It was very difficult to use the sliver powers while manipulating the paths into fusion. But the situation demanded the very best of him.
The few white threads spread out like spider silk and formed a closed polygon in his perimeter.
Varian gave them only one rule.
The black threads coalesced into a ring on his head and put him under its influence.
The white light—Order—was made of one rule: Devour darkness.
It wasn't very specific instruction per se, but it was perfect for fighting a woman whose darkness powers must've reached a pinnacle.
And the dark light—Chaos—had a simpler rule: Oppose gravity.
So, it did.
The heavy gravity falling on him was being cancelled. It felt like a positive and negative force were colliding continuously cancelling each other out. But it was different from that.
The power of Chaos was distorting the gravity power used on him, turning it from 1000x to 10x or 20x or even 0.5x, breaking it down to very, very manageable states.
His mastery of the slivers wasn't perfect and since the beginning, he could only draw a tiny portion of the slivers' strength.
But this was already enough.
As the heaviness of his body went down drastically, Varian clenched his fists. The overwhelming strength of his own physique enthralled him for a moment and he no longer felt powerless.
"Y-You…"
A surprised voice echoed in the darkness, the coldness in her voice still glaring but hints of self-doubt were clear.
Varian's rapid rank progress was still something she could suppress. As a peak rank 6 in three paths and her deep experience as a former peak rank 9, it was a walk in the park.
Unless a rank 7 came in, Isadora was invincible. And even in the face of a rank 7, she had some confidence in retreating.
Then a sigh resounded in the darkness. It wasn't a sigh of defeat but one of annoyance and resignation. "I should've guessed. You're always like this, aren't you?"
Without any words, Varian raised his sword and struck down the empty space left to him.
The space rippled before a sword of darkness cracked apart.
Varian didn't stop and continued swinging towards different points around him, with sharp precision and calculated strength. Every strike broke a sword, dispersing into particles of darkness.
In a few seconds, all the swords that were 'hiding' in the field of darkness nearby were obliterated.
Varian cracked his neck and took a step forward. The dome shaped field of darkness shook violently for a moment, as if it was not a human but a giant who took that step.
And then another.
And another.
"I should've thought about it earlier," Varian's sword blurred, cutting through the hidden swords in the way.
Most tried to attack but their movements were too predictable and simple for some reason.
Even then, a mid rank 5 strength shouldn't be able to harm them. But with the addition of Order powers that affected the sword of darkness as well as the boost of his artifacts, Varian did the impossible.
"You might've wanted to torture me slowly but after injuring me just once, something happened. You threw me into an illusion but didn't even attack me once. After that, you had a lot of opportunities, but no attack." Varian's voice was cynical, mocking and cocky.
"Y-You arrogant bastard!" The chilly voice of the royal woman was filled with endless rage.
"Yes. I am arrogant. I am more arrogant than you." Varian raised his sword and the purest white light of order began to coalesce on the sword blade.
[Order: Devour Darkness]
For a very brief moment, Varian fused all his powers into his Water path, which had now become the Matter path and would become the Order path.
He swung the sword.
A thin white line pierced through the dome of darkness. Then, the white light expanded along the dome. Ice appeared in the white line and followed after it.
In the blink of an eye, the dome of darkness was gone, displaced by a dome of ice, matter and order.
Isadora was still seated on the throne high above, but blood was leaking from the corner of her mouth.
Her body was trembling violently and her darkness aura was flaring high, like flames that were about to burn down the mountains.
"Looks like I was right," Varian smirked, his expression extra smug just to annoy the woman.
Annoy he did.
Isadora slammed the armrests of the throne and flicked her wrist.
Two phantoms, one outlined by a purple light and the other by a golden light, appeared in front of her.
Sia and Enigma.
Their phantoms were fluctuating wildly, about to disperse at any moment, their eyes were shaking violently and they had difficulty even staring at Isadora. But they did. And they glared at her with immense hatred.
Varian took a deep breath to calm the raging emotions once he saw their states. He knew they must have been under stress.
But only once they appeared did he get a vague idea of how much mental stress they'd been through.
It was hard to draw an exact equivalent, but it was like being trapped in an impenetrable cage that exactly fit your body and trying to break out of it. There's no way it's possible. But by bashing your body against the metallic cage, again and again, you hope for the tiniest chance.
They tried hard when Isadora first appeared. She took time but suppressed them once her powers reached rank 6.
Neither Sia nor Enigma had any experience being a rank 6 in their powers. But Isadora did. And she could wield their powers better than them, despite them having a better affinity.
She took over, and suppressed them. So far, everything went well. But when she injured Varian, they went crazy.
They disturbed her to the point she had difficulty even attacking him.
That's why, thousands of the darkness swords she created to torture Varian with never got to fulfill their mission.
Her plan to break him down was thrown out of the window. And now she was struggling to even keep up an offensive.
"You don't stand a chance," Varian raised his sword at her but didn't strike down.
Isadora could take his attack but what if she suddenly switched to Sia or Enigma? He was confident that one of them couldn't just die alone, so Isadora would not risk it.
But if possible, he really didn't want to get bloody with her. If he injured her, maybe the injuries would also transfer to Sia and Enigma. That's why, since the start, he was trying to confine her and then do something about this instead of going for the kill. And since he couldn't kill, Varian fell into a natural disadvantage.
"Give up. Let's talk this out. We don't have to be enemies." Varian sighed and gave her a diplomatic smile.
"What are you showing towards me? Pity?" Isadora scoffed, her beautiful red eyes turning a shade darker. "Do you really think I was helpless? I just didn't want to take an extreme measure. But these two…"
She stared at the girls' phantoms and spoke through gritted teeth. "I warned you already, but you leave me with no choice. If you want to stand between my sword and his body, then suffer what you have to suffer."
"Wha—"
A beam of darkness rose from Isadora and pierced the sky. Simultaneously, a wave of darkness exploded from her, sweeping across the ruins.
Isadora's face paled slightly and there were soul fluctuations coming out from here, as if her soul and the other two souls in her were injured.
"Y-You!" Realization dawned on Varian's face and his eyes grew chilly. "What the hell did you—"
"I'll drop my rank for a bit, delaying my reversion. They paid the price for their insolence. So will you."
The field of darkness grew once again, devouring the field of ice Varian created.
Even though he tried his best, over two-thirds of the dome was made of pure darkness and at the borders, the ice was struggling to prevent itself from being devoured.
Varian's eyes went bloodshot as the nightmares playing in his soul amplified. His time and soul powers went overdrive to manage it, but the impact still shook him to the core, creating a high barrier for him to continue fighting.
The gravity on him increased ten times, even with the chaos powers working against it.
At her unrestrained strength, even with the usage of slivers, Varian wasn't in a dominant position. But he wasn't as helpless as he first had been.
Bearing the pain from the invisible gravity trying to crush his body into a paste, Varian gave an angry grin.
"If you want blood, blood you will get."
