"It was worth it, but the difficulty... it was the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life. Killing my soulmate was hundreds of times worse than tearing apart my soul for millions of years. To this day, scars from my actions remain in my mind," Kayden began explaining the process as if he were a madman.
"Why are you telling me this?" The Emperor raised an eyebrow.
"You’re a soul mage too, aren’t you? This might be useful for you someday," Kayden replied without any hidden intentions.
"I see. Regarding my soul... it’s merely a suppression by the universe to prevent me from destroying reality with my presence," the Emperor said, said, suddenly revealing a cascade of secrets. n peace to develop, Kayden. In a few billion years, we’ll leave this universe. On that day, I’ll make you a proposal if your power maintains the same degree of quality."
Kayden didn’t have time to respond. The Emperor vanished without explanation, disappearing before his eyes without any sense of space dilating or anything of the sort.
Kayden spent a few days reflecting on everything he had witnessed and learned during that encounter. He understood the degree of quality he needed to incorporate into his attacks, even as a mortal. It was utterly insane. Kayden had so much to do and yet so little time. Fortunately, his talent wasn’t something natural.
Kayden gathered the mana of an entire galaxy into just a few million kilometers. He held the pure mana in that space, observing the chaos it could unleash. Mana was truly capable of shaping reality in unimaginable ways. Creatures made entirely of mana began to emerge in the environment.
They were colossal beings, thousands of kilometers in size—literal monsters. They had no defined form and continuously absorbed mana without showing any signs of satisfaction. When they encountered each other, they fought for more mana. Most managed to form a kind of core, and at that point, they received a soul from the universe itself, consolidating their power in the fourth realm.
Kayden was literally creating life with this action. The problem was that when these beings reached the fifth realm, the amount of mana they consumed exceeded what a single galaxy could provide. At that point, Kayden could no longer sustain them and had to release them into the universe. Their hunger for mana was insatiable, but their strength wasn’t that impressive.
A fifth-realm mage couldn’t even expand their spiritual sense over a billion kilometers. Expanding it to the size of a galaxy was sheer madness. These mana beings died of starvation within seconds, leaving Kayden unable to extract more from them.
The most he could learn about them was the structure of their souls and that they were physical fighters. Beyond that, they were unintelligent. Kayden believed they didn’t even have time to learn how to think, as their lives were so short.
The excess mana also destroyed most laws and disrupted balance in chaotic ways. Balance turned into chaos, unable to integrate with the mana. This created areas where only the strongest laws could assert themselves; the rest couldn’t even scrape the edges.
The fundamental law of balance activated, inadvertently creating these mana beings. Kayden couldn’t understand anything beyond this. It was simply far above his knowledge, so he decided to set it aside, as he had done with countless other mysteries.
"You took your time stabilizing your power," Kayden smiled at his daughter, who was standing before him. It had been millions of years since they had made their agreement, and during that time, Kayden had continued his endless pursuit of power.
"It was far more power than I expected," Jasmine admitted without pride. "At this point, I have enough strength to kill you—or at least face you head-on."
Kayden nodded in agreement.
"Yes, you’re probably capable of fighting me evenly at this moment," he said. The space Jasmine controlled stretched to a mind-boggling 100 billion kilometers, an utterly insane feat.
"Aren’t you afraid I’ll just attack you? I could take your life right now," Jasmine said, but Kayden only smiled.
"You can face me, not take my life," Kayden replied. Jasmine, who had defied him once before, knew he was right this time.
"What makes you so sure?"
"I’m a confident man, but feel free to try whenever you want," Kayden grinned. "I recommend, though, that if you plan to kill me, you do it soon. I’ll eventually surpass this mediocre strength of yours." The ego of a man who could rival the greatest geniuses in the universe wasn’t small.
"I’ve had time to think about everything you’ve said," Jasmine ignored Kayden’s provocation. "Eventually, I’ll surpass Netero and the Ice Emperor." Kayden almost laughed to himself. He didn’t even believe he could surpass that man. "In the end, I’ll have no real opponents and will be stuck in this universe until the end of my days."
This had once been one of Kayden’s greatest fears. But now, with his superior knowledge, he knew it was entirely possible to leave this universe with some effort and continue progressing in a more challenging environment.
"That’s true, but when I reach my peak, you’ll still be stuck at your current level," Kayden smirked. "Let’s give it time, though. Lower your guard—I’m going to cleanse your soul."
Kayden began working tirelessly. Jasmine’s soul was one of the most perfect Kayden had ever seen, but it still carried remnants of past lives and countless natural flaws accumulated over time. With a single cleansing, Kayden managed to increase her strength by a small percentage while saving her thousands of years of effort.
The key difference was that Kayden cleansed souls not to give power but to grant talent. That subtle difference was monumental—something no other mage in this universe could achieve.
The cleansing process should be done in stages, because if it were done immediately the magician’s mind could collapse and most of the time it really would. Very few people had a conscience as strong as Kayden or Atlas’s and Jasmine was certainly not one of them.