Divine Path System
chapter-1677

A white and black light exploded from Varian, forming rotating circles around the Spirit King like a prison.

The laws of order and chaos restrained his power to some degree. "Useless!"

The Spirit King's powers overflowed, pushing through the restrictions and locking onto Varian. Varian's paths all fused into Soul, pushing it beyond a rank 1. But it still remained the threshold of a rank 2.

Then the two medallions boosted him even further. Since the boost by the medallions was a percentage on the existing strength, Varian's strength went up a notch higher, breaking into the threshold of rank 2.

This would've been shocking to every being outside—alliance and empire alike. To this date, no one ever reached the strength of rank 2 in rank 1. No one.

But Varian did it. Outside, the blessings of the medallions would be missing and he would be much weaker. He wouldn't be able to pull this off without their blessings.

And yet, facing the man who did the impossible, the Spirit King laughed with arrogance. "It's all useless!" The power of Spirit King began to pressure his soul, intending to break it into pieces. Varian's soul power coupled with the soul power given by the partially fused slivers of life and death resisted the attack. "Useless! It's all useless!"

Kchaa! Kachaa!

His defenses began to crumble despite his best attempts.

"I told you, it's useless! You're no match!" The Spirit King roared, his voice reverberating across Nirvana.

Varian's face darkened but he didn't despair like before. He didn't come here to win. Winning was impossible right now. To put it in numbers, if Varian went from rank 1 to rank 2, his status would change from [100/100] to [0/1000].

Varian fusing the seven paths was barely reaching [0/1000].

Using the boost of medallions allowed him to reach [5/1000].

Using the slivers of life and death pre-fusion pushed him to [7/1000].

With partial fusion, he was able to reach [10/1000].

Constrained by the laws of order and chaos, Spirit King's strength fell from [200/1000 to 150/1000].

So, despite everything he had done so far, the gulf between him and the Spirit King was simply too big.

The goal was thus not winning from the start. It was always—

"Is shooting beams with soul power all you can do?" Varian mocked the much stronger opponent.

"Huh?" The Spirit King tilted his head before laughing in anger. "Enslave! Enslave you!"

His words were once again broken and the usage of the soul power changed. It still tried to break his soul defense but instead of trying to destroy his soul, it tried to enslave him.

Varian put his everything to block the attack for a few moments and studied the power as much as he could. But it was only three seconds before the medallion activated and sent him back.

"Haaa!" After appearing back in Elysium, Varian carefully checked the foreign soul power inside him that still remained.

Instead of expelling it and healing himself, he allowed it to keep attacking and used it as a guide to learn more about soul.

Ariel could only look at him in admiration. Even though this method was dangerous, it was the only way with any chance of success. What happened over the next fifteen years was something even Varian couldn't have imagined.

"Almost there."

The two lotuses were overlapping completely. "Y-You fused them?!" Ariel's shocked voice came from the distance. Varian looked at the lotuses deeply before shaking his head. They were overlapping completely but they weren't fusing. There could only be one lotus, not two. But as much as they came together, they still remained as two individual slivers.

"I've been stuck here since forever."

It's been five years, to be precise. There were some bottlenecks he solved in these five years here and there but in the big picture, these five years were fruitless.

"What are you saying? It's been only twenty years since you entered this place! And only fifteen since you worked on the slivers! They're as good as fused! Do you even realize how crazy this is?"

Ariel looked at him with a fanatical expression, as if she still couldn't digest what was happening.

Varian didn't know why the angel who was always so calm and composed changed this much.

With a sigh, he said. "It's not good enough." "What the hell are you sa—"

Varian vanished before she could rant. He had gotten used to the bland world of Nirvana by now. "Johnson, are you still walking leaning on your left?"

"Kriam, jog sometimes, will you? Even your soul is getting fatter!"

"If it isn't for our arrogant miss bella! Did you manage to kick the people out of your way yet?"

Even though the souls were enslaved and wandered mindlessly, each soul had their own unique characteristics.

It's something he only learned lately and made him realize that even the Spirit King, despite all his powers, couldn't erase some things from these souls.

This allowed him to recognize the specialty of soul. While it's not as obvious as the physical or undead body that interacts with the world, soul was equally important.

Gradually, he started to use the fused slivers to improve his control over the soul aspect. Compared to what he could do on his own, he could do much more this way.

"Have you come again, mongrel?" The Spirit King descended with a thunderous roar.

Compared to the first time twenty years ago, Spirit King today had completely changed. His form remained a silver humanoid, making his features unclear. His speech, cognition and memory underwent drastic changes.

"When are you going to give up?" The Spirit King spoke in a mocking tone, his eyes glancing up and down Varian. "A traitor like you attempting a grave sin like trying to fuse the slivers…deserves an ugly death."

Varian took a step backward, his eyes wary as he prepared for ambushes. Compared to this clever bastard, he preferred the retarded stutterer at the start. What's more, this Spirit King even knew about slivers and the fact that he's using their battles as learning material to fuse the slivers.

With a flick of his wrist, the slivers of order and chaos appeared behind him in a circular white and black, the symbol of twin-fish forming a circle.

Above him was a blazing lotus with the colors of green and red. If one looked at it carefully, they'd recognize that it was two different lotuses.

Spirit King spotted it even without looking. "It's useless, isn't it? You cannot fuse the slivers of life and death. It's beyond you. Even I cannot do it anymore."

"Anymore?" Varian slightly leaned forward, the medallions of Elysium and Purgatory activating.

The Spirit King clutched his forehead, as if he was trying to remember something. "Hahaha, I wonder what I was saying. Maybe I'm also corrupted by your presence."

Varian used the the slivers mainly to restrain the powers of Spirit King. Even then, they still boosted his soul power slightly.

Since they were much more fused than ever before, the slivers had a tremendous impact on the Spirit King.

His original power was at [200/1000]. The slivers of order and chaos knocked him to [150/1000]. But the sliver of life and death had a great impact. Even without the critical step of fusion, they crushed him from [150/1000] to [100/1000].

And his own strength, thanks to the increased blessings of the slivers was [15/1000].

"Once I fuse the slivers, I'll knock you down even more. And then you can finally die."

"Fusing life and death by you," The Spirit King chuckled, "is simply not possible."

"Hmph!" Concentric circles appeared around the Spirit King, trying to rip apart his soul. He couldn't defeat Varian so carelessly like before but despite twenty years of penance, the difference between them was still overwhelming.

With a few flicks of his hand, the Spirit King blasted away the offensive soul arrays and locked Varian.

Even though he was already prepared, Varian was still affected by the dream loop. His sense of reality began to blur and he simultaneously existed in both the present and the distant past where he didn't have to carry so much responsibility.

"Go back." The Spirit King whispered. "Back to the time where it's not so hard. Go back to sleep.' Varian's eyes grew heavy and the Spirit King leaned forward in anticipation, ready to harvest this soul which escaped his grasp so many times.

When it looked like it was about to succeed, Varian's fists clenched with a crackling sound and he punched forward.

The Spirit King withdrew, watching with a cold gaze as Varian vanished.

"I can't win but trying to fuse the slivers, you've already lost."