Divine Path System

Paragon Body was the epitome of balance.

The paths that harnessed lifeforce had a weak life essence, meaning while their ability to attack other beings was high, thanks to lifeforce, they themselves couldn't survive more than a few full biological destructions.

Meaning, if you burn them to ashes for a few dozen times, they'd truly die.

On the other hand, those of life essence had significantly lower capabilities in offense. Sure, there were no push overs. With their life essence, they could corrupt another being, kill it or manipulate it to their liking.

It's a very dangerous offense to face. But the limitation was also obvious. As long as the enemy avoided the life essence, they wouldn't be harmed.

Life Essence users, however, have a vitality that made the cockroaches in the celestial ranks.

It's very hard to end them forever.

The power of death, the anti-thesis for all lifeforms, as was power of life for undead, could help kill the warriors using life essence. But even they would rate life essence users as the hardest to kill.

On one hand, essence had the most survivability and on the other, force had the most firepower.

Paragon Body fell in between.

Using own life force to strengthen self and having a strong life essence to survive in even harsh conditions—that's the mechanism.

The life essence and life force had about half of responsibility for the overall strength of a Paragon awakener.

So, when the quadraplets used their natal treasures and locked down Varian's lifeforce, only 1/16th of it was available.

A rough calculation left Varian at 56% of his original strength.

Prince Robert had witnessed his enemy survive a few of his blows, albeit the injuries. So, he didn't tell his subordinates to hold back.

They didn't.

"Hey, are you feeling weak in your—"

"—knees."

"You can try crawling—"

"—like a dog."

The mocking remark of one sibling was completely by another. And as they continued to taunt the weakened enemy, they each spoke only half a sentence.

That way of speaking, more than even what they spoke, pissed Varian off.

"Your father should have used protection."

"W-What the fuck—"

"—is a mongrel like you speaking?"

"You incurred our wrath and—"

"—will regret it so much you'll burn your own tongue."

The four brothers smiled with the same psychopathic expression, one that resembled a mad scientist who'd experiment on babies without remorse.

"You forgot something. You have only—"

"—half the strength."

"You might be able to fight one of us at your full strength. But with half, you—"

"—have no hope against four."

Varian smiled in response.

'You can stop the Paragon powers. But only Paragon's.'

The aura boiling inside his body shifted, going from the paths of life and death to those of order and chaos.

[Order : rank 7 —> rank 8]

[Chaos : rank 7 —> rank 8]

Since entering the higher ranks, it was becoming difficult to use paths of one avenue to boost paths of another. On the other hand, the paths of the same avenue were growing closer and more synergetic.

One of the quadraplet stepped forward, intending to knock some sense into the stubborn guy.

If he had stayed with his brothers, Varian would have initiated a fight when they're together and would've faced a well alert group.

But stepping out of the group made the guy an easy target.

Shuaa!

The sound of wind howling was late. By the time that noise reached any of the siblings, a thin black and white line appeared on the one who stepped forward.

The bastard stopped for a moment, unsure if it's just an illusion.

It all happened in an instant. Like a flash of light that flickered for a moment before disappearing.

'Why would the power of order and chaos appear here of all places? A treasure? But no treasure can do that…'

"Brother—"

"—Watch—"

"—Out!"

The three behind noticed it clearly and rushed forward, hoping to rescue their kin before things took an uncontrollable turn.

But it's already too late.

"Arghhh!"

Like a doll snapping into two by the antics of a wild child, the fourth sibling's limbs twisted in a grotesque manner.

Blood spilled out of his mouth like he's some fountain piece spitting red water and the man began to spasm violently as if he was being electrocuted.

Varian closed in swiftly before the trio could rescue him.

Despite their powers working extremely well against a Paragon Body, the siblings themselves all were warriors of the same path.

In any normal scenario, a Paragon Body killing another Paragon Body, particularly one in the same power range was a lengthy and tiring process.

Even if you tear your enemy to pieces, he'd piece back and return to life. It's as frustrating as it's disgusting to imagine clumps of flesh and bone joining together.

But there's a shortcut.

Vroom!

The vibrant wind of Cradle got disturbed. An unholy power, one whose existence ran against the holy notion of life appeared in the synthetic world for the first time in its history.

The power of <Death Giant> was not inhibited by the natal treasures of the quadraplets.

"Die!"

Varian's fist punched through the fourth sibling's chest and grabbed his heart. The darkish red power of death coursed through the injured enemy's body and a string seemed to be cut somewhere.

Like a toy whose battery was gradually hitting the bottom, the energy in the man's body began to fall.

"Get away—"

"—From—"

"—our brother!"

When their sibling had a quarter of his vitality destroyed, the trio managed to reach Varian.

Even though they faced an unreasonable foe, they reacted fairly well. As long as they saved their sibling, they could fight Varian without holding back.

It's not for nothing that they were selected to be the team of Prince Robert. Martial Saint Kong himself appreciated the quadraplets and predicted they would be pillars of the kingdom in the future.

"The way you speak," Varian lifted the fourth sibling and the power of space-time engulfed them.

The attacks of the three siblings reached him in a blink. But as if he was a ghost, all the blasts passed through him.

Boom!

A hand grabbed the nearest sibling by the back of his neck and thrashed him against the already injured one.

Varian's sword Requiem plunged through the hearts of the two brothers and the power of death flowing in the bottom one flowd through the blade and surged into the top.

"Is so fucking annoying."