Mysteries: Arcana Wars

"Well, even if the Council of Elders still has no idea about the depths of the starry sky, then they should at least pay attention to the things in front of them."

Vardas said.

"I remember that you haven't started rebuilding the outpost since it fell. The Council of Elders must be eager to find a suitable astronaut to send the new outpost to the surface of the starry sky. For such an important strategic plan, do you really not need a new planeswalker to escort you?"

"No, that's not necessary." Helgi immediately rejected the proposal.

His airtight attitude made Vardas feel something was amiss, so he tried to test the waters.

"I'm curious, did you decide that Luna should take this position? Why? Is it because she is still young?"

Helgi finally put down his glass and solemnly declared to Vardas.

"The [Divine Punishment] Project is about to be restarted."

Vardas was stunned. He felt a little uneasy under the stare, but then he laughed out loud.

"Wasn't this funny plan shelved a long time ago? Why is it being brought out again now? Is it because your technical center has too much funding recently and has nowhere to spend it?"

No one responded to the awkward joke, only Helgi's sharp and serious eyes.

The smile fell immediately, and Vardas suddenly realized the truth of the news. Even though he had become an angel, he still felt an invisible cold sweat flowing down his back.

"What stage has the negotiation reached?"

Vardas admitted that he was intimidated.

If the Heavenly Punishment Project can be successfully completed, then the Heavenly Punishment Weapon will become a sword hanging over the heads of Sequence Two or even Sequence One. Valdas once believed that this plan was just a beautiful fantasy of mankind, an expensive placebo for this dying era. The three forces agreed to shelve the plan, but it was just a soap bubble that was punctured by reality. This self-deceiving lie could no longer be continued.

"The official negotiations have not yet begun, but the Church of Night, the Church of Steam, and our Abraham have all restarted their research. Whoever completes their task first will have the upper hand in the negotiations."

Helgi confessed.

"According to some information, we believe that the Church of Evernight has completed the construction of their ground battlefield system. So next, we must transform the new outpost before the Church of Steam, so that it can be used with the weapons of divine punishment, and then launch it into place.

"If the Heavenly Punishment Plan finally comes true, then in the outpost equipped with the Heavenly Punishment weapon, there will be no difference between Sequence 5 Luna and Sequence 2 you. Under the condition of suppressing Beyonder abilities, your importance is not even as important as Luna - at least she had been working in the outpost's project team before she defected, and she knows a lot about the space station and other matters.

"In terms of technical work, although Luna is in the middle of the project, it is not that the project cannot be transferred without her; in terms of the astronaut team, Luna left the active astronaut team last year because of a promotion. The two may not be special when viewed separately, but they are different when combined. Whether it is to train a technician to become an astronaut, or to train an astronaut to become a technician, it takes a huge time cost, and Abraham can't wait.

"Even if we don't talk about the subsequent Heavenly Punishment Plan, it is still inappropriate for you to take off with the outpost. As an angel, you will trigger a more powerful extraordinary aggregation phenomenon, which is likely to attract a huge extraordinary disaster. This is why during the past three hundred years, Abraham's astronauts who ascended to the starry sky were required to be at Sequence Five, no higher and no lower.

"As for you, a Sequence Two, it is really a waste of your talent to use you in this position. The Council of Elders will definitely find you a more valuable strategic position. On the contrary, you are so persistent in launching with the space station, and you have a history of defection. It is hard not to let the Council of Elders think that you have some bigger and darker plot."

There are not many astronauts in Abraham who are actually on active duty. More qualified people will be added to the sequence, leaving full-time training to participate in other work. However, if there is a shortage of manpower, the astronauts in the sequence will be recalled, put into active service, and start the mission immediately.

"But now, Luna has also defected." Valdas shrugged, "So what are you going to do?"

"Her sister, Mia Haydon, has returned to Abraham."

"Helgi, you!"

Vardas stared at Helgi in disbelief, and suddenly felt that Helgi was very strange and even a little hateful.

"You actually wanted to capture Luna and even threatened her family? You are really unscrupulous!"

"Vardas, as someone who has defected from the family, you are not qualified to say the words 'by any means necessary'."

