Varian's face twitched.
This jacket was too embarrassing to use. It even had the skull and bones logo as if others wouldn't understand its purpose.
The space fluctuations it screamed were also telling its identity. 'I am suicide bomber.'
'If I wear this and go out, I'll be branded as terrorist. No doubt.' Varian sighed.
With a mental cue, the fluctuations of space began to decrease until they fell into a controlled range.
Varian looked at the Abyssal that put on a glorious and even pious face with hatred.
Even though he was controlling his emotions using the Mind Path, this guy's words were over the top.
Since he got the Suicide Jacket, Varian had a few nightmares where he actually decided to use it. From then, he didn't look at it except for practice.
"Moron." Varian spat and felt the fluctuating space around him.
[Space Path Level 3: 400/400]
When he was on the battle field, he faced the attacks of many Space Awakeners.
Teleportation. Space Blocks. Space Armors. Even Space Blasts.
As his space power clashed with hundreds of Level 4s', and a few Level 5s', he had a clear idea on how to proceed.
The first ability a Space Awakener got was Space Binding—Solidifying the space.
Entering the Mid level, the ability was the opposite. Space Unbinding—Weakening the space.
Varian followed the patterns formed by the presence of Suicide Jacket and observed them carefully.
Bind. Unbind. Solidify. Weaken.
Then-
-Click!
The Abyssal was still waiting to die together with his arms open. But what presented in front of him was a spectacular sight.
Varian's space power increased multi fold and in a few seconds, stabilized at Level 4.
[Space Path Level 4: 0/1000]
"…." The Abyssal was dumbstruck. All he could do was gape foolishly at the sight that broke his world view.
Any advancement, especially the ones from mid levels, took time. Since it was still only from level 3 to level 4, the time would be relatively less.
However, after advancing, one also needed to fill up their aura reserves and stabilize the level.
Even the best genius would take a few hours for the whole process!
Even the best genius least ten minutes for advancing from level 3 to level 4.
B-But!
"Y-You Monster!" Those were the only words the Abyssal could utter.
The shock he received was far too deep.
What everyone and everything believed to be true was broken by this young man.
Thus, even him who remained calm all the time couldn't help but tremble.
'W-what the hell is happening? I-Is he hiding his aura or what? No! I clearly sensed him advancing from Level 3 to Level 4.
But no one can do that in a few seconds! This is the fundamental truth of the Divine Paths.
W-Wait!'
The Abyssal's eyes widened and he looked at Varian with a hint of suspicion and fear "Are you also the mind awakener?"
Since Varian already showed three paths, even a senile man wouldn't ask such question.
Fourth Divine Path? Tsk. Who was he kidding?
It was common sense that three divine paths were the limit.
But this guy…he just broke the very common sense.
Varian didn't deny and lightly nodded. "Yep. That's me."
"W-Wahahaha!" The Abyssal started laughing hysterically. His shoulders trembled and he clenched his fist trying to reign in his laughter.
"Y-Yes! Once I show this to his majesty, this absolute miracle that no one in the history ever witnessed, I-I will be on par with Ancestor Last Light." The Abyssal's calm eyes turned fanatical.
He looked at Varian like he was the most precious thing and said with a crazed smile. "I won't kill you. You are far too valuable. I'll just slice off you limbs. If we decipher your secret, then …hahahaha! Fairies! Zions! We, Abyssals, can trample them all!"
He shot at Varian in the next instant. There were only two minutes before the barrier dissipated.
He couldn't risk letting Varian escape.
"Surrender yourself!" He growled as he pushed his body to the limit.
Facing this desperate enemy, Varian didn't use teleportation, but instead used Unbinding on the space around.
Ripple!
It was a weird sensation.
Varian just took a step forward and he appeared at his destination in an instant.
It was not teleportation, but just high speed.
In the weakened space, his speed rose!
-Boom!
The Abyssal's punch reached him.
Varian covered himself with the Space Armor and Lightning Barrier while raising his arms in defense once again.
-Kacha!
This time, the punch only pushed him back.
The Abyssal didn't give up and was about to raise his arm back to assume a punching posture.
Varian used the space unbinding on his arm.
-Shuaa!
The speed at which the Abyssal pulled back his arm rose. Due to the high speed, he nearly flung his arm back.
-Kacha!
Quickly, the space unbinding was nullified. However, the Abyssal lost the chance to follow up attack.
Varian nodded with satisfaction.
Unbinding didn't work much on stronger opponents. They would quickly grasp the degree of space weakening and adjust their speed. But even then, they would be affected.
Once the opponent used enough strength, however, the unbound space would quickly return to normal.
After all, Space had a natural tendency to return to normalcy.
Despite all that, Space Unbinding was a powerful ability. He had to familiarize himself with it.
"There's still one minute left." Varian said and teleported.
As he reached Level 4 in Space Path, his space sense extended, his teleportation distance rose to a mile.
Varian quickly appeared in front of the Abyssal and clenched his fist.
"Y-Kuh!" The Abyssal felt the space around his limbs turn solid.
It was much sturdier than the previous times. However, the space block was done with level 4 Space abilities, it was well in his capacity to break.
-Zap!
-Zap!
Right then, he was bombarded by the lightning arcs.
The Abyssal ignored them and forcefully broke through the space. It felt like he was moving his arm in mud—he had to exert much more force to just move.
Then his mind stung lightly. He ignored it and was about to raise his arms to guard against the attack.
But-
-Shuaa!
The wind whistled as a sharp blade cut open a neck.
The Abyssal's eyesight blurred and he collapsed onto the ground in the next moment.
"K-Cough! Glarh!" He clutched his neck to stop the blood gushing out.
To no avail. Like a dam broken, green blood spilled the ground, turning into a puddle.
"Three seconds remaining." Varian said abruptly.
They both knew which three seconds. Three seconds until the barrier dissipated.
The Abyssal tried to hold his breath. He needed to send the message at any cost.
'Just one message!'
"Two seconds." Varian's voice turned colder.
The Abyssal kept his eyes on a mark on his tattoo even as darkness began to consume him.
"One second." Varian clenched his fist.
-Plop
The Abyssal collapsed.
The barrier dissipated and Varrian's comm buzzed with messages.
Ignoring the barrage of his comm, Varian took a deep breath.
He had seen the desperation on that face. Even in the face of death, the resolve didn't waver.
But what use was resolve if there wasn't enough strength to back it up?
He sighed deeply.
"I knew it. If I joined anything, it wouldn't be normal.." Varian teleported to the frontlines with a complicated mood.
