Varian's power fell to celestial rank 9 today. It was steeper than any other drop. He could feel the stage of 'life' plummet. The divine and celestials were different stages of a being.
It wouldn't have hurt if he never knew what being a divine ranker felt like. He not only knew a typical divine, he also knew what a peak rank 2 was like.
Falling from the peak to celestial rank 9 was hard for Varian to adjust. He felt like a cripple.
Thankfully, he had something to focus on and he received all the support in the world from his wives.
"We overlooked some very important things." Isadora said in the garden, gesturing to Aurora.
The latter played a holographic display of her origin—perfectly fine except for a crack. It was now contrasted against the second display—Varian's half-shattered origin.
"I wouldn't have survived more than a week without brother-in-law's intervention." Aurora said affectionately before pointing to his origin. "His origin is in a terrible condition and it's been two weeks.
The research he brought shows even a slight damage to Origin is a quick death. Why is he different? This secret holds the key."
"Being a peak rank 2?" Sia opined.
Varian shook his head. "A low rank 2 once faced this situation according to Aion. He died quickly. Everyone is equal before origin."
The usually silent Enigma spoke up. "Maybe having multiple paths?"
"Hmmm." Sarah had a thoughtful look. "How do you still have multiple paths after Logos left? Your rank fell but all the paths remain. It's strange."
That's a good point.
Varian had always been with multiple paths and he took it for granted.
Isadora spoke up. "Each sliver has a unique ability. Logos can give you multiple paths. Samsara gives a kind of immortality. The slivers of space and time should have something of their own.
But each ability is unique. You should not be able to replicate it now. There is something we're overlooking."
Varian closed his eyes and sank his consciousness into origin.
They're right. He's doing what only Logos was capable of doing.
But he wasn't doing anything. At least not consciously.
He saw it again. His single origin appeared simultaneously on three avenues, holding all the paths.
Just like when Logos was present.
He could feel something influencing origin, letting it manifest as three. That something felt similar to Logos but note quite.
'The power of order and chaos…but Logos isn't here…no, my origin is doing it by itself.'
But no person should be able to replicate slivers! Slivers were of the highest quality. They were like incarnation of the paths themselves.
You could be a great space awakener. But the space sliver was of the highest quality of law there could be.
Even as a peak rank 2, Varian's quality of a path was lower than the corresponding sliver.
And yet, his origin was doing something impossible. It was replicating the path at the quality of sliver.
Why?
Varian recalled a conversation.
[What is the goal of slivers?
There are many reasonings. Many see us as a way to breakthrough to higher ranks.]
(I want to be more important than just an XP boost! Var, find something!)
Slivers themselves didn't know what their 'purpose' was. But it's clear that they're the highest of paths.
'Why is my origin acting like this?'
Was it because of the experiments conducted by Aion? Or perhaps the knowledge he gained from him?
In today's Eden, Varian was the only one with solid knowledge of Origin. He inherited the knowledge Heaven tribe painstakingly researched for tens of millions of years.
And—
Logos' and Samsara's powers made an impression on his origin. Like a mark left behind.
It's still faint for Samsara. But Logos left a much more distinct mark. His origin was trying to imitate the sliver.
And it's succeeding.
The quality matched even though the quantity was pitifully small. That's why he wasn't able to feel anything.
If the slivers remained, he'd have never noticed it due to the low quantity.
Only because everything was gone and his power fell so much that he was able to notice this tiny produce.
'Why is my origin like this? No, what is origin even supposed to be?'
"The origin of universe and the origin of a living being…" Varian muttered, his eyes lighting up.
Slivers were created from Primordial gods, who themselves were born from the universe.
In that sense, slivers were created from and linked to this 'origin' of the universe.
And each being also had an origin. Where did it come from? The origin of the universe.
The slivers, the individual origin and cosmic origin were all linked!
Just like how the cosmic origin created slivers, Varian's origin was trying to create slivers—it only barely succeeded because of two reasons.
Logos stayed with him for so long.
And he had immense knowledge of Origin alongside the experiments he endured.
Currently, he wasn't able to stop his paths from falling because he didn't have the slivers of order and chaos. But if he could create his own 'slivers', then—
"I can do it!" Varian stood up, yelling.
He didn't specify what but the faces of the women lit up and they all jumped at him.
Hortus was basked in laughter and joy.
For the next two weeks, Varian's rank dropped from celestial rank 9 to celestial rank 3. But he showed no worry.
Using his knowledge of origin and his intimate knowledge of Logos, he started using his origin to 'produce' the slivers.
He found something weird.
Producing sliver of order or sliver of chaos individually was far easier. This much was expected. But they weren't able to affect origin at all!
Thankfully, he could directly 'create' the slivers of order and chaos, the fused version. It's much harder and very time taking. But this was able to affect origin, though lightly.
What did the fused order and chaos have that the individual order and chaos did not?
Varian was struck.
He seemed to have stumbled on an answer but it quickly slipped away.
Again and again and again.
Ultimately, he didn't dwell on it and focused on creating more and more strands of the fused slivers.
One. Two. Ten. Twenty…
A week later, Varian's power dropped to rank 1.
To relax his mind, he was strolling with Sia when a strong attack breached into Hortus!
The attack of a powerful divine ranker!