"Thank you, I still have a lot of time, but at the same time, it’s nothing." Kayden had completely lost track of time. He could have spent a few million years in this place or several tens of billions.
"What are the requests?" They were reaching the final phase. Only a few dozen billion years remained, and most of the journey had already been traversed at this point. Thoth was receiving the gods.
As soon as he spoke, dozens of requests came forth, ranging from small things like taking an apprentice out of this universe to giving even more insane techniques to members of this universe. Thoth listened to them all before beginning to respond.
"Accepted, accepted, accepted, denied, accepted, accepted, denied, denied, denied, denied, denied." Each god knew when he was being spoken to due to a small nudge of mana they received from Thoth.
"Special requests?" Kayden looked at the gods who were truly significant here, those with greater potential than just playing patron in random universes.
"I want to take Atlas to my private universe so he can learn to better control his strength." Thoth did not even need to think about the response.
"I want more time for my disciple to prepare." Thoth also did not need much thought.
"I want to grant a grade-1 technique." Again, Thoth denied it. This pattern repeated for the next dozens of requests. He was unlikely to grant such great advantages to these people.
"I will grant a soul protection to a mortal." Hypnos’ voice silenced everyone. He did not make a request; he offered the privilege for the other gods to understand what he was going to do. None of them were foolish enough to open their mouths.
"All other requests will be accepted. Those denied have been notified and have up to five minutes to make another request." Thoth was forced to give in. He did not want to do this, but he knew what Hypnos’ words meant.
The techniques and treasures he granted to the other mages would create insane mages, ones who should not exist in any universe of this level. It was practically like giving weapons to children, leading to a disastrous outcome. Moreover, the biggest problem was that this universe would die within a few millennia after the great event.
The amount of mana and resources being placed would completely undo the balance laws of this place and turn them into something insane. Void monsters and related entities would emerge, space would become thin and fragile, black holes would appear without any sense, killing all low-level mortals.
Probably only ninth-realm mages would be able to survive when the time for the great tournament neared its end. Not a single god cared about this; this was just one universe among infinite ones. But it was different for Thoth. For some reason, this universe had a significantly higher generation of tenth-realm mages than usual.
"What does this mean?" Kayden was talking to Hypnos and discovered that the final phase of this tournament was approaching. He had grown in strength at a frightening rate during this period. Kayden had become a bizarre powerhouse, but he still had not managed to take the leap he sought.
"Your soul will not suffer any permanent damage until the end of the tournament. You can destroy every part of it, and in the end, it will regenerate in a few minutes." Kayden was stunned for a few seconds. This was something far beyond what he expected.
"What happened to the balance of the universe?" Kayden understood that for him to be receiving this, other mages should be receiving something of equal or even greater magnitude. This meant the universe would be practically…
"Destroyed. The gods have given up maintaining this universe in exchange for a better game." Kayden nodded. He understood perfectly what Hypnos was telling him.
"How strong will the mages from this universe become compared to the others?" Kayden changed the question to try to understand a little better what all this meant.
"The peak should reach the level of a first-tier universe or the top of a lower-tier one, depending on the place." Hypnos did not elaborate much further. "Good luck, Kayden. I have given you everything to go beyond the wildest expectations of this universe. Now it’s up to you."
Kayden could not respond before the cat disappeared from his line of sight, leaving him alone in his temporal world. The boy began thinking about how to use this soul protection to his advantage. There were many ways, but…
"Finally." Kayden took out the mana stone he had received from Yan a ridiculously long time ago. It had been so long that he had almost forgotten its existence. But the moment he remembered something that could affect his soul… this stone came directly to him.
As soon as Kayden removed it from his spatial compartment, he felt his soul begin to fill with small mana stains. Not only that, but he also sensed a colossal amount of mana emanating from this stone. It was far beyond what he remembered or even expected. There was at least the mana of one million galaxies contained within, and this was just Kayden’s rough estimate.
That was not even the craziest part. No matter how much mana Kayden drew from this stone, it did not deplete. It was literally infinite for his current conditions. His soul began to be entirely marked with blue spots. For the first time in his life, Kayden felt the sensation of having his soul consumed by a law.
Mana beings began to emerge. They climbed from the first to the sixth realm in a single second, their strength exploding in every spiritual sense Kayden had. They were practically as strong as tenth-realm mages in terms of power. Kayden could not even understand how they could be so strong with such frightening ease.
"Hunger." Kayden heard this word in his spiritual sense from one of the strongest mana beings that had emerged. It was a colossal being, at least 100 meters tall, as thin as a wooden stick. Its entire body was made of mana and…