Too Stubborn to Die

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.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

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.

“Aww, 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 white eyes wide with 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.