Endless Path : Infinite Cosmos

A stark contrast to Mash, who promptly hopped to her feet with shields in hand, Fenrir and Ryun just looked over lazily for a brief moment before gathering up all the cards and shuffling them. As for Jeanne, she brandished the banner of the Aldrnari Empire in a remarkably skillful manner, the silvery tip radiating a divine glow as she spun it around in a series of smooth and graceful arcs.

With each motion of the banner, yet another attack of the enemy was dispersed into nothingness. This caused the person launching the attacks, a young blonde who was equal parts sporty as she was attractive, to momentarily adopt an incredulous expression. Rather than back down, however, she leaped several meters into the air, benefitting from the inordinately spacy chamber as a sphere of golden Shinsu more than five meters in diameter promptly manifested beneath her.

Following the woman’s ascent with her eyes, Jeanne couldn’t help but lightly furrow her brows as she noticed the lace g-string worn beneath the woman’s uniform-like black dress. They were the type of panties someone wore when they ’wanted’ to be seen, and, considering the woman focused on kicks, it wasn’t an exaggeration to call her an exhibitionist.

Since the chances of her Master taking an interest in someone were never zero, Jeanne, for one of the few times in her life, was grateful for his absence. She didn’t really mind him having any number of women, including ’lost lambs’ who had strayed from the light; but, at the very least, she wanted to reduce the number of perverts around him...

With this in mind, Jeanne lowered her center of gravity ever-so-slightly, her thighs bulging almost imperceptibly as she pointed the banner’s speartip towards her foe. Then, like a spring under high tension, she launched herself towards the descending sphere without any fear or hesitation visible in her gaze.

Though she was surprised that her opponent would jump towards her attack, the yellow-haired woman just laughed maniacally as she kicked it downwards with meteoric force. She was pretty confident in her Shinsu Tension, so, even if her opponent had inordinately high Shinsu Resistance, they wouldn’t be able to avoid injury after taking her attack head-on. At least, that was how things were supposed to go...

Similar to popping a bubble, Jeanne’s spear pierced through the massive sphere of Shinsu as if it was nothing but a ball of air. There was even a visible twisting around the head of the spear, similar to a vortex except that it pushed things away rather than drawing them in.

Demonstrating a surprising amount of finesse and combat experience, the yellow-haired woman didn’t immediately panic upon seeing one of her strongest attacks dissipated. Instead, she kicked the air with enough force to launch herself sideways, a golden ripple appearing where her foot had impacted. Unfortunately, while this was a technique far beyond the capabilities of most Regulars, it wasn’t anything particularly special in the eyes of Jeanne. Most of her sparring partners were able to use techniques similar to Koku Shundo, so, while the woman’s capabilities weren’t anything to scoff at, they were a far cry from the standard present among members of the Empire.

After piercing through the area where the woman had previously been ’standing’, Jeanne surprised the former considerably by nimbly inverting her body, wings and all, before kicking against the air with enough force to create cracks in the surrounding space. This was something even the majority of Rankers wouldn’t be able to pull off, and, as could be expected, her speed greatly exceeded that of the yellow-haired woman.

Though she managed to cross her arms and tuck in her legs to form a defensive posture, the very tip of Jeanne’s spear was able to easily penetrate the small gaps present in her guard. This resulted in a relatively shallow wound on the left side of the woman’s abdomen, but, unlike a normal injury, silvery tendrils quickly spread from the entry point. They appeared very similar to veins at a glance, but, rather than flow naturally, they resembled the pattern of a circuit board as they quickly spread to cover much of the woman’s torso.

With the pattern spreading before she had even hit the ground, the yellow-haired woman couldn’t help but blank when she attempted to right herself only to find that the muscles in her lower body simply weren’t responding. As a result, she ended up crashing to the ground at a rather awkward angle, and, though her body was extremely durable, a pained grunt still emanated from her throat as she glowered at Jeanne and shouted, "You bird-brained asshole! Did you seriously just poison me!?"

Without any signs of deceit or subterfuge, Jeanne’s expression relaxed into a slightly apologetic look as she shook her head and explained, "This spear is enchanted with a powerful purification spell. Though its primary function is to allow me to disperse the offensive and defensive spells of my opponents, its secondary effect allows me to remove things like curses and other abnormal status effects. For the effect to have activated with such intensity...it seems like you were under a very powerful curse...?"

Though she wanted to call Jeanne all kinds of names in response, the yellow-haired woman was unable to speak further as the silvery pattern had already spread to cover her neck and face. She felt like all the blood in her body was on fire, and, though pain was nothing new to her, this was on a whole other level compared to anything she had experienced before. She couldn’t even transform her body, and, after several seconds had passed, there was even a red mist rising from her body...

Surprised by the woman’s adverse reaction to her purification spell, Jeanne couldn’t help but open her mouth as if to say something. Before she could, however, Ryun stepped in, explaining, "This girl is a Princess of Jahad...if I’m not mistaken, your spear is trying to purify the blood curse attached to each of the Princesses during the ritual to receive Jahad’s Blood. How interesting..."

