The Monarch-Chapter 598: Aquiles[2]

"This is new to me," Achilles commented. Kayden agreed as well; he had never seen anything like this before, but it must have been one of the benefits of becoming something unique.

"Bring your soulmate here; I am not leaving this place." Kayden resumed cultivating while the mage left. It took only a few days for him to return, carrying a woman of medium stature with yellow eyes. She had a tail and cat-like ears.

"Are you sure about this?" Kayden asked upon seeing the unconscious woman. Achilles was visibly shaken; his eyes seemed to contain a hint of insanity, but deep down, there was a rationality that Kayden had not expected.

"Yes, I need to do this." Achilles crushed a stone in his hands, and Kayden felt the flow of time slow down to an insane degree across dozens of thousands of kilometers. Achilles’ soulmate was an eighth-realm mage with the excellent strength of a ninth-ray mage, but in front of Kayden, she was nothing extraordinary.

"Lower your defenses. I’m going to put both of you to sleep. When you wake up, everything should be in place." Kayden broke off a piece of their souls, which induced them into a comatose state for recovery.

Kayden sighed and began his part of the agreement. He needed to study both souls meticulously. He had never performed this kind of process on other mages before, but fortunately, his talent and abilities were vastly superior to anything ever seen in this universe. Each passing day, he learned more about their souls.

The agreement with Achilles was to wake him at the right moment so they could have a final farewell. Additionally, the mage’s help was necessary to perfectly assimilate both souls. The most challenging part would not be done by Kayden but by Achilles.

Time passed, and both remained unconscious. Kayden used this time in two ways. The first was to study their souls and fulfill his part of the agreement. The second was to study his own path. He was perfectly capable of doing both. His talent had increased significantly after assimilating Athena’s soul once again.

This raised new thoughts in his mind. Why did he experience such a massive power increase just from assimilating Athena’s soul once more? How many times could he do this? So many unanswered questions lingered in Kayden’s mind.

Studying an unfamiliar soul from scratch was a challenge he had never undertaken before. It took him several million years just to understand the dynamics of the two souls. They were very similar to his own yet incredibly different at the same time. It was like comparing race cars to regular cars. Both were vehicles with four wheels that transported people from one place to another, yet they were vastly different in every aspect of functionality.

"Perfect." Kayden smiled to himself after seven hundred million years. He had finally understood the two souls at their most fundamental level. It was nowhere near the knowledge he had of his own soul, but it was still an insane amount of understanding.

"Achilles." Kayden restored the soul and woke the man. "It’s ready." Kayden didn’t need to explain how everything would work; Achilles would feel the modifications in his soul directly and only needed to accept them.

"Thank you, Kayden. Give me some time alone with her, please." Kayden withdrew his aura and disappeared into space. Achilles and his beloved began their final conversation. It lasted thousands of years. This was the most insane decision Achilles had ever made in his life.

It was amusing how Kayden finally understood the source of Achilles’ motivation for taking such a crazy action. Achilles’ soul had detached from reality for some unknown reason. Normally, soulmates were supposed to be identical, but Achilles’ soul was about 10% different. That percentage allowed him to take this insane step.

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"I’m ready, Kayden." Achilles’ voice rang out, and at the same time, the woman fell unconscious again. Kayden wasted no time in beginning the process.

Achilles never stopped crying for even a second. His tears fell in the thousands, unceasingly. There wasn’t a single moment when he could stop, but he made no move to halt Kayden’s actions. He watched in horror as the soul of his beloved was forcibly removed from her body.

The pain in his mind was completely insane. Kayden didn’t need to be a genius to see that Achilles wouldn’t be able to endure this pain rationally. He began manipulating the young man’s soul simultaneously, converting part of the pain into nothing. Kayden had overestimated Achilles’ mental capacity.

The process was supposed to take only a few hours, but because Kayden had to split his attention between keeping Achilles alive and maintaining his rationality, it lasted for days filled with agony. Without a doubt, it was the worst period of Achilles’ life. He wanted to beg Kayden to stop at every moment, but he found himself incapable of speaking. He could only watch in horror as the love of his life died and her body became an empty shell.

The emptiness creeping into his mind was utterly terrifying. Achilles had never felt so alone in his life. Despair was taking over every inch of his mind, and there was absolutely nothing he could do about it.

"It’s done." Kayden finished the process and released Achilles’ soul to face the consequences on his own. The man simply crumbled. Achilles couldn’t handle the pain of losing his soulmate.

Kayden continued studying Achilles’ soul and repairing its flaws over the next millions of years. Each day, Achilles lost a part of himself and constantly attempted to end his own existence, but Kayden never allowed it. He continued improving and fixing every problem within the man’s soul.

Every time Achilles lost himself further, Kayden would step in and patch his soul, ensuring that he remained whole. But it was a constant struggle. Achilles’ very essence was trying to fade, unable to cope with the absence of his soulmate. His despair was endless, his suffering immeasurable. Kayden, despite his unfathomable abilities, could only delay the inevitable.

Time lost its meaning. Decades, centuries, millions of years passed in the blink of an eye. Achilles was a shadow of his former self. Though Kayden had prevented his complete destruction, Achilles was not truly living. He was a fragment, a remnant of the man he once was.