A month passed.
Varian's eyes turned a bit more bleak and much more desperate.
Ariel prepared to console him when he gave up.
A year went by.
Varian's eyes were dark, so was his expression. He looked like a machine that was programmed to hit an unbreakable wall until eternity. The wall was unbreakable so it's only a matter of time before the machine broke.
Ariel was no longer composed. She tried to talk to him but as if his ears stopped working, he stopped listening. And he also stopped opening his mouth to speak.
The angel began to wonder if he could even see her.
Watching him try again and again, Ariel began to fear for his sanity.
Four more years passed by.
Varian was always in a near-death state after every attempt. But whenever he recovered, he went back at it. There was no improvement in his state, no increase in his strength, no confidence in his eyes.
Stuck where he was, the man continued what he was doing. Ariel, despite her long life experience, calm personality and great wisdom, couldn't sit still.
"Stop! Stop! Stop!" When he stretched his hand once again for the medallion, she shook him by the shoulders.
Varian looked at her in confusion before stretching his hand once again. "This isn't the way!" Ariel screamed.
Varian showed no reaction and looked at her blankly. But his aura began to slowly rise.
His paths remained where they were five years ago but his proficiency in handling them was better than ever. Yet, even that proficiency changed nothing in the bigger picture.
"Damn it!" Ariel used the authority of guardian and took them to the edges of Elysium, inches away from the barrier that seperated the forbidden region from the outer space.
Varian finally showed a reaction. He glanced outside the barrier and stretched his arm out.
His arm easily passed through Elysium's barrier but encountered something outside.
Varian trembled violently before withdrawing his arm. His entire forearm was missing, as if it was cut clean.
"Have you come to your senses?" Ariel asked. Varian rubbed his forehead. "I've always been sane. Just focused on figuring out how to defeat him."
Ariel was exasperated but she couldn't do anything other than sigh deeply. "Look," rubbing her forehead, she said. "I admire your tenacity but whatever you're doing isn't working. You have to do something else."
"What else can I do?" Varian asked her. And then, his eyes widened. For the past five years, his mental state had been terrible. He was still trying to process the encounter with God Emperor.
Fighting against the Spirit King relentlessly was merely a way for him to forget about the God Emperor.
Maybe his subconscious didn't even want him to solve this problem. At least that way, he wouldn't have to face that being.
"What was I doing…" Varian covered his face and gritted his teeth.
Ariel looked at him with distress but decided to speak the truth. "There were some minor improvement bumps from five times in the second year, two times in the third year, one time in the fourth time. This year had been a comlete waste."
Varian lowered his head, his eyes gloomy.
He tested several tactics and even did various experiments from scratch, all in the hopes of a victory.
Even though he got better and better, the best he could do was deal some serious damage. He was still far from competing against the Spirit King. It's not working. So, he had to find something else. So far, he had been fighting with a knife. He should now try to find a gun.
"I…need a factor to tilt things in my favor." He confessed. "But you can't leave this place. And not a single being entered Elysium in the past five years. And the foreigners couldn't leave. This place is cut off." Ariel said with a shrug.
"Then with whatever I have…" Varian raised his hand and activated his seven paths.
The medallion of Purgatory. He couldn't even leave for Purgatory from here. He tried once and that too was blocked.
He's the owner of Elysium medal too. It saved his life every time in the last five years. He knew it like the back of his hand.
It's a wonderful creation forged by linking the laws of life with the soul of the wielder.
Then came the slivers of Order and Chaos in the form of a fused black and white flame.
Finally, there were two clashing green and red lotuses. The sliver of life and the sliver of death.
"I did almost everything I could."
The divine paths were maximized at the absolute peak of rank 1. Both the medallions were used to assist him in the fight.
The slivers of Order and Chaos were used to the highest degree to weaken the enemy.
The sliver of life and the sliver of death were also used…
Varian's eyebrows twitched and a look of contemplation appeared on his face. Ariel didn't know the thoughts running inside his head. What she wanted to tell him from the beginning was quite simple. "The forbidden region is interconnected. If you give it 20 million years, the travel restriction between Purgatory and Elysium will be weakened. 10 million more years, you can break the barrier slowly and leave. Even if your enemy hates you, he wouldn't wait 30 million years outside for you, right?
30 million years is a lot of time even for any peak rank 1 but here in Elysium, you can live for that long and much more as a guardian.
You have time on your side. Just put down all your worries and let time solve your problems."
Varian raised his head and looked at the angel's benevolent face. Her suggestion really came from a heart of kindness. If it's someone else in his position, they'd have surely welcomed it.
But he didn't have that luxury. Time…might not be on his side.
"If I can fuse the slivers." Varian whispered.