Endless Path : Infinite Cosmos

After a few more one-sided exchanges, where his attacks never found purchase, Vahn came to a stop above a half-destroyed building, staring at Musashi with a deadpan expression as he asked, "What is the deal with your power? I know about the state of ’nothingness’ but it’s almost like your body isn’t even really here..."

Hearing Vahn’s sudden comment, Musashi’s smile returned and, after wiping a bit of sweat from her brow, she answered< ’You tell me your secrets and I’ll tell you mine. My sword can even cut through the origin of concepts yet, no matter how much I try to actualize your death, you just keep coming back, stronger than before. I’m actually starting to get a little winded here..."

The moment she finished speaking, Musashi cut down with her katana, producing an invisible wave of energy that seemed to move beyond the time axis. As a result, Vahn ended up sliced from crown to groin in an instant, his two halves sloughing grotesquely for a brief moment before he reformed, seemingly without any trouble whatsoever.

With an even dourer expression than before, Vahn’s right arm transformed into an organic-looking dragon’s head, his hand forming a maw that swelled with an immense amount of energy. Though he hadn’t made much progress in manifesting his power outside his body, there was little he couldn’t achieve internally. There were a vast number of creatures that could fire their energy in the form of beams and breaths, himself included, so Vahn had long-since developed techniques to circumvent his apparent weakness.

Musashi showed an expression of mild surprise upon seeing Vahn’s right arm transform, but, in the next moment, an amused smile spread across her face as she twisted her body, shouting, "I knew it, you really do have multiple forms...!" while cutting through the beam.

Though he wanted to just ignore her words and focus on the fight, Vahn was growing increasingly frustrated with the fact Musashi didn’t seem to be taking the fight seriously. He wasn’t going all out, as that would completely ruin his plans, but that didn’t make it any less annoying to be looked down upon. Thus, while focusing the massive beam of energy into a finer point, he exclaimed, "You cannot even begin to fathom how many forms I can take...!"

Following his outburst, Vahn closed his maw-formed hand, causing his arm to swell up to several times the normal size as he used [Shundo] to appear near Musashi’s side. His forearm began to crack with the phenomenal amount of energy store within and, before his punch could connect, it ended up exploding with enough force to devastate the surrounding city block...

Appearing just outside the blast radius, Musashi had a wry smile on her face as she used wiped a trail of blood away from her mouth. She didn’t know how he was able to achieve it but, despite the fact she could enter a state of nothingness, making her virtually immune to damage, his attacks still managed to inflict damage to her. It completely defied her expectations but, rather than feel any fear whatsoever, Musashi was beginning to grow increasingly excited.

As she prepared herself for Vahn’s inevitable attack, Musashi received her biggest surprise of the night as, from within the explosion, an identical version of herself appeared. For a brief moment, she didn’t know what to think but, in spite of this mental gap, her body still moved, cutting the imposter into seventeen pieces in an instant.

Further increasing Musashi’ incredulity, the insides of her doppelganger were filled with such a heavy volume of Magical Energy that it existed in liquid form. Once exposed to the air, it rapidly expanded, encompassing her body, and several hundred meters of the surroundings, in an instant.

Musashi’s attack speed defied logic but her actual Agility was limited to the upper stages of B-Rank. Though her figure seemed to disappear at times, this was mainly due to her inability to ’ignore’ the flow of time and actualize the result she wanted using her exceptionally rare Mystic Eyes, known to few as ’Empyrean Eyes of the Heavenly Deity’. Using these two unique traits, she could limit the flow of fate itself, constraining it to a singular path in order to guarantee the outcome she desired. This was, ironically, similar to Vahn’s ability to act as a singularity, but, as the scale was incomparable, it was hard to make this connection without a comprehensive understanding of the ability...

By combining her state of ’nothingness’ with her Mystic Eyes, Musashi was able to actualize her ideal path, ’cutting’ through the explosion itself. As a result, though her body had been enveloped at close range, she was able to appear outside of the blast radius in an instant. At the same time, the massive explosion itself, like a bubble popping, vanished in its entirety. Only a massive crater, containing her glowering doppelganger, remained in the aftermath.

Though her [Battle Continuation: EX] would allow her to fight indefinitely, that didn’t mean Musashi had inexhaustible stamina. She would eventually reach a point where her body would begin to fight, even after she had lost consciousness, so, before that could happen, Musashi sheathed her smaller Wakizashi, smiling wryly as she said, "You know, it’s kind of creepy stealing my form like that. I can’t say I’m fond of cutting apart someone that looks like me, even if I know it’s just an imitation..."

In response to Musashi’s words, her duplicate adopted a similarly wry smile, answering, "You think it’s any easier being the one cut apart? Even if I don’t cry out in pain, I can still feel every single one of your cuts. Earlier, you talked about being unable to see eye-to-eye but, have you ever had your body cut into hundreds of tiny pieces? You call me a monster but I imagine most of your enemies felt the same way before you ultimately cut them down like wheat..."

Hearing rebuking words in her own voice, Musashi couldn’t help but wince slightly before releasing a tired sigh and saying, "You world-conquering types always have a way with words, don’tcha? Is that how you’re able to convince yourself that what you’re doing is right? The ends justify the means and all that, huh...?"

Though she was about to point out the devastation Vahn had caused during their fight, Musashi only just now noticed the complete lack of people in the surrounding buildings. In fact, though they had been fighting for nearly twenty minutes, the only other signs of life were Vahn’s companions and her own allies. She had been so focused on her duty of keeping Vahn busy that she hadn’t noticed all of the signs that something was very wrong...

