Divine Path System

King Hades approached the structure, leaving the citizens to breathe a sigh of relief.

Even if they're going to lose everything else, at least their lives would be spared.

Ophion and Asherah looked at each other before following after him, the former three steps behind and the latter ten steps.

Rakz quickly caught up with Ophion and looked at the majestic palace with burning eyes.

As if sensing their arrival, the golden palace vibrated.

"Are you calling for your master, puppy?" Hades asked, a gentle expression on his face.

The golden palace paused and then vibrated violently, as if asking for help from anyone. The majestic palace which was once worshipped by the entire empire was now desolate, without a single soul to defend it.

A sorrowful aura filled the city, as it mourned for the tragic reality.

"He is dead, puppy. Your master is dead." Hades stretched his hand toward the palace. "He won't come because he can't come."

The golden palace shook for one last time before a golden barrier wrapped around itself.

"Tricks! Tricks again. Do you think this can stop me anymore?" Hades asked in a mocking tone and pointed his arm to the burning formations across the city. "The formations of the Heaven tribe that your master's ancestors copied couldn't stop me. What can you do?"

A red sphere began to condense in between him and the golden barrier. The light shone on the king of undead, setting his face in a sinister glow.

At this moment, Varian's voice rang again. "If you ignore me any longer, I will take action."

"Aren't you going to answer, King Hades?" Ophion asked, reptilian-eyes narrowing.

"Why? Do you want me to get into a fight with him so you can rob the palace all by yourself?" Hades tilted his head, gazing straight at the Nexus' ruler.

"He is a huge danger." Ophion said without any change in expression. "He has the slivers and grows too fast. Worst of all, he has seven paths. He doesn't even need to be on an equal footing to kill you."

Hades narrowed his eyes. "So? I should give up the treasure hall in front of me to fight an enemy who isn't as strong as me yet?"

Ophion fell silent.

They weren't able to accurately discern Varian's strength due to his multiple paths. Even though he defeated Asherah, she just entered mid rank 2 at that point.

Unlike her, Hades was on the verge of stepping into high rank 2. Ophion himself was a strong mid rank 2.

Even if he had seven paths, all of them were still only at the beginner stages of mid rank 2.

Just like how a hundred rank 8 celestials would be useless against a rank 9 celestial, seven early mid rank 2 paths were useless in front of a well developed mid rank 2.

What's more, Varian took nearly thousand years to grow this much. He shouldn't be anywhere close to Hades for the next thousand.

And even if he managed to become a very strong mid rank 2 by then, Hades would already have broken to high rank 2 with the treasures from the Golden Palace. Maybe even a peak rank 2.

It made no sense for him to risk losing the golden palace for a small fight.

Even if Varian was stronger than expected, then it only made more sense for Hades to get the treasures soon and improve his own strength.

"But since he's trying to annoy me so much," Hades' eyes flashed and he clenched his fist in a slow motion, as if trying to capture the air itself in his palms.

And then, he pointed his arm toward the distant void and shot a beam of light.

The silver city was momentarily basked in the red light akin to the evening glory of a dying sun. Even though the light didn't even contact them directly, the citizens hiding in their homes widened their eyes as their skins dried up and bones melted away.

The life of Silver City ended in quiet screams.

"That's enough warning. Let's get go."

The golden palace whimpered and its barrier began to crack.

Not too far away from the city, Varian sensed the arrival of a hostile attack almost right away.

The space which remained dark like a hidden cave lit up by the arrival of the glowing red fire.

Varian's eyes reflected the fire and his soul fell sluggish for a moment. Hades was on the verge of reaching a high rank 2.

Of all the enemies he faced so far, he's the strongest. And this attack could infect a newbie mid rank 2 with enough death energy that he wouldn't be able to fight seriously for at least a decade.

'He's underestimating me. But that's not a bad thing.'

Varian quickly morphed the space-time around him, taking the region around him, including the attack from outer space deep into the core space.

His presence vanished from the perceptions of various divine rankers who were spying on him and he appeared in a chaotic region of gray with erratic space-time flows.

The flame of red, a death curse in fact, had to work extra hard to wade through the chaotic space-time currents and reach him.

Thanks to the powers of space-time, Varian himself was able to easily evade the attack for the first few moments.

'Status'

[Life Master: 200/1000 (+50)

Spirit Lord: 200/1000 (+50)

Death Master: 200/1000 (+50)

{Master~ You haven't even focused on growing strong these days. But even your research on that lady yielded indirect results. I'm just sad you ignored the beautiful paths.}

Order: 250/1000 (+150)

Chaos: 250/1000 (+150)

{Host, you ended up working a lot on the paths of Order and Chaos as they seemed to be the only way to help Aurora.

Unfortunately, I am also unable to determine why Origin is reacting so differently to the power of my avenue. I wish I had the answers. But it looks like you keep running into questions that even slivers don't have answer to}

Space: 200/1000 (+75)

Time: 200/1000 (+75)

PS: @#$@#$@#!

PPS: Ignore her ramblings. The shards are a marvelous creation. It's only natural you've progressed in their paths.]

It wasn't much of a growth. But he spent all his time on research, so it's to be expected.

Still, all his paths stepped into mid rank 2.

[00-150 => Low Rank 2

151-500 => Mid Rank 2

501-900 => High Rank 2]

As his rank increased, skipping an entire rank was impossible. In rank 2, even skipping a sub-rank seemed too much.

But ignoring the difference in a sub-rank itself was something no divine ranker would be able to cope with.

The fire of red, death curse, finally reached him after trudging through the difficult terrain.

