Sam stood, held aloft by invisible cables of Dao and will. Worldbreaker hung loosely in his right hand as it to signal that his vigilance would be unnecessary for a battle so far beneath him. The scattered remnants of the Ozeri clan faced him, teeth clenched and faces twisted in rage and terror. To them he must have seemed an avenging angel, come from the afterlife to punish their clan for their wrongdoings. With the defeat of Garev, their decline had been sealed, but Sam was intent to finish the job himself.

  “We will defeat you!” Brakus shouted, though even he didn’t appear to believe his words. His left hand shook as he held his sword and the stump of his right wriggled ineffectively as he tried to override Sam’s Dao to engage his regeneration. “You will never reach Paphos!”

  Sam raised an eyebrow, recognizing the last word. It was one of the destinations on the spatial orb he had looted from Garev. “Paphos. What is that?”

  Brakus sneered. “It is the domain of our Lady Aphrodite. The goddess of this realm.”

  Sam started laughing.

  “What is it, you bastard?” Brakus yelled, mustering the courage to advance, his sword trailing sparks.

  “It’s just that you said I would never reach Paphos, yet I hold Garev’s own teleportation device, keyed to that location. I would finish the battle here, but time is of the essence.” Sam smiled at Brakus. “Enjoy watching your clan fall apart. Farewell.”

  Brakus threw himself forward with a howl of fury, but Sam was already gone, tumbling through the veils of space towards the final boss of the dungeon.

  Sam emerged in a marble room, with a bench running along the sides. There was a closed golden door in front of him, the only break in the otherwise featureless wall. The door was made entirely out of metal, with only the seam in the middle standing out. It had no handles or any visible means of opening it.

  Sam tapped on the door with a finger, feeling for its strength. There was no reaction, even though the force would have shattered every bone in an F Ranker’s body.

  Shaking his head, Sam used his Authority, pulling at the door with his will. It slowly started to creak open, light shining through the cracks. Sam continued to pull, reaching in with his hands once the gap was wide enough. With every ounce of strength, he pulled, finally managing to open the door.

  Sighing, he stepped through, and into a shining garden, filled with exotic plants and fruits. The sky above was a perfect pastel blue with a glowing yellow sun shining down from above. The garden appeared to go on forever, but Sam could sense its edges, about two miles away from the center.

  In the center sat an old crone, hunched over a pond. There were dozens of such ponds, each of which showed a different scene. None of them were what Sam expected seeing on a pond bed, and were clearly scrying devices, showing something far away from the garden.

  “Aphrodite, I presume?” Sam said. “I have to say, I was expecting you to look… a little younger.”

  The old woman started, looking up at Sam with fury in her eyes. A shimmering strand of light emerged from the pond and sank into her body. Before Sam’s eyes a miraculous transformation took place, the wrinkles smoothing out and flesh returning to a youthful pinkish glow. From within the body of the old hag emerged a beautiful young woman, shining with an almost physical light.

  “Who are you?” Aphrodite asked, flaring at Sam. “How did you get her? The punishment for gazing upon my true form is death.”

  “What’s in those ponds?” Sam asked, avoiding Aphrodite’s question. “What was that strand of energy that made you look younger?”

  Aphrodite sneered. “It is a conduit to the Loam. I feast upon those mongrels’ life force to extend my own. As a true goddess should, I live upon the worship of my followers.”

  “That doesn’t sound like worship to me. It sounds like you’re forcing an entire civilization to feed your ego and vanity. If you were truly deserving of a longer life, you would have reached the necessary Rank to achieve it.” As Sam bantered, he scanned Aphrodite.

  Aphrodite

  Wight Queen

  Level ???

  Sam didn’t know what a Wight Queen was, but he assumed it had something to do with her draining life force. It didn’t really matter, unless she could turn the ability on him. He doubted that was possible, given that she seemed content to feast upon much weaker cultivators, rather than the D Rankers of the clans. Surely they would provide a much richer meal than the inhabitants of the Loam?

  “How rude,” Aphrodite hissed. “Scanning me without even introducing yourself first. Not that I do not know who you are, Sam Atlas. As soon as you revealed yourself to me, you became a part of my garden and a part of my Authority. It was a mistake coming here.”

  “What?” Sam asked, but instead of an answer, Aphrodite snapped her fingers. Sam’s arms and legs were pulled outwards, suspending him in the air. The force started to build, threatening to tear him apart.

  Sam used Dao Juggernaut and flexed, breaking apart the invisible chains binding him. “An Authority is only as strong as the wielder,” he chided. “Maybe you have some sort of boost from this garden, but it will never be strong enough to affect me.”

  Sam landed and in the same moment, pushed off, streaking towards Aphrodite. His hammer curved in from the right, aiming for the false goddess’ head.

