Dark clouds covered the sky and bombarded the land with thick golden lightning.
There was little vegetation and the only creatures that survived the wrath of thunder were creatures excelling in Thunder path.
Their habitats were molded in response to the continuous lightning and somehow, they used the unforgiving and life threatening lightning to progress in their divine path.
They not only survived, but also thrived.
‘Humans are also like that. At first, aura revival only led to infighting and even nuclear wars. But afterwards, we thrived.’ Varian thought as his figure blurred in the thunder plains and he travelled a few miles with every teleportation.
He wasn’t expecting this, but a level 5 Space Awakener sure had it much easy for travel.
Still, that speed was inferior to his level 6 Enhanced speed. But it’s more economical.
Varian also found that with each advancement, the space power consumed per distance continued to fall.
The space power his level 3 self used for teleporting a 100 meters, he could teleport 200 meters with the same.
As went deeper into the thunder plains, he avoided any messengers.
His destination was Thunder Shrine.
“Now they’re all heading to the laden burrows. But…Xavier team returned pretty fast. And from what the messengers were talking, it seems like he’s eliminated.”
‘To be fair, no one expected it. Although it’s surprising, it’s not improbable. Xavier team members are not fools, but…I am not convinced.’
Varian pressed down the weird feeling in the back of his mind and paused in front of a narrow valley entrance.
It was covered by thick white fog and dense lightning mana, making it impossible for him to pry inside.
“Wait, footprints.” Varian didn’t enter inside immediately but thought back to the situation.
Ashtarh team had left and since they hired messengers with the promise of treasures, they would most likely be peak level 5 lighting awakeners.
Even if not all, but most of them.
‘Status’
[Body (Enhanced) Path L6: 0/4000
Space Path L5: 1200/2000
Lightning Path L5: 0/2000
Morpher Path L4: 400/1000
Telepath Path L5: 0/2000
Telekinetic Path L4: 0/1000]
‘I can instantly defeat any peak level 5, but if they inform Ashtarh team of me appearing here, it’d destroy the arrangements.’
Varian took a deep breath and walked into the white fog.
The lightning mana rumbled and the next moment, he was in a rather ancient site.
The vast expanse of land was filled with ruins of statues, fine art, and public buildings.
Varian hurriedly teleported behind a large boulder and hid himself from the messengers.
Some of them were fighting, some were searching for treasures and a final group was standing in front of the Thunder Shrine.
Thankfully, with his quick response, no one found him.
Varian placed his hand on the boulder and sighed.
“Eh?” He felt a texture on his palm and dusted off the boulder.
There were strange golden symbols engraved on the boulder. No. Not a boulder. It was perhaps a…home?
Varian also noticed something. The golden symbols weren’t engraved with ink or just carved on the hard stone, but with lightning mana.
Lighting mana, like all other mana and auras was always mobile. It’s like wind, flowing from one place to another.
It was impossible to lock it one place.
But here he was, seeing something so hard done so casually.
“Devas…” Varian said under his breath.
Perhaps they lived here before they suddenly went extinct.
‘System, are devas truly dead?’ He suddenly asked. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to hear a positive or a negative. But he wanted a closure.
[The last one of them died thousands of years ago.] It replied nonchalantly.
‘…Why?’ Varian was stumbling upon a great secret and he knew it.
[They sealed this System. But they couldn’t seal completely. Overtime, they got the fruit of their actions. In the last ditch effort to weaken the System and save their race, they sealed off the aura.]
“…” Varian’s eyes widened. He felt it was ridiculous. A god-like species died to this system, just like that? But he recalled the powers he wielded for a brief time in the ghost ship and didn’t retort.
What he wielded was only a tiny fraction of System’s powers, yet he was able to destroy walls that could withstand the attacks of Celestial Rankers.
The System continued to speak.
[They sealed the aura and waited for it to weaken this System’s influence. But they didn’t foresee the effects
When it began, they thought it was temporary and ignored it. When they realized the true danger, it was too late. Without aura, they’re slowly going extinct.
