Varian was incredibly strong now. But not strong enough to rival a Sovereign. Certainly not someone in the leagues of Albert.
But Sin King was far from his peak. He almost died just thirty minutes ago. Even though he took the miraculous potion, he didn't yet reach his peak.
However, he was still strong to overpower Varian.
The figures of the man and the abyssal blurred as they engaged in the most primal form of fighting.
Fists met fists and heads clashed with heads. Bones collided and cracked. Muscles clashed and tore apart.
"You...how the hell are you this strong?" Sin King winced at the new injuries on his body, of which the biggest was a human fist-sized hole in his chest, and asked.
Varian didn't answer. Instead, he put more lightning mana onto his right fist and ice mana onto his left.
He's fighting like a melee warrior. But he's using all the longe range powers as well.
'You can think after you die.' Varian's voice rang in Sin King's head before a prickling pain followed.
The space around his arms collapsed and despite having powerful scaled arms, Sin King felt like someone was tracing a knife on his arm, cutting open his skin for fun.
As if it wasn't enough, an invisible force enveloped his arms and made any movement difficult. It's like someone grabbed his elbows to prevent him from punching at his full strength.
Even though this power wasn't very strong, just around a high level 9, it annoyed the Abyss Ruler.
Then something...rippled around Varian. Sin King wasn't sure what and he didn't have the time to think.
Varian reached him in a blink, at a speed significantly faster than before, and punched out with his elementally charged fists.
Sin King roared at the restraining powers and slammed his fists.
The space around the two froze for a moment before it cracked and let the tremendous shockwave spread out. If this war happened on a small planetoid, at least a tenth would be destroyed by now.
Varian was blown back by a few miles while Sin King remained firmly in place. Even after being weakened from all those injuries, he's much stronger than the Undead Leader.
"You're a monster." Sin King stared at Varian with a mix of pity and regret. "If only you were born as an abyssal--"
Varian reached him in a blink and rained down hundreds of punches on the abyssal.
Varian was in a disadvantageous position with every punch. But he's slowly growing less disadvantageous. With this growth rate, he'd need at least an hour to match the Sin King.
Varian didn't want to spend that much time. So, he used the last weapon in his arsenal.
"Is this the only thing you're good at, old bastard? Guess what? Even if I had the chance, I wouldn't want to be born as an abyssal. You are a weak race who's going to be destroyed by the upstart Fairies."
That's right, Varian taunted. And he taunted with such a punchable face that Sin King, despite all the experience he had, almost couldn't help himself.
The rage he felt when his race was humiliated knew no bounds and it wanted him to stop at nothing less than smashing the human bastard to pieces. But Sin King knew better than to give in to his emotions.
"You still want to challenge Zions? Have you ever looked at yourself in the mirror?"
"Why do you know all these?!" Sin King growled as a look of panic and rage flashed in his eyes.
With the recent news about Abyss Empire being invaded, he had a growing fear. As the Emperor said, they might win the Fairies. But Zions seemed like the mountain they'd never cross.
They'd win the Deva legacy and take it back to the Abyss Empire. But fully assimilating the legacy would take decades. Would the Zions, who were reckless enough to throw so many resources behind Fairies just for invading Abyss Empire, let them grow in peace for decades? Even with the legacy, they were likely going to lose.
Sin King's heart sank as pessimistic thoughts flashed in his mind.
"If wishes were pigs, why stop at Zions? You'll also replace the Jai Empire and establish the Abyssal Empire." Varian gave a mock laugh.
That struck some nerve as Sin King growled and attacked Varian with reckless abandon. But it wasn't just his words, Varian was also using his psychic power to elevate the negative emotions of his enemy all this time.
It worked.
'Got you!' Varian smiled and used his enemy's recklessness to land heavy hits on him. In return, he too was bombarded with dangerous attacks.
But Varian was able to take far more damage than Sin King could due to his plantae powers.
As a result, the battle proceeded in the direction Varian intended. Sin King realized he was tricked midway, but it was already too late.
"Haa...You...scheming bas--"
Sin King wasn't able to finish the sentence as a fist smashed his face and nearly cracked his skull.
"Genius. Scheming genius. Thank you for the compliment." Varian grinned and increased the intensity of the battle, like going from a normal run to a sprint.
As the injuries on his body rose to a staggering level, Sin King realized he would be going down.
A surge of grief filled his heart before rage replaced it.
"I'll take you down with me!" He didn't dodge Varian's fist reaching his head. Instead, he punched his enemy's head. Sin King wanted to kill him at the cost of his own life!
Varian clicked his tongue and teleported away.
"You coward! If you have the balls, fight with me like a real--omph!" A lightning palm slapped his head and shut him up.
