"This boy… shouldn’t be in this universe," Hypnos commented as he watched the fight. Aquiles had made his name stand out across the universe in just a few seconds of combat. Only a few hundred people, among millions, were able to comprehend what had happened.
The next fights were all of the highest level, at least interesting, but things truly went insane when two of the most powerful mages in the universe stepped onto the coliseum. Atlas and Jasmim were facing each other, each on one side of the arena.
In the end, the woman was chosen after a long time, but not by any of the great gods, it was some random lesser god with no significant power. Meanwhile, Atlas stood at the absolute peak of his power as a ten-ray mage and from the tenth realm. His very presence was capable of bending the space around him.
"This is going to be a massacre," Kayden commented, and Hypnos nodded. It wasn’t hard for him to recognize just how absurd Atlas’ strength had become. He couldn’t even understand how the boy had turned into a tenth-realm mage with ten rays.
It was simply a leap in power that shouldn’t have been possible at this time. Maybe he sacrificed his potential for it? Kayden didn’t think so. He hadn’t created a fool. So, Atlas had received some truly insane technique from the gods. This made Kayden think about whether what he had received from Hypnos was really that insane.
"The technique he received from his god puts him far ahead of regular mages," Kayden insinuated, and Hypnos didn’t take long to respond.
"Yeah, I can give you that level of power in just a few million years as well, but we both know how that will end," Hypnos said. Kayden nodded. In the end, his path was his and no one else’s.
Atlas’ soul extended for at least fifty trillion kilometers, swallowing all the attacks Jasmim was making with ease. In this area, laws ceased to exist. Atlas’ soul was the law itself, his soul was mana itself, and nothing could exist or enter this space without his permission. That wasn’t even a fight.
The pressure slowly forced Jasmim to her knees. She couldn’t even think straight as all her bones were crushed into the ground without mercy. This wasn’t a fight. It was just an open and merciless humiliation. Atlas was sending a very clear message to the rest of the universe at this moment: his power was unprecedented, and his strength surpassed everything and everyone.
"Die." With a single word, Jasmim’s body was completely crushed to the point where her existence was no longer part of reality. What was even more insane was that Kayden could see that her soul had been severely fragmented before being shattered into thousands of pieces.
Atlas had become a mage capable of altering souls in such a way that his attacks could kill mages forever. Souls could not be destroyed by normal means, but they could be broken to the point where even their reincarnation became a challenge.
"Do you understand what I meant now?" Hypnos was right. Kayden had been surpassed. He wasn’t even capable of resisting a simple attack from his apprentice’s soul at this moment. The famous phrase had never made so much sense: the apprentice one day surpasses the master.
It was funny how Kayden’s life revolved around running from stronger people while he grew stronger. It seemed like an endless cycle where he could never overcome everyone, but up to that point, all his decisions had proven correct.
"Completely," Kayden responded as he saw his body being teleported against his will. He didn’t resist and immediately found himself in the arena.
"Hello, my name is Kenian Hima. I’m a mage of the ninth realm and ten rays. I hope our battle is a great experience for both of us." Kayden received these words as soon as he stepped into the coliseum, and a young man with red hair bowed.
Kenyan Hima, with his impeccable posture and refined attire, exuded an aura of nobility and respect. His vibrant red hair framed a serene face, while his scarlet eyes glowed with a calm intensity and calculative demeanor. Two small horns gently sprouted from his forehead, complementing his unique appearance, and a long red tail swayed slightly behind him, moving with almost calculated precision.
"Hello, my name is Kayden Heart," just that. There was no further introduction before all eyes in the coliseum turned to Kayden. His name carried more weight than all the mages who had ever fought there.
"It’s a pleasure to fight with the mage of legends." Kenyan bowed again, and Kayden found it amusing that these actions were truly honest. The boy’s excitement wasn’t fake, nor was there any mockery.
"Equally, Mr. Kenian." Kayden bowed in return and began to exude an aura that signaled he was ready. "I’ll give you the first strike as a gesture of goodwill from an older mage." In reality, he just wanted to test the boy’s strength.
The boy smiled, and then… dozens of millions of suns exploded in all directions, some stretching tens of billions of kilometers, all emitting infernal heat. It was so hot that space was melting, revealing the void, and not only that, but the laws were bending in a bizarre way that shouldn’t have been possible. Kayden couldn’t even begin to comprehend the magnitude of this heat.
The heat emitted by the sun didn’t just distort space; it made the laws writhe in desperation as if they were trying to flee from something that transcended them. Time around them oscillated erratically, sometimes speeding up, sometimes stopping for fractions of a second, unable to maintain its linearity. Gravity, once absolute, fragmented in different directions, creating zones where pressure crushed existence itself, and others where everything dissolved into nothing. The suns were scattered across a vastness of billions of kilometers, each pulsing like a living entity, carrying a power comparable to a weak tenth-realm mage. They spun in chaotic patterns, their explosions shaping fleeting new realities that appeared and vanished instantly, incapable of maintaining any form of order. Kayden felt his very existence being tested, his body instinctively reacting to avoid being consumed by the collapse of the universe’s rules around him.