The Monarch-Chapter 517: Atlas
Your mind had truly reached the absolute peak of what a mortal is capable of achieving. At that moment, no treasure in the entire universe could even slightly enhance your talent by 1%. It was the absolute pinnacle in every possible mental aspect.
Time passed slowly, and Kayden grew stronger each day. With each passing moment, he became more monstrous. His growth rate should have declined over time, but the more he learned, the easier it was to grasp new knowledge. In the blink of an eye, a thousand years he had passed.
Kayden had reached the insane radius of 100 million kilometers during this period, surpassing any value remotely common for the Seventh Realm. It exceeded the sixth sense of many Ninth Realm mages. Only a handful of individuals could achieve such a range, and they were exclusively those focused on spiritual senses.
At this point, Kayden could effortlessly destroy Class A planets as if they were nothing more than clumps of space dust. It didn’t even require much effort—he merely needed to think, and everything turned into mana. No one could surpass his control.
His ability to teleport freely across his sixth sense made his mobility utterly insane. He could traverse distances that would take spacecraft months in just seconds. Kayden needed only ten jumps to cover one billion kilometers. In combat, he had become an omnipresent god. Within 100 million kilometers, any mage would be attacked without even being able to react.
There wouldn’t even be a pause between attacks. Kayden could condense the mana within 100 million kilometers into a single centimeter and convert it into a beam of equal intensity. This beam could pierce entire planets in mere seconds. No mortal could withstand a direct attack from Kayden.
There were no hidden old monsters at this point—or, rather, there were, but they were only a few Ninth Realm mages. They were immensely powerful, yet they could no longer rival Kayden. His power had simply reached a level far beyond anyone or anything.
Kayden enjoyed a total of five thousand years of peace. He maintained an utterly insane growth rate, extending his sixth sense to a radius of 700 million kilometers. Kayden could literally cross entire star systems in the blink of an eye, but it still wasn’t enough for him to travel the entire universe alone.
At a speed of 700 million kilometers per second, Kayden would still need over 40 million years to traverse from one end of the universe to the other—assuming the universe’s size matched what scientists on Earth had estimated, though it was certainly far larger. This revelation made Kayden feel like an ant once again.
Despite growing his strength to an utterly absurd level, the universe remained unimaginably vast. To shake the universe itself, he would have to grow to the level of a god. This only made Yan’s achievements seem even more insane—the reach that man must have had, combined with the mana he wielded.
Kayden couldn’t even put it into words or conceive of something similar. It was simply too far removed from anything he had ever seen. He would need to extend his sixth sense to several trillions of trillions to achieve something comparable. To be exact, Kayden would have to move at speeds exceeding sextillions of kilometers to accomplish such a feat.
It was an utterly insane number. He hadn’t even come close to a maximum limit within the Seventh Realm. He felt no boundaries imposed on him. Furthermore, with his talent, everything was progressing ridiculously smoothly. He needed only a few more millennia to reach even greater heights. Unfortunately, he wouldn’t have that time. Kayden sensed Atlas’s presence within his sixth sense.
"Hello, Master," Atlas appeared beside Kayden after traveling through his entire sixth sense. It wasn’t very difficult for him since Kayden offered no resistance. This confrontation was inevitable.
"Hello, Atlas." Kayden and his disciple simply stared at each other from a few meters apart. Each gaze carried the weight of the entire mountains. On one side was a look of sadness and hatred—a man who had been betrayed by the person he trusted most in his life. Atlas trusted Kayden more than his father.
After discovering the identity of his sister’s killer, he spent a long time in denial, unable to believe it. He asked the mage responsible dozens of times whether what he saw was true. Gradually, he accepted the reality. In the end, he had been betrayed in the worst way possible and knew it. It was one of the deepest pains of his life. The only person he truly trusted had looked him in the face and lied.
"Why?" Atlas finally spoke after several minutes of silence. Kayden sighed, thought for a moment, and, without any emotion, looked Atlas in the eyes and said, "Power."
"Power?" Atlas repeated, confused.
"Yes, just power. From the beginning, I taught you my principles, Atlas. Power comes before everything. It comes before family ties, before wealth, before influence. Power is both the means and the ultimate goal." Atlas looked at Kayden as one would look at a monster.
He understood perfectly what it meant to pursue power without reason. He understood forsaking peace and setting aside relationships for power. He had done all that for years. But soulmates were not so simple. That was a completely different level—it was like cutting off a part of one’s soul in exchange for power.
"She was your soulmate, my sister, and Yan’s daughter. How can you have the audacity to remain here after all of this?" Atlas released his full aura but saw that Kayden didn’t even flinch.
"With Yan gone from this universe and no gods left, I fear no being—including you." Kayden saw no reason to continue this conversation. They would never share a friendly relationship again.
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"Out of gratitude for all you have done for me, I will let you tire your own life and preserve your honor." Atlas offered a path that nobles always offered to their opponents, an ancient way of preserving an opponent’s honor.
