All Mother Asherah's apparent past was normal.
A genius who rose in the tribe from a prestigious clan, wedded to the brightest genius of her times—Keman Aurik.
Together, they were the couple that led their race to a brighter age, one where Genesis matched the power of Mors after a long time.
Asherah took up the job of strengthening the empire and went on creating races. Hundreds of races each with its uniqueness.
There were wars fought by these created races on the legitimacy of their lineage. They wanted to be the only ones laying claim to be her descendants.
Such was her influence.
If Keman's authority evoked a mix of mystery and fear, hers was purely charisma and worship.
But the past was a little more complicated than that.
The price of creating all these races was not as simple as everyone thought.
For the sake of big picture, Asherah made a quiet sacrifice that wasn't acknowledged by history.
She regressed from mid rank 2 to low rank 2 just so she could create more races with the potential to reach divine ranks.
In a way, her experiments succeeded as more and more races produced divine rankers.
The gap with Mors and even the gap with Jai was shrinking at a soothing pace.
But they also failed.
There was no rank 2 from all of her creations.
It was as if she was punished by the universe for trying to play god. There seemed to be fundamental flaws in her creations, one where a rank 2 could not create another rank 2, opening up the possibility of an infinite replication over time.
Perhaps it was not as complicated as that. Perhaps it was much simpler.
Perhaps she was just incompetent. Or perhaps the races she created were the ones that were incompetent.
"Arghhh!"
A storm raged.
Runic words of the long lost tribal language engraved on the turtle shell and hung in the air. They mixed together to form complex geometric shapes, all connected together by string of runic alphabet and circles of runic words.
The formation was built purely from the power of Order and Chaos. Like all such formations, it would enforce a 'rule'.
It could be a <stagnation of energy flow> or the <chaos of organic matter> both of which would severely affect the All Mother.
But what happened wasn't a simple Order and Chaos attack.
The power of life flowed into this formation.
The green light moved through the complicated geometric structure, contrasting against the black and white runic words.
The structure was still built of order and chaos, but it was now powered by life.
An unprecedented situation.
Asherah's instincts screamed and she took a step back without even noticing. But when she took another step, the laws in the region changed.
Her life force stagnated for a moment before surging back in reverse. The soul fluctuations that would always be emitted from a living soul started to stagnate, as if they were curtailed by an invisible hand.
It wasn't even a direct confrontation. No punches were exchanged, no beams of energy were fired and not even fingertips were touched.
And yet, the All Mother fell to her knees, gasping violently as she slammed her chest.
"Arghhh!" With a roar that sounded like the cry of a female beast, she slammed the turtle shell under.
A large phantom appeared in the void, the phantom of a woman bathed in green.
She flicked her wrist and Varian's life force snapped in half. His youthful body turned middle-aged and then she snapped her fingers again. He grew old, back hunched and skin wrinkled.
The phantom's eyes glowed brighter and she finally waved her hand, as if she had been waiting for this since the beginning.
It was a soul strike.
Varian's eyes froze and began to petrify as the strike passed through his eyes, reaching his soul in an instant.
His soul sea seemed endless and there seemed no way for anything to threaten it.
Any attack would simply be a pebble thrown into an ocean. The most it could do was a splash before sinking inevitably.
But now, something had changed.
The sky had changed. Over the silver ocean of soul, the sky had turned green and red.
The soul sea extended as far as the perception could observe. But wherever the sea was, there the sky was.
It was a dangerous attack, one which only a powerful mid rank 2 could pull off.
Varian was indeed not as strong as her in a proper evaluation.
At least not yet.
If he tried to brave his way and confront this soul attack, he would lose. His soul would be affected and he'd be rendered powerless against her once she recovered.
So he didn't confront it.
It wasn't a choice for others. They had to confront the hostile power which was inside or watch it wreck havoc in their souls.
But he had a third option.
He used the power of time to slow down the soul strike to a near halt.
And using that period, he jumped at Asherah, grabbing her throat violently.
