Varian had only heard of the legends of divine rankers. He had never seen them.
But when that headless titan corpse walked, his heart stopped beating for a moment as an overwhelming sense of oppression crushed his very soul.
The fury burning his soul came to a halt and the realization of his current situation set in.
'W-What the fuck are they…'
The three phantoms were floating above the ground, each of them as tall and wide as a hundred-storey corporate office.
The scepter engraved with unknown runes and the dice whose sides change every moment, enlarged to the size of a small moon.
Yet, they all paled in front of the enormous titan. Each of his fists was as large as Earth's moon.
And he was tall.
So tall…that if he put his feet on Earth, he'd touch the moon with his fingers.
It was unlike any other creature Varian experienced to date. Even more overwhelming than the enormity of this monster was its aura.
Varian felt like a speck of dust floating in front of a blazing sun, about to be melted away.
It was the most insignificant he had ever felt in his life. Even when he remained unawakened for years and hit rock bottom, he hadn't felt this terrible.
'I…am nothing…'
All pride melted away, leaving him shaking as the overwhelming aura played with him as it placed. He stood like a grass blade in a fierce wind, unable to resist and out of control of his own future.
'W-What…' Varian gritted his teeth and tried to raise his head, to at least look up at this opponent.
His bones began to creak and a terrible pain spread from his neck. The muscles around his neck started to break down and blood spilled out of his neck.
Even the healing powers he was so proud of were severely suppressed under this monstrosity and were barely working.
As Varian struggled more and more, his condition grew worse and worse. He reached a point where trying to raise his neck any further would mean his head would leave his torso.
'D-Damn it!'
The System, witnessing all this, secretly sighed in relief.
There were things it could do now, but it'd only to a worse outcome. The temporary good it could achieve, whatever it might be, would be thoroughly dwarfed by the future that'd result.
[Host, the thing you want to fight against existed for more than 10,000 years. And you? You're not even 20.]
Varian closed his eyes and exhaled deeply as if he was letting out frustration.
None of the powerhouses made him feel so helpless. That's why he was so desperate.
He wanted to prove that he wasn't helpless. Even if it was something as small as raising his head, he was in control.
But even that became an unattainable aspiration.
It was as if none of his strength, experience, and wisdom could ever amount to anything in front of that divinity.
[This isn't a true divine ranker. It's just a corpse with some traces of divinity. Its strength is at the edges of celestial boundaries.
Like the woman titled Calamity, she too is at the edge of celestial boundaries, about to become a divine being. This corpse is significantly weaker than the woman.
She just never used her full power to look through you, so you didn't feel the suppression from her.]
'…I guess I was damn lucky.' Varian shuddered.
"DIE!"
A palm covered the sky and fell down, like the divine judgment announcing the end of the world.
The three phantoms attacked.
Blinding light exploded out of their aura and blocked Varian from even watching what was going on.
It all happened in an instant.
One moment, Varian was watching a palm fall down and the very next, a blinding explosion of three different colors swept the land.
Since the heirs were weak, the phantoms used some barriers and diverted the fight away from them. In a sense, even a thousandth of the force didn't leak out.
Yet, Varian was swept away like he was hit by a tornado, his bones breaking and his body twisting.
The lights flashed again and again.
Varian's perception of time began to dull and his consciousness was struggling to hold on.
'F-Fuck!'
Varian upgraded his Adept to rank 6 temporarily and made some subtle but critical changes to his body, ensuring him the best chances in the environment.
And then, he lost consciousness.
When he opened his eyes, all he could see was endless cracks in the space, as if black broken mirrors were floating around.
More than a billion miles away, the Headless corpse was on its knee. The phantoms were fading and the artifacts were cracking.
The guardian was thrown somewhere far away, a mysterious light was leaking out of its body, protecting it and repairing its damage.
Varian could almost swear he saw something like blood leaking out of it for a moment but when he focused again, there was no such thing.
The fire that was forcibly doused started burning again.
There's a chance that Sarah's wedding ring was just stolen. But why would anyone do that?
It was the best thing Varian could do at that time, but it could only resist a rank 2 attack. It had no use for someone as strong as this guardian.
The only reason the guardian had it was as a trophy. Trophy of the predator.
Varian's mind went into overdrive and he saw Sarah lying on this same floor, blood leaking out her neck.
She struggled to hold onto her last breath.
"Argh!"
And she was staring into the distance, waiting for a help that never came.
"Arghhhhhh!"
Rage engulfed Varian and he reached into his storage ring, deciding to unleash the one thing that he kept as his trump card.
[Host, Don't! Wait! Just a moment! Please stop!] The System screamed in his mind, its usual voice now quivering.
"W-Why?" Varian gritted his teeth, anger evident in his tone. "Why should I stop?"
As if answering his question, boisterous laughter resounded throughout the space. The endless space turned purple and an aura tsunami swept everything.
Like the roar of a thousand thunders, a voice, old and deep, declared.
"My time has finally come. The world will now see the birth of a new god."
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