Endless Path : Infinite Cosmos

Feeling her power gradually increase, Shion didn't immediately respond to Vahn's words. Instead, she elected to wait, eyes unblinking as her form expanded from a diminutive 138 centimeters to a fairly respectable 180.
Though it was difficult to make out the contours of Shion's body, Vahn could tell she was maturing in a very 'healthy' direction. His suspicions about her physical appearance being tied to the amount of time she had spent in her Void/Abyss State had proven true.
("I'll need to ask Da Vinci to look into this phenomenon once we get back...")
(*As if she isn't already scrutinizing every single moment you appear on-screen...*)
Restraining a wry smile, Vahn waited until Shion's appearance began to stabilize before retracting his hand and asking, "Round 2?"
Ignoring Vahn's question, Shion took a moment to look herself over. Others couldn't tell but she was well aware of the changes that had occurred to her body. She didn't know how he had done it but Vahn had basically fixed the damage that had accumulated on her Soul. As far as she knew, this was supposed to be impossible, so, after a moment of silence, she found herself muttering, "God of Infinite Possibilities...a surprisingly apt description..."
Hearing Shion's remark, Vahn was about to say something when the abyssal substance covering the markedly more mature woman's body began to slough away. Fortunately, just as Vahn was about to offer her something to wear, Shion materialized a dark blue gown as she said, "It's been a long time since I was able to appear in this form...you have my gratitude..."
Contrasting her words, Shion raised her right hand towards Vahn's chest. A black cube covered in fiery golden runes shot out of her palm, its initial size resembling a die before quickly expanding to more than 10m in width as it pushed him back and continued to accelerate.
Exhaling a light chuckle, Vahn phased through the incredibly dense cube before reappearing a few meters away from Shion. The army from before began to form an encirclement, but, now that Shion had returned to her base state, Vahn wasn't particularly worried about what she might pull out next.
Seeing the smile on Vahn's face, Shion's expressionless facade faded away, a slight frown marring her markedly more mature countenance as she asked, "Why aren't you fighting back? You didn't seem particularly concerned about gender when you were ripping Amaterasu's avatar to pieces..."
Shrugging his shoulders, Vahn maintained a casual demeanor as he answered, "I don't consider you an enemy. If anything, I empathize with your current situation, so, unless you go out of your way to touch my bottom line, I have no reason to embarrass you."
Furrowing her brows even further, a glimmer of hostility reflected in the depths of Shion's eyes as she stated, "I don't require your empathy, sympathy, or anything else for that matter. I came here to pit my ideals against yours. Fooling around and refusing to fight is the same as disrespecting me in front of the entire Divine Realm."
Punctuating her words, Shion raised her right hand over her head. An illusory blue sword covered in runes manifested high in the sky, its length comparable to a mountain range.
More so as a result of Shion's words than the oversized blade, Vahn's expression became marginally more serious as he responded, "Very well..."
Before Shion could even fully process that Vahn had said something, an indescribable suppressive force descended upon her as the sky overhead took on a brilliant golden luster. Countless beams of golden light had appeared out of thin air, their speed and trajectory completely untraceable as they proceeded to coil around her [Divine Sword: Ragnarok], her body, and every member of her private army.
Finding herself in a position resembling crucifixion, a hint of panic appeared in Shion's eyes as she attempted to pull herself free from the luminescent golden chains that had bound her. When she realized she couldn't even get them to rustle, the look on her face turned incomparably frosty as she directed a glare towards Vahn and said, "Release me..." in a threatening tone.
Exhaling a sigh, Vahn directed Enkidu to release Shion from her bindings. Instead, the mischievous golden chains issued a pleasant yet defiant-sounding hum. Shion's brows immediately twitched in response, her expression darkening as she came to the conclusion that Vahn was taking advantage of her.
"You despicable cur..."
Ignoring Shion's remark, Vahn connected his mind to Enkidu in an attempt to understand what it was trying to convey. It had yet to reach the point where it could communicate freely, but, thanks to Vahn's ability to interpret any and all languages, it didn't take long for him to figure out what it was trying to say.
Suppressing the growing sense of 'expectation' from the spectators, Vahn approached to within arm's length of the glowering Shion before asking, "That scar on your abdomen...what caused it?"
