"Well then," Leo said, "why don't we become gods?"
They went to Valse, who was now free from the hospital chains. They took him to their castle and provided him a room to stay in. After a while, he settled in. In the next three days, he was ready to talk. Leo and Vultra both raised an eyebrow as they waited for Valse to speak, but he was busy finishing the meal he had been given.
Vultra said, "I didn't know that the multiversal god also has an appetite."
Leo laughed and added, "Even gods feel hungry."
Valse answered both of them, saying, "You two still crack jokes even after all this that has happened. Well, you don't know what we've been through."
Vultra replied, "But isn't it best to be positive in all situations? Isn't that right, Leo?"
"Right," Leo said.
Valse said, "You two… Well, I have contacted Hades. He will open the gates to Tartarus any time we are ready."
"Sheeesh," Leo said. "Give me a break."
"Now then, on to the main matter we were called here for. How do we go about the training?" Leo asked.
Valse said, "Well, I have arranged a dimension where you both can train. To be clear, you both won't see one another till you're done with your training. Got that?"
Vultra and Leo shrugged. Valse turned serious as he sipped his cup of tea.
He said, "Even though you both will enter the dimension at the same time, you will be separated from the gate. And there are only two ways to get out of the dimension: either you master your specific domains completely, or the second, least favorable option—which is a bit dark…" He paused for a moment. "...is to die. Your body will automatically get transported out of the dimension, and you will be mourned."
"So, do you guys still want to continue?"
Leo asked him, "Wait a moment. Do any of you gods go through this training?"
Valse smirked as he said, "To be honest, we didn't go through any training because we were born as gods. So we didn't need to go through any of this, and our positions were assigned to us automatically. It wasn't really anything."
Leo got angry but concealed it as he asked once more, "What about Hercules and Perseus?"
Valse said, "Well, technically, they both have godly blood running through them, so it wasn't a problem. They didn't need to go through any of that trouble. The process you both are about to go through is for mortals that want to ascend to godhood."
"So is that all?" Vultra asked.
Valse replied, "That is all the information I needed to tell you."
Vultra smirked. "I don't care about what is going on. Just skip to the process already."
Valse, who had just finished sipping his tea, smirked as he said, "Well then, why wait?"
Valse smirked again. "This is just stage one. Get ready." He unleashed his powers. The whole room they were in disintegrated as they levitated in the air. The portal opened. It acted like a black hole—but it didn't devour or destroy anything; it just acted violently, though it did no damage.
Valse said to them while smirking, "After this portal, your tests await. If you still have the balls to go in, I wish you guys good luck. But till then, I'll see you both on the other side."
Vultra and Leo looked at each other as Vultra said, "This is just another challenge I need to overcome."
Leo said, "I'll just destroy anything that comes my way. Any limits on me—I'll just break them."
"Well then," Vultra said, "lead the way."
"I'll see you later," Leo said. "Bye, bro. Remember—after this, I'm taking your sister out on a date."
Vultra got so angry he lashed out, wanting to punch Leo, but Leo countered, performing a monkey flip that sent Vultra into the portal. Leo also jumped into the portal.
Vultra stepped through the swirling portal, his eyes sharp as the dimensions shifted around him. The light dimmed instantly, replaced by a vast sky of infinite black veined with silver moonlight. He landed on a shadowed platform suspended in void—a realm governed by stillness, silence, and the power of Yin.
This was his domain.
Elsewhere, in a separate plane of the dimension, Leo entered a brilliant domain of golden flame and radiant wind—Yang in its purest form. He faced a gate of light that pulsed with intense heat. His battles had yet to begin.
Back in the realm of Yin, Vultra walked forward calmly. The air was cool but heavy, as if pressing against his thoughts, trying to pull him inward. He welcomed it. The power of Yin wasn't about domination—it was about knowing oneself completely, embracing the silence, the past, and the pain.
Before him stood his first opponent: a younger version of himself. Calm, confident, untouched by war or trauma. This self radiated purity of spirit, a Yin untested by suffering.
Their fight was elegant. Each movement was mirrored—Vultra parried with his knuckles while his younger self evaded in graceful arcs. Their bodies became silhouettes in motion, blending into the shadows. It wasn't a violent clash, but a dance of perception.
