Divine Path System

Chapter 1761 1761: Rebirth

Sarah, Enigma, Isadora and Aurora rushed to their side, guarding him as they watched the cracked sky.

A powerful aura emerged.

It was the old man who remained hidden despite Varian's attempts to find him. The only 'enemy' he had left in the traditional sense.

Equilius.

"This is destiny, Varian." The old man looked down at Varian with an excited smile. "Your death is written in my hands. This is why this moment happened."

The aura of a high rank 2 descended on the world. His wives blocked off the pressure with all their might.

But the little bit that slipped out nearly killed Varian. Coughing out blood and collapsing onto the ground, Varian smelled the scent of death.

He could almost see the lady of death finally raising her arms for an embrace.

"Oops!" Equilius withdrew his pressure voluntarily, much to their puzzlement. "I know you must be weakened. But a celestial?"

With confusion and amusement, the former leader of Nexus continued. "I stole those treasures from the palace and waited until I'm a high rank 2 to find you.

Even on my way here, I was worried if I'd die before killing you. After all, I missed my chance to kill you when you were injured after the battle."

'This old bastard!'

Varian did suspect him to be the attacker after his battle with God Emperor. He hid all this while when he was strong and picked the time when he's the weakest.

'I should have hunted him down.'

Equilius descended from the sky and landed just a few steps away from them.

The women were tense and shielded Varian in the middle. They were all low rank 2s, except Aurora who was a peak rank 1.

And they only broke through recently. They could still fight a mid rank 2. But going against a high rank 2 was out of the question.

They had no chance of winning this battle. Sarah and Isadora were racking their brains to come up with a plan to let Varian escape.

But all the steps were too risky to carry a rank 1 celestial safely. Just the aftermaths would kill him a thousand times.

Equilius didn't even look at them. He stared straight into Varian's eyes as if he could look at his soul. "Looks like even if I don't kill you, you'll die on your own. But I don't want that. I want to kill you with my own hands."

As he took a step forward, Sarah and Isadora stepped forward.

"Authority of Hortus." One of them muttered.

The pressure from the sky fell onto Equilius, decreasing his aura significantly. He's not as strong as a high rank 2, but he's still stronger than every mid rank 2.

But the women saw this as a chance. Not in killing Equilius but in sacrificing themselves and sending Varian away safely.

"Go!"

A shield was put out by Sarah and Isadora.

A brilliant golden light paired with darkness. The powers of order and chaos worked together and Hortus' forbidden region of order and chaos also stirred, enforcing the shield.

In a way, it's a fusion of order and chaos.

Varian had a lot of experience handing these two powers together and they learned it during synergy.

Finally, it came into use.

Meanwhile, Sia was constructing a space channel. It was supposed to be over in a blink, but to accommodate the fragility of a celestial ranker, she had to spend a lot of time.

Aurora was covering him from the aftermath of the battle auras. Even though most of it was blocked by the shield, even that little was difficult for a rank 1.

Plus, she also had to protect a much weaker Varian. Her hands were tied, unable to help either the offense or the defense.

Enigma, on the other hand, was helping both Sarah and Isadora as well as Sia and Aurora, filling up wherever it was needed.

"You can't stop me."

Crack!

A crack appeared on the dark golden shield and Isadora's face paled, blood leaking out of her mouth.

Her eyes narrowed and she didn't back down. Pouring all her strength and more, she kept up the shield.

Bright blue beams were emerging from Equilius, bombarding the shield at a million times per minute.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

The sound was heavy, frequent and put pressure on them.

'Varian!' Sia's eyes showed a hint of relief as the space channel was almost complete.

But before she could take him, Equilius yelled.

"Don't even think about it!"

Boom!

He poured all his strength and changed the 'order' of Hortus, destabilizing the space.

The space channel was shaken, with cracks appearing and space currents pouring in recklessly.

Relatively, it's still a safe space channel. But not so for a celestial rank 1.

"This is destiny." Equilius' face looked sinister under the light of the blue beams. "I gave up seeking revenge. I only wanted to survive. After all, who could defeat the ruler of Eden? He killed Ophion with a glance."

Crack! Crack! Crack!

The shield began to crack more and more frequently.

Sarah and Isadora had multiple injuries all over their bodies. Their movements were sluggish and their eyes were growing exhausted.

Crack! Swoosh!

Another crack appeared and a small blue beam blasted through the gap, heading straight for Varian.

"No!"

Enigma, also pale and injured, took it head on. Her arm exploded into blood mist, but she didn't even flinch.

The blue beam was persistent, heading to Varian behind her.

Realizing she could not block it with her powers, Enigma held it in her own body and suppressed it.

