Endless Path : Infinite Cosmos
chapter-1630

While the Hellas Empire was still confused by the happenings in the center of Lake Argyre, high-ranking officers on the side of Megalomesembria knew exactly what had transpired. They quickly relayed this information back to their superiors, while, high in the sky, the entity they believed to be the Sage Dragon Emperor began his descent.

After witnessing the strangely humanoid-looking dragon easily chase away one of the Beasts of Calamity without any discernible difficulty, the reaction of most people would have been to flee, or, at the very least, avoid drawing its attention. The Megalomesembrian Fleet, however, was not deterred in the slightest. Rather, after having one of their most valuable facilities wiped out in an instant, the Magister Militum didn’t hesitate to order a counter-offensive.

Having received their orders, the Megalomesembrian Fleet did not hesitate to engage the distant Sage Dragon Emperor. They had weapons specially designed to target distant opponents at a high elevation, so, immediately after their orders were received, hundreds of laser-like beams of magical energy ascended into the sky at relativistic speeds.

Though Vahn’s reaction time could actually eclipse relativistic speeds, responding to attacks from outside his domain was still difficult. Fortunately, before he deigned to appear in the skies, he had actually snuck into both encampments, so, rather than be blindsided by the sudden volley, he was able to bend Space along the periphery of his domain, diverting even the much slower projectiles that had been hidden among the initial volley.

As they had been expecting to confront the Sage Dragon Emperor at some point, Megalomesmbria had already developed a number of ’countermeasures’. This included an experimental Anti-Dragon Warhead that had been designed to neutralize Ancient Dragons like Yggdrillia and Vrixho Nagasha, but, before they could test in on the former, Elfenhof had completely disappeared. This was one of the first signs indicating that the Sage Dragon Emperor was directly opposing them, so, unaware of his ability to bend Space, the Svanhvit had been authorized to perform an impromptu field test of the inordinately expensive munition.

Vahn was completely unaware of the Anti-Dragon Warhead that had been used against him, but, as if it refused to be ignored, a black void nearly 500m in diameter opened up several kilometers from his position. It was similar to a Yi arrow being activated with five stars, effectively creating a stable black hole, but, unlike the aforementioned arrow, the inky membrane surrounding the destructive sphere was covering in brightly glowing runes.

Rather than dissipate, the runic sphere was positionally fixed, anchored to the planet’s gravitational well. It seemed to serve the purpose of sealing and dealing constant damage to a target, as, based on what Vahn could deduce, the foreboding black sphere could persist indefinitely by absorbing the elemental energy from the environment. Unless it was destroyed, it might even drain the entirety of Mundus Magicus dry, as, rather than gravity-based magic, it seemed to use the ’Black of Venus’ as a catalyst...

Though he could understand why they would use such a potent weapon against him, Vahn was still incensed that such a wantonly destructive weapon even existed. It demonstrated a complete lack of regard for the planet and showed just how far Megalomesembria was willing to go in the pursuit of power and wealth. They didn’t care about anything but their personal interests, and, though there were bound to be good people among their population, the Demonic influence in the Senate and the machinations of Cosmo Entelecheia ensured only vicious profiteers and opportunists ever rose to a position of real power.

Unable to ignore the malevolent black sphere, a terrifying aura was released from Vahn’s body as a resplendent golden hue spread nearly 17km from his position. From a distance, it looked like a hazy golden sun had formed around a tiny black dot. Then, much to the stupefaction of the officers who knew the power of the Anti-Dragon Warhead, they watched as several golden chains appeared out of thin air, wrapping around the destructive sphere and gradually compressing it into nothingness...

Exhaling a sigh of relief, Vahn transferred the reserve energy from one of his backup vessels into his own, instantly restoring his reserves. He then turned his blazing golden eyes towards the mobilizing fleet in the distance. It took considerable restraint to resist the urge to wipe them off the face of the planet, but, while this would certainly allow him to achieve his goal, it was also needlessly excessive. There were many people in both the Empire and Confederation who simply wanted to protect their families and defend their homelands, so, while they had a hand in enabling the corrupt powers that ruled over them, Vahn had grown weary of arbitrary killings.

After taking action that led to the deaths of billions back in the Nasuverse, Vahn no longer had the heart to resort to ’extreme measures’. He had meditated on his actions for nearly a hundred years, and, though he was able to achieve his goals in a remarkably short period of time, he couldn’t help but feel as though he had lost an important part of himself in the process.

