"I need to find a way, a way, a wa—"

"Brother!"

"Woah!"

A pair of tiny hands covered his eyes and asked in a mischevious, deliberately altered voice. "Guess who?"

"Sarah?"

"Wrong!"

"Sia?"

"Come on!"

"Isa—"

"Arghh!"

"My bad, my bad. Only Primula's frustration is so adorable."

"Mean, mean brother."

Primula removed her hands and appeared in front of him in a sweet princess dress, looking like a cute doll.

Pinching her cheeks, Varian said. "So you came to check on me, huh?"

Placing her hands on her hips, Primula smirked. "How is it? I came for you when they all didn't even bother to visit? Aren't I the best? Come on, admit it, praise me, I really don't mind."

[…Even the child living with you has gone narcisstic. Host, this system feel sorry for the girl. She deserved bett—]

'Shut up! If anything, I deserved a better system! Is life and death good? Wonder how the personality after the fusion would be? Maybe a sweet maiden? A gentle maid? An obsessive yandere? Hehehehe. Anyone would be better than you whose main job is staying dumb and part time job is mocking my situation.'

[…]

'Hey,' Varian smirked. 'Are you jealous or are you jealous?'

[…]

"Brother! Brother!!"

"Ah!"

Primula glared at him. "Why are you ignoring me?"

"Sorry, sorry."

"Hmph! I wanted to tell you about my adventure…but it was a bit scary, too much blood. I mean, I don't mind some violence. It's just too much! Ugh! My head hurts when I think about it!" Primula clutched her head.

"Huh? What's happening with you?"

Varian's expression turned stern and he placed his hand on Primula's forehead.

The curse on her, a powerful wheel constructed from the purest divine power Varian had ever seen, was spinning rapidly in Primula's soul.

She used more power than any other time and as a result, the curse was trying to regress her even further.

'If this keeps up, she'll become an infant.'

Varian suddenly grew afraid. The backlash seemed much more severe than normal. It might wipe out all her memories too.

'Fuck, I have to do something.'

The divine power of Sarah was ineffective and the fields of time she constructed to cancel out the regression barely had any impact on Primula.

'What if it's the power of slivers?'

The purest of white and darkest of black powers poured out from Varian's fingers, seeping into Primula, passing through her soul barriers and reaching the curse wheel of reincarnation.

Boom!

Primula trembled in his arms, as the divine power clashed and pushed back the slivers.

"Brother, I suddenly feel sleepy, can I rest for a few minutes~"

Varian made a soft, fluffy cloud shaped mattress her subconsciously but his mind was racing like a rocket.

His sliver power was neutralized.

'Are you serious?'

He could understand the quanity of sliver power being low, rendering his attempt useless.

But in the clash, only a small portion of the curse wheel, about as much as the invading power, clashed with the slivers.

…And they won!

'Maybe it's because I can't wield the slivers properly that I can't exert their true quality and power. Even then, a divine power rivals the slivers in quality or at least comes close. And…Primula is at least a couple thousand years old.'

Varian swallowed his saliva and controlled his hand from trembling. The background of this curse was terrifying. He might have to deal with a monstrous being later on.

But…

'I am already enemies with the strongest man alive today. The fuck am I afraid of?'

Varian slapped himself and decided to exploit the opportunity.

Like a good blade needing a good whetstone, the power of slivers needed a proper practice ground to be properly honed.

'And this is the only whetsone I have for slivers.'

"Primula, we're in a tough situation. I'll lift your curse and let you grow up. And I can get strong without sacrificing anyone.

But you might have to sleep for a long time…and you might have some nightmares if the clash gets intense.

I'll wake up before anything serious but you'll be facing some scary dreams…"

Even though it's the most obvious thing to do, Varian couldn't finish his words. He felt bad for asking his sister to go through so much trouble for his sake.

'I feel like a piece of crap.'

"Um," Primula laid down on the bed and looked at him with a bright smile. "Just a few bad dreams and you won't be sad anymore? Hehehe, I'm going to sleep, brother! Don't worry, Primula is super brave!"

"I'm sorry." Varian poured the power of his slivers and created a similar wheel. Instead of regression, it's the wheel of progression.

A blessing to counter the curse.

Exactly one hour later, Primula woke up in tears. "Brother! Spiders! Ahh, spiders!"

"It's okay, it's okay." Varian consoled her.

But when the same situation repeated due to the same dream for an entire month, he decided to change his approach.

Having fears was natural. But deep fears? They must be removed.

