Divine Path System

Chapter 1768: Destruction of Universe

Not too long ago, Varian hypothesized a few things about origin and Architect.

That Architect did not have the full control of origin. Otherwise, he'd have easily killed anyone opposing him instead of having to blast the corpse of primordial god to destroy the Heaven tribe.

That turned out to be true, evident by his high rank 3 strength.

The hypothesis followed that Architect did possess a piece of origin and was using that as the leverage to control the whole universe.

Why was he so certain?

When origin had even a small patch missing, the entire body would be dying.

Like how Aurora was dying with just a small damage of origin, Universe was also dying, with the void expanding every day.

It's the same thing!

And there's something he only realized now—why did the fusion of slivers accelerate the death?

Origin was the single source of the universe, paths and the slivers. In other words, they're all connected. One could affect the other, through origin.

When individual slivers fuse, they're now closer to origin than they're individually.

So, any good or any bad would affect Origin and that affected Origin would affect other things.

When any two slivers fuse, they affect Origin and the existing gap in Origin because of the lack of harmony path would get magnified, accelerating the destruction.

Harmony path—embedded in this piece of missing origin was the source of Architect's powers.

It's his leverage over the universe. It's why he's able to imprint his eyes inside Varian's soul and why he was able to remain hidden from the slivers.

Without even touching the origin, the effect of Harmony path or the lack of it could be observed in the universe. This universe had a natural bias towards it.

"That's why I have this destiny, as I'm the holder of order and chaos slivers—I touched the harmony path.

It connected to me through Logos for so long, but I did not realize it until now."

Varian muttered, the third path lighting up in his origin.

The space-time flow around him shattered, announcing the arrival of Architect's attack.

But this time, he did not passively defend. Varian attacked back.

Universe went dark for a moment before a blinding white light filled it.

Architect's face twisted as he looked at his bleeding finger.

It's a small injury. But from being only able to passively defend to actively breaching the defense, Varian took a large step forward!

God Emperor tried to replicate what Varian did. Since he too learned that there's this another path called Harmony, he should be able to do it too!

But he failed.

He was just aware of the path. He didn't experience it. He didn't feel it. He didn't have the deep experiences Varian had with origin or Logos.

Just hearing that gravity existed didn't grant anyone the path of gravity.

Just hearing that harmony existed wouldn't give God Emperor the power of harmony.

This contrast highlighted the disparity between him and Varian that he'd been trying to ignore.

God Emperor's mind grew restless.

No, this is not right. Why is he better than me at everything? Why?

Clenching his fist, God Emperor said. "Let's kill him first! As long as we work together, he has no chance."

Architect nodded. "Even with harmony path, he can take on one of us. Not two."

"Who said I only have harmony path?" Varian laughed and snapped his fingers.

Hortus appeared behind Varian.

God Emperor didn't understand it at first, but his own words from not long ago returned, freezing his mind.

If Hortus could swallow the universe, you can indeed defeat me. Not just me, you can even have the chance to fight the Architect.

But the primordial gods themselves weren't able to make it devour the universe, how can you?

Varian looked at the stern Architect. "Hortus wasn't able to devour the universe no matter what the primordial gods tried for two reasons,

The first was the great stability of the universe. But now, it's breaking down, thanks to your hard work.

The second was the lack of harmony path.

In other words—"

"No!" Architect attacked immediately.

"Devour!"

The whole universe trembled and space-time twisted.

Like a blackhole sucking everything in, Hortus started devouring the universe.

As its master, Varian's power began to skyrocket.

It's also when he faced the most intense of attacks.

God Emperor banished Hortus into Void and implemented a space restriction.

When it tried to return, it could only cross half the distance between void and universe. In other words, it's never going to return!

Architect used the scale on Varian and Hortus.

Hortus devoured a piece of the universe before being banished and was full of chaos.

That tremendous chaos was now measured against Varian through the balance, creating an extreme order in his body.

His rapid thoughts slowed, his actions grew rigid and he was pushed to behave like a very logical puppet—one under Architect's influence.

Hortus and God Emperor looked at each other, feeling relieved for finally solving this dangerous variable.

If they delayed any longer, it'd have been too late.

"You tasted enough hope, now drown in despair." Varian laughed.

Since Hortus was banished and couldn't devour by itself, Varian used his own self acted as the conduit.

The universe twisted and poured into him. And through him, it reached Hortus.

Though God Emperor banished Hortus outside, even he could not just erase the link between it and Varian.

Varian's move simultaneously countered the two attacks.

He allowed Hortus to keep devouring the universe, keeping in on the explosive growth trajectory.

He let in so much 'universe' into himself, creating a lot of chaos within his own body and soul.

The balance actually helped him now, as it's measuring Varian against Hortus.

Since he had so much chaos, it naturally promoted order in Hortus, allowing it to quickly digest the devoured fragments. This in turn, made Varian stronger faster and faster.

There's a price though.

Varian was under tremendous pressure. He was this close to simply exploding.

Architect realized that was the defining moment of the battle. If he stopped putting pressure, Varian would undo the banishment and bring back Hortus.

With proximity, his strength would grow and he'd allow Hortus to devour the universe faster and faster, growing stronger and stronger.

It's an unstoppable cycle and it gave them no chance to win.

They had to end him without giving him even a chance of turn around.

The only way was to increase the intensity of the balance—allowing more chaos in Varian and more order in Hortus.

Yes, Hortus would digest faster and grow faster. But Varian would be forced to absorb more universe than he could bear and explode.

Architect and God Emperor didn't communicate but they both understood the plan and bet against Varian.

Varian bet on himself!