Endless Path : Infinite Cosmos
chapter-1212

After a long and very eventful evening within the Projection, brought to an end by sleeping in the Menagerie with Fenrir, Medusa, and Circe, the sun began to creep over the horizon and, with it, another long day of training was slated to begin. Though Vahn was also intending on getting in contact with Luvia, he knew from Alaya that she was currently visiting New York on business. With there being a five hour time difference between the famous city and Avalon, he would be able to visit her at the end of the day while it was still early in the afternoon for her.

With that in mind, Vahn alighted to Rin’s and Mordred’s room, picking up Sakura from the former as she had been sleeping with Ereshkigal as of late. He had a habit of helping them prepare for their morning training and escorting them over, hoping it would keep them motivated throughout the day. Thus, with Mordred riding his shoulders and Sakura seated on his arm, Vahn enjoyed his short time together with his two lovable little daughters, doing his best to ignore Mordred pulling his hair as she wiggled around happily.

After leaving the two in the care of Artoria and Gray, Vahn left for his own Training Orb with a bit of pep in his step. He was in a great mood from the previous night and, though it was still very painful to train with Scathach, it was hard to get upset when he was making rampant progress. Of course, as he thought back to the previous night, Vahn had a somewhat sly smile on his face as he recalled the rather ’interesting’ time he had in the Menagerie. Since Circe was highly inexperienced, Fenrir had, once again, become a ’teacher’ of sorts. As a result, he got to experience the fumbling efforts of a girl who was completely enamored with him, something that always brought a smile to his face...

While thinking of inexperienced women, Vahn’s smile became even wider as he remembered how adorable Olga had acted. There was nothing that could have prepared her for his massage and, after the fact, the way she tried to ’goad’ him into going further was rather endearing. Fortunately for her, Vahn didn’t plan on pushing her too hard just yet so, rather than take advantage of the situation he had machinated, he just shifted Olga to straddle his h.i.p.s as they made out for a ’very’ long period of time. Since she had still been in her white swimsuit, which had become slightly transparent from her sweat, it was quite a memorable experience for both of them...

Wondering when he might ’eat’ the little white rabbit, Vahn felt a little bit like the ’big bad wolf’ as he shook his head with a wry smile and entered the Training Orb. Then, as if his lighthearted state of mind had been nothing more than an illusion, a powerful pressure radiated out from Vahn’s body as his gaze became sharp enough to, quite literally, bore through steel. He extended his hand outward as black scales spontaneously erupted to cover his forearms while a large pentagonal shield, similar in appearance to a semi-translucent topaz, formed in front of him.

No sooner had the shield appeared than a massive beam of malevolent red light slammed into the barrier, causing the sky around to darken from Vahn’s perspective. The shield held up, as it had anti-magic and slightly reflective qualities, but the surrounding terrain was ripped apart as the beam of red energy broke into thick streams of lightning. Vahn stayed calm throughout this chaos, however, shaping energy into his right arm before a pair of golden draconic antlers sprouted from his head. In the next moment, just as the crystalline shield shattered into pieces, Vahn had already teleported to a location more than thirty kilometers away, right behind Scathach.

Without any delay in her response time, Scathach spun around in a manner that was both graceful and mechanically precise as a scarlet red spear naturally formed in her hands. As Vahn had already been prepared to receive this attack, he didn’t even try to evade as he stepped forward fearlessly. In response, Scathach awarded his efforts with an unfathomable fast sweep of her spear but, instead of leaving a gaping wound or bisecting his body in two, Vahn’s torso seemed to extend as the injured section of flesh was discarded. He grew a new body in a similar fashion to how he would produce an Avatar, leaving behind the damaged section as it quickly dissolved into nothingness.

As this was not the first time she had seen Vahn use his ’cicada skin shedding’ technique, Scathach was unperturbed by the sight as her spear ruthlessly changed directions at the end of its arc, cutting back like a beam of malicious red light. Before she could cut him a second time, however, Vahn used the energy he had been stowing withing his right arm, extending it toward Scathach as he shouted, "Longinus...!" As this exclamation left his mouth, a golden spear erupted from Vahn’s palm, tearing through his flesh as he had shaped it inside his own arm to hide it from Scathach’s perception.

While releasing her spear, allowing it to continue its trajectory towards Vahn, Scathach twisted her body while simultaneously teleporting away. This allowed her to completely evade the golden spear which, seemingly moving near the speed of light, smashed into the white stone of the Training Orb with enough force to create a plume of debris more than 300m in height. The shockwave was strong enough to tear through Vahn’s defenses, which made him immune to anything by A-Rank attacks or higher, but his body was far more injured by the spear sticking in his ribs than the explosion.

After struggling to extricate the spear from his body, as it had an effect of piercing deeper when the target tried to remove it, Vahn released a sigh of relief before teleporting away himself. In nearly the exact same moment, several meter-long arrows of light pierced into the space he had been standing, causing nearly just as much destruction as his surprise Longinus. Scathach wasn’t the type to just let him stand there and recover so, as long as the battle was ongoing, Vahn knew he needed to be on the move. At the same time, he made his movement unpredictable as, rather than think about the destination, Vahn sent out random tendrils of energy through his domain, giving him several anchor points for an instantaneous [Shundo].

