Endless Path : Infinite Cosmos

Chapter 2287: Death Transcendent

Chapter 2287: Death Transcendent

Unable to respond to Vahn's question via words, the shapely Dragoness grabbed his forearm before attempting to wrap her legs and tail around his waist and torso. At the same time, the vibrant blue runic halo behind her back began to emit thick bands of similarly blue lightning that ripped apart the surrounding space.

Though he managed to hinder the woman's tail with his free hand, Vahn's expression morphed into a deadpan as her thick and powerful legs locked around him. She was nearly 210cm tall, so, in his base form, the woman's thighs were almost as thick as his admittedly slender waist.

As his body began to swell up, Vahn pulled the woman's face closer to his own before pushing her away with enough force to send a small moon out of orbit. Due to her comparatively small size, she ended up tumbling away from him at relativistic speeds, her body crashing through the vibrant blue halo and energy-formed wings that had previously anchored her in place.

Not affording the woman any time to rest, Vahn instantaneously appeared in the path of her flight, his hands briefly gripping the tip of her tail before promptly letting go due to the massive gashes caused by her electric blue spines.

"Hmmm…"

Staring at the blood streaming and subsequently evaporating from his hands, Vahn allowed the mysterious Dragoness to arrest her momentum as he remarked, "Your body pulses with the energy of destruction…you're no ordinary scumbag…"

Snorting through her nose, the dark-skinned Dragoness flicked her tail to produce a large, crescent-shaped gash in the fabric of Space-Time as she said, "The heathens of the Little Garden believe you possess the Origin of all Pure-Blooded Dragons. However, I know of at least three that reign far beyond you. You may be powerful, Vahn Aldrnari Mason, but you will soon find out how truly inconsequential you are…"

Following her words, the dark-skinned beauty appeared to be trying to escape through the portal she had created. Vahn stopped this by raising his hand and closing the portal, but, at that exact moment, far exceeding the limitations of perception itself, a pitch-black bullet pierced through his heart.

Under normal circumstances, a blow to the heart would have very little effect on Vahn. However, when this particular bullet pierced his body, it was as if the concept of mortality itself had been superimposed onto his existence. It only persisted for a fleeting moment, but it was more than enough time for the bronze-skinned woman to charge forward, her body transforming into that of a black and blue eldritch monstrosity that only vaguely resembled a serpent-like dragon.

With a body hundreds of kilometers in length and a maw large enough to swallow a small mountain, the massive serpent was able to devour Vahn with a single snap of her jaws. The moment she did so, it was like he had been transported to a completely different world, one comparable to the hellish dimension generated by Azathoth.

Though there were spire-sized teeth infinitely undulating in an attempt to pull things towards the back of the Dragon's impossibly large throat, the things that left the deepest impression were the millions, if not billions of assimilated corpses reaching out in an attempt to restrain and tear apart anything that entered within. They were like an endless ocean of people, animals, and magical creatures crying out in pain yet eager to dispense as much as possible to anything unfortunate enough to find itself within their grasp. To make matters even worse, the Laws present within the strange dimension robbed anyone within of their powers…

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While Vahn was being pulled further into the hellish Realm that was her stomach, the dark-skinned Dragoness had an uncertain expression on her face as she tentatively caressed her exposed abdomen.

"Is it done? Did we get him…?"

Manifesting next to the woman in an outfit comprised almost entirely of ashen bones, pitch-black leather, and a shadowy shroud was a man with a helmet or, more accurately, a head resembling a demonic skull. In place of eyes, hellish flames burned within two malicious-looking sockets.

"I don't know…I can feel him within me, but he isn't being absorbed like a normal person…"

A stark contrast to the bold front she had put on earlier, the dark-skinned Dragoness felt more uneasy with each passing moment. She was immune to even the most potent poisons and toxins, but she was experiencing the same existential dread an ordinary person might feel upon learning they had just consumed something that would kill them.

Observing the Dragoness's reaction, the demonic, reaper-like individual paused for a moment before exacerbating matters as he manifested an ornate pistol carved from blackened bone and pulsing with ghostly blue energy.

"Do you have him under control or not…?"

Baring her razor-sharp teeth at the man, the paling Dragoness growled, "Death, you son of a bit-"

Without waiting for the woman to finish, the reaper-like man, one of the Avatars of Death itself, squeezed the trigger of his pistol. A pitch-black bullet traveling far beyond the speed of light emerged from the ghostly blue chamber, instantaneously piercing the center of the woman's head as he muttered, "No loose ends…" in a ghastly, bone-chilling tone.

Though she was immortal under normal circumstances, the bluish light pulsing through the draconic woman's scales instantly dissipated as she fell backward and started falling toward the ground thousands of meters below. Her body curled up in an instinctual fetal position, but the light had completely faded from her previously luminescent golden eyes…

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Noticing the surrounding space collapsing, much like the destruction of a Realm, Vahn ceased purifying the billions of damned spirits that had been trying to subsume him.