Refusing to answer Vahn's question, Shion lowered her head before promptly suppressing her emotions and defaulting to a flawless deadpan. The injury on her abdomen was something she had inflicted upon herself. It was meant to represent her conviction, but, for reasons she couldn't quite understand, she felt uncomfortable when Vahn was the one asking about it.
Though he was getting better about not prying into people's past traumas, Vahn didn't hesitate to shift his attention to the version of Shion that had appeared next to him with a vibrant smile on her face. In response, Loi-chan, understanding Vahn's intentions, elected to restrain her typical antics as she explained, "She formed a covenant with the Demon Lord of Cinders, Ashka. In exchange for her 'future', she gained the ability to loop back in time to the moment of her reincarnation. She had her reproductive organs, specifically her uterus and ovaries, removed."
Understanding why Enkidu was reluctant to release Shion from its grasp, an exasperated sigh escaped Vahn's throat as he extended his hand and said, "Feel free to hate me for this..."
Without explaining what he was doing, Vahn placed his hand atop Shion's head. An agonizing heat spread through the latter's abdomen, but, having experienced unthinkable suffering in her previous life, Shion's expression remained unchanged until the chains binding her body suddenly loosened.
Feeling her powers return, crimson flames erupted from Shion's body as she leaped backward and manifested a pitch-black, compass-like ring behind her back. The dark blue gown she had used to conceal her body immediately burned away, but, while her figure was revealed, it was covered in a red, black, and gold outfit that left her shoulders, unmarked abdomen, and the sides of her thighs exposed.
In place of unblemished blue eyes, Shion's irises and pupils coalesced into crimson gems that stood out against a backdrop of pitch black. Her previously pristine white hair gained an ashen hue, but, what stood out most of all was the segmented, horn-like crown that had appeared near the center of her forehead.
"You think you can just do whatever you want because you have power? I told you not to touch me. Now you will suffer my fury...!"
A stark contrast to the coolheaded beauty she typically presented to others, a somewhat deranged expression appeared on Shion's face as she spread her hands to the side. From the ground beneath Vahn, several tendrils formed from an amorphous metal substance attempted to grab his wrists and ankles.
Though a handful of his women enjoyed it quite a bit, Vahn had never been particularly interested in tentacle play. He was also beginning to realize that Shion was something of an idiot. She wasn't overtly stupid, but, much like a typical shonen protagonist, she completely ignored the fact he had effectively won three times over at this point. Unless he defeated her in a way she would accept, she was going to keep coming at him over, and over, and over again.
Disappearing before the tentacles could coil around him, Vahn ignored the surprise on Shion's face as he reached forward to rip the horn-like crown from her forehead. In the same motion, he fractured it into several pieces before surprising virtually everyone as he gave her a firm slap across the face.
"Listen closely, brat. I am not your enemy. I am not trying to assault, embarrass, or take advantage of you. Stop creating enemies for yourself when there is already a boatload of people just waiting for you to slip up and make a mistake...!"
Touching her cheek, Shion was surprised to find that it was beginning to swell. Her immortality didn't make her immune to damage but it allowed her to heal pretty much instantaneously. She didn't sense Vahn activating any kind of skill so she simply couldn't fathom how he was able to bypass one of her most powerful abilities as if it didn't exist...
Believing that Shion was going to continue her assault the moment she came back to her senses, Vahn punctuated his statement by flicking her forehead with enough force to send her flipping through the black ring floating behind her back. By the time she managed to right herself, a thin trail of blood was flowing from the center of her forehead as she stared back at him with a look of disbelief.
"What was that for?"
With a deadpan expression of his own, Vahn stated, "You are an abnormally hardheaded individual. I felt it was necessary to get my point across. You seem to forget it every time I give you a moment to think."
Furrowing her brows, Shion reached up to feel the wound on her forehead. A red light flashed at her fingertips, and, as a result, the blood pooling from the wound coalesced into a red gemstone. As for the actual wound, it had completely sealed.
"I told you before...refusing to fight is the same as disrespecting me. If my actions are starting to annoy you, you need-"
Raising his hand, Vahn's expression and tone became stern as he said, "Stop right there. Are you even listening to yourself...?"
