The only thing Kayden could do was fight the cold and study his soul. It was funny because she had nothing and, at the same time, she had everything. It was very similar to soul mana, but in a version trillions of times more concentrated.
The cold wasn’t extreme for Kayden, but it was constant and tried to break his will day after day; there was no pause, and the passage of time did not exist for him at all.
Something he wondered was why he blindly trusted Licht and his proposal. It didn’t make any sense in his view. From the beginning, he knew it wasn’t a good idea to trust like that, but something compelled him to go there.
Kayden did not easily make thoughtless decisions, much less decisions that could lead to a less-than-ideal end. After a long time, he concluded that he had been manipulated by someone, but he didn’t have a very clear idea of who exactly it was.
His main guess was Thoth; he was always present in everything in Kayden’s life. Furthermore, he could manipulate great gods with relative ease, especially Yan, who was one of the greatest gods in this universe.
Kayden wasted only a little time on this. No matter how much he thought about it, it wouldn’t make the slightest difference in the end as he wasn’t able to change anything about his current situation.
The only thing he could do was study his soul and at the same time learn more about his path. The second was more difficult, as he had no way to test his theories in this immaterial form.
**The Sleeping Gods**
"The sleeping gods have awakened", Nyc received this news from Thoth, and it was something very worrying; the sleeping gods were a ridiculously strong race.
"What else?" NYC didn’t know what to expect from the situation. The sleeping gods were called that because of the long periods of hibernation they had; their race was called natural gods.
This name came from the fact that even a baby was born into the divinity, something completely against the natural order, as each god was unique and had a divine law that he improved over time.
There were hardly two gods with the same laws; the only ones who were similar were the gods who ascended dishonestly and had generic laws that any idiot with resources could learn, but still, they required a lot of resources.
Raising a god costs the equivalent of a small organization in resources, a ridiculously large amount, capable of supporting entire constellations of high-level mages. Therefore, few gods ascended in this way, and in fact, they were not even alive.
Pai ended up killing most of them; Those who remained were spared because they had some useful value in knowledge or some connection with people of power. The rest were brutally killed with no second chances.
"They will take a part of the universe. Probably, one of the ten large organizations will suffer an attack in a few hours and be decimated," Thoth commented something so scary as if it was no big deal.
"How strong are they?" Nyc was quite surprised by Thoth’s speech.
"Ridiculously strong. Each of them is the reincarnation of a natural law produced by the universe; they have perfect and absolute control over their laws." NYC got a scare for the first time in a few thousand years.
Having perfect control over the law was something that few gods had, and this placed them at the pinnacle of divinity, at least at their level. And, considering that each of them was already born into divinity... dozens were equivalent to thousands.
"What stops them from dominating this universe?" Nyc asked the question that was probably on the mind of anyone who knew the natural gods.
"Fear. There are races capable of stopping them and there are also beings capable of stopping them." NYC felt like a little frog every time Thoth revealed something.
Are beings capable of stopping the race of natural gods? This was completely absurd. Can a single being stop an entire race of gods with perfect laws? The universe was too big.
**The Favor of Hypnos**
"You’re so lucky I owe you a favor, kid." Hypnos stood before Yan and manipulated the soul of Pai’s soulmate.
Souls were the same regardless of the universe, but circumstances made this a ridiculously difficult job that only someone with a lot of knowledge could accomplish. And there was nothing better than this cat.
"What will be the consequences?" Yan knew the weight of his actions and expected at least some consequences.
"She will have very limited intelligence in the first millennia of life. Furthermore, your memories will come back little by little, so your personality will be fragmented most of the time."
These were things Father could deal with. He sold his immortality, but he still had a few billion years to go. That would be enough for him to enjoy his beloved’s company and, perhaps, regain his immortality.
"Regarding your cultivation?"
"Without any hindrance other than your intelligence."
"My debt will be eternal."
It took Hypnos about 10 years to remodel the soul into a body of the Father’s choosing. This body, in itself, was already in the ninth realm and belonged to a forgotten race, which had already disappeared from the universe.
This race was born in the ninth realm with its body but was still at the apprentice level with its mind. In a way, this race died out because of its abnormal strength and limited intelligence; it was very similar to giving a gun to a child.
After the cat left, Yan lay next to his wife’s body, just waiting for her to wake up. No breathing, no movement, just waiting. It was years in this position until she opened her eyes.
On the one hand, a being that carried memories of trillions of years and a desire to see his beloved for even longer; on the other, just a body without any real memory and feelings...
Of comfort and security, soulmates recognized each other even in moments that didn’t make any sense. She didn’t have any intelligence and just looked at Father like a puppy looks at its mother.