Just as they were about to enter the Virtual Tower, Etheria suddenly stopped.
"Hmm? Worried?" Maximus asked.
"N-no, I''m just wondering if I''m even allowed to enter."
As a Dimensional Will, Etheria still harbored fears about the Dimensional Alliance.
If even the Aeon ne suppressed them, then why wouldn''t others?
Being an anomaly capable of upsetting the Aeon ne''s bnce, Etheria was fortunate they weren''t openly hunted. But nurtured? Etheria had doubts.
"It shouldn''t matter."
In the past, Maximus might have shared the same worries.
But now, with the Aeon ne focusing on cultivating as many powerful beings as possible, it didn''t care as much about irregrities.
Even As, the son of ne, had appeared; how could a mere Dimensional Will be of any concern?
Furthermore, with recent news of Abyss Will''s activity and the Dimensional Alliance remaining unperturbed, Maximus felt sure that the Overlords were secretly nurturing it to reach a higher tier.
If the Abyss Will bes a tier 12 Dimensional Will, it would be a pir of their resistance.
As for what mighte after, that was a future concern.
It was better to survive under the shadow of Abyss Will than be obliterated from existence.
If Abyss Will could be reasoned with, there was hope.
The dark forces, on the other hand, were not conscious beings with ambition but rather entities bent solely on destruction.
Hearing Maximus''s words, Etheria calmed down.
As they stepped toward the tower, Maximus gave his family onest look.
"Good luck…"
---
Virtual Tower of Trials
[Challenging the Tier 10 Trial]
[First Trial: zing Fire Origin Law]
As the virtual space was generated, Maximus found himself in a zing hellscape.
ncing at his opponent—a fierce entity formed entirely of the zing Fire Origin Law—a smirk appeared on his face.
"To conquer the origin ofw, to make it submit… Fitting trial."
If the tier 9 trials tested fighting strength, power, and skill, then the tier 10 trial focused on understanding, control, and affinity with the origin ofw.
Realizing that he could only use the zing Fire Law and nothing else, Maximus grew more certain of his deduction.
Roaring like a wild beast, the fiery elemental monster charged toward him.
"Calm yourself," Maximus muttered, "reflect, be enlightened. You are not just a beast but a mighty entity ofw…"
As he spoke, his River of Knowledge began to pulse, sending waves of calming, enlightening energy toward the zing fire entity ofw.
While other tier 10 individuals were still working to master the origin ofw, Maximus was already at the level of guiding it to a path.
His path—the path of knowledge—became a beacon, calming the virtual projection of the zing fire beast until it became tame.
As the trial dissipated, the zing fire beast licked his hand like a loyal pet.
[First Trial Complete]
[Second Trial: Sacred Fire Origin Law]
"This is easy…" Maximus chuckled as he saw the second trial was simr.
Quickly taming the Sacred Fire Origin Law, he advanced to the next trial.
While Maximus breezed through each trial with ease, his family encountered no obstacles either.
All of them had already forged their paths.
Guiding these projections of originws felt like leading a lost child back to its parents.
From the first trial to the hundred thousandth trial, they zed through each floor without breaking a sweat.
Having a defined path made the tier 10 trials feel like having a cheat code—they could tame every entity they encountered with a mere touch.
However, their easy progress came to an abrupt halt as they reached the one hundred thousand and first floor.
[100,001st Trial: Frozen Time Origin Law]
"Temporal Law?" Maximus muttered just as time froze around him.
From his body to his thoughts and energy, everything waspletely immobilized.
As the entity of Frozen Time Origin Law slowly walked to end him, a spark of light shed in Maximus''s eyes.
"My mastery of the Origin of Law… was superior."
With a thought, Maximus mobilized his Path of Knowledge, exerting an influence over the Frozen Time Origin Law.
As the trial disintegrated, Maximus felt a growing sense of worry for his family.
While they could indeed tame each origin ofw, that was only if they survived each encounter.
Maximus''s mastery over all origins ofw was at a transcendent level, yet even he was briefly affected.
For the others, the impact could be far greater.
And these trials had yet to challenge them with the supreme originws.
Facing those entities… Maximus wasn''t sure if even he would survive.
"This is much harder than I expected…"
---
Meanwhile, in the other trials, his wives, children, grandchildren, and inws were also taken aback by the sudden surge in difficulty.
Without their paths ofw and the foundations built from the Origin Manual to sharpen their awareness, they might have instantly fallen on this floor.
Recalling the statistics they''d read about how reaching the hundred thousandth floor was the "iron gate" of the Virtual Tower, they now understood why.
As they stepped onto the next trial, they enveloped themselves in their paths ofw, ready to mobilize their power against any surprise attack.
[100,002nd Trial: Epoch Shift Origin Law]
As they read the name, they felt their barriers assaulted billions of times in an instant.
Without a moment''s dy, they hurriedly mobilize their mind, racing to tame the Epoch Shift Origin Law.
"What the—"
Looking at their barrier, battered and barely holding, they couldn''t help but sweat in fear.
The Epoch Shift Origin Law—one of the rarest and most formidable origins ofw below the supreme origins—could elerate an entity''s movement, thought, and attacks to trillions of times per second.
Usually, such origin ofw was used to speed up minds or ability to escape.
Thus, even if it''s unusually fast, ites at a sacrifice of the diluted force of theattack.
If such a speed didn''t lose any power, one could annihte most of the beings in the Aeon ne.
Preparing for the next trial, they heightened their senses to the limit.