  Aphrodite grimaced in annoyance and flicked her wrist, revealing a hand fan that quickly expanded into its full size. It was made out of razor sharp metal and when she used it to slap Sam’s blow aside, it was revealed to be exceptionally durable as well.

  She moved in, slashing at Sam’s neck. He bent backwards, using his inhuman flexibility to avoid it. His left hand came up and slapped the hand fan away, nearly tearing it out of Aphrodite’s grip.

  The Wight Queen snarled and for a moment, reverted to her original form. Her flesh became wrinkled and grey and her fingernails lengthened into claws. Purple light coated them as she sliced at Sam once more, this time scoring a hit.

  Sam felt an unpleasant cold feeling starting up his arm but he pushed it away with his Dao, the warm fire of Karmic Retribution licking at the intrusive power of Aphrodite. A cloud of purple light drifted out of Sam’s fingers as he pushed it away.

  Gripping the haft of his hammer more tightly, Sam thrust it towards Aphrodite like a spear. She used the hand fan like a shield, placing it in front of herself. Sam grinned and used Worldbreaker’s special ability, the hammer growing a hundredfold in an instant. Aphrodite was torn from her feet and sent into the wall, cracks spreading across what looked to Sam like open sky.

  Sam ran after her, Worldbreaker shrinking down to its normal size. He held out his left palm, facing Aphrodite. “Manifestation of Vengeance!” he barked, and a ray of destruction exploded from his hand and towards Aphrodite.

  “I grow tired of this,” Aphrodite said, curling her lip.

  She raised her own left palm and summoned a bulwark of bruise-purple energy before it. The Manifestation of Vengeance struck it a split second later, energy spilling across the shield. The beam diffracted into smaller rays, each of which sliced across the false sky of the demiplane.

  Aphrodite used her Authority once more, pressing the weight of her will down on Sam. While he was too strong for it to really affect him while under the influence of Dao Juggernaut, it could still push him around a bit. One such push, timed perfectly, sent him directly into the path of a thorn of dark stone rising up from the garden beneath. It tore a furrow across his abdomen, a strip of flesh coming off with it.

  Sam shattered the thorn with his hammer and began to delve deeper into his repertoire of buffs, using I Am My Vengeance. Coupled with the power of Dao Juggernaut, Sam’s strength grew many times over. He used that power to blitz Aphrodite, using his hammer to crush her against the realm’s edge. Only, when he withdrew his hammer, there was nothing there.

  “You are quite powerful,” Aphrodite admitted from behind Sam. “I haven’t needed to discipline anyone of your caliber in quite some time. Even the clan heads were never this troublesome.”

  As Sam turned his head, Aphrodite started to change, her body growing and warping into a larger and more bestial form. Her skin was stretched against the bones beneath, even though she shouldn't have had any bones as a D Ranker. Perhaps it was a part of her species. A Wight was a type of undead, wasn’t it?

  “You know, this whole dungeon theme seems a bit forced,” Sam observed. “The System can be quite odd at times. It easily falls into patterns that suit its laziness. This whole mythological thing is just another example of that.”

  “I have no idea what you are talking about,” Aphrodite hissed, her voice deeper and raspier than before. “It hardly matters. After killing you I shall devour your life essence and grow beyond my previous limitations.”

  Sam shook his head. “Guess the System didn’t tell you what you are. Sad.”

  “What I am?” Aphrodite asked. “What do you mean? I am who I am. Aphrodite the Wight Queen.”

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  “You were made by the System to some extent, or at least put here by it. This isn’t the real world. It's a dungeon.”

  “Pathetic, baseless lies,” Aphrodite hissed. “I am a perfect being. I could not have been created by something as paltry as the System.”

  Aphrodite struck at that moment, her hand fan sweeping out. Blades of purple fire left the weapon’s end as she swung, carving up the air as they sped towards Sam. Aphrodite made some more distance and began channeling a larger technique, seemingly apprehensive about engaging Sam in direct combat. After their earlier exchange, that was prudent. Aphrodite might have had the level and environmental advantage, but Sam was much stronger than her and faster too. At least, as long as he could maintain Dao Juggernaut.

  Sam brought Worldbreaker down, smashing apart the energy blades with pure force. The fire burned out against the implacable surface of the hammer, not even leaving a mark. The rest of the purple flame broke apart, going in every direction behind him.

  Unable to teleport within Aphrodite’s Authority, Sam instead leveraged his speed to close the gap. Aphrodite waved her hand in response and space warped, depositing Sam further away. Given that it was still limited by the size of the garden, that was only a minor inconvenience. Sam could still reach Aphrodite in other ways.

  Surrounding himself with his Dao, Sam tried to push through the constraints of Aphrodite’s Authority. Concentrating his power down to the limits of his body, Sam tried to reach Aphrodite once more. This time, he was more successful.

