Chapter 2229 Emptiness
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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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(A/N: Alternate Titles: 'Sadge...','Gaze into the Abyss...','Not all battles are won through suppression and conquest...')