"What happened to him?" As soon as they entered another long corridor, Mencius asked. "You told him to get escape with us, didn't you?"
"Of course!" Immortal shrugged. "But didn't you see his face? He was dazed out. I don't know what he was thinking."
"Fuck."
"Don't worry." Lilith chuckled, carefree at the possibility of her teammate dying. "This man here can take on all of Jai's minions. Missing one person won't make a big difference."
Immortal snorted at the flattery but didn't deny her words.
'Once Varian dies, the slivers would find a way out as this place is dangerous. And they'll end up in my hands.'
While the descendant of Yami and Keman prepared for his grand future, the man he planned to kill was cursing all sorts of profanities, starting from Immortal's mother, father and all the way to their great grand parents.
"Can you please just die already?"
Varian's arms and legs were blasted into pieces before they regenerated in a blink and got blasted again.
True to their reputation, his enemies were notoriously strong and he was having a hard time dealing with them using only the path of a single path.
And so, after finally confirming that Immortal was not monitoring this place for the ninth time, Varian unleashed his full power.
Boom!
Desmond's alt, a four armed hunk, was shredded into pieces by the violent storm of space while the time of his body came to a near stand still.
Kaaa!
Lilith's alt, an undead succubus, stumbled back as her charm attack through clever application of soul was neutralized. And then, a chain built of the purest life force enclosed her before ripping her apart.
Mencius' alt was hit by the power of chaos and got easily killed.
"Phew~" Varian exhaled lightly.
The power difference between them was larger than he imagined, in his favor. But the only one he actually wanted to test against, Immortal, gave him no chance for a battle.
'Status'
[Pseudo Divine: Slivers of Divine Power
Paragon Body: 15/90
Ignis: 10/90
Death Giant: 20/90
Order: 10/90
Chaos: 10/90
Space: 5/90
Time: 5/90
<This is the transitionary phase. The celestial energy in your body is sublimating and there are prototypes of divine energy being formed.
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 passing through the wall but it ended as he found himself in a corridor with—
"What the fuck 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 space 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 hourglass 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 space, 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 space 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 space.
There was no shockwave, no fluctuation, no aura.
The second woman's body exploded into pieces.
"Y-You…who the fuck 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 god."
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
Space: 25/90
Time: 25/90
<Stupidly taking beatings? Who does that? It's better to fight, fight and fight…or maybe not. The System had given up advising you.
Do what you will, Dear Madman.>]