This is the final step before, well, a lot of things.
May Your Will Remain Firm>]
Varian rubbed his fingers and a bit of silver light emerged from his skin. It was pure, holy and exceedingly powerful.
But before he could even condense it into a sphere, it dissipated like a weak flame on a windy night.
"Haa~"
Stretching his arms, Varian walked to the wall and a light shone down on him. He felt a sense of dissonance pa.s.sing through the wall but it ended as he found himself in a corridor with—
"What the f.u.c.k are you doing here?"
The group of Jai Empire turned to him with a confused gaze.
"Got abandoned. And then got lost." Varian shrugged.
"This trick is too old." The leader of the group, Sloan, shook his head before addressing his teammates. "If he"s here, the rest must be close. We can"t fall behind. Let"s hurry."
"…"
Varian watched in silence as they shot forward.
"Oh and Kongzi, end him."
As Sloan"s team vanished into the distance, a red light shot toward him at an incredible speed.
It was a red haired man carrying a large sword on his back. And the power he wielded was that of…chaos?
"Dissipation."
The word was uttered in sync with the sword being unsheathed.
Varian"s aura constricted in his body before it began to leak out, like he"s a punctured balloon losing all air.
"You resemble Ares, a bit." Varian brandished his own sword.
Kongzi"s eyes narrowed and he laughed like a madman. "My ancestors hunted them down for their powers and pushed ourselves up the hierarchy."
"A different answer would"ve saved your life." Varian shook his head with a resigned expression and swung his sword.
"Hu-Whaaat?!"
An incredible power of life enveloped the entire corridor, causing even the group of four racing ahead to halt in their tracks.
Kongzi was drowned in the power of life and desperately poured out the power of chaos to survive.
He would have, if not for the sneaky bits of soul and death powers that drilled into his body like maggots and drained his life.
"Arghh!"
When the light faded, only a bunch of clothes remained in the place of Kongzi along with his sword.
Varian took a step forward and the four who left a few moments ago came running back.
This time, no one, not even Sloan dared to dismiss him.
"Take him down!"
All of them attacked him together.
Varian faced four very different and very strong attacks at once.
The s.p.a.ce abruptly crushed a quarter of his body into mincemeat. Then the gravity began to pull his limbs apart, causing his neck to stretch to the breaking point.
When he tried to respond, his soul was struck by an invisible hammer and everything dulled. He tried to act even in that terrible situation, but the time flowing around him slowed down.
Varian"s vitality began to break down at a rate visible to the naked eye. If Kongzi had been alive and was allowed to attack together with the group, he might have been in trouble.
"What a formidable line up. As expected of Jai."
The group of four approached him step by step and as they did, Varian collapsed onto his knees as his legs were crushed and melted away.
"A dangerous foe." Sloan looked down at him with cold eyes. "Thankfully, you revealed yourself and can no longer catch us by surprise."
"Cough, cough, cough." Varian puked some blood, teeth and bits of flesh. And he looked up at the four through eyes drenched in blood. "I didn"t want to do this."
"Yeah, regret comes late. Shouldn"t have tried this trick on us." Sloan raised an axe.
"No, not that."
The corridor began to tremble as a powerful aura emerged from Varian.
"I didn"t want to take beatings to grow,"
The invisible soul hammer striking him was shattered, causing a woman in the team to stumble back and crash to the ground.
"But I am a bit impatient."
The flow of time was broken and the backlash left caused the woman carrying a hourgla.s.s to cough out blood.
"You see, I have a powerful enemy." Varian"s body regenerated in a blink.
The force of gravity tearing his limbs apart halted as a beam of death entered its user and incapacitated him in a blink.
"So, I decided to be a bit impatient and take the beatings." Varian stood up tall and straight.
The power of s.p.a.ce, applied on him by Sloan, shattered, causing the leader to take a few steps backward.
"But it"s wrong." Varian swiped his finger in the blank s.p.a.ce and a woman"s head flew into the air. The power of chaos and order followed.
"I"d rather beat than get beaten." He punched the empty s.p.a.ce.
There was no shockwave, no fluctuation, no aura.
The second woman"s body exploded into pieces.
"Y-You…who the f.u.c.k are you? Not even the 7th Prince was like this…"Sloan retreated with a scared and tense expression, his face already pale with fear.
"Tch." Varian clicked his tongue and grabbed empty air.
With a scream that came a second early, a soul was squeezed into pieces and shattered, leaving behind an empty body that collapsed to the ground.
Staring at Sloan"s trembling lips and shaking hands, he grinned. "I"m going to beat the dad, so I should at least be better than his sons, right?"
Sloan"s eyes widened and his mind went blank. Even when Varian"s blade sliced his neck, he kept looking at him with a dumbfounded, confused and sarcastic gaze.
"Y-You can"t w-win against…a..keh…a G.o.d."
To the last words of the greatest celestial genius of Jai, Varian rubbed his chin and shrugged. "If I have to, I have to. I don"t really have a choice, buddy."
"Status"
[Pseudo Divine: Slivers of Divine Power
Paragon Body: 40/90
Ignis: 30/90
Death Giant: 40/90
Order: 30/90
Chaos: 30/90
s.p.a.ce: 25/90
Time: 25/90
Do what you will, Dear Madman.>]