Nothing is Impossible

The other Atlas glared at him, dark eyes filled with hate. "I am the better version of you, the version where I accepted who I was and chose Nightmare Fiend. Other than that, everything else is the same. You possess all the same skills as me, mine are just… Darker, more potent and focused on power, like they should be."

Atlas narrowed his eyes. "Oh? So you even have Everflame Core?"

Nightmare Atlas just smirked, baring sharp pointed teeth. "Nope, but I do have Ashcore Overdrive. I am you Atlas, I just made one slightly different decision."

He raised a clawed hand, and a scythe appeared in his hand. But where Atlas's scythe was a glossy black steel that curved elegantly and had purple undertones. Nightmare Atlas's seemed to be barely hanging together, acid dripping from its jagged edge. He looked at Atlas, smiling. "Like my scythe? Where you have Death Scythe, I have Oblivion Scythe. As you can probably guess, it hurts. A lot."

Atlas felt sick. "You want to cause even more pain to those you fight? For what reason? Is killing them not enough, you sicko?" He almost lunged at Nightmare Atlas right then, but he held himself off, choosing instead to switch to Recovery Form, making sure that his stamina was maxed out after his little run through the mists.

Nightmare Atlas watched his armor change and grinned even wider. "Scared? I sure hope you are, as that will only make this more fun for me."

Atlas flinched. "How can you be so cruel? Are you hearing yourself? You sound like a villain with daddy issues! I cannot accept that you are, or were at any point, me."

Nightmare Atlas's gaze went cold, and he cocked his head. "Accept this then, you will die here."

The air around Nightmare Atlas seemed to crack like glass, and Nightmare Atlas appeared behind him and lashed out, sending Atlas flying. Atlas couldn't help but wonder how he took so much damage, but when he looked back, he understood.

Nightmare Atlas was now covered in armor of his own, but his armor seemed to reek of death and looked focused for killing, Atlas suspected he had gained more damage in return for less defence. He changed to Defence Form, and Nightmare Atlas's armor changed accordingly, becoming sleeker and more refined, though still not as polished as Atlas's, and spikes jutted out from his armor.

Dark magic began to flow into Nightmare Atlas, and he thrust his hands forwards. "Enhance!"

Atlas felt the magic seep into his body, but it took him a second to realize what happened, and when he did, he felt panic set in.

Nightmare had a version of Inevitable Death, and when he had dealt a small amount of damage to Atlas, enough to trigger the skill. And Nightmare Atlas had used magic to enhance its effects, causing his Lifeforce to rapidly deplete.

Nightmare Atlas used other skills, and a giant wyrm appeared above him, opening its mouth and exhaling bloody mist speckled with black. The mist began to eat away at him, not taking Exp but Lifeforce, Stamina, and even Mana, it returned to Nightmare Atlas, making him stronger as Atlas grew weaker.

Atlas had no choice, he activated Perfect Mind Shattering Thoughts.

He now had 6 seconds- no 12- to respond to Nightmare Atlas's attacks.

His mind spun rapidly, taking Legion Recovery and beginning to press into it, forcing it to focus on him and only him instead of helping others, he didn't need that function right now.

He forced it to gain levels and he watched as it jumped a rank, then a tier, becoming a transcendent ZZZ skill: Denier of Death.

Denier of Death (ZZZ): You do not accept death. You do not bend to endings. The world may try to erase you, may try to end you, but you deny it—utterly and without compromise. As long as your will burns, you refuse to fall. You cannot be slain unless your will is overcome as well. Your will is easier to overcome depending on how low you Lifeforce is. (1% of Lifeforce is far easier to overcome than 10%). Your Lifeforce cannot be stolen, as it is your and yours only. You gain resources (Lifeforce, Stamina, Mana), 10 times faster, this cannot be blocked except for by a skill stronger than this one. Gives Allies 5x faster resource gain. After battle, it becomes 100x resource gain until one resource pool reaches max.

And just like that, the skills no longer affected him. Well, the version of Inevitable Death did, but it no longer prevented his resource recovery, so it merely slowed his resource gain instead of causing it to go down.

Nightmare Atlas smiled. "You are under the effects of Perfect Mind Shattering Thoughts right? Going just as planned."

Atlas still had 10 seconds left, and he planned to use every second of it.

He began the assault by shifting into Magic Form, casting spells just by thinking about them. Spells poured out of him, and he used his temporary extra mana to its fullest, casting spell after spell. The sheer amount of spells was so overwhelming, it was basically a wall of different spells, each requiring a different spell to counter it. As the wave of spells shot at Nightmare Atlas, Atlas used Breath of the Consuming Void, and it intermingled with Nightmare Atlas's mist, and the mist, in a surprising move, consumed the Nightmare Atlas's mist whole, leaving only Atlas's mist. The skill didn't grow stronger, but it did do something, though Atlas couldn't tell what.

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Atlas then used Hyper Jump, appearing where Nightmare Atlas had teleported with his shattering teleport and hitting him with the full might of Strength Form, also inflicting Inevitable Death, putting Nightmare Atlas on a timer.

