Kaden frowned.

"Ascender?" He questioned.

"Thats what I call the stage beyond the limits of Archmagus that gods do not want you to know even exist", Zeruek explained. "The stage that old Archmagi try to reach in a futile effort. Not knowing their bridge to it is already broken. When they are at their deepest despair, an angel will come and offer them a way. Become a servant to the gods and reach beyond your humanity."

A bit of anger flashed in Zerueks face.

"Thats what happened to me", Zeruek continued. "Yet, I was prepared for something. I had sensed something in my fate. I had not known what, but then the angel came to me and made its offer. Then once the angel turned his back to me after I agreed, I killed it thinking its offer was fishy. Of course, I nearly died myself in the effort, but it was just a weak angel. Barely strong enough to be called an angel. This was their mistake. I consumed it and I grew beyond the limit before more angels came after me. I killed them all and consumed them too. I grew and as I grew I realized I sensed something. Something beyond the limits of this world. I could almost feel and touch it ... see it, but it was just out of reach no matter how much I grew. Some power still leaked over and I could understand it. It is the realm of the gods. If one grows powerful enough, they can ascend and reach that place. I started calling the stage Ascender."

"That would make sense why gods don't want anyone grow powerful", Kaden said while nodding.

"Indeed", Zeruek replied. "No matter how many angels I killed and consumed. The growth became slower and slower. The taint. I was fundamentally damaged already. The body I had. It had no right to ascend. I understood I was forever bound to this mortal realm. No amount of angels would allow me to ascend. At that point I started this plan of mine. If I couldn't, I would then arrange someone else to break that limit and defy the gods. Now, after thousands of years of waiting, one with the potential, with the fate, appears."

Kaden had made the right decision to cast aside gods. His path was still intact.

"Be warned", Zeruek said in a grave tone. "If you should succeed and reach the limit that gods allow. Archmagus, Higher Cari, doesn't matter. Eventually an angel will come to you and offer you a chance to grow. If you refuse, it will kill you. If you accept and go along with it, your existence will be erased in the fire of divine mana. A god will purge you of your existence as it fills your body with its own mana. You are dead. Angels are puppets with little mind of their own. They are merely extensions of the gods. I know this because I knew faces some of the angels I killed. Old Archmagi who I thought perished in their attempts to reach further." Zeruek looked at Kaden. "At the limit of Archmagus stage, you will inadvertently touch the realm of the gods and they will know someone has reached the limit. You cannot hide it. You must be able to kill the angel and grow while they hunt you. They will do everything to hinder you. There is no limits to what they will try to do and thus nor should you."

This was bad. Kaden would have to kill a being above his stage. This would require much preparations. At the very least minions of gods, such a churches would have to be weakened to minimum during this.

"If you are able to reach to the end of the Ascender stage, that I nearly reached, you will be able to reach beyond the mortal realm", Zeruek continued. " Unfortunately, there is an extreme risk with that too. How one ascends. I have studied the mana angels have, the gods mana, extensively. It overpowers the mana here in this mortal realm. I called it astral mana since I called the higher world the Astral Realm. It is different from divine mana. More like a raw version of it. You must use your mana from this world to push aside that more powerful mana and tear open an entrance and then rush in. In fact, as far as I can predict the process, it is the greatest risk in your life. Once at the limit, you must ignite your mana, everything you are, as you burn it to fuel your ascension and open way for yourself. It is a personal path. You must move your existence from this world to that world. Only source of power you can use is what you own. What occurs after that, is unknown. It is entirely possible the gods will be there to murder you immediately after you reach their realm and have not been able to replenish your mana from that world, but they wouldn't try so hard, if they could just destroy you at your weakest moment. I believe it is possible."

He took another pause.

"You are now the only living being who knows this", Zeruek pointed out. "I wouldn't recommend spreading it like the godless mana system. Its bigger. I wouldn't put it past gods incinerating half of the continent and erradicating all life to ensure no one knows. Someone messing with their followers giving them power and someone messing with something they have hidden ever since they ordered the world are very different things. Other can make them change how they do things and other is a direct threat."

Indeed, they might be able to stop one or even a couple people from ascending, but once people know there is something they can reach, eventually they will find a way and they will keep trying. If they also know gods will try to prevent them, they will not worship them nor be tricked to become their angels, that is slaves, it seems.

