At the top of a mountain, Varian, who looked like he just reached his 20th year, sighed.

"How long has it been?"

[4 years]

"I feel tired." He cracked his knuckles and leaned back.

'Status'

[Pseudo Divine

Paragon Body: 70/90 (+30)

<Your body has grown tremendously in the two weeks your divine paths weren't restricted. The union with divine rankers was etremely helpful. Had you used Synergy, you'd have been a divine ranker already>

Ignis: 90/90 (+45)

<The difficult situations you faced might've scarred your forever, remaining as memories that are impossible to forget. But they've also made you more resilient>

Death Giant: 70/90 (+30)

Order: 90/90 (+60)

Chaos: 90/90 (+60)

<Again, congratulations for finding good wives, you lucky bastard>

Space: 90/90 (+30)

Time: 90/90 (+30)

<If not for you intentionally suppressing it, your paths would've already hit the divine rank and even jumped a whole sub-rank. It's a hard decision but the right one>

PS: <Congratulations, you're almost there>]

Varian yawned. "Show me something useful."

[Comprehensive Strength: All paths + the slivers

21% of a Divine Ranker.

You have a long way to you.

With the estimates of your current speed and the inevitable slow down as one reaches higher proficiency in slivers, you'll need:

25 years to reach 30%

50 years to reach 40%

100 years to reach 50%

250 years to reach 60%]

"As I thought, it's damn impossible to catch up to a 1000 year practice in a 20 year period frame." Varian placed his thumbs on his temples and rubbed them slowly.

[Even if Immortal is at a whopping 50%, you're reaching there in just 1/10th of the time.

Moreover, Immortal is literally built from the slivers and the strongest divine rankers of the Alliance.

Your rate of improvement was absurd, even for the System. The life you led so far, the ridiculous peaks of peace and war, the order and chaos, makes you the perfect fit for the slivers.]

"And I don't have a 100 years to practice. I have only 20. With these 4 years gone, only 16 more. And that is we're lucky enough to not get found for 4 more days." Varian groaned.

[It is what it is. Knowing your wives, they should be working on increasing the stealth and preparing for a mass sacrifice ritual. Hortus would be emptied and a new empire could be rebuilt.]

Varian wanted to refute those harsh words but upon recalling their gazes before seclusion, he found it hard to say they wouldn't resort to those measures.

Particularly Isadora. Though she's sweet and caring, the princess was a stubborn woman in certain areas. Even the ever supportive Enigma took her side in this issue.

"I don't want to sacrifice anyone. I just want a better solution. Logos, is there no way to improve my power at a faster rate?" Varian complained.

[Your speed is already the result of my guidance. There isn't anything more I can do at this point.]

"Don't play with words." Varian sneered. "Are you aware of any other method?"

[Any intervention would result in a greater deviation and the consequences are unclear. But most likely than not, they'd be unpleasant.]

"I really hate you sometimes." Varian exhaled deeply.

[I understand. It doesn't bother me.]

"I guess the way to not be disappointed is to have low expectations. And I had no expectations from you. I wasn't really expecting help from you. The one-on-one guidance is already a pleasant surprise."

[You really have a bad evaluation of my positions. But still, it's fine. I hope the heart you carry now will remain even when the time comes.]

"…Even if I'm given a 1,000 years, reached high rank 2 or even peak rank 2, I don't think I can match that monster." Varian shook his head with a wry smile. "Tell me, what is his real rank?"

[Peak of rank 2. Been that way since tens of millions of years. Or maybe more.]

"And the Alliance's leaders, two high rank 2s manage to fight him off? Come on."

[It's his weakened avatar. His main body is always inside God's Eye, suppressing the turmoil.]

"Weakened?"

[You think you saw him from a few million miles. But he's not even in the space-time zone as you.

At your current strength, you'll need at least 1 billion years to cut the distance to half.

His avatar would have to travel from the center of God's Eye to the outside and that will take up a lot of its power.

Of course, it never lost to the Alliance's leaders.]

Varian's lips twitched. "Immortal has a 1,000 year lead on me and I'm struggling desperately.

How much of a lead does that man have on me? 1 million? 10 million? 100 million? 1 billion?

I'm not so crazy enough to think I can bridge that gap just like that."

[You don't have a choice.]

"Your honesty is disgusting sometimes."

[It's better than a sugar coated lie. The Alliance is afraid of the God Emperor and rightly so.

If you lose this battle, Immortal will be groomed to be the successor with four slivers.

If you win, you'll have two more slivers at your disposal. And they'll invest tremendous resources in you.

The speed of your growth would be beyond any imagination. Genesis, Mors and Nexus would give their all to push you to the peak.

You're not as desperate as you think you are.]

"…Do you really think I stand a chance?"

[Yes. That's why you were chosen in the first place. Your fate, if set off by the right conditions, can fluctuate to unprecedented degree, allowing for extreme possibilites, even one as extreme as defeating him.]

"Do you think the God Emperor will sit and wait?"

[I can predict next to nothing about him.]

"…Great." Varian lay down on the grass.

A bolt of white light shot out of his fingertip and the matter of the mountain changed in a blink, turning into a fluffy cloud, resembling Primula's favorite mattress.

A smile formed on the corner of his mouth.

It reminded him of the times when she'd drag him to her bed and have him tell stories.

As a good brother, Varian would tell her ghost and horror stories.

'And she wouldn't sleep unless I stayed beside her until morning. I wonder why?'

[No one tells horror zombie stories to children, even if that child is a very powerful awakener. Of course, she's scared.]

'But she slept like a pig when she's that scared. And she drooled! Ugh, my new shirts! Why is she hungry even in her sleep?' Varian grumbled. 'Sleep, yeah, sleep…'

His eyes grew heavy and his body descended into sleep without much resistance.

The act of continously using the slivers had a huge toll on his body and spirit.

Despite being a pseudo divine ranker, he's still too weak to come anywhere close to wielding their true power.

A soft sigh sounded after confirming he's asleep.

[Sigh…hopefully, everything works out. The future I can predict is less and less clear.]

Logos was confident in Varian's fate to achieve extreme outcomes. But it lied when it said his extreme fate allowed him an extreme possibility of defeating the God Emperor.

In truth, neither Logos nor any being in the universe knew whether it was possible to defeat the God Emperor.

His true strength, goal and motivation…everything was unclear.