Just as they were about to enter the Virtual Tower, Etheria suddenly stopped.
"Hmm? Worried?" Maximus asked.
"N-no, I'm just wondering if I'm even allowed to enter."
As a Dimensional Will, Etheria still harbored fears about the Dimensional Alliance.
If even the Aeon Plane suppressed them, then why wouldn't others?
Being an anomaly capable of upsetting the Aeon Plane's balance, Etheria was fortunate they weren't openly hunted. But nurtured? Etheria had doubts.
"It shouldn't matter."
In the past, Maximus might have shared the same worries.
But now, with the Aeon Plane focusing on cultivating as many powerful beings as possible, it didn't care as much about irregularities.
Even Atlas, the son of plane, had appeared; how could a mere Dimensional Will be of any concern?
Furthermore, with recent news of Abyss Will's activity and the Dimensional Alliance remaining unperturbed, Maximus felt sure that the Overlords were secretly nurturing it to reach a higher tier.
If the Abyss Will becomes a tier 12 Dimensional Will, it would be a pillar of their resistance.
As for what might come after, that was a future concern.
It was better to survive under the shadow of Abyss Will than be obliterated from existence.
If Abyss Will could be reasoned with, there was hope.
The dark forces, on the other hand, were not conscious beings with ambition but rather entities bent solely on destruction.
Hearing Maximus's words, Etheria calmed down.
As they stepped toward the tower, Maximus gave his family one last look.
Virtual Tower of Trials
[Challenging the Tier 10 Trial]
[First Trial: Blazing Fire Origin Law]
As the virtual space was generated, Maximus found himself in a blazing hellscape.
Glancing at his opponent—a fierce entity formed entirely of the Blazing Fire Origin Law—a smirk appeared on his face.
"To conquer the origin of law, to make it submit… Fitting trial."
If the tier 9 trials tested fighting strength, power, and skill, then the tier 10 trial focused on understanding, control, and affinity with the origin of law.
Realizing that he could only use the Blazing Fire Law and nothing else, Maximus grew more certain of his deduction.
Roaring like a wild beast, the fiery elemental monster charged toward him.
"Calm yourself," Maximus muttered, "reflect, become enlightened. You are not just a beast but a mighty entity of law…"
As he spoke, his River of Knowledge began to pulse, sending waves of calming, enlightening energy toward the blazing fire entity of law.
While other tier 10 individuals were still working to master the origin of law, Maximus was already at the level of guiding it to a path.
His path—the path of knowledge—became a beacon, calming the virtual projection of the blazing fire beast until it became tame.
As the trial dissipated, the blazing fire beast licked his hand like a loyal pet.
[First Trial Complete]
[Second Trial: Sacred Fire Origin Law]
"This is easy…" Maximus chuckled as he saw the second trial was similar.
Quickly taming the Sacred Fire Origin Law, he advanced to the next trial.
While Maximus breezed through each trial with ease, his family encountered no obstacles either.
All of them had already forged their paths.
Guiding these projections of origin laws felt like leading a lost child back to its parents.
From the first trial to the hundred thousandth trial, they blazed through each floor without breaking a sweat.
Having a defined path made the tier 10 trials feel like having a cheat code—they could tame every entity they encountered with a mere touch.
However, their easy progress came to an abrupt halt as they reached the one hundred thousand and first floor.
[100,001st Trial: Frozen Time Origin Law]
"Temporal Law?" Maximus muttered just as time froze around him.
From his body to his thoughts and energy, everything was completely immobilized.
As the entity of Frozen Time Origin Law slowly walked to end him, a spark of light flashed in Maximus's eyes.
"My mastery of the Origin of Law… was superior."
With a thought, Maximus mobilized his Path of Knowledge, exerting an influence over the Frozen Time Origin Law.
As the trial disintegrated, Maximus felt a growing sense of worry for his family.
While they could indeed tame each origin of law, that was only if they survived each encounter.
Maximus's mastery over all origins of law was at a transcendent level, yet even he was briefly affected.
For the others, the impact could be far greater.
And these trials had yet to challenge them with the supreme origin laws.
Facing those entities… Maximus wasn't sure if even he would survive.
"This is much harder than I expected…"
Meanwhile, in the other trials, his wives, children, grandchildren, and in-laws were also taken aback by the sudden surge in difficulty.
Without their paths of law and the foundations built from the Origin Manual to sharpen their awareness, they might have instantly fallen on this floor.
Recalling the statistics they'd read about how reaching the hundred thousandth floor was the "iron gate" of the Virtual Tower, they now understood why.
As they stepped onto the next trial, they enveloped themselves in their paths of law, ready to mobilize their power against any surprise attack.
[100,002nd Trial: Epoch Shift Origin Law]
As they read the name, they felt their barriers assaulted billions of times in an instant.
Without a moment's delay, they hurriedly mobilize their mind, racing to tame the Epoch Shift Origin Law.
Looking at their barrier, battered and barely holding, they couldn't help but sweat in fear.
The Epoch Shift Origin Law—one of the rarest and most formidable origins of law below the supreme origins—could accelerate an entity's movement, thought, and attacks to trillions of times per second.
Usually, such origin of law was used to speed up minds or ability to escape.
Thus, even if it's unusually fast, it comes at a sacrifice of the diluted force of the attack.
If such a speed didn't lose any power, one could annihilate most of the beings in the Aeon Plane.
Preparing for the next trial, they heightened their senses to the limit.