Varian had long understood one simple truth.
If a great general died, the whole kingdom would mourn his death. And a duchy mourns for its duke and a province for its lord.
But even a nameless soldier who would die in the very instance of the war had people waiting for him back home.
People who would wail over his dead body, remember him in their memories and keep loving him long after his death.
The emptiness in their hearts wouldn't discriminate based on the post the man held. The death of a father would always be painful, whether the father was a general, a peon or a teacher. So would the death of a husband, a brother, a son.
And these men that keep dying every second were indeed all these things to their people.
"My grandchild's soul will only get peace if you die an ugly death!"
Seraphina's outburst was purely a grandmother's anguish.
"How about a better idea? I'll send you to her. Accompany that girl and make sure she doesn't turn out like that in her next life, if there is one."
Varian drew out his sword from Micheal's spine and twisted it lightly. The sword spun, expelling the thick, warm blood droplets and returning back to its pristine form.
Serahpina, having regained her younger form, was far more formidable. With a flick of her wrist, sky cracked and a giant tree fast descended onto Varian.
"Ugh," Varian pressed the hilt of the sword against his heart and the power of death grabbed the foreign power acting inside him.
The messed up vitality was mostly sorted out, allievating some fatigue
"There's not much you can do at this point."
Seraphina made a symbol with her fingers and the giant tree split open, revealing a green wolf with two horns.
The broken parts of the tree were attached to the wolf like an armor and the star-sized beast shrunk until it reached two meters.
"Wooo~"
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtWith a howl that destroyed all stars in the surrounding trillion miles, the wolf halved the distance with Varian in a blink.
A tremendous power of life began to pull his 'body' out of control, as if someone was snatching the control button.
The vitality in Varian's body was being pulled out and drawn toward the wolf. As the creature drew closer, the veins in his body bulged and the vitality in his body threatened to explode out.
Varian understood the state of his body. It's a ticking timebomb. Fortunately, he had control over the time part.
The ring on his finger gave off a mesmerizing light and the timeflow on his vitality slowed.
Varian then activated his soul power and attacked the creature.
"Woo!"
The wolf came to a sudden halt as the tremendous pain coming from the depths of its soul overwhelmed its system. It wasn't even able to continue the bond with Varian's vitality.
"Space."
Varian raised his sword and pointed it at Seraphina.
A ripple formed around Requiem and a space crack appeared in front of the blade. He thrust the sword into the crack and it arrived from behind the old duchess, intending to pierce her heart.
Seraphina either had excellent battle intuition or dumb luck since she managed to dodge by a hair's breadth and clench her hand.
The wolf morphed into a spear and shot at him with an amazing speed.
Varian clicked his tongue as his blood boiled and rioted, as if it was about to overflow.
Without hesitation, he grabbed the dazed Micheal's body which had just regenerated and used it as the defense.
Shaa!
"Arghh!"
The duke who was just coming to his senses screamed as the spear lodged itself straight into his crotch, blasted through his body and exited from his mouth.
Since he's already so battered, the psycho bastard wouldn't be able to free himself anytime soon.
Shaa!
A sword cut through his arm and nearly reached his heart, if not for him tilting his body at the last moment.
Seraphina appeared in front of him, her younger appearance bearing a lot of resemblance to Xeola.
Varian gripped the blade, disregarding his palm being cut due to his sharpness and pulled it out.
Seraphina was blasted back and before she could reorient herself, his sword severed her hand clean at her wrist.
The old duchess tried to back off to gain an opportunity. There was no respite.
The power of space and time acted together with the influence of soul, all slowing her down.
And Varian's sword slashed her into pieces.
When the dismembered duchess tried to reorganize herself into a cohesive whole, the power of Order and Chaos enveloped her body parts.
The vitality still surging in them was either stripped away or thrown into chaos. As a result, even her ability to be reborn from a drop of blood turned useless.
Every bit of Seraphina with life was slowly turned into an inorganic material. Soon, every bit of her living part turned dead.
"Phewww~"
Varian exhaled and stretched his body. The injuries had healed up but he still felt stinging pain here and there.
Kriad and Corinthian had long escaped his range of perception. So, there's nothing he could do at this point.
But their absence seemed to have encouraged the group of four rank 9s of the invading force.
"Ahh, infighting? We love infighting the most!"
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏm"Little brother, do you have a grudge with that man? Let me help you kill him."
"Right, right!"
"Jai stands with the oppressed."
Four giant beings with pale white skin, hair and eyes, as if they were some cartoon painted with white color appeared in front of him.
The space around them was twisting naturally without them exerting any significant aura.
"Hehe."
"Come."
"Meet your destiny."
"The Empire always wins."
The four said their lines with great amusement and laughed. "Hahahaha!"
Varian started laughing with them. "Ahahahaha!"
If an outsider saw this scene, they'd think they were best friends, not enemies who'd kill each other without blinking.
"What's so funny?" The leader of the four frowned, his face without any features except for eyes and a mouth didn't look that aesthetic.
"Four wolves spot a pack of sheep. They notice the all sheep are fighting a single foreign sheep. They rejoice. Once the sheep are exhausted, there's no way they can excape their hunt. What they don't know…"
A circle of purple emerged under Varian and extended swiftly, covering the four pale white beings.
"Is the outsider sheep is not a shape. It's the tiger in disguise, waiting for the wolves."
Space cracked and time rolled, a hand appeared behind one of the beings.
He quickly tightened the space around him to block the attack but he couldn't stop the drain of his life force that came without any contact.
"Arghh!"
He didn't even survive the duration he laughed.
"Now then…" Varian's gaze turned to the fleeing warriors and his eyes glowed with the power of soul.
A few minutes later, the body of Micheal was thrown into a space crack.