"Why are you so goddamned unkillable?" Unscripted entity ∞∞∞∞∞ complained.
"Right back at you."
Despite millions of clashes in lee, majority of them where neither stepped back even with a sword or skeletal weapon in their hearts and only dragged back by their Apparitions into their Domains or his opponent transporting its physical body back by Will, Ebony had not grown to like his opponent unlike his battles with Gao' Larg or Apa.
This ti, he had no joy in his battles.
He wasn't quite sure how long it took. There was no moon for him to check the ti.
But both he and his opponent had evolved their techniques, spells, and even their fighting styles. Adapted to the current state where they had been in limbo for an unknown amount of ti.
Unscripted had the advantage in close combat in the beginning, as Ebony still hadn't adapted fast enough, but that was long ago.
Both of them had unloaded their plum bombs against each other thousands of tis. Ebony was able to push back and reduce the size and influence of Unscripted's Domain, no matter how good it was at eating through his mana.
His advantage in mana regeneration stayed constant.
What Ebony found out was that this Unscripted did not have a threshold.
As long as it had half a breath, Ebony couldn't get rid of it.
Perhaps it was from its first few scripts but Ebony had learned a few million magical exchanges ago that Unscripted could burn away the Corefla of Sequester. That made his internal counter for how much mana was stuck into his target inaccurate.
Yet, it was currently his only hope of taking this Potential robber down for good.
"You ambitionless fool, just give your body already. I could do so much more. Entire Worldcores would bow at my feet. Their mana, their power would all be mine."
"This again. I didn't see any injection of ambition into you, so where did this co from?"
"What I don't get is you! Where is your ambition? We could be rulers who stand above all mortals. Few could challenge our might. And you!? All you care for is a woman. Pathetic."
"Taking over a world is easy enough; you call that ambitious? I could do that in weeks, if not days. But a safe family, a safe ho. That would take a lifeti, and I may still not succeed. Even say, Empire of Ebbing Waves, they have Navin and Oplot, they have their old ancestors, they could even call people from offworld who left Elcra through their World Dungeon in the past. They have the Elves, and I could probably still wear them out once I evolve; not even their city's mana reserves could last. Though I probably can't take over a mature Domain, so my efforts would be stopped short of their forests." Ebony had spent a lot of ti with his new Fortifications and stats.
He better understood why he simulated having so much trouble with Navin and Oplot. Even with his new strength, taking them down wouldn't be sothing as easy as chopping cabbages and he didn't even know what they were fully capable of.
Not that he wanted to take the Empire down. He didn't see a reason he would ever do that. Hence, he couldn't understand where Unscripted was coming from with its world-ruling desire.
No doubt, Unscripted had so of Ebony's mories. And, they've had plenty of chances for conversation. He dared say, more than he'd conversed with Mr Guru. The Telepath probably knew Ebony better though.
Ebony was glad to find out that he could survive with just his brain and heart. It hadn't been easy at the start. Unscripted had a deep advantage in terms of power and had evolved against him much faster than he could adapt. It could escape rather smoothly, no matter how deep Ebony tried to push his mana, one of his few advantages.
In each other's Domain, they couldn't do much against each other. They both learned ways, created counterasures to fight effectively in each other's Domains but they'd modified their Domains so many tis to counter each other's counters.
It got dry after….he wasn't sure. He wasn't keeping count because it was so fun to have an opponent finding counters to him so easily. But they've been having the sa fight, sa result for much too long.
Ebony felt his counter for Corefla of Sequester in the quintillions. Most of it was probably lost, digested or just faded. Maybe removed by its Domain, or not carried over when it turns its body to travel along with its Will.
Weirdly enough, Unscripted couldn't copy Dusk's tree form fully.
Making its tree shelter where it sends its body to, should it be at risk of annihilation, not nearly as tough as Dusk. Not even close.
He'd gotten close enough to attack its shelter on thousands of occasions, but every ti it exploded all its bombs that didn't hurt itself, only Ebony. Ebony managed to protect his head and heart and had to rest inside Dusk with just a head, spine and a heart. Everything else was eaten through, digested by watery sand, muddy waters. Healing that took…ti. It happened enough tis that his mana chassis conceived a thod to heal itself.
Worse still, Unscripted managed to mix Soul-Basillisk Pseodo Imitation roar into its bombs or its elents.
Its bombs were an accumulation of essence and a soul attack.
Leaving Ebony in absolute shambles because not even his sealing was healing him properly, with his soul injured and mana chassis sanded smooth. Shutting his Unique Skill down by a good portion.
Unscripted had been evolving. It had evolved.
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Ebony had been adapting. Evolving.
Now he was bored.
And he hadn't evolved. All thanks to Unscripted's willpower. His Potential robber was furiously hanging on.
The Notifications had been right. Not by adding strength or skills but by giving Unscripted its own will and desire. It was 'perfected'.
But perfected no more.
Neither of them was improving anymore. They've stopped improvising. Stopped creating. Stopped experinting. Every move was 'perfected' against each other to the best of their abilities.
That annoyed Ebony more than Unscripted's attitude.
Unscripted had feared for its life.
After they got to the point where it lost its advantage in lee when Ebony figured out Formlessness enough to combat it, it was always running. Always hiding.
