Miss Calamity was wandering in a block which was essentially a super garden. The stalk of every flower plant here at least reached the height of her waist. Each flower itself was as big as her face.

There were beautiful but dangerous butterflies flapping their wings, bees buzzing as they collected the precious nectar and a lot more little lifeforms going on with their lives, uninterrupted and unbothered by the presence of an outsider.

The last time she came here was more than 600 years ago.

She was a lot more mischievious back then. Way more wilful. A little too lost in her own world.

"And I got swallowed by this flower…"

The woman stopped in front of a large flower, whose beautiful pink petals rivalled an adult man's proportions.

A small smile appeared on her face before it was replaced by a deep mark of sadness.

"You told me we'd come here again. Liar. Liar! You big liar!"

After throwing a fit, the lady feared by the brightest geniuses of Jai calmed down.

Like ice melting under the sunlight, her anger, frustration and sadness all disappeared as the practiced smile etched itself on her face again.

Boom!

"?!"

A huge aura spike occurred in a particular region.

'That's where that bastard went!'

Miss Calamity wanted to slap herself. She was supposed to keep an eye on him. But due to a fond memory, she didn't focus for a few minutes.

Green light shone from her and bit by bit, her body began to disappear, like a painting that was slowly wiped off.

The next moment, she appeared outside X4.

She frowned at a disheveled figure who rolled on the ground and coughed out blood.

'Zara Woz? Why is she even here?'

The woman in question hastily checked a spinning disc in her hand and sighed in relief after noticing it was intact.

But as if fate decided to play with her heartstrings, the disc cracked right away before disintegrating into powder.

"M-My precious…" Zara Woz's lips trembled and she muttered repeatedly like a mindless zombie.

Then, she gnashed her teeth and looked in a certain direction.

Even though she had fallen for his trick, out of pure habit from her career, Zara locked onto the man's life essence.

Even though he seemed to have somehow decreased his presence to the minimum, she was still able to get a rough estimate of his location.

"You son of a bitch! Even if it's the last thing I'll do, I'll make you pay!" Like a shrew outraged, the woman flew off.

"Seriously…"

Unlike Zara who would need a little more time, Miss Calamity needed just a few seconds to find Varian.

'Not here, not there, hm, very close now…'

And just when she was about to discover him, a huge alarm bell went off and the emergency warnings began to sound.

[Emergency Alert! Red Emergency Alert!]

[The beasts in Z1 facility have broken through. They have already razed Z2, Z3 and Z4 to the ground, releasing all the beasts in these facilities.]

[Requesting Assistance From All Rank 9s, On and Off Duty]

[Requesting Assistance From…]

"Tsk."

Miss Calamity clicked her tongue in frustration. Turning into specks of green light, she disappeared.

*** *** *** ***

Unaware that he just averted an encounter with Miss Calamity, Varian zapped out of the forest at a speed that far exceeded a mid rank 7.

And stopped.

With a half-charred body, a woman stood in front of him.

For a moment, Varian couldn't identify her.

Half of her face was burnt to the point her skin had long melted away. The power of the attack must've been very intense, because that grotesque face wasn't recovering.

"…Zara?"

Because of his wives, Varian had extremely high standards. So, even though Zara could seduce Prince Robert, she was just another plain face in his radar.

After their previous encounter, he actually hated that face. But Varian desperately wished that she had that face back.

This half-burnt, half-flesh face was really…ugly.

"Arghhh!" The woman opened her mouth and roared. Only zombies would find it attracting.

"Fuck! I need to clean my eyes with acid!"

Varian's space power swept the place and he teleported. The consequences of using that power here was very high but he didn't have much of a choice now.

He rushed to the X1 facility using his space powers, but he tried to hide his traces as much as possible.

The only issue?

Zara was chasing him like a mad dog.

She was able to lock onto him using her higher rank and quickly closed the distance.

By the time Varian was six facilities away, she reached him.

