"Truly the wisest mage that ever existed," Kayden murmured as he watched Thoth eat a raw fish in front of him.
Kayden had spent the last entire decade in this plain, which he discovered was the peak of a mountain with its small ecosystem. Within it, there was an entire life cycle of animals and ordinary things. The only part not so common was the fact that all the animals were born in the ninth realm in this place—even the flies were in the ninth realm.
It was bizarre that the average strength was the same as a ten-ray mage in the ninth realm. That didn't even make sense, but… it was just the average strength; the quality was far behind that of a ten-ray mage, and Kayden could feel this clearly in the animals. They might have strength, but they lacked potential.
The trees in that ecosystem were organized as if they were natural pillars, all growing with a serene strength and a beauty that needed no explanation. Each leaf moved gently along with the wind, as if part of an invisible mechanism. Everything was alive, yet at the same time completely at peace; there was nothing out of place. Everything there just existed as it should exist.
Kayden became invisible to all of it—not because he needed to hide, but because it was natural for him to withdraw and simply observe. He wasn't part of that cycle, and at the same time was superior to it. Still, motionless, like a master who had already surpassed the need to interact, he saw the world move, but the world did not see him—and that was exactly how it should be.
"And truly the most talented mage that ever existed," Thoth replied to Kayden in kind. Kayden had merely been wandering through the mountain when he encountered a sort of slime in the shape of a cube, its edges constantly melting and reshaping.
This slime had small strands extending out, cutting a fish to place within its surface. Its aura was that of a god in its purest state—the divine aura impregnated the environment, but it did so in such a natural way that it didn't destroy the cycle of things around it. Moreover, the world was capable of suppressing its existence in a bizarre manner.
The divine aura wasn't capable of destroying things on its own—the world could support the god as if it were just another ordinary living being among all things. Kayden had already expected something like that; the laws in this place were simply superior in a way that left no room for any contestation.
"How did you find me?" Kayden asked after a while in silence.
"I wasn't actively looking for you—I just happened to find you by chance, actually." If someone who didn't know Thoth heard that, they wouldn't believe it.
The chance of finding someone by chance across all universes was, in truth, nonexistent. There simply was no way to rely on luck for something like that. But Thoth? This mage was living such a vast number of lives that probably such statistics didn't even apply to him. The conversation Kayden had with the celestial when he passed into the tenth realm had shown him that.
Thoth was a mage living trillions of lives simultaneously in each universe—probably there were universes where he lived far more than that. The probabilities of luck for him were simply infinite.
"What intrigues me is," Thoth finished the fish and turned into a perfect cube spinning in the air, "at what moment did you discover Aetherion?" Kayden smiled and began to answer his oldest acquaintance.
"It was a recommendation from the celestials when I became a tenth-realm mage." Thoth seemed surprised, the cube shifting across different faces. "They gave me dozens of places and strength levels I should have before stepping into each one. But for this one in particular, they only told me to feel when I was ready."
The two remained quiet for a bit. Thoth knew that Kayden was worthy of being there—not only that, but he was capable of living and adapting to that environment alone. It had been about a decade since Kayden had been on that mountain, just trying to set his path upon the world, and so far he had only achieved partial success in his actions.
"In which of all your plans did this happen?" Kayden smiled with a hint of provocation at Thoth.
"A single one." The cube increased in faces, reaching thousands within seconds, and on each one more thousands appeared in a practically infinite manner. "The chance of all this happening was lower than that of perfect-grade gods emerging in the next millennia, and yet you managed it." Thoth looked at Kayden and reverted to being just a cube.
"What happened to the universe?" Kayden asked another question just to satisfy his curiosity; he didn't care in the slightest about what he had left behind.
"It completely collapsed and reshaped in an impressive event, but unfortunately it couldn't support the presence of mages above the second realm." Kayden had expected something along those lines. "The most capable mages were all recruited."
In the end, something quite predictable happened. What Thoth hadn't mentioned was that a hunt had begun to find Kayden—thousands of universes and trillions of organizations were searching for the strongest mortal that ever existed to recruit him, but none of them had even the slightest chance of success during all that time.
Kayden became a legend overnight—in just a decade, his name had already traveled through more universes than most gods would ever visit in all their lives. The story of his conquests in front of such a large number of people made everything even more surreal; he wouldn't be forgotten so soon, and probably his name was fated to be eternalized in the multiverse.
"What exactly is this world?" Kayden asked Thoth. He only knew that he was on the highest peak of all the universes—the point where not even the gods could freely enter. Yet, even so, Kayden had made himself worthy of being there.