Oddly enough Michael received a few messages from Jacqueline as well.
She told him that Frederik woke up a while ago and that he isolated himself from everyone else. The only person allowed to enter his room was the healer, who tended to his wounds. Jacqueline used her chat with Michael to complain about Frederik and reveal her insecurities about the future.
'How did I end up becoming their therapist? Don't they have other friends to talk to…? No, forget that. Of course, they don't have any friends…'
The Barbaric Couple was always together. Sometimes, Michael wondered if they were glued together. It was a miracle that they could survive apart from each other inside the Origin Expanse.
Staring at his chat with Jacqueline it was no wonder that Michael felt weird. He rarely had to console someone in such a situation. The Barbaric Couple was in trouble and they needed someone to talk to. Unfortunately, it was not like Michael was an expert in relationship advice or had much free time. Therefore, he figured that he could message them now that he had some time to spare.
After he read through Jacqueline's bombardment of text messages twice, Michael decided to reply to her with one long message. He explained to Jacqueline how Frederik must be feeling and what he was thinking in this situation. Michael made sure to tell Jacqueline that she should be patient and that she should only go to meet Frederik once he was in the right frame of mind. He also advised her to not be too forthcoming or act differently than usual. She should give him a helping hand when needed, but not go out of her way to do everything for Frederik. That would only result in a more uncomfortable situation. It wouldn't help Frederik adjust and accept his new life.
Michael took his time to reply to Jacqueline. He read through his own message thrice before sending the text. Afterward, he opened the file Silvana Zentur sent him. It was the report of the Tritan Alliance's counterattack.
Instead of skimming through the report, Michael read through it with great interest. The report was exhaustive and explained the fight against Dark Heavens in great detail.
"It was just like I suspected. A trap," Michael mumbled, "But to think that Dark Heavens would hide the Tritaenus in the planetary ring of Kirata to use the surrounding meteorites to bombard the Tritan Alliance's spaceships. That's pretty impressive. Too bad that Higher Lifeforms can survive in space for a while."
Dark Heavens' trap worked out decently. They used the meteorites in the planetary ring as weapons of mass destruction. The meteorites' trajectory was altered, and they were thrown toward the Tritan's spaceships that had just entered the planetary ring. Most meteorites were destroyed with the use of the Tritan spaceships' weapon system and some Soultraits, but other meteorites had been enhanced with the use of various Soultraits. They were resilient enough to endure a few attacks and smashed heavily into the smaller Tritan spaceships, destroying them in one go.
After the first two spaceships were destroyed, a human powerhouse used her Spatial-type Soultrait to teleport the Berserkers and Warlock Centaurs inside Tritaenus. Given the way the report was written, Michael presumed that they sacrificed two spaceships intentionally to distract Dark Heavens. Thereafter the real attack began.
The Berserkers and Warlock Centaurs wreaked havoc inside Tritaenus, whereas the remaining powerhouses surrounded the Tritaenus spaceship to keep the Dark Heavens members, who wanted to flee, at bay. Dark Heavens had two Awakened with Spatial-type Soultraits, but they were low-ranked ones. The Tritan Alliance's anti-element devices that they'd installed after the Berserkers and Warlock Centaurs invaded the Tritaenus were potent enough to restrain the use of those low-level spatial affinities. Thereafter one of the strongest powerhouses present released a seal that restricted the manifestation of Runic Gate in a radius of 10 kilometers. No one could escape their fate by fleeing into the Origin Expanse.
After reading through the first steps of the Tritan Alliance's plans which were explained in detail, Michael noticed that the climax of the battle was only skimmed through. All the report stated was the death of dozens of powerhouses, including humans, Berserkers, and Warlock Centaurs…and that they died in honor. The report continued to state that the Tritaenus had been retrieved and that dozens of powerhouses from Dark Heavens had been caught.
Every single one of the powerhouses caught was, at least, a Lowest-rank Tier-4 Awakened. However, most of them were even stronger.
Dark Heavens' Trap worked out to a certain extent as they destroyed two spaceships and killed close to 1000 Awakened with the potential to become a threat to Dark Heavens. However, Silvana's report stated that the honorable deaths of her comrades-in-arms allowed them to capture many enemies – something that could result in potential future gains.
As long as they could interrogate the enemies they'd captured, the Tritan Alliance could procure more knowledge about Hyumans, the Supreme Human Alliance, and the other human race of the alliance. It was highly likely that the interrogation would prove useful against other dark organizations as well.