Though Vahn had infused a bit of Authority into his tone, it wasn't the reason Shion had stopped. She was just so used to people listening to her that she was genuinely taken aback by his sudden interruption.
"I beg your pardon...?"
Exhaling a profoundly exasperated sigh, Vahn raised the index finger of his right hand as he pointed out, "You only recently attempted to chastise me for believing I was entitled to do whatever I want just because I had the power to do so. Now you're trying to put me on the spot by challenging me to use my power to force you into submission. There is a limit to how tyrannical you can behave in the name of a checkered past. I understand that you have probably experienced things most people can't even begin to imagine. That doesn't actually give you the right to vilify everyone that opposes you. You are far too powerful to continue playing the victim."
Lowering her hands, Shion's expression defaulted to an indecipherable mask as she stared back at Vahn in complete silence. She wanted to deny his words, but, having lived for tens of thousands of years, she wasn't incapable of rationalizing what other people had to say. Rather, as someone who had assumed a leadership position, she had developed a habit of at least hearing people out.
Instead of accusing Vahn of having no idea what he was talking about, Shion decided to ask a far more important question, specifically, "Have you ever experienced trauma...?"
Though it appeared somewhat forced, Vahn was able to manage a smile as he said, "You don't get to be as powerful as we are without enduring the darkest aspects of society. I won't discredit what you went through by saying my suffering eclipses yours but I can assure you...my past isn't exactly filled with sunshine and rainbows. At the very least, it sure as hell didn't start out that way..."
Sensing no falsehoods in Vahn's words, a significant portion of Shion's growing resentment toward him promptly faded away. She was still extremely annoyed by his excessively casual demeanor, but, at the very least, she no longer hated him...
"Very well then...let's compare notes..."
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(A/N: Alternate Titles: 'I bet she grew booba...','I get knocked down, but I get up again. Ain't never gonna keep me down.','Vahn is about to be an angry boi...')

Following her fateful encounter with the young slave, a human girl named Shelly, Shion went on to become a symbol of fear, resistance, and liberation within the Kingdom of Roma.
Thirteen years staked to a cross had given Shion a lot of time to think about the mistakes she had made in the past. Thus, rather than trying to oppose the Holy Church openly or in an above-board manner, she used her shapechanging ability to blend into normal society. She became a phantom that hunted down people known to mistreat their slaves before eventually going on to kill any and all people who regarded others as property.
Near the beginning of her second journey, Shion made sure to avoid attaching herself to any person or place for a prolonged period of time. She had grown tired of losing people, so, for the better part of ten years, she traveled purposefully throughout the world she had penned to paper in her previous life. Her goal was to learn as much as she could about the world while simultaneously increasing her strength to the point that none could stand against her.
Though the Holy Church hunted her and resorted to despicable tactics such as burning an entire village filled with liberated slaves, the one thing Shion's suffering had taught her was patience. She only took action when she was absolutely certain she would be able to kill her enemies. As a result, the Holy Church gradually lost its influence as the upper echelons of the clergy invariably retreated to the Capital City, Alamas, for their protection.
By burning down churches and slaughtering slave owners, Shion quickly garnered herself a massive cult following. Some attempted to blame her for the misery they were forced to endure as a result of her 'rebellion', but, having long since given up the path to becoming a Hero, Shion burned them along with the rest.
Without any attachments, there was nothing Shion's enemies could use as leverage to restrict her actions or put pressure on her. She wasn't like the Demons who had territory and people to protect. She was a singular, untraceable entity that skulked around the three continents like a phantom. The only reason people even knew she was the one wreaking havoc was because she would always burn her victims from the inside out.
For years and years, Shion butchered and burned tens of thousands of people. Whenever she ran out of one demographic to slaughter, she would move on to the next most corrupt group. When she finally extended her hand to various merchant associations, the already struggling economy completely collapsed. This ended up being the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back, as, in response to her actions, both the Kingdom and the Holy Church had been increasing taxes in an effort to expand their forces and shore up the defenses of the Capital.
In the end, it wasn't Shion that overthrew the Kingdom and laid waste to the Holy Church. It was the people they had suppressed, exploited, and overworked to the point they had no choice but to retaliate.
Unlike the Civil War that had started as a result of Roland's actions, the second lasted a mere six months before the Royal Family and the Archbishop were dragged out of their homes and executed in public. It was at that moment that Shion finally decided to step out of the darkness and into the light.
