Divine Path System

The tower of knowledge's first floor was filled with rows upon rows of bookshelves inscribed with sealing formations. Each book placed in them was given specific sealing covers that wrapped the book.

As if it wasn't enough, the wiggles of forgotten texts, forbidden chants and broken pieces of demonic pictures floating in the room imbued the very air with a nightmarish aura.

The security method was thought of by Sia, of course. The bad habits of pranking people just got worse. This security would not harm anyone who stumbled here by accident.

It'd just give them some bad dreams and send them out. But if they sneaked in to with bad intentions, dying would be the least of their concerns.

Varian glanced back at the room as he took to the stairs.

It had been incredibly peaceful since he entered. The floating texts wasn't letting out its usual devilish aura, the broken chants didn't seem to be trying to drive anyone insane and the shards of demonic entities' pictures were not trying to posess.

They weren't anything like the evil tomes of the legends. They were cooperative and disciplined.

It hadn't been that way at the start.

Sarah whipped them to shape. But some books wanted to die than submit. Varian had to step in. Since then, those stubborn books turned the most docile.

At the top floor, he found the two women immersed in their research. Their states were terrible, putting it mildly.

They created so many clones and assigned each clone so much work that even their real body was severely weakened.

"Hm?"

Isadora looked up from behind a pile of books. The bright eyes of the princess were now weary and dull. Her long lustrous silver was disheveled. Fatigue was visible in her gaze, face and body.

Varian clenched his fist and loosened. A glowing lotus of green emerged, lighting up the room before it entered Isadora.

Her state improved at a rate visible to the eye but she looked fatigued nonetheless.

Biting her lip, she stood up and took a deep breath. The hundreds of thousands of clones spread across the island turned into flashes of light and merged back into her.

The princess exhaled deeply, shoulders relaxing visibly and complexion improving before she signaled him to the window.

The window opened with a creak and even though it had been only weeks, the way Isadora breathed in the fresh air made him wonder if she locked herself up in this room for decades. No, she wasn't someone who would react like this for mere decades. Unless, it was centuries, no, millennia.

"…Wait." Varian's eyes widened and he held her shoulders.

Isadora looked at him with a sheepish smile, an expression very unusual for the arrogant princess.

If it was normal times, Varian would've petted her head.

"Sarah put a time enchantment on top of the one I already gave you…three hundred years turned into three thousand years and you did it after restricting your level to the bare minimum."

"Increasing the timeflow of a divine rank by ten times after you already raised our timeflows is difficult. So, I fell to pseudo divine. That's the minimum to use so many clones."

Varian's grip on her shoulders tightened and then left her as he stepped back.

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Looking out of the window with a heavy gaze, he muttered. "So many clones won't work with just a pseudo divine. You gave out your soul strands. So many soul strands. This would've killed you."

Isadora bit her lip. She wished he'd reacted a bit violently and lashed out. But this quiet reaction scared her.

Varian rarely acted like this. And when he did, it meant he was really angry.

He had the right to be angry. She did take a huge risk. There was a chance of real death. And there was an even great chance of going insane with a broken soul.

In trying to save Aurora, she would've likedly killed herself.

Gripping the window sil, Varian said. "Lady, come out."

A light flashed across the island and Sarah emerged behind Varian.

The mood of the room was impossibly heavy. Even without Isadora uttering a word, Sarah understood what transpired and sighed.

"You have outdone Isadora, congratulations." Varian clapped with a mock smile.

Sarah wanted to say something but Varian simply shook his head. She wanted to best Isadora a lot of times in their little rivalry.

This was the only time she wished she hadn't won. Not only did she take the same risk as Isadora, she enabled it by using her time power.

She nearly killed them both.

Varian turned around, noticing her state was even worse than Isadora.

He did not heal her.

"So what did you find?"

There was no reproach, no punishment, no anger. In a plain tone used for a casual matter, Varian asked.

And yet, that caused the two women into panic. They looked at each other, trying to find a way out.

Unfortunately, neither the princess nor the queen had any idea how to calm his anger. What's worse was that he wasn't even showing that anger. It wasn't a case of suppressing his rage.

No, he just…

"If you haven't found anything, I'll go back and continue the tests." Varian said.

Isadora raised her head, mustering up her courage and spoke up. "I-I studied Origin and all the research done so far on the topic including the related legends, myths and folklores."

Varian glanced at her, looking at her but giving her the feeling that he was looking through her, as if he wasn't even giving her a glance.

'I'll properly apologize once this is over.' Isadora clenched her fists at the sides and continued. "There is no substantial research on Origin to help in Aurora's case.

Origins can be broken due to external influences. The most common factor being a near decimation of soul.

Even if the soul is repaired somehow, the damaged Origin continues to decay.

If someone dies through the shattering of soul, each part can be pieced back into a whole, the soul's condition including the soul sea can be reverted to a prior state.

But the broken origin won't change. So, the person won't revive, even if the soul is reverted.

Even with the power to turn back time and catch the shards of a soul, death seems irreversible."

