Endless Path : Infinite Cosmos

As it wasn't the first time he had heard a similar question, Vahn wasn't shocked when she asked if he was human. With still holding his bow fully drawn, he asked, "Why do you ask that when you're focused on trying to kill me?" Since she had yet to begin attacking again, Vahn didn't want to be the one to start the fight back up. He was already injured and hadn't yet recovered his strength from the severe beating he had received.

The woman squinted her eyes and asked Vahn a question without answering his, "Do you think, if I wanted to kill you, you'd still be alive right now?" Her words sent a chill down Vahn's spine, and he prepared to loose the arrow as her hand raised. Though it looked like a slow motion in Vahn's eyes, she completely raised her hand in less time than it took for him to release the arrow. Opening her mouth slightly, the woman uttered, "Nivis Casus."

The area more than 300m surrounding him suddenly exploded with a massive amount of ice and snow. Vahn felt his body enveloped by the cold elements as they started freezing his limbs even against the resistance of the 'eternal flame'. He couldn't breathe as the biting cold slowly tore through his body and seemed intent on freezing his entire being. Any hopes he had against the woman completely faded and Vahn felt a powerful fear as well as rage building up inside his body.

Just as he was about to succumb to the god, he felt a palm press against his chest and a powerful force sending him outside the area of effect of the magical spell. He slid along the ground for hundreds of meters before finally coming to a stop. A light flashed, and the woman was standing over his body while looking down at him with contempt in her eyes. She asked, "Do you still believe I was trying to kill you?"

The fear hadn't faded from Vahn's mind, but he could feel the rage continuing to build as his blood slowly started glowing with a crimson light. The woman seemed dissatisfied by his actions and tried infusing more ice elements in the surroundings to force him to surrender. She spoke in a cold tone, "Give up, boy. Even if you're upset by my treatment, you need to be a lot stronger if you want to stand against me. If you keep up your current actions, I really will kill you."

Vahn felt that her words were true, and he knew she wasn't trying to kill him, but the fact he was being tossed around at her leisure compounded the fear he had felt when he thought he was going to die. Unable to suppress his rising emotions, Vahn transitioned from his turtle form into that of the vermillion sparrow. The moment his body change, the ice elements in the surroundings were dispersed and he sent a massive pillar of flames toward the beautiful girl who looked at him with a face full of scorn.

A gigantic magical circle formed in the air between the two and Vahn's pillar collided against the light blue icy structure with an intense force. The woman frowned her face because she could see that the flames were slowly eroding away at her defensive spell. She teleported away just as the barrier broke and scorched the area where she had been standing for nearly 30m.

Just as she finished the teleportation and was inspecting the damage, a golden sheen lit up the air around her, and her eyes widened in shock after seeing the resplendent figure of [Enkidu] surrounding her. She immediately tried to teleport away but found that the space in the area had been locked and she was unable to move outside of the chains containment. She turned her eyes to the source of the chains and saw Vahn, wreathed in flames, holding his palm toward her where [Enkidu] had emerged. He had a fierce look in his eyes as he pulled the chain and the sphere around the woman quickly closed.

The woman immediately erected an omnidirectional barrier, and it was able to resist the coiling force of [Enkidu], but she noticed that the shield wouldn't last long. She started chanting a spell that resonated in the air and seemed to be bringing the temperature of the entire space down. At this point, Vahn had already overused his energy with the use of the vermillion sparrow transformation and [Enkidu], but he refused to go down before he could teach the contemptuous woman a lesson. Vahn didn't care if people looked down on him, but he wouldn't allow himself to be repressed to such an extent by someone that he didn't know.

Blood started to drain from Vahn's nose and mouth as he refused to pass out while tightening the chains of [Enkidu]. Though it took a lot of energy to produce them, it didn't take much to sustain them. If he was able to seal the woman, he would be able to buy enough time to heal his body and escape. Vahn pulled out a senzu bean and tossed it into his mouth, and it seemed to prevent his body from breaking down for a brief moment. Unfortunately, though it was able to heal his wounds and stamina, it couldn't prevent the destruction he was imposing on his own body.

