Book 5: Chapter 35

Cracks of divine energy traced lines across and then pierced through the hull of Yendal’s avatar, glowing with golden light. But that didn’t slow her for even a second as they continued to spar back and forth.

There wasn’t a chance in the multiverse that Yendal was going to let him off easily. He had come to her for help, and she was going to make him work.

But as lightning-fast clashes took them from one end to the other in a desperate game of cat and mouse, it was evident that she was pushing her avatar too far.

It wasn’t just the divine energy radiating from the shard within the avatar that was telling, but the way its body groaned under the pressure of her power. If she didn’t tone things down, the whole thing might blow up. What good would she be as an instructor if such things could prevent her from doing her job?

The unchanged expression etched across her face told him that she might just be willing to let that happen, and instead of slowing down, the avatar seemed to grow more powerful, and faster still.

They danced back and forth for hours, and the closer he got to touching her, the faster and more evasive she got, ignoring the sounds coming from her now-steaming avatar.

And Aaron was matching it. Of course, he stood no chance against an actual god, or even a mid- to high-C-grade in all likelihood. But the avatar was simply a constructed shell, bound to Yendal’s power by the divine shard within it, and it was having its limits tested.

“Is that all you’ve got?” Yendal mocked as she dodged him around the temple, her figure a constant blur of golden divine light.

But Aaron just smirked in response. She talked big, but he could feel that her avatar was pushed to its absolute limits just to keep out of his reach. In fact, he doubted it could even attack while maintaining its current speed.

Meanwhile, Aaron felt perfect. Despite how fast he was moving, he felt in complete control of every inch of his body, able to move it down to the millimetre. It was incredible, and he wasn't sure if he had ever had such tight control over himself, let alone now that he was as powerful as he was.

Even as his ghost wings accelerated further, greedily sucking in all the energy he fed them, it mattered little. He could move any which way on a whim, and his mana anchors were radiating power without a thought, adjusting naturally to his movements, and empowering him without a thought.

This was how it was meant to be done, and his lips creased wider as he closed in on Yendal. She could escape for now, but with each passing of their tireless fight, he was getting closer, and she had reached her ceiling.

He didn’t even need to try and read her avatar’s fate, not that it was easy to do so. Divine energy, even within a shell like the avatar, was incredibly hard to read. But he could read everything else. Every tiny movement. The most subtle of changes in her otherwise blank expression.

And he was getting better at it.

However, Aaron too was pushing his soul to its limit. It might have only been an avatar, but it was the avatar of Yendal the Empty-Handed, one of the greatest gods of the multiverse, and to even touch her required immense talent.

His fingertips reached out, missing by a hair’s breadth. It excited him to get so close, and for a moment he forgot himself, pushing himself far beyond his own limits.

He just needed to get a bit closer.

It felt like his control over his mana anchors was getting stronger by the second as he practically forced a torrent of mana out, propelling himself faster and with ever-increasing agility.

Aaron was getting so awfully close. Now was the moment. If he just pushed himself a bit further… He needed this. He needed it now. He was reminded of Talia, Soohyun, and Joseph. Their mission was difficult, and every passing day, as good as it was for his training, increased the risk of losing more obelisks.

There, just a bit further!

He needed more! More energy. More power! More speed!

Aaron’s eyes were completely white, and his mind was daringly close to madness as he compelled himself to push even harder than he himself could imagine.

He had to. There was no choice. This wasn’t just training. He was proving his place in the multiverse. His place as a guardian of his world, and its many people.

His core was humming with power as he pushed it further over the edge, reaching out to grab hold of his prize.

So determined was he that he didn’t even notice the pain. The pressure of his soul and body pulling itself apart.

“STOP!”

Aaron blinked. There was urgency in Yendal’s voice, and the look on her face was one of genuine worry.

“Huh? What?” Aaron panted as he came to a halt, suddenly realizing how far he had pushed himself. His very soul was only seconds away from being destroyed, and he quickly munched down soul-mending food.

“Idiot,” Yendal huffed, but surprisingly, anger wasn’t painted on her face. Her worry faded, and something that almost looked like pride flashed across her face before she returned to her usual blank look. “Good improvement. But try not to destroy your soul next time. Now, when you’re ready, come again.”

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Aaron nodded, and his soul quickly healed. The moment he was ready, he flung himself straight back at her without warning. Not that she needed it. While Aaron might have been good at reading movements, compared to her, he was blind.

But unlike the cracked and leaky avatar, Aaron hadn’t reached his ceiling. In fact, even then his anchors were improving rapidly. Each exchange made him feel stronger than the last.

His training was far beyond simply stopping Ikran. He was truly mastering his anchors against Yendal, and the overall improvements he felt were greater than months of other training.

She was right, though. He had to dial back a bit. Everything would be for nought if he destroyed his soul, and so another two full days of training passed as he took an ever so slightly more measured approach. And not only did his soul survive the process, but slowing down seemed to give him an edge, helping him fine-tune his mana and increasing his gains further.