With a powerful offense substituting for most conceivable defenses, Vahn appeared near Scathach after several successive [Shundo]s and a ’space transfer’. This time, she had five spears floating near her body with a short golden spear in her left hand. Vahn visibly winced after seeing that particular weapon, a momentary gap that was instantaneously exploited by Scathach. He knew it was futile to even try to teleport away or dodge so, deciding to fully commit, Vahn’s body became onyx-black as scales spread across his entire body, albeit after he had already been skewered. Rather than try to remove it, however, Vahn’s body began to lose its shape, wrapping around the spear’s shaft as he attempted to ’absorb’ it.

Scathach found that it was nearly impossible to extricate the spear through normal methods so, in the next moment, a black haze flowed into the golden spear. This completely negated Vahn’s efforts while leaving a gaping hole in his abdomen. At the same time, the spears floating behind her back pierced forward, aiming for Vahn’s head, shoulders, and thighs. Vahn reacted to this by removing a few dozen Elemental Stars from his Inventory, causing Scáthac to frown as her spear danced, quickly dispersing those nearest to her. What she couldn’t do anything about were the ones that Vahn had brought out inside his own body so, as the five spears pierced him, a cascade of explosions spread out, enveloping his and Scathach’s forms in an instant.

As she had already made a shroud of Void Elemental energy, Scathach was mostly unaffected by the explosions but, having been aware of this, Vahn obviously left a ’surprise’ for her. This was something Scathach fully expected but, the moment she tried to shift away, the space around the area became locked as a golden hue spread through the surroundings. Then, amidst the continuous explosions, a very different type of elemental energy made its presence known, taking on the form of pure white light that dispersed the chaotic energy in an instant. Scathach brandished her spear to disperse the pulse of energy, her face forming an almost indiscernible smile as she curled her body into a ball just as a ten-meter wide beam of light slammed into her.

Just as Scathach had taught him, there were counters to virtually everything but, at the apex of most other forms of energy, Holy and Divine were nearly uncontested. However, as his own body was not well-suited for using such forms of energy, someone other than Vahn appeared as the pillar of white light faded away. There, standing at a relatively petite 154cm, wearing a skin-tight combat uniform, was a carbon-copy of Artoria. Instead of her normally stoic appearance, however, she had a visibly awkward expression on her face that seemed to amuse Scathach, despite the fact her body felt like it had been baked in an oven.

Releasing a sigh, Vahn, looking indiscernible from Artoria, adopted a combat stance as a shroud of pure Holy Elemental energy surrounded ’his’ body. This was just the basic activation of [Vis Maxima] but, at the very least, it granted him almost complete immunity to Void Elemental energy. What had him troubled was, despite the fact he had tried to make a ’male’ version of Artoria, her Mana Circuits and affinity only worked properly in her base form. Vahn even suspected the entire reason she was stuck in her youthful form was due to this very fact and, though he could emulate Holy Elemental energy well enough in any state, being able to control it almost intuitively was very useful...

After a long session of combat training, Vahn had returned to his default appearance as he stared up at the empty white void above, visible only if he looked beyond the two large peaks obscuring his vision. At the same time, he listened to Scathach’s lecture regarding what he could have done better while allowing her to trace her hands around his neck and chest. It was very comfortable and, as he had been able to get a few good hits in on her, this was one of the ways in which she ’rewarded’ his efforts. He also had the option of taking liberties with her body but, as this was always more than a little disconcerting, Vahn elected not to...

While Vahn was enjoying Scathach’s caress, a pair of violet eyes were watching him, belonging to a small blue creature that sat weightlessly on his abdomen. She had been watching him for nearly a year at this point and, with so much having changed in recent months, a small amount of frustration had seeded itself in her ’core’. This had become especially prominent in recent days as, with Vahn being on the ’warpath’, she was often forced to float idly at the side, simply observing his antics due to her agreement not to interfere when he was with his women. As this also applied to his training, the amount of time she had to drain his ’fluids’ had decreased considerably, causing the supposedly emotionless entity to feel something akin to anxiety.

Shaking her head to dismiss her wayward thoughts, Alaya plopped her body down, laying against Vahn to feel his warmth. Since she had been observing him for a long time, she knew what it would take to get him to pay more attention to her but, refusing to be ’tamed’ by him, Alaya continued to tolerate her displeasure in silence. Part of her knew that, when she started pandering to Vahn, she would already be on the path towards becoming fully obedient to him. She had even stopped trying to influence him with her pheromones as, fearing what would happen if they actually had s.e.x, Alaya instead focused on her tasks of observation and collecting samples.

Though she had been aware of it, Alaya made no attempt to stop Vahn when he suddenly shifted his hand to lightly stroke her hair and ears. Instead, she just closed her eyes while monitoring billions of people within her globally expansive mind. She could see how chaotic things were becoming all over the world as, despite the fact Angra Mainyu was years away, the tensions experienced by some had already caused them to start doing horrible acts. Some believed the world was fated to end and, in order to experience life to the fullest while they could, many Magi enacted terribly acts of violence all over the world. At the same time, civil and political strife was beginning to spread in the heart of many countries for the same reason, to the point global war seemed to loom on the horizon.

