Endless Path : Infinite Cosmos

Though he ended up crashing through the front doors of the castle’s keep, Vahn had managed to block Scathach’s preliminary attack with his transformed palm. He had reached the point where he could activate his [Rakshasa Body] without even having to think about it, allowing him to transition between offense and defense in an instant.

As Scathach had disappeared from her previous location after throwing the spear, Vahn twisted his head to the side while grabbing the spear with his right hand, seizing control over it as he swiped in a wide arc to the right. He found his attack blocked by a short spear in Scathach’s own right hand as a second grazed past the artery in his neck. She as able to immediately change the trajectory of the attack with minimal effort but, by transforming only the right half of his body into his Zhuque form, Vahn was able to create an eruption of vermillion flames that accelerated him outside of the attack’s trajectory, burning Scathach’s dress in the progress.

Without even flinching, Scathach tore through his vermillion flames with incredible momentum, a series of five spears dancing around her, seemingly of their own volition. They even instantly moved to pierce the Elemental Stars he had sent out to deter her pursuit, a vain effort to buy enough time to better ascertain his surroundings.

Vahn knew that the Land of Shadows couldn’t be a simple place and, as it’s Queen, Scathach was undoubtedly able to make use of various abilities related to it. If he ignored their surroundings and just focused on her, it was all but guaranteed to come back to bite him. After all, this was a land of the dead, a place where Ghosts and several types of Spirits freely roamed. Since one of the main aspects of her legend included escorting warriors into her domain, Vahn needed to move the fight away from any foreboding buildings or structures.

Though she was able to see through Vahn’s intentions without much difficulty, Scathach had always found it exceptionally difficult to keep him pinned down. She could easily overwhelm him whenever they traded blows but, due to the nature of Vahn’s body and the manifestation of his power, it was all but impossible to keep him in one spot without dealing critical damage to his mind and spirit.

In an effort to keep him grounded, Scathach extended her hand forward, sending her spears cutting through the air before piercing into the void behind him. This caused a large red pentagram to form and, in the next moment, Vahn found himself barreling towards the blackened wasteland below. It was as if he had been impacted by a gravitational ’hammer’ and, like a nail, his penultimate fate saw him penetrate deep into the ground below.

Understanding it would take a lot more to inflict any kind of meaningful damage to Vahn, Scathach extended her hand to the sky, forming a massive spear that was more than 20m in length. Its tip was shaped like a vicious drillbit and, as if to capitalize on this peculiarity, it began to spin at high speeds, the energy radiating from its surface enough to distort the space around it. Then, with the sweep of her hand, the spear shot forward like a ray of violent red light, impacting the area where Vahn had been buried.

For a brief moment after impact, there was an eerie silence that pervaded the entirety of the Land of Shadows. Then, like the light of first dawn, a hemisphere of pulsing red energy began to expand outward like a bubble. It was able to keep its surface tension by the energy rapidly swirling but, upon expanding to more than 300m in size, it erupted outward with extreme violence, tearing through the land and destroying a large section of her castle in an instant.

Scathach had never particularly cared about her estate so, after having decided to put her all into this battle, she would lay ruin to the entire Lad of Shadows if necessary. Vahn wanted to lay claim to her and, as this ran counter to her original death-seeking intentions, he would need to force her into submission. This was the only way to keep her at his side and, if he wasn’t able to make good on his promise, Scathach fully intended to keep him at her’s instead...

Never doubting that Vahn could survive the cataclysmic blow she had sent his way, Scathach began to perform a rhythmic dance in mid-air, red energy swirling around her like a vortex. In response to her actions, space within the Land of Shadows began to distort and, from within the void above her, a massive tear appeared. From within, a blood-red meteor that seemed to writhe and pulse began to emerge, red lightning dancing across its surface as a soul-shaking shriek began to echo through the surroundings.

Though she had escorted countless warriors to the Land of Shadows, Scathach had also exiled all of the malicious and wicked individuals who lived their life without honor. She forcefully sealed them in an isolated section of the Land of Shadows, creating an amalgamation of flesh and malignant energy that was several tens of kilometers in diameter, screaming for release...

When the smoke from Scathach’s cataclysmic attack finally faded, a Dragonoid entity that stood more than three meters tall could be seen hovering a few centimeters above the epicenter of a massive crater. Even Vahn’s usually handsome visage had faded away, replaced by a vicious and judgmental expression, even if those weren’t his actual emotions. To further lend to his monstrous appearance, he had done away with his wings, sprouting four additional limbs in their place, each set with a flaming sword that radiated so much heat that, even two kilometers away, amidst fierce and bone-chilling winds, Scathach could feel it.