Helgi was surprisingly calm.

"As descendants of two astronauts, Mia and Luna were also selected into the astronaut sequence. Before being promoted to Sequence Five, they also worked in the project team of the outpost space station. The difference is that Mia was selected by Marquis Hayden and left the sequence because of marriage, while Luna left the sequence because of promotion. In theory, they are both excellent candidates, but Mia left her technical position for a longer time.

"The more fundamental difference between the two of them is that Mia is more responsible and dedicated than her sister.

"It takes a year to select a technical backbone and train them. It takes six months to select an active astronaut and train them. When Mia returns to take up the position, she only needs one month of refresher training. But when Luna comes, we can launch in two weeks."

Under Vardas' complicated gaze, Helgi took a sip of wine lightly.

“This is not kidnapping or threat, Valdas. This is Mia’s own choice. We did not negotiate with the Marquis to let her go. Instead, Mia returned to the family after receiving the news.

"As for whether to return to the family in the end, that is Luna's own choice. If she comes back, then the astronaut is her. If she doesn't come back, the astronaut is her sister."

Helgi instead poured a glass of wine for the silent Vardas.

"Do you understand, Valdas? No one is special, no one is irreplaceable, neither you nor Luna. No one is the protagonist who decides the life and death of this world, including me.

"You are very powerful. You have taken many steps that Abraham dared not take, but so what? Without us, Abraham is still operating peacefully. You think you are in control of the lifeline that can change the overall situation, but this is actually just an illusion given to you by the world. Abraham, this behemoth, will find a way out on its own and fill the scars we left behind.

"The family does not revolve around me, you, or Luna, and the world does not revolve around us. You can leave when you want, come back when you want, and do whatever you want.

"After being expelled from the family, you returned home with glory, and from then on the entire family followed your will? Or, everyone, whether opposing or supporting, was just a background board to set off your great will? Without you, the family would usher in the end? Valdas, you have read too many third-rate novels!

"Wake up, Valdas! We are not the protagonists of novels who can have so-called redemption!

"If Luna is as important as you think, why hasn't Abraham caught her yet? If she was really worth Abraham's full effort, she would have been stuffed into the space station and launched into space by now."

“Vardas, we are always the best solution, but that doesn’t mean we are the only solution. Because we are not the protagonists of the story, history and the family will continue to move forward without us.

"It's sad for us, Valdas. We can't even sit at the family's negotiation table. If we don't get recognition from the Abraham family, your status as a "Defected Sequence Two" will be enough for the church to file you with a terrorist organization, and it will become an excuse for them to intervene in society with their angel-level combat power. The real potential threat will be you and your laboratory.

"Similarly, it is Luna who has to pay for her own choice. It is she who loses herself or her sister, not Abraham. Abraham will lose nothing. It is us who make the choice and lose.

"Moreover, since Luna has already enjoyed the good life brought by Abraham and the preferential resources brought by the astronaut sequence, she must pay for this gift of destiny."

At this point, it was not difficult for Helgi to guess where the little girl was now.

"Luna is in your hands, isn't she."

Vardas nodded solemnly.

"Then you must have asked her, if she were asked to live her life over again, completely giving up the comfortable life in Abraham, without the financial, educational, technical, and opportunity support that her family had given her since she was a child, and being born as an ordinary Backlund civilian girl, embracing her so-called freedom. What would her answer be at that time?"

"…Luna hesitated."

Vardas drank the wine in the glass with a gloomy face. It was obvious that he was not satisfied with this answer, which made Luna's defection fundamentally different from his own. Although he and Helgi had many different concepts, as childhood friends, their fundamental will was still the same: they were willing to sacrifice everything for responsibility, family or ideals.

Helgi had expected this answer, so he just silently refilled Vardas's glass. The two of them fell into silence.

After a long time, Helgi finally stood up.

"I will help you communicate with the Council of Elders regarding your return to the family."

"Oh?" Valdas swirled the wine in his glass without looking at him. "What qualifications do you have to negotiate with them?"

"Because I peed on the elder's robe with you when we were little."

Helgi walked away without looking back.