  He brute forced his way towards his foe, pushing aside her spatial magic. Then, as he reached the halfway point, feeling as if he were standing in front of a hurricane trying to push him back, Aphrodite attacked.

  Veins of purple light wove their way up and down her arms and a swirling orb of light gathered between her hands. The sphere ruptured, letting loose a thick beam of energy. Sam still wasn’t sure what specific element it corresponded to, but there was a bit of Death, accounting for the hunger for lifeforce.

  The overall power behind Aphrodite’s fighting style was more elemental than Dao based, given her almost monstrous species. Sam would have expected for something like a Wight Queen to be a type of undead, but perhaps Aphrodite’s sapience made a difference. In any case, it gave Sam an advantage. Someone of Aphrodite’s level and age would normally have an overwhelmingly powerful Dao, but she had replaced much of that potency with something that Sam was far more adept at resisting.

  Sam raised his left palm and widened his stance, preparing a thick shield in front of him. He had come a long way since he had first created a mana shield all the way back during the first days of the apocalypse. Now his shield was strong enough to block an asteroid with ease, even though it was barely a few feet across.

  Aphrodite’s technique hammered home against the shield, forcing Sam back a few steps. He could feel a drain upon his energy reserves from the contact, but it was far less than it would have been had it struck his bare flesh.

  Sam started to walk forwards, holding strong against the barrage. His feet left deep imprints in the soil of the garden, but it was surprisingly durable. Had he been on Earth, the sheer force he was exerting would have torn up miles of dirt.

  Aphrodite pushed back, increasing the flow of her power through her technique. Sam retaliated, a beam of his own Dao energy lancing out through the center of his shield. It pressed up against Aphrodite’s beam, and gave Sam a bit of breathing space.

  He used that space to finally close the gap, rushing forwards. Worldbreaker grew and grew, and he pointed it at Aphrodite like a spear. She had nowhere to turn, with the realm’s wall at her back. Just before the hammer struck, she teleported behind Sam, only to find that had been his plan all along.

  Sam pivoted, changing the size of his hammer to just about fill the space between himself and the far wall of the garden. This time, Aphrodite truly had no place to go. She summoned a dome of energy around herself, but was plucked from the ground, and crushed against the wall. Sam felt a pop through his hammer as the energy bubble snapped, and a satisfying crunch as his weapon made contact.

  When he drew it back, Aphrodite was revealed, crushed up against the wall. Her body was flattened against the illusory meadows of green depicted towards the base of the dimensional border, but otherwise she was intact. Aphrodite was almost two dimensional in places, but there was no blood or open wounds. It was very strange to look at.

  “Not bad,” she said through a mouth that looked more like a drawing of a mouth than anything else.

  “What the hell are you?” Sam asked.

  Instead of answering with words, Aphrodite answered by inflating herself, flattened body parts expanding back to their normal size as if they were balloons.

  Sam didn’t let her finish her regeneration and raced in with his hammer, bringing it down to its normal size. He crashed into Aphrodite, striking with his hammer so quickly that it almost appeared to be in two places at once. The Wight Queen laughed, letting the blows hit her. She simply weathered the assault, unyielding.

  Sam narrowed his eyes and used Worldsense, scanning Aphrodite’s Dao and elemental energy usage. Her body glowed a bright purple, and as he looked deeper, he realized what was going on.

  “You made your entire body a single entity?” Sam asked. “There’s no blood because it no longer exists. You’re like a person made out of rubber.”

  “I shrugged off the weakness of the flesh long before reaching E Rank,” Aphrodite gloated. “Now, as a D Ranker, I am more resilient than any other cultivator at my level can hope to be.”

  She spun around, her hand fan letting out a keening whine as it cut through the air before it. Sam parried the blow, but was shocked to find that the strike simply passed through his hammer and directly touched his skin. A torrent of blood spilled out from his neck, far more than should have been there at his Rank. Rather than fall to the ground it was sucked towards Aphrodite, sinking into her skin. She glowed with a faint internal light for a moment and then returned to normal. Only, there was a slight difference. Her eyes were bright red.

  “What the fu-” Sam said before Aphrodite lashed out, her movements so fast that he couldn’t track them. Her fan slashed straight through all of his protections and cleaved his left arm clean off. As more blood welled up, it also started to drift Aphrodite’s way. Rather than letting this hammer, Sam forcibly cauterized his wound with his Authority, grimacing against the pain.

  A single drop reached Aphrodite, but it wasn’t enough. Her eyes only flashed for a brief moment, not giving her enough time to do anything. Sam, now aware of the Wight Queen’s strange ability, coated himself in a layer of his Dao, commanding it to atomize any blood that left his body.

