"Understood," the false god said and disappeared from the capital’s skies, leaving all the inhabitants curious about the reason for his visit. As quickly as he appeared, he vanished from the skies.
The god’s plans were predictable; he wouldn’t let this go. In the future, he would have his revenge against Athena. It would be an extremely long process, but he persevered in his revenge.
Unfortunately for him, Yan wouldn’t leave loose ends. As soon as the conversation ended, the Jenus family no longer existed in this universe; all were eliminated in the same second by a power far beyond their knowledge.
Meanwhile, Kayden continued his life peacefully. He had already gained two false gods on the same level as Reyna, and this time he would gain someone even stronger, for Haya had talent far superior to Reyna’s, and only he knew of her future failure.
"They no longer exist. Will you finally make me your queen?" Athena had a smile like someone who had just won the lottery. Kayden had never seen her so happy before.
"Wait a few years for us to have this conversation." Having a new queen at that moment wouldn’t be at all respectful to the deceased.
*************
"I want you to become a monarch," Kayden said these words, looking into Atlas’s eyes. The boy had spent almost ten thousand years being pushed to the limits of what a mind could reach.
Kayden had never done such perfect soul work in his life. All the others had been mere tests to reach this stage. It was all a learning path for him to achieve true perfection.
Atlas had been mentally strong from the beginning but never to the point of becoming a monarch. Even with the alterations Kayden had made to his mind, it probably would never have been possible. But fortunately, Kayden’s soul manipulation had reached an absurd level.
"This... this is a test forbidden by the ancients. Only those born to be monarchs should become monarchs," Atlas said. Kayden smiled at his words.
After asking a bit about this world, he discovered that monarchs had existed for an enormous amount of time. Records of them existed since the early days of the universe. Each monarch was an insane mage, and most never reached their true path.
The path of the monarch does not exist; it’s just a foundation, something Kayden took an incalculable amount of time to learn. Most couldn’t find their true path, but that didn’t make them weaker. Each monarch was worth five nine-ray mages on average.
And a god-monarch... that was something the universe hadn’t seen in a ridiculously long time. It was the old story of how difficult it was to increase in rank and, at the same time, become a god when your goals were too high.
"No one was born for anything, Atlas. Destiny is just a bad joke," Kayden once believed in destiny, at least partly, thinking that mana could make future predictions possible. But the law of chaos that Thoth had spoken about changed Kayden’s view.
Everything could be predicted, at least to a point. But at the slightest sign of the law of chaos, everything would fall apart. Predictions wouldn’t be 100% accurate, even for a god. It was something beyond the normal capabilities of gods.
This 𝓬ontent is taken from freeweɓnovel.cѳm.
"Yes, master." Atlas had many doubts but had learned to trust Kayden blindly over time.
All his siblings had reached the seventh realm at a pace unmatched by any normal genius. Nine-ray mages were supposed to take an absurd amount of time to grow in power, as was the case with Kayden. But Yan’s children had resources and genetics superior to almost everyone in the universe.
In just a few thousand years, they had moved from the fourth realm to the seventh, with eight or nine rays. Their progress was frightening, and only a few people in the universe had all the necessary variables for such a thing.
Athena was the most accelerated of them all. Kayden understood that she was only keeping up with her siblings. Her strength was far above the nine rays of the seventh realm. She could achieve divinity at that moment if everything was perfect, but she couldn’t draw attention to herself.
Kayden took only a few seconds to explain the procedure to Atlas, and it took just a few more seconds for him to look into the same eyes Kayden had seen an infinite time ago in the past.
"Will he succeed?" Yan asked beside Kayden. The boy had already expected the god’s appearance upon seeing his son in a coma.
"I hope so. He was the best student I’ve ever had in my life," Kayden murmured sincerely.
"Can you bear the weight of killing my son?" Yan asked, and Kayden only responded,
"Can you bear the weight of blaming your son for flying with his wings?" Neither of them answered the questions; they were too deep for either to respond easily.
*************
"Don’t you want to know who I am?" Kayden was sitting on his bed cultivating while Athena sipped a glass of wine by the fireplace.
"No." Kayden just replied and remained silent. It was the first time the woman had brought up the subject in thousands of years together.
"Not even a little curiosity?" Kayden shook his head.
"I altered my soul in such a way that I will hardly express emotions, Athena. If you had appeared earlier, we could have had a beautiful love story. But right now, I can’t offer you what you so long for," Kayden replied honestly, staring deeply into the woman’s eyes.
"Why?"
"Someone had to die for me to reach where I am. The first death was my soul and my emotions," Kayden’s words were sad because he said one of the most sincere phrases of his life.
Kayden had killed his feelings and altered his soul in such different ways that he couldn’t even totally connect with Athena. It was just a strong affection or love, but nowhere near what it should be.
"My name is Athena Olympia. I was born in the previous universe. That universe was very different from what we have here. First, it was much bigger, at least a few trillion times larger in terms of space and mana. I was born about halfway through its existence, had a loving family, and had many lucky encounters. At one point in my life, I fell into enemy hands and spent decades being used as a slave." There was no hatred in the woman’s words; it had been so long ago that it no longer caused her any emotion. "I met a couple named Zeus and Hera, the strongest mage I’ve ever seen in my life. But at the time, he wasn’t so fearsome. I think saying he was strong is the wrong word. He had talent."
Kayden was just listening. He knew there was a great story behind this woman. Her strength was far too high for her to be simple, but hearing that she came from another universe was a huge surprise.
"Just respect was enough for him to ascend in rank. He never cultivated once in his life. Lightning was almost like a second skin for him. He didn’t even use mana in its manipulation," Athena seemed surprised to recall this story. "Do you have any idea what it means for a mortal of the fourth realm to be able to manipulate the law of lightning?"
This time, Kayden stopped what he was doing and paid attention to Athena’s words. The information he was receiving was very frightening, and he had never heard anything like it before.