With a rare smile on her face, Scathach’s dance came to an end, her scarlet tongue briefly tracing her lips as the malignant mass of flesh above her sprouted hundred of thousands of toothed mouths. In the next moment, with the consistency of heavy rain, beams of negative energy rained down upon the Land of Shadows, each beam corroding an area of several meters on contact.

Before any of the ’rain’ could reach him, Vahn’s maw opened wide, revealing two rows of angular teeth. This caused an invisible bubble to surround him, deflecting away the beams of malignant red energy before expanding outward with phenomenal speed. Though Scathach had tried to move beyond the effective range of the attack, she was surprised to find that even instantaneous action had proven too slow as, before she could even process what had happened, a mighty roar seemed to erupt from inside her mind as she was sent flying into the amalgamation of flesh above.

Though Vahn’s ’Dragon’s Roar’ was one of his most powerful attacks, especially in his transformed state, it was only the precursor to his actual attack. Immediately following the unstoppable pulse of energy, several layered acceleration gates appeared before his open maw which, from within, could be seen glowing with intense azure light. At the same time, his scales grew more vibrant while the three-pronged horns on his head began to curve slightly, a complex runic pattern expanding across their surface.

Without realizing it himself, Vahn’s Qīnglóng transformation had become slightly different than what he had grown accustomed to. It was likely related to his emotional state but, rather than a coating of azure scales, more than half of his body now glistened with resplendent gold. Even the lightning that danced across his body began to emulate this change but, with his focus entirely on Scathach, Vahn hadn’t noticed it at all.

With his Dragon’s Breath building up to a critical level, Vahn released it into the acceleration gates, each forcibly kept stable by a mass of Source Energy. As a result, his already devastating attack was elevated far beyond its normal destructive capacity, accelerating far beyond the speed of light. This caused the same pulse he had experienced in the past but, having anticipated it this time, an aura of pure Source Energy veiled his body, protecting himself and his cherished [Lævateinn]s.

Though his breath was usually concentrated into a beam, the peculiarity of accelerating an attack beyond the speed of light caused it to radiate out in all directions, seemingly without limit. Even Vahn was taken aback by this as, immediately following his attack, ’everything’ within view began to dissolve away into what Da Vinci referred to as Subatomic Ash. It was the completely spent state of magical energy and, with nothing to keep it stable, it broke apart until it was smaller than even a preon before ultimately becoming so small it couldn’t be detected by even the most powerful of instruments.

For several seconds after the release of his attack, Vahn’s surroundings became nothing but a cloud of ash, swirling about in the massive void he had created. It was like being trapped in a vacuum and, for reasons he couldn’t ascertain, even the surrounding atmosphere was unable to collapse in to fill the 300km void he had created. It wasn’t until the cloud of absolute darkness finally faded away that the atmosphere finally tried to stabilize, collapsing in on itself with phenomenal destructive force as a result of the pressure differential.

At the time, Vahn couldn’t even fathom how much damage his attack had done but, from where he was hovering, even the closest surface seemed a vast distance away. It reminded him a lot of when he would float high above the planet and, though he had never thought to try, Vahn had the distinct impression he might even be able to destroy a planet at his current level. Though there were quite a number of Noble Phantasms that qualified as Anti-World Noble Phantasms, it had never occurred to him that he would reach anywhere near that level in his current state...

Though he experienced a strange feeling of existential dread, Vahn was even more put off by the feeling of ’pride’ that welled up inside him. Part of him wanted to roar out triumphantly but, as this wasn’t the first time he had transformed into his Qīnglóng form, he managed to keep it restrained. Instead, he flew upwards toward the massive tear in the sky above, the only thing that had survived his amplified Dragon’s Breath. As for the amalgamation of flesh within, it was now nowhere to be seen, much like Scathach herself.

Even if his attack was twice as strong, Vahn wouldn’t have believed it if anyone told him his attack had been enough to actually kill his Shishou. Thus, despite her apparent absence, he remained as vigilant as his current state would allow, his [Lævateinn]s at the ready, crying out for a chance to do battle.

What unnerved Vahn was that, even after several minutes had passed, Scathach was nowhere to be seen. He could only watch in silence as the tear in space began to mend itself, appearing much like a blot of misty ink that slowly shrank until vanishing into nothingness. It was only after this that Vahn began to feel nervous as, knowing his Shishou, there was no way she would just remain idle for more than ten minutes.

Beginning to feel a little panicky, Vahn stowed away his morose [Lævateinn]s and began scouring the area using his domain. He flew from one end of the massive crater to the next, searching for any signs of Scathach, all while using [Enkidu] to forcibly reveal anything that might be hidden away in the void. There was always a chance that she was trying to lull him into a complacent state so, even after several hours had passed, Vahn hadn’t dropped his guard as he continued his search for the woman he couldn’t even rationalize killing...

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