The Monarch-Chapter 697: Thoth

Chapter 697: Thoth
"Your law has infiltrated every corner of existence," Thoth began to speak, manipulating it before Kayden’s eyes. "An almost infinite number of monarchs have begun to emerge; we are practically living in an era dominated by monarchs. Trillions of them are born every day, but..."
Kayden raised an eyebrow, waiting for Thoth to continue. He couldn’t tell exactly what was wrong with that, but he suspected that the balance of power was likely completely broken.
"We no longer have gods of other kinds existing. It’s an absolute monopoly of power. Knowledge has been lost in a terrifying way—hundreds of trillions of paths have been completely abandoned so that the path of monarchy could be followed."
The boy understood once Thoth explained. He was able to imagine what was happening outside. His law had made the creation of monarchs terrifyingly easy, but it had also made it the main—and practically the only—path for those at the top.
No one would choose a weaker path just to end their life as a failure. In a way, mediocrity had been imposed on everyone, so once again, the world itself had become mediocre. Not only that, but probably up to this moment, no one had truly mastered his law.
"The number of mages becoming gods has decreased alarmingly, even though the average divine and mortal strength has nearly doubled," Thoth sighed. "Besides, no one has ever been able to absorb your law completely. They all died at some point in their history."
"Those at the true peak of this universe must not have followed my law," Kayden said, looking directly at Thoth as he formulated his thoughts. "Besides, there is the Divine King, isn’t there?"
"Correct. In the end, the number of mages standing out has dropped absurdly, but those capable of surpassing this barrier are becoming increasingly insane."
With the rise in the average level of power, anyone who wanted to walk their own path would have to stand out in an absurd way compared to monarchs in general. This made the threshold for geniuses even higher.
"The Divine King?" Thoth looked upward as he thought. "He completely controls Atherion. Not only that, but he strongly suppresses the presence of monarchs who follow your law in this world. All of them are killed the moment they are discovered, making your law forbidden."
Thoth laughed. "There is no such thing as forbidden knowledge; all knowledge is knowledge in the end. But for the first time, an entire branch of it has been prohibited."
"Is that fear?" Kayden raised an eyebrow.
"No," Thoth replied quickly and began analyzing Kayden more carefully. "Your soul..."
"It’s incomplete, isn’t it?" Kayden knew the god would notice, especially after he asked such a stupid question out of nowhere. "I burned more than half of it to make my law eternal."
The boy seemed to have regained a portion of knowledge that had lain dormant in his mind. It was as if he had never realized any of this before—a new understanding surfaced within him at that moment.
There was a sense of comfort, a feeling of peace that he had carried since waking up in this world, as if everything around him was somehow familiar. Kayden did not feel out of place anywhere in this world, and now everything made sense—the strange familiarity he felt...
It was his law exuding through the environment. His law was present in minuscule amounts everywhere, just like all other eternal laws. Kayden’s law was there—eternal and immutable, permanent in every aspect of existence.
"So you finally failed," Thoth began to think through all the possibilities at that moment. He remembered how Kayden had reached that degree of power and knew there was no way to replicate it again.
"Not yet. I made this decision on my own," Kayden smiled and didn’t elaborate further. Before he could respond, Thoth vanished, leaving only a brief message.
"Good luck." The god saw Kayden’s condition and, for the first time, truly believed there was nothing more to be done.
Kayden was at the lowest point of his existence. Not even when he was just a child, bedridden in a coma, had his potential been so low. Simply put, his soul was shattered. His mind had become slow, and his talent was now only a faint shadow of what it once was.
In a simple conversation, he made dozens of mistakes—stupid questions, foolish movements. Kayden had practically become an ordinary mortal, unable to live up to the titles of another era.
In the following years, Kayden began studying his own law and how it was affecting the world. It was insane how far he had once been able to go, yet now he was capable of nothing.
Besides his own law, Kayden was investing in his soul. The karmic law and the law of chaos were the key pieces for that—especially the karmic law. Kayden could feel that there was some secret behind it, something that could allow him to take the step he needed.
His soul had to ascend into something unique—it had to become whole—but that was insanely difficult. The growth of the soul itself was a slow process; Kayden would practically have to wait an infinite amount of time for it to happen naturally.
As time passed, he realized it was happening naturally. His soul seemed to be growing on its own, trying to return to its peak, even without Athena’s other half. The problem was that he couldn’t afford to wait that long.
Something had to be done, but he had no idea what that could be. Kayden was practically doomed to fail—and yet, not. It was a matter of patience. Finding a solution with his current capacity was incredibly difficult.
In the end, all he could do was keep studying and hope for an answer. Kayden just had to focus on that. Fortunately, his mentality remained the same—his determination would not waver, and...
BOOOOOOOOOOOM!
Kayden was struck by a karmic lightning bolt directly from the void. He didn’t even have time to react. His strength was incapable of withstanding the force of the attack. He didn’t even understand what had caused it—his mind simply went dark and...