Despite these things, the man who was both responsible for such events spent his days in relative bliss, even though he was also ’determined’ to make the world a better place. If not for the fact she could recreate all of humanity, if need be, Alaya would have been significantly more frustrated at the way Vahn lived. She sometimes wished he was one of her Counter Guardians as, if this were the case, it would be her telling him what to do. He would also have to proactively protect the world instead of seemingly leaving everything to fate. Instead, she was the one placed in his charge and, despite the fact he could do ’anything’ he wanted with her, Vahn just treated her like a ’Companion’...

While thinking about the troubles Vahn had caused, Alaya could feel calm and comfortable energy flowing into her body, something she had grown accustomed to due to his incessant efforts. Though she was tempted to just let him affect her, there was an entire world within her mind and, feeling she had to be the responsible one in their relationship, Alaya dutifully observed the activities of people all over the world. This included people like Luvia, Tristana, Siegfried, and Astolfo so, with her limited omniscience, Alaya was able to observe nearly everything that was going on around them.

Currently, Luvia was sleeping snuggly in her bed, as it wasn’t even 3 AM for her, while Astolfo and Tristana were recovering from a long night of having s.e.x. As for Siegfried, her rarely ever slept and, somewhat similar to Vahn, spent a lot of his time idling about as he pampered his Companion and cat. Alaya could see him laying barechested on his bed as the two creatures stretched themselves across his chest and abdomen, much like she was doing with Vahn. While they made themselves comfortable, he would gently stroke their bodies, play with their ears, and feed them small snacks with a small smile on his face as Susu licked his fingers...

Without doing it intentionally, Alaya found herself giving Vahn’s thumb a small lick, causing him to gently stroke her face and chin in a comfortable manner. She wasn’t really paying attention to this, however, despite the fact she was fully aware of it. Instead, she was absentmindedly looking down at a young woman with golden hair that reached her ankles as she clasped her hands together in futile prayer. Despite the fact she was adorned in pristine white robes that were decorated with gold and a plethora of gemstones, she was no closer to ’God’ than anyone else within her organization. Though Alaya would humor them a bit in the past, as they helped to preserve humanity, the only thing she could do now was watch the young woman stress out as a result of her silence...

After wondering whether or not she should mention this to Vahn, Alaya ultimately decided against it as, just like during their first meeting, she felt Vahn needed to learn the consequences of his actions by experiencing them first hand. If she wanted to proactively assist him, there were few things that could conceivably prevent his rise as, with the majority of the world within her perception, she could inform him of the location of almost every threat long beforehand. She could even guide him toward all of the world’s treasures and, though she could not actively intervene against his enemies, there were a number of methods Vahn could use to summon her Counter Guardians.

While thinking about the people under her charge, Alaya had a rare mischevious smile on her face that went completely unnoticed. There were two individuals that would be paramount to shaping the world according to Vahn’s vision but, knowing how much ’stress’ they would cause Vahn, Alaya was somewhat looking forward to their meeting. If he arbitrarily asked her to summon one of her Counter Guardians in the future, she would summon the one that was simultaneously the most useful while also being the most troublesome. Though he might get annoyed with her as a result, Vahn wasn’t the type to ’blame’ others so, at least for a while, she would get to see him experience a part of the frustration she felt...

Though she understood how ’petty’ her thoughts were, Alaya didn’t really care as, after talking with Vahn hundreds of times, she knew he wanted her to become more ’independent’. As a result, Alaya was very aware of her own changes but, ’knowing’ it was impossible to overcome her programming, she carried out her duties unerringly. Thus, even though she would try to get even with him at times, Alaya would always follow orders to the letter, so long as it did not go against her prime directives.

If Vahn provided her with enough Magical Energy, she would even act as a catalyst to help him erase an entire Continent, including its inhabitants, without even blinking an eye. She could even reverse time or, in the most extreme cases, emulate the Throne of Heroes by pulling someone from a past timeline. In this way, so long as Vahn provided her with enough energy and put proper thought into his actions, he didn’t even have to worry about any of his allies dying. After all, she could just remove them from the time axis at the instant before their deaths, heal their bodies completely, and then bring them back into the time axis after things had calmed down...

Without realizing it, while also being fully aware of her thought process, Alaya was already thinking about ways to help Vahn. As the energy of his Petting Laws flowed into her body, she had already come up with billions of potential solutions to most of his problems, the only caveats being that he would need to provide her with enough Magical Energy while putting actual effort into how he used her. Unfortunately for Vahn, his nature of not wanting to use people, despite the fact he treated her like a battery and portable space transfer terminal, prevented him from thinking about such things. This was something Alaya was fully aware of and, though she was reluctant to admit it, the primary source of her frustrations...

(A/N: Alternate Titles: ’Every day Vahn trains with Scathach, he becomes a little less human xD...’’Vahn is a hentai...’,’Poor Alaya. Vahn doesn’t realize she WANTS him to use her (o,...,o)’)