This area responded to his will; if Kayden wanted to perform an aura cut, mana would transform into his attack. It wasn’t something that required his action—the universe fulfilled his will, as the universe was an extension of his intent.
This new way of manipulating mana and the things around him was truly unique, but it had a price. Kayden’s range was drastically reduced. Before, he could reach several thousand kilometers even in the Fourth Realm, but now, it was only a few hundred.
The difference seemed enormous, but when compared to the power gained, it was entirely worth it. Kayden probably had at least ten times more strength with this new path than with the old one.
He no longer needed to convert reality into mana; it simply transformed of its own free will. There was no explanation for the revolution in Kayden’s path and power. It was a degree of talent and level of learning that he had never possessed before.
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With each passing day, Kayden became more certain that removing his past lives had been the best decision he had ever made. After mastering all these new things, Kayden decided to advance his realm.
Once again, it was a ridiculously easy process. Kayden didn’t even suffer any injuries. His strength was far beyond anyone within the Nine Rays; those nine in the skies were the only intimidating part of the ascension challenge.
Kayden’s new strength didn’t change much; his body muscles merely developed more, but he no longer fought with his body. This meant that he gained nothing from the ascension process.
He was practically carving out each inch of his path with his own will, and it was working. At this moment, he was fully convinced he could face any being on this planet.
Previously, mages in the Seventh Realm were still strong and capable of posing some risk to Kayden. In a way, they could catch him by surprise and kill him in a single move. But now?
Not even all the Seventh Realm mages on this planet combined could pose any threat to Kayden at this moment. Any attack would be automatically sensed by him from hundreds of kilometers away.
Kayden’s spatial mastery was on a completely insane level, and he only needed a simple leap to avoid an attack. At this point, he didn’t even need to tear through space; he merely traversed it with his will, and the universe did the rest.
"How much pain will I feel?" Konan asked after Kayden mentioned a training capable of saving him millennia.
"You’ve likely never felt even 1% of 1% of this pain. You’ll probably end up going mad and killing yourself after a few sessions," Kayden said, emotionless.
"Then why should I do it?" Konan asked, frightened, because Kayden neither lied nor exaggerated in any of his statements.
"If you want to go where no one else has gone, you must do what no one else is willing to do. The choice is yours, as always," Kayden wouldn’t insist. He had already placed many memories into his disciple’s subconscious.
Kayden believed Konan could withstand what he was planning. He had tested it on others, and they were able to resist a certain percentage of their past lives being removed.
Most of the time, around 10% of their lives would be taken, and at that point, they would begin to enter shock and become confused. This would cause them to die mentally before they could even try to kill themselves physically.
Their strength grew rapidly as past lives were removed. The problem was that their psyche was slowly being destroyed. Little by little, their personality was lost, becoming something forced.
The tactic Kayden had found was entirely wrong from an ethical standpoint, but it allowed people to endure almost double the amount, reaching 20%. When he removed this much, the mages’ power grew nearly twofold, which was an absurdly high amount.
"I’ll do it," Konan responded, and Kayden smiled. He then began removing his disciple’s past lives. It was a process that needed to be done with as much time as possible between sessions.
The ideal time was about 1% per year, giving Kayden enough time to place memories into his disciple’s subconscious and lock them so they couldn’t be accessed consciously.
This was the secret of the process: Kayden practically made the other souls more similar to his own. He had no estimate of how much he could replace and hide before people’s minds broke—it required more experimentation.
"Prepare yourself," Kayden said, and after a few seconds, he touched Konan’s soul and removed about 1% of all his past lives in a single motion, automatically filling the void with his memories.
The pain was so immense that it wasn’t even possible to move a muscle to scream. There wasn’t a spot that didn’t hurt. The pain was so widespread that it seemed like no specific point was hurting; it was a pain that existed in Konan’s mind.
Konan’s mind was strong. Kayden had made sure to teach his disciples many things that would enable him to endure this pain. It wasn’t easy; many memories had to be altered, and many others removed.
After so much time living with Kayden—at least a few centuries—Konan’s mind changed at an absurd pace, both due to what Kayden forced upon him and through the training.
The former prince no longer existed. Kayden was absolutely convinced that Konan would kill his two sisters for a bit more power, and this was precisely the mentality he had worked hard to build.
The pain lasted for at least a week, and it took another week for Konan to be able to speak and move his muscles again. His mind was completely destabilized. Kayden had not exaggerated when he said it was something he had never experienced before.
It seemed like a long time had passed, but Kayden knew that Konan was at least three times faster in recovering his mentality than the other normal mages he had tested, most of whom took three weeks to two months.
"I feel much stronger and… my techniques are coming out much smoother than before," Konan recounted his experiences to Kayden, he was still traumatized and afraid of the pain he had gone through.