Seeing the ’realization’ on Musashi’s face, Vahn issued a light chuckle, something the female samurai took exception to as there was nothing quite like hearing yourself laugh at your expense. Her katana moved before she even willed it to, severing Vahn’s head at the mouth. This was a very unpleasant sight to behold but, as it put a stop to his laughter, Musashi felt a little bit better as she pointed the tip of her katana at him and demanded, "What have you done!?"

Rubbing his jaw to ease some of the numbness, still in Musashi’s form, Vahn answered, "What? Did you think we were just going to sit around as your side freely resorts to underhanded tactics? You keep insisting we’re the bad guys but, comparing methods, can you really call yourself a Hero? How did you put it...ah, the ends justify the means, right...?"

Having her own words thrown back at her, Musashi’s smile had completely faded away, a conflicted scowl replacing it. From Vahn’s words, it wasn’t difficult to understand the Empire had seen through their intentions, to an extent. In truth, she actually hadn’t been fond of their plan but, with the fate of all futures on the line, she had repressed her misgivings in order to perform her duty.

After taking a few deep breaths to calm herself, Musashi lowered her sword, saying, "Feel free to call me a hypocrite, if you’d like. We wouldn’t have been forced into this situation if you hadn’t appeared in the past, destroying everything the future had worked hard to obtain. I may not be smart enough to determine the best course of action, but, no matter how you spin it, what you have done to the world is inexcusable. You took the easy way out, choosing to wield your power as a Conqueror, not a Savior. Even if you had the best of intentions, your methods are beyond redemption..."

As Musashi seemed quite fond of attacking immediately after speaking, Vahn preempted her attack by summoning [Enkidu], wrapping it around his forearms and wielding the attached spearheads in his hands. At the same time, he transitioned out of Musashi’s form as, with the exception of Boudica, she had some of the largest breasts he had ever seen. This gave him an urge to slouch forward and, though it didn’t get in the way too much, Vahn was infinitely more comfortable fighting in his base form.

With Vahn discarding her form, Musashi’s eyes became intently focused and, with her words finished, a ghostly red flame enveloped the blade of her katana. She knew there was something off about her surroundings but, even with her perception and senses, she was unable to ascertain exactly what had happened. Thus, in order to create a path forward, she abandoned the mission that had been given to her, unleashing her full power for the first time...

From Vahn’s perspective, it was like the world around him completely disappeared and, other than Musashi and himself, nothing else existed. This was worrying for a number of reasons but, as he had already made ample preparations leading up to the battle, his resolute look didn’t diminish. Even as his body refused to move, almost as if he had been stopped in time, his eyes blazed with divine light, their intensity increasing exponentially with each passing moment...

With all other concepts temporarily losing their meaning, even time and space themselves, Musashi took a slow and steady breath, her own eyes glowing mesmerizingly. Then, after angling her sword toward Vahn, her voice could be heard echoing throughout the void as she stated, "All me to show you the essence of the Five Rings. Behold what awaits beyond the pinnacle of swordsmanship, the state that transcends all things, returning them to zero. This single stroke encompasses the concept of the void itself, severing all things, even existence...!"

As Musashi spoke, a six-armed phantom appeared behind her, it’s skin a dull-grey as its eyes flashed with a demonic light. It wielded a resplendent golden sword in each hand while, spinning behind its back, a Wheel of Dharma covered in a myriad of runes could be seen, their meaning, in Vahn’s eyes, depicting both the concept of eternity and a finite end. When he saw this, something inside of him seemed to break and, before Musashi could say another word, his hand, covered in golden scales, covered her mouth as he gripped her head.

Though Vahn had surprised her several times thus far, Musashi was genuinely terrified when she felt his hand spontaneously sealed off her words. It should have been impossible for him to move within her ’Realm of Nothingness’, much less attack her, so her mind drew a complete blank as she stared in abject shock at lean Dragonic figure grasping her face. Though there were exposed sections, each covered in a strange runic pattern, most of his body was covered in golden scales, each radiating a resplendent light that made it difficult to look directly at him...

A stark contrast to Musashi, Vahn had a calm and composed expression on his face, the result of a comforting clarity overtaking his mind. At this moment, he felt as if nothing in the world could touch him and, though he could tell it wouldn’t last long, even this knowledge was strangely comforting. It was similar to how he would feel after meditating for an extended period of time, but, instead of feeling at one with the Universe around him, it was almost as if the reverse, for a brief moment, had become true.

In a voice that caused the ’nothingness’ around them to gradually crack, golden light emerging into the previously empty space, Vahn explained, "All things are born from, and return to, Oblivion. While the concept of Zero is powerful, it always gives way to Infinity. The concept of Eternity may have its limitations, but, on the most fundamental level, existence is the preferred state of all things. Beyond all concepts, there is an intrinsic desire to exist that transcends all things...your Zero means nothing in the face of infinite possibilities...!"

Following Vahn’s outburst, the phantom behind Musashi’s body also began to crack, the Wheel of Dharma behind its back shattering into infinitesimally small pieces. In the next moment, the infinite nothingness around them gave away to an even greater amount of golden light but, no matter how bright it became, the scales of Vahn’s body and the light within his eyes remained visible, almost as if his figure appeared directly within a person’s thoughts...

(A/N: Alternate Titles: "What lays beyond the origin of all things, you ask? The intrinsic desire to exist, regardless of form, function, and purpose...’)