1480 Peace
Like a needle piercing through layers of fabric, slowing with each layer, Varian's sword cut through the nearly endless layers of defenses.
Every layer of defense, a thick circular mass of white energy, vibrated lightly.
The moment the sword touched it, a part of the aura was either forcibly kept in the present or skipped a bit into the future.
Inertia applied to all things against all properties.
A moving object could not be stopped without force. A static object could not be moved through space without effort.
In a sense, every object had resistance against change, in whatever form.
This applied to aura as well. When the power of time tried to gulp it away into the future, aura resisted.
So, instead of disappearing wholly from the sword and rendering the attack useless, only a bit of the whole disappeared.
The first layer of defense took away only 1%.
The next grabbed 1.1%.
And the next 1.3%.
As the sword advanced through the layers, the resistance of the aura fell sharply.
When Varian pierced through the final barrier, the weapon had practically turned barren.
It didn't help that a bit of aura that previously disappeared a microsecond ago appeared now.
The sword moved a microsecond forward but the aura hadn't. So, when it tried to fit in its previous setting, a clash ensued and disrupted the momentum of the attack.
Due to the left over physical momentum, the weapon hit Zahara's eyes. But its momentum was so weak that it couldn't even pierce her eyes.
Zahara's echo was defective and didn't even have the strength of a rank 9. So, her physical capabilities were also significantly lower.
Yet, she could not have more physical defense than a typical rank 6 body awakener.
To put things into perspective, Varian's attack, which was capable of killing any peak rank 8, was so weakened that it wasn't even able to injure a rank 6.
"…"
"…"
An awkward silence ensued as Varian withdrew his sword and checked the blade. He gave Requiem briefly to Xeola before grabbing it back. Was it possible that he got a counterfiet?
Varian gripped the handle of his sword and let out a heroic sigh. "Tsk, to think my enemies are so vengeful that they'll fake my weapon and render me powerless now."
Zahara rolled her eyes. "What happened to that punch line? I'm not the Hunter, but you are."
"No, no." Varian shook his head fervently. "You are not the Hunter, I am."
"I said the same thing."
"No, you said I said 'I'm not the Hunter, you are.' But I said the opposite."
"If you want to buy time, you should really search for better ways, you know?" Zahara sighed and a thorned white sword began to materialize in her hand.
Varian backed off, building cubical defense structures around him. They included those from space, time, order, chaos, life and death.
"I'm trying, okay? It's not like I have a 101 ways to waste tactically important time with your enemy during a critical battle moment."
Zahara shook her head.
She too was trying to buy a few seconds to try contact her mainbody. Once it proved futile, she decided to take things into her own hands.
The lady swung her sword casually.
Whoosh!
A white light split the world into two.
The barriers were 'skipped' an instant into the future.
Varian's chest split open and blood spurted out like a fountain.
"Urgh."
With a pained expression, he clutched his chest and accelerated his healing powers.
But the wound that should've started healing started taking a lot more time. It took the power of Paragon Body and shouldn't have shown such reaction. The time flow for the injured part was far slower.
So, even though it was technically healing, there'd be no difference even if it hadn't.
"I was disappointed when my civilization didn't have time awakeners." Varian grabbed that part of flesh and blasted it with the power of chaos.
It dissolved into nothingness and in an instant, new flesh grew. The injury that was recovering at a snail pace closed up before a blink.
"But I'm glad there were none. You guys are fucking annoying."
Forming a stage of aura, he kicked it hard and shot toward Zahara.
When he reached her, she vanished abruptly, skipping that brief duration.
A thin spear pierced from Varian's back and emerged from his chest, his beating heart attached to the tip of the weapon.
The power of time infused in the spear poured into his heart and a time bomb started to get quickly arranged.
"All divine paths are equal, but some are more equal than others." Zahara's calm voice sounded from behind. "Time is a lot more equal, I say. So does my Princess."
Boom!
Varian snatched his heart back. It turned purple and was on the verge of skipping time. Once it did, it'd drown a good chunk of his vitality.
Instead of fearing the situation, he used his immense vitality to resist the time skip and then infused time power into his own body to skip.
"You're crazy."
Zahara realized what he was trying to do and dismissed it without even thinking. Yet, a moment later, Varian skipped time along with his heart in perfect sync.
It's something that'd need not only a perfect control over power of time but also over vitality.
Mastery over two paths?
Except for Hybrids, no one could do that.
And yet this guy…
Shaaa!
Varian's sword raced for Zahara. It was exactly the same attack he just tried and failed.
The lady put up layers of defense and decided to destroy the sword using the opportunity.
The sword, the stone and the ring—all of them were making him stronger than normal.
'Once he's weakened, I can incapacitate him.'
As expected, the sword began to lose momentum as it passed through the defenses. And this time, it came to a halt by the time it reached her.
Zahara reached her hand for the sword but her battle instincts kicked in at the last second and she tried to escape.
But a black and white light emerged from the sword and enveloped her.
Unknown to her, a new law was set through the power of slivers.
[Matter and Energy within the boundary increases.]
Her powers still worked and Zahara was able to skip a second, moving to a distance.
But time skip was a delicate activity, dependent on the initial conditions. Due to sudden interference, the skip ended up being imperfect and she landed up in a place she didn't intend.
"Got you!"
Varian's fist reached her face.
Even in that momentum, Zahara tried to escape and this time, the power of slivers acted. Aura was pulled from the woman, momentarily halting her escape.
And that's enough of a gap.
Boom!
Zahara's head exploded.
But instead of dying, the scatterd pieces began to come together.
Regressing was an extremely difficult activity for any time awakener, the cost increasing exponentially with every new addition.
But if it's just onself, it's possible.
So, even if you get your head blasted, with enough expertise, you could still turn back time.
Boom!
If someone wasn't intent of blasting your head, of course.