Varian stood a hundred miles away from this suicidal maniac and shrugged. "I don't play with crazies."
Sin King grew crazy as Varian did the most outrageous thing in his opinion.
He resorted to long-range combat!
Sin King tried to reach Varian and die together but he slipped away every single time.
"Arghh! Arghh! Why? You shameless bastard!" Sin King roared in frustration. Even when he was pushed to death by Julius, he didn't feel so aggrieved.
Now, he felt like crying.
Varian could attack him from a distance. But he couldn't even land a single punch on the human.
It's too much!
Sin King coughed out blood out of sheer anger and his attacks began to falter.
"Abyssals won't win." Varian's ridicule sounded in his mind.
Sin King gasped and gathered every bit of strength from his body. Then, he reached Varian before the latter could even teleport.
Like a star that shone the brightest before it died, Sin King exploded with strength that shouldn't have been possible for his current state and punched Varian right in the heart.
His fist broke through Varian's defense layers one by one. The lightning layer, the ice film, the invisible telekinetic armor, hardened space were all gone.
And he did it!
Sin King's fist struck Varian right on his heart. Varian's bones cracked as a deep fist impression formed on his chest.
With blood spluttering out of his chest like a waterfall, Varian was blown back.
This attack should've killed Varian who just began fighting with Sin King. But even though their battle happened for less than an hour, Varian had a substantial increase in strength.
The attack severely injured him, but it couldn't kill him.
Sin King's eyes stayed on Varian's cracked chest. To be precise, on his heart inside the gaping hole of his chest.
Varian's heart was still beating.
Sin King's eyes flashed with defeat and his body began to break down. In sharp contrast, Varian's chest began to close up and his injury began to quickly heal.
As Varian recovered to his peak and opened his eyes, Sin King was just a blink away from death.
Their gazes met and the world stilled.
For the first time and for the last time, Sin King stared into Varian's eyes. The eyes carried a confidence that announced that even if the Abyss Emperor himself came, he wouldn't be able to win.
'We were wrong the whole time.' Sin King sighed as his consciousness went dark.
Varian grabbed his corpse and disappeared. In a few seconds, he appeared on Mercury's planetoids which turned into a living hell.
The abyssals were slaughtering the human army. Even though the mercury troops fought, they had little morale.
"Your king, this old mutt is dead." Varian's voice rang across the planetoids like thunder.
Then, countless virtual screens lit up and showed the corpse in front of Varian.
The abyssals paled while color returned to humans.
"This is your end." Varian slapped the corpse and broke it into pieces.
"NO!"
The abyssals roared and rushed to the remains of their dead king.
The mercury army did the same thing abyssals did to them a while ago. They took advantage and inflicted severe damage on the abyssals.
And this time, they also had Varian to help.
With a flick of his hand, lightning rained down and ice storms spread for hundreds of miles.
The level 9 abyssals were slaughtered like dogs. The level 8s nearby couldn't even survive a breath. The level 7s died just from the shockwaves.
After inflicting hell upon the abyssals, Varian returned to the battle site to assist his girlfriends and was surprised.
Sarah raised her arms and then pressed her hands together. A light barrier enveloping the phantom horses compressed.
Even though the phantom horses split or integrated, the end result didn't change. They were all crushed by the shrinking light barrier and ended up being destroyed.
This caused the Lightning Horse controlling them all to cough out blood and collapse.
"Finally." Sarah waved her hand and a red light enveloped the Lightning Horse's body and burned it into pieces.
Sia's battle also approached its end.
The Lava Snake once again shrank to dodge Sia's attacks and spat lava at her. This time, Sia managed to drive a spear into its body.
The snake tried to expel the spear away by shrinking even more, but Sia was faster.
She couldn't control the darkness spear through gravity. But when the spear went into the snake's body and was enveloped in the flesh of the snake...
Sia's lips curled up and she used her gravity on the flesh surrounding the spear.
The flesh wriggled and then exploded, launching the spear forward. The spear shot forward like a rocket and wherever it passed, it spread its darkness mana and weakened the lava snake.
Even though the Lava Snake tried its best, in just a few seconds, the darkness spear ripped out of its head and ended its life.
Varian looked at his girlfriends and felt his chest swelling in pride. "If not for all the blood on you, I'd have kissed you two on the spot."
Sarah rolled her eyes while Sia threw him a flying kiss.
Before Varian could even catch it, Boo popped up. "Go kiss the Demon King, ugh no, Boo means, go kill the Demon King master. Without Julius, he's going to destroy Earth."
Varian cursed Julius' mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother in a breath.
In a few minutes, the ghost ship headed to Earth and stopped in front of the injured Demon King.
"Ah shit, here we go again."