The world went white before Varian found himself staring at two divine spaces.
Each space contained glowing prisms--the divine paths.
Like he observed long ago, each face of the prism represented an avenue. And each face was divided into lanes based on the divine path. Moreover, each divine path lane was marked with levels.
The 'origin'--the representative of the individual-- would stay on the level line on their divine path lane.
Unlike normal people, hybrids had three origins. Sia's divine space showed her current state. She had an origin on level 9 mind path in Sage avenue, one on level 9 gravity in Creator avenue, and the last on level 9 darkness path in Ruler avenue.
It was similar for Sarah, although having three origins didn't create three 'selfs' of her, unlike Sia.
Still, it wasn't anything new to Varian. But what he did see upon closer inspection certainly was novel.
Their origins...they were pure.
Any individual's origin would have three components, each pertaining to the three avenues. The path they awaken in would depend on the most dominant component.
Basically, three affinities for three avenues and the highest affinity avenue would be awakened in. Of course, Sage Avenue itself had three paths: Body, Mind, and Morpher.
The one affinity towards Sage avenue had three separate affinities towards each of these paths. It's the final determiner of awakening.
But Varian noticed that their origin on each avenue was completely pure.
Sia's origin was on the mind path had an affinity toward Sage avenue and nothing else. Sarah's origin on the lightness path only had an affinity toward Ruler avenue.
Varian turned to his own divine space.
He had only one origin, but it appeared in multiple places at once. To be precise, at eight lanes!
The problem that always plagued Varian was his ascension to Celestial rank.
Ascension to Celestial rank was basically binding origin to the avenue, fixing the car to that single road.
Hybrids had multiple origins and could continue to have multiple paths. With only one origin, Varian didn't have that choice.
The choice he did have was he could continue the multiple paths in the same avenue.
For example, if he picked Sage avenue, he'd retain body, telekinetic and planate paths when he ascended to Celestial rank while the rest would freeze at level 9.
With Creator avenue, he'd retain space and time while Ruler allowed lightning and water.
No one else had the option to have multiple paths within the same avenue. Only he did.
But just multiple paths within an avenue weren't enough for Varian. After all the handwork in raising so many paths to level 9, he wasn't ready to forsake them.
So, he'd been searching for a solution since he learned of the problem.
There were no predecessors for him to learn. He had to wade through the darkness all alone.
Only now did he finally find a path.
As his origin linked with Sarah's and Sia's and their synergy reached the next level, he gained a very detailed insight into their origins.
'...This is the way. Splitting my origin into three, no, into eight, no, I have two mind paths, so it's seven.'
He recalled the transition in Celestial ranks:
Body --> Mystic
Mind --> Spirit
Morpher --> Famine
Space --> Space
Time --> Time
Lightning, Fire, Light --> Energy
Water, Earth, Darkness --> Matter
Unprecedented in the history of the universe, he could reach all the eight Celestial Ranks.
Divine rankers would kill for half of the paths. But Varian had no idea how precious his opportunity was.
Not to blame him, even Celestial rankers wouldn't be able to fully comprehend.
Still, it would remain an opportunity if Varian didn't figure out a way to retain all his paths.
Thankfully, the unexpected insight from Sarah's and Sia's origin allowed Varian to gain a great understanding and laid the foundation of 'his' way.
Externally, the synergy quickly healed Varian's wounds and nourished him back to his peak. Not only that, it also pushed his paths a step further.
"Haa!" Varian gasped as his eyes snapped open.
Sarah and Enigma collapsed onto their knees as they took deep breaths.
The synergy started abruptly and ended abruptly. Even though their injuries healed and they grew stronger, it was very uncomfortable.
Varian gave them an apologetic smile and jumped out of the spaceship.
"Please," Sarah whispered after sensing Enigma wanted to pull Varian back from the battle.
Enigma's chest heaved up and down as the image of Varian collapsing in her arm with his head bleeding flashed in her mind. She felt beyond angry at him for fighting even after nearly losing his life.
And that anger was also directed at Sarah who asked her to fight so that Evander had a chance of surviving.
"Fine." Still, there's no choice. Enigma dashed out. "Let's all die together."
"Or live together." Sarah followed.
The synergy occurred for only a few minutes and perhaps that's why it was so comfortable.
But thanks to that, Evander was still alive. Somehow.
However, with an arm ripped out and a leg crushed into paste, he was just a few blows from death.
"Father!" Sarah cried out and placed a light wall in front of him. A darkness wall followed right behind.
"You came back? You want to die that much? Good, good." Demon King sneered.
Unlike before, he now had some serious injuries on his body.
Just as he vowed, Evander damaged Demon King at the expense of himself.
It's a pity that even with those serious injuries, Demon King's strength was still in the Sovereign state.
"Julius' dog, this is your end!" Demon King said and slammed his fist.
It broke through the light and darkness barriers and headed right for Evander's head.
With blood pouring into his eyes and clouding his vision red, the injured general could barely see the attack. But even if his vision was perfect, his betrayed body promised to not move an inch.
"I..." Evander's throat was filled with the sweet taste of the blood and his consciousness grew heavy and dark.
Even at this moment, he tried to burn his vitality and continue fighting.
'Protect...Earth.' The oath he swore when he became a soldier rang in his mind in an endless loop.
He vowed that day. And today, he'd hold up that oath.
"Urghh..." Evander channeled the technique, hoping to burn the remaining vitality.
But his vitality had already bottomed out. Whatever was left was barely enough to sustain his life and his body instinctively resisted grabbing the little that was needed.
Evander only hated that his body chose survival over strength. But as death inched closer, Evander felt his mind at peace. At least, those three were safe.
And he...
Even though he knew this was going to be the result,
'I regret...nothing.' Evander stared forward with the gaze of a warrior.
The ash-colored fist, now drenched in red blood, reached him like lightning.
But before it could crush his head, a hand, glowing in multiple colors, caught the fist.
Boom!
Varian stumbled back as his bones cracked and his hands bled.
"You..." Demon King gasped with a horrific expression.
This strength...even though it's significantly lower than him at his peak, the strength Varian just showed was equivalent to Evander's when the fight started!
If it's another Evander that came to fight, Demon King wouldn't be so bothered.
But this was Varian.
And a Varian as strong as former Evander...
Other than continuously growing strong and becoming increasingly hard to beat, Varian also had a cheat-like plantae power that healed his injuries very quickly.
Demon King gulped.