Epilogue 2: Darius Nessar

Epilogue 2: Darius Nessar

Seething with anger, Darius had spent little time in the trial store, cursing to himself and quickly flicking through the options. He had received fewer points than he had expected to, and he was unable to purchase everything the Death God had commanded him to. Still, he got the stone of corruption, so it wasn’t a complete failure. 

Nonetheless, the rage bubbling within him made him more determined to succeed than ever. He didn’t know all the details, but it was clear that the annoying man had outperformed him in the trials. But that didn’t mean he would accept anything less than domination.

Darius was born for this. This world was his oyster, and he would suck it dry. Who really cared if the trials simply weren’t where he excelled? He was still the strongest, and he would prove it.

Glancing down, Darius thumbed the rock that pulsed with deathly energy. All he had to do was follow the instructions laid out for him, and this world would become his domain.

All around him stood his army of undead. They had followed him to this world and were now waiting on his command. With a snap of his fingers, they spread out, charging in all directions.

He knew what he had to do, and he sent his undead army in search of his objective as he calmly walked.

He had arrived in the largest canyon he had ever seen. A canyon that would put Earth’s largest to shame, with multiple river systems snaking through it.

Only a few minutes later, he got a message, telepathically relayed by one of his minions, and immediately corrected his path.

“That was quick,” he flashed a toothy grin, chuckling to himself. As expected, this world wouldn’t be too hard to conquer.

Still, it wasn’t the only message sent back to him. Within a few minutes, he had received mixed results. It was painfully obvious this new world possessed far greater dangers than the Tutorial had, and he could feel the deathly energy leaving the corpses as his minions were slain by beasts and monsters.

But their losses were to be expected, and a small price to pay for his victory. After all, he had numbers to spare. And soon, most of the canyon in his vicinity had been scouted, and most importantly, the obelisk had been found.

Casually, he strolled towards it, calling on all his minions to gather. He spotted the ancient-looking structure and the beasts that guarded it. Even before reaching it, he could feel the energy radiating from the obelisk. No doubt the beasts could too, which was why they were drawn to it and chose to nest around it.

Unfortunately, his situation was somewhat complicated. There was a low-level D-grade beast amongst them, and Darius was forced to use caution, waiting for the rest of his undead horde to gather.

Once his army had arrived, he sent them forth. Alone, he wasn’t entirely sure he wanted to fight a D-grade beast. He might win, after all; he had grown considerably stronger in the trials. Not to mention, he now possessed a true blessing and new Titles. He had also worked on his taxidermy Profession, giving him many additional Levels and Skills.

But there was no need to risk his own life against powerful beasts when he had a legion of undead to soak up the damage of their attacks.

With a snap of his fingers, they charged. Within seconds, the undead were falling. But it meant little in the long run. They possessed their former powers and could be deadly, but none could progress and get stronger; their paths had been halted, and their long-term value was limited. He had always known that he would need to find new prey and rebuild his army with stronger warriors; his path demanded it.

This army was expendable. And it was doing its job. Little else mattered.

From a distance, he watched as his army fell against the beasts, using necrotic buffs to help them and debuffs to weaken his enemy. And in between it all, blasted destructive necromancy spells, slaying beasts, where his minions provided the opportunity.

It was a slug, and by the time the D-grade beast was staggering and on its last legs, the battlefield was littered by corpses of both beasts and his minions.

But Darius just smiled. His goal was within sight, and his minions had served him well. Not to mention, being the first to claim the treasure would provide a nice Title.

Soon, the massive, bull-like beast could barely lift its head, constantly being battered by attacks from his minions that landed from all directions. Every time it struck back, he lost a couple of his minions, but they were just weaklings that had died in the Tutorial. Soon, he would replace them with far, far stronger warriors.

When he spotted the perfect opening, he joined the fray, blasting it with his strongest spells in quick succession. It didn’t last long. Even D-grade beasts had their limits, and he savored its groans as the last of its life left it.

“I think I’ll make something of you,” he muttered, briefly glancing at the bull corpse, and then turning to the obelisk.

This was what he had come for. The true treasure. 

Walking up to the towering structure, he pressed his pale, bluish hand against it and accepted the prompts. But that wasn’t all, he took the stone of corruption, and poured its power, along with his own necrotic energy into it, just as the Death God had instructed him. Soon, the facade of the obelisk began to change, turning a sickly gray and emanating a foul aura of death that filled the air, choking out life with its unnatural smog.