  As his arm began to regrow, he galvanized his Dao into motion, focusing on avenging the wound he had just suffered. The loss of a major limb, even if it was only temporary, was more than enough to fuel Descent of the Heavenly Judge.

  Sam used his most powerful attack skill as soon as he had gathered enough power, aiming directly at Aphrodite’s torso. The false goddess let out a tinkling laugh and for the first time in the battle, sank into a proper fighting stance. She held her hand fan out before her like a shield. Images flashed over the fan, showing people and places that Sam didn’t recognize. Flames covered the images almost as soon as they showed up, and the hand fan slowly grew brighter, with the same red light that had filled Aphrodite’s eyes pulsating from within.

  As Sam swung his hammer, a glowing nova of transcendent power gathering around it, Aphrodite struck the back of her fan with the flat of her free hand. A ripple coursed through reality from the impact point, shaking the entire dimensional space.

  Sam felt his very being quiver as the wave passed through him. His health dropped so quickly that almost a quarter was gone in less than a second. He fought to keep himself standing, weakness spread through every corner of his body. He shook like a leaf, but managed to keep going, pouring every last iota of power into his Ethereal skill. His hammer, looking more like a sun affixed to a metal hand, blasted aside Aphrodite’s hand fan and struck her directly. A cavitation bubble of pure energy formed, the exchange so fast that reality took a moment to catch up.

  Aphrodite was standing in front of Sam one moment, and bouncing around the garden the next. Her upper body was gone, completely erased from existence. Sam felt no rush of essence, however, and he knew that the Wight Queen wasn’t dead yet. Her legs moved, as if trying to walk on thin air. Somehow, it worked. The remnants of Aphrodite paused midair, and stared to rebuild themselves.

  “Oh hell no!” Sam barked, and launched himself towards Aphrodite. Or at least, he tried to. He fell over instead. As he caught a glimpse of his hands, so withered that they looked like that of a corpse, he paled.

  “You have talent but that means nothing before me,” Aphrodite said, her voice growing clearer and clearer as her mouth reformed. “It is time to end this. Your life will taste sweeter than the most delectable of desserts.”

  “No,” Sam gritted out. He forced himself to his feet, feeling as if he were laboring under the gravity of a star. “It won’t. I don’t plan on dying here.”

  “And how do you intend to avoid that? You are utterly spent. You wasted your ultimate skill on me.”

  Sam laughed. “You didn’t even bother checking what Dao I was using? Trust me, I’m stronger at this part of the battle than I ever was before.” A grin spread across his face. “Descent of the Heavenly Judge!”

  Sam’s presence spilled out across the garden, a wave of aura briefly pushing back Aphrodite’s own. She quickly regained control over her domain, but it was too late. Sam became the embodiment of vengeance, the armor of a demonic executioner surrounding him. He moved so quickly that Aphrodite didn’t even have time to warp space until he was almost at her. She desperately grasped at control, managing to push Sam back a few hundred feet.

  Sam’s left arm grew back just in time for him to grab Worldbreaker with it, using all of his strength to swing the hammer. While the majority of the impact was contained within Sam’s Dao, the hammer was still an important part.

  “Fine,” Aphrodite hissed. “If you want to burn yourself out, I will not try to stop you. You want to trade our ultimate techniques? Fine. I shall indulge you.” The false goddess’ hand fan grew in size, until it was larger than its own wielder. “My fan is no mere weapon. It is a conceptual embodiment of myself. It is the instrument through which I control this world. Through which I reign absolute.”

  Sam laughed, watching as Aphrodite seemingly wasted time. Worldbreaker swung directly towards her head, smashing through the hand fan like it was made of paper. The weapon fell apart in Aphrodite’s hands, motes of fabric sinking into her flesh.

  She cocked back her fist and punched, her fist moving faster than Sam could track. Aphrodite drove her punch directly into the center of Worldbreaker, fighting back against Sam’s Ethereal skill. A flash of smug glee covered her face before it was replaced by shock as Sam forced her arm backwards.

  “You didn’t believe me when I said I was stronger than ever before, did you?” Sam asked. “What an idiot.”

  Aphrodite let out a scream as her arm folded in on itself and Sam’s hammer descended to claim the Wight Queen’s soul. She died a moment later, her Dao Core shattering along with the rest of her body.

  The garden faded away, leaving Sam standing in the midst of a flaming city. He was surrounded by dead bodies. He gritted his teeth in rage and disgust, but there was nothing he could do for the people Aphrodite had butchered. He hadn’t seen the full extent of the destruction by watching the images flashing by on the Wight Queen’s hand fan, but from the looks of it the entire dungeon had been effected.

  “Why did you bring me here?” Sam asked, knowing that the System was listening. “Just to taunt me? To tell me that no matter how strong I get, I will never be able to save everybody?”

  The World Dungeon faded away, but the System’s silence was enough of an answer for Sam.