An insane pressure fell on everyone in the fourth realm, causing them to not even be able to move a finger. In the air, another figure appeared: the former king floated with all the glory of a monarch, with his hair tied in a long braid down to his waist.
"Those who want to leave here alive must sign a contract promising never to tell anyone about what happened here," his voice was imposing and left no shadow of doubt.
"I refuse this tyranny", there was always someone who thought they were bigger than they were. This time, it was a duke in the fourth kingdom. He admitted that the old man’s pressure was strong, but with the two of them in the fourth realm, he shouldn’t be killed easily. The information on Kayden would easily be worth a few trillion.
"I am the sun." The heat in the room visibly increased. The former king seemed to be on fire, similar to a star that had descended to the land of mortals. Meanwhile, the Duke... was no more. In an instant, he was reduced to ashes, convincing everyone that the old man’s words were not to be taken lightly. In the next few minutes, everyone started to sign the contract given by the former king.
Meanwhile, Kayden was being healed by one of the most influential figures on the entire planet Earth, an unnamed doctor, who was giving treatment to Kayden. Within seconds it was as good as new. Kayden was impressed by the healer’s strength. He didn’t remember seeing healing this strong before. His surprise would be even greater if he discovered that this man was Apollo’s master. He had no name; he responded only to the nickname God of Medicine.
Even if a mage was decapitated in front of him, he could heal the person before they died completely, assuming they didn’t die from shock or anything related.
’What the fuck, boy?’ The God of Healing thought as he saw Kayden being healed and not even showing the slightest sign of pain over his situation. In the next few minutes, the ancient king descended from the sky.
"Hello, Kayden. My name is Azir, the first king of the sun kingdom." Kayden noticed a certain similarity between the man and royalty, but his figure was unique because of his hair and aura.
"Hello, your majesty." Kayden stood and bowed noblely. In the middle of nowhere, the king made a metal table and chair on the floor and invited the boy to sit down. All this treatment showed that the king had good intentions, at least that was what Kayden thought. Your idea would change if you saw what happened a few minutes ago.
A few minutes ago:
The current king, Leonardo, and Azir were standing in the air after everyone had signed the contracts. Their expressions were serious. The only other person they knew who experienced five lightning bolts was Apollo.
What they didn’t know was that Kayden passed with five concepts, while Apolo passed with just four. It was only the difference of one unit, but it was like the difference between heaven and earth.
"Shall we try to recruit him by force?" Leonardo was decisive in capturing this talent for them.
"The contract will just be a bad measure and will cause hatred when he manages to break it," Azir replied while thinking. This demonstrated the confidence he had in Kayden’s ability. Not even his children could break contracts.
"Should we kill him?" This time the king asked. It was better to cut off a problem directly before it grew.
At this moment, a force crushed the three of them in the air. They couldn’t even breathe. Azir was the only one who could still speak and he instantly understood that he shouldn’t do that.
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"Don’t touch him."
As soon as the speech ended, the pressure was off. Leonardo coughed heavily before managing to fully recover.
"What the fuck was that?" His heart was incredibly racing. It had been a long time since he felt intimidated like this.
"I have already taught your children that we are never the biggest fish in the sea. I don’t know who it was and I don’t want to find out either. From now on, we must try our best to make Kayden look favorably on us. This is the best we can do." Azir quickly understood the situation and resigned himself to fate.
His two sons still had questions and wanted to retort, but when they remembered how easily they were suppressed and crushed in the air, they became quiet. This small situation rekindled the flame in the hearts of the three to become stronger.
Back to the present.
"We will provide unconditional support and support for you, we will not have any contract as a gesture of good faith. We can even eliminate the Ashford family if you want. We only ask for a relationship of friendship and total trust between the two parties." Kayden was shocked for a moment.
Where were the threats and forced contracts? There was only one alternative for that. At some point on the power scale, contracts became ineffective and useless. In the fourth kingdom, it was not like this, as he remembered his master bound by a contract with Eden.
This could only mean that it was in kingdoms above the fourth, that is, the former king saw potential in him to reach that level. For a few seconds, Kayden just remained silent, without reacting. Then he gave an answer that Azir did not expect.
"I don’t need help with the Ashford family, their time will come. I would just like support with precious items like the nectar of knowledge. My goodwill is already present with the royal family and with this step, we can become friends." Kayden was no fool, and believing in friendship at the level the old man in front of him was at was more of an exchange of benefits and investment.
Why did he refuse help with the Ashford family? He had to take this into his own hands, it was something he owed to Ryan. Even though it took longer and was irrational, it was something he promised himself to do. Furthermore, he was untouchable. Not even Kevin had the courage to do anything to him. He hadn’t even seen the boy’s face in recent years. Maybe it was fear? Kayden didn’t know and didn’t care.
"For obvious reasons, we’re going to keep this a secret. We’ll also support you even if you take down one of the greats. We’ll cover it up in the media and anything like that. We’re practically giving you carte blanche in the country if you want the title of grand -Duke, just ask." Kayden refused the title and was grateful for the carte blanche he received. After that, he talked a little more with the king about resources, both monetary and natural treasures.
Azir took a seed out of his pocket and handed it to Kayden. The boy felt the absurd density of mana in it as soon as his hand touched it. Other than the mana, it was just a normal seed.
"World tree seeds, a tree that grows naturally to the fourth realm. You will receive one or two per year. When you return to your home, test it out. A new katana will arrive in your quarters today." With that, Azir said goodbye and left Kayden to his thoughts.
The environment was a mess, with several burned parts and broken stones. Furthermore, the level one storm that was there was a few hundred meters away. There wasn’t even a living soul around Kayden.
The boy took this opportunity to test his new physique and was impressed. His strength increased by at least 5 times in each attribute, and his heart gathered almost 10 times more mana than before, but the real difference was the way he was seeing the world.
Everything seemed more colorful and vivid, his hearing reached much further, and even his sense of smell was significantly improved. Kayden was in no position to control the advance and just had to accept whatever the world gave him.
Another thing was his mana sense, it was broader and stronger, and it seemed much easier to carry mana and manipulate it. For the first time, Kayden utilized true spiritual sense and it came naturally to him. It was incredibly more detailed, the sensations were magnified at least a hundred times. Kayden could feel about 200 meters around him. He didn’t know what the normal number was, but it certainly wasn’t that big. His path now came naturally to him, he no longer had a secondary way of manipulating mana, the only problem was the intensity with which he could use his path without having consequences.
Kayden estimated that he could use his path at about 10% naturally and if he pushed himself to the limit he could reach 20%. This was pretty good considering their limit was previously 5%. Kayden was confident in achieving highs of various levels naturally now, even more so with Zeus’s lightning being useful in the mage realm. He just had to spend more mana, and even then he fell faster. Before, there was a delay of a few seconds, but now it was barely a full second.
’Time to pay certain debts.’