Divine Path System

A thousand years or twenty thousand years, depending on the place:

Varian disappeared but no one thought anything of it, particularly Alison.

She'd have been surprised if he's actually present for the admnistration matters.

And a year passed like that for the human civilization.

'Not too strange. He's gone for 20 years before.'

...A hundred years passed.

Alison started to get a little nervous.

But things were going well.

Hortus, by the virtue of its location, was filled with dense aura. And the citizens of the empire were enjoying the peace.

There was a boom in all conceivable sectors.

The most satisfying growth was obviously the growth in strength.

In a 100 years, humanity has its first organic rank 6. It was a joyous occassion and Alison was happier than the powerhouse himself!

Of course, breaking the bottleneck to rank 7 was something else altogether.

Perhaps that's why, the rank 7 appeared only 400 years later.

500 years after Varian disappeared, humanity welcomed the first natural rank 7 warrior.

Everything was going fine.

Alison trained people to take some load off her shoulders. But as a perfectionist, she still overlooked all the major projects.

1,000 years passed.

People have now started to question Varian. Even though the empire showed his achievements in plenty of media, it only backfired.

The sheer absurdity of Varian's achievements became the reason for people to doubt him.

'Even our best genius takes so many centuries. And you're telling me he went from unawakened to peak rank 9 in 2 years?'

'What a fraud!'

'The so-called Varian is just a tool used by the empire to gain legitimacy.'

Public opinion was shifting slowly but swiftly.

Alison could suppress the dissentors, shut down the media making the claims and lock up the people protesting.

What she could not win against was the cruel flow of time.

2,000 years passed.

By now, it was difficult for people to believe that a man named Varian even existed. All the evidence pointing his existence was more or less considered to be fabrication used by the state.

The population wanted to explore the wider universe, interact with the kingdoms and learn about more places.

But any movement outside Hortus was strictly forbidden by the empire. This began to create dissatisfaction.

From small reasons to big conspiracies, the public at large began to wonder why they were 'locked up'.

5,000 years passed.

The first coup happened with three rank 9s attacking the palace, aiming to take control of the empire.

In their own words, they wanted to 'liberate' it from Alison and the small elite who were ruling it from the shadows using the boogeyman of Varian.

To suppress the situation once and for all, Alison requested help.

Sia's clone not only slaughtered the three rank 9s, she also killed the families, friends and relatives of the powerhouses.

Her mental condition wasn't great, so she used only the minimal power necessary. But the bloodbath still horrified people across the empire.

The rebellion was suppressed, but the problem only got worse.

The topic of 'Three Queens', 'Three Goddesses', 'Three Demonesses' spread wildly.

At this point, Alison was not the strongest in the empire. There were already people stronger than her.

Public firmly believed she was using her position to justify her right to rule. And also that she's just a stewardess to the three rulers behind the scenes.

Bizzare theories popped up about the actual origins of the three queens and most termed them as outsiders who captured the world.

Humanity saw themselves as 'birds in cage' harvested by the three queens.

Alison tried to explain but the more she denied outside entry, the stronger the opposition got.

If Hortus really opened itself to the outside world, it'd be in grave danger of being tracked down by Keman and Yami. So, no matter the reason, Sarah had no intention of opening the world.

10,000 years passed.

Humanity's peak rank 9s had already exceeded a dozen. And all of them were new faces. They remained loyal until they rebelled out of nowhere.

Rebellions of old needed extensive planning and lot of organization.

But this rebellion?

It needed just 12 people to join hands and they all agreed that Alison, who was far older and significantly weaker, had no right to dictate terms to them.

The glorious human empire was split into 12 parts that day.

All statues, pictures and paintings of Varian were destroyed. The entire Empire cheered.

They viewed the destruction of 'Varian' as the destruction of the 'symbol' that the three alien queens used to rule them over.

It was a very sad sight.

Alison had enough.

She didn't disturb Sarah or Sia.

She also didn't wake Oob up.

Shortly before Varian left for God's Eye, Oob went into a deep sleep to hide Hortus from the alliance leaders. Oob stopped all other functions to keep the stealth at maximum. Even the slightest error there would lead to everyone's death.

So, Alison accepted the result.

She saved her life, accepted the injuries she suffered and decided to live a normal life.

By this time, most of the old names had either retired or passed away. So, she had no regrets whatsoever.

After the initial turmoil, it was peaceful for two thousand years. Every one of the 12 rulers enjoyed ruling.

But things eventually changed.

Some started wanting more. Others disliked other kingdoms. Few aspired to recreate the glory.

12,000 years after Varian left, Hortus witnessed the first full- scale war.

The violence lasted for 2,000 years.

Out of the 12 kingdoms, 3 'empires' emerged.

The peace of three empires lasted for 3,000 years.

Then, humanity saw its first supreme genius.

A woman who rose meteorically, conquered an entire from within in just 2,000 years. And now she's on her way to conquer the other two empires.

In contrast to the other two empires whose lineage could be traced back to the 12 rebels, this woman had no backing. And she built an entirely different narrative for her conquest.

She invoked the 'Supreme Emperor' under whom humanity experienced its peace nearly 20,000 years ago.

Instead of bothering with whether 'Varian' was real or false, she convinced people that under 'His' rule, people were better off.

There was no war, no famine, no mass slaughter.

'We are abandoned. We asked for freedom. We got it. And this is what we did to ourselves. Humanity of today is something our ancestors would've never foresaw.'

"…And she is trying to re-establish a proper rule over the entire empire. Due to the chaos, there is a lot of crime and violence. She sees re-establishment of the empire as the ultimate solution. And most people are in agreement." Alison watched the stars with a calm face.

"Her charisma had people from the two empires defecting. So, the two turned very oppressive and are mistreating their citizens. The city you've seen is one example."

Varian listened to everything she said before asking the question since a while. "Alison, you just stood by and watched as a lot of death happened. Don't you feel…"

"No." Alison shook her head with a firm gaze. "Sia's condition was very…very bad. Sarah wasn't better off. I can't ask them for help. Oob is also out of reach. There

isn't anything I could do."

"She says that but she's been living with Primula for 10,000 years, trying to help her break out of the curse."

Isadora's voice reached his mind.

"It took 8,000 years and a lot of risks in the forbidden land of space-time. Alison came close to death a lot of times but she did it anyway. She succeeded very recently…Primula broke out of the curse 2,000 years ago. And she is also the genius."

Varian looked at the imperial secretary who remained humble as always with a complicated expression.

"Primula?"

"Ah, I guess she told you about her." Alison turned around to glance at Isadora but the princess disappeared for somereason.

Shaking her head with a helpless smile, she continued."I promised Sia I'll raise the child before they went into seclusion but I ended up using her for this purpose. I'm sorry."

Varian exhaled heavily. "That little girl…"

"Grandma?"

The soft voice of a young girl sounded from behind. Turning around, Varian saw Primula, looking to be 16 or 17.

"I don't know what her race is, but she barely grows old." Alison shook her head. "I've trained her in the arts of governance and war. But mentally, she's still 16."

"Y-You?"

Primula stepped forward with a confused expression, her gaze alternating between him and Alison.

"V-Varian big brother?"