It's a journey they were craving since they first stepped into this world. But when the time finally came, Sarah and Sia were hesitating. Even Varian felt his chest tighten in fear.
Part of the reason he was so mad and indulgent for the past three days was to divert himself from this bubbling fear.
According to his estimates, it's almost a year since he awakened according to earth's timeline!
This scared Varian to no end.
All the ridiculous dangers, plots, conspiracies, secret deals, and betrayals happened in just three to four months of time after he awakened.
Thinking back now, it's crazy how long every week seemed because of how many things were happening.
They were just months but they felt like decades. In fact, such events didn't even happen for decades!
For the first time since the first Abyss-Human War, Humans were in danger of extinction twice in the first half of the year!
Varian was away for most of the second half!
Perhaps everything already ended. Humans were done for and the Abyssals conquered the solar system, extracted the legacy, and even left!
"Fuck!" Varian cursed under his breath. It's because there's a real possibility for something like that to happen.
'If that happens,' Varian took a deep breath and his eyes shone with the coldness of a beast, 'I'll come to your world and kill you all!'
'Even you, Abyss Emperor!' Varian placed his hand on his heart and felt the sealed strand of energy.
After he became the Lord of this world, he managed to seal the death strand. It was no longer hurting him and the danger of death was over.
And he also had another trump card. He could unlock the seal and once he does that, he'd have to use up all the power of the death strand.
'It'll cross the range of a Sovereign and will be as strong as the blow of a Celestial Ranker,' Varian was saving the trump card for his main enemy and hoped that he wouldn't have to use it.
"Lord, the last trial is successful," The oldest grandmaster said with an excited smile.
Varian put aside his thoughts and walked to the space gate with Sarah and Sia.
With each step he took, his heart grew tense.
He stopped at the last moment and said, "Erm, how about you two stay here? I'll check the situation there and take you. Anyway, Hortus is connected to me now."
"No! We're returning with you!" Sarah disagreed without hesitation.
"If you're worried the federation might already be gone, and we can't digest the truth, you're wrong. We're prepared to see the worst," Sia grabbed his hand and said with a serious face.
"Ugh," Varian groaned in frustration and finally nodded, "If things go south, we can always return here. But stick close to me or else I can't teleport you with me."
Thanks to the power of a Lord, he could 'return' to Hortus from anywhere in the Universe. The precondition is that he shouldn't be attacked spatially or temporally when he's taking off. He could also others with him, given that they're not too far away.
It's like a safe haven. Even if humans repaired the space gate from their side, they wouldn't be able to enter the world without Varian's permission.
Since the trial was already finished, no 'participants' would be taken in either.
As promised, Varian gave the craftsmen precious items, treasures, and elixirs. All of them were taken from the royal treasury of course.
The craftsmen, young and old, smiled sheepishly as they held the precious reward in their arms like it was a delicate baby.
"Maybe it'll take less than a year before you can travel to the outside," Varian gave them another good news.
"Glory to the Lord!"
"Victory to the Lord!"
"You are the greatest!"
Hearing the cheers, Varian shrugged," Just pray that I don't die before then."
The cheers stopped and the enthusiastic expressions on the craftsmen's faces froze.
"L-Lord, you're joking, right?"
"Right?! What could happen to you?"
"Exactly! It's a joke, ahahaha!"
But Varian's face remained serious, "I'm not joking. I might really die. If that happens, maybe the trial will resume again."
"Fuck!" The oldest craftsman, the most elegant of them all, the gentleman known for his refined temperament slammed his head against the wall and cursed.
The rest were in worse shape.
Some fainted straight away while a few older ones coughed out blood. A few even started crying.
"Um," Varian scratched his cheek and turned to Sarah who was looking at him with a chiding gaze, "I was just being honest!"
"Too much honesty is not a good thing. It's okay to lie sometimes," Sarah sighed.
"And you did lie to us multiple times before, didn't you? Even though it's for good reasons," Sia gave a smile that wasn't really a smile.
"Technically, I never lied." Varian stood his ground.
With a sigh, the two gave up arguing and held his hand.
As they took another step forward, everything turned silver and they appeared in a space tunnel.
It was completely dark outside so they didn't even know if they were moving or staying still.
But unlike the space tunnel, they came in, this one was much safer. There were no cracks, no space turbulence, and certainly no space currents. Even if they stayed here for a year, they wouldn't have to worry about the space currents devouring them.
"We'll be there in a few minutes," Varian said.
Sarah and Sia closed their eyes and meditated, preparing themselves for combat.
'I have to explore the other two special zones of Hortus,' Varian closed his eyes and sat in a lotus position, 'Especially the Space-Time one.'
But since they're a laboratory, he'd have to gain separate permission to control that area. How? Just like he did in the Twilight Zone.
It's dangerous even for the current him and Varian decided to put it off for now.
'400 seconds more, 395 seconds more, 390…' As he counted the ETA, Varian feared and anticipated the state of his home world.
And in a tiny corner of his mind, he also wondered what the heck happened since he disappeared.
