Max listened quietly, his eyes fixed on the shifting starlight above them. The words resonated deeply with him. He had felt that contrast before, though never understood it fully. Whenever he used his space-based techniques, everything beca absolute and unchanging. But whenever he tried to sense the flow of ti, even in his Dinsion of Ti, it resisted that stillness. It slipped through his grasp like water between fingers, refusing to be confined.
Old Man First turned his gaze toward him again. "Your mastery of space is exceptional," he said. "It has allowed you to stand firm even against forces that should have torn you apart. But that very mastery will hinder you if you ever attempt to grasp ti. Space rejects change. It enforces boundaries. It demands stillness to exist. Yet ti is the very embodint of change. It thrives on motion, on cycles, on the endless collapse and rebirth of all things. When you already carry the mark of space within your essence, the mont you try to comprehend ti, they will clash violently within you."
He paused and then added in a solemn tone, "This is not a matter of energy or willpower, Max. It is a matter of existence itself. The mont you draw the law of ti into your soul, the law of space you already possess will fight it. It will try to stop ti from moving within you, while ti will try to erode the very foundation of your spatial stability. If they cannot reach an equilibrium, both will destroy one another—and you with them."
Max's expression darkened slightly. He could imagine the chaos that would unfold within his body if such a thing were to happen. His Unholy Trinity Body might suppress conflicting elents like fla and ice, but even that physique might not be able to handle the clash of two primal laws that defined the universe itself.
Old Man First looked upward again. "There is a reason why no being in the recorded history of the mortal realms has ever mastered both ti and space to perfection," he said, his voice carrying a trace of age-old wisdom. "Many have tried. So reached the edge of understanding, but none have succeeded. A few even erased themselves from existence in the attempt. The balance between these two forces is not ant for mortal hands. Even gods tread carefully when touching both."
He turned back to Max and his expression softened slightly. "The truth is that ti and space are not allies, nor are they true enemies. They coexist because they must. Without ti, space would remain motionless, an eternal stillness without purpose. Without space, ti would have no form to shape, no stage upon which to unfold. Together they define reality, yet they can never rge completely. You have already walked deep into the realm of space. If you now step into ti, the two paths will collide. Your existence itself will beco a battlefield."
The silence that followed was heavy and endless. The stars shimred faintly, and Max could feel their cold light brushing against his skin like whispers of forgotten truths.
After a long pause, Old Man First continued, "You must understand this, Max. To wield ti is not to rely move through monts or glimpse the future. It is to command the very rhythm of existence. To do that while already commanding space is to challenge the order of the universe itself. It is a path few dare to take, and fewer survive. You have great potential, perhaps greater than anyone I have seen, but potential does not make you ready."
Max nodded slowly, his eyes distant as he absorbed the aning behind every word. He finally understood why the old man had said he was the last person who should try to comprehend ti. It wasn't because he lacked talent—it was because his strength, his very foundation, was built upon sothing that resisted ti itself.
"Then what should I do?" Max asked after a mont of silence, his tone calm but laced with frustration. "I suppose you haven't brought here just to warn about this, have you?" He looked at the old man expectantly, though deep down he already knew there was no simple answer.
For the first ti in a long while, Max felt helpless. He had overco every obstacle that had stood before him through sheer strength and willpower. Yet now, he was facing sothing that neither strength nor determination could solve.
The concept of ti was not a physical opponent he could strike down, nor a force he could simply suppress with his Unholy Trinity Body. It was an idea, a law that governed existence itself. To understand it, he would have to go beyond everything he knew—and that path was tangled with contradictions.
He could not deny that the Law of Causality posed a grave danger to him. If the law truly tried to "correct" everything within him, it would not stop until it reconciled every contradiction inside his soul. His flas devoured, his ice froze, his sword severed, and his space distorted.
Each of those concepts functioned under different principles, and none of them aligned naturally. Even with the Unholy Trinity Body stabilizing them, adding the law of causality would an inviting chaos to govern order.
And then there was space. Max's understanding of it was already deep—perhaps too deep. He had learned to bend it, to compress it, and even to erase it entirely with the Void Genesis Art. But that very mastery made him the worst possible candidate for ti.
He knew that now. Space represented structure, permanence, and resistance to change, while ti was constant transformation. If one sought to master both, it was like trying to freeze a river while keeping it flowing at the sa ti.
He exhaled slowly, his voice low. "Even if I try, it will destroy before I reach any understanding. My body might be able to hold both fire and ice, but space and ti…" He paused, shaking his head slightly. "They are sothing else entirely."
Old Man First observed him quietly, his expression unreadable. Then, at last, the corners of his mouth lifted slightly into what could only be described as a knowing smile. "There is one other way," he said, his tone carrying a faint glimr of amusent—as if the solution he was about to offer was sothing few could even imagine.
Before Max could ask what he ant, Old Man First raised his hand. The stars around them began to move. Slowly at first, then faster, until the entire sky seed to spin like an enormous wheel. The light of countless celestial bodies stretched into long trails of gold and silver, forming spirals that converged toward a single point ahead of them.
A low hum filled the air—a vibration that didn't co from sound but from existence itself. The space around Max rippled like the surface of a disturbed pond. He felt his footing vanish as if the very fabric of reality was being rewritten beneath him.
"Co," Old Man First said calmly, his voice steady amidst the chaos. "Let show you sothing."
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