Kyle just looked in shock at the fragments of his hammer.
'How?! Literally, how?! I could shove as much Energy into this shit as I want, and nothing would happen! How did my hammer just randomly explode on me?!'
Several calculations shot through Kyle's mind.
'No, this can't happen from internal accumulation of Energy. This has to be something external. My Energy must have changed the surroundings in a way that put pressure on my hammer's composition.'
'Also, how did all of my Energy vanish so quickly? What did it all turn into? Physical power? I mean, if it's physical power, it would explain some things, but that's also not entirely correct. If it were just physical power, my hammer's hilt would have broken, not the entire thing.'
'It must be something in the surroundings.'
Kyle closed his eyes as he tried to remember the feeling he had had while swinging.
The swing felt great.
However, there was still something missing.
It was like he had perfectly accumulated the maximum power imaginable, but there hadn't been a direction.
It was like a bullet that went off without being inside a gun.
It was just a random explosion.
'I have to recreate this! This might actually be what I'm after!'
'If I can guide this power into an attack, my attacking power would shoot through the roof!'
Kyle quickly grabbed another hammer and returned to hitting the mannequins.
However, even after hundreds of strikes, nothing like this happened again.
Thousand swings.
Ten-thousand swings.
Millions of swings.
Nothing.
Eventually, Kyle stopped swinging and looked at his hammer.
'I think I was just insanely lucky. This was probably just an absolutely cosmic coincidence. I essentially flipped a coin and got heads 500 times in a row or something like that through sheer luck.'
Kyle snorted. 'Would be cool if I could get this luck in something that actually matters.'
'I tried so hard to recreate this feeling that my normal mastery didn't improve at all.'
'Seeing this might have actually set me back, funnily enough.'
Kyle checked the Communicator and saw that not a lot of time was left.
'Yeah, well, nothing is going to change anymore. Might as well get started. It's not like there's a fixed appointment.'
Kyle quickly wrote a message to the Chief Overseer.
"I'm ready for the battle. You can accept the challenge," he wrote.
Moments later, he received his answer.
"Hi, the challenge has not been rescinded yet, which means your opponent has not become a Crusher yet. It appears that our suspicions were correct. They are most likely a former Legendary Transcendent. If I accept the challenge, the battle will happen within two months. Are you sure you're ready? As soon as I accept, there's no way back."
Kyle snorted a quick laugh. "I've already been paid. Go ahead."
"Alright. I will accept the challenge and keep you posted on the details."
"Thanks," Kyle wrote back before closing the Communicator again.
As he looked back at his home gym, he scratched his head.
'Well, that settles it. I'm going to have a pretty significant battle. My power won't be able to improve anymore. Let's put the training on hold.'
'I should just chill in the cafeteria. Might as well strike up a conversation with some of my seniors.'
Kyle went to the cafeteria, which wasn't really a cafeteria.
It was just the big hall with all the amenities and TVs.
After Kyle arrived, he watched the TVs for a while.
The battles happening on the TVs could help him prepare. After all, he hadn't had a proper True Battle against an actual human for quite a while.
He didn't really know how the dynamic had changed between battling Primals.
As he watched the battles, he noticed that over 90% of Primals were fighting with their physical power, but that also made a lot of sense.
For a Transcendent, all the Aspects of Power were equal, but that was not true for Primals.
The body of a Primal was much more powerful when compared to their Center, Soul, or mind.
It would make sense that the talented Seekers took advantage of that fact.
However, there were also a couple of Primals who fought by focusing on their Elements.
Surprisingly, those Primals won more battles than they lost, which sounded counterintuitive.
Yet, if one looked closer, it actually made sense.
The fights shown there were not fought by average Primals but by elite Primals.
These Primals knew that their bodies were their biggest assets.
The only reason some of them chose ethereal Laws was that their ethereal Laws were just that much more powerful than their physical Laws.
Manny was an example of such a Primal.
Manny barely used his body, and yet, he was absolutely terrifying in a fight.
Resisting his illusions was brutally difficult, and almost no Seeker had any experience when it came to these kinds of attacks.
That was also why Manny was so interested in Kyle. He wanted to know how Kyle could resist his illusions so well, but Kyle just kept giving him the reason that illusions weren't real.
Initially, Kyle had said that just to anger and frustrate him, but over the years, it had simply turned into a fun way to mess with Manny.
So, how could Kyle actually ignore Manny's illusions?
The Fourth Curse of Karmic Luck, constant visions.
Kyle had been confronted with these visions for centuries, and in a way, these visions were also just illusions.
In essence, Kyle had trained his ability to see through illusions for centuries, which had made him very good at discerning reality from illusion, but that wasn't the entire reason.
It was also important to note that Kyle was very talented with his Soul, which dealt with one's perception of the world. Manny could fake many things, but if he could perfectly fake the subtle movements and fluctuations of the Energies in the surroundings, he would already be an Immortal.
Of course, illusions were real. They were a distortion of the senses. If an illusion were good enough, even Kyle would fall for them.
It was just funny to say that illusions were useless since they were not real.
As Kyle watched the battles, he got another message on his Communicator.
"Hi, the battle will happen in about two weeks. I've sent you an appointment. I am now free to discuss your opponent with you. When do you have time for a short meeting?"
'Brah, feels like I'm in an office. This guy must have come from Earth or something,' Kyle thought as he composed his answer.
"Sure, lemme just get back to my room. We can talk as soon as you're available. You're probably busier than me," Kyle wrote.
Afterwards, Kyle put his Communicator away and walked back to his room.
For once, he didn't go to his home gym but to his actual… room. It was still weird to call this hill and forest a room.
Some minutes later, the Chief Overseer appeared.
'Wonder who my opponent is,' Kyle thought.
tg://resolv?domain=StrongestHammerGod
The author's patreon. If he gets more than 1000€ per month, he will increase the number of words in the chapter.