Karl naturally knew nothing about what was happening in the Main Universe while he remained at the edge of the Multiverse.
Abraxas was indeed extremely powerful.
However, without having recovered his full strength, he was far from his peak.
Moreover, because he specialized in the Law of Destruction, he was not skilled at defense at all.
Offense was what he truly excelled at.
Against Karl, that weakness naturally became rather apparent.
When Karl mobilized the power of half the Multiverse and launched his attack, Abraxas naturally could not withstand it.
He was directly annihilated by that terrifying power.
Not even a trace of him remained.
Of course, Karl had not exactly emerged unscathed either.
Forcibly mobilizing the power of half the Multiverse meant channeling an enormous amount of Divine Power belonging to countless gods.
Anyone else would either have exploded under the strain or gone completely insane.
The burden of controlling such overwhelming power was terrifying.
It took Karl quite some effort to finally calm the rampaging energy inside his body.
However...
He quickly noticed that something was wrong.
The power within his body had actually increased by roughly thirty-five percent.
Karl immediately became serious.
One had to understand that his strength had not increased for a very long time.
He had reached a bottleneck.
Unless he broke through that bottleneck, his strength should not have increased in the slightest.
And yet...
His power had grown again.
Karl could not understand it.
An increase in strength was not necessarily a good thing.
Especially in the Marvel Universe.
Power rarely came without a price.
Karl had every reason to be cautious.
He immediately activated his tremendous Psychic Power.
He carefully searched throughout his body.
After his Psychic Power swept through his entire body, Karl's expression became even more serious.
His strength really had increased.
But...
He could not determine exactly where that increase had come from.
"Damn it. What's going on?"
"This isn't going to kill me, is it?"
Karl took a deep breath.
He had survived countless dangers over the years. Was he really going to stumble over something seemingly insignificant now?
A hint of hesitation appeared on his face.
But soon...
He adjusted his state of mind.
After everything he had experienced over the years, how could such a minor problem frighten him?
"I need to investigate this carefully."
"I have to find out exactly where this extra power came from."
Karl thought seriously.
Fortunately, this was Karl.
His control over his own body had reached an extraordinary degree.
Otherwise...
How could he possibly have noticed such a tiny abnormality?
However...
Even after thinking carefully for a long time, Karl still could not discover anything wrong.
"This really is strange."
"Could there actually be such a thing as a free lunch in this world?"
Karl did not believe that benefits simply appeared out of nowhere.
Especially not in the Marvel Universe.
The greater the benefit, the heavier the price one might have to pay later.
Naturally, he did not dare take this lightly.
"If there's something inside me that even I don't understand, then it can only be the God-Tier Talent."
"Could the God-Tier Talent be responsible?"
"But I haven't heard any system notifications recently."
Suspicion appeared on Karl's face.
Even after reaching his current level...
He still had no idea what the God-Tier Talent truly was or how it worked.
It was unquestionably the most unbelievable thing he had encountered since arriving in this world.
Karl suspected that...
Even the legendary One-Above-All probably would not understand it.
Could this really be the work of the God-Tier Talent?
But Karl still was not certain.
If it really was the God-Tier Talent...
Shouldn't there have been a notification?
Karl was in no hurry to return to the Multiverse, so he naturally had plenty of time to think.
"No rush. First, I need to figure out exactly what this newly increased power is."
"Once I identify it, I might be able to determine where it came from."
Karl closed his eyes.
At his current level...
The number of laws he had comprehended could only be described as countless.
They encompassed nearly everything in existence.
Even if his comprehension was not absolutely complete, it was not far from it.
But this was not difficult for Karl.
His brain operated at an astonishing speed, far surpassing so-called artificial intelligence.
This was one of the benefits brought about by his continual growth.
At that moment...
His soul began operating at incredible speed.
One law after another manifested before him.
In an instant, countless brilliant lights filled the space before Karl, as though the fundamental structure underlying the entire world had been laid bare before his eyes.
However...
Those lights gradually began disappearing.
In the end...
Only a single Origin remained before him.
Karl suddenly opened his eyes.
"Time."
He was certain.
It was the power of Time that had become stronger.
"But why?"
Karl could not understand.
Had his comprehension of the Origin of Time deepened once again?
Karl attempted to carefully comprehend the power of Time once more.
[Ding!]
[Host's comprehension of the Origin of Time has reached its ultimate limit. The Origin of Time has undergone conceptualization.]
[God-Tier Talent has triggered a hundredfold critical strike. Host has mastered the Concept of Time.]
A sound like an enormous bell echoed beside Karl's ears.
At the same time, it felt as though an entire world had exploded inside his mind.
Karl's perception of existence suddenly changed completely.
Everything became perfectly clear before him, down to the smallest detail.
His understanding of this world had reached an entirely new level.
Above Origin...
There was Concept!
What was a Concept?
It was the complete meaning represented by something—the totality of everything encompassed by that idea.
Applied to laws...
It meant that Karl now understood everything represented by the Law of Time.
From this moment onward...
He was the embodiment of Time itself.
Even if the world were destroyed and the universe overturned...
Even if the entire Multiverse collapsed...
Karl could remain completely unaffected.
Because he represented Time.
Time was one of the fundamental principles of this world.
It was part of the very foundation upon which this world existed.
Karl had become a Conceptual God.
An existence comparable to the Five Great Gods.
Karl finally understood why the Five Great Gods possessed such extraordinary power and could even alter the entire Multiverse with ease.
It was because they were Conceptual Gods.
They were Abstract Entities.
They were the physical manifestations of particular concepts.
They were effectively part of the structure from which the world itself was constructed.
They were like the foundations and load-bearing walls of a building.
They did not need to actively do anything.
As long as they themselves changed, the entire world would be affected and change along with them.
That was the source of their tremendous power.
However...
Ordinarily, beings like them would never recklessly do such a thing.
If the building collapsed, then its foundations and load-bearing walls would lose their meaning as well.
The gods and the Multiverse existed in mutual dependence.
Karl, however, felt that...
He might be an exception.
It was as though he stood on an even higher level.
If the Five Great Gods were the foundation of a building, then Karl was the ground beneath that foundation.
He was the planet upon which it stood.
Perhaps his current strength was still only comparable to the Five Great Gods.
But his potential for growth was far greater.
His future was infinitely broader!
Brilliant light filled Karl's eyes.
(End of Chapter)
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