Even before Varian opened his eyes, he could see.
The world changed. The space felt different as did the time. They were no longer rigid frames locking him down. Varian could feel the flow of time and space around him like he’d feel the flow of air and water.
It was the powers of space and time that reached new levels.
[Space Level 9 (50k/50k) –> Space Celestial Rank 1 (0/100)]
[Time Level 9 (50k/50k) –> Time Celestial Rank 1 (0/100)]
He could feel the life inside him and the death oozing from the death strand’s remnant energy inside the Abyss Emperor. They both were real and felt almost tangible.
It was the wonder of plantae power, that now transformed into something more. It created a raw hunger inside him. Varian felt hungry, but not for food. He wanted aura, aura and aura.
[Plantae Level 9 (50k/50k) –> Famine Rank 1 (0/100)]
Varian felt the bubbling of life inside him. He felt the ‘chi’ of his superhuman path transform into something sublime. It was a force that he couldn’t really grasp. It moved inside his body recklessly sometimes and the others, it’d jump out of his body, trying to spread out as much as possible before coming back.
It was like a monkey that he couldn’t hope to tame but eventually must.
[Superhuman Level 9 (50k/50k) –> Mystic Rank 1 (0/100)]
Then came his most powerful sense yet. The sheer vibrant world of the spiritual sense. Every object, every rock, every pebble, every speck of dust had in it something that wasn’t just physical.
It was similar to the ‘soul’ a living being had that he could now feel. The soul inside living things had something different from that of the non-living. Perhaps the answer was self-evident, but Varian felt that it wasn’t that simple.
Compared to other powers, his spiritual sense was much stronger. The spiritual vision was just too precise and spread out in every direction.
This new power, whatever it was, formed from his two mental powers: Psychic and Telekinetic.
[Psychic Level 9, Telekinetic Level 9 –> Spirit Rank 1 (10/100)]
Finally, the matter and energy.
As the power of slivers was still running, these powers got a temporary boost, allowing Varian to view the world in a fundamentally different way.
The living beings were not particles of energy and matter. The suns were two big nuclear reactors. Every block of space, even though it’s in a vacuum, had either matter or energy or both.
The whole world was painted in two colors of different intensities. It was like a psychedelic vision but a hundred times wilder.
Finally, Varian opened his eyes. His pupils shone with a brilliant light of white and black.
[Lightning Level 9 (50k/50k) –> Energy Rank 1 (2/100)]
[Water Level 9 (50k/50k) –> Matter Rank 1 (2/100)]
The power boiling inside him was tremendous. It filled every inch of his being. Every bone, every muscle, and every nerve had the strength to destroy a mountain. A single drop of his blood would be enough to cause a crater. This was the level of power he reached.
But Varian didn’t celebrate. Nor did he smile.
After feeling his powers, he used his Spirit, Space, and Time powers to stop Abyss Emperor and rescue the two girls.
They were breathing their last breath when they reached him. It’d be too late for any treatment.
Varian’s heart shook but his mind remained firm. He used the time power on them and slowed down their death.
Then, a green light enveloped their bodies and his plantae power started to inject them with tremendous vitality.
In just a blink, they were dragged from death’s clutches.
Their mangled faces were quickly restored to their beauty and their bodies, destroyed from the inside, quickly returned to their perfect self.
They recovered so fast that even Varian was dumbfounded. After the advancement, his plantar power was just insane. Oh, it’s famine power now.
Varian glanced at the faces of Sarah and Sia deeply before smiling slightly. “Thanks.”
Then he snapped his fingers and they appeared in a safe house Pluto.
Varian turned to the Abyss Emperor on the asteroid and his eyes shone with anger.
“You don’t deserve this power after everything you’ve committed!” Haedon roared at the top of his lungs and reached Varian with a golden flash.
It was so fast that even Julius would’ve trouble reacting in time.
But Varian effortlessly grasped Haedon’s fist and stared at the Abyss Emperor with an unsmiling face.
Like before, Haedon tried to pull out of his fist out of his grip and retreat.
“Arghhh, let go!”
But this time, no matter how much he struggled, even when veins were popping up over his forehead, his fist wasn’t free.
Varian’s eyes flashed with a silver light.
“Damn it! Damn it!” Haedon punched with his other hand and struck Varian straight in the face.
Varian didn’t even dodge and took the blow that could destroy a planet head-on.
It’s just, his face grew much denser at the moment of contact and the damage was mitigated.
Even then, blood was spilling out of his nose and torn cheeks.
“I wanted to try something,” Varian said and
His famine power activated and the aura in Haedon was pulled into his body.
“No! Stop!”
The aura entered his body and was devoured by the famine power before turning into his own strength. The efficiency of this process was very low. Because after swallowing the foreign aura, most of it would escape during the process of assimilation.