It's very painful to suppress an attack like that. It must have hurt like hell. But Enigma did not even groan.

She was shaken violently as the power tried to break out of her body, tearing her flesh in the process.

Her fresh blood splattered on Varian's face. The warm blood made his heart feel very, very cold.

The original plan was to create more strands, to be more certain until he attempted a repair. He didn't know how long it'd take and whether it'd even succeed.

Now, he abandoned all those thoughts.

Varian poured the strands into his origin. Either they'll all die or they'll all live.

Crack! Crack!

The shield was cracked all over, looking like it'd collapse at any moment.

"I told you, this is destiny." Equilius was overjoyed. "I would've never found Hortus at any other time. But the universe is being destroyed and Hortus' stealth has fallen.

Even then, If I didn't lock Varian's aura when he was injured, I wouldn't have traced Hortus in the wide cosmos.

Better, he lost all his powers, unable to even bear the aftermath.

What else is all this for?

Destiny! This is his ultimate destiny! The universe willed it so!"

Boom!

The shield exploded, Isadora and Sarah were blasted back, crashing beside Varian.

Sia grabbed him and tried to take him into the hastily repaired space channel. But a blue beam fell from above,the arm holding him was obliterated.

Enigma and Aurora nearly took him to the space channel but the channel itself was struck and collapsed.

The sheer force knocked Aurora out.

Enigma raised her arms, shielding Varian behind her.

"Futile." Equilius shook his head but caught the glimpse of Varian's cold eyes.

Indifferent, cold and raging eyes.

It stirred three emotions in him.

The familiar fear that sprang up at the mention of Varian's name—it accompanied him all these years and was bubbling up again.

Then there was rage. The rage for making him feel that fear.

Finally, the desire to trample the man who caused him all that fear.

Equilius was shocked as he realized that even now, Varian hadn't despaired.

That's not okay. Just killing him was not enough. He had to break his spirit, make him despair and then, only then would he end him.

He turned to Enigma an amused expression. "If you leave him, I'll let you live. No one is here to judge you. The damn world is ending. Enjoy whatever time you have left. See, everyone other than you has fallen. Don't throw your life away, just go and I will keep my promise."

After a moment's pause, Enigma stepped aside and slowly walked behind Varian.

Equilius' laughed, his laughter reaching the sky.

"See, Varian! Even your woman doesn't love you! She abandons you when you're at your weakest, when you're about to die. How does that feel?"

He spoke with great glee, looking at Varian's face, hoping to see despair.

But all he saw was pure rage and a hint of…amusement.

Only then did he notice that Enigma had taken away all the women far away and was healing them.

"You old bugger, I was the one who told her to stand aside." Varian took a step forward.

The strands of slivers drilled into his origin and the half-shattered origin shook.

The broken pieces were all pulled back, piecing themselves back into their exact position. All the cracks were filled and all the scratches were gone.

Origin was back to its perfect state.

And he jumped.

From celestial rank 1 all the way to divine rank 1.

Equilius' face paled and he hastily attacked. "No, no, no! This is destiny!"

Boom!

Varian was blasted into pieces without even a chance for resistance.

A smile broke out on Equilius but it didn't last a moment as the blasted pieces pieced themselves back into Varian.

Only this time, his aura was already at low rank 2.

"You…" Equiluis' face hardened and he poured everything into his attack.

A low rank 2 Varian could already counter mid rank 2s. So, Equilius burned his own life for this attack.

For that brief moment, he broke the restrictions of Hortus and poured out an attack at high rank 2.

Varian raised his hand, the low rank 2 paths grew into mid rank 2. And he casually swatted Equilius' strongest attack away.

"Destiny, huh." Varian had a brilliant light in his eyes as he stepped forward, reaching Equilius.

The old man had blank eyes, despair consuming his very being.

"I will write my own destiny." He clenched his fists.

Equilius gasped, but he did not struggle. In the end, he laughed.

"Those two….shouldn't have underestimated you."

He vanished, just like that.

Equilius died, just like that.

Varian turned back to his wives, his aura once again reaching the peak of rank 2.

With a wave of his hand, their injuries were all healed and they were restored back to their peak.

"You're back!"

The five pounced on him before breaking down into tears.

Even though he assured them that things would work and even though they believed him, it was really hard.

But they didn't show any of their tension all this while. They didn't want him to feel any pressure.

Now, they finally could cry their hearts out.

"Yes, yes." Varian smiled gently and looked into the sky, his gaze piercing through Hortus' barrier.

Beyond Eden, beyond Virgo cluster and beyond many many galactic groups.

Beyond this great cosmic distance, where only darkness seemed to exist, he saw the traces of the battle left behind those two.

Varian smiled.