It's a casual attack thrown by the arrogant Hades. And it was worn out by Varian's clever actions.

Without too much effort, Varian grabbed the sphere and examined Hades' aura through it.

'I will be able to kill Hades if I fight him now, but it'll take me at least a full day of fighting. And I'll need at least one more day to expel the death energy.'

With Aurora's life on line, he didn't wish to waste two full days. Intervening in the ongoing war was already something out of the plan.

"Haa~" Varian used the power of slivers and a gentle green light enveloped the flame of red.

The restless death curse turned docile like a puppy that found its owner and Varian flicked it away.

As he's about to return to the outer space, Varian turned around and extended his perception in the core space.

Outer space. Inner space. Core space.

Aura flowed from the core to the inner and the inner to the outer. It's how it's always been.

Space awakeners could go deeper and deeper as long as they could break through the barriers that would come along the way.

But—

"What is at the center of core space anyway?" Varian muttered.

An answer popped up in his mind. It's probably true and that's why he didn't want to check it out.

With a grunt, the surroundings blurred and he was back to the outer space.

"Undead army." Varian's words rang across the galaxy. "Cease your actions now and you'll be spared."

The Undead who were killing and converting in every corner of the empire were dumbfounded at this sudden warning.

They thought their leader had already taken care of this guy after the arrogant warnings he spouted.

"You have three seconds."

Varian's perception expanded.

Combining the powers of space-time and life-death, Varian locked the Undead across the galaxy.

"Three."

Even though it was just a voice in the sky, every Undead felt as if a sickle was hanging over their necks.

"Two."

King Hades nodded in satisfaction at the first crack on the barrier and ignored the count.

"One."

The Undead leaders faithfully stuck to the orders of their leader and kept at their jobs.

"Zero."

A cold wind seemed to blow across the galaxy and all the Undead shuddered.

"Your time is up."

A golden light lit up the empire, its dazzling aura covering every region with Undead.

And then, it vanished without any sound.

"Huh?"

"W-What?"

"Where are they?"

Everywhere across the galaxy, the survivors looked around in disbelief.

The planets filled with undead armies were now barren. The fleet of thousands of ships filled with undead sailors was now empty.

The many helpless citizens who were running away from the pursuers realized no one was chasing them anymore.

The few bravehearts who were still trying to fight back watched in amazement as their enemies simply vanished.

As if they were simpy erased out of existence, like a god just willed them to cease, the Undead vanished from the Jai Empire.

At that moment, everyone, be it an officer of Genesis, soldier of Nexus or refugee of Jai, cheered.

The cheers resounded throughout the galaxy, reaching every corner of the civilization.

Like all divine rankers, King Hades too heard those cheers. The barrier of the golden palace just had the third crack, but it no longer elicited joy in his heart.

He glanced at Ophion and Rakz who were attacking from afar and then at Asherah who was even farther than them.

With a calm gaze, he asked. "Why does everyone hate us?"

"Huh?"

The question came out of nowhere.

Asherah wondered if the Undead even cared about such things. Since Hades ignored Varian's actions, it showed that he wasn't bothered by the death of his troops.

If he reached high rank 2, he could raise as many such troops as he wished.

Then why was he asking this?

'It's not the death of his troops, its our reactions that irked him.' Asherah realized.

"I'll be back soon. Continue what you're doing." Hades vanished with those words.

A tense silence followed for a few minutes as Asherah and Ophion continued to strike the barrier.

Their attacks of green and black continued to dye the sky black. And the impact of these attacks continued to ravage the silver city, which continued to be demolished.

"He…he really left?" A few minutes later, Rakz gasped. "He won't even let us first step into the city and he left the palace to us?"

Of course, he communicated through a special channel constructed by the power of Order.

If anyone else, even Hades, tried to spy on his words, it'd seem like he's talking about the devastating war.

"He'll return soon." Asherah turned to the palace's barrier which now had a dozen cracks but was mostly solid. "Even if he leaves for days, we won't be able to demolish it by ourselves."

Rakz snorted, disliking her words.

"But when did he start to care about these things? Aren't Undead supposed to be dead in emotions?" He asked, showing obvious disgust at the mere mention of the race.

"A normal Undead, perhaps. But a powerful one like him? Who knows?" Asherah shook her head. "If they really have no emotion, what motivates them?"

"Obviously, spreading their disease across the empire. What else can they do?" Rakz spat.

"He is going to fight Varian?" Ophion interrupted.

Asherah shook her head. "Varian isn't going to fight him."

At the mention of his name, Rakz's face grew livid. "Why?"

"If I'm not wrong, he is trying to save…my daughter whose origin is broken."

Even Rakz who hated Varian to the bone fell silent for a few moments before shaking his head with a disbelieving chuckle. "He is crazy or you are lying."

Ophion nodded. "Asherah, come up with a better lie. No one is going to fall for something that silly."

The All Mother looked at the powerhouses of Nexus and sighed in her heart. She too thought it was silly.

No one could tamper Origin. It's something as fundamental as divine paths themselves. There's no 'repairing' it.

"What else would make him miss plundering the Golden Palace?" Asherah shrugged.

Ophion fell silent, seriously considering the possibility while Rakz merely laughed. "All his powers are due to the slivers. If he comes here, they'll be taken back by the rightful owners. So, he's keeping his distance."

Asherah glanced at Rakz in disbelief before turning to Ophion who didn't refute the statement.

Without any words, she turned to the barrier.

'Mors has fallen out with Varian. Nexus too. What if…'

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