The world seemed to blink as everything shifted and the group of seven found themselves on top of a great mountain in the clouds.
Just stepping into this place pushed there divine paths further. Even the grass growing in this place was something powerful celestials would fight over.
"What is it?"
A strong voice sounded and a man appeared soundlessly in front of them.
When they tried to look him in the eye, something from their inside screamed with fear and they instinctively lowered their heads.
As he sat down naturally, a throne was formed under him. The great mountain glowed with a silver light and it transformed into a grand, ancient throne hall.
He didn't even let out a wisp of aura but the hearts of everyone in the group beat uncontrollably, as if they're about to burst.
They long forgot to breathe. No. They didn't dare to breathe. Their bodies lost that courage.
"I don't have all day." His voice didn't have any hint of emotion. That was worse than anger. It showed that he had no attachment to them or their situation.
"E-Emp," Athena, the purple haired woman, gritted her teeth and tried to speak.
She had an urge to close her eyes and just accept death than speak in this room. But speak she must.
"L-Lord," She corrected herself. "P-Please save us."
The man on the throne remained silent.
So, she continued to speak, even though her soul felt like it was about to crumble any second.
It was also at this moment that she and every single of the envoys realized the 'victory' rebels obtained wasn't a victory.
It was mercy.
There's no way anyone could win against him. It was simply laughable that some section of humanity still believed they defeated the Lord of Hortus and advocated to defeat him again to snatch Hortus in this tumultuous times.
Forget them, even the strongest princes of the empire, heck, even All Mother Asherah herself were nothing in front of this man.
Not everyone knew, but Athena was certain that he was the phantom that stepped over the galaxy that day.
He's beyond what humans could even think of.
If he wanted them to live, they would live. If he wanted them to die, then even if they're protected by divine rankers, they would die miserably.
All of Genesis combined wouldn't be able to stop him.
"W-We are being slaughtered…every one of us…every faction…every clan…in every kingdom. More than half of us already died. A lot many were enslaved. We…we don't want to…like this…"
As she described their state, even Athena who prepared herself to death couldn't help but sob.
Where had the mental strength she's so proud of gone?
As she began describing their plight, the others already staring crying.
Chloe covered her face, tears spilling from the gaps. Boo and Oob didn't enter the hall. And facing with the man she heard about since birth, she couldn't help but cry for help.
She too was pressured by his presence. Of the sheer power he held withoutt even trying. But instead of fear, she felt dependence. If he could help, then everything would be okay.
Athena knelt, head pressing to the ground, the tears streaming down her cheeks splashing on the floor. "Please save us."
Along with Chloe, the five envoys knelt and begged. "Save us."
A deep sigh sounded in the hall.
There was no response to their plea. Only merciless silence that hurt harsher than blades slicing into their flesh.
The man who no longer called himself an Emperor remained on the throne, seemingly staring at them but also through and beyond them into a void they couldn't fathom.
Boo and Oob did not enter the throne hall. Only the envoys and Varian remained in the hall.
Minutes trickled by and then hours.
The 'avatar' in the throne hall was lost in thought as the main body reached the conclusion of the 76th experiment on Aurora.
"Geez, stop worrying about it already. I've already accepted my fate. You should too. The experiments are just pain and nothing else."
Adjusting her disheveled hair, wiping away the sweat, Aurora steadied herself and pouted at the man lost in thought.
"Brother-in-law, are you listening?"
"Ah. Yeah." Brows furrowed, Varian nodded absent mindedly.
It didn't take much for someone of his power to split a strand of consciousness to appear attentive but he didn't even leave behind any thinking capacity for his avatar, much less himself.
His entire focus was on the experiment that just ended. After ruminating everything that happened, he wanted to re-check the results one last time.
"Aurora." He said softly and the woman sighed, shoulders drooping.
"You won't leave me until I obey, will you?" Putting on a resentful gaze, she stretched her hand.
The experiment could also be done without contact but like the power of soul, direct touch ensured minimal loss of power. Even though the loss was less than ~1%, Varian wanted to do everything right.
Grabbing her hand, he first poured the power of space-time shards into her.
The shards sank into her like water sinking into a sponge and traveled through her physical body, into her soul before reaching her origin.
Powers of space-time acted on the cracked origin. They successfully reversed the time to the instance where the origin first cracked.
They next tried to enter the origin. All the changes so far were done externally, on the space-time of the whole environment.
Now, the attempt was to do it internally. The blend of powers reached the origin and entered in.
Aurora's face paled as she began to tremble, cracks appearing on her skin as if she's a poreclain doll that's about to shatter.
Varian adjusted her vitality and kept her safe while he waited for the space-time power to continue.
They tried to morph the Origin itself, to stop it from breaking any further by changing its time field.
"Arghh!" Aurora bit Varian's shoulder as a terrible pain coarsed through her soul.
Varian remained motionless as his own blood splashed over his neck and continued.
As observed, space-time shards were unable to affect the Origin.
Next, he used Samsara to manipulate the Origin.
A few minutes later, Aurora bit his neck as her mental state began to deteoriate.
Not minding the light injuries, he noted the failure of Life-Death slivers in affecting the Origin and sent Logos at last.
By now, Aurora's body was covered with faint lines with red light leaking out of the cracks, eyes and nose bleeding.
She babbled incomprehensible words and whenever the pain coursed through her body, flung her limbs wildly in a bid to escape.
Even though he took as much care as he could to decrease her pain, three pair of sliver powers was pushing her to the brink.
Low rank 2s with a large life experience and mental fortitude would run this horror.
But Aurora attended every session. Even though she seemed resentful of these experiments, Varian could see a glimmer of hope in her eyes as she bore through that terrible pain.
'You want to live, don't you? Even though you keep saying you're ready for death, you want to live.'
So, even though it was painful to watch her like this, Varian did his best.
As the power of Order and Chaos entered her Origin, the white sphere remained still, like it did for the power of other two slivers.
Then, just so slightly that it's nearly unnoticable, it shook.