The chains of Hortus descended from Heaven and tied up Icarus like he's some circus animal. Powered by the divine paths of Isadora and Sarah, they restrained him to the point he wasn't able to flare out any aura.
Varian covered himself in a flame of black and white and threw himself at Icarus.
Even if a divine ranker stood still without any defense, a celestial warrior wouldn't be able to kill them. If the latter punches the former and somehow breaks into their abnormally tough skin, then they'd encounter the divine aura flowing inside.
A few strands of divine aura would be more than enough to destabilize a celestial warrior.
It's like putting punching a power station, the current inside would wreck you should you be unlucky enough to break through the initial defense.
'No, no, how?! Arghhh!'
Icarus felt as if he was dozens of sizzling nails were driven into his body, all hammered in by a fist.
But he couldn't see, smell or even sense.
Thanks to Sia using the power of 'Great Spirit', his soul was cut off from all perceptions except the tactile.
With the power of slivers stopping the divine aura from wrecking him, Varian went wild.
As a result, Icarus, the rising star of Nexus became a punching back to the wrath of a very, very angry man.
The more time passed, the heavier the restrictions on Icarus grew.
From not being able to use the divine powers to not being able to use any divine power even on the inside, he wasn't able to stop his own descent.
The heavy violence inflicted on him was an undeniable factor.
He still wasn't getting really hurt by Varian's attacks but at some point, it started to really hurt.
His body and soul were both gripped by a pair of rough hands and ripped to shreds before they stitched back. This time, they were cut piece by piece. The next, his body parts were displayed in the wrong places and his soul was confined to his heart, which was then taken out of his body and thrown to wild beasts.
Yet, the most important factor was a sense of fear. It was an inexplicable fear, like a rabbit that senses the presence of a lion.
Icarus sensed a great being in front, a being who stood so far above that even his grandfather would amount to nothing in front of that grandeur.
In front of that being, his genius was ordinary, his strength weakness and his pride a delusion.
Something began to shatter inside him.
His body was the first to surrender. It sensed it was facing something transcendental. It's like it had touched the edge of a flame and realized that to go against it would be to burn completely.
Next was his soul. It couldn't sense that being properly due to the restrictions placed on him. But he could still whiff off a bit of the being.
The soul in front of him was ancient, far more ancient than even the Alliance itself.
Even the oldest beings alive today would only qualify to be a child in front of this being who seemed as old as the universe itself.
Finally, Icarus' will gave in.
Time passed in a blur.
When it all ended, he regained the ability to sense his surroundings in addition to seeing it, he didn't dare to open his eyes.
Ironically, the first thing he heard was the thumping of his own heart, which sounded like it was about to break out.
And he smelled the scent of blood, gore and piss.
Piss?
'No, no, I am a divine ranker. I long stopped…'
When he felt the patch of wetness on his newly joined thighs, Icarus stopped denying.
There was no sound from the outside for an incredibly long time.
Was it a minute or was it an hour?
Icarus was so disturbed that he could no longer tell it apart. When he opened his eyes and expanded his senses outward, the figure standing in front of him caused his heart to stop for a moment before he crawled back desperately and hit the wall.
"Haaa! Hufff! Aaah! Haaa!"
Icarus didn't realize what was going on. His mind couldn't keep up with his body's reaction.
But he knew, it was all due to this man.
The man covered in his blood and flesh from the tip of his head to the bottom of his feet, as if he had taken a dip in an ocean of Sera tribe's corpses.
Tap! Tap! Tap!
As he took a step forward, Icarus heart almost jumped to his throat. With the next step, his mind began to slow down, a sense of paralysis striking his body.
When the man took the final step and reached him, Icarus was covering his head with his hands and curling up, his muffled sobs leaking out.
Varian looked down at the broken divine ranker with disgust. It had only been a month since he started his torture. But Icarus already broke.
He kicked the head of the divine ranker without even any aura and materialized a throne for himself to sit.
"Your grandpa took great care of you. You never had to suffer. Any divine ranker who climbed to his position without anyone's support would withstand this little pain for a century. Look at you, you can't even stand a month."
Icarus shivered and slowly opened his mouth. "You…are not a celestial ranker…you are a…who…are…you…"
Varian raised a brow.
Indeed, even though Icarus was weakened to the point he could be hurt by the likes of a celestial warrior, it still didn't make sense for him to break.
For the past month, he was just inflicting pain on Icarus without any other thought. Now that he thought about it, someone helped.
'You're welcome, hehehehe.'
Oob's voice sounded in his mind and a pair of soft white wings manifested in his mind's eye.
'Hortus is now much more stronger than before. Oob was able to borrow a sliver of divine power from the forbidden places and inflict it on that man.'
'Ahhh~' Varian striked the armrest as the realization struck.
The three forbidden areas of Hortus were built by the Primordial gods themselves. They left a bit of their power in that place. Power that belonged to those who once reigned the highest in their avenue.
No wonder Icarus was weakened like that.
Even though it's just a hint of that power, not the power itself, in front of that overwhelming godly power, any fledging divine ranker's aura could only prostrate.
That instinctual surrender followed by the despair it induced broke Icarus. If they tried this outside Hortus, even Sarah and Isadora wouldn't be able to pull this off.
'Hortus is really special.' Varian mused.
'Of course!' Oob giggled. 'It's extra special because it has me.'
'Sure, little fellow.'
He shook his head with a chuckle before focusing on Icarus.
At some point, the man opened his eyes and was staring at him or rather, his feet.
Varian's smile disappeared and he leaned forward. Ruffling Icarus' curly hair before grabbing it hard, he lightly tapped his cheek.
"You'll answer everything I ask, hm?"
The divine ranker nodded, mustering all of his will.
