"Y-You!"
Varian tried to teleport but a powerful formation was blocking this place. Giving up all pretense, he used his full powers to break out but the formation was still holding out.
Why did she attack him? How did she arrange this formation which required so much preparation beforehand?
Most importantly—
"H-How do you…?" "I just do." Eshala approached him, brilliant starlight emerging out of her foot every time she took a step.
Varian hurriedly formed a domain where both order and chaos rules acted against time power. Then, he hurriedly created a space shield for himself. And he didn't spare the effort to put up a powerful life and death force shield.
"Was it fun?" She casually waved her hand. The shield he painstakingly set up shattered instantly, blasting him away and tearing his body into pieces.
Thanks to the power of life, Varian merged back but not without consequence. [Time corruption of the soul: 3%]
A gray light covered a small portion of his glowing soul, freezing it.
"Disguising yourself, earning the shards right under our noses." She flicked her fingers and Varian's vitality ceased for a few seconds.
[10%]
'Escape, escape, I have to escape!'
The slivers of order and chaos were put to full use to find a way out of this formation. It'd take just a few moments more, but!
'Fuck! Fuck!' He didn't have that long!
"And fooling me to use my own name for your purposes." Eshala's face was livid and she clenched her fist.
"Arghhh!" Varian's consciousness was thrown into a prison of hell, a prickling pain assaulting his soul.
[25%]
He kept teleporting away, trying to escape but Eshala kept following. And no matter how much he teleported, he remained under that damn formation.
"Oh, are you wondering where I got this formation from?" Eshala chuckled, her eyes turning red. "It's a gift."
"A gif—kuugh!" The dark space flashed white for a moment and Varian's body was split into millions of thin pieces, exploding helplessly.
He emerged back into life with a pale face and dull eyes.
[50%]
"After I kill you and capture the slivers, I'll go after your family. Your wives. And calamity too. Everyone has to pay." Eshala's face distorted in rage and she appeared in front of him.
She grabbed his head and thrust her hand into his heart, grabbing it.
Her face was right in front of his and her bloodshot eyes stared into his. "Can you see it?" Eshala's eyes were shaking violently, the madness in them growing with every moment.
"Can you see my pain?"
"Arghhhh!" A gray power emerged from her hand and flooded his heart. The time flow between his body parts, soul and mind were cut off in the worst of ways, inflicting on him tremendous pain.
Varian twitched and thrashed, trying to escape. But Eshala held him in place, watching in catharsis as he struggled in the torture. Her hand gripped his heart and she reveled in feeling his agony.
"You torture your prisoners a lot, don't you?" Eshala's face was splashed with his blood and she didn't even bother wiping it off.
That bloodied face looked at him up close and she spoke in a vicious tone, showing her reddened teeth. "Did you also torture my daughter like this?"
[75%]
Tears began to flow out of Eshala's eyes and the princess sobbed. "I am a bad mother…I couldn't protect her here…I let her live there…and yet and yet, someone like you!" Her fingers pierced his eyes and ripped off his nose.
[80%]
Eshala shook with anger as she tore him apart.
"You put her through so much pain!" [85%]
"I can't kill you so easily! But if I delay any longer, they'll catch up!" [90%]
"Why? Why do you have it so easy?" Tearing his face into two using her fingers, she screamed.
[95%]
"Why do you have such an easy death while my daughter suffered so much?"
[99%]
"He-Hehe…"
"Huh?" Eshala stopped. She wanted to end him right there but this man, how dare he?
How dare he laugh now?
Even though her rationale told her to kill him right away, Eshala wanted to torture him a little longer.
The reason she didn't use her powers and extend time to give herself a few days to torture him was because such manipulation would be impossible if a divine ranker of Varian's strength resisted.
But now that he's crippled, she should be able to gain a few minutes of torture period before she could wrap and leave.
Even if her siblings reach this place, it'd be tot late by then.
With a snap of her fingers, the time flow of the place changed. As expected, Varian's body resisted instinctively but it was much lower than normal.
Eshala waved her hand and a few thousand torture tools emerged from behind. It wasn't just his body but even his soul would be put through excruciating pain.
"You wish you never laughed!" She grabbed a glowing red needle and pierced it into his head.
Varian's soul shook violently for a moment and all his thought process briefly stopped. Then a searing pain assaulted his spirit, putting him through a mind breaking agony.
Watching him struggle, Eshala said. "This is the weakest weapon in my hand. You're in for a treat."
"K-Kuh!" Eshala pulled out eleven more such needles and pierced his head.
As the leader who dealt with assassinations, torture was her forte. She thus had the best weapons for the job across the empire.
The pain she put Varian through was enough to make even a divine ranker beg for death.
But he…
"H-He…Hehehehe…"
His face was broken, so he couldn't speak physically. But his soul could. Even when he's in such pain, even when his soul was corrupted 99%, he could still speak. And he could laugh!
Even in all that anger, Eshala couldn't help be shocked. "Y-You! What the fuck! Are you a monster?" She lied about the needles being the weakest weapons. They were the strongest. This man should've been broken already. But not only was he fine, he was laughing. What sort of mental state did he achieve to be like this?
"D-Daughter…is…"
"Don't you dare!" Eshala's power flooded his body and his soul began to break down under the assault.
It was as if a large boulder was thrown onto a normal person. Varian felt like that as he crushed under the weight.
But for a brief, brief moment, he resisted.
"S-Safe…"
[100%]
"Huh?"