A spear materialized in her hand and leaving behind a trail of blue starlight, Zara pierced the spear right through Varian's back.

…Or that's how it seemed before 'Varian' in front of her turned into a puddle of water.

"Behind you, mam."

Zara's spear swept back the moment the first syllabel sounded. She was fast and would have struct even a peak rank 7 with ease.

But facing Varian who slowed the flow of time itself, she could only force herself to put a barrier in the last moment.

The barrier was barely up when his merciless fist dug hit her back. Zara crashed into the ground, her spine broken and blood spluttering out of the cavity.

But unlike the attack caused by the security system, this wound was already closing.

< Paragon Body > sounded like a simple path. A path towards the perfect body.

That's it.

However, it's a path that gave balanced strengths in all fields. It could fight equally against all the paths.

That's why, even though he used multiple paths, sneak attacked, a large hole still formed on Varian's chest, the edges of the wound shining in blue.

The powerful aura of Zara infiltrated Varian's body, trying to destroy him from within.

It's the power of a rank 8 awakener. Even if he fused his paths, it's hard to overcome.

"Fuck you!"

But instead of trying to get rid of it, Varian used it to break the bottleneck.

[Adept Rank 6 —> Paragon Body Rank 7]

[Assimilator Rank 6 —> Death Giant Rank 7]

A brilliant light shone from Varian's body, signalling his ascension.

"Y-You!" Zara who picked herself back up gawked in confusion and horror. "You were a rank 6 this whole time?"

[Paragon Body Rank 7: 0/10,000

< The pinnacle of a physical body. The mythical realm that all body builders wet dream of.

A body that can fight off death, stand against the tearing of space-time fabric, maintain its stability even against the forces of order and chaos.

Unlike

which has the power of < Life Essence > or

who controls the power of life, a < Paragon Body > is formed by the perfect mix of the two.

Your body is built of excellent life essence. You would not die even if only a single cell of yours survived.

Your body has command of the life force within yourself. Your body will be able to withstand great harm and quickly roar back to its peak.]

As the green light faded away, red light started shining from him.

Zara Woz tried to launch a desperate attack on him but perhaps because of the sheer shock she recieved, she wasn't even able to do it properly, allowing him to dodge those her spear with ease.

[Death Giant Rank 7: 0/10,000

< When an Assimilator takes too much, there could come a point where it rejects anymore takings.

If the Paragon Body is a straightline, this is a curve—a curve that could go above or below.

A Death Giant takes in the death essence and death force for building a perfect body—a body that has the potential to surpass Paragon Body.

Beware, few succeed in surpassing that limit and many destroy themselves in the process.

As a Death Giant, the battlefield is your heaven.

It is the path of building a perfect physical body by taking the creatures that already embarked on the path. The more you devour, the better. 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝓌𝑒𝒷𝘯𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝑜𝓂

Why reinvent the wheel?]

Varian found the commentary interesting.

The System really got more and more talkative as his rank increased.

But more importantly, his power right now seemed to have reached a particular point. The borders of a rank 8.

Even though he could find and check out his strength, Varian didn't want to waste any time in that and teleported away before Zara could pull herself together.

"W-Wait! Who are you? Is that all an illusion? What the hell is happening?" Her screams echoed for hundreds of miles, scaring away beasts and people alike.

Not giving up even though the situation grew increasingly terrifying, Zara ran after him.

Varian would've liked here to just disappear but that woman wasn't easy to take down, even though she got a significant injury.

Soon, he reached the X1 compound.

There was no one around, as expected.

But interestingly, there were a few security mechanisms that were activated. There were overlapping barriers preventing anyone from sneaking during the chaos.

'I guess that's to be expected. No matter how lax they are about security, there should be some backup for the most precious items in case things go wrong. I get that but…who the fuck sneaked in before me?'

The security mechanisms clearly had holes. Someone breached them just seconds ago and must've already been rummaging through the precious items.