Kayden’s old friend reappeared in the universe as an insane beast that devoured constellations. The cat could now easily swallow billions of kilometers with its mouth. Felix had reached the level of a demigod during this time. Unfortunately, he had not been able to become a tenth-realm mage before that, but unlike common demigods, he had not stopped progressing in his strength.
Beyond them, dozens of other mages were growing in power from all sides. The universe’s average level had risen to a crazy level—eighth realm was now the weakest level mages could reach in their lifetimes. This was completely insane. Even the weakest mage could reach this stage with the amount of mana available in the universe.
The average level was a direct reflection of the peak. When the average level was higher, peak mages had to have much greater potential to be considered at the top. At this point, eight-ray mages in the ninth realm were as common as grains of sand in a desert. Only nine-ray mages were rare.
Tenth-realm mages and demigods also began appearing by the thousands. That’s right—thousands. No longer were there just a few dozen or at most a few hundred. Instead, thousands were emerging, seeking their place in the balance of power. It was madness. At this moment, every zone was controlled by a true peak mage. There were no longer weak or mid-tier mages as zone leaders.
Atlas grew at an explosive rate. The boy had managed to become a tenth-realm mage. He used a method that allowed him to skip dozens of steps. He hadn’t even reached the absolute peak of the ninth realm, but that didn’t matter. The method he used allowed him to ascend without losing potential. At this moment, his power erupted astronomically.
Unfortunately, his uncontrolled advancement cost him the next billion years, leaving his body and soul in a chaotic state. However, his potential remained intact. This meant that he could focus on becoming a demigod while solidifying his power. His advancement was one of the universe’s greatest secrets—only he and Matheus knew about it. Otherwise, it would be easy to understand that Atlas was currently the strongest mage in the universe.
Meanwhile, Kayden had vanished. His constant massacre of galaxies had completely stopped. Not a single mage knew of his whereabouts. This forced Atlas’s revenge to be postponed. Moreover, not a single mage even wanted to look for Kayden—everyone was too occupied during this period.
Kayden spent all this time trapped within his sixth sense. It took him about one million years to master Hypnos’ technique. Considering that he had all his doubts answered in seconds and that his talent was insane, Kayden was ridiculously fast. Hypnos had believed it would take him at least several billion years, but he had overestimated both perfect souls and Kayden’s obsession.
The technique was utterly insane—it involved placing his soul in a state of temporal dilation. To do this, Kayden had to destroy everything within the area of his sixth sense—every piece of matter, every trace of life. Nothing could exist in that space. Afterward, he had to place his soul in a cycle with the laws of time. It wasn’t actually difficult, but it had to be done with an absolutely terrifying degree of perfection.
It required insane knowledge of one’s own soul. A deep understanding of the law of time wasn’t even necessary—only the basics were needed. The real trick was altering the river of time within himself in a way that wasn’t recognized by the universe as a violation. It was literally a technique that mocked the heavens and their natural laws.
While the rest of the universe saw only a few dozen million years pass, Kayden had actually lived for hundreds of millions of years. Hypnos had said that time would pass at half speed, but it was more accurate to say that Kayden experienced time at about a third of the normal rate, all thanks to his talent.
"I see," Kayden smiled and looked at his hand. It had been 500 million years since the gods arrived in this universe. All the mages were growing stronger, fighting for the best positions in the universe, and...
For the position of the gods’ affiliates. A few million years ago, the mages discovered that if a god’s first chosen representative was killed, they could be replaced. Most of the time, the gods chose the ones capable of killing their previous affiliates. There was no emotional connection between the gods and their chosen ones—they only wanted the best and the strongest.
While half a billion years had passed for the entire universe... for Kayden, more than one billion years had passed. He was nearing two billion years of personal experience. His power had grown at an incomparable speed, far outpacing all other mages. At this moment, he had reached the absolute peak of the eighth realm. His understanding of the law of equilibrium and his path had grown even greater.
Kayden had reached the insane level of 50% comprehension of his law. His learning speed was at least five times faster than any other mage in this universe. Even Netero, with all his lifetime of experience, could not match Kayden’s speed of understanding. Furthermore, Kayden had spent at least half of this time purely studying his path.
He reached the mind-boggling value of 750 billion kilometers and a conversion rate using the law of equilibrium in the tens of thousands. Kayden could pull mana from dozens of galaxies in the blink of an eye. A single one of his lightning bolts was now capable of destroying thousands of galaxies in a single strike.
His spells were infinite and would only disappear when completely overpowered by something stronger. The law of equilibrium made them an essential part of the universe’s existence. They wouldn’t fade away or lose strength easily. That was why Kayden was capable of destroying thousands of galaxies with a single bolt of lightning. Unfortunately, his control over the law was still not perfect, which meant that his lightning would slowly fade away after some time.