Varian raised his head and glanced at the glowing building with a frown. He felt a weak aura shockwave from the venue of the celebration.
"Theoron says it's gonna be tomorrow. Even Akira implied that. There's no way they'll do it tod—"
BOOM!
The large building a few miles exploded with a deafening bang. The night sky suddenly had a blinding white mushroom cloud that rose beyond the clouds.
"Shit." Varian cursed under his breath and his appearance morphed into that of a well-known rank 3 Imperial guard officer.
His feet tapped the floor and he flashed forward to the Duchy's Main Palace in an instant.
"Who are you?"
"R-Raven, verify yourself! Why are you here?"
The guards at the imperial palace pointed their weapons at him and unleashed their killing intent.
Thankfully, the moment the venue exploded, most of the powerful members in the palace hurried there.
That only left a few dozen peak rank 1s, a couple of rank 2s, and a rank 3 that remained to safeguard the palace just in case.
Varian looked at them with a sharp gaze.
Since Catherine helped him get the keys for a small price, he decided to take as few lives as possible. Not that he was benevolent, but he didn't see a point in killing others when he could achieve his goals otherwise.
Varian pursed his lips and said the words that'd send them into a frenzy. "The Duke is about to be assassinated."
"What?"
"Shut up!"
"No one can defeat the Duke! He's a rank 5!"
Even though they refuted him strongly, their eyes weren't so resolute. They were shaken.
"You fucking bastard! Are you even Raven? Or are you just wearing his skin? Reveal yourself!" The rank 3 threw a spear at him.
The weapon spun so fast that it created a tornado in a blink. A small stone on the spear lit up and an eerie red light enveloped the spear.
Varian raised his finger and blocked the spear with his fingertip. The fluctuating red light on the spear tried to suck away his vitality.
His famine powers tried to stop the suction but as a low rank 2, they couldn't fight against the attack which almost surpassed the range of a peak rank 2.
Varian's skin wrinkled and his hair went white. 'Fuck.'
Half of his vitality was sucked out in a blink.
"No, you're not taking that away." Varian's sliver powers smashed his seven paths and channeled them into his Famine powers.
For just a few seconds, Varian's famine path was pushed to rank 3.
Like a wild beast wrestling a piece of meat with its mouth from its enemy's stomach, his famine powers dragged back his vitality.
'Good.' Varian fixated his gaze on the rank 3 and said with a solemn expression. "We can fight all day and waste time. Or you could go and actually do something about his majesty."
The rank 3 clenched his fist and his gaze alternated between the venue that no longer existed and the enemy that stood in front of him.
BOOM! Boom! BOOM!
In fact, right when the venue exploded, the protective arrays of the Imperial Quarters activated and blocked away the region. Else, the shockwaves would've killed at least a quarter of the planet by now.
With barriers covering them, the Duke could fight his enemies without worry. But that's precisely why the rank 3 officer was so worried.
It's been a full minute already but the shining explosions within the barrier didn't stop. Worse, they were growing more intense every second.
This all pointed to a horrifying possibility.
The Duke couldn't finish the battle and had to keep fighting. Then, the Duke mayn't necessarily win and would need all help available.
"You'll die a dog's death, traitor!" The rank 3 officer swore heavily and ran off to the large silvery barrier.
The soldiers looked at each other and faced Varian with a decisive gaze. Even if they die, they didn't want to let him in.
"Oof." Varian sighed in relief and his eyes glittered with a fleeting blue light.
The next second, the soldiers that were prepared to fight with him blanked out and collapsed on the snow.
'Rank 3 Spirit is strong, eh.' Varian took a step forward and he appeared right before the Palace's main entrance.
Now it's blocked by layers upon layers of killing arrays. Even peak rank 3s would be butchered if they tried to trespass.
Thankfully, Varian didn't have to worry about all that. He took out a silvery hexagon and easily passed through the arrays and entered the Palace.
'Catherine is thoughtful enough.'
Even though he could've gone in anyway, she saved him a lot of effort.
And time!
At a time when even a second could change fates.
BOOM! BOOM!
Even with the barrier on, the Imperial Quarters was shaking wildly, as if it was about to collapse at any moment.
Varian ran through the halls of the palace, trying to provoke as few traps as possible.
But not once did he try to use the powers of space or time. They were almost always found in the Jai Empire. So, he reckoned the restrictions would target him way more if he used those powers.
Thankfully, while the Palace was vast and almost as big as a small city, he had a map and managed to reach the thirty-third floor underground which contained the treasury.
The floor itself was small and dark. The door to the treasury was very plain with just one keyhole and two unicorn statues on either side.
As he stepped closer to the door, Varian's heart thumped.
Ba-dum! Ba-dump!
It was as if a deer was approaching a lion, Varian's body was screaming at him to get away from—
"From what?"
The eyes of the unicorn statues glowed red and Varian froze for a split second.
The next moment, he didn't even care about the consequences and used his space-time powers.
With a blur, he appeared a few meters away. The place he was standing before looked the same except for a small red light.
But Varian could feel it clearly with his famine powers. If the powers from the spear earlier were strong enough to suck a peak rank 2 dry, then this…
The red orb spun in the air, shining brightly and sucking all the vitality in the distance. It seemed to have a fixed range.
Varian gulped and stretched his finger towards the orb from well over a hundred meters.
When the tip of his finger crossed an invisible range, his skin wrinkled and dissolved like sand. Varian tried to pull away his finger but it just didn't work.
When the area of his finger in the range was dissolved, the red orb was about to start sucking away the rest of his body.
Varian decisively cut away his hand and teleported a few floors above. He returned back after a few more minutes with a regenerated hand and a heavy heart.
The door was still plain, the red orb was missing and the statutes looked normal.
"Fuck! Even rank 4s would die!" Varian's chest heaved up and down as his heart beat violently.
Had he not used his space-time powers to get out, then once he was in the range of that orb, he'd be frozen and sucked dead. Any prey that falls into the range wouldn't be able to move.
"Catherine…" Varian's eyes shone with a fierce light for a moment before he focused back on the door.
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