Endless Path : Infinite Cosmos
chapter-2141

After a longer than anticipated stay within his personalized Little Garden, Vahn's consciousness emerged to find a rather peculiar sight waiting for him.

"Hooo~? Not bad..."

Since he hadn't completely severed the flow of time between his Internalized Realm, the Little Garden, and the outside world, Vahn's unconscious body had been left outside without anything to protect it.

Fortunately, anticipating that 'something' might happen, Vahn had basically turned himself into an indestructible and immovable statue. What surprised him was the fact that most of his surroundings had been destroyed.

"It's about time you woke up. You know, it isn't very polite to fall asleep in the middle of a fight..."

Shifting his attention to the person that had spoken, an amused smile developed across Vahn's face as he found Asuka, Yo, and Xiao Yun seated within a spherical barrier while Izayoi repelled anything larger than a boulder.

Raising his brows, Vahn stared directly at Xiao Yun, musing, "I see you made some new friends..."

With an extremely guilty look on her face, Xiao Yun promptly averted her eyes, muttering, "Sorry, Papa...did Xiao Yun do a bad thing?" while pressing the tips of her index fingers together.

Shaking his head, Vahn maintained a casual smile as he answered, "Of course not. I only asked you to beat up Izayoi. I didn't say you couldn't make friends. In fact, I'm happy for you."

Exhaling a sigh of relief, a radiant smile developed across Xiao Yun's face as she looked towards Yo and Asuka, saying, "Yay~!" while making double peace signs.

While Yo was happy for her newfound friend, Asuka's expression became noticeably awkward as she stared at Vahn, asking, "So, what now? We already destroyed the planet. How much longer are you going to keep us cooped up inside this place?"

Ignoring Asuka's questions, Vahn spread his senses through the area to find a cracked golden ring floating within the massive sea of debris. This caused his brows to furrow as he had never expected the trio to be able to damage one of his Zanpakuto. They were nigh-indestructible, and, so long as they were allowed to make full use of their power, they were essentially Tier 5 beings without any upper limits to their strength.

Peering through time, Vahn discovered that Izayoi had used a mysterious pillar of light in order to defeat Brahm. This wasn't particularly surprising. Rather, he fully expected the young hero to grasp victory from the jaws of defeat. What bothered him was the fact he had used such an unreasonably overpowered Gift to fight and defeat someone using a fraction of their true power...

Fortunately, so long as he lived, Vahn's Zanpakuto couldn't be destroyed. They were a fundamental part of him, and, so long as they fell within his domain, he could, quite literally, reach through time to pull them from danger. Thus, moments before Izayoi struck Brahm with the blindingly white pillar of light, Vahn pulled the young shota to his side.

Seeing Brahm suddenly appear next to Vahn, Izayoi, Asuka, and Yo all tensed up. The fiery youth had been a nightmare of an opponent, and, were it not for Izayoi's power spontaneously evolving near the end of the fight, they would have been soundly defeated.

Ignoring the stunned gazes of the trio, Vahn gently caressed Brahm's head, whispering, "You did well..." before reverting the fiery youth to a Gift Card. Then, with an ostensibly sadistic smile on his face, he stared directly at the now serious Izayoi, adding, "Five hours have passed. It's my turn."

Without waiting for the trio to respond, Vahn slowly lowered the hand he had been aiming skyward for the past five hours. From within the spell circle he had constructed, a dragon head larger than a planet slowly emerged, its fiery maw large enough to swallow entire worlds.

Feeling an emotion similar to existential dread, Asuka visibly paled as she shouted, "Wait! What are you doing!? We already destroyed the planet! This wasn't part of the agreement...!"

While observing his creation with unconcealed fascination in his eyes, Vahn's voice became deep, somber, and resonant as he replied, "You have not destroyed the planet. You have simply changed its form..."

With an expression similar to someone that had swallowed a bug, Asuka balled her hands into fists before stepping forward and desperately shouting, "Stop...!" in an authoritative tone.

Perking his brows, Vahn shifted his attention to the 21-year-old brunette, asking, "Seriously...?" in a slightly incredulous tone. In spite of this, and the blood that was pouring from her orifices, Asuka's expression became even more resolute as she pointed towards him and shouted, "I...said...stop...!"

Were it not for the fact he was willfully reducing the amount of backlash she was receiving, Asuka would have fried her own brain in her attempts to command Vahn. Luckily for her, he was actually impressed by her conviction. The fact he could even feel her words tugging at his mind showed an admittedly startling level of progress.

Maintaining his smile, Vahn completely lowered his hand. In response, the massive dragon head began to slowly open its incomprehensibly massive maw. Flames reminiscent of solar flares began to emerge from within, but, before it could unleash them, Vahn decided to clarify things for the trio, explaining, "This was always intended to be your final lesson. You see, one of the things you need to understand about the Gods is that they rarely, if ever, play fair. Just as you had exploited a loophole during your Gift Game against Black Rabbit, there are a functionally infinite number of technicalities we can take advantage of. Keep this in mind when you go picking fights in the future..."

