Divine Path System

"…And I figured I can draw from the power that's causing the repulsion and use it for attacks."

Sarah and Sia nodded, slowly coming out from the shock of the Sovereign's instant death.

The knowledge about slivers was too dangerous and it was in their own safety to not learn anything about them, at least for now. So, Varian didn't tell them everything, but he told them everything he could tell.

"What if repulsion disappears?" Sarah leaned against the tree as she muttered.

"I won't be able to use that attack anymore." Varian sat beside her and put his palm on the tree. His Plantae senses began to work on the tree and analyze it.

"And the repulsion is going away, is it not?" Sia, who was sitting on top of the tree, asked.

Varian froze for a moment before smiling wryly. "It's falling fast. So, I had to recall the unpleasant memories. It's weird, right? I always wanted to get rid of the repulsion. But now, it's the only safety for our lives."

Sarah smelled the sweet scent in the air and felt a little weak. Yet, she turned her head and locked eyes with Varian. "Safety of my life and Sia's. Not yours. Until we find a way to solve that…thing inside you, your safety won't be guaranteed."

"Isn't that why we're here?" Varian shrugged with a carefree smile.

They're currently resting on top of a barren mountain that nothing except for a pink tree. For the surrounding five miles, not even a blade of grass was growing.

The culprit of this was the pink tree they were leaning against. It had sucked up all the vitality nearby. Even they were being slowly subjected to a sweet sedative scent.

According to Varian's Plantae powers, once they faint, the tree would suck out their vitality.

"Sarah, if your plan works out, I can push my death away by a day or two, and solve this problem once and for all." Varian stood up and grabbed the pink trunk with both hands.

The silent tree suddenly shook. Its pale pink branches turned scarlet and like whips lashing out, they launched at Varian.

As if waiting for this very moment, Sarah and Sia jumped into the air and clenched their fists.

Countless tiny ropes of light and darkness surrounded the tree and imprisoned its branches.

A huge gravity power and a mysterious time power fell upon the tree and weakened it further.

Even so, the tree continued to struggle and was on the verge of uprooting the restrictions.

It was, after all, a being that was reaching the peak of level 9. The only reason it was even dragged to this state was that it was caught by surprise.

Varian's branches penetrated the trunk and connected with the core of the tree. He could feel it. The brimming with vitality of this powerful tree. So much vitality that if a single drop of liquid leaked out, the entire mountain would be drowned in greenery.

'Yes, vitality. Life. The answer to death.' Varian tried to absorb the vitality with the tip of his branches.

The tree swayed its branches violently in the spiderweb of light and dark threads. The threads snapped easily but were quickly replaced by newer ones.

Still, the tree was slowly shaking off the restrictions.

On the other hand, Varian discovered that he couldn't absorb vitality from the tree.

It wasn't like his Plantae powers had this ability.

Sarah wanted him to give it a try. In the plan she proposed, if he could 'drain' life using his Plantae powers and feed it to the death strand, then he would gain more time to live.

If Varian could feed one day's worth of vitality to the death strand every day, his death would always be twenty days away. Not decreasing. Not increasing.

If he could do this for a few months, Sarah was confident Varian would reach the Sovereign state and even higher and easily solve the death strand. This was actually the worst case.

In the best-case scenario, after a few days of draining vitality, the death strand would be overwhelmed by the vitality overdose and collapse.

This was a ridiculous plan in itself. Its degree of success depended on how much vitality Varian could absorb from a vitality-rich plant.

And now, Varian realized he couldn't absorb any vitality at all!

'…Wait a minute,' Varian's eyes flashed and he pushed the strand of death to the edge of his body, to his fingertips. Of course, it still remained inside.

If Varian cut his fingers, the strand of death energy in his fingertips would return to his body. It was something he already tried.

So, now he wasn't trying to separate the death strand.

After bringing it to the edge of his branches, Varian cut the branches open so that the death strand was exposed to the insides of the tree.

'Now!'

The tree that was violently struggling suddenly stiffened before its powerful branches drooped weakly.

The pink leaves, trunk, and branches slowly darkened into a depressing gray. Then, the beautiful pink tree that was brimming with vitality turned into ashes and flew away with the wind.

Varian, Sarah, and Sia all froze in their places as they witnessed this ridiculous scene.

The plan was a success. But the sheer ease with which the death strand killed this tree indicated the lethality of the death strand.

"H-How much?" Sia landed on the ground and asked Varian with a nervous expression. Sarah landed beside her and looked at Varian with anxiety.

How many days did Varian gain from this?

The death strand must have spent considerable energy! So, a day? Two days? Ten days?

Even if it's just half a day, Sarah and Sia vowed to devote all their time and strength to hunting down high-vitality trees.

This way, the death strand would lose more and more energy. It might collapse due to a lack of energy!

That's the plan.

Varian's arms turned back to normal and he stared back at the girls with a complicated expression. "The time I gained from this is one hour if your time powers are applied. If not, then ten minutes."

"W-What?" Sarah felt like the air in her chest was knocked out. Even if she maintained her time powers on him, Varian wasn't going to live for much longer.

Sia closed her eyes in pain and a powerless sigh escaped her lips.

They took two hours to find this tree and spent around thirty minutes deceiving and killing it.

Varian now had around twenty days left.

Even if he spent every waking hour hunting down these trees, and assuming he's successful in doing so, he'd gain at most ten more days to live.

Looking at Sarah's pale face and trembling shoulders, Varian felt his heart hurt.

Grabbing her by the waist, he patted her weak back. "Hey, ten days is ten days. More time to figure something out."

Sarah buried her face in Varian's chest and held him tightly. Hot tears streamed down her cheeks as fear filled her mind.

Sia turned away from the two and looked down the mountain with a determined gaze.

She'd try her best to save Varian. Even at the cost of her own life.

But if everything failed and Varian died, then she'd do everything it'd take to return to Solar System and exterminate the Abyssals. Then, she'd go to the Abyssals homeland and slaughter every single living thing there.

If the world took away the one person she had, then she'd burn down the damn world.

Unlike Sarah's fear, Sia's heart was filled with rage.

'Huh?'

Sia narrowed her eyes as she noticed a few natives approaching them from the distance.

"Die."

Thick killing intent filled the air.