Kayden entered and began. The first steps were smooth; they were just raw space distortions without much difficulty, but they became insanely difficult after that. These were minimal alterations that caused immense changes when combined. At one point, Kayden felt like he was crossing the equivalent of all the space he had traversed since entering this place.
It was billions of kilometers in a single step. Kayden’s head should have been spinning, but fortunately, he was just a soul living in the universe at that moment, so it had no effect on him. Initially, Kayden was merely passing through the challenges, but the more time he spent on this platform, the more he realized how marvelous it truly was. This was a perfect work of art of space laws.
Every centimeter of this place was perfectly balanced, without any spot devoid of spatial alterations. Kayden couldn’t even feel things around him properly. His spiritual sense was in a completely insane state, as in some directions, he was tens of kilometers away from a centimeter in front of him, while in others, he was right next to the other side of the platform.
Days slowly turned into months, and Kayden continued without much progress, at least about the platform, but his ability to manipulate space grew exponentially. It was as if Kayden was training his weaknesses every second spent here. It was funny how Kayden always felt like a frog in a well; if he had known this place would be so useful, he would have come without hesitation. His strength was increasing at an absurd speed, and he was learning about space almost as intensely as someone born with the gift.
After a few decades, Kayden was already one of the most advanced people, but he had only progressed six kilometers. It had literally taken him decades to achieve a six-kilometer advancement, but in reality, he had traversed billions and billions of kilometers in this place.
With each passing day, he reached a higher level of understanding of space. Kayden even wondered if he could incompletely grasp the law of space, as he already had a perfect idea of how to incorporate it into his path. After a few centuries, Kayden reached the last kilometer, being the first in many millennia to reach this point. Moreover, he was the only sixth-realm mage capable of doing something like this. Most of the people competing here and managing to advance were ninth-realm individuals. Below that, they lacked the life experience needed to master space, except for a few cases where someone was born with this talent in their body.
Those who were at the same level as Kayden had already given up a long time ago. The reason for the withdrawals was due to a very specific kilometer. Kilometer eight was a total hell; it had pressure and difficulty that made pain a constant in every moment.
If it took Kayden a few decades to reach kilometer eight, it took him centuries to surpass it. It was a kilometer and the pressure forced him to cross it entirely on his knees. If it were just a kilometer, it would have been fine, but Kayden probably traversed a few trillion kilometers within that single kilometer, which was why most gave up halfway.
The penultimate kilometer was merely a mental test, as its difficulty lay in its absurd distance combined with its crushing pressure—nothing extremely complex, but the accumulation of factors was enough to make most people give up after a few years.
"What the hell???" Kayden was surprised upon stepping into the last kilometer and almost expressed his shock.
From one kilometer, it stretched into billions, and every few thousand, there was a floating figure. This figure had the strength of a first-realm mage, but each subsequent one increased gradually in power. It was absurd, as there were thousands of figures, and with each one, their strength increased significantly.
"Candidate, only spatial magic is allowed to face your opponents. No physical magic is permitted. Good luck," Kayden received this message directly in his mind and looked at the man.
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His eyes locked onto the man at the center. He could sense him only because his sixth sense was far superior to an ordinary spiritual sense. He just needed to throw it up and feel the direction. This action made the man staring intently at Kayden, trying to understand what the hell had just happened. This was not something that should have been possible.
The first figure rushed towards Kayden at high speed, at least considering a first-realm mage, but to Kayden, it seemed like it was in slow motion. At that moment, Kayden understood why spatial mages were so feared. The space around him began to break and close in a position that would not lead him to the void or the space between worlds. This was an attack that could truly kill him.
A mere being in the first realm launched an attack capable of making Kayden lose his life. It was unbelievable to him. The crazy thing was that Kayden could withstand a direct attack from a first-realm mage on his body and doubted that it would even scratch the natural mana running around him.
Kayden kept dodging over the next few days and trying to learn a bit about the spatial attacks being used against him. It wasn’t too difficult, considering his experience and the degree of talent he possessed at that moment. What the figure was doing was very simple—it broke space only to a certain point, causing the universe to rebuild it quickly. It wasn’t enough to open a portal, which meant the universe didn’t interpret it as magic but rather as an error, fixing it almost instantly. The closing of the gap was where the real attack lay.
After grasping all of this, Kayden simply crushed the figure with space. It was as if the universe itself closed in on the creature. This was an attack completely unlike anything the mages here had ever seen. It seemed as though the universe itself was performing Kayden’s attack and obeying his will. In truth, that’s exactly what was happening, but none of the mages present here would believe it—this was a degree of talent that shouldn’t exist.