Immortal was feeling terrible.
For the past hour, he had been torturing this bastard, inflicting upon him unimaginable pain in novel ways.
Varian screamed, roared and whimpered.
But he never begged.
He never showed remorse or regret.
Varian suffered brutal horrors that would wilt the heart of the brave at a glance and had the galls to smile, smirk and mock Immortal whenever he could.
Immortal did everything he could think of. And grandly failed to break Varian.
This victory that he longed for the past thousand years did not taste so sweet.
It was certainly cathartic defeating the only man who beat him in the same rank.
But at some point, Immortal realized that Varian was less than a hundred years old.
All positive feelings in his heart dissipated, leaving behind envious, frustrated and ironically, helpless thoughts.
For everyone else, Immortal won and Varian lost.
For the man himself, it was a cruel joke that he could not accept.
He wanted to win, he wanted to see Varian break down and beg for his mercy.
It did not happen after everything and he saw no path for it until he noticed the change in Varian.
'All the pain in the world might not break you. But you dared to hope! Hope is a dangerous thing. It lifts your spirits and makes you believe you could be more.'
Varian's eye sockets glowed with a black and white light.
Immortal loosened his hold on Varian and smiled heartily.
'But when that hope is killed, the pain will shatter your soul.'
The black and white light suddenly turned blindingly bright, rivaling the brightness of stars.
The rank 2 powerhouses except Keman and Yami felt a sense of discomfort watching that glow and turned away for a moment.
Immortal shielded his eyes while noticing that his enemy was regenerating at a terrific pace and deciding not to act just yet.
'Varian, you could've died peacefully if you haven't hoped. Now, you're going to die with the poison of disappointment tainting your soul.
Your last thought would be a very painful What If.'
Varian regained his senses and external perception after an hour. All the darkness and void vanished. He could see the colorful and brilliant world once again.
And the one at the focus of his view.
A smirking Immortal who slowly brought his hands together and clapped.
"Wow, is that your secret move? I'm so scared…!" His shoulders trembled as he burst into a scornful laughter.
Varian glanced at his sobbing wives, crestfallen maids, the unaware Primula and sighed for the missing Aurora.
"You think you have a chance? Come at me. Do your best or worst. This is your only chance to attack, draw everything in your arsenal."
Varian clenched his fists and looked at Immortal with a vengeful gaze, a stare that he only ever gave Haedon.
"Come on! Go ahead!" Immortal raised his arms to indicate he had no defenses up and taunted. "Or do you need time after crying this long? Don't worry, I'll wait."
Varian exhaled lightly and the power of slivers exploded out of him, forming two large black and white wings behind him. Then the power of seven paths soared.
Yami watched him with interest. Varian's silver proficiency had grown by at least 3% in such a short period of time.
It's not simply incredible, it's an unbelievable feat.
If she didn't witness everything by herself, Yami would not have believed such a person existed.
A seed of doubt emerged in her mind, wondering if it was really the best thing to bet on Immortal. But she quickly shook herself out of it, reasoning that this drastic improvement must either be the last bits of strength Varian kept hidden or the work of the fused slivers.
'Immortal is born from the slivers, has the slivers and it took him decades to progress 3%. No way this scum could do it in an hour.'
That moment of hesitation irritated her and that anger was transferred toward Varian.
"Show him the gulf between you." Yami said with a scornful smile. "Even his strongest attack is just an inconvenience."
Despite the provocations from both the enemy and his supporter, Varian didn't make a move immediately.
Showing utmost focus and solemnity, he spread out his powers to weave a net around Immortal. Staying true to his words, Immortal crossed his arms and waited for Varian's move.
He already assessed the net, the possible combinations of attacks that could be pulled off and concluded that not a single attack could go beyond the damage of a 70% divine ranker strength.
It would hurt a little, might need him to regenerate but that's it. So, Immortal waited for Varian to move first so that he could respond in kind and crush him absolutely.
Varian's eyes slowly glowed with determination and Immortal held his breath, waiting for the attack to emerge.
The net of seven powers closed abruptly and Immortal let it strike him with a carefree expression. The power of life, death and soul split him into pieces, drained his vitality and pumped his undead aspect with vitality. The order and chaos tore him apart. Space-time distorted the entire fabric around him, making it difficult for him to escape. "That's it?" Within a blink, Immortal recovered from all injuries and raised his hand at Varian. A lotus of red bloomed from his palm. "I was expecting more." Before he could shoot the flower of death, Varian's figure blurred and he vanished. A smooth teleportation, very useful in escaping. But—
"Not so fast!" Immortal used the power of life he left on Varian, using it to directly transfer his consciousness to that position and create a body there.
Varian blasted out that piece of corrupted vitality and kept teleporting. Naturally, Immortal kept chasing. The distance between them was falling, leaving Varian with only a dozen more seconds until he came face to face with Immortal again.
"Coward? I never expected you to be a coward! Varian, you are spineless! Hahahahaha!" Immortal finally found joy in the subjugation and snorted in satisfaction. "That's it. I've had enough fun with you."
His power soared and the distance between them was cut in half. Varian hurriedly used the power of time to slow down Immortal but the latter had already transferred his consciousness to a newly constructed body elsewhere.
In just three leaps, Immortal was dangerously close to Varian. The divine rankers watching the battle with interest shrugged. The battle had come to a closure.
And now that Immortal had enough 'fun', he'd be killing Varian instead of keeping him alive. Even though they didn't know why, the intuition of these divine rankers said it was a good thing. In the corner of their subconscious, a part of them was afraid. Afraid of this monster who flipped all conventional wisdom. So, they wanted him gone.
On the contrary to the complacent and relaxed divine rankers, Varian's camp was tense but this time, they were hopeful.
Varian gave Sarah and Isadora one glance after regenerating was enough. Sarah was confident, no, she was damn sure that he'd be able to solve this impossible situation.
Isadora, on the other hand, leaned back into her seat and sighed in relief. Even though her heart was still throbbing in anxiety, her mind was telling her to relax. 'Everything is going to be alright. He said so.' The maids were smiling. Helena had a relieved expression and looked at the silhouettes of the distant divine rankers with a vengeful expression.
She remembered every single one of their scornful remarks, especially the ones who laughed when Varian was in misery. Her master might've not paid attention to these things during that state and the ladies were too fixated on him to even register what's happening. But she carefully listened and remembered every single thing.
So, one day, not too far in the future, she'd watch her master and ladies enforce justice.
Their laughters must turn into wails and only screams must leak out of the mouths that made those lowly comments.
Unlike Helena who was planning a revenge, Hazel had to shut her mouth to stop herself from yelling 'Yaaay! Master will win!'
And Primula, who was finally allowed to use her senses, looked at the positive expressions of everyone in their camp.
"You call yourself adults but can't even cheer for brother! Hmph! Adult? More like old ladies! A thousand years? Seriously?"
While a certain girl was dissing off practically everyone in her camp, Varian vanished once again, teleporting into the deep reaches of space. Like the divine rankers, Immortal too laughed at Varian's last struggle and transferred to his position.
…Unlike every other place so far, this one was inside a world.
The doors of the worlds closed and Hortus' sky turned red with thick black lightning falling like rain.
"Welcome to Hortus. This is my world. And this is going to be your graveyard."