When they grow stronger, Famines could improve their efficiency. But it’s still challenging to assimilate something like the aura of another person.
But Varian didn’t have this problem. When the foreign aura tried to escape, his other six powers blocked it out and pushed it back into the famine power.
The efficiency wasn’t 100% even for him since the leakage was still present, it’s incredibly high already. And with increasing power, he might get to perfect efficiency one day.
“Varian, unhand me right now or I’ll smash you into pieces.” Haedon hissed.
Varian gave a mocking smile at that threat. “Then, by all means, do it.”
“Arghhh!” Haedon poured out all his power and began to strike Varian a thousand punches a second.
ραпdα-nᴏνɐ|-сom
Haedon kept the high-intensity attacks for more than thirty minutes before he began to slow down.
If it’s other famines, they’d be bloated already to absorb this much foreign aura. But this time, his famine power was grinding Haedon’s power into the pure aura and giving it away to his other paths.
Thanks to this unexpected situation, Varian realized that he’d probably have near-endless stamina and resilience in a fight.
Unless he’s killed instantly, it’s going to be very hard to take him down.
If they fought him for a longer period, then his enemies would only be horrified.
[Mystic Rank 1: 2/100 (+2)]
[Famine Rank 1: 3/100 (+3)]
Thanks to Haedon’s punches, these two paths progressed a bit. It’s also the primary reason Varian let him attack.
But before long, Haedon’s breath grew ragged, his punches grew weak and slow and he was barely standing straight.
There was no progress he could ‘squeeze’ out of him. The aura of the Abyss Emperor dried up.
Now, he’s weak and powerless to the point even a level 9 could kill him.
Varian grabbed him by the neck and lifted him up.
Haedon tried to struggle but his limbs couldn’t even move with the lack of energy.
“Abyss Emperor,” Varian called out and slightly loosened his grip.
Haedon stopped struggling and looked at Varian.
“I promised there would be peace for my people. With your end, I’ll fulfill that promise.”
Haedon sneered and replied in a hoarse tone. “T-There’s no peace. It’s just a lie. Your civilization would soon be exposed to the nearby province and your secrets will be exposed. You’ll be hunted down by Duchies, even Kingdoms. Your race will be killed brutally. And I…”
Varian felt an ominous premonition.
“I prepared…a gift for you. For both of you.” Haedon’s smile twisted into something sinister. “You’ll find out soon. Facing an enemy far beyond your power, you’ll feel the same helplessness I did.”
Varian wanted to ask more but Haedon’s eyes started to dim and he was about to explode.
“Tsk,” Varian broke his neck and brought him to the asteroid where Julius’ remains fell.
There’s barely anything that could be called human now. But seeing it through his Famine vision, Varian saw Julius in that remains.
Varian hated Julius to the bone. But without him sacrificing himself, he’d have died.
He didn’t really understand what happened to him and why he suddenly changed his mind. But he could still recall Julius’ expression before his death. It was a face filled with relief.
“Julius…” Varian sighed. “History doesn’t need to know your dark side. Even after every sin you committed, you saved the world today. You bastard, I still hate you. But I’ll not deny what you gained at the cost of your life.”
“And you,” Varian placed Haedon’s corpse on the ground. “You’ll remain the villain. Your struggles against Zions and Fairies wouldn’t be known to my people.”
“Huh?”
A leather appeared from Haedon’s body and floated to Varian’s feet. He instantly recognized what it was.
“A handwritten letter…to me?” Varian put it away and raised a finger.
The asteroid rose up and moved toward Pluto.
“Boo, take me–“
Varian stopped and his eyes shook violently.
“Boo!” He appeared on the asteroid where the ghost ship was destroyed and stared at the bits and pieces of metal laying all around.
Varian took a deep breath and scanned the debris with his powers. After an hour, his hopes died out and he returned to Pluto with the asteroid.
‘Master~’
‘Master, what are you doing?’
‘Master, Boo is a cute little ghost, right? Right?’
Sia and Sarah were waiting for him.
They didn’t even wait for him to land and lunged at him, hugging him in the air tightly and crying.
Varian felt their turbulent emotions and hugged them back. “It’ll be alright…everything is going to be alright.”
Then a voice came. A cute, childish, and familiar voice. “Master, Boo’s body is gone! Wooo~ Build me a new one! Waaa~”
Varian’s eyes widened and he stared at the little metallic heart flying around him. “You…”
“Boo is not You, Boo is Boo!”
Varian blinked in confusion before he burst out laughing. The laughter soon died down and a long, peaceful silence ensued. The repressed grief, frustration and fear in his heart melted away into hope for the future.
He looked at his two lovers and smiled. “Ladies, are you ready for the marriage?”
Sarah and Sia looked at each other in shock before they kissed him on the cheek.
It was everything he needed to hear.
