1413 Confrontation

A thin red line appeared on Varian's waist and his upper half began to slide on the lower half.

"Your uncle!"

The space-time around Varian's sliced parts began to warp and the sliding paused, as if someone hit a freeze button.

Then, the power of Death Giant roared, consuming the destroyed cells and vitality from the attack, converting it into its own power.

The power of Paragon Body took up from there, using the new energy to glue Varian's body back intact.

The perfect attack which should've rendered even a good rank 8 at a disadvantage was negated by Varian's synergetic powers.

The eyes of the woman under the witch hat burst with a dangerous light at that sight.

Unlike her lively and cheerful expression outside, she had a cold expression here, as if she wasn't a living person with flesh and blood but an emotionless machine built to kill.

"Your luck won't save you twice," She said, spinning two thin swords in her hands.

"It wasn't luc—"

Another red line appeared on Varian, this time a diagonal one, across his torso.

But before it could 'split' could occur, the powers of space-time slowed them down while the powers of life and death pieced him back together.

It wasn't a perfectly efficient process.

Varian had to expend energy for the healing. But due to the synergetic nature of the powers, it was far cheaper than a typical healing.

Due to that, the Emperor of humans gained an unfair advantage of maintaining his peak body condition for a very long time.

Boom! 

Before the woman could swing her sword again, the air around her burned with scorching flames, supported by the powers of Order and Chaos.

The two powers, like life and death, cooperated with each other forming a great synergy.

With the power of Order, the matter of air was turned into pure energy, which was seamlessly handled by the power of Chaos.

It was a nuclear explosion of sort but far deeper than what mankind had ever achieved.

And unlike the mankind's nukes which couldn't win against the all ubiqituios aura, thus losing their effects, the explosion here was accomodated by aura.

The effect of these flames, the heat and the sheer kinetic explosion was enough to destroy a star.

And that attack, confined to a very, very small region, struck the assassin woman.

"Arghh!"

Even though she suppressed most of it, a muffled groan of pain still left her mouth.

The twin swords in her hand turned into molten metal and her hands were consumed by the explosion.

From the tip of her fingers all the way to her elbows, the skin, flesh and even bone melted away like heated wax, resulting in a grotesque sight.

The woman's flesh wriggled and one hand quickly regenerated. But the other was still missing. And due to the quick regeneration, her face paled. Unlike Varian, she had to pay the full price for growing back a forearm.

Their figures blurred and the two exchanged hundreds of blows in the matter of a single second.

Dozens and dozens of arms and legs flew out as two blurred silhouttes clashed.

For a weaker awakener, the whole battle would look like a violent tornado spitting bloody arms and legs.

When they fell back and paused for a moment, the condition of their bodies spoke about the dynamics of the battle.

Varian's missing legs quickly regenerated and he seemed quite energetic despite some paleness in his face.

On the other hand, the woman was panting heavily. Standing on the remaining leg with exquisite balance, she gripped the 23rd sword in her only hand. The other hand, was undoubtedly, missing.

And the 23rd sword she was using was obviously not as good as the first or for that matter, even the 10th.

But the biggest change on this woman for Varian was probably her expression.

The cold, ruthless expression was long gone, replaced by a serious, determined one. But in the depth of her eyes, there was fear and uncertainty.

As a sleeper cell who infiltrated the capital centuries ago, the woman took pride in her patience and alluded all her victories to preparation.

<Overpreparation defeats failure> was her motto.

So, even though she was supposed to kidnap only a rank 7 guy with a bunch of rank 7 girls, she made thorough preparations.

Right from the first day of his shopping, she laid out elaborate plans. But first, she decided to act only when he's alone. Second, she decided to prepare as much as possible despite being a rank 8 acting against a rank 7.

That's why she prepared 10 spare weapons of good quality, 25 healing potions and 20 quick attack talismans.

But—

"You fucking monster!" Even the woman patient enough to wait for centuries couldn't help but swear.

"Your paths are all rank 7, but why are you a rank 8? No, all paths? Why the hell do you have so many paths? What are you? A man? A beast? A god?"

Varian rolled his eyes at her outrage. "Zahara should pick recruits with stronger mental stability."

"Do you think getting me more riled up will help? I am going to lose but you won't win. All of this will be sent to Lady Zahara. You will face a terrible fate."

"Just so you know, the reason I took those two attacks wasn't because you were too fast. It's because I was focused on sealing your communication devices. Sotell me how to get out and avoid a bad death."

Varian recognized the formations almost as soon as they were activated.

'Disguise formation to give off an image that everything inside is normal. An Aura blocker formation to keep the aura in and prevent any traces of battle from leaking out. Space Lock formation to build a strong space to prevent any chances of teleportation.'

Unlike offensive items, these were easier to smuggle in. So, all of these were of a high grade and were very hard to crack. 

"I will have you trapped here until my people find this place!" The woman declared and raised her single hand.