"The date is set," Manny transmitted. "It will be in three months, roughly."
A bulky and tall man with metallic-grey skin stopped swinging his hammer. The sweat on his bare chest evaporated almost immediately. Massive amounts of dark grey Energy moved in and out of his body as he retrieved an Emblem. His bright green eyes looked at the Emblem as the world around him seemed to vibrate with his every move.
'It's finally time, huh?' Kyle thought as he looked at his Emblem with a confident and comfortable smile. 'I wasn't sure if I would finish in time, but it seems like I was too careful. In the end, I still had over 2,000 years to swing my hammer and improve my Law of Hammer.'
'To be honest, I wasn't sure if I could back up my claim. After all, what if there was some kind of genius in the past?'
Kyle chuckled a bit. 'I don't think so. If there were, I would've heard about them before.'
'According to Manny's research, the most powerful Legendary Sage in Humanity's history managed to push a Peak Set of Rites to 50% completion, giving them five Laws that had the power of Complex Level Five Laws. I mean, that's pretty good, but...'
Kyle's smile widened a bit as he sent a wisp. "Sounds good," he transmitted. "So, where will it be? What do they want to see?"
"It will be in Headquarters One, the most important base in all of Ayuvar," Manny answered. "Usually, your stage wouldn't have been this big, but thanks to Fierce Breaker, it is."
"I won't forget that favor," Kyle transmitted.
Some years ago, Fierce Breaker had managed to become a Legendary Sage as well, and he had joined Humanity. As his wish, he had requested an opportunity for Kyle to demonstrate his power to as many powerful Generals and Overlords as possible. Since a wish was such a significant thing, every wish represented a large investment of resources. Luckily, granting this wish only represented a bit of time investment for some Ascendants. At most, it would take a day, and during that day, they could also continue working.
It basically didn't cost Humanity anything to grant that wish.
With Fierce Breaker's wish added, Kyle had now received three wishes. The team was really putting all of their cards on him.
"Are you confident?" Manny asked with a wisp.
Manny had already told Kyle how he should answer with the relay. He knew that Humanity was listening in on the conversation. While they probably couldn't read Kyle's messages, he still didn't want to take chances.
"If Humanity knows of a more powerful Legendary Sage, I will run right into the Abyss and fight until I'm dead," Kyle answered. "My confidence is at 100%. While there might be a small chance that there once was a more powerful Legendary Sage in the Supreme World, I refuse to believe that Ayuvar can produce someone like that with the little resources they have."
Naturally, Kyle had been instructed to be as provocative and arrogant as possible. Angering people was the easiest way to get their attention.
"You're essentially going to kill yourself if Humanity has ever seen a stronger Legendary Sage?" Manny asked with surprise, partially repeating what Kyle said so that the listener wouldn't miss the message. "Are you sure? As you've said, Humanity has... limited resources due to their situation, but do you really think it's absolutely impossible that they ever had a Legendary Sage with your level of Battle-Strength?"
"Yep," Kyle answered.
"Well, then I'm relieved," Manny answered. "I was doubting you a little bit earlier, but I know that you rarely make claims that you can't back up. As far as I have seen, your judgment is pretty solid and accurate. If you're stating these things with such confidence, it means you can back up your claims."
"Just sit back and enjoy the show," Kyle transmitted. "Is it set up as we've requested?"
"Yes," Manny answered. "They will give you harder and harder challenges, and the challenges will only stop when you say that you've shown all of your power."
"Good," Kyle transmitted. "This is the best way to demonstrate my power. Anyway, I'm going to start traveling soon. Headquarters One is pretty far away."
"I'm looking forward to witnessing your power," Manny transmitted. "Good luck."
"Thanks," Kyle answered before he sent more wisps, but these wisps were aimed towards the other members of the team.
"Yes, I will be there," Swamp Dragon answered. "I'm expecting success."
"I will be watching," Star Genesis answered as well. "I want to see how far you've managed to go."
"If your Imposing Law is weaker than mine, I will be disappointed," Fierce Breaker transmitted, "but yes, I will be there."
"I really want to see how you will back up your claims," Sebastian transmitted with a chuckle.
Kyle snorted in amusement before he looked back at his hammer. He swung it one last time, and the world around it warped. It was just a casual swing, but if any Sage were watching, they would be shocked. The swing almost felt magical. It was like this swing didn't follow the Laws of the Cosmos.
The next moment, Kyle looked upward. "Hey, in case anyone's watching, please don't spoil the surprise for the others, okay? That wouldn't be fun."
There was no answer.
Finally, Kyle started his journey to Headquarters One. He teleported repeatedly for weeks on end. During his journey, he looked at the passing Mortal Empires below him and passively felt their Karmic Luck. During Kyle's latest seclusion, his Battle-Strength had increased drastically, but his insights into Karmic Luck had barely improved. After all, he hadn't been in contact with a lot of people.
Just by looking at the Karmic Lines of the Mortals for an instant, Kyle could somewhat predict how things would develop in the short term. After looking at billions of people and their Karmic Lines, Kyle could predict a Mortal's personality rather well. As long as Kyle could see the personalities and Karmic Lines within an Empire, he could see who considered whom an enemy, and he could predict how they would act upon it.
Most people just avoided people they disliked. Others talked shit about that person to other people. Some people actively tried to sabotage that person. Some people even planned on hurting or killing them. Of course, people also acted differently towards the people they liked. Some people also didnt even have anyone that they liked.
As Kyle looked at the countless Mortals, the colors of the Karmic Lines occasionally pulsed. Once every couple of hours, Kyle could see the complex colors of the Karmic Lines, but only for tiny instants. Yet, these tiny instants already gave Kyle some insight into what these other colors represented.
'There is a set of colors that seems to be all about someone's disposition towards another person. Then, there are complex colors that are created by a fusion of one color representing a change in Karmic Luck and one color representing someone's disposition towards another person.'
'Yellow means one person likes another person and feels like they want to help that other person.'
'Black represents hatred and the desire to hurt that person. They might never act upon their desire, but they still have it.'
'Brown represents neutrality, and it's the most common color by far. It's neither negative nor positive. If asked about a person who shares a brown Karmic Line with them, most people would either say that they don't know the guy or say that they are okay, but they don't really interact with them a lot.'
Kyle remembered the time Swamp Dragon had given him the Comprehension Fruits.
Back then, Kyle had seen a brown Karmic Line.
In some way, Kyle would have wished for it to be black.
Sadly, or luckily, that wasn't the case.
Swamp Dragon just didn't care about Kyle anymore.
They were just strangers.
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