Vultra whispered, "You lack weight. Let me show you what it costs to carry the past."
He snapped forward with a serpent-like strike, his Yin aura coiling around his arm, and tapped his younger self's chest. A burst of darkness sealed the figure in place, cocooned in a silent orb of moonlight.
The next opponent emerged—himself after the massacre, soaked in hatred, Yin twisted into vengeance. This version snarled, fingers clawed like beasts, eyes burning with despair.
This battle was sharp, erratic. The berserk Vultra launched himself like a shadowy wraith, using corrupted Yin to amplify his speed and bloodlust. Vultra responded with control—his Yin was refined, disciplined. He melted into the shadows and reappeared behind his enemy, striking key nerves, disarming him with pressure points.
"You were lost in the dark," he said, holding the berserk self in a chokehold. "But I made it out."
With a whisper, he sealed him with black lotus energy that bloomed into silence.
The next one was dangerous: the war general Vultra, whose Yin had been fused with celestial darkness. His armor was obsidian, trimmed with voidsteel, and his presence was oppressive. His Yin was no longer internal—it stretched outward, suffocating light itself.
Their fight shook the platform. Vultra clashed with his general form in bursts of silent explosions. Each strike echoed inside the soul rather than the ears. Their shadows battled independently, clawing at each other in mirrored duels.
When the general lifted a massive halberd of anti-light, Vultra spun low, launching a black crescent kick charged with Yin mist that tore through the weapon's shaft. He dashed forward, palm glowing with ghostly symbols, and struck the general's chest in five successive points—breaking the Yin flow.
"You forgot Yin is not just destruction," he muttered. "It is reflection."
He sealed the general form with reverence, allowing the shadows to consume him peacefully.
But then came the worst version yet—the reincarnated Vultra, one who had mastered Yin through countless lives, becoming a phantom sage. He floated an inch above the ground, eyes closed, body wrapped in flowing black robes that shimmered like starlight. He didn't attack immediately. He just raised a hand—and Vultra's body almost froze.
The ambient Yin weighed tenfold heavier now.
This battle was not physical—it was spiritual.
Vultra closed his eyes and let his breath slow. His mind opened. Shadows wrapped around him protectively. He countered not with speed, but with clarity. He slipped between illusions, unraveled binding seals, and, when the time was right, he materialized behind his opponent and sealed him with a single, silent strike to the base of the neck.
The phantom sage dissipated without resistance.
And yet... the arena did not fade.
Vultra now stared at the rest of them, getting angrier. He shouted, "Why don't you all go to hell?" as he pulled out double katanas and rushed toward his next opponent—Sealed Vultra, the version imprisoned by the gods.
Sealed Vultra charged at him, using chains as weapons, dark magic coating them in a violent, flaming aura. Vultra saw the flaming chains and knew speed was crucial. He unleashed a flurry of swift strikes, his twin blades cutting arcs of silver and energy through the air. Several slashes connected, sparks flying, but one was expertly blocked by Sealed Vultra, who countered viciously. His flaming chains whipped forward, wrapping around Vultra's arms and torso. Vultra screamed as the heat and pressure burned and bound him, but his cry didn't last long—his eyes flared with determination.
With a powerful burst of Yin energy, Vultra shattered the chains in an explosion of force, catching Sealed Vultra off guard. "You want to see what being chained really feels like?" he growled.
Without pause, Vultra snatched the broken chains and fused them to his double katanas using his Yin authority. The chains wrapped around his forearms like metallic vines, humming with black energy. A manic smirk spread across his face as he stared down Sealed Vultra.
Charging with relentless fury, Vultra clashed against Sealed Vultra's summoned weapon—a massive dark hammer—but instead of contesting its weight, he adapted. Vultra soared upward, using aerial momentum to his advantage. With a sudden pull, he launched his chained katana downward like a bolt. The chains stretched and glowed, wrapped in Yin flames. They coiled around Sealed Vultra, binding him tightly as Vultra landed.
"Now burn!" Vultra roared.
Using the katana as a knot and the chains as binding threads, Vultra sealed Sealed Vultra with a palm strike to the chest, dark glyphs radiating across the prison. The enemy vanished in a flicker of darkness.