Though he was aiming for the absolute pinnacle of existence, Vahn wanted to preserve as much of his original self as possible. He didn’t want to be the type of person that constantly had to justify his actions along the lines of ’good’ and ’evil’, as, in the grand scheme of things, there were simply acts of altruism and selfishness. He could have easily achieved the same result in a less destructive way, but, using a variety of different excuses, he carved a path littered in the bodies of billions...

Taking a few deep breaths to restrain his fury, Vahn began to gradually descend towards the surface of Lake Argyre. Most of the energy from his previous attack had been comprised of Ice and Water Elemental Energy, so, after contacting the lake, the surface froze so rapidly that even the spouts of water formed by the Levithan had solidified. Though most of these broke instantly from their own weight, one of them continued to tower several hundred meters into the air, an unnerving cracking sound periodically resonating from within the tornado-like sculpture of ice.

With both his scales and domain generating a golden light, Vahn’s figure was somewhat obscured from afar. As he descended closer to the ground, however, ships from both sides were able to see him with increasing clarity. This was enough to bring silence to many command bridges, as, despite rumors of the Sage Dragon Emperor circulating throughout Mundus Magicus, this was the first time they had seen him appear in his dragon form.

Though he was relatively small compared to the true forms of Vrixho and Yggdrillia, standing only 40m in height, Vahn didn’t lose out in majesty. His overall physique was vaguely humanoid, which was scary for a variety of reasons, and, though his wings almost seemed comically oversized, they gave off an impression of inviolability. This, combined with a glaive-like tail whose edge gleamed with a dangerous light, caused many to instinctually conclude that Vahn was capable of shrugging off any attack while simultaneously possessing the ability to slice through even the thickest armor.

To further reinforce the idea that he wasn’t an opponent they could face, Vahn’s body was covered in a pattern of runes that simply didn’t exist in the Akamatsuverse. There was also an eight-pointed dharmic wheel slowly revolving behind his back, while, framed by the curved horns protruding from his draconic visage, a glimmering golden halo gave off a suppressive force that caused all but the most stalwart of individuals to avert their eyes or instinctually lower their heads, even if they were only seeing it through a display.

Vahn had developed a habit of never relying on equipment to enhance his power, excluding a few obvious exceptions. If it was for the purpose of acting as a deterrent, however, he had fewer qualms about using some of the items he had stockpiled over the years. Several had been collecting dust in his inventory for decades, as, after obtaining them as Quest rewards or through Gacha function, he simply had no use for them.

A stark contrast to his usual transformations, Vahn currently had rings on each finger, manacle-like accessories on both wrists and ankles, armbands around his biceps, and a massive jeweled pendant around his neck. Even the dharmic wheel rotating behind his back and the golden halo above his head were pieces of equipment, the former rated an S-Rank while the latter was an SS-Rank item from the only Indigo pull he had ever received from his daily Standard Gacha.

Though it only had a single effect, the halo, known simply as a [Runed Halo], was one of the more ridiculous items Vahn had ever obtained. Once every ten days, the weilder could designate any conceivable target, and, for a period of twenty-four hours, you would have functional immunity from whatever you had designated. While this didn’t seem that ridiculous at first glance, it even allowed the user to designate things like ’Magical Energy’ or ’Divinity’. The only thing it didn’t seem to work against was the Laws themselves, but, as that was to be expected, Vahn hadn’t been too surprised.

Exploiting one of the loop-holes formulated by Da Vinci, Vahn had designated ’damage’ itself as the thing he was immune to. Thus, for the next twenty-four hours, there was nothing beneath the SS-Rank though would be able to harm so much as a hair on his head. This would then be followed by a ten-day Cooldown period, but, as he merely needed to create the illusion of indestructibility, there were no real downsides. With this in mind, he touched down rather softly on the ground, creating a massive golden spell circle across the surface of the ice...

After failing to strike anywhere near their target, the commanders of the Megalomesembrian Fleet had ordered their ships to conserve energy and spread outward. At the same time, the Svanhvit had received authorization to deploy six of their War God Soldiers, three of which were the black variety that had managed to rout the Empire’s Southern Fleet.

Though a single War God Soldier might not be a match for an Ancient Dragon, a group of five was generally enough to suppress Vrixho for a short period of time. It was virtually impossible for them to actually win, but, so long as they could distract their target long enough, there were a number of methods to deal with otherwise insurmountable foes. The most common method was to simply seal them away, so, in order to ascertain the vulnerabilities of the mysterious field surrounding the Sage Dragon Emperor’s body, Megalomesembria was prepared to expend considerable resources just to find his weakness.

