Divine Path System

Varian frowned as he once again verified the structure of Sia's and Sarah's origins. It felt weird to think the two beautiful girls were represented by these two spheres.

'Maybe for the laws of the universe, this was their unique signature.' It might really be so since there were some subtle but fundamental differences in their origins.

It's like a DNA signature but way more complicated in a way he couldn't fully comprehend.

While he continued the observations, synergy worked its magic and pushed all of their paths toward the peak of level 9.

Varian still had a few paths that were a bit away from reaching the peak. For this, he intended to use some precious treasures he brought from the world of Hortus.

Speaking of Hortus, he could technically enter it now. That world should now be 'floating' in the between the outer and inner space of the solar system.

But he wasn't sure if the space fluctuations that'd follow after his teleportation would give away his secret. Julius' strength grew just too much for him to take such risk now.

The session of synergy continued for an hour before the three opened their eyes and felt the significant increment in strength.

Varian felt the aura inside him bloom as the few remaining paths raced toward the peak of level 9.

With a wave of his hand, a few exotic fruits, glittering liquids and fragrant pills appeared floated in front of them.

Sarah took in a deep breath and her eyes closed in comfort as the medical fragrance of the herbs alone moved her paths forward.

"A few days at most, you two can hit the peak level 9 and try hitting the Sovereign state." Varian gave them a portion of the treasures and stood up.

"What about you? Have you figured your path?" Sia asked.

Varian nodded and then shook his head.

"What?"

"It's a bit dangerous." Varian took a deep breath and explained with a wry smile. "The reason hybrids can have multiple avenues is your multiple origins. To have the same privilege, I should also split my origin into three. Every origin has three parts and each part has affinity toward one of the avenue. I just need to maintain the part with affinity on the avenue with its affinity."

To put it simply, if the three avenues were represented by red, blue and yellow. Then, Origin is a big white sphere. But if you cut it open, it is a mix of red, blue and yellow liquids.
Now, what Varian has to do was to literally cut open his origin, separate each colored liquid, make it into some sort of a mini-origin and place that colored liquid on the same-colored path.

Except, these weren't even liquids, they were more like gases.

His words caused the countenance of Sia and Sarah to fall. Their expressions which were relaxed after the synergy session grew grim and angry.

Sia jumped at him like a leopard and pushed him to the wall. The ghostship shook from the collision and Varian wondered if he broke a few bones.

Perhaps he did. If Sia was trying to be rough, she succeeded.

Varian looked at Sia's face and realized it was pale white. But the corner of her eyes were growing red and wet.

At the close distance, he could feel her heavy breathing and hear her racing heartbeat.

He could almost...smell her fear.

"You...What the hell are you thinking?" Sia looked at him with a stare that was a mix of anguish and anger.

Her voice was so weak and pitiful that Varian instinctively lowered his hand onto her head to pat her.

But Sia swatted his hand off almost violently and asked, no, yelled at him. "Any damage to origin will kill you! You want to break your origin? Are you mad?"

Holding back her tears, she stared at him stubbornly, waiting for answer.

In ordinary times, Varian would feel distressed staring at the beautiful teary face. But now, he rubbed his eyebrows and wondered how to respond. This was going to be hard.

She had a good point. In fact, a very valid point.

Any damage to Origin would be the deepest damage to the 'Self'. It's something like an attack on the soul but worse. After all, origin was foundation for even the soul.

But he did think of a way. No matter how death-seeking he seemed, Varian didn't want to die. Certainly not in such a stupid act.

"I can use my...powers to finish this. My secret power, it should help." Varian didn't reveal about the slivers to them and they made a point not to ask about it.

"Should help? You aren't even certain!" Sia looked at him with a pained and betrayed look.

Varian sighed. This was exactly what he was worried about.

'System, Yo, System! Stop being dead and come up!'

[...What is it?]

'Stop being dumb. Didn't you hear her yell? Would my method work?'

[People have tried in the past. But if split, an Origin won't be stable. It'd collapse like a sand castle in the storm. Origins are incredibly complex even for divine ranks. Even they wouldn't try to do what you're trying to accomplish. It's madness.]

'I'm not the one accomplishing it. You are. Aren't you the slivers of chaos and order? I'll split the Origin which increases the chaos and in that chaos, you'll have to maintain the Order of mini-origins and prevent them from collapsing. You're the one doing the heavy lifting here. I'm just pressing the buttons.'

[If host puts it that way, it's feasible. No one has ever tried, but controlling order and chaos is what the system does.]

Varian breathed out and grabbed Sia's shoulders. "I have certainty. Don't worry."


Sia stared at his eyes intensely for a long while before she backed off with in small steps. Sarah gave him a long, worried stare before she exited the room.

'It'll be fine.'

Varian sat cross legged and pulled out Sia's potion. He'd split the origins and then he'd have to 'bind' them to the paths so that he could reach the Sovereign state. When the origins touch--fuse with the paths, he'd reach the Celestial rank. It's a very energy intensive process and Sia's potion would be the fuel.

Of course, when his slivers interact with the traces of four slivers in Sia's blood, there'd be a big reaction.

Sarah gained a unique physique and her talent skyrocketed. Varian's talent was already through the roof. So, all that energy would remain. And Varian planned to use it to push from Sovereign state to Celestial rank without any break.

'Alright, now split the origins and I'll take the potion.' Varian said in anticipation.

[What are you talking about, host? You have to activate the slivers.]

'How do I do that?'

[Enough strength should help. But you aren't there yet. And the last two times you did it, it's under extreme emotional stress. So, maybe do something very stressful.]

'Like?'

[No idea. Appear before Julius, try getting killed and then successfully escape?]

Varian's lips twitched and his chest heaved up and down in anger. 'You know what? Get those suggestions coming. I'm damn sure I'll be pissed off enough to activate the slivers.'