Mana did not exist in this world, but it was no longer necessary. Mana was merely an alternative path for mortals to convert reality to their desires. True gods were capable of using only basic and raw laws, something Kayden was doing at that very moment. And his desire?A colossal bolt of lightning emerged, capable of easily rivaling the bolt produced during the ascension process. Kayden hurled it into the void; in the blink of an eye, this attack traveled billions of kilometers, its speed utterly insane. The gods along its path couldn't even comprehend what was happening.Every god across billions of kilometers felt completely threatened, as if it were the end of the world. The pressure that Kayden's fundamental law was exerting on their minds was utterly terrifying. He was merely a mortal, yet he was threatening gods without even acknowledging them.The feeling of inferiority was not something rare among the gods in this world. They had always been in contact with stronger gods, and it was practically common sense that there would always be someone stronger than you in this universe. But… mortals were pathetic beings who did not possess this capability; they were insects, they were inferior. The problem was that this belief was completely shattered in their minds at this moment.Seeing a wolf bending a group of sheep was merely the natural cycle of life, but seeing a sheep bending a group of wolves was completely unrealistic and terrifying. This automatically made them wary, but this feeling alone would not prevent any god from moving against Kayden or at least attempting to recruit him.At least, that would be true if the boy hadn't just thrown a divine-level attack as if it were absolutely nothing, an attack that most of the gods in this far corner of the world would be unable to face without using a good part of their strength. The mystery surrounding the limits of Kayden's power made no god easily go after him, or at least not those who were a bit more cautious.
"A mere mortal placing himself at the level of a monarch?"A lizard bearing a large axe appeared, floating in the sky near Kayden.The lizard god had a colossal body covered in metallic scales that reflected light irregularly, as if they were fragments of some primordial mineral. Its eyes were two vertical slits glowing in a deep purple hue that seemed to pierce through dimensions. On its back grew black spines so dense that they distorted the space around them, while in its claws it wielded an axe so massive it could split planets in half with a single swing.It had been a long time since Kayden had dealt with lifeforms of such size. The lizard easily measured several hundred kilometers, an absolute contrast to Kayden's mere one meter and ninety centimeters. But their auras… it was as if two gods were facing each other.While one aura was strong, aggressive, and spread in all directions with absolute ferocity, the other was something calm, extremely controlled, but… superior. Kayden's aura conveyed an air of superiority that placed the beings around him as inferiors; if one focused on his aura, they could feel endless arrogance.
"Do not annoy me." Kayden was in a very delicate moment, trying to absorb as much knowledge as possible, and seeing an insect approach him to cause a disturbance made him slightly irritated.Kayden was able to sense the divine aura, but he had also already reached a level of strength where a mere god could no longer scare him. Kayden had surpassed the divine level while still being a mortal. His battle instincts were forged through billions of combats over an insane span of life, and this lizard posed no danger to him whatsoever.
Aetherion was a world superior to practically all universes. The chaos Kayden created was reconstructed in seconds with new laws and more matter. It was insane to see such immense damage being automatically fixed without any delay or difficulty, and even more insane to see Kayden bending everything again to his will.If the world took seconds to clean up the mess, Kayden didn't take even the blink of an eye to do it all over again. Another bolt of lightning formed in his hands, and the previous one returned from its journey as if nothing had happened, its strength unchanged even after traveling through such incredible space and still returning at Kayden's slightest command.
Both bolts went toward the lizard without any warning; there was no explanation. A mortal addressed a god as if it were nothing. Each of his bolts carried the same weight as an ascension lightning bolt; in fact, they were very similar, practically identical if not for Kayden's unique aura controlling them.The two bolts were perfect columns of pure energy, without color, without defined form—just the raw manifestation of fundamental laws in motion. They sliced through space like absolute blades, without noise or hesitation, destroying everything in their path and bending reality as if it were fragile paper. There was no explosion or spectacle, only the inevitable certainty of annihilation.
The lizard god roared with a force that made space itself tremble. It raised the colossal axe in front of it and summoned a wall of condensed laws, dozens of overlapping layers trying to block the impact. Yet even so, when it contained the two bolts, its entire body was hurled backward by millions of kilometers, its scales cracked, and its axe lost part of its brilliance—the defense exacted a tremendous price.
All the surrounding gods were left perplexed. It made no sense for a mortal to be capable of something like that. It made no sense for a mortal to be able to equal a god. It made no sense for a mortal to be capable of bringing a god to its knees completely in this way. It was utterly unrealistic and senseless.There was no mercy from Kayden; he continued bombarding the lizard with his bolts. The world reconstructed the laws at an accelerated rate, and he kept breaking them as if they were absolutely nothing. The lizard god was entirely on the defensive; its axe was a divine-grade artifact molded in a law, and yet it found itself unable not to tremble with each of Kayden's attacks.
"The Monarch of Monarchs," Kayden's aura exuded his title granted by the heavens and left all the surrounding gods astonished.