The reversing vitality was working wonders, weakening her continously. But it wasn't fast enough. The soul fluctuations were also working well, preventing her from making any significant changes. As time passed, she'd be unable to even perceive the outside world before slipping into a coma.
But she already predicted her state and created the independent phantom to take care of him.
What she did not expect was Varian playing a different game entirely. As wise as she was, her natural combat experience could not take into account Varian's time path.
It was something she nominally considered but couldn't really comprehend.
As a result, she was left defenseless as he gripped her neck, fingers sinking into her skin.
Soul strikes were far more dangerous than vitality attacks. But since the soul awakeners could not directly attack a soul and had to shoot their attacks across space, their lethality would drop.
But what if there was an awakener who could fire soul strikes at a point blank range? No, even worse, blowing up a soul strike inside the body?
A golden light illuminated from Varian's hand and Asherah's eyes flashed with the brilliant light.
The next second, the overpowering soul strike struck her spirit directly. There was a brief period of resistance. It would have worked either with Varian been a rank 1 or her state being not so passive. Unfortunately for her, Varian was a rank 2 and she remained passive.
"Arghhhh!"
Asherah screamed, her body twitching violently as his power wrecked havoc in her soul, inflicting deep pain that would traumatize most divine rankers.
A few minutes later, she hung limply. Still breathing but too weakened to have any chance of fighting back.
Varian threw her away and stepped through the barrier of the palace.
As Asherah's power started weakening, the restrictions on Primula and Aurora were gone.
The little girl was still sleeping, snoring cutely even. Covering her with a flower blanket, Varian turned.
He walked into a protective cage engraved with complex formations that would instantly kill even the strongest peak rank 1.
They activated when he stepped in but were destroyed at the same moment. He wasn't even trying. The gap between the two ranks was too big to try.
Truding to the center, he knelt down.
Aurora's eyelashes fluttered.
Varian's heart pained at her state.
Arms and legs bruised red and purple.
So weakened that she couldn't even heal. And inflicted so much pain that even a divine body was bruised.
A pale face drained of blood. Lips trembling, teeth chattering.
She was always so energetic. Wherever she went, she filled that place with energy, with life.
That bundle of energy was drained of that very energy. The lively girl's life was barely hanging by a thread.
The woman who mingled with everyone to heal their wounds was curled up, trying to cover up her wounds.
Varian tucked the lock of hair behind her hair and called gently.
"Aurora."
Aurora's body shook and her eyes slowly opened. Her vision was still hazy and she tried to open her eyes to see him clearly.
"D-Dream?"
But she was too weak to do anything.
Forget lifting her arms, even her eyelids felt impossibly heavy.
Looking at him through her vague sight, she said in a weak voice. "I-Is this my last dream?"
Varian lifted her up and Aurora kept her eyes locked onto him with a confused, dreamy gaze.
"Y-You came into my…dream?" She muttered, her faint voice filled with disbelief.
Varian shook his head with a chuckle.
"L-Laughing? I-I am in so much pai—ouch!" She winced as her head hurt, the weakness of her body penalizing even a few words, even if they were in spoken in a dream.
"Didn't you wish for this?" Varian walked out of the cage, asking in a teasing voice.
"I…" Aurora who still treated this as a dream, closed her eyes with a contemplative expression before glaring at him. "I didn't! Bad, bad liar!"
Varian made a mischievous expression. "You were disappointed that I rescued you from your mother with just a warning. You wanted something more fairytale. Rescued like a princess."
Aurora's eyes widened and her sleepiness began to fade. But she still remained in that half-awake, half-asleep state. "I…"
It was only then that she notice he was holding her in a princess carry.
"Princess?"
Varian nodded.
Aurora's eyes began to well with tears. "T-Those fairytales lies to me! W-Weren't the princesses supposed to be rescued in a few days? I-I was here for m-months!"
"Fourty-nine years."
Aurora's lips twitched and she began to bawl even harder, wetting his chest.
"Seriously, don't believe those fairytales." Varian shook his head.
"B-But…" Aurora's voice grew faint, her consciousness fading back into sleep. "T-They were right..."
"Hm?"
"…about the prince."
Aurora fainted.