But when they finally wanted to do something about it, they no longer had the power.]
Varian opened his mouth to say something but he couldn’t say anything.
Was he carrying a civilizational exterminator with him the whole time?
Hm, he could be considered its host or master in a sense, so did that also make him an exterminator?
But wasn’t the system always telling him it works on the principle of ‘Balance’, how the fuck was it a balance to exterminate an entire civilization?
But he did catch one crucial information. Devas died due to lack of aura. If aura suddenly disappears in the solar system, would humans also die off?
The System responded in negative.
[Devas are…special. Their history isn’t exactly glorious. Find out the rest yourselves.]
“I am not interested at all.” Varian said with an indifferent expression. Inwardly, he imagined thrashing the system a million times already.
‘Most of the time, you play dead and pretend you don’t exist. When you finally speak, all you do is tease my appetite.’
Shaking his head, Varian put the matter of devas behind.
The Secrets Realms had relics of Devas, but the best place to find more about them was undoubtedly Ruins.
He needed to be at least a high awakener to enter one. Considering this was second month, the ruins of second planet, Venus would be open for 45 days.
‘Maybe I’ll take a three more months and enter Jupiter’s Ruins?’ Varian shook his head immediately.
‘If anything, I can’t predict my own progress.’
“Time to do the job at hand.” Varian tapped ghost ring on his finger and asked. “Boo, find a level 6 beast near this place.”
“Master, are you going to…?”
“Just do it.”
“Un.”
There still didn’t enter the Thunder Shrine.
They were fighting over the corpses of Thunder Griffins and Thunder Knights. Usually, the teams would take them for themselves. But Ashtarh’s team generously left them for the messengers.
As a result, it created intense fights.
‘Good for me.’
Soon, Boo sent him a signal and Varian went out of the thunder shrine to find the level 6 beast.
A low level 6 Golden Lion.
It was leisurely resting in its nest when he suddenly showed up, pulled its tail and ran away.
“Roar!”
“Hahaha!” Varian’s shoulders trembled as he recalled the lion’s expression when its tail was pulled.
He teleported behind it, and the lion noticed the space fluctuations with its lightning sense.
It conjured a lightning spear to impale the intruder.
But his body moved faster and he pulled its tail.
Pulling a lion’s tail without being killed.
Varian’s mind flashed and he saw a scene where they visited a park with Amanda, Sia was very curious.
They visited a sleeping lion. He didn’t know what came to her, but Sia somehow pulled its tail.
Thankfully, it was only a level 0 creature and Amanda was able to scare it off.
With a short sprint, he reached the entrance of the valley.
“Roar!”
Varian smile disappeared as he jumped away and avoided the lightning bolt.
Boom!
The lightning spear impaled the ground and broke it apart, creating a small crater in the process.
Varian turned to the golden lion, intentionally grinned to piss it off and entered the white fog.
“Roar!”
The golden lion covered its body with lightning and its body flashed a golden light as it dashed into the white fog.
“Roa—r?” The next moment, it appeared in Thunder Shrine.
Its immediate reaction was to flee. After all, it knew that there were Thunder griffins living in this area.
“Roa?!” It sensed the corpses of the griffins and thunder knights. Its fear only grew stronger and it was about to flee.
Suddenly, it felt a tug at its tail again and turned around in anger.
It spread its lightning sense and tried to catch the culprit. It’d remember his aura and chase him later.
“Ro?”
But soon, it realized there were only weak humans in the area. There was no danger.
The lion glanced at the corpses of the thunder griffins and thunder knights in the distance and gulped.
Instinctively, it knew the that devouring them would strengthen it.
To it, strength was the most important thing. Even revenge would come later.
Thus, when it saw some humans dissecting the thunder griffins and gathering treasures, its blood boiled.
“Roar!”
Lightning snakes erupted out fo its body and shot out in all directions as the air was suddenly filled with a stifling atmosphere.
All the messengers paled as they felt the horrifying aura of the creature.
“Fuck!”