"And what kind of aid would you give me right now and in the future?" Kaden questioned after a moment.

"This place", Zeruek waved his hand. "It may be old, but it shouldn't be impossible for you to replace old things with new. It is also safe as it gets. Right now for you hard to get to, but in the future it will be trivial."

Then Zeruek floated towards a wall. Something clicked and a doorway opened.

"And likely what concerns you the most right now is the stasis storage I have here", Zeruek continued and emoted Kaden to follow.

What awaited Kaden was the largest pile of cultivation materials he had ever seen.

"Use as much as you need", Zeruek said. "Once my life became dangerous. I stored my things here. If I were to die, when someone would come here, they were free to take what I had left them. Should you in the future feel like you are going to die. Stash your things here. Another defier of gods might eventually arrive here and continue mine and your work."

Kaden wasn't certain, if he was feeling that generous, but it did kind of make sense. If he was dead, what use did he have for his things. The thing is that he didn't intend to die. As for Zeruek. He knew he couldn't progress and literally gods were trying to kill him. Then again that would likely be the future for Kaden as well. If he was to die, his would spit at the gods before they annihilate him.

Therefore Kaden considered it.

What he considered now even more was the possibility that so soon after he previous growth in power, he might now directly reach the next stage and breach the limits of his physical body and gain a mana body, becoming equivalent of True Magi or True Cari.

It was unexpected. Kaden had always hoped there was something big to be gained with collecting the mysterious black framents and putting them together to form the black pentagon. Now Kaden actually started to wonder whether it was dangerous to grow as fast as he was. There were no reliable records of when someone became a True Magus, but considering the difficulty, at least usually, meant they were old.

Kaden himself was just barely a few decades old.

"I have grown at an impressive speed", Kaden thought to himself. "I have been through some high risk situations so its no surprise, but in my case it is indeed rather extreme regardless."

It did not matter now. If any situations appeared due to his growth, he would solve them just like he had done so far. Each major advancement had involved surprises. What would he find at the next one?

"I better take a good look at what Zeruek has left here for me to find", Kaden thought as he started to look around more carefully. The projection itself was floating about watching Kaden think. "I will make use of this, but I must think and prepare. You have revealed me much, but there is very little I can do with it right now other than grow."

"Indeed", Zeruek replied. "I only want to see the gods fail. My real self is dead. I am merely a construct, but I still want to see the gods suffer. There is enough concepts of my true self stuffed inside that I can feel, even if is artificial. I want to laugh as I watch them fail."

Could it be?

"Do you have sources of vengeance mana?" Kaden asked and pulled out the blade, Vengeance. "I can make use of it."

Zeruek gave a good look, but then shook his head.

"Interesting self growing enchantment", he said. "But no. I never went that far and I can imagine anyone getting here might have some ... resentments. Vengeance mana can be useful, but eventually it will just not cut it. You will need to reach further. Find smaller and smaller scraps of vengeance. It will never end and you will only get more and more insane along the way. I will not fault you, but I will warn you to not rely on it."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Kaden asked. "Gods, their servants, churches, the empires. All of them need to suffer. There will always be targets that have no right to continue existing."

Zeruek did not try to argue with Kaden. That was likely pointless effort considering the lengths one has to go to start using vengeance mana. Usually they were too far gone to change their mind.

"All I'm saying, use it if you must, but building anything reliable on it won't last", Zeruek merely said.

Kaden did not press the matter. He had people to kill and time for that was seemingly coming far sooner than he had originally expected.

It was time to prepare. Even with the resources and knowledge available and even someone like Zeruek to support, what was coming next would be a major step. For example, there were empty spots in Kaden's knowledge of forming a mana body. What he knew was just the general idea, but no one actually said exactly what happened during it. The need to take that step had come early. He needed to know more. Think of potential problems.

There might be more than enough resources at his reach, but it would be foolish to rush. Thats not how Kaden operated.

With Zeruek's secret residence available for his use, he needed to find and make note of all the available resources. Not just the cultivation materials.

Kaden had time. He did not doubt Zeruek regarding the safety of the place. It would take an incomprehensibly powerful being to even have chance to sense anything. It would serve well in the future. It was a place he could come to grow, if he needed a safe location.

"Time to work", Kaden told himself.