He had turned the tower into an abomination, but to Darius, it was power. He could already feel it pulsing through the air, granting him additional strength. But it wasn’t just he who was strengthened. He could feel the power seeping into the walking corpses that surrounded him.

Was he as powerful as that bastard from the trials on neutral ground? Darius asked himself. The answer was, maybe not. But he didn’t intend to fight him on neutral ground. He would spread this foul aura across the world, capturing as many obelisks as he could, and with their power, he would become unstoppable.

Don’t you worry, Death God. I will complete that quest. And I will make Aaron Dober one of my puppets!

Epilogue 3: Elmira

It was almost eerie how organized their arrival in their new world was. There was a military-like precision to it, and people were marching around all over the place on orders from their lieutenants, who in turn were acting on Pentival’s behalf.

Then again, it was their entire Tutorial, minus the few who had unfortunately perished during the Tutorial. They had all arrived together, just as the Waypoint promised. And immediately, they had been put to work.

Scouts were sent out with strict orders not to engage anything of a higher level. No lives were to be risked at this early junction. With their numbers, they didn’t need to be, and in a short time, they had found what they were looking for.

It was Pentival that figured it out. Clues in the System store, and items purchased. Mentions here and there of something called a Settlement Obelisk, and he had sent his scouts out looking for something that fit the description.

Luckily for them, they had found one only a short walk away. There had been beasts nearby, though, and even a couple quite strong ones. But they had an entire group of elites who had experienced the Trials together, and a few beasts were of little match for them.

The moment they were slain, Pentival took command of the obelisk, and a small camp began to be erected around it.

Everything was going well. Pentival was once more showing his prowess as a leader, and several tiny groups of wandering people who had spotted them had already decided to join and been put to work.

Their rise to power, led by Pentival, felt inevitable, but of course, not everyone was going to be as receptive.

Had it just been humans from their previous world, Pentival probably could have united the entire world within months, maybe weeks. His achievements spoke for themselves, and his fame as a leader of their old world only served to amplify said achievements, quickly drowning out the doubters.

But their world wasn’t just inhabited by humans.

Within a couple of hours, they had spotted them. Ogres. A group of them was hunting beasts nearby. There had been a few of them in the Shadow Trials, but they mostly kept to themselves, and only one small group had negotiated with Pentival. This group was not that group, meaning that they were an unknown entity. Pentival wasn’t just going to sit by as a potential threat roamed, and sent Elmira and a few other elites to investigate.

That was how she arrived where she did. Staring across at the snarling creatures, holding her party back from immediately attacking. Luckily, she had managed to score herself a Lingua Multiversa Skillbook in the trials, and it seemed likely that she was going to become their interpreter.

“Hello, my name is Elmira,” she waved. “We’re warriors from the nearby settlement, and our leader has a proposal for you.”

She had to admit, they almost reminded her of him when he was large and prepping for a fight, at least. Every single one of them was huge, both in height and width, but despite their enormous girth, they moved around nimbly, showing that beneath all that fat was more than a little muscle. They were not that intimidating, though. The highest level among them was still twenty levels lower than hers.

But she had to remain vigilant. These were strangers, and she didn’t know what their goals were. And while they were at a lower level than her and her party, if there was one thing Aaron had taught her, it was not to underestimate those at lower levels.

“We can understand each other?” A female ogre said, stepping forth with a perplexed expression. “How? Who are you?”

Elmira inwardly sighed with relief. While confused, the ogre in front of her was very clearly not hostile, and she was also clearly the leader of this small group. At level sixty, she was the highest, and based on the glances the other ogres shot at her, they deferred to her. She was also the ugliest of the bunch, her face the color and texture of cottage cheese and almost as wide as it was tall.

“I come from the Empire,” said Elmira with a smile. “Our goal is peace and prosperity. We would like to invite you to join us. We promise that you will not be mistreated.”

“Wait…” said the female ogre, frowning. “Are you the one who was with that human in the Trials?”

“You were in the Trials?”

“Only at the end,” said the female ogre. “But I recognize you. You were with the ogre-like human, right?”

“Aaron?”

“Yes! That was his name! If we come with you, can I meet him?”

“Well, he’s not on this planet…” said Elmira. “But I do plan on reuniting with him again eventually, so I can ask him.”