Varian raised a brow. It struck a nerve somewhere.

'How did the Hortus trial revive her then?'

[It wasn't a true revival or any revival for that matter. What you saw was her from the past. The power of the space-time god pulled her from the past into the present for that brief period between the moment she's about to die and was dead.]

Logos' words weren't to his liking. But he didn't curse or yell or sigh. He didn't even respond.

He's already in a terrible state with Aurora's looming death, Sarah's and Isadora's reckless act and the storm that was slowly approaching. One more bad news was one more bad news.

Varian exhaled and signaled for Isadora to continue.

"There is no useful research on Origin. The myths, legends and folktales barely touch this topic. It almost seems like taboo. And turns out it people can't just make anything of it to spark stories.

No research can be done on something like Origin. No tales can be sang on the thing that just doesn't respond."

Then the whole research sounded futile but even in his anger, Varian trusted Isadora's judgement. She wouldn't call him for just this.

Looking into his indifferent eyes that showed no trace of emotion, she bit her lip and continued. "You found the solution to Aurora's problem."

He's always updating them with his experiment results through their synergy links. So, she's talking about Origin reacting to the slivers of order and chaos.

Varian said. "Not a solution if I can't make the shards. And her own Origin has to build a link with those shards. She can't do it in her current condition."

He took a deep breath and continued. "Studying anything related to Origin will take too long. And learning to make shards takes at least a month. Aurora doesn't have more than a few days."

"I have one lead. If it is what I suspect it to be, it should help you solve the Origin problem." Isadora said, fingers swiping in the air summoning a few holographic texts.

"One lead?" Varian's eyes burst with a brilliant light.

"Heaven Tribe." Isadora spoke, body still and breath faint. "After Heaven were slaughtered to extinction, there was a gap period in which Neveah tribe was hunted by the other tribes. But when they finished the assimilation, they gained awakeners who were equally talented in both space and time.

Neveah tribe transformed into Jai race. Jai empire was born. By transformation, the texts usually mean interbreeding or absorbing the newborns.

Perhaps Neveah used all those methods but they used something more. Somehow, they managed to transform their racial origin. The origin which was aligned to space now had a near equal alignment with time.

Either they always had this knowledge or it came from the Heaven tribe. I am inclined to believe it is the latter."

Varian blinked, going through the memories of his encounters with the Jai powerhouses. Indeed, those were origins unlike a pure tribe like Vita or Ativ.

"This is the justification of Neveah for exterminating Heaven. The inscription written in dried blood is displayed grandly in their holy museum."

||Judgement for an attempt to blaspheme the sacred creation of the Creator||

He might not be so sure with just the history part. But with the inscription, there's a high chance they're referring to the origin.

"So, I need find something related to Heaven?" Varian muttered. "Inside the God Emperor's palace maybe?"

"It should mostly likely be in a hidden world, inside the inner space or even core space." Sarah spoke up, body tilted away from him as if she found facing him intimidating. "And these are the possible space-time nodes based on the historical astronomical data. I've separately marked the plausible sub-regions of the capital."

Varian raised a brow.

Sarah coughed lightly. "The Jai Empire researched on the Primal Union Body. So, I used my own blood and Sia's to create a detector of sorts. All resonance responses came from within the capital territory. If you have to search somewhere, search the capital first."

A double-silver ring materialized in between them before it imprinted itself on the back of Varian's hand.

"I studied Hortus' stealth as well as the stealth mechanicsm of other synthetic worlds to come up with a detector. Your perception as a rank is of course stronger than this. But it's specialized toward detecting hidden worlds. So, if you pour your perception into it and try searching, you'll have a much easier time locating hidden worlds."

Varain stared at the mark on his skin before turning to Sarah.

She looked at him expectantly, perhaps hoping he'd forgive her stupid actions after seeing how good of a job she'd done.

Varian was pleasantly surprised. They really went above and beyond for this. He didn't know how he would be able to save Aurora but now he had a clear path.

He felt proud of them for managing to decipher such clues in the hopeless situation.

But.

'They really tried to kill themselves! What if they died? Don't know they how worried I woul…'

Varian paused and blinked. Weren't those the same words they'd say everytime he courted death?

"I…" Exhaling deeply, Varian looked at them, gaze softened but expression stern.

Sarah pressed against her bosom and gave him a cute smile. "Very sorry~"

Isadora lowered her head and muttered with a pitiful face. "I'm sorry."

It was fun watching the calm queen act cute and the arrogant princess turn pitiful.

'I should go.'

With a thought, the two fell into his arms. Wrapping his arms around their waists, he said in a stern but not so stern voice, whispering in their ears. "There is no next time."

Sarah nodded fervently while Isadora nodded meekly.

"And for taking risk this time without telling me, I'll punish you later. I won't go easy this time."

"W-Wha—"

"Punish—"

"Look forward to it."

Leaving behind the dumbfounded, scared ladies, Varian vanished, his voice half-intimidating, half-teasing voice ringing in the air.

"Because I sure do. Hahahahahaha!"