Not even the most audacious warrior dreamed of today.
One could travel a thousand years back in history, ten thousand or even a million, two things remained constant.
The attacker and the defender.
As if they were roles given by nature itself, the Jai kept attacking and the Alliance kept defending.
Rulers changed. Eras changed. Power differentials changed. But the dynamic of the two remained.
Any history nerd of the Alliance would laugh when asked to present a proactive offensive of the Alliance against the Empire.
But today…History was made.
Nine extraordinary beings locked their auras onto Varian, six of them at peak rank 9 and three pseudo divines.
"Have you realized what you have done?" Hector Russ asked in an exasperated voice. "You have caused a disaster. The entire Alliance would be paying a price. This matter is now beyond everyone's control. You have doomed us all to an escalation we never intended."
The expressions of the eight members were also grim.
Hector wasn't the strongest of them but he had the most potential of them all. They all believed he'd be a divine ranker soon and join under the special group of
underlings serving the 7th Prince.
If even he with his vast influence declared that this matter was now beyond his control, then it's likely that an escalation was inevitable.
Why would it not be?
If the Jai Emperor remained silent after this atrocity, then forget the enemies becoming bold and repeating the misadventure, internal discontent would swallow them alive.
"Escalation?" Varian sneered, flashing the overlords a sarcastic smile. "It's funny how you remember all this crap after attacking the kingdom. You shouldn't have provoked me into provoking you further, got it?"
"Crazy. He's crazy. This bastard has no remorse for dragging us into a brutal war. Fucking damn it!"
A thin man with copper skin, wearing a black metal armor that covered his entire body, floated forward. Only his fingers and eyes were visible from the covering.
A chill shot down Varian's spine as the reptilian red eyes of the man looked at him with a predatory gaze.
This bastard…
"What's your name? Where are you from? Will you remove the disguise voluntarily?"
He maintained a palarian disguise for all the fightings so far. Since it was helped by Isadora, he didn't think he was caught.
'A bluff?'
Varian opened his mouth to refute.
"No need for clever retorts. I will find out after pulverizing your bones and crushing your will. This is the vow of Ahriman." He said in a voice that resounded across light years.
Varian frowned.
Yeah. There were always some stupid racial abilities. This guy seemed to have a racial talent to discern real identity from fake ones.
"Oh? So you're not a Palarian?" Hector Russ stepped forward, his aura flaring up as if to deny the injuries he suffered earlier. "How cunning! You almost fooled me! When I find out your true identity, your family, friends and race—I will spare not a single one."
Varian exhaled lightly and punched back.
A one eyed woman who appeared behind him with almost trace of aura fluctuation and was closing the distance to launch an attack on him was caught off guard. In a twist, the one who intended to ambush was ambushed.
"Arghh!"
Varian didn't hold back at all. The supreme power of Paragon Body, filled with raging vitality, broke the defensive space layers covering the woman's skin and blasted open her stomach.
"Gahh!"
His fist loosened and a brilliant green light surged out of his palm.
"Arghhh!"
A flood of vitality drowned the woman's insides, destroying all life in her and killing her in an instant.
In reality, she had a full moment to respond to that attack and should've gotten away.
At least, that's what the eight powerhouses expected her to do. They remained puzzled for her incompetent behavior.
If they knew that a soul attack struck her at point blank range, neutralizing all her movement attempts, they wouldn't have thought of her as incompetent.
Soul attacks were always supposed to attack a person's body before breaking that shell and damaging their soul. Its a process that always resulted in reduction of attack's effectiveness.
Yet, a soul attack was seen as dangerous by many. In that context, a soul attack at point blank range was more than dangerous.
Boom!
The woman exploded into pieces. Her only eye glowed like an emerald before melting away.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
At the same instant, as if they were waiting for that opportunity, eight space attacks fell on Varian.
The space around him was folded, cutting off any hopes of teleporation and easy escape. Then it all compressed, like a The space around him was folded, cutting off any hopes of teleporation and easy escape. Then it all compressed, like a large invisible hand clasped together.
Varian's body, despite posessing a great defense was crushed into paste.
The eight warriors didn't let go of him directly. Instead, they loosened the space and tightened it again and again, like an invisible piston was slamming his remains.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
"Paragon Bodies can recover from a drop of blood, right?" Watching the ongoing violence, Hector Russ chuckled.
"More resilient than that." Ahriman kept his gaze on the mass of flesh, his eyes coldly. "This won't kill him, but it should weaken him enough for our interrogation."
A few thousand times of beatings later, it all stopped.
As they expected, the mass of flesh eventually pieced itself together into the Palarian man.
He looked pale, tired and dispirited.
"Too easy."
One of them commented.
Shuaa!
A spear lodged into his throat and tilted up, separting his head from the body. Without even realizing what happened, the man died abruptly.
"Nah, too fast."
Varian withdrew the spear and shook his head. The power of time lingered on him, confusing the heck out of everyone. Was he a time awakener or did he just have a suitable treasure?
No, no matter the treasure, this seemed a bit too…
"I can survive being crushed into a paste, can you?"
Varian raised his hands under their omnious gaze and brought them together.
Booom!
Space shook.