The Monarch-Chapter 694: I?

Chapter 694: I?
Kayden was like a man dying of thirst in the desert, desperately seeking water — knowledge was absorbed by him just as a sponge absorbs water. Unfortunately, his capacity was extremely limited; his potential had been severely crippled after that event. Deep down, Kayden was a complete fool — his comprehension was poor, he took dozens of times longer than others to learn even the most basic things. Not only that, but he also struggled insanely to reach certain stages of understanding; forming the connections between concepts was painfully difficult.
"I am incomplete." Kayden finally gave up on learning anything after countless trillions of years. His inability was disheartening; the only thing that kept him moving was his mind — relentless and unwilling to rest. His surrender, however, had a very clear reason: Kayden didn’t believe he was following the right path. Learning about chaos and space-time could have elevated him to unimaginably high levels — far beyond any fourth-level god when compared by raw potential — but the problem was...
"Incapable." Kayden was incapable of truly getting there. No matter how much he learned, the hole in his soul made it impossible to create the necessary connections, to do what was required. That realization made him stop everything he was doing — every action, every thought. He reduced his spiritual sense to nothing, all so that he could reach a conclusion as quickly as possible.
Kayden spent the next few years studying only his soul, trying to understand how deep the damage he had received truly was, and why he hadn’t died. His soul was fragmented; in truth, he should have been dead long ago. He had long ascended to a level where his soul could no longer be broken — where it would either be entirely dismantled or remain completely untouched. It should have been impossible for him to survive such damage, and yet there he was — eternal and unshaken — with his soul slowly recovering to its peak, to the point where he would once again reach the absolute height of his existence.
But something felt wrong. Something within his mind was forming — nebulous ideas that could lead him down new paths began to surface. "Who exactly am I?" Kayden asked himself that question billions of times during that period. Something new was emerging in his mind — a form of knowledge he had never conceived before, something that could completely change his life.
His soulmate’s name was Athena. She had lived with him for millions — no, billions — of years by his side, and in the end, Kayden killed her to become a unique being, the first complete mage in all existence. A mage born without his other half, who became whole. A mage unlike any other, one who developed a talent capable of rivaling the greatest geniuses of the universe, capable of rivaling beings born to be peak gods.
Throughout his life, Kayden had felt whole — he had believed himself capable of achieving anything. But now, something felt different. He could feel the difference between his soul and Athena’s within his own body; he could sense small fragments of her still lingering. The damage from that event had completely affected the Athena portion of his soul, while his own essence had suffered only minor distortions. It seemed the core of his being had been protected by the rest — that thought echoed in his mind for a long time.
What had he done so long ago? He had fused two souls into one. But they were two souls that perfectly complemented each other, two that merged to become a single whole. It was a mathematical error in which one plus one once again equaled one. Kayden had gained absurd talent from that — a level of ability never seen before, an insane potential. But... why? How had it happened? His soul had been united with another.
"A complete incomplete." That realization froze Kayden’s thoughts. A monstrous silence overtook his mind, twisting every belief he had ever held. Everything he had built his life upon was now in question. Kayden had to choose a side. His mistake at that moment meant starting over — renouncing everything he had done, everything he had learned, returning to the most basic foundation.
The decision before him was singular: either his soul truly needed to merge with Athena’s for him to be complete — or... another idea, faint yet persistent, began to surface in his consciousness, a glimpse of something entirely new.
"My soul must be unique in its entirety." Kayden came to that conclusion after billions of years. "I am not the sum of two souls. I am the one. I am the beginning and the end."
Kayden began tearing Athena’s soul from his own. It had been an unimaginable span of time since he had altered his soul in this way — since he had deliberately tampered with something that should never be touched. With every passing moment, he felt his mind grow duller, his talent weaker. His power decreased with each second that went by, yet little by little he extracted every last piece of Athena from his being, turning each small fragment of her soul into nothing. Kayden was destroying himself — but in his own vision, he was becoming ever more complete.
This decision could very well be his ruin. It was idiotic, contrary to everything he believed, against all his studies — and yet he continued. Something drove his mind forward, something whispered to him that this was the true peak of his path, the true totality of his soul.
The strange part was that a large portion of his soul was frozen in the rivers of time — trapped within moments of space-time that had already passed. Not only that, but there were strange fragments, duplicated shards scattered across existence. It was, quite literally, chaos.
Kayden knew his soul down to the smallest detail. Every fragment of it had been studied thousands of times. This made it easy for him to recognize ancient pieces of his own essence — parts he had examined right after merging with Athena. This realization turned his mind into chaos. How could his soul exist across multiple moments in time and still be present in the now? He couldn’t understand how he could be so broken, and yet still alive. Athena’s soul had been able to shield a large portion of his — that much became clear when he compared both halves. Perhaps that was the only reason he was still alive.