As one particularly long exchange dragged on, Aaron throwing everything he had at the avatar, he noticed the glow of celestial light growing stronger, and the energy escaping from the machine increasingly wild and unmanaged.

Soon arcs of golden light were zapping around the temple as he chased her, sparking as they hit things.

And then, as Yendal poured out another burst of divine energy to escape one of his ambushes, the avatar went critical.

Genuinely worried about the temple, and perhaps even those outside of it, he wrapped himself around the avatar as it exploded into blinding light, absorbing the destructive power into himself.

Aaron felt his reverse anchors going wild, expanding rapidly against the massive influx of divine energy, and his body was ripped apart.

Of course, only seconds later, he rebuilt himself, and though it hurt a bit, his temple had survived.

“Dammit, Yendie, you could have warned me.”

Luckily, the divine shard appeared to be in one piece, and it picked it up.

A second later, he heard a stiff throat clearing from the other room and walked over to find Yendal’s face on the viewing screen.

The moment he walked into the other room and caught her gaze, Yendal slammed a fist into her palm and bowed.

“I didn’t expect it to blow up so soon. You did well. You pushed my avatar to its limits faster than expected. Impressive. Do not worry, though; I’ll build another. A stronger one this time. But until then, your training is complete.”

“Is it now?” Aaron grinned. “Thanks, Yendie. I already feel so much stronger.”

As he spoke, Aaron opened his System and reviewed his mana anchor progress. He had come a long way, and his Partitioned anchors in particular were getting very close to completion.

Partitioned Mana Anchors (80%)

Reverse Mana Anchors (40%)

Expanded Mana Anchors (30%)

Imbuing Mana Anchors (40%)

Detached Mana Anchors (25%)

Focused Mana Anchors (40%)

“Okay, now that is an improvement. I should have come here sooner.”

But his anchors were only half of it. He felt like a new man, and had a feeling that he wouldn’t need a similar session of training until at least well into C-grade.

“Thanks again, Yendie. I don’t know what I’d do without your training.”

He was so pleased with the results that he hadn’t realized at first that he wasn’t scolded for using her nickname. In fact, she didn’t even look mad at him.

“Don’t mention it. You are my disciple, after all. I can’t have you out there embarrassing yourself in my name, now can I?”

She might have wanted to come across tough, but that wasn’t how it sounded to Aaron.

“No, can’t have that,” Aaron said, repeating her gesture, pounding a fist into his palm and bowing, which earned a slight grin from Yendal.

“Don’t go getting a big head. You’re still a worm of the multiverse, a lowly D-grade. You have much to learn, and have no room to slack off. Not as the holder of the Martial God’s True Blessing!”

“I get it.” Aaron bowed again, enjoying his master’s good mood, and not wanting to ruin it.

“Goodbye, Aaron. I will see you again later,” Yendal waved, and her image disappeared.

Aaron had a good stretch. It had been at least a week of training, maybe two, and he was feeling stiff.

Finishing up, he left the temple. He had a thal’kesh to catch.

But the moment he got outside, he stopped. The entire area around the temple had been cautioned off, and dozens of goblins were pushing back a crowd of concerned-looking people. He even spotted Treg arguing with Julius somewhere off to the side.

Spotting Sooty barking orders at some people, he wandered over.

“What in the hell is going on around here?”

“Oh, thank the goblin god! Ya alive, bossman!” Sooty dropped to his knees. “We were getting worried about you! What with all that strange energy coming out of the temple.”

“Huh? Wait, what strange energy?”

“It was incredible. It felt like a god was ascending in there… not that I’ve ever sensed such a thing. But seriously, that power, it wasn’t all yers was it?”

“Oh, right, the divine energy. No, that was Yendal. During our sparring, she pushed one of her avatars too far, and it ended up exploding.”

When he said it out loud, it sounded a lot worse than it had felt at the time. And it had been bad then, too. In fact, he had been worried that the explosion might go beyond the temple if he didn’t shield it with his own body, and the more he thought about it, the more everyone’s reaction made sense.

“Sorry,” Aaron grimaced.

“Aaron!” Julius said, running over with arms held wide. “We were worried.”

“Okay, we’re on hugging terms now, are we?” Aaron said as Julius pulled him in tightly.

“I don’t know what we’d do without you.”

Before long, the crowd had moved in close, pressing up against Aaron. They hadn’t just been worried about the explosion; they were worried about him. And he knew it wasn’t just his personality; they depended on him, and he felt a stronger weight of responsibility than perhaps he ever had in his life.

The moment was ruined a little, though. When the goblin girls started to gather around and praise him, he saw the jealousy on both Sooty and Mork and Gork.

“Okay, okay,” Aaron raised his hands. “Everything is okay. Can we get a little bit of personal space?”

“You heard him!” Julius shouted. “Back off, everyone!”

The moment the crowd had settled down a bit, Aaron looked back toward the sky. He was responsible for these people, whether he liked it or not, and he had a job to do.

“Look after them,” Aaron said, tapping Julius on the shoulder and shooting up into the clouds.

It was time to get to work. He couldn’t let any more obelisks get destroyed. Their world’s future depended upon it.