Divine Path System

Varian had Sarah and Sia tag him for a second trip to the space crack. Only this time, he used his space powers to tear open the space portal maintained by some expensive treasure.

It led to a magnificent region far away from the milky way.

Thanks to his space powers, Varian was able to pick and choose the approximate area they were going to teleport into.

Thanks to the enormous abyssal literature captured throughout the years and especially from the abyssals when they were going extinct, he had a rough idea of the Abyss province's location.

'A tri-star system where all the planets are connected to each other through invisible chains woven millions of years ago.'

"It's not going to be dangerous, but be prepared for anything," Varian warned the girls.

Sarah used the power of light to shield them from being seen, heard, or known by conventional senses.

Sia used the power of darkness, albeit with a bit of hardship, to cover up their presence. Then, she used her card which reduced their presence further.

Varian did his bit by using the power of slivers and amplifying the powers they used—light and darkness.

The three disappeared into the space crack.

— — — — —

The Fairies were miserable post-war.

Even though they fought and died like dogs on the order of their superiors, they didn't want to be treated like dogs.

They wanted dignity. They wanted respect. They wanted hope of a future.

As the Providence Trial approached, with rumors of its date advancing spreading, Fairies were in as tight a spot as it could get.

The Capital of the winged species, Crystal City.

Fairy Emperor ended the third meeting of the month with the ministers and advisors.

As usual, everyone was crying and complaining about the same thing.

Post-war recovery.

But it depended on heavy investments, typically plunder gained from the war. Unfortunately for Fairies, there was no such thing.

Abyssals used up all their treasures.

Even in the last phase of the war, Haedon sold out all the unusable treasures and bought some artifacts.

Rumors say that it was a powerful space artifact with the severe defect of lacking offensive. But whatever it was, the bastard didn't leave anything behind for the Fairies.

Worse, no Fairy saw his corpse.

The Abyss Emperor disappeared into a space portal which they could barely trace and ended up bringing them way more criticism than justified.

Forget about focusing on themselves, the Fairies were forced to send a group of their strongmen to the abyssal star system in regular shifts to check for any changes.

And since it's an important mission given directly by Zions, they couldn't be half-hearted about it.

This time, it was the chance, or rather, the punishment of Princess Hazel. As a talented member of the fairy race, she was supposed to become a tool for marriage and give them a decent bargaining capital.

But with her unbelievable stubbornness, Hazel halted her marriage proposals.

"Check the ruins. Clean up the site after the inspection."

With her wings spread wide, she instructed the crew to inspect the items of the abyss' capital.

They already found altars, space engravings, and massive traces of space stones that were once stored here.

Even though the inspection wasn't going to result in much, Hazel was strict with herself.

The capital city of abyssals, for better or worse, was the most searched place. But it still had the most chance of a good catch.

As the 1,000 fairies, mostly level 9s got to work, Hazel folded her wings and sat in the air.

She had just reached rank 2 and couldn't control her aura fluctuations. If anything fragile got destroyed because of it, she would get scolded. Again.

'It's not like they won't nag me again.' Hazel looked up at the sky with a bitter expression.

She studied in the kingdom's academy and graduated with flying colors. Returning home, she expected a warm welcome and was determined to lead her race up. But in just a few years she had been away, everything changed.

Fairies got some compensation from the Zions after the war but it's nowhere near enough to revert to their pre-war state, much less surpassing their previous peak.

'I reached rank 2 at just 25. It's the speed of Duchy geniuses. Give me 200 years, I can hit rank 4. Just…'

She too knew that they couldn't afford to wait 200 years. The Providence Trial was looming and they desperately needed any help.

The Zions proved to be unreliable. There were multiple diplomatic channels opened by the fairies towards other races.

Renowned for their ability to give birth to perfect offspring, fairy women were appreciated in such 'trades' and were married off to cultivate ties.

'But seriously, to marry me off to a whore's son. What do they think of me as?' Hazel put her wings around herself in a protective cover and gnashed her teeth.

[Become the third wife to the son of Zion emperor's matriarch's only son!]

She shot that proposal down and nearly killed the messenger who came with it.

There were rumors that this man—whose mother was sold to the 4th Prince as a maid—had some weird hobbies including but not limited to taking his wives to the brothel, there were still many girls dying to be his bride.

Hazel wasn't one of them. She'd rather die than marry a man with no spine.

It's just…

She wasn't oblivious to the gravity of the situation.

That man had taken a liking to her for some reason. She could reject, tomorrow and even the next week. But for how long could she keep rejecting when her race tethered to the edge of extinction?

The only reason she was even allowed this willfulness was her talent and strength. But one day, she'd have to bend her proud head.

Hazel flew away from the planet and flew towards the triple stars. After ensuring no one was nearby, she yelled into the stars.

"I don't want to marry that pimp! Never! I'd rather die than do it! Anything, if there's anything I can do to avoid this filthy marriage, I will!"

"Lass, your wish is granted." A confident voice sounded from behind.

"Huh?!"