Divine Path System

Chapter 1716: Origin of Synergy

Three days.

Three days were all he had before Neveah tribe invaded and destroyed the tribe of Heaven.

That time sliver was authentic, then so must be this world. Since he entered this world as a full body and not an avatar, his death would be irreversible.

"You don't look so good."

Rearranging the glowing runes on the floating screen, Aion frowned at the pale Varian through the transparent glass.

'Of course I'm not!' Varian wanted to slam the glass, activate the runes on it to explode the room ad escape before things here caught fire.

Even though his rune mastery was still rudimentary, he'd be able to pull it off with the help of Logos.

He's really, really confident of escaping. But if there's a peak rank 2 in this tribe and with a time sliver no less, did he really have a chance?

"Aion."

The lab slave's solemn voice surprised the elder. Unlike others who resigned themselves to their fate and despaired or the brittle ones who hated him till the last moment, this guy didn't seem to care too much about being a lab rat.

Since he experimented on countless slaves, Aion was confident in his judgement.

Subject X-23y728z was special.

That specialty was most likely his insanity of claiming to be from the future. But well, it's still special.

Oh, he opposed the lab code and was calling himself Var.

"Neveah is going to attack and Heaven will go extinct." The slave gritted his teeth, staring him straight in the eye.

Aion narrowed his eyes, a smile creeping on his face. "It's your desperate wish, I suppose. But the barbaric Neveah will treat you lot with far more cruelty."

"This isn't my wish. This is the past of the time I live in and the future of yours." Varian emphasized.

Aion swiped away the runes and cleansed his hands with high-density aura. Clicking his tongue while he did so, he chuckled. "A future where puny Neveah pushes Heaven to extinction. Where the tribes of Ativ, Vita, Sera have to band against Neveah just to survive."

The lad even used silly words like 'alliance' and 'empire'.

"If you're trying to convince me, you're not trying hard enough."

Var fell silent, looking confused and dispirited.

Aion nodded to himself. Even though the slave pestered him with these ramblings, he cooperated in difficult experiments.

"I'm a very reasonable person. As long as you can convince me, I'll take the proper course of action."

That's a lie. There's no way he would listen to the mad ravings of an insane lab slave.

But a few words to soothe the slave and give him an illusion that he's being heard won't hurt. He might even survive a few more days.

Aion smiled as he thought of the rapid progress so far.

Varian tried to convince him for two more days, speaking of the historical accounts as much as he could remember.

But no matter how much he tried to prove the authenticity of his words, Aion simply found it laughable.

Tommorrow was the day of invasion. And Varian gave up convincing.

'I'll escape during the chaos.'

His instincts were warning him it's going to be dangerous. And the eyes imprinted in his soul began to shine even brighter. They were giving off the glow comparable to the sun itself!

And still, neither Logos nor Samsara could sense those eyes.

"Oh, something is moving in your origin, about to active."

The golden goggles on Aion vanished. Squinting his eyes, the old man focused on the man floating between the lab's complex formations.

Varian was confused for a moment before he appeared to struggle.

A double-disc formation under him made up of a black ring and a glowing red disc spun against each other. This increased the force holding him captive, rendering him motionless.

Aion wanted to extract the blinking spot of silver from the white sphere of Origin. It slipped away for a good while before the formations caught it.

The message was tapped by Aion and a familiar voice rang.

"Hello, hello?" Aurora said in awkard tone. "I'm using Sia to convey a message. No matter where you go, it'll activate on time."

Aion's eyes widened and his breath nearly stopped. "Even we haven't gone that far in using Origins for messaging. And a time-bound message?"

Aurora's voice continued, a little embarassed but mostly scared.

"You must return on the last day! I want to see you before I go, Please."

The message ended just like that.

The formations were deactivated and Varian crashed to the ground, coughing blood and fragments of organs.

'Aurora…'

Varian clenched his fist, aura gathering inside him. With the runes he learned, he should be able to save her as long as he got the shards.

And the shard making knowledge would likely be in the golden palace, Abaroth.

'I should get out of this world.' Varian gathered his weak body and leaned against the wall, taking weak but determined breaths.

Aion stared at him, eyes surprised and lips trembling. Varian expected him to dig into the secret of the message and double down on the experiments to find out its working.

But.

"Blasphemer! You too are a blasphemere! Hahahaha! There is one more tribe with us! We are not alone!"

The loud laughter of the elder was confusing. Why was this his first reaction?

"You are blaspheming against Him."

The walls to the room vanished as Aion stepped in and crouched in front of Varian.

Matching the eye level, the old man continued. "I should've not underestimated Ares. If Heaven blasphemes for knowledge, then the chaos seekers must've blasphemed for the sake of chaos. Wonderful, absolutely wonderful! Our two tribes can work together for a better future!"

Varian blinked, eyes weary and confused. There was a big misunderstanding. But he's not going to correct it and remove the advantage he just gained.

However, it got him thinking.

'Synergy depends on Origin, not divine paths. In that sense, it is a blasphemy. But who created it? Even the legacy of Ares had no mention of Synergy. And somehow, Devas mastered this technique? Really?'

[…I don't remember the Devas actually use anything similar to Synergy. I don't think they developed it.]

Creating Synergy needed research on Origin. Research that Ares never did.

Heaven tribe—the only one who did any research on Origin—seemed nowhere close to achieving what Synergy could do. They're going extinct tomorrow and their research would end here.

Who even created Synergy?

Varian swallowed, a wild thought stirring in his mind.

"The messaging mechanism seems to be only a basic component of a far more complex self-regulating system." Aion spoke, his eyes glittering.

"I can't believe Ares made it. Did you guys manage to go out of the universe and snipe it from somewhere?"

"I…" Varian's words were struck in his throat. That was precisely the outrageous thought he had.

"Hahaha! Don't take it too seriously. But to protect our own egos, Heaven tribe would rather believe such an outrageous system came from outside the universe. I've only caught a glimpse of it but it is something that might as well have come from the outside."

Varian rubbed his bloodied forehead that's beginning to heal.

Aion's words were reflecting his own.

It's not that he didn't think Synergy might have come from outside Eden. But if someone was really that capable, there'd have been records of their existence at least.

Moreover, while the universe itself was vast, the core space and even inner space were much smaller. And in a sense, they represented all the space of the universe.

Any advanced civilization that could create Synergy must leave some traces there. But there were none.

And Varian had never seen anything like Synergy anywhere. It directly connected Origins to build a bridge and improved all the recepients.

While it's similar to dual cultivation techniques used by some races, the deepest those techniques went were souls.

No one manipulated Origin like Synergy.

'I need answers.' Varian slowly stood up.

Aion made an inviting gesture and the formations in the room were withdraw into the walls.

"I hope you don't mind what happened." Aion spoke the shameless words without feeling any embarassment. "Since your tribe is also working on this, you must know the importance of our work. If it's going to help, I'll sacrifice my own life for the research on Origin."

Varian looked at him blankly, unsure what to say. Now that he's out of prison, escape would be far easier.

"Rest a few days. I'll send a few of our envoys with you to your tribe. I'm looking forward to our cooperation." Aion said with a wide grin.

'You'll all die tomorrow!' Varian swallowed his words and nodded.

Maybe he could find a way to stop Heaven's extinction?

Neveah couldn't be strong enough to decimate Heaven. So, something happened to Heaven tommorrow. Something unexpected that led to their extinction.

If he could find the anomaly, maybe he could…