“Wonderful!” said the ogre woman, grinning and showing off a set of crooked teeth full of food particles. “I am looking forward to it!”

Epilogue 4: Joseph Lefiti

When he first arrived, his magical vessel had slammed straight into the great, expansive ocean that separated the two main continents, and it was vast. The great, seemingly endless ocean put anything found on earth to absolute shame, and when Joseph had crashed against it, he had shot straight to the ocean floor.

At first, he had been glad about this. The archipelago Tutorial he had fought in had prepared him for just this, and he had even chosen water affinity. It was as if the System had blessed him, putting him right where he needed to be. But then he saw them.

They were all around, and he spotted them swimming in every direction. Thal’kesh. Worse still, he hadn’t spotted a single human since arriving, but the eldritch monsters were everywhere, infesting the ocean depths.

But this was Joseph Lefiti, a champion of his Tutorial, and not a man easily cowed. He had never doubted his strength before, and wasn’t about to now, but even he was wise not to take on an entire army of the eldritch monsters. Especially not when their elites might be out there, somewhere. He reminded himself that there were multiple thal’kesh that had completed the Tutorials early and passed many trials.

They were not to be underestimated.

Pressed against a wall of coral, he snuck past a couple as they searched for hunting targets, and then quickly traveled down through an underwater tunnel. For now, he would have to be cautious. He would have to avoid the thal’kesh, at least until he had some form of plan to deal with them.

But he couldn’t let opportunity escape him either. He knew as well as anybody that if he hid away, his enemies would only grow stronger as he lingered behind.

I have to find something to hunt. I have to get stronger!

Joseph swam like a rocket through the water. With any luck, he could avoid the thal’kesh for a while, at least until he grew stronger, and perhaps, he might even find some allies to aid against them.

For he was not willing to just surrender the oceans.

Epilogue 5: Yendal

Yendal frowned as she replayed her apprentice’s battle with the massive asura. She knew she had no right to interfere with his Path, but everything he did was so… inefficient. Wasteful. He was taking after the ogre a bit too much.

When she had him in her divine realm, she tried not to interfere too much with the ogre’s domain, as it was clear it would be an integral part of his style, but she now somewhat regretted not trying to teach him more about efficiency. He was burning through energy far too quickly, and it only barely allowed him to survive.

When I was his level, I could have defeated Mo’han with Stamina to spare, she thought grumpily.

Despite all this, though, she still felt incredibly proud of what he had accomplished. Unlike her, he had only started proper combat training after he got to the Shadow Trials. Given the fact that he had trained for only a year, his progress was indeed immense. And while he had used a bit of a dirty trick, the fact that he had been able to defeat Mo’han at all spoke volumes about his progress. Mo’han was not an opponent that such a trick would be enough to defeat if Aaron was not already strong enough to take advantage of it.

After watching the end of the replay and Aaron’s ultimate victory, she turned the screen off and went to a small arena in her training ground. There, she conjured two avatars, though this time, they were not of herself. The first was of Mo’han, the massive asura, and the second was of her apprentice Aaron. Both were set to have identical stats and Skills as the ones who had dueled, though obviously, they lacked souls and therefore personalities. However, that wasn’t what Yendal was after.

As the Martial God, she had reached a level of martial arts where a single glance was enough to read anyone else’s style, and a single battle was enough for her to be able to perfectly imitate it. Mentally reaching out to both avatars, she programmed the lifeless bodies with the combat styles of the two fighters, including both their strengths and flaws, everything accurate down to the smallest muscle movement. Then, she had them fight.

Since the Aaron avatar did not have access to his scabbard full of food, he was forced to fight without it, and it wasn’t long before he lost. He managed to put up somewhat of a fight, but with his inefficient techniques and overreliance on consumables, he soon ran out of energy.

Then, she reset the avatars, this time making a few minor adjustments to Aaron’s fighting style, and she set them to battle again. This time, Aaron lasted longer and managed to deal a bit more damage to the asura. She repeated the process almost two dozen times before Aaron finally squeaked out a win, and another dozen times after that before he could win with energy to spare.

Each iteration was her estimation of a month of harsh training for Aaron. It would take him nearly two years to be able to defeat Mo’han using pure technique, and close to three to be able to do so relatively easily. There was no such thing as an easy fight against someone like Mo’han, but after those three years, Aaron would be able to win nine battles out of ten. Against this version of Mo’han, at least.

