Soon, while enduring the most painful self-torment, tens of thousands of years began to pass.
Unfazed by the agony, Maximus pressed on until his core of origin teetered on the edge of breaking.
"Let's stop here. It's time for you to heal," the Entity of Origin advised.
"Hmm," Maximus nodded, frowning.
Every moment of the trial of origin felt like he was being butchered, and worse, he was the one wielding the blade.
Channeling the plane origin around, he began to absorb it to hasten the healing of his core of origin.
"This will take at least ten thousand years. You can leave for now,"
The reason why he endured the pain rather than heal sooner is because it took a lot of time.
Especially for small patches, which could demand ten times as much time as repairing a nearly shattered core of origin.
"In that case, I'll go. Call me when you're ready," the Entity of Origin said with a nod.
Aware that the Origin Dark Beast was approaching, it swiftly warned the other entities of law about the threat.
However, without it to oversee the matter, they couldn't reach a final conclusion.
Leaving Maximus behind, the Entity of Origin hurried to the Atrium of Law.
Meanwhile, alone, Maximus gritted his teeth through intensifying pain as he pieced together his core of origin.
Like gluing fragments of his heart and accelerating its healing with plane origin, the process was not only excruciating but he needed to be fully conscious, unlike during the trial of origin.
A thousand years later, just as Maximus was running out of plane origin, one of his wives, Erica, arrived.
Seeing Maximus in far greater pain than the other describe, Erica couldn't help but feel distressed.
"Erica, you're here…" Maximus said weakly.
Every thousand years, one of Maximus's family members would deliver crystallized plane origin.
This is also the only time he would take a break, to check on their condition and to know what was happening outside.
"This is the supply we saved for you." Erica hurriedly took out over a trillion crystalized plane of origin, seeing that he was about to run out.
To endure the trial, he consumed over a trillion units of plane origin every thousand years.
This vast amount of plane origin allowed him to experience over 30 billion epochs of trials.
With a goal of hundreds of trillions of epochs, it would take him a few million years to complete the trial.
As for why he only needed hundreds of trillions of epochs worth of trials, despite the countless creatures and individuals born in the Aeon Plane across trillions of epochs?
It's because the trial of origin presented only one instance of each creature in every environment.
Each experience was unique and unrepeatable.
He didn't need to experience the life of an entire colony of ants, but only their individual, unique experiences.
Most creatures' lives were so ordinary that a few million epochs were enough to experience an entire race's existence.
Furthermore, the trial of origin couldn't include the lives of those who had condensed a path of law.
Having condensed their paths, these entities, though still bound to the Aeon Plane, were no longer controlled by the entities of law.
Otherwise, the masters of the paths of law, who lived for billions of epochs, would occupy an unimaginable amount of time.
Although glimpsing their lives could reveal fragments of lost knowledge, Maximus didn't want to waste time on something so irrelevant.
Meanwhile, seeing her husband in such agony, Erica nearly cried.
"How are you, Maximus? Are you okay?"
"I'm fine. This is just temporary," Maximus said, putting on a strong front.
But Erica wasn't easily fooled. As an absolute, she knew how excruciating a broken core of origin could be.
"Why do you push yourself so hard? Can't you take a break? If you can't defeat the enemy, why not escape?" Erica said, tears welling up in her eyes.
With millions of years as a head start, they didn't have any problem escaping.
As long as they fled far enough, no matter how keen the senses of an Origin Dark Beast, it couldn't pursue them.
"No, we can't escape. Our entire foundation is here," Maximus said, shaking his head.
Although he also longed to flee and be done with it, their foundation was rooted in the Aeon Plane.
Much less the chaos grass that could give them an almost unlimited supply of plane origin, just their path of law was enough of a reason not to leave.
Only an Archon could take their path of law from a plane.
Even Overlords would have to abandon everything to escape.
Without a path of law, nearly all their strength would vanish.
Like rootless duckweed, they'd have no source of power to rely on.
"Then, is there something we can do to help?" Unable to persuade him, Erica could only do her best to support him.
"Just give me a hug, and the pain will vanish…"
Seeing Maximus still had the strength to joke, Erica's worry lessened.
Lunging into his arms, she felt the frailty in his body, like a wilted plant.
With tears in her eyes, she could only hug Maximus, offering the warmth and support he needed.
"Don't cry. What is this pain compared to our future? I just need to hold on a little longer, and we'll have everything."
Meanwhile, in the Atrium of Law, the entities of law finally reached a conclusion.
"In seven million years, the trial of the Atrium of Law shall begin!" the Entity of Origin announced.
Initially, the trial was set tens of millions of years in the future to give time to those who had just contracted an entity of law.
But to stand a chance against the Origin Dark Beast, the Aeon Plane needed to crown its ruler in advance.
Seven million years was all the Aeon Plane could endure before inevitable destruction.
They could only hope it was enough time to crown the perfect ruler, that everything would fall into place, and that it would suffice to resist the Origin Dark Beast.
"It's time to announce this to the outside world. Let them prepare, let the danger spread. To bear the crown of the Aeon Plane, they'll need the will and strength that surpasses everyone!"