He'd chuck Dusk right into Unscripted's tree multiple tis. Each ti, it would run with its annoying body transferal with Will to a separate Domain that it set up with either an Apparition or a water-sand pigeon scout.
This ti, Ebony was certain he learned how to track all tiny bits of Will network. And he had 5 Turtle Forts at every single one of his hundreds of hideouts. Every single Turtle Fort had enough Will and mana to do unspeakable things that Grandmaster Ebony couldn't even simulate.
The adows, unsurprisingly, stretched out pretty much endlessly in every direction.
Ebony had his network, and so did Unscripted. Unscripted took more land over ti, but its control over each was weaker. Perhaps this expansion of its reach and Domain was what gave it the ambition of ruling a world or its inhabitants.
The biggest takeaway from their long, long battle on many fronts wasn't how he learned the ways of fighting, finding, and ssing with Will. It wasn't how he probably improved his martial arts by leaps, nor his anti-anti-...anti-magic.
The skill that got the most out of this fight seed to be Resolve Cadence.
The sa boring old battle without improvents for the past few….centuries, at the very least by his perception, had strengthened his resolve. He did not want to stagnate. It was one thing if they continued improving and battled, another if both were stagnating.
It was a short ti, he could easily simulate centuries' worth of battles. But it was long enough for him to understand his opponent feared death, feared not having a chance to bring this, bring himself out. Even if it was a false hope given by his evolution trial.
Dusk rocketed into Unscripted's main base and crashed directly into the weaker tree that broke down gravity and ice upon contact. Their Wils ramd into each other as they struggled to rip control over each other within this space.
All his Turtle Forts broke out of stealth, Sequester hiding their existence from Ebony himself and attacked at the sa ti. Their blazing fires suffocated the evolutionary space as their plums went off against Unscripted's bony construction of a bomb.
A flicker of understanding ran through Unscripted's elental eye sockets when it felt all of its possible escape routes being targeted. Not a single safehouse left to 'teleport' himself to.
Ebony managed to gravitationally anchor himself to Unscripted with a gravitational delay on himself. It failed to trick Unscripted, but his Shades tricked it.
With his hands on Unscripted, Ebony's Will punched in and attempted to activate his Coreflas of Sequester. If he failed and nothing burst, then so be it; he would fight yet again.
If his flas existed sowhere deep within, it would be far simpler.
There was enough mana infused into Unscripted that it could kill Ebony himself a dozen tis over.
Staring at each other, Unscripted spoke first 'We could've lived… as one. I'll let your soul and mories stick around so. Please give a chance. There's no need to kill….'
'You've given up. You're begging. You've stopped fighting, stopped evolving. I don't need any of that in . Return what's mine."
It was a little anti-climacti,c but he didn't feel much when he snapped Unscripted for the last ti.
There was no more Willpower in its fervour. Only….resignation.
'A pity.' Ebony hid in Dusk to prevent himself from getting killed by the imnse amount of muddy liquid flas that spurted out of Unscripted.
'Ting' 'Combat of Ascendancy Unscripted Perfected Trial completed. Baseline Potential infusing…'
"Entity Ebony Ri has Ascended onto the Throne of Attrition. As a King of Attrition, Providence favours the Entity in all battles of attrition in the following comparative;
64 x Unclassed
32 x Journeyn
16 x Master
8 x Grandmaster
4 x King
2 x Emperor
1 x King of Attrition
Providence favouring is superseded by an Emperor of Attrition and above.'
"Certainly unheard of. What is providence in this context? So I have twice as much of this…providence against any other Emperor except another King of Attrition?' Ebony didn't expect an answer, hence his minor surprise when he received one.
'Colloquially Luck.
Colloquially Fate
Colloquially Destiny
Colloquially Providence.'
He notices that this probably ans all other Kings and above are 'Kings' of sothing and are luckier, fated to have an advantage in whatever they are a 'King' of.
'Fascinating….does it work for monsters too? Is that why so Kings feel so special in certain cases? Is that why my teachers on Cinderash are so—intimidating in their areas of speciality and why Xengs feel unbeatable? Maybe not all Kings go through this Trial. Do all Kings get the sa differential providence? So I have 4 tis less Providence against another King, should we fit into any situation where they are a 'King' over ? Or is there so result-based providence difference between evolutionary ranks? I don't know, I have so little information.'
'Ting' 'Erasure of mories of Ascendancy Trial and King's Providence will comnce as evolution comnces.' The unfeeling noise keyed in understanding without any language into his mind.
"Complete erasure? Co on, I've got so nice gravity skill creations I made here. Even a gravity enhancent spell." There was so much more he would lose if his mories were erased. A gravity augntation spell was just one of many.
His weaponry runic formulas for one, he made runes that gave projectile weapons like guns and rail beams more powerful than if he were to fire off the spell with just his mind.
Not even Mr Guru or the Ning Saintess could help if these mories never existed.
"Evolution comncing."
As much as a pity as it was, Ebony didn't care.
He might not get back the exact sa skill, spell or technique once he got back to the real world since he wouldn't have an exact counter evolved to match him to learn from, but Ebony had the confidence to relearn what he learned here in so form or capacity.
It was only a matter of ti.
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