"Alive…" Varian muttered under his breath.
He tried to raise turn around but like a car out of gas, his body collapsed.
Boo sent out a couch just in time and he landed safely with a muffled sound.
"W-What just happened?" Varian asked with a dry throat.
It felt like he was running in the desert under five times gravity. His muscles were sour and he felt a massive headache.
There was no energy in his body. Not just energy, there was no chi, prana, space power, mind power, and lightning mana.
He was drained.
"Do you not remember what happened earlier?" Boo asked with a trembling voice.
"...Earlier?" Varian frowned and tried to sit up. But he found no strength in his arms and collapsed back onto the couch.
"…I never felt so angry in my life. Everything went blank. Then I heard Sia might be alive. Then everything went… normal." Looking at his naked self and the changed walls, Varian knew something was wrong.
However, his memory of the last few seconds was non-existent. No matter how much he tried, he couldn't remember anything.
"Boo," Varian took a deep breath and asked. "What did I do?"
"Let me show you the video recordings," Boo said.
The ghost ship's internal space expanded all of a sudden and a room with similar dimensions to the one Varian was in was created.
In it, a hologram occupying the whole room started playing.
It began with Varian bowing and clutching his head. Then the walls began to creak and the next moment, pitch black and bright white lights shone from him.
The walls continued to creak and the next moment, they disappeared!
Varian gaped at the ridiculous scene.
What were those lights? Wait, are those the hypothesized light path and dark paths of the Elementals?
But even those could not be so strong. Even though he watched them in a recording, Varian felt the nature of those powers.
The walls that even Level 9s couldn't do anything about, he just made them vanish on the spot!
As Varian was about to ask if it was real, Boo quickly interrupted. "Watch till the end."
Another set of walls covered the room in the hologram. As the black and white light fell on these new and more sturdy walls, they twisted and vanished without lasting a second.
"Master, the walls didn't vanish. They were disintegrated from the basic level." Boo explained while posing a question of its own.
"These metal walls can withstand a punch or two from even Celestial Rankers. But…you just."
Varian had no answers to Boo's question.
The hologram ended with Boo shouting followed by Varian landing on the ground.
"Master…just who are you?" Boo asked with a trembling voice.
"….." Varian found himself silent once again.
He was enthralled by the powers. Even across the hologram, they made his heart palpitate.
Those powers were no longer mortal. Perhaps even Celestial was an understatement. They were…godly.
Suddenly, a thought arose in Varian's mind and he hurriedly asked.
'System'
[Yes, Host?] The System replied in its cool voice.
'Was that you?' Varian couldn't think of anything else.
[Yes. It was a glimpse of this System's true powers. But you are the one wielding them.]
"Hiss!" Even though he was expecting it, Varian couldn't help but be shocked. "This is a cheat power!"
[Do not think much of it. All you did was act on a few walls that could barely stand a few Celestial Awakener punches.
While a level 9 and even a Sovereign might seem powerful, the extent of their power is limited to a planet.
Host, do you know how big the universe is?
Forget the universe, do you know how big your galaxy is?
Or at least how big your Solar System is?
There are trillions of planets just in your galaxy.
There are powerhouses controlling Star Zone—an area with a million stars!
There are giants ruling the Star Regions—an area with a100,000 Star Zones.
Finally…there are Goliaths. They rule the galaxies.
It's your luck that Earth is in the corner of your star zone and that Devas locked off the aura.
As there was no aura, no one even knew this place had a proper civilization.
520 years ago, the aura locks broke and the star zone rulers came close to finding you.
Then the Abyssals came and with their precious resources, they shielded you from your Star Zone Ruler's devices.
For humanity to survive until now was a mix of luck and the sacrifices of your fellow humans.
You might have jested with Evander, but to save humanity, only you have the power.
Even if Abyssals miraculously went away, to maintain your sovereignty and independence from higher civilizations, you need to grow stronger.
Get stronger. The universe is far more hostile than you think.
Not just for yourself, but also for humanity.] The System spoke for the longest time ever.
Varian was flabbergasted and turned silent to process the information.
Star Zones, Star Fields, even galaxies… the scales of those words were beyond normal human imagination.
Even as a Mind Awakener, Varian found it hard to fathom the vastness of the Solar System, much less Star Zone and Star Regions.
The diameter of the Milky Way was 3.5 million times that of the Solar System.
To put that difference into perspective, if the Milky Way was considered as Earth, then Solar System would be the size of almost two sand grains.
Two sand grains.
In the vastness of the galaxy, that was all the vast Solar System amounted to.
So Varian found it hard to imagine the power scales which could affect these regions.
When the wave of a hand affects a star zone, then wouldn't that awakener be strong enough to wipe out the Solar system with a snap?
Besides, there were awakeners that stood at the very top of the pyramid.
The ones ruling the galaxy itself!
Perhaps they were reaching the level of godhood.
Taking a deep breath, Varian closed his eyes and calmed down.
For now, he was that sand grain. He needed to grow.
"System, it was me who triggered your power, right?" He asked after a while.
[Yes, host. You are the master of this system. You are eligible to use the powers. Those powers are the ones responsible for your awakening in multiple paths.] The System explained.
"Then why did I never trigger it?" Varian asked in confusion.
[Because your previous attempts were not enough. And this System does not see you doing it again in the near future. But since you are going to try anyway, good luck.] The System said and fell silent.
Varian had an urge to smash it. But he didn't even have the energy to clench his fists.
"Argh, whatever. I'll focus on things at hand." Varian shook his head and shifted his attention to the red book.
Knitting his brows, he asked in a solemn tone. "Boo, why did you say she could be alive?"
"…read the book till the end, master. Even though I can understand, you're being hyper-sensitive." Boo answered.
Varian paused for a moment recalling his actions.
The cool-headed and rational approach to his situation would have been to acquire every information and then react by formulating the most rational choice.
Usually, Varian would've done that.
Like the time on Rena planetoid, when facing a potential threat of a high awakener attacking the planetoid, he made a plan to escape with Boo.
After deciding he would save Sarah in case help was late, he calmly took down the Abyssals and met up with her.
But now…there was no death threat, no one forcing him or no obstacles.
Yet, his emotions were in chaos.
"She…is just that important.." As he uttered those words, the world blurred and turned into a familiar white.