Of course, if she advanced Mo’han by a month alongside Aaron, the results would be different. In fact, she tried just that, and Aaron was never able to win. As he got more efficient, so did the asura, and with the level gap, Aaron would never be able to catch up. If she removed the level difference, though—

“Yendie!” said a voice from nearby. “Playing with dolls again?”

“I thought I told you—!” started Yendal.

“YENDIE!” another voice interrupted. 

Yendal’s eyes widened as she turned around and saw that next to the intrusive Widow was a very familiar figure. Standing at nearly twice Yendal’s height, and with six arms each almost as big as her entire body, the War God cut an imposing figure. And a handsome one.

“H– Hel’dran,” said Yendal. “I thought we agreed on 3 millennia.”

“But I just missed you so much!” he said, scooping her up into a crushing hug.

“Awww, how—” started Widow.

She never finished her sentence because at that moment, Yendal wormed her arm around the war god’s back and flicked a finger at Widow, sending her flying straight out of her divine realm. She gave a quick mental command to lock down her divine realm, double checked that Widow was gone, and only then did she finally return the War God’s embrace.

“Did you miss me too?” asked Hel’dran.

“Perhaps,” said Yendal, her voice muffled as her face was squished against his chest.

A moment later, he finally released her, and she returned to the ground, standing with her arms crossed as she tried to maintain as much dignity as possible.

“Why were you with her?” asked Yendal.

“She said she could show me the way in,” said Hel’dran with a grin. “And look at that! She could!”

“I need to improve my defenses…” Yendal muttered.

Hel’dran laughed loudly at that.

“I see you watched the duel as well,” he said a few seconds later, looking at the avatars.

“Of course I did.”

“What did you think?”

“My disciple has much to work on.”

“Ha!” said Hel’dran. “He does indeed! As does mine! But cut them some slack. They may be lacking, but what a glorious battle it was! So much passion! It reminds me of our old spars.”

“Except you never beat me in those.”

“But I did defeat you eventually. It looks like our disciples’ roles are reversed. This time, it is my disciple who is the insurmountable foe, and yours that is the underdog.”

“Not quite insurmountable.”

“For now. Unlike myself, my disciple is actually talented.”

“You’re plenty talented.”

“Not compared to him.”

“Well, yeah…”

Hel’dran laughed loudly again, then his laugh suddenly stopped as he locked eyes with Yendal. There was an odd gleam in his eyes that was soon reflected in hers.

“It’s been a while since we had a proper spar,” he said.

“It has,” said Yendal.

“I think we’re due for another.”

“I agree.”

“Then let’s—”

“Not here. I don’t want to have to rebuild my divine realm again. Let’s go to the usual spot.”

“Excellent!

***

In a hidden location deep in the void, the two deities faced each other, neither moving a muscle. In a nearby pocket protected by an impossibly complex magical weave, two more gods observed the battle. One was Widow, the Goddess of Stealth and Seduction. The other was a timid woman with blue skin, black hair, and wide white eyes in shock. She was Voghillia Vorg Valvoria, the Goddess of Bubbles.

“Wh– what’s going on?” asked Voghilia.

“Not too loudly, Voggy,” said Widow. “Just sit back, relax, and enjoy the show.”

Voggy gulped. She did not know what was going on, but Widow was on the same level as the Martial God in terms of reputation. A relatively young deity like Voghilia would not dare to offend such an ancient and powerful being. Still, considering that the duel had yet to start and that Widow was being otherwise calm, she felt safe to ask at least one more question.

“Why am I here?”

“You are about to witness one of the true spectacles of the multiverse, and you’re complaining?”

“N– No!” exclaimed Voggy. “I didn’t mean—!”

“Relax,” said Widow with a chuckle. “I was just kidding.”

She reached a hand out and brushed it down the side of Voggy’s face, making the younger goddess shudder.

“Fate is a funny thing,” said Widow. “It gives and it takes, and even we deities are at its mercy. You, however, are on the lucky end of fate this time. There will be plenty of time for questions later. For now, just enjoy the great gift that you are about to receive.”

Voghilia did not know how to respond to that; she chose to say nothing. Instead, she turned back to the pocket in the void, watching the two deities. They were still staring at each other, doing nothing. It was as though each was waiting for the other to make the first move. They spent almost a full day like this, with Voggy and Widow silently watching the entire time, until finally, one got impatient. Then began an experience that Voggy would never forget for all of eternity.

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