Endless Path : Infinite Cosmos
chapter-1849

With the day of the Final Round arriving in the blink of an eye, Vahn was made to gather with his team onboard the Archimedes as the latter performed a ’Warp Jump’ to the hidden Tournament Island. This brought them to a large volcanic island that, from above, greatly resembled an almond-shaped eye. From there, they were assigned to one of six waiting rooms, each outfitted with various foodstuffs and supplies intended to aid them during the Final Round of the Workshop Battle.

Since he had no interest in playing FUG’s little game, Vahn prepared a second vessel at a distant location while assigning Latias and Latios to keep watch over Arusha and Arryn. The latter likely didn’t need such protection, but, while she was certainly very powerful, she lacked the experience to wield her powerful properly. She had recently started apprenticing under Android 21 and Yoruichi, but she still had a ’very’ long way to go before she could be considered a competent fighter.

Depending on how the situation developed, Vahn could teleport the girls to safety in an instant while his primary vessel infiltrated the island to discover the location of the Thorn. He could wait until later to steal it, but, after the recent ’altercation’ with FUG, he suspected they might try and move it in the very near future. Before that could happen, he planned to steal it, and, much like the original fragment of the Thorn, he intended to give it to Rimuru.

Though their abilities were fundamentally different, Rimuru’s Innate was very similar to Baam’s. This allowed them to integrate the fragment of Enryu’s Thorn into their body, and, though they couldn’t access its full power just yet, they had already managed to ignite it. Better yet, Rimuru’s body didn’t have to destroy the fragment in order to access its power, so, once they succeeded in analyzing its structure completely, they could ’regurgitate’ it for further study.

After recent happenings, Vahn was planning to, quite literally, ’break open’ the Tower and expose its residents to the infinitely vast world beyond. To that end, he planned to shatter the ’common sense’ of the so-called rulers and powerhouses within the Tower. They would be forced to see ’reality’ with their own eyes, and, if they were unwilling to accept it, they would fade into the annals of history in much the same way as their precursors. After that, the only tales to speak of them would be fables related to the folly of tyrants consumed by depravity and hubris...

Since the majority of Regulars participating in the Workshop Battle had no affiliation to FUG, Vahn spent much of the Final Round watching over Ron Mei’s shoulder with his arms crossed. As a result, she was unable to summon Varagarv as a participant due to her fear of what might happen without him protecting her. This was a pointless concern, but, even if they knew it was useless, most people would still choose to wear body armor if they entered into a pen with a dangerous creature.

With Arusha and Arryn refusing to cooperate, combined with the fact Varagarv was never able to participate, the winners of the Workshop Battle were a team wholly unrelated to FUG. This wouldn’t prevent them from approaching the victors in order to try and reap profits from their VIP status, but that wasn’t really something Vahn had any control over. If they were smart, the victors would spend the next month forging connections with various Sponsors. This would make it a lot harder for FUG to approach them, as, due to their deeply ingrained observation of the status quo, the Elders of the organization generally prohibited their members from approaching anyone related to the Ten Great Families unless it was part of an assignment.

The only members of FUG who were ’authorized’ to target the Ten Great Families were the various ’Slayers’ that had been selected throughout the millennia. They were effectively the ’Gods’ of FUG, and, unless an order came down from the Council of Elders, they were allowed to act with impunity in the pursuit of their objective: eliminating Jahad and the Ten Family Heads. To this end, the Slayers gathered people who resented their respective targets, and, more often than not, they acted as the ’public face’ of FUG.

Since the Thorn was rumored to be the only weapon capable of killing Jahad, the Slayer that had been interfering with Vahn’s plans was the same individual who had been designated the task of killing Jahad. He had spent the last sixty years researching methods to make the Thorn useable by someone other than an Irregular, so, as could be expected, he had taken exception to the fact that it had fallen into the hands of another. Vahn didn’t particularly care about this, however, and, if the man was foolish enough to appear before him, FUG would have one less Slayer in their midst...

To this end, Vahn waited until the grand ceremony announcing the Workshop Battle’s completion had come to an end before teleporting to the hidden island. It was isolated within a complex barrier that functioned similarly to a sub-dimensional texture, but, thanks to Latios burying a rainbow-hued gemstone, Vahn was able to teleport without issue.

Up until the moment of his arrival, everything had been going exactly as Vahn planned. There were very few places he couldn’t venture once determining their location, and, even if his foes possessed some form of clairvoyance, it would be impossible to determine when and where he would appear through precognition. This was something he had absolute confidence in, as, much like the Law of Identity, he actually possessed a ’Nonexistent Physiology’.

Because of this, Vahn couldn’t help but raise his brows slightly when he emerged on the other side of his spatial transfer and found a bespectacled man with chestnut brown hair and matching eyes staring back at him. He seemed to be analyzing the crystal that Latios had left behind, and, though he was remiss to make such a comparison, the intelligent glimmer in his eyes immediately inspired thoughts of Da Vinci.

