Etherium Void Region, Sub Domain:
Returning home, Maximus and his family went back to the source of knowledge without taking a break.
After fighting a Tier 12 dark beast, Maximus realized a glaring weakness, his path of knowledge.
Because it was an auxiliary path, its suppression against wild energies like dark energy was very weak.
At only 35% progress, it couldn't even suppress a Tier 12 dark beast, forcing him to waste more power than necessary.
If he were to face multiple Tier 12 dark beasts, Maximus wasn't sure he could survive the siege.
Now, there were two ways to circumvent this problem.
The first was to keep merging seeds of the River of Law to increase the progress of his Absolute of Knowledge.
The second was to merge another Absolute of Law that could boost his attack power in terms of quality.
Weighing the two methods, Maximus chose the latter.
To have a real effect, the Absolute of Knowledge needed to be at least 70%. But with only a few million years left, it wasn't an optimal path.
On the other hand, merging another Absolute of Law to raise the attack quality of the Absolute of Knowledge was a gamble with unknown results.
Though it would definitely improve his power, how much it would increase was uncertain.
It might become strong enough for him to one-shot a Tier 12 dark beast with his bare hands, or it might be too weak and waste his time.
Maximus didn't have the means to calculate the exact outcome. What he only knew was that it would increase his power.
Having made up his mind, he began choosing which Absolutes of Law to merge.
"The Absolute of Chaos, The Absolute of Destruction, The Absolute of Destiny, The Absolute of Time, The Absolute of Space, The Absolute of Death, The Absolute of Life…"
Looking over the most powerful Absolutes of Law with an amazing or unique power, Maximus couldn't help but feel excited.
Even though it would take millions of years to merge them all, it would surely raise his power beyond imagination.
When he told his family about his plan, they were also thrilled.
"We're finally going for the big laws!"
"It's getting boring just merging Rivers of Law. Now there's finally a challenge!"
"Come, Father! Let's begin!"
Having experience merging the Absolute of Creation, they knew how difficult and mind-racking the process could be.
But despite that, they were never bored. Instead, they were filled with excitement as they dove into the study of such powerful Absolutes of Law.
"Then I'll leave it to you…" Maximus smiled, handing them the Essence of the Absolute of Chaos to start with.
The Absolute of Chaos seemed to be the nemesis of dark energy, allowing Marcus to kill the dark beasts efficiently.
Starting with such an Absolute of Law would let the Absolute of Knowledge gain some anti–dark–beast properties.
"You're not going to help us?"
Seeing Maximus quickly leave after giving them the Essence of the Absolute of Chaos, they were dumbfounded.
The hardest part of merging an Absolute of Law was the beginning. Without Maximus's help, they felt uncertain.
Even Nero, who always believed he could do anything, was a little lost.
"You can do this," Maximus cheered. "Besides, I have plenty of Essence of the Absolute of Chaos. Don't worry about failure, just try with confidence."
The essence of an Absolute of Law was very fragile. Merging it into a source of path required precision; even a small error could cause it to disintegrate.
Fortunately, sponsoring Marcus and other peak Absolutes with Plane Origin, Maximus had collected a large number of Essence from their Paths of Law.
His collection should be more than enough for his family to experiment freely.
As for himself, he still had an important task, producing Rings of Origin.
To speed up the construction of the Aeon Plane's defensive architectures, he needed to create more artificial powerhouses.
With his own responsibilities to handle, he had no choice but to leave his family to work on their own.
Soon after everything was prepared, they each set off on their separate tasks and began working.
Over a hundred thousand years later…
Just as Maximus was focused on creating Rings of Origin, he sensed movement within the Etherium Realm.
"Iris finally consolidated her foundation?"
Teleporting to Shadowcrest Castle, he arrived just in time to see Iris slowly step out of her seclusion room.
"Long time no see…" Maximus smiled, pulling Iris into his arms.
"Did you miss me?" Iris smirked, pinching his cheeks.
Instead of answering, Maximus kissed her, expressing what he felt in the most direct way.
After venting their emotions for a few minutes, the two finally broke the kiss.
"You're finally out. I thought you decided to advance to the Overlord Realm." Maximus joked.
"How could I? I only just reached the Absolute of Law. The training manual you gave me is the reason! It's too hard and complicated!"
Using the manual Maximus created—the Origin Manual of Immortality—it took Iris over a million years to perfect her foundation.
She had to eliminate every flaw in her soul, body, and will, perfecting her affinity with all elements and origins of law.
On top of that, she had to absorb ultimate treasures from Tier 0 to Tier 11.
Furthermore, since she had already formed her foundation before the manual existed, her progress slowed to a crawl, forcing her into a seclusion that lasted over a million years.
Fortunately, it was worth every second.
With her foundation perfected, Iris felt an unprecedented surge of power. She estimated that if she fought her past self, one flick of her finger would be enough to end the battle.
Itching to test her overwhelming strength, Iris turned to Maximus eagerly.
"You came at the right time. If you want to test your strength, we'll need to head to the Dark Void Domain," Maximus said, updating her on all that had happened during her seclusion.
With ready-made test subjects available, Iris felt nothing but excitement.
"Then let's go. The Eryndor Void Outpost should still be in the Shadow Void Land to resupply."
In the past hundred thousand years, several new Void Outposts had been completed.
One of them was the Void Outpost for the Eryndor race.
As a race he created for battle, instead of training in seclusion, they would grow faster in a battle.
"Huh? What about the Shadow Void Ship? Isn't it faster?"
"Those battle maniacs already took it into the Dark Void Domain. We'll have to hitch a ride."
Some of his wives, children, and grandchildren simply couldn't stay put.
For them, merging a seed of path into the Source of Knowledge was too boring.
Craving battle and chaos, they had taken the Shadow Void Ship and charged into the dangers of the dark disaster.
Understanding the situation, Iris grabbed Maximus's hand as they teleported to the Shadow Void Land.