Fortunately, rather than remain well outside the range of conventional weapons, the Sage Dragon Emperor had descended low enough that the main batteries of each ship could fire upon him. This also allowed their War God Soldiers to mobilize, and, though it didn’t matter all that much in the grand scheme of things, the fact the automatons towered over the glistening golden dragon was a considerable relief to some.

Unfortunately, long before they could reach the target’s location, an incredibly complex magic circle rapidly spread from the center of Lake Argyre. Its sheer size was unlike anything the vast majority of people had ever seen, and, even with systems specifically designed to analyze the structure of even Ancient Magics, the Legatus temporarily assigned to command the Svanhvit felt like smashing his console as a mechanical voice repeated ’inconclusive’ over and over within his earpiece.

In the hope of stopping whatever the Sage Dragon Emperor had planned, nearly every ship within the Megalomesembrian Fleet began to fire their main batteries without regard. The vast majority of these attacks went well off course, but, by complete happenstance, some managed to penetrate a fair distance into the invisible membrane, halted the expansion of the magic circle. This gave the Legatus the idea of using the onboard computers to calculate the expected angle of deviation to completely stop the spread of the magic circle, but, rather than remain constant, the Space was constantly shifting and distorting at random.

Fearing the worst, the Commander of the Svanhvit order all ships to cease firing and spread out at retreat speeds. This ended up being a surprisingly good decision, as, the moment the golden magic circle expanded to cover nearly 10km, a golden sphere of light began to coalesce at the very center, hovering several hundred meters above Vahn’s head. Though this seemed like a lackluster result for such a massive magic circle, the fact they could even ’see’ the sphere of light meant the attack had already hit them. As for the actual effect of the indescribably beautiful white light, it spread through the area like an electromagnetic pulse, momentarily turning all magical energy inert.

With their systems temporarily disabled, the ’fleeing’ Megalomesembrian Fleet began to lazily list in the direction of their departure, gradually losing both forward momentum and altitude. At the same time, the barrier protecting the Southern Fleet instantaneously flickered out of existence as all but the Hellas began a slow and gradual descent toward the ground. Even their secondary systems had been temporarily disabled, and, until the light ceased its resplendent glow, using magic anywhere in the vicinity had become virtually impossible...

With the protection of the [Runed Halo], Vahn couldn’t even feel the characteristic tingle that would normally come with bathing in purifying light. Instead, he felt a gentle warmth enveloping his body like the most comfortable blanket in the entire world. It reminded him a lot of Gaia, but, considering it was a spell modeled after the invisible field that perpetually surrounded her, that wasn’t exactly a surprise. He had even named the spell [Gaia’s Light], and, though it had very niche uses, it was very useful in situations where the enemy was almost wholly dependant on technological innovations to express their power.

The only downside to [Gaia’s Light] was that it had little effect on magical constructs and a person’s internal energy, so, after a few minutes had passed, the distant sound of thunderous steps became progressively louder as six figures, three white and three black, came charging at him. Seeing these automatons up close brought an immediate frown to Vahn’s face as he could instantly guess how they were produced based on the phenomenal amount of negative energy swirling within them. He was very sensitive to such things, and, though the automatons themselves lack an ego, Vahn could ’feel’ thousands of resentful voices crying out for vengeance...

Vowing to hold those responsible for creating such monstrosities accountable, Vahn slowly raised his hand toward the nearest Demon Gold Soldier. They were still tens of kilometers away, but, due to their sheer size, it was easy to make out the fine details of their figure as they forcibly tore their way through the distorted Space along the edge of his domain. The black ones even absorbed a bit of the energy contained within, but, regardless of their durability, it wouldn’t matter in the end. This was a conviction held firmly in Vahn’s heart as brackish flames, starkly contrasting his predominately golden figure, began to form around his extended hand. Then, preceding his instantaneous charge toward the massive automaton, a spiritual tremble that could be felt from hundreds of kilometers away descended upon the world as he uttered, "Set alight the all-consuming flame...Laevateinn...!"

(A/N: Alternate Titles: ’Can’t touch this’,’A hundred years of daily gacha for a single Indigo...’,’Even under the purifying Light of Gaia, the Emperor’s wrath knows no bounds...’)