The gods remained quiet, lost in their own thoughts. The information Thoth had given them was too much to be absorbed quickly. Their minds could process trillions of bits of information per second, and yet at that moment, they were pondering tens of millions of possible scenarios.
None of them could attempt to see the future—Kayden’s surrounding Law of Chaos was so absurdly concentrated that even seeing ten minutes ahead was impossible for any of them. All they could do was predict possible outcomes, and in every one of them, becoming Kayden’s patron looked like pure idiocy.
Kayden’s power would have to be absolutely insane to make the risk worthwhile. The issue was... it actually was. But none of them knew the exact extent of it—it was literally a gamble. And not a simple one. They would be staking their own lives if they guessed wrong.
Kayden’s law was reaching its final stage. Every mistake had been corrected. Bit by bit, the energy was consumed. The scale of Kayden’s movements drew the attention of every living being across billions of kilometers. Anyone on the mountain halted their actions, trying to make sense of that massive expenditure of energy.
Kayden was using enough energy to turn a mage into a god to fix a minuscule error in his law. The funny thing was, even the slightest misstep in these changes would have made him lose practically a lifetime of work—he would not have been able to repair his law again easily.
With each second, more energy was being discarded by Kayden. Reality around him began to crack and repair itself at high speed, without pause. The pressure that shattered reality wasn’t even intentional—it was simply the pressure from the energy leaking from Kayden’s body.
As much energy as it was, in some ways, it wasn’t that much. At a divine level, this would have been impressive—but not unique. The issue was the amount of time Kayden had taken to accumulate it all. That made it a truly insane quantity—more than most gods had ever handled in their entire lives. And he was still a mortal.
The crown on Kayden’s head began to shine. Bit by bit, something else started to manifest in his hand. His law was stabilizing at a new level—far above what it had ever been.
The scepter emerged, intangible and absolute—an extension of Kayden’s very essence. The Monarch’s Law had materialized, not as an object, but as pure authority. Its glow was silence; its weight was command. The scepter was the final form of Kayden’s law. It merged perfectly with his crown to become something greater, something beyond.
There was no explosion. No great event followed. Everything calmed down strangely in the face of the new level Kayden had reached. His scepter and his crown became the absolute center of all attention, like two unbearable weights on the minds of all who looked directly at them. Something within mortals screamed for them to kneel, while the gods felt a fear and reverence deep in their souls.
Not for a single moment had the mountain stopped pressing down on Kayden. In all this time—not even for one second in trillions of years—had he known peace. But now... Kayden had converted the mountain’s entire aura into energy. Every centimeter of it had been absorbed.
The mountain’s law was completely subjugated. It had been a high-level fundamental law—not just one, but a combination of dozens of high-level laws. It was a masterpiece crafted by artisan gods who had studied runes for nearly infinite time. It was something not even peak gods could fully understand. But...
"He subjugated the mountain’s aura."
That was the difference between mortal and divine levels. A mortal should never have been able to make a leap that huge. But among the gods, such leaps were not rare. Mastery of the laws made anything possible. Among gods, strength distinctions weren’t always clear—things could get strange.
Kayden continued to pressure the mountain without even realizing it. His aura was insane. His pressure was absurd. The gods and mortals on the mountain felt as though they were about to face a divine war, as if an entire army was outside their homes. But only one man was pressing the mountain.
"That’s enough," a voice said. And all the pressure vanished as if it had never existed. A turtle, barely a meter tall, stood before Kayden. It carried a wooden staff that looked simple, but...
"That’s wood from the World Tree—the legendary tree," the turtle explained, after Kayden spent several long minutes trying to comprehend what he was seeing and feeling. That tiny staff held more life than Kayden’s entire universe. More than that, it seemed to pressure him without even trying.
"I see," Kayden replied to the god, still trying to extract some knowledge from it. Unfortunately, it was far beyond his reach at the moment.
"Olympus will not accept your presence right now. Your strength is excellent, but the problems you bring with you are beyond our capacity." The god smiled. "But I, as an individual, hope to form a bond of friendship with you. As a gesture of goodwill, I will give you a small sprout of the Celestial Tree."
The turtle broke off a small piece of his staff. That tiny piece of wood held more presence than 99% of the gods Kayden had ever met in his entire life. He didn’t fully understand the situation, but he wasn’t about to refuse a gift of that level.
"Of course," Kayden smiled. "I fully understand your organization’s decision, and I accept your gesture. My name is Kayden Heart, and it’s a pleasure to meet you, God..."
"I’m known as Master Oogway—nothing more. My titles have been erased in the River of Time."
Of all the gods of Olympus, Oogway was the only one who had the courage to make an extension to Kayden, the total vote of the gods of the organization was strongly against absorbing Kayden into their midst, only a few of them accepted this and only when they put it as a recruitment of the organization.