At Varian’s urgent orders, Hortus was evacuated. His wives wanted to ask what the hell was going on, but they were only told to leave Eden for now.
But they gained so clues soon. The virgo cluster was indeed too far. But at the edge of Eden, two aura fluctuations could be felt.
One was Varian. And who was the other that could unleash such power?
They had an answer in mind. But no idea how to help.
Varian quickly initiated the fusion of cosmic forbidden regions with that of Hortus’.
God’s Eye, Spire and Nirvana all were pulled towards the cosmic seed. A connection was built between their counterparts in Hortus.
The fusion began. As it did, Varian could feel his power noticeably increase.
It wasn’t going as smoothly as he liked—perhaps because of his rank.
As primordial gods built Hortus and the regions, he might have to be a rank 3 himself to perfectly fuse them.
Yet, even this imperfect fusion was a ga changer.
For a whole week, Varian spent every second of his focus and energy on the fusion.
And he remained vigilant throughout for God Emperor’s sneak attack.
It did not happen.
What did happen was that his wives constantly enquired about his well being. He only responded once.
Eden underwent a drastic change in these seven days.
Since God’s Eye was fusing with Hortus’ space-ti region, the ’tear’ was left unattended. It started growing drastically.
Without the suppression of the forbidden region, the clone was powerless to stop it.
As a result, in just seven days, the tear swallowed up a satellite galaxy nearby.
This was supposed to take thirty years.
It happened in seven days.
And the tear’s expansion as accelerating.
There were no people living in that satellite galaxy. But the news of its disappearance spread like wildfire.
All of Eden was now in chaos.
’The end was here’, the people cried.
The end of tis.
The end of Eden.
If Varian waited for one more year, even if he won this battle, they would be right.
In just one more year, the whole of Eden would be swallowed by void.
[Varian, this is it. They can’t fuse anymore.]
(I’ll ensure the power boost from Hortus is not wasted even a single bit.)
With newfound strength, he set off once again. It was a great increase and it filled him with hope.
’I will win.’
He was vindicated in the battle that followed.
Boom! Boom!
Click!
The beam of sword was now boosted by the power of Hortus. This ti, it broke through the palm and cut straight at God Emperor.
He hastily put up a few more attacks and barely managed to block most of it. However, so of Varian’s attack still reached him.
God Emperor always had two armors around him. One of ti, which redirected all the present attacks into a distant future. Another of space, which redirected the attacks into a distant space.
Varian’s own space and ti locked onto his space and ti barriers, weakening them and cooperating with the other powers.
Order fought against the space barrier, reworking the existing redirection.
Instead of sending the attacks elsewhere, the barrier was forced to pick the attacks from everywhere and direct them towards the God Emperor.
At the sa ti, Chaos fought against ti barrier and nullified its redirection.
It also gave room for the power of death to break in and attack God Emperor.
God Emperor’s vitality began to fall. His face turned pale and his eyes grew noticeably dull.
Only one move.
But just like before, the winner was decided.
Varian conjured another sword and looked at his enemy with a complicated expression. "Do you regret it?"
No matter how many more moves they could make later, the battle was set. This power difference would always work in Varian’s favor and he would gradually win.
Moreover, God Emperor’s vitality was incredibly low.
Varian might not easily break his defense next. But he could keep fighting for a long, long ti. And as long as could use the power of death to slowly drain the already low vitality, God Emperor would die.
[We won?]
(...Won!)
Varian’s hanging heart finally settled. He was almost despairing after he lost and was in utter disbelief.
For those seven days, he put in absolute focus and didn’t even dare to worry for a mont.
If he lost, it’d all be over!
Only now could he breathe a sigh of relief.
"No." God Emperor smiled, even as he’s covered in wounds. "I don’t regret it. I wanted you to fight at your best, so you wouldn’t feel bad after losing. You did everything you could. It’s ti to rest."
The space between them glowed brighter and brighter as the aura from God Emperor was released without any reservation.
The flow of space-ti was violently altered and everything seed to co to a stand still.
Varian frowned.
This wasn’t anything new than what he just faced. He did not understand what God Emperor was trying to do.
"Indeed, you are the greatest warrior in the history of Eden." God Emperor had a genuine smile on his face. "I spent billions of years, honing my powers of space and ti to go beyond the peak of rank 2.
