"T-Thoren...God Emperor, why does it have to be this way?" Varian suppressed the rising rage and asked in a muffled voice.
"It can only be this way." God Emperor smiled. "Everything is as it should be."
Varian was sure he couldn’t change the mind of his student who lived billions of years with that conviction.
But he couldn’t help trying.
"The Architect is our enemy. Once he is dead, you can try something else. You can create a new race like Asherah did and see if your vision is worth pursuing."
God Emperor narrowed his eyes before letting out a soft laugh. Shaking his head, he said. "It’s not just the race, it’s the world too. A perfect world needs a total change. That little girl of Genesis has no chance of reaching such perfection."
It was becoming clearer that this ideal of a perfect world—one with peace, justice and harmony—was so deeply instilled that it couldn’t be reasoned against.
"I don’t want to kill you." Varian muttered under his breath. "I made you like this. And I want you to change. I wish you to change."
"Change?" God Emperor raised his hand and casually brushed against the empty space.
A lifeless satellite galaxy far away was hit by the careless strike and was sliced into pieces.
"Why should I change? Why shouldn’t you change? Maybe I am right. And maybe you are wrong. Why don’t you try my way before calling it wrong?"
Varian looked at his student and recalled the boy he taught. Such a bright boy with heroic ideals.
Back then, he saw traces of his own self in Thoren. A boy who genuinely wanted good for his people and the world.
And now that same boy was the monster who’s ready to kill everyone.
He tried to save the universe from Architect. And he created the God Emperor who wanted to destroy it.
"I was trying to make you an ally, who wants to protect than destroy. But it turned into this." Varian sighed, his heart slowly hardening. "This too was a move by Architect. What a shame."
"Your motives might be impure, but your effort was sincere." God Emperor said in a soft voice, speaking straight from his heart.
"The ideal you shared was forged in your own heart. I inherited it, made it my own and now want to shape the world with it. You’ve discarded your own ideal for something else. I carry it."
Varian exhaled deeply and stretched his hand.
The powers of space-time formed a sword body. Life and death surged in it, intertwining with each other as they filled it like electricity filling a wire.
The powers of Order and Chaos oversaw the four, while positioning themselves for an offense and defense.
Lastly, Logos and Samsara poured their powers to the fullest, boosting the sword to an unprecedented degree.
"I’ll ask you one last time." Varian pointed the sword and his eyes showed no more emotions. "We can deal with the Architect before settling this out. I don’t like what you’re doing, but I think I’ll hate Architect’s plan even more."
"I need the slivers for my grand plan." God Emperor looked Varian in the eye. "Even if you do give them, I can’t leave you like this. I have lived for billions of years, but you are indeed the most monstrous person I know.
I have only two advantages over you. I am taught by you, I know how you think and how you fight.
And I had billions of years to grow.
You are going to lose. I hope you survive to witness my victory. And as my last act of respect, I will ensure our fight does not affect Eden."
God Emperor vanished, so did Varian.
They appeared far away from Eden, in what the astronomers would call the Virgo cluster.
It’s twice as wide as Eden, four times as spacious but hundreds of times dense as it housed over a thousand galaxies compared to only thirty galaxies of Eden.
A tiny spark of light emerged in the cluster and the next moment, tens of galaxies were split into two as a brilliant beam of sword light emerged.
The power of death spilled into these galaxies, preventing emergence of any life for the next hundred million years.
The powers of order and chaos scattered, throwing over a dozen galaxies in a disarray.
In these galaxies, planets no longer orbited around their home stars. And they also stopped rotating.
On the planets, water was no longer boiling at the right temperature, gas was no longer liquefying with pressure.
The physical laws of the world were distorted by these terrible powers.
In response to that sword strike, a small palm emerged. Almost in an instant, it grew to cover a hundred galaxies and met with that brilliant sword strike.
The palm, forged from space and time itself, was dispersing the attack, by channeling the power into a different space and a distant time.
The stalemate lasted for a moment before the palm grew brighter and clenched the sword beam.
Click!
The entire cluster, filled with so many stars and galaxies, turned dark in that moment.
Then, a shockwave swept through the whole cluster, destroying dozens of galaxies in its wake.
Hundreds of galaxies were just pushed out by the sheer fluctuations of space-time.
In the center of it all stood the two.
God Emperor looked at his bloodied palm and smiled lightly. "You are strong, as I expected."
Varian looked at the broken sword in utter silence. There was no words he could manage.
It was his strongest strike. He didn’t hold back even a bit against God Emperor. He didn’t dare to.
He used everything he had. Even the slivers.
And yet....
"Is this it?" Varian muttered, unable to believe the reality.
And then, his hand clenched, the sword reappearing.
God Emperor narrowed his eyes.
The cluster lit up again with hundreds and then thousands of sword beams. They poured out brilliantly, lighting up the entire expanse.
As if a rainbow was crushed into pieces and dispersed in all directions to spread its brilliance, the beams flew out everywhere with brilliant lights.
This time, not a single galaxy was spared.
The thousand galaxies were all cut into pieces and then shattered.
A few minutes later, only ruins remained.
At the center of it, Varian panted heavily as he looked at God Emperor in absolute disbelief. "Why....so many paths...all at the peak of rank 2...why?"
God Emperor looked at the several palm. It was regenerating quickly, but this was the only injury he suffered for so, so long.
’To think someone so young could do this...’
He shook his head and looked into Varian’s eyes. "Do you want to try anything else? Anything. I will wait. As long as an year."
This was a humiliating proposal. Something an opponent would reject, if only for the sake of honor.
Varian gave him a deep look and vanished.
’As expected of him.’
God Emperor was not surprised. If anything, he knew Varian intimately. This teacher of his taught him a lot of things and he remembered them all, even if his teacher himself forgot.
Varian was wary as he left, but God Emperor waited, as promised. He didn’t move an inch. He didn’t use his perception. He didn’t try to cheat in any way.
This was both out of the bond and out of admiration. No matter what Varian thought, God Emperor had immense respect for him.
Varian barely was a thousand years old while God Emperor lived for billions.
It’s a million times longer!
A million, with six zeroes.
A thousand thousands.
If Varian had even a hundred more years, God Emperor was not confident of defeating him. Such was the terror of this monstrous prodigy.
"Since you’re going to lose, I will let you lose at your best."