The Undead was beyond furious.
After realizing that humans had come to destroy him, he used a special method to raise his strength to the Sovereign state temporarily.
But the cost of that was his permanent strength would be lowered if the crystals were suddenly cut off.
With their destruction, he lost his source of power and returned to his permanent strength.
Instead of peak level 9 like the Abyssal Rulers hoped, it was barely a high level 9.
'Thankfully, I can strengthen myself with the dead.' That was his only solace.
Of course, he formed a grudge against this human called Varian and the ghostship. He vowed to utterly humiliate and destroy them when the time came.
But for now, he decided to focus on—
The Undead bent backward and watched a dark sword go right above his forehead.
"Gulp,"
It was a near-perfect sneak attack. If not for the intuition honed through thousands of battles, he'd have died here!
The Undead was first scared and then pissed off. His legs dug into the ground and the next moment, his figure blurred and he appeared fifty miles away, in front of Enigma.
His muscles bulged and he threw a punch right at her face.
Even before his punch reached her, the sheer shockwaves caused a large cut on Enigma's face and caused her to bleed.
'I can barely handle a mid level 9, his strength is beyond my range,' Enigma gritted her teeth and jumped back.
The Undead chased after her like a bullet racing ahead and was about to follow up with another punch.
His mind suddenly turned sluggish while the space around him froze at the same time and an invisible power held him in place.
But they all held him back barely for a moment before he continued up with his attacks.
"Fuck!" Varian slammed a wall in the ghostship and cursed.
He had already informed the federation. But even if they hurry now, it'd take at least thirty minutes.
Thirty minutes for a high level 9 was too long.
But the real problem was—
"Die, you bitch!" Despair Queen slammed a pointed branch at Irene.
The invisible gravity shield covering Irene only held on for a few seconds before it scattered. The branch reached her armor which barely held on and repelled the attack.
Even though she repelled an attack, Irene's face turned paler. Her consumption of aura was already too much and she couldn't continue the battle for long.
She'd have to retreat in a few minutes or she'd die here.
"Once Irene withdraws, Despair Queen will come to protect this Undead. It's all over then." Varian rested his forehead against the cold metal wall as he tried to think of a solution.
It was like looking for a needle in the dark.
"Varian! Varian!" Enigma's urgent voice sounded in his mind.
"Come back. We'll think of another way to deal with him." Varian kept his eyes closed as he said.
"Just look at the battle!" Enigma urged.
Varian opened his eyes and took a peek at the screen.
"Wait, how?"
The Undead's arms blurred as he rained punches on Enigma. Enigma was forced to dodge all of them as they were beyond her level.
But unlike before, these punches weren't so strong that the sheer shockwaves caused her skin to split and made her bleed.
Nope. Even though they were much stronger than what Enigma could handle, they were weaker than earlier.
Varian carefully observed this situation and guessed the reason. "Darkness?"
The Undead was covered in a black fog. It was Enigma's signature Darkness field.
For some reason, it seemed to have a suppressing effect on the Undead.
[Darkness has a positive correlation with Death. But it shouldn't have this much suppression. It's only because the Undead is a failed creation that he's this suppressed.] The System suddenly said.
"?" Varian didn't fully understand, but he didn't bother to.
He hurried the ghostship near their battle and wanted to try 'capturing' the Undead into his Celestial-wall prison.
But before the opportunity could appear, one of the Undead's punches hit Enigma's shoulders and sent her flying.
As the sound of her bones breaking sounded, Enigma's entire right shoulder was dyed red as blood spilled out like a running tap.
"Haha!" The Undead snickered and kicked the ground. He reached her in a blink and was about to throw a follow-up punch.
Enigma flipped in the air and dodged.
The Undead didn't mind and continued his attacks. The battle went on as the Undead unilaterally suppressed Enigma.
Varian waited for just one chance. But the Undead seemed to have realized his presence and was careful from the start.
Frustrated and helpless, Varian watched the battle with a heavy heart.
And what he noticed caused his heart to sink.
Enigma had accumulated several injuries so far. She already took several potions mid-battle. So, her injuries should've at least stopped bleeding, if not already healed.
But none of her injuries, including the cut on her face, was healed!
Patches of dark energy were present over her injuries and if his inference was right, these energies were directly fighting her vitality.
So, not only was Enigma not healing, but she was also growing weaker.
Thankfully, the injuries until now were few and small. Otherwise…
A chill shot down Varian's spine.
'Let's retreat?' Varian had an urge to do just that.
'But if we retreat now, that Undead will be protected by Despair Queen and he'll return to the Sovereign state.'
'Then what should I do? Go fight him? Can I last even an attack?'
'But if I don't fight, then who will? Enigma can't win. This Old Man is out of commission until tomorrow.'
The more he thought, the worse it seemed.
'If we retreat now, the Undead will become a Sovereign and destroy all the planets. But with ghostship, I can still escape their pursuit. Then, I can take revenge…' Varian struggled with this tempting but horrifying thought.
Varian never thought of himself as a morally good person. He viewed himself as a selfish person with a bit of kindness.
But even for him, even for that selfishness, the thought of leaving fifty billion people to die was too much.
This dilemma wasn't just for them, but also for himself. If he left now, Varian wasn't sure if he could even respect himself again.
Still, Varian wanted to leave.
'It was foolish to fight when death is certain. But it's even more foolish to die without a purpose.' Varian was about to call back Enigma when a man's sacrifice flashed in his mind.
Mars' high general Skad.
This man knew he was going to die, but he went ahead and bought two minutes of time for his planet at the cost of his life.
In retrospect, those two minutes were critical in saving Mars.
But Skad had no way of knowing that. From his perspective, his death might have had no impact at all.
Mars could've still been destroyed. Mars could've been saved regardless of his sacrifice.
It was the case with most sacrifices. They didn't change the final outcome.
So, Varian couldn't even convince himself to 'sacrifice' since it might have no result at all.
Would his death be even worth it?
"Master, Enigma's condition is getting worse," Boo said in a pitiful voice.
Varian raised his head and watched the woman covered in blood as she faced off against the monstrous Undead alone.
Facing an enemy far stronger than herself yet not giving up, she appeared pitiful.
'But why does she keep fighting?'
Because he asked her to?
The more he looked at her, the more she reminded him of Skad.
'Did I do my best?' Varian recalled the final words of the great general and clenched his fist.
The same thought flashed in his mind nonstop.
'Did I do my best? Did I really?'
Varian closed his eyes and took a deep breath. 'Should I?'
He wanted to keep Sia and Sarah safe. He didn't like to see Enigma pushed into such a pitiful state.
Even though he wanted to fight for the Human race, he didn't want to sacrifice for it.
He decided to leave.
But before he did, he at least wanted to try. Even for just a moment.
"Boo, open the door," Varian said.
Just once.
That way, he could convince himself that he did his best.
