The Monarch-Chapter 544: Battle of areas[5]

"You’re a ten-ray mage, aren’t you? Just like Atlas," the woman asked after quickly making a few connections. Netero didn’t associate with ordinary people; he only surrounded himself with mages at the absolute peak of this universe.

"Yes," Kayden had never encountered another semi-god before. This time, he was able to observe the woman’s soul. It was a little different from that of a mortal, yet at the same time, it was a soul that didn’t exist in the traditional sense. Much of her soul was embedded within the universe itself, with her path supporting her very existence. He had never been able to see anything in Netero’s soul, only what the old man allowed him to perceive.

"Netero has been somewhat absent lately. Why don’t you control any zones?" The woman’s question was clearly directed more at Netero than at Kayden, but their responses were identical.

"Waste of time."

"Useless effort."

It was frustrating to look at the two of them and see that they truly considered the heavenly rewards nothing more than an annoyance they could reach at any moment. While Luiza didn’t entirely believe their words, she saw a small kernel of truth in them.

"Which zone is yours?" Kayden asked, a question that had been on his mind the entire time.

"Zone 1. We were the ones who allied with Atlas," Luiza replied. Kayden now understood this arrangement. This was a fight for second place, at least that’s what Luiza believed, until she encountered these two in this place. The strength of Kayden was an enormous unknown, and unfortunately, she couldn’t share that information with Atlas, as it was too crucial and could change the balance of the event.

"So third place is practically guaranteed, then," Kayden remarked in the same tone as if he were commenting on a sunny day. There was no ego in placing himself at the top directly.

The trio exchanged a few more words, and Kayden formed a high-level friendship with Luiza. She had a very unique understanding of things Kayden had never encountered. Her laws were literally focused on the laws of creation. All her abilities revolved around the creation of matter and related things. The only thing she couldn’t fully create was life. She still hadn’t understood the real reason behind this limitation, but Kayden perfectly understood it.

Life was nothing more than the soul combined with a body, and few mages were capable of manipulating souls. Probably, there was no mage of high caliber other than Kayden who could manipulate souls with the same quality he could. This wasn’t arrogance; it was simply a matter of statistics. Manipulating souls was something that took an extraordinarily long time to master. Kayden had spent more than five billion years in the most suitable environment possible to learn about souls. How long would a common mage take?

Netero would likely take dozens or even hundreds of billions of years to reach the level Kayden had attained when he was reborn. It was practically impossible for a mage on the same power level as Kayden to manipulate souls in the same way he did. It was simply a statistical fact.

After this meeting, they exchanged a few more words over the years. Kayden was also introduced to other semi-gods and was able to directly identify why they couldn’t reach divinity—it was simply because of their souls. Their souls were intertwined in such a strange way that they couldn’t become gods.

After 60 years, three more zones were completely eradicated. At this point, only Atlas’ zone and Luiza’s zone remained. No other mages from any other zones were left on the planet, which had now shrunk to just a few units of billions of kilometers. Atlas’ zone still had 60 members, while Luiza’s zone had only 30 mages.

The world was now a vast expanse of desolation, where the cracked ground emitted heat and residual energy from the incessant battles. There were no mountains, rivers, or vegetation—just uneven and empty soil, tinged by a dark light leaking from the overcast sky. The scars left by the fights formed deep valleys and sharp ridges, as if the entire planet had been shaped by force. Every step echoed in unsettling silence, broken only by the distant reverberations of unstable mana still lingering in the air.

Atlas had the humility to let the mages from the two zones fight without his interference, but the outcome was inevitable—his victory was simply a matter of time due to the massive difference in the number of mages. In the end, only Atlas remained with around 21 mages from his zone.

While everyone was celebrating, Atlas was the only one who knew that the battle was not over. He counted the exact number of mages from each zone, knew the exact number of mages that had been killed in the battle, and realized that there was still one mage from Zone 21 missing. Only one mage in this universe could hide from him without difficulty.

"Show yourself, Kayden." The moment Atlas’ voice echoed, Kayden materialized in the air, along with around 14 semi-gods observing the unfolding situation. Atlas merely stared at Kayden while his zone remained in dead silence.

The pressure that Atlas was emitting at that moment changed completely. It made even the semi-gods feel threatened by his presence. Only Kayden exuded absolutely nothing. He simply stood still, observing the situation. Against everyone’s expectations, his first words were directed straight into the minds of all the semi-gods.

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"Swear an oath before the heavens that you owe me a favor, and I will allow you to witness this fight. Otherwise, I will ask you to return to the heavens." His words took everyone by surprise. Even Netero was stunned by Kayden’s statement, but he perfectly understood the situation. It was information about two of the strongest mages in the universe.

"I swear before the heavens a favor to Kayden after this confrontation as long as it does not directly affect me" Netero would not miss this opportunity, Atlas did not even notice this whole situation, because Kayden was camouflaging the entire area with his soul, it seemed like he was just with some random people.