Divine Path System

Humanity had been rejoicing about their silent build-up.

Two hundred and fifty high level awakeners, mostly level 9s and a sizable level 8s advanced to the next sub level.

While it's not a fundamental shift that would grant them unilateral victory, it certainly gave them a definitive edge that'd put them in a dominant position.

This was the first time in the history of humankind that they gained a definitive edge over the abyssals.

Their previous best was roughly equalling the abyssals, but still slightly inferior to them. But a threshold was crossed and humanity raced ahead.

Even if a war came, it'd be on their terms.

Or that's what they thought until the abyssals attacked.

The first battle occurred on a strategic planetoid on Venus. The commander of the troops was a high level 9 who qualify for the rare elixir and reached peak level 9. He stabilized his power two weeks ago and was extremely confident in dealing with his abyssal counterpart who's also his archenemy that happened to be only high level 9.

That's why he was happy when he heard 10,000 abyssals on the C point of the border attacked at once and 25,000 more followed on the Z point.

"I can finally kill you!" With a roar of laughter, the commander leaped into the air and flew to the abyssal headquarters.

When the federation ordered him to observe restraint and forbade him from making the first move, he was pissed.

'They don't understand the hate I have. This bastard is stationed here for the last twenty years. He killed all my teammates! All of them! Today, I'll break his neck and drink his blood!'

The faces of his squad members when he first joined the planetoid flashed in his mind before they were replaced by the gruesome memories of their deaths.

Each and every one of them died an excruciatingly painful death. Three of them were subject to abject torture while the four were ganged up on and torn into pieces. The remaining three had their heads severed and kicked to the human camps.

"Eye for an eye. Blood for blood. Head for a head!"

The telekinetic power covered him like a gentle blanket and shielded him from the turbulent wind that would've otherwise set him on fire and ripped him to pieces given the speed he was moving in.

"There~"

In just a minute, the commander crossed the air defense systems of the abyssals using sheer speed and broke through several air barriers with his momentum before he finally stopped above a hexagonal blue building.

"Yarak! You'll beg for death today!" The commander raised his hand and slapped down from the air.

The fierce wind solidified into a giant palm print and crashed into the blue building.

The abyssal soldiers on patrol nearby didn't even have the chance to respond when the blue building broke into pieces.

A cloud of dust spread from the crashed site and smoke filled the air as the ruins caught fire.

The commander narrowed his eyes as he sensed the presence in the ruins. He was still sitting in his chair, with his chin resting on his palm as he observed the man in the air with an…amused expression.

"Cunt!" The commander's anger shot through the roof and he punched out.

An invisible force condensed into a hard fist with spikes all around it and reached the abyssal's face.

If this full-blown attack from a peak level 9 hit the high level 9 abyssal, he'd die on the spot at best or would die in a few minutes at worst. But he'd die nonetheless.

All the plans of torturing this demonic abyssal would remain plans.

But the commander wasn't in the mood to think through. At this moment, all he wanted was to see blood spill from the bastard and his arrogant expression crumple into pain and despair.

….Which didn't happen.

As the attack reached him, the abyssal snorted in dismissal and a sea of flames emerged from him.

The building burned into ashes in an instant and the powerful punch was stalled by the wall of flames.

Using the time gap, the abyssal rose into the air with his orange flame wings and floated in front of the commander, regarding him with the same amused expression.<novelnext></novelnext>

"Y-You!"

'How did you reach peak level 9?'

The question never came out of his mouth. Only a snarl followed by a vow. "I'll kill you anyway!"

A huge fire phoenix materialized in front of the abyssal and screeched at the commander.

"Burn to ashes!"

"Die!"

The phoenix flapped its wings and shot towards the commander in a flash while the commander put his hands together and created a fierce counterattack.

The tongues of the huge flames tried to devour the commander. But with his fierce effort, they were pushed back like flames pushed by the wind.

A few seconds later, both the telekinetic attack and the flames disappeared. Then thousands of fire arrows rained down on the commander who blocked them off. At the same time, tens of thousands of small daggers attacked the abyssal with the intention to pierce him into a sieve.

But a sizzling white flame enveloped the abyssal and burned away all the attacks that approached him.

The battle grew more and more intense but there was no clear winner or loser. It was just like before when they high level 9s and didn't advance yet.

"You're lucky you advanced. Or I'd have killed you like a dog. But well, you'll only live for a few days anyway." Yarak, the abyss leader of the planetoid, grinned.

Just a while ago, the materials sent by the emperor arrived.

Most of the empire's treasury was used up to support the troops on the front line, but the remaining treasures that the Emperor could send weren't bad either.

If they're used in the Emperor abyss, they could stall the fairies for at least one more week!

To be able to make that much difference in such a large-scale war involving tens of billions of solutions showed just how precious these treasures were.

But the Emperor gave them away.

"Win."

Was his only order that came with the treasures.

After taking the precious elixirs, herbs, natural liquids, pills, and medicine, the abyssal army, be it mid or high, took a step forward.

The change was apparent, especially in high awakeners.

After the losses from the previous war, humans and abyssals had roughly 500 level 9s, more than 10,000 level 8s, and easily over half a million level 7s.

Almost 70% of all the high awakener abyssals took a step forward in the sub level! That translated into more than 350 level 9s, 7,000 level 8s, and over 350,000 level 7s!

In just a blink, the abyssals achieved a decisive edge over the humans.

That's why, even though he's surprised and frustrated that his human archenemy advanced and couldn't be killed right away, Yarak, the abyssal leader was looking forward to the future.

In just a few days, humans would be finished.

"Hahahaha!" Letting out a roar of laughter, Yarak continued his attacks.

An ominous premonition filled the commander's mind but he shook it off and fought his archenemy.

'Yarak is just a lucky cunt. The rest of the abyssals will be thrashed and slaughtered!'

The archenemies looked at each other with hatred and schadenfreude. They're both confident that in a while, their enemy race would be surprised by their 'secret advancement' and the rest would be history.

Both of them were right.