Recognizing who the man was, a satiric smile spread across Vahn’s face as he remarked, "It would seem the rumors of your curiosity weren’t exaggerated...I was actually expecting to cross paths with you on the higher floors. Tell me, to what do I owe the pleasure of this visit, Mr. Gustang...?"

As if he had only just noticed Vahn’s existence, the man, Po Bidau Gustang, Leader of the Po Bidau Family, shifted his attention from the gemstone in his hand to plainly remark, "You are an anomaly. Tell me, is this crystal formed from your body? There are few things in this world that I cannot see through, yet, here, at this moment, both you and this stone appear as a void within my perception. You cannot be an Irregular, so what are you...?"

Smiling in response to the man’s words, Vahn’s expression gradually relaxed into a casual smile as he asked, "If we’re going by definitions, what would I be if not an Irregular? I’m not something that can be defined according to your current standards, so how can I be expected to answer a question you are ill-equipped to understand? Rather than waste both of our time, why don’t you just tell me the reasons for your appearance?"

Knowing that Gustang had appeared in order to ascertain whether or not he was able to ’read’ his mind, Vahn activated the calming effects of his [Will of the Emperor] to the extreme while feigning ignorance. Unfortunately, as was revealed by the Law of Identity, he was immediately seen through by the man whose intellect, similar to Da Vinci’s, was referred to as ’Omniscient’. He could process information faster than a supercomputer, and, whenever he got serious, even beams of light would appear to move at a snail’s pace from his perspective.

To make matters even worse, Gustang had also discerned the fact that Vahn had realized that he was seen through. This caused the briefest hint of a smile to spread across the man’s face as he remarked, "Fascinating...throughout all my years, the only person who has ever been able to truly understand me was Macseth. Now, from seemingly out of nowhere, someone able to both grasp and understand my thoughts has appeared. I wonder, how many years has it been since I felt such a combination of relief and vexation...?"

With the Law of Identity revealing both the answer and the fact that Gustang was currently splitting his thoughts into multiple processes, Vahn couldn’t help but shake his head in mild exasperation as he said, "I didn’t come here to play games with you, Gustang. Since you’re not trying to prevent me from recovering the Thorn, I would rather we continue this conversation at a later date. I’m not in a position to fight against you and the other Family Heads just yet so there is no meaning in us trying to converse. Rather than waste time here, you should be making preparations to eliminate the more cancerous elements from your Family. If you continue along your current path, you will never learn the answers to your questions..."

Since he could discern even the most minute changes in Vahn’s facial expression, tone, and aura, Gustang couldn’t help but raise his brows slightly when he realized the former wasn’t making idle threats. There was an absolute sense of surety within his words, and, though there was currently an ’insurmountable gulf’ between them, he suddenly got the impression that Vahn was exceptionally dangerous. Still, he had never been the type to resist his curiosities, so, even if it might cost him his life, he pressed forward without minding Vahn’s warning.

Shaking his head in exasperation, Vahn watched with a partial deadpan as blood began to pool from the man’s eyes, nose, ears, and mouth. Immediately thereafter, he collapsed to the ground, and, though the blood evaporated in a manner reminiscent of his Magia Erebea, restoring him to perfect health, he made no attempts to rise. This was in spite of the fact that his brain was dutifully processing everything that was currently happening, sorting, analyzing, and compiling it into data for later access. Unfortunately, though it was in the process of slowly repairing itself, the man’s Ego had been fragmented to the point that even the Law of Identity entered a daze.

Voicing his thoughts, Sis, in a moderately huffy tone, remarked, (*He deserved it. Trying to forcibly analyze the structure of your Ego is suicide even for the most powerful entities within the Records. He thought he would be protected just because this was one of his puppets? This is the reward for his hubris...!*)

Since it was pretty rare for Sis to express her anger, Vahn couldn’t help but chuckle as he bent down to pick up the gemstone still grasped in Gustang’s hand. This ended up being a mistake, as, despite his Ego being fractured, Gustang had apparently ’programmed’ his body to autonomously respond to any perceived threat. Thus, in a manner eerily reminiscent of Laplace’s Key, his body reacted at a rate Vahn could hardly even perceive, vaporizing the latter in an instant. Then, likely as a method to protect the secrets of his puppet body, an Observer the size of a grain of rice disappeared into the void as an explosion more than 300km across, resembling a vibrant purple sun, caused the entirety of the 30th Floor to tremble...

Though his second vessel was thousands of kilometers away, Vahn couldn’t help but stare up at the sky in awe as the flow of Shinsu in the atmosphere shifted to resemble a multi-colored nebula that covered the Heavens. For a brief moment, day became night, and, though the explosion was more than thirty-five-hundred-kilometers away, he felt a sensation similar to vertigo as everything around him, the sea included, began to rise. It was like gravity had been turned off, and, though he wasn’t truly afraid, he realized, at that exact moment, that the Leaders of the Ten Great Families were a lot more powerful than he anticipated...

(A/N: Alternate Titles: ’...’,’...’,’...’)