Varian descended onto the floor.
The room shone brightly and the woman’s corpse slowly disappeared. A purple orb shot out from the woman’s body and reached Varian.
Then, the room he reached through the red door began to shake violently. As if taking a cue, the four moons in the sky shot beams of lights onto Varian.
When the light touched Varian, it vanished.
Whoosh!
With each passing second, the light grew brighter and brighter.
Varian was fine in the beginning, but soon his head started to hurt.
‘What the?’ Varian tried to move out of the light beams, but he seemed to be held by some invisible force.
Varian glanced at the sources of the light—the moons and his eyes widened. “They…they are shrinking?”
Soon, the light grew so bright that even his ultra senses couldn’t see anything.
Varian held on, but the pain reached an irreversible point and he lost consciousness.
*** *** ***
When Varian woke up, he found himself not in the room the final stage was conducted, but in the golden room.
The blue door was still there, but the red door disappeared.
“What the fuck…” Varian was back on his feet as he looked around in scrutiny.
The room’s walls still emitted golden light and its floor was still sleeky gold.
“Hey?” Varian called out.
{Esteemed One, what do you wish for?}
The ethereal voice said, the respect in its voice was too much to ignore. It was almost as if it was addressing a hero, no, the biggest hero.
“Why this sudden title?” Varian frowned. “And explain what the heck were those white lights that knocked me out.”
{You passed the tenth stage no one was able to pass. In fact, no one should be able to pass that test.
If they did, it only means one thing. They have the power to take devas back to the glory they don’t even dare to dream of. Now you’ll be respected by all devas. In fact, even princes can’t compare to your glory—}
“…Wait, wait, wait.” Varian held out his hand and motioned it to pause. Devas were fucking extinct. Varian didn’t think they’d rise from the dead to pay respects to his ‘esteemed self’.
So, he switched the topic. “What is this lost glory you’re talking about?”
{…Esteemed One, this one is honored to be the subject of your humor.} The voice responded, reverence overflowing in its tone.
“I’m not joking.” Varian rolled his eyes. “Seriously, what is the history of Devas?”
{Even though it is a piece of classified information, this one thought you’d have known. It seems you really immersed yourself in practice.
Regarding your second question, this one’s information only knows the history of devas from the golden room’s perspective. Even then, there are few things that this one is prohibited from talking much about. The ancient history of devas is one such prohibition.}
Varian’s expression grew worse.
The voice seemed to have panicked as it hurriedly said. {B-But you can easily find them in the Imperial Library. Your current qualifications are more than sufficient to be received with the utmost respect.}
“…Imperial Library?” Varian muttered and decided to check it out later.
In fact, it seemed like a good idea. Not only would he find out about the devas, but also about the system.
‘If I can know more about it, I can wield it better.’
{Phew…} The voice sighed in relief.
Varian continued. “So, what can you tell me? I’d like to hear any information.”
It was a weird question and the voice seemed to have been caught off guard.
{There is a lot of useless information.}
“I don’t mind.”
{Then, this one shall begin…}
The ethereal voice began talking about the creation of this golden room.
It was the place to determine the potential of devas and then allot them proportionate resources.
Since each emperor ruled for a few hundred years each, there would be around five to ten princes fighting for the throne each time.
But as the years passed, this number dwindled. It came down to three for each generation, then slowly two and one.
Varian nodded lightly. The system told him that Devas sealed it for their nefarious schemes. But sealing it wasn’t so easy. The cost was that they had to seal even the aura of the solar system.
This resulted in an irreversible catastrophic decline. By the time the devas noticed its effects, it was already too late.
{The last time someone passed the ninth stage was 6500 years ago.}
“Right.” According to the research, Devas abruptly ended some six thousand odd years ago.
{But from what this one heard, they couldn’t become an Emperor and only served as union chief.}
“Oh?” Varian’s interest was piqued. “What is the qualification to be the Emperor?”
{…Since the standards are declining, we are no longer what we were. But still, the bare minimum is to be a Celestial Ranker.}
“…”
Varian wanted to argue but shifted the topic. “Emperors only pass the ninth stage. What about my potential? What rank do you think I’d reach?”
He only asked out of curiosity. Whether the answer was positive or negative, it wouldn’t affect him much.
Or so he thought.
{Divine Ranks}
“Huh?” Varian was surprised at the term used. “What rank is that? Above Celestials?”
{It is beyond this one’s comprehension.}
Varian tried asking more, but he didn’t get any response other than {It is beyond this one’s comprehension.}
“Alright, continue what you were saying.” He waved his hand irritably.
{In recent times, no one reached stage nine…except one girl, no, it’s two…no, it’s one.} The voice started muttering like a broken radio.
“Hey, I think you should get some maintenance.”
{…Apologies. For some reason, the record of that incident is blurry. Not even the time of the incident is clear.}
‘I’m pretty sure it’s one of them. But the question is, is it Enigma or Sia?’ Varian shrugged.
The voice continued on and Varian had to make it skip a lot of parts.
In the end, he yawned and stretched his arms.
Finally, he reached the last part.
{So, this is the history of The Golden Room. The pride of devas. The reason for our strength.}
“Aren’t there seven more of you on every planet?” Varian had a bad premonition.
{…There is only one.}
“Ah, shit!” Varian cursed. “I was thinking that thought my ticket to Celestial rank.”
{…}
“Anyway, thanks for your answering. Now, I got some work to do.”
Varian’s body floated in mid-air and he sat cross-legged. His senses quickly found the purple orb in his body.
Aura, release!