Furrowing his brows, Vahn spoke aloud, "Was this part of their plan? If so, they have successfully broken through the very foundations of my bottom line…"

Following his words, Vahn's domain exploded outward like an unstoppable sphere of glorious golden light. Wherever it passed, the destruction of the Realm altogether ceased. At the same time, the fleshy environment began to dissolve into motes of golden light as the tormented spirits within were instantaneously purified…

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Just as Death was preparing to return and report the completion of his mission, a golden light spontaneously erupted from the body of his former companion. Instead of pulsing with an electric blue, the ridges along her tail began radiating the purest, most glorious golden light that Death had ever observed. He could feel the energies within his body being purified, the hue of his eyes shifting from a hellish orange to a marginally lighter color as he remarked, "Impossible…"

In defiance of Death's utterance, the draconic woman's eyes snapped open, a similar golden glow emanating from her irises as she shouted, "I don't care what it takes! I'm going to rip you apart, you son of a bitch…!"

Moving far faster than her previous maximum, the draconic beauty tore away the arm Death had raised to summon his pistol. In the same motion, she sent him flying with a cataclysmic tail sweep that sent him crashing into the seemingly endless expanse of plains below with enough force to produce a crater several kilometers in diameter.

Far from finished, six sets of golden, distinctly angelic wings of light emerged from the draconic woman's back as a multi-tiered halo formed behind her. Death's eyes appeared to widen when he saw this, but due to his severe injuries, he couldn't so much as twitch his remaining pinky as a Dragon's Breath that seemed to blot out the entire sky promptly reduced him to dust…

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Immediately following Death's destruction, a young man with pure white hair and heterochromatic, ghostly blue, and fiery orange eyes awakened atop a throne comprised of the bleached bones of various creatures. He appeared no older than ten years old, but his true age predated the very concept of Time.

"Leviathan…that damned fool completely forgot our objective."

Exhaling a tired sigh that caused the few organic plants in the vicinity to rapidly age and decay, the youthful-looking boy alighted from his throne before manifesting a total of twelve wings; six covered in black feathers and the remaining comprised entirely of white bone.

Despite manifesting wings, Death didn't attempt to fly to his destination. Instead, he pulled out a deceptively simple-looking black scythe that was more than twice his size in length. The blade was long, thin, and black but otherwise nondescript. However, were anyone unfortunate enough to see their reflection in the blade's pitch-black surface, they would immediately find themselves staring back at their dead body, their soul trapped within for so long as the concept of Death itself existed.

Similar to Leviathan, Death opened a portal by slashing at the fabric of Space-Time. The difference was that Death's gave off a terrifying aura reminiscent of the Abyss. If anything 'living' attempted to pass through it, they would emerge from a shadow of their former selves; a being Death oft referred to as a Hollow.

Immune to the effects of the 'Abyss's Call', Death moved through the portal before immediately wincing as his body began to hiss, almost as if acid had been poured onto him. The cause was an indescribably beautiful woman whose only identifying feature was her veil of pure white hair. The rest of her features changed depending on the person observing her. In Death's case, she resembled the non-existent woman he correlated with his mother, a peculiar entity whose features and voice he could recollect despite the fact she had never existed.

Though staring at the woman caused the fluids within his eyes to boil and evaporate, Death didn't so much as blink as he calmly stated, "We failed to kill or capture the Sage Dragon Emperor. Leviathan's Avatara may have also betrayed us."

Without saying anything, the indescribably beautiful woman waved Death away. His body was forcibly expelled from the pristine white throne room before a woman with features nearly identical to Leviathan's appeared in his place. Then, with a wave of the light-formed beauty's hand, Levithan was seemingly erased from existence as tens of thousands of Gift Cards spread across the floor of the throne room…

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Feeling her connection to herself spontaneously sever, Leviathan's pupils contracted to thin lines as she nervously whispered, "That petty piece of sh*t really went and tattled on me…"

With her original likely erased from existence, the only thing preventing Leviathan from disappearing was the mysterious energy surging through her body. She knew Vahn was the source, but she was unfamiliar with the concepts contained within. She assumed it was an amalgamation of Light and Creation Energy, but that didn't really explain how the collapse of her inner world was prevented.

Placing her hand on her abdomen, Leviathan's complexion regained a bit of its vigor as she muttered, "Well, whatever he's doing, I hope he doesn't stop. I may be a being of misery and destruction, but I'd rather not cease to exist…"

Noticing golden light gathering wherever her fingers grazed, Leviathan began drawing on her exposed abdomen. As far as she was concerned, she was already dead, so all she could do now was wait for Vahn to finish whatever he was doing inside her body. So long as she was able to retain her sense of self, she didn't mind serving a new Master; She sure as Hell wasn't going to go running back to the one that had erased her…

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(A/N: Alternate Titles: 'Vahn is exceptionally experienced when it comes to dealing with female Dragons (O w O)…','My Concept of Death can't be this cute…!?','Once Vahn gets inside of them, no woman is ever quite the same…')