With blood dripping down his bandaged arms, Vultra fashioned a makeshift sheath for his weapon using torn clothes, sliding his twin katanas into place. Then he turned slowly toward the rest of the assembled Vultras—each one more terrifying than the last.
Breathing heavily, he muttered, "Nevertheless… come at me. I will destroy each and every one of you."
From the unseen edges of the dimension, Valse watched. His form hovered among void mists, observing both Leo and Vultra's trials. A faint smirk played on his lips.
"The trial to become a god is just beginning," he whispered to the winds of the dimension.
Back within the domain, Vultra tightened his fists. His scars ached, his limbs trembled, but his will remained absolute. He took a slow step forward, his aura of Yin power thickening like a storm cloud around him. The remaining versions of himself, some silent, others growling, drew their weapons or summoned their gifts. They knew what he was capable of now. And he knew they were not going to fall easily.
But Vultra, the true one, would not falter.
He adjusted the chains around his arms once more and whispered, "Let's finish this."
A final challenger stepped forward: a version of Vultra that had never known Leo, never found purpose, never balanced his Yin with meaning. He was cold, calculating, and terrifyingly precise. This Vultra controlled Yin so completely that even his heartbeat was silent.
Vultra stared at him—and understood. This wasn't just a trial. It was a warning.
The battle hadn't yet begun. But it would. And it would be the hardest yet.
Vultra raised his hands slowly, blood dripping from his knuckles, Yin energy coalescing around him in the form of a roaring dragon made of darkness and memory.
"I will master you," he whispered.
The final battle was about to begin.
The platform darkened further as the last Vultra stepped fully into view—his face a perfect mirror, but void of warmth, purpose, or even hatred. This version of him had never met Leo, never been broken, never loved. He had become power incarnate—untouched by human ties, purely devoted to mastering the Yin.
His voice was chillingly neutral. "You've grown strong… but you're still tethered by emotion."
Vultra's reply was a quiet exhale. "That tether gives me balance. You… you're hollow."
The air around them shimmered as their Yin energies collided invisibly—two gravitational forces threatening to cancel each other out. Then, they moved.
No footsteps, no cries—just shadow against shadow.
Hollow Vultra struck with surgical precision. He sliced through space with razor-thin lashes of Yin energy, tearing micro-rifts that distorted time for a blink. Vultra countered by weaving through the chaos like a drifting feather, his aura pulsing gently, calmly. He redirected attacks using angled palms, turning force into emptiness, rage into silence.
Then came a psychic assault. The hollow self raised a finger, and memories that Vultra had buried flooded his mind—his lost comrades, the screams during the fall of the moon citadel, the look in Leo's eyes before their first clash.
Vultra staggered.
His knees buckled slightly under the weight of his past. The hollow version appeared instantly above him, aiming a strike to his core—an execution of emotional collapse.
But Vultra caught the blow.
His hand trembled, but his grip held.
"I've walked through pain. I've held it, broken under it, and built myself again," Vultra said, his voice low but steady. "You think cutting emotion makes you pure? It only makes you incomplete."
His aura flared—not violently, but rhythmically, like a heartbeat echoing in the void. The Yin dragon coiled around him once more, now larger, crowned with lotus petals and weeping stars.
Hollow Vultra scowled for the first time. "You've let weakness in."
"No," Vultra whispered. "I've given it form."
With a surge of will, he unleashed the True Yin Technique—a move born of acceptance, not dominance. The shadows around them formed a massive mirror that reflected not just the opponent's face—but every regret, every loss, every path not taken.
Hollow Vultra froze.
His body trembled. The mirror showed him what he lacked—connection, love, grief, joy. And that weakness shattered him more than any physical blow could.
Vultra stepped forward and placed a single finger on his hollow self's forehead. "Return to me."
The final version dissolved into mist, flowing back into Vultra's core like threads returning to a tapestry. The mirror shattered gently, not violently, and the darkness around him softened into a twilight sky.
He had passed.
A staircase of starlight appeared, ascending into the void. Vultra, breathing heavily, stepped forward. No grand light, no roar of triumph. Just a single phrase etched into the sky:
"To master Yin is to master oneself."
As he began to ascend, the scene shifted.
Far in the distance, Leo now stood before his first opponent in the Yang domain, his body wreathed in flame and light. His trial was about to begin.
But that… was a story for the next chapter.