Instead of attempting to rule over the Kingdom herself, Shion nominated the leader of a family of Knights that had never stopped supporting the people. The man she had chosen hated her to the core, but, understanding the importance of having someone to guide them, he willingly accepted Shion's nomination before appointing her as history's first court-appointed Witch.
Taking advantage of her status and the notoriety she had garnered as a result of her one-woman crusade, Shion established an administrative organization known as the Witch's Court. She allowed the newly appointed King free rein when it came to passing legislation and collecting taxes but the authority of law fell into the hands of the Witch's Court. They became the Judge, Jury, and, in many cases, the Executioners enforcing the Rule of Law throughout the Kingdom.
Though many directly compared her to the Archbishop due to her recruitment of young women with innate magical talent, Shion knew better than anyone how different her actions were from the monster that had purported himself a vessel of the Gods. She didn't subject the girls she recruited to years of mental, physical, and sexual abuse. Instead, she embedded them with a genuine sense of purpose while empowering them with the knowledge and skill necessary to carry out their duty as fair and objectively as possible.
For decades following the establishment of the Witch's Court, a tentative peace reigned over the relatively young Ashbourne Kingdom. Many even began to view Shion as a genuine Saintess, but, as someone who had born the title in the past, she vehemently refused to carry it. Instead, people across the world of Gisele came to know her as the Phoenix Witch. Her actions had resulted in one Kingdom burning to the ground, but, in its place, a far more prosperous Kingdom had taken shape.
Unfortunately, as was often the case when it came to humans and politics, it only took two and a half generations before corruption had, once again, taken root in the Kingdom. Merchants readily took advantage of the vacuum of power that had appeared in the wake of countless noble families being completely annihilated. They bought up land, paid impoverished farms to rejuvenate it, and cut deals with the Royal Family to become a new generation of aristocrats.
Despite her best efforts, Shion was unable to prevent the younger members of her court from being swayed by promises of wealth and a life of luxury. By guaranteeing young witches a certain degree of freedom and independence, she ended up creating a situation that allowed them to be exploited by those seeking to curry favor with future Adjudicators.
With many young Witches hailing from extremely impoverished families, it didn't take a lot of effort for wealthy and charismatic merchants to take advantage of their naivete to woo them. Becoming a Princess or a Noblewoman was the dream of countless young girls. As a result, it wasn't long before the less magically inclined began seeking better prospects outside the Witch's Court.
After a while, even Shion's immortality became a problem as the sentiment that she was preventing the Kingdom from prospering began to spread far and wide. People instinctually feared things they couldn't understand, so, shortly after the Ashbourne Kingdom had coronated its third King, people began pressuring her to step down from her position as Supreme Justice of the Witch's Court.
Having lived well over a hundred years at that point, Shion only put up a middling resistance in the face of her deposition. She had long harbored the desire to travel and had already created a home for herself near the heart of a mountain range roamed by dragons. Thus, after a five-year selection process, she ended up passing her title to one of her many apprentices before starting her journey with a new name and face.
For decades following her 'retirement', Shion daylighted as an Adventurer while night lighting as a vigilante. Some suspected her of being the recently disappeared Phoenix Witch, but, as she never made use of her flames, she eventually made a name for herself as an SSS-Rank Adventurer known as the White Snake Princess.
During her career as the White Snake Princess, Shion crossed paths with several rising and many, already corrupt Nobles. She even had a few run-ins with members of the Witch's Court, but, due to her intimate knowledge of the legal system, her ability to change form, and her constant relocating, none of the crimes she was accused of ever stuck.
Though she could see the Kingdom was on a slow and gradual descent towards despotism, Shion eventually retired from her life as an Adventurer when the 3rd Prince began propositioning her to become his bride. Shion had no interest in marrying someone who was clearly looking to stage a coup, so, shortly after the man sent his Knights to try and 'persuade' her, Shion ventured into one of the most dangerous Dungeons on the Continent before simply disappearing.
While many of her more distant memories had faded with the passage of time, Shion could vividly recall the days she spent living in the mountains. Isolation, at least in her case, was like medicine for the soul. She enjoyed the serenity of the mountain basin and even managed to make friends with a few of the surrounding tribes of dragons. Their elders were far more knowledgeable than even the wisest human Sage, so, for the better part of a hundred years, Shion exchanged knowledge with the dragons while enjoying the relative peace and quiet of the mountains.
