Divine Path System

Silver City.

It used to be the city of a living god, a god who recently died.

The myths surrounding the city wrapped it in air of mystery but the reality of God Emperor pushed those myths into obscurity.

Now, the myths began to resurface once again. They resurfaced through the whispers of prayer, whimpers of pain and whines of surprise.

The brilliant city which encompassed the area of an entire province was now enveloped in a glorious silver barrier.

Formations were activated throughout the city, connecting from one district to the next, creating complex structures that were long forgotten in the flow of time.

These were the ancient formations that no one other than the six tribes would be able to recognize.

These formations didn't belong to this era or the one before or even the period when the Jai race established its empire.

They belonged to an era where the tribes reigned supreme.

"The formation of Heaven and Neveah." Lord Rakz muttered with a hint of disbelief. "Not only did Neveah massacre every single member of Heaven, they even managed to occupy their formations and preserve them to this day? Weren't Heaven also one of the primordial tribes? Did they just raise their flags seeing the army and didn't even bother to fight?"

Standing next to him with hands behind his back, Ophion listened to the whines of the new rank 2 of Nexus with an amused expression.

"Why? Are you frustrated the Sera tribe couldn't do the same to Ares?"

"Of course! If Ares were like Heaven, we'd be ruling Eden already. But those Ares bastards didn't even leave us a pot, forget a formation, they sacrificed everything in the forbidden reg…." Rakz suddenly stiffened and turned to his side.

The slit-eyed man watched him worldlessly, an amused expression on his face, but his eyes were flickering, as if he was considering something dangerous.

Rakz made a strained smile but the anger in his eyes was barely restrained.

'This is why we shouldn't have Chaos powerhouses. This snake was docile when you were alive, Master. But when you three died, he's showing his true colors again. A chaos being like him would never be loyal to our Order.

Ares descendants like him, near or descendant, must remain under heel. They should never be our equal.'

Controlling his inner turmoil as grief once again threatened to overtake him, Rakz whispered. "Excuse me."

With a flash of light, he vanished into the distance.

"Arghhh!"

With a war cry, he joined his avatars in attacking the massive barrier. Ophion's own avatars were attacking ceaslessly.

The barrier was dimming but it was nowhere near breaking.

'It could take five months.'

"Hm?"

The barrier showed ripples from the other side.

Raising an eyebrow, Ophion noted King Hades personally attacking the barrier.

'Two months.'

Then a burst of life aura spread across the perimeter of Silver City.

'That woman is reckless. One month.'

Ophion's vision penetrated through the barrier, skipped the magnificient buildings in the city and locked onto the grand palace at the center.

The palace of God Emperor.

Araboth.

Once he got his hands on its treasures, Ophion was certain the bottleneck would break.

High rank 2 would only a matter of time.

'And then what? Unless I'm very lucky, I doubt I'd find anything to push me to peak rank 2 with Hades standing in my way.'

Ophion narrowed his eyes and turned back, his perception spanning an entire galaxy and reaching the edge of milkyway.

'Perhaps…'

While a month had passed since the invasion of Jai began, Genesis had been completely shaken.

Humanity was the foremost target of persecution, but not the only one. The scale of violence in broad day light was too much even for many stone hearted men to bear.

Curfews were announced across many kingdoms and the state openly endorsed the brutal massacres.

Over 50% of all existing humans were killed. 20% were enslaved with brutal conditions.

It happened too fast for them to react and group together. When they finally realized what they were up against, they were already being hunted down in the streets.

Thankfully, some human leaders were wise enough to notice the signs and upon the first sign of trouble, they sent their members to convince the loyalist faction.

The envoy team could only marvel at their wisdom as convincing the loyalists took significantly more time than expected.

And the loyalists themselves, true to their name, locked away the call for help in a secret realm lest someone steal it.

They truly treated it as a last resort, something they would only use when their group would be pushed to the verge of extinction.

But the brutality outside and sympathy for fellow beings made them use up the precious resource and call for Hortus.

After passing through complex space tunnels, the envoys found themselves standing in a green pasture.

The soft grass with hints of dew was very comforting after all the blood they had to witness.

The gentle music of rivers flowing nearby soothed their soul, healing the trauma they endured as they heard the screams and cries of the dying.

White winged horses neighed as they took off to flight, spreading their wings that reflected the brilliant sunlight.

The crew shielded their eyes with the back of their hand and held their breath.

When the magnificient creature left, they subconsciously breathed in and the fresh air filled their lungs, relieving them of tension they didn't even realize they were holding.

"This…" The eyes of a young woman watered and she collapsed to her knees. Touching the soft grass and breathing in the fresh air, she looked up at the blue sky, muttering. "Paradise. This is paradise."

The crew of envoys were taken aback by her words and then either sighed or fell deathly silent.

To be selected for this critical mission, they were all young and wise or belonged to certain lineages.

So, they knew it far more clearly than the emotional young woman.

Indeed, this was Paradise. If this wasn't Paradise, then what was?

But if they acknowledged it like her, they'd have to go back and ask their parents an important, painful question.

'Why did you leave the Paradise?'

Why were humans not satisfied with the world where you had everything? Why did you break out of it? It wasn't our cage, it was our sanctuary!

But then the answers were bound to disappoint them. Their parents would most likely regret it.

The painful part wasn't that.

It's that if they grew up like their parents in the conditions they did, then they too would've done the same thing! There was no doubt about it!

And if their parents were born in their generation, they too would question their parents for foolishly leaving this Paradise.

But the wise young men and women didn't complain about this complex situation.

Unless one was very wise, it was hard to see some obvious truths in sight. And the rebellion that was headed for the quest of freedom was built on feelings, not wisdom.

It seemed that humans preferred freedom over comfort in the period of safety. And safey over freedom in the period of danger.

The same Paradise they despised in times of safety would turn into their sanctuary during times of danger.

Perhaps it's not as much as the fault of their parents as much as it's the fault of human nature.

Didn't the life rankers say that humanity was an experiment of Devas who injected the apes with a quality called curiosity.

Curiosity was both the gift and curse of mankind.

Curiosity would push them to explore the unknown, allow them the possibility to find great secrets of the universe and take risks that would give them immense prosperity.

Curiosity would also push them away from safe harbors into unknown and sometimes the unknown would be dangerous things that were better left unexplored.

For better or worse, Humans were a curios race.

Their nature, embedded deep into their genes, pushed the ancient monkeys to leave the safe trees and venture the risky land.

Their descendants, even far into the future, also pushed themselves to explore the world beyond the paradise.

In that sense, perhaps it's not so surprising. It's almost inevitable.

The sky rumbled without warning and the train of thoughts were interrupted.

And then they saw it.

"I-It…"

A pair of wings!

A pair of wings that stretched from one end of the horizon to the other end.

Radiating a powerful aura that would make even the strongest of humanity—a pseudo divine—kneel in awe, the wings flapped once.