It was difficult to sustain a physical body when the whole world was trying to rip his soul away. Exposing his soul to the erosion was too risky. Even if it could take away the of the burden on keeping himself together if he just fought in his soul form, Varian decided it was not worth the risk.
The ever present white mist—the condensed soul power—acted as a shield and blocked Varian's perceptions from sensing his surroundings. With only a limited range of perception, Varian had to search everything by himself.
Limited by the situation, Varian did just that. He searched, searched and searched. A week passed or perhaps two.
There was nothing to be found.
Or maybe he there was something but this place was too weird for a physical being to navigate. "Logos, any ideas?"
[The souls, perhaps?]
Even Logos sounded uncertain. Come to think of it, it was fun seeing the all knowing and ever composed system to turn into this.
But the circumstances which brought out that change were not fun at all.
"Hey, dude." Varian grabbed a random soul passing by and decided to finally do what he didn't try so far.
Soul Search.
It's something he could've done elsewhere with much ease. But Nirvana was a special case. With rich soul power floating around everywhere, if Varian attempted to soul search any soul, he'd encounter fierce resistance.
And his intuition was also hinting that it would be risky.
"Fuck it. Let's do it." Varian poured his soul power into the captured soul. The soul, a golden glowing silhouttee, trembled violently for a moment before a shockwave emerged from it. The soul power in Nirvana froze for a moment before it descended down onto Varian like a beast pouncing on its prey. "Oh no."
Varian drilled into the soul with much more urgency. There's no time to read rest of the memories. He could only capture the most important one. [Spirit King]
Varian hurriedly threw away the soul from his grasp and the violent storm that brewed across Nirvana dissipated as if everything earlier had been an illusion.
"Haa! Haa! Haa!" Varian clutched his knees and panted violently. Now that he got what he wanted, he should be able to summon the Soul King. "Almost th—"
A hand patted his shoulder and a grumbling voice rang.
"My toys! My toys!"
"Toys?" Varian turned around and nearly jumped. A pure silver silhouttee appeared in front of him. It was unclear whether it was a male or female, young or old.
The only thing that's obvious was two glowing red lights in the place of the silhouette's eyes.
"My toys!" The silhouette growled and its aura shot out.
Varian was blasted away without resistance, his body breaking into half in that single shot.
"R-Rank 2!" "My toys!" The Spirit King seemed seriously pissed that Varian conducted a conduct search. His hand glowed.
"Broke my toy!"
Varian hurriedly used the blessings of Elysium and Purgatory on himself, pushing him beyond the power of any peak rank 1. Fusing all paths into soul, Varian blasted a beam of pure soul power at the Spirit King.
The attack was terrible. It was enough to destroy every single prince that attended the event. All thousand of them.
But the recipient of the attack, the Spirit King didn't seem to care. When it reached him, he simply swatted his hand and the beam was bounced off.
There was only a small crack on his hand but it quickly recovered.
"Become my toy!"
He pressed forward and engulfed Varian in a rain of silver light.
"Arhghh!" Golden light poured out of Varian's eyes, nose and mouth. His soul was being pulled out with a violent force and he was losing control of his self. Varian didn't dare to take any more chance and used the medallion of Elysium.
{Challenge Aborted}
With a flash of light, the medallion vanished. And with it went Varian.
Compared to the corrosive, void world of souls, the land of life was beautiful and soothing.
Even though he had fallen into a frozen river that hurt his injuries, Varian would prefer this treatment over that creepy world.
"You're practical enough to escape when you can't win. Some fools are too rigid and turned into his puppets." A woman with a holy temperment was sitting on the river bank. Her lost sacredness was restored with the authority she regained after Varian sacrificed the medallion.
Varian took a few deep breaths and stepped out of the river.
She looked at him with a kind smile. "Now, do you want to stop the impossible and consider other things?"
Varian stretched his hand. "Give it."
The angel rolled her eyes in exasperation. "…You just saw how strong he is. A rank 1 can't defeat him. And a rank 2 can't enter this place. The challenge is impossible. "
"Medallion." Varian insisted. "Haaa~" The angel sighed, her wings folding along with her. A glowing item appeared in her palm and before she could give it, Varian grabbed it from her and vanished.
"Seriously?"
Varian decided to use all his power this time. He stepped into that dull world once again and provoked another soul. The Spirit King appeared as expected and he's more pissed off than the last time.
"Toy! My toy!" Varian was prepared. A wheel of black and white emerged behind him. The slivers imposed laws of Order and Chaos in the domain, restraining the Spirit King.
Green and red lotuses appeared to his sides. The slivers of life and death. Unlike the mini-slivers, these were the original slivers. Even now, Varian couldn't believe that the rulers gave away the slivers. But neither could he believe the arrival of God Emperor. Perhaps even for them, it wasn't something they regularly faced. 'They reacted like he's stronger than normal. I can't really tell.'
"My toy!" The Spirit King's power was diminished by the laws of Order and Chaos. The amount of soul energy he could use fell.
Even though the gap between them was too big, it was better than before.
"Life Draining—Death Filling Domain."
The lotus of life turned upside down while the lotus of death mounted it. And then they began to spin around a vertical axis. A fire of red and green exploded, washing over the Spirit King.
The glowing silver soul stumbled for the first time and its majestic look dimmed. Varian boosted himself with the power of the two regions once again and shot at the Spirit King. "Hahahahaha!" For some reason, the being cackled in mania as Varian's blast cracked his hand. But the injury was regenerated in a blink and the Spirit King clenched his fist.
Varian couldn't even react before his surroundings glowed golden and silver. The medallion of Elysium, which was set to activate in times of danger, vibrated. The next thing he knew, he was lying in a grasslands with half broken body and a fully broken spirit.
The angel sat next to him with a disapproving gaze. "Have you learnt your lesson?"