Author’s note: I will release the bonus and other chapters tomorrow, for now I only had time for this one.
Any mage was capable of reaching the peak of mortals without any difficulty. This caused an explosion of talents emerging from all sides. The competition became extremely fierce, and talent and potential were finally prioritized. It was no longer possible to suppress opponents simply through brute force.
The chaos that befell the universe was far greater than anything that had ever happened before. At this moment, wars became a tangled web of mages wielding powers that should not have been so easily accessible. Mortals once again had to fight with numbers, as quality was rare to find. Mages capable of killing miracles at their own level were extremely rare and, in most cases, did not participate in battles of this magnitude.
Kayden remained in the shadows, his strength growing with each passing day. While the mages outside relied on techniques and secrets handed down to them by the gods to progress, it was akin to using fake bricks to build a house faster. Even if a standing house was still a house, it was one on the verge of collapse, never capable of supporting a second floor.
"The Absolute Peak." Atlas spread his arms to the universe and smiled as he became a demigod. His strength… became something terrifying. The entire universe trembled at the birth of this mage. Even Kayden, in his secluded world, felt the pressure caused by Atlas’s aura.
Atlas’s sixth sense grew at a speed that defied reality. The power he was demonstrating… was not something a mortal mage should have. Yet, the heavens did not turn their gaze upon him. It seemed that even though Atlas had surpassed all limits across the universe, he was still unworthy of the same position as Kayden.
Atlas’s spiritual sense reached a margin never before seen in a mortal in the history of this universe. It spanned 200,000 light-years—equivalent to a massive galaxy in length. That was millions of times greater than any other mage. Not even Matheus had something of that magnitude.
Atlas’s soul extended across this entire perimeter and simply devoured an entire universe, converting it into mana. But this was not a simple conversion like Kayden’s—it was something far beyond that. He was creating a hole the size of a galaxy in the fabric of the universe, and the universe desperately tried to mend it. Mana flowed into that point in immense waves. The mana of countless galaxies was thrown in an attempt to repair this hole, but there was simply no way to do so.
"This power…" Kayden murmured to himself, and Hypnos appeared to answer him.
"One of the gods is playing with the threads of fate, trying to create a monster." The cat stretched lazily in the air. "The techniques and resources Atlas received are the same as those given to a prince of a high-level universe."
Kayden blinked. Who had seen such potential in Atlas?
"At this rate, there’s no way to defeat Atlas. He has become something far beyond what this universe is capable of producing."
"Isn’t that supposed to be forbidden?"
Hypnos teleported them to witness Atlas’s power. The mage was destroying billions of galaxies as if they were absolutely nothing. The laws of balance could no longer keep up with his strength.
The universe had to expand to withstand Atlas’s birth. While the mage destroyed billions of galaxies per second, billions more were born in other parts of the universe simultaneously. He was practically doubling the universe’s quality within seconds. In just a few days, Atlas had destroyed a double-digit percentage of the universe—something completely insane for a mortal.
"The gods don’t actually care about low-level universes. The power Atlas has developed is insane, but it’s still unrefined. He still needs a few final touches before he truly reaches the perfect peak."
Kayden remained silent. Was there still room for that mage to grow?
"The universe will see more things now. The gods will ignore the unwritten rules from now on."
Hypnos was right. The gods didn’t care in the slightest about the laws of this universe or its health. From now on, they would grant techniques and treasures that even gods themselves should not have access to. All of this would accelerate the end of this universe.
"Atlas’s strength is equivalent to that of a low-level prince from a high-level universe. At best, he will reach mid-level with insane luck," Hypnos said as they watched Atlas. "Now, I’ll give you two options."
The cat turned to Kayden.
"A technique to become a tenth-realm demigod in just a few thousand years, or I’ll give you time."
"I want time," Kayden replied without hesitation. This was a question he had already answered thousands of times, in different ways and at different moments in his life. Hypnos knew Kayden would choose this option, but he hadn’t expected it to be so easy.
"With your strength, you should be able to become a mid-level demigod of a great universe. Are you sure you want to gamble on your own path?"
The cat attempted to provoke Kayden’s thoughts, but the answer remained the same.
"How much time will you give me?"
Even hundreds of billions of years would, unfortunately, not be enough for Kayden to reach Atlas’s level. In fact, it wouldn’t even bring him close.
"The soul technique I taught you—I will multiply your time conversion by 100 to 1,000 times."
That would be insane.
"But the pressure your soul will endure will be far beyond anything you’ve ever faced in your life. Not even the heavens’ trial lightning will be as heavy."
Kayden didn’t even blink before accepting. Immediately, he was thrown back to the place where he had been before, and…
Ten billion years passed... without Kayden even being able to breathe, his mind was trapped in a completely insane pressure, he didn’t bend and his mind wasn’t even affected by this pressure, but the problem was that it didn’t let Kayden cultivate normally, it took him an insane amount of time just to be able to start doing basic things within this time dilation.