"Why are you so goddamned unkillable?" Unscripted entity ∞∞∞∞∞ complained.

"Right back at you."

Despite millions of clashes in melee, 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 time, 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 time.

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 time.

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 times. 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 Coreflame 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 me 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 come 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 home. That would take me a lifetime, 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 time 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 something 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 some of Ebony's memories. 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 countermeasures to fight effectively in each other's Domains but they'd modified their Domains so many times 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 same fight, same result for much too long.

Ebony felt his counter for Coreflame 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 time 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…time. It happened enough times that his mana chassis conceived a method to heal itself.

Worse still, Unscripted managed to mix Soul-Basillisk Pseodo Imitation roar into its bombs or its elements.

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 experimenting. 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 melee 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 times. Each time, 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 time, 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 meadows, unsurprisingly, stretched out pretty much endlessly in every direction.

Ebony had his network, and so did Unscripted. Unscripted took more land over time, 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 messing 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 seemed to be Resolve Cadence.

The same boring old battle without improvements 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 time, 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 rammed 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 same time. 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 elemental 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 Coreflames of Sequester. If he failed and nothing burst, then so be it; he would fight yet again.

If his flames existed somewhere deep within, it would be far simpler.

There was enough mana infused into Unscripted that it could kill Ebony himself a dozen times over.

Staring at each other, Unscripted spoke first 'We could've lived… as one. I'll let your soul and memories stick around so. Please give me 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 me. Return what's mine."

It was a little anti-climacti,c but he didn't feel much when he snapped Unscripted for the last time.

There was no more Willpower in its fervour. Only….resignation.

'A pity.' Ebony hid in Dusk to prevent himself from getting killed by the immense amount of muddy liquid flames that spurted out of Unscripted.

'Ting' 'Combat of Ascendancy Unscripted Perfected Trial completed. Baseline Potential infusing…'

"Entity Ebony Rime 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 Journeymen

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 means all other Kings and above are 'Kings' of something 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 some 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 same differential providence? So I have 4 times less Providence against another King, should we fit into any situation where they are a 'King' over me? Or is there some result-based providence difference between evolutionary ranks? I don't know, I have so little information.'

'Ting' 'Erasure of memories of Ascendancy Trial and King's Providence will commence as evolution commences.' The unfeeling noise keyed in understanding without any language into his mind.

"Complete erasure? Come on, I've got some nice gravity skill creations I made here. Even a gravity enhancement spell." There was so much more he would lose if his memories were erased. A gravity augmentation 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 memories never existed.

"Evolution commencing."

As much as a pity as it was, Ebony didn't care.

He might not get back the exact same 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 some form or capacity.

It was only a matter of time.

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