Under Primula's confused gaze, they reached a cave. It was full of spiders.

"Ahhh….they're not moving?" Primula who screamed at the sight calmed down in a few seconds.

"Spiders might be gross. But they're not really scary. Even the best celestial spiders don't stand a chance against us. Go on, poke them with a stick and see. They're just normal creatures."

Under his encouragement, Primula stepped forward. She ended up retching twice in the beginning but gradually got used to it.

After one year of slow, careful visits and many light pokes, the spiders didn't seem scary anymore.

"Brother, look, this one is playing drums on the pebble with its legs."

"Brother, this one has nine different colored eyes!"

"Eh? This one is a bit beautiful. Only two eyes and it's snow white."

"…"

The spider nightmares vanished. But Primula would visit the cave from time to time, naming spiders and playing with them.

It took her three years to end the nightmares of spiders.

Then came the nightmares of falling down a large building and falling forever. He didn't know where she got this fear from.

It's a tricky one to deal with, but with the power of Order and Chaos creating an infinite loop of 'falling' by changing your sense of direction whenever necessary, Primula came to enjoy the 'jumps'.

The third one was the hardest, the nightmare of losing the brother.

This one took a long, long time to deal with. And it's not completely solved. No matter what he said, Primula simply couldn't leave that fear behind.

When Varian considered reducing the time of practice to lower the nightmares, luck favored him.

The fear was offset by Primula's racial talent which showed her the experience when she was the happiest. That dream she lived many times, which kept her closer to him even though he disappeared for many years.

The nightmares were few and far between from that point.

Due to the clash on the system that governered her aging, Primula remained stuck in her age for the entirety of the time they spent together.

Varian forgot about the progression of slivers. Every day, he only focused on fighting that damn curse wheel.

And on the 16th year together, a crack sounded.

Then, it spread and spread.

"Ehh? Brother, it tickles." Primula wriggled on the bed, trying to shake his hands off her head.

Varian held tight and poured even more sliver power.

Kacha! Chaa! Kaa!

The wheel of curse, with the many cracks it got over the recent years, shattered.

What's unexpected was a tiny bit of divine power secretly stored inside the wheel.

Boom!

The divine force broke out of Primula and exploded outward. Most of it was blocked by the defense mechanisms installed.

Only a tiny portion of the explosion touched Varian. He was blown away and fainted right away.

Hortus' timeflow came to an abrupt halt and Sarah, who had been managing the timeflow carefully, took the brunt of the attack.

Despite being a mid rank 1, on the verge of a high rank 1, she couldn't bear the damage and nearly fainted.

The stealth of Hortus, which was carefully maintained until then, suddenly crashed.

Isadora and Aurora acted right away, pouring their powers to block out any emission of the divine power.

After Sarah regained some energy, they rushed to Varian. With a sprinkle of vitality, he woke up without problems.

"Are you okay, brother-in-law?"

"We'll have one day at most. We're sacrificing the population to get more time. Don't argue on this."

Varian checked Primula's condition first before answering them. "I'm more than okay and we're not sacrificing anyone."

'Status.'

[Pseudo Divine: Absolute Peak

Comprehensive Strength: All paths + the slivers

60% of a Divine Ranker.

It should've taken 250 years. You did it in 25. What a monster!]

"What do you mean we're not sacrificing an—what the…"

When the purest power of slivers emerged from Varian, pushing back Aurora, Isadora's jaw dropped.

"Y-Your strength, this isn't anything a pseudo divine should have. You're more like a divine ranker. Weaker but still…half? No, even more."

Varian smiled and rubbed the sleeping Primula's hair. "She really helped me out. Else, I wouldn't have gotten this far."

"Then I can rest assured. Immortal's rumored strength is only a quarter of the divine ranker. Even if it's double, he's still going to lose to you." Isadora sighed in relief.

"E-Even Brother-in-law is going to be stronger than me soon." Miss Calamity sighed with a depressed expression.

"Don't worry, I'll only advance to divine ranks after fighting Immortal. You have a thousand year headstart over me. I'm not overtaking you anytime soon." Varian comforted. "You're the peak of low rank 1, on the verge of reaching mid 1. So, don't worry, Aurora."

"Brother-in-law…" Aurora looked at him with sparkling and teary eyes.

"Trust me. You're easily safe for a year."

"…I hate you." Isadora shook her head with a tired smile. "And I don't even think it's gonna be a year. Bu—"

Sarah's voice came from the sky.

"We have a visitor."