the guests to Sarah while he trained. He thought a few more dozen might arrive. But this many was unexpected.
Out of these 200, there were 35 rank 4s! 70 rank 3s! The remaining were rank 2s!
This was a windfall.
Using these zions, Humanity's comprehensive power, excluding the top three could step into the ranks of a duchy!
With equal surprise and tension, he asked. "Hazel, what happened?"
It took a dozen seconds to connect and a hurried reply arrived. "M-Master! The army started tracking and destroying the spaceships."
"Then why are there so many here?"
"So many? From the response I recieved so far, more than two thousand rank 4s waiting here! If their family's safety is guarenteed, the number could hit four thousand! That's 40% of all rank 4s in the duchy!"
Varian's voice turned cold, brimming with rage. "Hazel, do you really wish to betray me at this point? It's not just you who will pay the price. It's your whole race. Your backers might save you today, tomorrow. But soon, they won't be able to even save themselves, much less your people."
A soft cry rang in the background and Hazel's voice, broken, choking and very angry sounded.
"I…I have not betrayed you! I p-put my life at risk! I didn't do..heuk…anything to betray! I'd rather die than be treated like this!"
Varian frowned.
40% of army deserting was just too ridiculous. So, he assumed she was lying and got furious at her betrayal. But his conjecture might or might not be true.
Toning down his coldness, he said. "The 40% number is too absurd. Explain yourself."
A soft breath was heard from the other said before Hazel spoke in a hurried tone. "The current duke had been ruling for hundreds of years already. Except a handful, everyone hates him.
They only put up with him because his ex-wife manages to win the duchy resources. The same goes for the army.
Before abyssals extinction, they were sent to wars that had no justification, died en masse and didn't get even a sliver of recognition they deserved.
Zions as a race grew wealthy, powerful and proud. But they have no guiding figure and lost their social cohesion. It's just a bunch of similar looking people living together without any spirit binding them.
It's the army discipline and spirit that's holding back the 60%, which is highly commendable."
"…Wow," was all Varian could say.
He did know that Zion society was facing problems due to Jataur. But he didn't estimate them to be this bad.
"The rank 5s and rank 6s are older, more orthodox and also have way more supporters than dissidents. They're the ones holding the structure together. This is my report. Since I've been accused of betrayal, I'll come there and apologize with my death."
"Hazel, I apologize for my outburst earlier. I went on to assume your numbers were absurd and hence you were lying. I should've asked for the explanation first," Varian said, to much the fairy only let out a surprised gasp.
The rulers, in her impression, had a very, very strong ego. They could do a hundred wrongs but would consider apologizing once to be much worse.
Varian quickly went onto the topic. "I have an idea on using the current situation to lure some rank 5s and rank 6s."
"L-Lure, yeah, lure. What happens to them there?" Hazel asked in a hesitant but curious tone.
Varian chuckled. "A man who has abandoned his family, friends, homeland, and oath. What will happen to him, I wonder?"
"…That's very evil."
"I know. I forced them to make that choice. I guess filtering out good guys and picking only scum bangs makes me feel less guilty for pushing them through the fate they're going to suffer."
"Guilt? But I hear no guilt in your voice at all…"
"My feelings need to be kept under control sometimes, for my own good."
