We walked slowly down the hall. I figured if I was going to be told, it was either some instance of supreme power, or a magic theory lesson that took a century. The king started talking.

"Okay. This was an instance of a barrier falter. Only four have happened in history so far, including this time. The first time was when the first realm was created. That realm naturally was new, and had nothing to protect it, so obviously, void could get it. The two times were when me and my brother, respectively, reached level 200. The compression of essence, at that sheer density, caused the realm's fabric to ripple. However, that was uncalled for. The only things I can think of are my brother leveling up, which is impossible, him using all his power, or some breakthrough with you.

"Well, I did throw a level 95 dumbell. Maybe that tore a hole in the fabric of the realm."

"No. That isn't nearly powerful enough... No, I figured out what it is. I siphoned the essence, but forgot to siphon the true transcendence-why that monster was so strong."

Damn simple explanation. "A damn mistake. Why such a stupid mistake? You mean to say all that suspense because of a mistake."

"Yes, but anyways, that isn't important. You seem stronger."

"I went to the gym, and lifted a level 115 dumbell."

"Okay. I'm going to give you a treat. I can sense you don't like using magic so much. Here's your treat."

A level 95 monster appeared. It was a rock elemental.

Hell yes.

I ran forward, with pure force. I smashed the elemental so hard that it created the quark cage. However, a quick swipe of my hammer defied defying the laws of physics. I shot a beam of mana at it, then threw six axes in rapid succession. I ran up to it, and hit it so hard a rock cracked. It shot a rock at me. I quickly blocked with my hammer. I deflected that rock back, hitting the monster and cracking it again. It walked towards me. It hit me.

All my bones simultaneously broke. I sacrificed a hundred thousand health to instantly fix them.

Wait, what the hell was I doing, throwing around health? I should have fixed it with body manipulation. But that was no time to reflect on the past. I decided to end the fight.

"I squash your life, and I reap your death."

Power flooded my limbs. I raised my hammer. I smashed it. As it was a humanoid elemental, and I had hit it in the temple, the head flew off, along with a good portion of the chest.

No, I would do more.

I turned on all my buffing skills. I was on about 1/3 mana, which I forced all into my hammer, to make it do more light damage. My stamina and willpower flooded my arms. For good measure, I activated my truth.

If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

"I am the warhammer."

I ran forward, power pumping through my veins. No, not pumping through my veins. The universe was mine solely in that brief instant.

I smashed the monster. A piece of debris flew into the summon button for a level 100 monster, and that was smashed as well.

I fell to the ground. I was quickly hit by a blast of light. The king had restored me to full resources.

"Good power. I think that was around the level of a strength focused level 115. However, what exactly was that for?"

I ignored it. Essence was rushing through my limbs, infinitely condensed. And a ton of it. My armor, which had previously been on the heavier side, was now exceedingly light. I stood up, easier than before. My previous self had been completely weak. Now, I was strong. Strong enough to protect my Empire from Cancall. I wondered how the nobles' trainings were going. The tournament would probably be canceled. Hell, I had never given the nobles instructions on how to rule the Empire, had me, their glorious Emperor, left.

I said, "I want a true transcendence."

"No. A true transcendence is a fusion of a Mandate Phrase and finished Transcendence. It combines those two to create something extremely powerful."

I was now level 84. With an essence compression factor of 28.5, or 5 times a level 98's compression. Those people on the home plane could go die. By the time I got back, I would probably be level 195 or something, with an essence compression that would allow me to vaporize that damn emperor of Holthar with a thought.

For now, though, I needed more practice. Some random emperor of Holthar didn't matter. Light or dark would easily destroy Holthar. Either Almthar or Ylmthar could probably destroy Holthar with a thought. My technique with the warhammer was good, but I needed to improve. I told Almthar.

"Okay. Read this book."

Almthar thrust a book into my hands. It was titled True Light Warhammer Techniques.

I read through it in four or five seconds, courtesy of my great stats, though reading was never important to me much. About 3/4 of the techniques were complete crap, but a quarter were usable, and maybe a tenth were good enough to get into my fighting style. "This was written by our first and foremost expert on warhammer technique, a level 77 scholar who has studied the warhammer since the realm was anchored."

"Well, most of this is either crap or the fundamentals. Half of it is just moving your warhammer with light mana. Tell that idiot to rewrite the book."

"Okay. I only know three or four attacks, so you seem the new number one expert on warhammers in the realm."

"Okay. So I guess just practice fighting gods with my hammer. So magic it is."

"For now, I want you to practice precise light mana levitation for a decade. No hammer cheats. I'll check your progress then. I want you to be able to lift a giant rock, around with a specific number of pebbles, by the end of that decade."

Almthar left the room, and returned with the rock and a punch of pebbles, but promptly left again. I turned to the arduous task of doing that.

Within the first year, I didn't improve much. The only thing that changed was I was able to lift the rock without using its weight in milligrams of mana , and only use 2-3 mana per pound.

By the third year, I was able to lift the rock with only 100 mana, and it weighed 400 tons. That thing was extremely light.

By the sixth year I could lift it and all the pebbles, which had been extremely arduous. By the seventh year I had really wanted to rebel. By the eighth year I had the technique good. By the start of the ninth year, I had mastered it, and got my transcendence to max level. I decided I didn't want to be bored, so I would transcend. It would be easy. After that, I would just tell Almthar.

I started speaking. The words came similarly to last time. They started very calmly, but became very fast. By the end, I was speaking more than 200 aggressive, long words a second. The chant took almost an hour. I prepared my mana for what would come next.

The world turned black.