I haven’t broken into rank 3, but I am strong. So strong that even a hundred peak rank 2s couldn’t defeat .
Yet you did.
As expected of you."
Two glows erged in God Emperor’s hands, one in each hand.
"You..." Varian saw the slivers of space and ti.
Only then did he realize that all this ti, the God Emperor was not using slivers at all!
Unlike Varian who used multiple paths, two fused slivers and a quasi-fused Hortus...God Emperor was fighting all by himself.
And now, he took out the slivers.
"Primordial gods had a mad drive to fuse. Slivers have a lesser drive, but only in comparison. I’ve been preventing their fusion for so long that they’re unimaginably eager to fuse."
Indeed, the slivers were facing each other, bent like flas in a wind. They wanted to fuse. At all costs. Right now. Right here.
God Emperor’s hands were the only thing keeping them apart. It was like a kid holding two magnets from fusing, but this were freaking slivers!
"As I thought, even I can’t defeat you by myself. I need to use the slivers."
He let go of the slivers.
"No—" Varian tried to stop him.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The universe began to tremble, like it had a heartbeat. A brilliant glow erged from the slivers and an incredible explosion threw Varian off.
The tear that would take a whole month to devour Eden accelerated. It would take only six more months. Or perhaps shorter.
Simultaneously, there was a sense of unease amongst all living beings. Many divine rankers felt as if they heard a laughter.
A cold, malicious, mocking laughter. A divine laughter. A laughter of doom.
"Hahahahaha!
It is ti!
The beginning!"
The eyes in Varian’s soul blinked.
God Emperor held the fused slivers with an amused expression. "I spent so long with them, I knew they could do a lot, but I never thought they’d boost my strength so much."
The light from the space-ti slivers, those flickering blue and black things, glowed with a brightness rivaling a star before flowing into the Thoren.
Invigorated, God Emperor raised his palm gently.
Varian pushed himself to the absolute limit and poured everything into his attack, into his sword.
And then, it happened.
The world went dark for a mont, as if soone turned switches off.
And it ca roaring back to light, with a reddish-orange brightness that forced one to close their eyes.
God Emperor stood still. So did Varian.
It was as if they hadn’t moved at all.
And then, as if ti began to resu, the glowing sword in Varian’s hand shattered and he collapsed to the ground.
Not a single injury was visible, but he was deathly pale.
God Emperor walked in the empty dark space towards Varian, step by step at great leisure.
Varian raised his head with great difficulty and tried to channel his paths. He was too injured and weakened for that.
He tried to use Hortus. It moved. He threw an attack.
A brilliant glow of red and blue erged from him, aiming straight for the Thoren’s head. This was enough to kill even ten high rank 2s—this was the weakest attack of the whole battle.
God Emperor casually swatted it away and kept moving.
Tens and then hundreds of such attacks arrived. With a snap, they all froze and shattered.
As God Emperor was rely one step away, Varian urged Hortus to swallow the universe.
The cosmic seed buzzed and tried its best, to swallow everything it could. But as if sothing was missing, it could not take that step.
God Emperor reached Varian and bent down to et his eye level.
"If Hortus could swallow the universe, you can indeed defeat . Not just , you can even have the chance to fight Architect.
But the primordial gods themselves weren’t able to make it devour the universe. How can you?
They called it a perfect world. But it is imperfect. More imperfect than this universe."
Varian tried to channel his powers and pulled everything from Hortus for one last attack as he prepared for his own death.
’If I die, I die.’
A power of ti pulsed through him, freezing his thoughts before he could act.
When he ca to his senses, an excruciating pain filled his being and drowned his mind.
"You have done everything you could." God Emperor was still standing in front of him.
Only this ti, in his hands were two pair of slivers.
Those familiar slivers.
"No!" Varian yelled, trying to raise his hand but they did not move.
They could not move.
The sheer space power from God Emperor locked him in place like a frozen statue.
Varian didn’t remain still. He tried to draw from his paths but they failed. He pulled all his focus onto Hortus and tried to use its power.
"I....I won’t...let you take them...they aren’t just slivers..."
Hortus channeled a trendous power but just as it was about to be released, the partial fusion failed.
The cosmic forbidden regions broke away from Hortus and drifted off into the universe.
Varian suffered a backlash and his consciousness was failing.
"I really hope you survive to see the grand world I’m building."
Everything went blank.
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