There was no further conversation—the god immediately attacked Kayden's soul. There were no threats, no warnings; this certainly wasn't part of the challenge, as Kayden was now facing the god's full power.
His soul was strong, but it was nowhere near the strength of this god. Kayden was completely engulfed—his soul began to be assimilated along with the gods. But… a battle broke out between the two when the god tried to take possession of Kayden's soul. If he had tried to destroy it, that would have been one thing—but the moment he attempted to share ownership with Kayden...
"What the hell?" the god cursed as he felt the greatest wave of karma he had ever witnessed in his entire existence surge into the heavens. His tower was brutally obliterated in the blink of an eye.
All the space within that universe was shattered without explanation. The laws of reality were literally evaporated. Reality became absolute nothingness. The ten floors of the tower were consumed within seconds and vanished into the air.
Karma didn't merely descend—it collapsed upon everything like an ancient, merciless, and absolute weight. Every thread of reality was torn apart by invisible forces carrying the sins and actions of the god himself. It was as if the universe were collecting on a debt forgotten for ages. Nothing resisted, because karma does not forgive.
The surrounding gods trembled like mere mortals in the face of karma's power. This was an attack none of them had ever witnessed in their entire lives. Even from a distance, they felt fear as if they were just children. They didn't have the power to save even a single strand of hair if it were turned against them.
The seawater was completely evaporated across hundreds of billions of kilometers. An absolute void consumed everything as the celestials hurled all their fury at a single god. There was no mercy. There was no goodwill from the heavens. They sought to erase a god's existence—and did everything in their power to do so.
Kayden was untouchable to the gods. There was only one god who could kill Kayden, and that would be a celestial. But… the celestials were on his side. Karma was omnipotent, and not even the most powerful gods could escape it.
All of this happened in the blink of an eye. No one understood what had happened or how. No one was injured in the process, but the tower from before no longer existed. Additionally, the ocean was in total chaos, with a great portion of it attempting to rush back in and fill the newly vacated space.
"Don't move," a voice echoed from the heavens. Several figures appeared, floating—each one radiating immense power. These were peak gods, the kind only seen at unique events in Atherion. For several of them to gather …
"What caused such terrifying karma?" The force of the impact was felt by dozens of organizations, even far beyond the Great Sea. Each of the gods who appeared belonged to a different race, but all were ancient beings of absolute power.
Several minutes passed, and even then, none of them could understand what had happened. There was no particularly powerful mortal present to be responsible for it. Kayden was hiding his aura and his titles.
This made him appear as just another ordinary mortal in the eyes of the gods. Granted, his strength far surpassed that of any other mortal in the area. He was undeniably a genius among geniuses—but still, nothing more than a mortal. In the end, his presence didn't seem significant.
The timeline in that location had been completely erased. There was no way for them to know what had occurred. It was a mystery that would endure until the end of time. Interrogating the gods revealed nothing. It would simply be an unsolvable mystery—and the end of the Tower of Mortals.
"Kayden, come," Lucius called out to the young man, and he was pulled along with Lucius and the other mortals. Among them was a small god with a faint presence—he looked like a fossil walking beneath the sun.
He had no organs, flesh, or blood—his existence was composed of pure consciousness stored in living minerals, capable of holding memories from entire eras. It was a pre-mortal life form, one that predated conventional biology. This god was one of the oldest beings in existence, and his form of life was virtually impossible to sustain.
Beings that did not adhere to conventional biology were rare because their survival factors were catastrophically low. Most of them would never be able to evolve enough to pass on their genes.
"Let's go," the god said simply, and everything flashed. Kayden suddenly found himself alone in the skies with the other mortals and Lucius. Below them was an entire city.
The city floated above an inverted ring of suspended mountains, with rivers that flowed upward and dissolved into mists of pure mana. The streets were made of living runes that reorganized themselves based on the needs of the inhabitants, responding to the collective magical will. At its center, an infinite tower disappeared into the sky, pulsing like an arcane heart. Ethereal creatures patrolled the skies, while interdimensional portals opened like windows in broad daylight.
The flow of mages coming through those portals was insane—billions crossed them every second in different directions. Kayden didn't need to count many clues to realize they were at the headquarters of the Ody family, and this ride was probably thanks to the mage they had seen earlier in that place.
"The Great Sea will be closed for a while for investigations, so our adventure kind of ends here," Lucius began, listing a few names. "These can stay with me. The rest are free to do as they wish."
With quick and simple action, Lucius separated the wheat from the chaff. He knew which mortals were worth investing in and which weren't. In the end, only five remained from all those who had been with him in the beginning. That was a good number—small enough for him to invest heavily in each of them, and large enough to ensure he had options.
"Kayden, you're also free to do as you wish. Come to me in a few days to receive your part of the deal." With that, Kayden was left alone in the skies.