Facing nine Masters of the Ocean of Law, Maximus was not the least bit scared.
After thousands of years of refinement, his strength had grown even further.
Looking at their leader, Hylos laughing mockingly at him, Maximus stretched out his hand, enveloping him in an impenetrable barrier.
Shocked at how easily Maximus caught him, Hylos struggled to break free.
Punching at the barrier that encapsulated him, it didn't even budge.
"How is this possible?"
He could feel the barrier's fragile nature, one that should have shattered with a single touch.
Yet, whenever he struck it, it transformed into an impenetrable wall.
"Ready to die?" Maximus asked with a faint smile.
His control over Origin Explosion had reached an entirely new level.
Even the power he had already unleashed could be micro-controlled, instantly amplified by hundreds, even millions, of times its original force.
"What are you doing? Help me!" Hylos shouted, feeling the threat of death.
Startled into action, three Masters moved to aid Hylos while the remaining five launched an offensive against Maximus.
Dodging their combined attacks with ease, Maximus continued to crush Hylos under his relentless pressure.
As the overwhelming force pressed against him, he felt his body being slowly crushed.
Drawing on his Ocean of Law, he managed to gain a moment of reprieve, screaming at his allies for assistance.
The remaining Masters, seeing the dire situation, attacked with renewed ferocity, trying to force Maximus to release Hylos.
Mobilizing their respective Paths of Law, they unleashed a tide of power to stop him.
Seeing that amplifying his force by a hundred thousandfold wasn't enough to kill Hylos, he gradually increased the pressure, testing the limits of his power.
As for the Masters attacking him, they were nothing more than a nuisance in his eyes.
"A bunch of headless flies,"
No matter how powerful they were, their efforts were useless if they couldn't land a hit.
Although the Source of Knowledge hadn't yet absorbed the Seeds of Path, Maximus had already deduced their principles.
As the saying goes, all paths lead to the same destination.
By analyzing hundreds of variations, his omniscience had reached an unprecedented level.
Effortlessly seeing through their moves, Maximus wove through their Origin Energy.
Parting their attacks with strands of causality, he avoided even wide-range assaults with uncanny precision.
"Damn it! Damn it! DAMN IT!"
Feeling the core of his origin beginning to crack and his consciousness fading, Hylos finally made up his mind.
Self-destructing his body and shattering his foundation, Hylos broke through the barrier, allowing a wisp of his Origin and Will to escape successfully.
"Tsk~ As I guessed, I still can't kill a Master of the Ocean of Law,"
Though he could defeat them, killing them remained beyond his reach.
Fortunately, through his suppression, he had already gathered enough information for a prototype Seed of Path.
Letting Hylos escape, Maximus turned his gaze to the remaining eight.
Hearing his words, a chilling silence fell over the battlefield.
The eight remaining Masters, who once viewed Maximus as nothing more than a valuable resource to capture, now felt an unfamiliar fear creeping into their hearts.
How could a Tier 10 being possess such monstrous strength?
It felt as if they were staring down a primal beast.
"Since none of you want to go first... Then just come together!"
Raising his hands, a barrier of Origin descended upon the battlefield, encapsulating the eight Masters of the Ocean of Law into a massive sphere.
Recalling their earlier confrontation with Maximus, they went into a frenzy, desperately trying to escape.
Forget about capturing the Orion—this monster might even kill them.
Facing the simultaneous attacks of eight Masters of the Ocean of Law, Maximus felt sharp pain rippled through his body.
Catching all of them in one net was placing unbearable pressure on his Core of Origin.
"Old Origin, it's time to make your move!" Maximus shouted internally, urging the contract he held with the Supreme Law of Origin.
"What a troublesome brat!"
Sensing Maximus's Core of Origin on the verge of shattering, the Supreme Law of Origin hurriedly merged with it, fortifying its structure and making it more resilient.
Feeling the new rigidity of his Core, Maximus grinned as he turned toward the trapped Masters of the Ocean of Law.
Instantly amplifying his power a billionfold, the eight Masters of the Ocean of Law disintegrated, erased from existence in a fraction of a second.
But at the moment Maximus activated such overwhelming force, his Core of Origin fractured into two pieces.
Not willing to see Maximus perish, the Supreme Law of Origin acted swiftly, holding the two broken halves of the Core together, attempting to fuse them.
"Ha... ha... ha... You're a lifesaver, Old Origin." Maximus chuckled, relief washing at his successful gamble.
Initially, the maximum safe limit of his Origin Explosion was a millionfold amplification.
Using it for over three seconds would cause his Core of Origin to crack and shatter, killing him instantly.
At any amplification beyond that, even lasting a fraction of a second would have resulted in certain death.
However, with the assistance of the Supreme Law of Origin, this limit could now be surpassed.
Strengthening his Core of Origin and granting it a special blessing, the Supreme Law of Origin allowed Maximus to wield his Origin Explosion with far greater recklessness.
For thousands of years, Maximus had experimented, increasing the amplification step by step—from a few millionfold to tens of millions, then hundreds of millions.
No matter how high he pushed, the Supreme Law of Origin showed no signs of faltering.
Finally, after countless tests and deductions, Maximus had gambled on whether the Supreme Law of Origin could sustain him during a one-billionfold Origin Explosion.
The results were clear: the Supreme Law of Origin was as reliable as ever.
Shutting off his Origin Explosion in less than a millionth of a second, Maximus had barely survived, thanks to the Supreme Law's intervention.
Though it was only a brief moment of overwhelming power, Maximus felt he had stepped into the realm of the Overlords.
As his fractured Core of Origin began to merge and stabilize under the work of the Supreme Law, he turned his attention to the Masters of the Ocean of Law he had just annihilated.
Although their bodies, souls, spirits, and very Origins had been extinguished, Maximus could sense a faint trace of their existence lingering.