'As long as they can find out Dark Heavens' future plans, the Tritan Alliance should be fine for a while,' Michael thought, right before his mind drifted away, 'Maybe…I can use Extraction on the Dark Heavens members this time as well. That would be pretty great!'
Each war criminal from Dark Heavens was a Higher Lifeform. Therefore, spending a few weeks with them would prove useful for Michael. He could extract the SoulStar Fragments within them, get hold of their Soultraits, and make use of their energy influx by killing them once he'd sucked them dry with Extraction.
By the time Michael was done reading through Silvana's report, he heard someone knocking at the door. Right after the sound of knocking reached his ear, a notification popped up on his crystal watch.
[Your reward package has arrived. Please verify your identity when you pick up the package!]
Michael got up from the bed and walked over to the door. A small drone hovered right in front of him. It scanned Michael from head to toe to verify his identity and dropped a leather bracelet with a small crystal embedded into it once the scan was completed.
The drone disappeared with a loud hum as Michael picked up the bracelet. The crystal was a dimensional shard, an ingredient that was often used to create storage devices. Its value was considered quite high because the storage devices created with dimensional shards didn't have to be bound to your War Rune to access them.
It was similar to Michael's spatial satchel, only much smaller.
The space within the spatial bracelet was not humongous, but it was large enough to fit piles of stones that looked like marble and shelves filled with vials that contained chestnut brown liquid.
The vials didn't look that pleasant to the eye, but Michael knew what they were. That was also why he was quite happy.
"Energy Stones and Apex Nutrition Serums? That sounds like a good reward, indeed," Michael mumbled as he recovered a small Energy Stone and one of the Apex Nutrition Serums.
The Apex Nutrition Serums were the most potent reagents that could be used by Lesser Lifeforms. Under normal circumstances, it was a waste for Tier-2 Awakened to use them since most Awakened couldn't absorb even half of the nutrition compressed into the small vial. They were simply too expensive to be wasted like that.
Thus, only young Descendants with their Inheritance technique would purchase those Apex Nutrition Serums at enormous prices. Their Inheritance techniques allowed them to digest most of the highly potent Apex Nutrition Serum to improve their mind, body, and soul.
Since almost all participants of the Flag War were either wunderkinds or adept at using Apex Nutrition Serums, one of the rewards ended up being shelves filled with Apex Nutrition Serums.
'There should be more than 200. Each of them is worth millions if I'm not mistaken. That's a few billion just for the Apex Nutrition Serums I've been given. My rank was quite high…. but how many Apex Nutrition Serums have been distributed to those at the top spots? How many did the Tritan Alliance distribute to everyone altogether? Their expenses must be in the trillions…maybe hundreds of trillions if we add the Energy Stones…'
Michael was having a hard time calculating the numbers in hundreds of trillions. Nobody would bother calculating such high figures. Why? Because one would easily lose count after reaching astronomical numbers. Instead of using dollars as a currency, most races used Energy Stones as the universal currency. The reason was pretty simple as well: Everyone needed Energy Stones.
Inferior Energy Stones were considered the most potent sources of clean power to absorb as a Lesser Lifeform. They were filled to the brim with energy and it was easy to consume the energy stored within. As long as your energy assimilation technique was potent and your mastery high enough, one could easily improve one's War Rune using Energy Stones.
Of course, they weren't cheap. Even the Inferior Energy Stones piled up in the storage bracelet were worth tens of millions – each of them.
"Filthy rich…" Michael mumbled, stopping for a moment before he added, "Or I'm just too poor."
"Well. Not anymore. It looks like I am about to start my grind soon."
He was quite excited. The thought of using trillions to improve his strength ached his stingy heart quite a bit, but Michael understood that it was necessary.
If the rewards distributed by the Tritan Alliance could help a few Descendants to attain enough strength to defeat some Tekur that would already be a successful investment. If it saved a bunch of Awakened from dying at the Tekur's hands that would be even better.
[Tritan Alliance(Official Account): Dear Michael Fang, we've been informed that your reward package has been delivered. We hope that you're satisfied with the rewards.
Unfortunately, we have to tell you that your remaining rewards will be given out later. The Officials are still trying to think of a proper reward for your extraordinary actions and contribution. We will inform you soon. Stay tuned!]
Michael raised an eyebrow while staring at the last message.
"Can't I just make a request? I have loads of things I need," Michael grumbled,
"Don't you dare to give me something shitty!"