As their Master had already informed them about things like ’Jahad’s Blood Curse’, Jeanne was able to follow along with and understand Ryun’s explanation. Rather than feeling relieved, however, she felt compelled to bite her bottom lip as she contemplated the consequences of purifying one of the Jahad’s Princesses before her Master had given his permission...

Fortunately, she wasn’t left to contemplate this for very long, as, almost immediately after Ryun’s explanation, a familiar figure with dark-brown, aquamarine eyes, and sunkissed skin emerged from the void, adding, "Indeed. Though I must admit, I never expected an ’enemy’ Princess to be the first to have their blood purified...hmmm..."

With all eyes spontaneously shifting to him, Vahn couldn’t help but crack a smile as he met each of their gazes in turn before directing his attention to the twin-tailed woman curled up on the ground. At this point, there was blood flowing from her eyes, nose, ears, and mouth. This resulted in a rather pitiable sight, yet, in spite of this, the person observing the fight showed no intention of stepping in and offering their assistance...

Furrowing his brows, Vahn lifted his hand, gesturing towards the void and causing a ponytailed woman with dark-pink hair and matching eyes to ’pop’ out of thin air. This seemed to startle her quite a bit, but, almost immediately thereafter, an unperturbed smile spread across her face as she smoothed out the creases of her dress and remarked, "You really did a number on my sister...am I to expect similar treatment~?"

Ignoring the pink-haired woman’s remark, Vahn briefly shifted his attention to the Law of Identity, his frown deepening as she revealed the woman’s true intentions. This caused his aura to gradually leak out, and, though it was only a small amount, it was more than enough to cause the pink-haired woman’s complexion to pale. Her status as a descendent of the Lo Po Bia Family provided her with enhanced senses, and, as could be expected, animalistic instincts that allowed her to ascertain how dangerous a situation was even without full knowledge of ’why’ it was dangerous.

For a brief moment, the pink-haired woman, better known as Lo Po Bia Shilial Jahad, considered running away from the scene. The moment this thought crossed her mind, however, her instincts began sounding alarm bells all throughout her mind. As a result, her feet were firmly rooted to the spot, and, for the first time since her meeting with Jahad, she found herself at a complete loss for words.

With the Law of Identity revealing the woman’s thoughts, Vahn’s grimace relaxed into an amused smile as he shifted his attention back to her, musing, "Your head is filled with traitorous thoughts...I wonder how you managed to be selected as a Princess of Jahad? Ah...I see...you had quite a bit of ’help’..."

Hearing Vahn’s words, Shilial was unable to prevent her eyes from widening, her mouth forming into a forced smile as she attempted to say something, anything, to refute him. Unfortunately, her words had completely failed her. The most she could manage was opening her mouth as if she was going to speak; but, every time she managed to nearly force something out, a nervous tingle would spread through her body, preventing her from uttering so much as a single syllable.

Nodding his head in approval, Vahn motioned to take a single step forward. Instead, he appeared next to Shilial and the collapsed Lilial in an instant, forcing the former to turn statuesque as he bent down to place his hand on the latter’s back. This caused the sound of tongue-clicking to echo from behind him, but, doing his best to ignore it, Vahn spread his senses through Lilial’s body in order to better ascertain her current condition.

As could be expected from such a malicious curse, it was doing everything in its power to consume Lilial’s vitality before being expunged from her body. Jahad was an ’exceptionally’ petty person, so, in order to prevent the ’Power of Blood’ from being used against him, he incorporated a number of failsafes intended to cause extreme suffering to anyone trying to free themselves from his influence. This was in spite of the fact that the contract he had with the Guardians prevented them from ever standing against him, effectively invalidating the need for such measures...

Shaking his head in disapproval, Vahn began to forcibly expel the remnants of Jahad’s curse from Lilial’s body before it could cause even more damage. At the same time, he sent a steady flow of Source Energy into her body, rapidly repairing the damage that had already been caused before retracting his hand and saying, "I want you to return to Maschenny with a message...inform her that the Era of Chaos she seeks is certain to come. However, if she continues along her current path, the chances of her succeeding are infinitely close to zero percent. Even if I have to wipe out both sides on my own, I will never allow a prolonged battle to take place. If she really wants to fight that badly, tell her I will be more than happy to ’attend’ her on the 50th Floor..."

Though she didn’t fully understand the reasons, Shilial found herself nodding enthusiastically in response to Vahn’s words. It was only at that moment that her instincts stopped sounding alarm bells in her mind, freeing her from the tense state that had prevented her from moving so much as a single muscle in his presence. Then, with her sister’s limp body in her arms, she quickly departed the Name Hunt Station, a cold sweat covering her body as she did her best to avoid looking back for even a moment...

(A/N: Alternate Titles: ’Jeanne is smurfing xD...’,’I wonder if Vahn realizes how his actions parallel Tiamat’s...’,’Like a dog with its tail tucked between its legs (O w O)...’)