Without waiting for the trio to respond, Vahn telepathically commanded the massive dragon head to unleash its fiery wrath. From their perspective, it looked like a star was expanding towards them at an unreasonably fast speed. Izayoi attempted to do something about it, but, without any energy stockpiled, he was only able to produce a pencil-sized version of the pillar he used to defeat Brahm. It grew in size as he attempted to absorb the energy from the massive surge of flames, but, despite his best efforts, he was invariably consumed along with the rest...

...

..

.

Opening her eyes with a start, Asuka nearly fell back in her chair as she spontaneously rose to her feet. Fortunately for her, an invisible force prevented her from falling over as Vahn softly muttered, "Calm down. The battle is over. You're not in any danger."

Though she didn't immediately relax her guard, Asuka quickly regained her senses as she saw the spread of food laid out before her. She realized they were back in the dining room, and, other than a slight headache, all the aches and pains in her body were gone.

While using his Telekinesis to gently guide the befuddled beauty back to her seat, Vahn maintained a calm and soothing tone as he explained, "To further emphasize how truly ridiculous things can get in the Divine Realm, I created a divergence in the flow of time prior to the start of our game. Simply put, everything you experienced was real. Your consciousness simply looped back to a point in time where the events had yet to take place. If you've ever read a story where the main character is sent back in time to a younger version of themselves, it's kind of like that."

Understanding the implication contained within Vahn's words, Asuka was about to ask the all-important question. Unfortunately, Izayoi was rather adept at stealing the spotlight, so, before the words could form on her lips, the blond-haired hero beat her to the punch, asking, "Are you trying to tell us we just died? Seriously, man? Not cool."

Shrugging his shoulders, Vahn maintained a casual demeanor as he replied, "Death isn't really that big a deal in the grand scheme of things. In fact, the automatic protections of most Gift Games set the trigger for expulsion at death. In other words, when you're eliminated from a Gift Game, you are basically reborn outside of it. I just emulated the process using a more...direct method..."

Though he furrowed his brows, Izayoi didn't say anything in response to Vahn's words. Instead, he directed his gaze to the food displayed on the table before picking up a seasoned chicken wing. He wasn't very happy with how things had turned out, but, understanding there was nothing he could do about it, he decided to simply drop the matter. After all, while his methods were questionable, it couldn't be denied that Vahn had taught them a number of important lessons..

Seeing Izayoi fall silent, a vexed expression developed across Asuka's face. She would be lying if she said she wasn't annoyed by the fact he had spoken out before her. At the same time, however, she was also relieved to know they were on the same wavelength. Thus, seeing how quickly Izayoi had dropped the matter, she couldn't help wondering if she should do the same...

Looking to Yo for answers, Asuka was unsurprised to find the girl devouring a piece of medium-rare dragon steak. This caused a wry smile to develop across her face until she heard Vahn musing, "You are free to express any concerns you may have. After all, it would be negligent of me to teach you a lesson and then refuse to answer your questions. Our Communities might not be allies in the truest sense, but I'd like to think we're friends."

Scoffing in response to Vahn's words, Asuka adopted an incredulous look at she stared back at him and asked, "Are you serious? What kind of 'friend' uses death to teach someone a lesson...?"

Caressing his chin, Vahn appeared to seriously consider Asuka's question before answering, "In this instance? A damn good one, I'd wager. After all, you're the one who said you wanted to experience the distance between you and the 'top'. Under normal circumstances, a battle against a being of my level would end with your erasure. Instead, I allowed you to accumulate six years of experience in a relatively safe environment before providing you a platform to grow even stronger. Considering how rude you've been during the majority of our interactions, Ms. Kudou, some would argue that I'm a better friend than you deserve..."

Not expecting such a snippy and borderline harsh remark, Asuka found herself at a momentary loss for words. She wanted to rebut, but, before she could think of anything to say, Vahn manifested a handkerchief to wipe his mouth before adding, "Prior to my arrival in the Divine Realm, I was both a God and an Emperor. If you believe your status as the heiress of a major conglomerate makes you special, you're beyond delusional. The only reason you can sit at this table, eat my food, and freely converse with me is because I place little value in matters of etiquette and propriety. If you can't see the irony in behaving arrogantly in front of a God-Emperor who tolerates your presence, you will no longer be welcome in the Sage Dragon's Hearth after today."

Finished with his admonishment, Vahn rose to his feet before offering a curt nod towards Yo and Izayoi. Then, without further ado, he disappeared from the dining room. He had much better things to do than entertain an ingrate, so, after briefly checking in on Lily and Jin, Vahn teleported to his workshop to begin working on the next batch of Companions. The presence of adorable creatures had always helped to calm him down, and, now that he had six years' worth of memories related to the time Izayoi and Jin spent in the Game Board, Vahn was eager to finish their Companions...

...

..

.

(A/N: Alternate Titles: 'Izayoi's very existence is bullshit...what does that say about Vahn?','Scum Che would like to know your location...','After spending time with his family, friends, and loved ones, it's no surprise that Vahn is tired of Asuka's shit xD...')