Divine Path System

The phantom of the middle-aged woman locked onto Varian and Zara with thick killing intent.

"Duchess Serenthia…"

The insanely furious Zara came to her senses. Like a bucket of cold water was poured on her head, she shuddered.

The anger towards Varian was kept aside for a moment and an emotion called fear crept onto her face.

After that war, Zara wanted to climb in her life. That's why she was very clear on who she could not afford to provoke.

The mother of the legendary princess was one of them.

But why…

Why was the phantom of someone liker her in the hands of a student who broke into this facility?

Zara's eyes narrowed and then she smiled. "Even if it's you, targetting the kingdom's laboratory is not something you could walk out of."

Turning to the Prince she ignored so far, she said. "Samatv, we both have enmity with him. Once this ends, we'll cover each other's secret.

Instead, this man's corpse would become the body of the imposter who sneaked into the facility and we will become the heroes who stopped him."

Samatv also came to his senses after using the phantom card. It was supposed to his trump card.

Varian didn't even show any killing intent towards him. Looking back, using such a precious treasure to kill that man seemed like an absolute waste.

But it's already an irreversible situation. Since he released the phantom, he might as well get the job done.

The Prince slapped a green shell on his chest and a wavy green barrier enveloped him. "We have a deal."

Zara smiled.

The phantom and the professor turned to Varian.

The man in question didn't want to fight anymore. He wanted to run away.

The addition of another rank 8, even though she seemed to be only a low rank 8, increased the overall duration of battle by a few seconds. That's a big, big risk to take.

If Isadora was in front of him, he'd have cursed on her face. 'Your mamma is so—!'

Boom!

Zara's fist aimed at his abdomen was countered by a kick.

It was like the collison of two water balloons. Her fist and Varian's foot both exploded into pieces of blood, flesh and bones.

The power of death giant acted and they were devoured. Varian's foot regenerated in a blink as he recieved a boost from his enemy's vitality.

But he collapsed onto his knees the next second as an invisible force acted inside and tried to strip him off his vitality.

<Life Force Controller>

Varian didn't have the chance to counter the phantom as Zara pounced him with even more vigor.

The two exchanged thousands of blows in a blink, resulting in blood spilling everywhere and pieces of broken bones flying out in the air.

The sound barrier was also changed inside a realm like this. Yet, the explosive crahes of bones and flesh colliding rang throughout the facility.

A group of scientists from a nearby facility who were rushing towards a safety point went pale as they heard the sounds of this monstrous clash.

"E-Emergency! The beasts somehow managed to get in X1!"

"X1!"

Varian couldn't keep a track of what's happening outside. All his attention was focused on the warrior in front of him.

Even though she was injured, Zara's strength was still above his. Her strength, speed and reaction timing were all higher than his.

The battle gradually turned against him.

It was then—

The phantom's actions finally reached a tipping point. Varian's heavily injured arm was affected by the life force and all the vitality in his arm was dried up before he could fight back. As a result, only a dead bone was left of that arm.

Even the cells in the bone marrow were deprived of their vitality, leaving his right arm completely and utterly dead.

"Hahaha!"

Zara laughed in excitement. The match was sealed.

That's how it seeemed.

But shocking everyone, including Varian himself, the 'dead' arm bones were enveloped in a dark light belonging to the Death Giant. A surge of power filled his veins and the power of Ignis activated next. That surge of power was then used to quickly regenerate a new arm.

No laws were defied as the process costed aura from both the Death Giant as well as the Ignis paths.

However, compared to a normal generation, being able to devour parts of self that the enemy destroyed with great difficulty and regenerate from that?

Now that definitely seemed law-defying.

"Stop that phantom!" Zara shouted in panic, realizing the unfair advantage her enemy had over being 'dead'.

"I can't!" Prince Samatv's face was filled with panic on top of an evergrowing regret.

In fact, he could. But that would need him to move out of the defensive barrier protecting him from the aftermath of this dangerous fight and approach the phantom.

If he tried to move even a millimeter out of the protected zone, that monster would kill him first.

It was not his fear. It was his conviction.

Throughout the battle, he watched Varian getting drenched in his own blood and that of his enemies, mostly his own as he kept being suppressed by Zara.

But he didn't flinch even once. Instead, his smile grew wider, his eyes grew brighter and he fought and fought, like an immortal champion who would dance on the battlefield until eternity.

Prince Samatv no longer held any fantasies of killing him. The only thing he wanted to do was exploit a critical moment and escape.

Zara didn't know what the coward was thinking but Varian could vaguely sense it through his soul power. And that's why he decided to end the battle as fast as he could, even if it might result in more injuries.

Since these two wanted his life, Varian wouldn't let them get out of here alive or dead—in case they turn into Undead—every bit of their being would destroyed here.

A red bladed sword appeared in his hand and his power seemed to kick up a notch.

'Ah, right.'

Requiem was a sword built from the powers of Life and Death. And now, he too had these two powers. Perhaps it's why they began reinforcing each other.

Zara wasn't prepared for what came next.

The one-sided battle remained one-sided. But it was Varian who was dominating the field this time.

And he didn't need that long to dismember her.

As the sound of blade slicing through flesh and bone rang in the hall, Prince Samatv realized this was the only chance he'd have and activated a treasure.

The space around him distorted, ready to teleport him out of this facility in a breath.

As everything went smoothly, the Prince breathed out a sigh in relief but for some reason, he ended up coughing blood.

Looking down, his body began to shrivel into a zombie and in mere seconds, only the academy's uniform remained there. The body inside had disappeared. A sword lay in that heap.

If the Prince was a bit stronger, he'd have noticed that a soul power attacked him and rendered him unable to feel any pain.

Then, a sword struck him in the pain and destroyed his completely.

Sensing that the operator had diedd, the phantom entered a murderous mode where it would kill everything in sight.

It'd have taken him sometime if he fought the phantom fair and square, but Varian used the power of slivers and applied a 'rule' to the room with a touch of his soul power.

< Only beings that can think can move >

It wouldn't work for long but the short second where the phantom stopped was more than enough for him.

With a swing of his sword, the phantom disintegrated.

Varian approached the dismembered Zara Woz and struck her in the head. Waves after waves of soul power crashed her mind and the woman's eyes rolled back and turned dull.

It wasn't a normal fainting. For at least a few hours, she'd be experiencing horrific nightmares.

He didn't know what they were. But he did know they were the ones that hurt the most. And that's enough.

Varian then began to cough out blood and his body began to spasm, as if he was having fits.

Not only did he forcibly suppress his injuries, h eused more strength than he could manage. This was the direct backlash.

'F-Fuck!'

Without a second thought, he urged his connection to Hortus and the space around him began to distort.

From the corner of his eye, he noticed a storage disc on top of the Prince's clothes.

"Urgh,"

With a wave of his finger, the precious item flew into his storage ring.

A few seconds later, he disappeared.