Now with only 6 seconds left, Atlas swung again, but Nightmare Atlas's eyes suddenly flared, and Atlas just knew that he had activated his own version of Perfect Mind Shattering Thoughts. That name is a chore to even think.

What ensued was a battle where each person perfectly predicted each other's next move, which made it an endless game of teleporting and swings that seemed to miss, then seemed to hit, then missed. It was so confusing that it required all of Atlas's mental capacities to fight Nightmare Atlas at that moment, each one moving before the other did, causing them both to move at the same time.

The only few blows that they would allow to hit were ones made by the scythe, because they were now both in Strength Form, or whatever Nightmare Atlas's version was. Because of this, they would then switch to using magic, but to use Magic Form would make them vulnerable to the others Strength Form, causing an endless back and forth. If Atlas had to describe it, it was like playing 3D chess while having two chess games running at the same time, and you could read the opponents every thought. And you only have 6 seconds to win or the other person would get the advantage.

Inevitably, Atlas's skill ran out, and he suddenly found himself on the back foot, so in a burst of inspiration grabbed from the dregs of his ending skill, he used Divine Sight's active, petrifying Nightmare Atlas for 5 seconds, but as he did Nightmare Atlas realized what he was doing and did the same, putting them both in a petrified state for 5 seconds.

They were both frozen in place, mere inches from each other, Atlas staring defiantly and Nightmare Atlas glaring right back. They were now equal, having used their most powerful buff and going all out on each other. But they still had more in store, and they each knew it.

Once the 5 seconds ran out, Nightmare Atlas could move, but with horror, Atlas realized that the effect wasn't wearing off on him, it must last a few more seconds because of Nightmare Atlas's different version.

Nightmare Atlas used a skill, and the room flicked. Everything began to warp and twist unnaturally, and Atlas felt himself start to weaken, not physically, but on a conceptual level. His existence was weaker. Atlas realized that Nightmare him was using Ashcore Overdrive, but his skill degraded everything around him instead of taking control of it.

Well two could play at that game.

He activated Everflame Core, and took control of the room with his will. There was just one problem. One that Atlas had planned for.

Nightmare Atlas was controlling the room too, and his skill was the same rank and tier, so they were perfectly matched.

The room faltered, rips and tears appearing all over as the space itself was contested by two powerful tier 3's.

Nightmare Atlas was strong, and he had the will to back it up, he fought against Atlas's will trying to exert his dominance and prove he was the strongest.

But Atlas had just come out of a trial where all he had to go on was himself, his hope and his candle. His will had been forged in steel. Technically, Nightmare Atlas had done this too, but Atlas had a skill to hold.

Mantle of Sanity!

Its whole purpose was to help him steady himself, and Atlas was willing to bet that Nightmare Atlas's skill had been changed, so it wouldn't be as effective as Atlas's skill was.

That was the problem with slight differences. They meant someone could still gain the upper hand.

Atlas shoved Nightmare Atlas's will away, forcibly deactivating his skill, and became the master of the space around him.

Suddenly the room itself was against Nightmare Atlas, and spikes of white rock dug into the small gaps in his jagged armor, causing him to scream in pain. Atlas winced at the sound of hearing his own scream, but he pressed on, focusing all his will on killing Nightmare Atlas.

The stone ceiling suddenly dropped in one section, falling down and crushing Nightmare Atlas. There was a final gurgle of agony, and then… silence. Complete and utter silence.

Atlas collapsed, creating a chair of stone with a flare of will. He still had complete control over this area of course.

He let out a long sigh, looking at the pile of rubble where another version of himself lay dead. He couldn't wrap his head around it, it just felt so… wrong. He had literally ended himself. What if that Atlas had been the true version and it was Atlas himself that was the copy? How awful would that be? But, Atlas knew that wasn't true, as Nightmare Atlas had even confessed that he was a version of Atlas, which meant Atlas must be the original.

There was a distinctly unpleasant chime and Atlas was ripped through space, before appearing once more in floor two of the dungeon. He let out a half scream, looking around in confusion. Had he… had he completed the trial? Was that all he had to do?

Atlas checked his notifications, and there it was.

You have completed the Trial of Will! As the Trial of Will was a tier 15 structure that focused on a person's will power, it wasn't impossible for you to complete it, merely highly unlikely. Because of this, you will be rewarded, even though you would normally not be, as this is meant to be a trial that rewards your actions inside the trial, such as you absorbing the fragments of yourself.

Title Gained! Self Understanding (Legendary Unique).

Self Understanding: You understand yourself much better than you ever have before, to the point where gaining insight about yourself is very easy. Makes remembering things far easier, especially if they had some sort of impact on you. Tier Revelations are easier to gain.

A runic eye appeared on the wall.

You completed the trial? How? And you even came out stronger? Just what sort of abomination are you, to have completed a task meant to be for those far above our tier? I see you Atlas Channing. And I hunger for our meeting.

One has succeeded! As promised, All run Free!

Lars, Lesli, Jay, Nex and Dane all appeared in front of him, all of them looking equally confused.

Atlas smiled. Their dungeoneering could continue.