Had things continued in such a way, Shion may have never left the mountains. Unfortunately, two of the most prominent features of humanity were their tenacity and their pursuit of progress. While other races would maintain their way of life for hundreds, if not thousands of years, humans never stopped pushing the limits of technological advancement.
Though the Holy Church had been irredeemably corrupt, the one thing it had managed to achieve was preventing humans from developing too quickly. Without some kind of 'divine oversight', there was nothing to inhibit humanity's rate of progress during times of peace. As a result, the Ashbourne Kingdom developed from a relatively backward medieval kingdom to a reasonably advanced nation on the cusp of an industrial and magical revolution.
With every notable human civilization being built upon a foundation of conquest, it wasn't long before humanity's desire for progress extended far beyond their borders. Tensions between the various races continued to build until the more conservative races, specifically the Elves and the various Dragon tribes, began to threaten war if humans continued to expand into their territory.
Undaunted by the threat of war, a number of organizations purporting the human race's inherent superiority over other races began to develop. They viewed the 'inability' of other races to compete with them in terms of scientific progress as undeniable proof that humans were the destined rulers of Gisele. When the Dragons and Elves invariably retaliated, the various supremacist groups painted them as savages who wanted to prevent humanity from reaching its full potential. Thus, just as they had during the war against the Demons, humanity vilified every other race in an effort to justify the innumerable atrocities they subsequently committed. Shortly after that, humanity branded their first slave in more than a hundred and fifty years, a young elven girl who went on to become a sex slave pandering to high-profile businessmen.
When Shion first learned of the events transpiring outside of the mountain, a part of her refused to believe it. She knew that human nature compelled them to repeat the same mistakes over and over again, but, after dedicating more than fifty years of her life towards abolishing slavery, she couldn't fathom how it could simply take root without the general populace caring. Sure, it might start with other races, but, once slavery had become an institution, it was bound to expand to humans.
Using her ability to alter her appearance, Shion, for the first time in more than a hundred years, entered into human society. The changes they had made during her absence were startling, but, as someone that had reincarnated from a relatively 'modern' world, she wasn't too surprised. After all, lightning magic was actually one of the very first magic bestowed upon humanity by the Gods, so, as strange as it was to see power lines in a 'fantasy' world, Shion quickly got used to it.
What Shion couldn't accept was seeing a wealthy-looking man in a top hat and monocle walking around with a scantily clad elven girl on a literal leash. When she confronted him about it, the man looked at her as if she were trash before threatening to report her to the police if she didn't cease harassing him. That night, Shion entered into the man's mansion, strung him up over the entryway, and burned him from the inside out...
When news outlets learned about what Shion had done, the front page of the newspaper read: An Ancient Calling Card: Return of the Witch of Chaos?
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Though it would have been simple for him to destroy all of Shion's army, Vahn didn't immediately take action to eradicate them. He may have if Shion directed any kind of male toward, but, in place of anger, hatred, or resentment, she radiated an aura that said, "I'm done." The only thing keeping her going was her desire to achieve her objective.
Dodging a literal meteor cast by a petite mage with an oversized witches hat, large glasses, and elven ears, a soft yet exasperated sigh escaped Vahn's mouth. Tragic and resolute Heroes were one of his few weaknesses, so, even though he was unaware of Shion's past, her conviction to see things through to the end made it difficult for him to retaliate.
Vahn had never been the type to crush people's dreams. (A/N: There are exceptions to everything.)
"It's futile...I won't tell you to give up on your dreams but you can't hope to defeat me using simple numbers. I can sense how much pain it causes you to manifest this army. Don't force me to destroy them."
Without so much as a single change in her expression, Shion lowered her left hand before removing her right from the pocket of her hoodie. Instead of reaching forward, however, she reached up to pull down the zipper of her hoodie until it had reached her navel. She was wearing a black sports bra underneath, but, while some took a moment to ogle her fairly modest breasts, it wasn't long before the eyes of every single person in the Little Garden gravitated towards the massive scar on Shion's abdomen.
