Divine Path System

Chapter 1756: Destruction of Cosmos

'Pain.'

Pain was the only sensation he could feel. His body seemed to be screaming, as every functioning nerve end was transmitting prickly, scorching pain.

The physical pain might've been bearable if there was no pain from within.

His soul was ripped in the middle, like someone punched a hole through it. It was barely holding together, trembling every moment of its existence as it tried to not shatter.

Each part of the soul was acutely aware of the gaping hole. And since soul was naturally sensitive compared to the body, he felt that hollow pain to its deepest.

Even this, Varian might've tried to endure.

But there's something else. A pain that came from not inside or outside, but from his very being.

"My origin!"

Varian regained a sliver of consciousness, checking the origin in hurry.

Half-shattered. Cracked in the intact part. And falling apart.

His divine paths at the peak of rank 2 were declining as a result. He had already fell from peak rank 2 to high rank 2. And it wasn't stopping.

Varian growled as he pulled himself up through sheer will. He tried to use the divine paths and stop the fall.

He was able to barely use the power before his physical and spiritual injuries worsened, forcing him to abandon the attempt midway.

While he didn't go all the way, there was a despairing certainty in the back of his mind.

'I wasn't able to affect the fall.'

If this was so, the divine paths would continue falling. All the way until he reached an unawakened state.

Would he even have any lifespan left? No, no, he wouldn't even survive until then. It's a miracle he's still alive.

'I have to do something.' Varian forced his powers to repair himself.

'Samsara, hurr—'

He stopped.

And then it hit him.

The wave of emotions that weren't felt since he was unconscious after the battle.

This wasn't one more battle. These weren't some more injuries.

He lost. He totally, utterly and decisively lost. He lost the battle. He lost the slivers. He lost his own powers.

Varian opened his mouth, but no word came out. His mind had no thoughts and his heart was unsure what to even feel.

There was rage for losing, deep sadness for Samsara and Logos and a sense of despair for having failed.

'I cannot give up, I have to fight, I have to—ugh!'

His powers began to fall from high rank 2 to mid rank 2.

Varian's eyes were bloodshot and ignoring his injuries, he pushed his paths to the fullest in a desperate attempt.

He vaguely felt earlier that any attempts were useless. Yet, he couldn't help but try.

"Arghhhh!" Varian screamed.

The injuries worsened. With them, the pain. Body curling, soul shattering pain. But the pain could wait until he fixed his origin.

Origin showed no improvement.

'Why is it like this?' Varian fell into thought.

Long long ago, he tried to search for Logos within him. She wasn't in his body or even his soul. She was with his origin.

It should've been obvious. He had multiple paths since his origin was kept in three simultaneous avenues by Logos.

Where else could the slivers be?

When God Emperor ripped them from him, it directly affected his origin. Even if he did not intend this, this was inevitable.

No wonder he asked Varian if he was willing to give up the slivers.

"I shouldn't despair…I shouldn't despair….I shouldn't…" Varian closed his eyes, trying to heal the relapsed injuries as he muttered weakly.

Something wasn't working. It's not his broken body nor his nearly crippled soul or even the half-shattered origin.

It was hope.

He had been injured and was on the verge of death many times before. But he always had hope. Now, that hope was dying.

Unwilling to let it go, Varian expanded his closed perception to sense God Emperor.

'If God Emperor's plan failed, maybe he could snatch the slivers back and—'

He shouldn't have done that.

He sensed two powerful auras clashing far, far away. Yet the sheer intensity was enough for him to feel pain.

Even peak rank 2s would fall apart from the aftermath of these strikes. These strikes carried an unfamiliar as well as a familiar one.

'God Emperor….reached rank 3.'

Varian's eyes went blank and the last spark of hope died.

His perception could sense what's happening now. The cosmos was being destroyed. Not as an attack from an individual or just living dying.

Its very foundations were unravelling. The highest laws that worked together were breaking apart.

Space was unravelling—unpredictable space cracks were appearing all over the universe, swallowing things and destroying them.

Time was growing erratic—temporal storms were destroying entire star systems.

Order and Chaos started to wreck everything. Perfectly normal materials suddenly exploded. Stable cities were hit with improbable disasters.

Life went off the rails. The unlucky creatures mutated into monsters as their bodies grew without control.

Death was reckless. Perfectly fine people died without warning. And even among the lucky to have survived, their organs died forever, not responding to any treatment.

The very concepts that made universe possible were failing.

This was indeed the end.

'I can't change anything now…' Varian was consumed by despair. And in that despair, he tried to see the next step. 'Since we'll all die soon, I want to at least…'

Boom!

A sudden attack emerged without warning, nearly catching Varian off guard. He hastily put up defenses, but he was half a step late.

His injuries completely collapsed and he was once more pushed to the brink of fainting. His ability to defend himself almost completely vanished.

A dozen more attacks followed.

Varian didn't try to defend. He couldn't. He opened a space-time crack and threw himself in.

But the attacks shook the stable space channel midway and destroyed it, throwing him into the chaotic space.

He drifted in that space, half-awake, half-dreaming as he tried to guide himself out of it to a safer location.

He found a place with relatively weak auras. But suddenly, a powerful celestial aura appeared.

Varian wanted to drive himself way but he couldn't take it any longer and fainted once again.

The darkness receded after a long time and he jolted awake.

"I never thought you'd fall into my hands." An ash-skinned woman was standing at the door, polishing her sword.

Varian's mind was confused for a moment before he recognized her.

Cyris, the last living abyssal.

"…So this is how I go, huh?" Varian realized his injuries were too severe to even fight a celestial.

It was funny, a peak rank 2 just a few minutes ago and now he couldn't even fight a celestial.

Varian laughed at himself.

More terrifying than this was a small part of him didn't want to fight back.

'Am I so consumed by despair that I was welcoming death?'

He tried to tell himself that it's not it. She wouldn't spare him anyway. Why not accept death since he couldn't fight back?

Shaking his head, he laughed and looked into her eyes. "I ended your race. Come, end me."

Cyris swung her sword and Varian welcomed his death.