"They are already dead...there is no longer anything you or anyone else can take from me..."
Caressing the scar with her fingers, Shion's eyes once again went out of focus as the center of her scar gained an unnatural, burgundy hue. Moments later, beads of blood began to gather near the surface before dripping downward as if the wound were fresh.
With the exception of her sports bra, the rest of Shion's ensemble was pure white. The moment her blood began to flow, the bottom of her hoodie became an eerie, carmine color that quickly spread through her shorts before sequentially flowing down her legs to dirty her socks. Even then, it didn't cease. Instead, it overflowed from her sneaker-like shoes before spreading outward to form a large pentagram.
Though he could have stopped her at any point, Vahn found himself unwilling to interfere in Shion's performance. She wasn't jeopardizing his plans or endangering anyone else's life, so, while her pain was becoming unbearable, he alternated between standing his ground and deflecting attacks. At no point in time did he turn away.
Undoubtedly fueled by Shion's blood sacrifice, an eerie black mass began to gather at the center of the pentagram. Just looking at it was enough to cause people to feel as though their skin had come alive, but, as if it was the most comfortable thing in the world, a faint yet deranged smile developed across Shion's face as the eerie black liquid crawled up her legs before spreading across the rest of her skin. When it was finished, her body resembled a living shadow with bottomless white eyes and hair that seemed to fade into the fabric of reality.
At this point in his life, there were very few things that could genuinely take Vahn by surprise. Shion was apparently one of them, as, rather than Shadow or Darkness Laws, the thing she had fused with her body was Emptiness. She had become one with the Abyss of the End, an unstable existence that shouldn't be able to possess an Ego yet clearly did.
Staring into the fathomless depths of Shion's eyes, the only thing Vahn could sense from her was pure, unadulterated apathy. She was basically the antithesis of everything he represented, a being that had completely abandoned the prospect of emotional connections in order to reach her goals.
Shion had managed to attain incredible power, but, in exchange, she had abandoned everything that permitted her to use it...
Seeing what could have been himself in the depths of Shion's eyes, a serious expression developed across Vahn's face as he evaded an abyssal black bolt of lightning that left absolute nothingness in its wake. The attack hadn't been aimed towards any of his vitals, but, had he been a normal person, he wouldn't have recovered even after the Gift Game had ended. In other words, Shion was seeking to cripple him. Permanently.
Though he could have requested a Host Master's adjudication to have Shion disqualified, Vahn did something that no one expected. He teleported next to Shion with such an unreasonable degree of mastery over Space and Time that she failed to detect any trace of him. Then, instead of hitting her, he plopped his hand down atop her head and said, "You've had it rough..."
As Shion's hair was somehow unaffected by the Void, Vahn was able to caress her head without having to worry about losing his hand. In response, Shion's figure seemed to 'glitch' before her head was spontaneously tilted in his direction. In the very next moment, without any preliminary movements, her abyssal black hand passed through his abdomen as a voice that sounded both distant and near echoed, "We do not...require...your pity..."
Retracting her hand from Vahn's abdomen, Shion was expecting him to collapse or cry out in pain. Instead, Vahn just adopted a wry smile as he answered, "Pity isn't something anyone requires. It is something we give freely when they empathize with others. I am not looking down on you. I am trying to understand your pain."
Staring at the pitch-black hole in Vahn's abdomen, Shion, once again, attempted to use her [God's Eye of Perception] on him. Her attacks in this form would generally inflict a status effect known as [Voidtouched] onto her enemies. Most of Vahn's information was hidden from her but she should still be able to view whether or not he was affected by any abnormal status conditions.
To Shion's shock, the only condition that had appeared in the column for Vahn's abnormal statuses was a box filled with question marks. This was something that typically only appeared when she had encountered beings far beyond her current level. Ever since her arrival in the Divine Realm, the only other being whose status she couldn't read was Shiroyasha, the former Rank 10...
Deciding not to hold anything back, Shion's figure spontaneously bloomed outward like an abyssal black shockwave. It didn't produce so much as a single sound, but, by the time she had retracted to her original form, an area of several hundred meters had been 'erased' from existence.
Looking around, Shion was unable to discover so much as a single trace of Vahn. In spite of this, she had yet to be ousted from the Gift Game. This could only mean a handful of things, so, after a while, Shion found herself whispering, "It must have been a clone..."
Unable to rationalize how else Vahn could stay calm in the face of absolute oblivion, Shion reached the same conclusion as countless observers. What she didn't know was that her attack had, in fact, been successful. Vahn simply wasn't the type to be overcome by something as 'basic' as existence erasure. He was one of the few beings in all of Creation that could step in and out of the Principle Axis of Reality at his leisure. Simply put, he decided when and how he existed.
Manifesting next to the abyssal black woman, Vahn couldn't help asking, "Did you get smaller...?" as he extended his hand to caress Shion's head. Her body momentarily tensed, but, with nothing but empty white voids for eyes, it was difficult to tell if she was genuinely surprised.
Never the type to explain her abilities to others, Shion responded to Vahn's question by forming her left hand into a blade and slicing through him at the waist. In the same fluid motion, she balled her right hand into a fist, accurately striking his diaphragm as she, somewhat surprisingly, growled, "You do not have permission to touch me...!"
Raising his brows, Vahn promptly retracted his hand from Shion's head, completely ignoring the fact he was now half a person with a hole in his chest as he said, "Sorry. I just thought you could use a headpat or two. It's not particularly well known at this point but one of my identities is the God of Petting. I meant no offense."
Taken aback by Vahn's 'earnest' response, Shion just stared at him for several seconds as the cogs in her mind slowly processed what he had said.
Unperturbed by Shion's admittedly eerie gaze, Vahn took a moment to confirm that she was, in fact, getting smaller. Her original height wasn't particularly impressive, but, with each use of her abilities, a part of her seemed to be lost to the Void. It was similar to how Mikoto would revert to a child-like state whenever she overtaxed her reserves. The only distinction was that Shion lacked the means to recover what she had lost.
("She really is sacrificing everything in the pursuit of her objective...")
(*Don't lose focus, Vahn...the best thing you can do for her is sending her on her way or completing your own objective. Even if she did manage to complete her objective, do you genuinely believe she would be happy...?*)
Though it was a little mean-spirited of her, Sis brought memories of Vahn's interactions with the original Scathach to the surface. He wasn't wrong to want to help people, but, every now and then, he was bound to encounter people that simply didn't want his help. This was something Vahn was still coming to terms with, as, in his mind, so long as there was life, there was hope.
Adopting a sober expression, Vahn broke the silence between him and Shion by asking, "What is it you hope to achieve by gaining dominion over reality...?"
Tilting her head to the side, Shion seemed to consider Vahn's words for several moments before answering, "I intend to abolish the current system of transmigration...the Gods should not be able to interfere with people's lives at their leisure...people should not be called to the Divine Realm for the sole purpose of providing entertainment to others..."
Recalling how she had felt when she discovered the reason for her own reincarnation, a hint of fury appeared in Shion's eyes. Immediately after that, several white cracks appeared across her body, the majority of which originated from the white voids representing her eyes.
Shifting her attention away from Vahn, Shion observed as one of the cracks spanned the length of her arm before spreading through her hand. Then, for the first time since she adopted her current form, she opened her mouth to reveal another white void as she exhaled a sigh.
One of the downsides to tapping into the Void was that it was constantly trying to consume you. The Void, or, more accurately, the Abyss of the End wasn't something that was meant to exist. It was a state that followed the erasure of all things, so, the more agitated she became, the greater Shion's chance of destroying herself. If she failed to deactivate it in time, she would be the one erased from existence.
"Were you aiming for this...?"
Though she didn't get the impression that Vahn was trying to make her self-destruct, Shion couldn't help asking him directly. Instead of answering her question, however, Vahn adopted a wry smile as he said, "Sorry about this..."
Without explaining what he was sorry for, Vahn, once again, plopped his hand down atop Shion's head. Several pieces of her body immediately fragmented, but, moments later, those that remained began to 'heal'. It didn't make any sense but Vahn was somehow able to 'replenish' the nothingness that made up her Void Transformation...
"What are you...?"
Returning a far more sincere smile, Vahn continued to caress Shion's head as he softly replied, "I'm Vahn Aldrnari Mason, Sage Dragon Emperor, and God of Infinite Possibilities. It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance."
...
..
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Chapter 2229: Persistence