The woman could feel her barrier beginning to break, but she paid no attention to it as she finally completed her incantation. She spread her arms out wide as she shouted, "Kosmike Katastrofe!!!". The darkness from the endless black sky seemed to drop on the white floor around Vahn, and he could feel the entire temperature in the area immediately drop several hundred degrees.

Vahn noticed that his breath seemed to stop completely as his limbs, while still wreathed in flames, began turning into ice. He could feel his heart beating powerfully in his chest at it tried to resist the biting chill, but it was only able to delay the effects and not prevent them in the slightest. By the time the cold had reached up his arms and legs, Vahn was no longer able to focus his mind. The only thing he felt was a powerful and biting cold that consumed all his thoughts.

Fortunately, the spell didn't cause him to feel any pain, and Vahn slowly lost consciousness as his torso fell to the ground. the chains he had summoned dispersed while the woman looked at him with a bit of fear in her eyes. Right now, Vahn was missing his arms and legs due to the effect of her spell, since she had only targeted his limbs. She was able to determine that the chains were only intended to seal her, so she didn't intend to take his life just because she was a little annoyed.

She teleported next to his body and stood in deep contemplation as she watched him slowly begin to fade away into nothingness. Since Vahn had lost consciousness in the space, he would suffer a bit of damage, but it wouldn't be anything a good nights sleep couldn't recover. He would wake up in the morning with a headache, but before the day ended he would be fine. She wondered if the boy would return again in the future as she looked up in the empty black sky overhead.

Vahn awoke the next morning with a powerful headache as he raised his body up from the floor. He had used the orb on the edge of the bed and then lost consciousness when he put his intent into it which caused him to fall off the bed. Staring at the black orb that had rolled away on the floor, he moved forward an picked it up while inspecting its pitch black surface. It was eerily reminiscent of the sky in the world inside the orb, and Vahn wondered about the origins of the woman that had easily defeated him.

Storing the orb into his inventory, Vahn resolved to continue trying to fight her again in the future. If the skill contained in the orb had anything to do with the magic she used, it would be a powerful asset to have for the future. Since she didn't seem intent on killing him, Vahn wouldn't give up after a minor setback. It also gave him the chance to fight against a much stronger opponent, and though his body hadn't been able to grow, his magic stat had increased by a fair amount during the battle.

[[Stats]]

Name: [Vahn Mason]

Age: 14

Race: Human, *sealed*

Parameter: [Danmachi: 1-4]

-Level:3(3)

-Power: 1906+(I14)->(I29)

-Endurance: 2221+(I44)->(H105)

-Dexterity: 1807+(I11)->(I52)

-Agility: 1959+(I21)->(I33)

-Magic: 3562+(G251)->(E498)

Total:11455+(341)->(717)

Soul Tier 2 (Hero Soul)

[Karma]: 3,103

[OP]: 81,309

[Valis]: 3,261,630

When he fought inside the space, he was able to use all of his abilities, even his system, but since his body was a spiritual entity, it didn't have a big effect on his stats. If not for [Rakshasa Body], Vahn wouldn't have experienced such a large growth in his physical parameters at all. If Vahn was able to keep up with this type of training in the future, he felt like he could greatly increase his combat potential in the future. He had long realized that his domain and [Will of the Emperor] were based on magic, and they had a powerful influence on all of his skills and parameters. If he could increase his magic stat, it would enhance all of his parameters in the future and give him more control over his other Innate skills.

After taking a potion to help recover his mental fatigue, Vahn made his way out of the room and came across the familiar figure of Anubis. He wasn't surprised to see her at all, but he noticed she had changed her usual clothing. Instead of the regal attire she normally wore, Anubis now had on slightly more revealing clothes. She had on an intricately designed black and gold dress that revealed her abdomen and was cut deeply on the sides to allow her long, olive-brown, legs to peak out from the sides. Around her neck, she had a beautiful necklace made of gold that was seated with green and red gems that only vaguely concealed the deep V cut of the top of her dress. Vahn could clearly see her cleavage contrasted by the black dress and the gold jewelry.

Anubis had stood patiently with a smile on her face as Vahn inspected her new clothing. Though she wouldn't wear such an outfit outside, as long as she was at home she wanted to make Vahn pay more attention to her. Her ceremonial attire made her look like an actual goddess from the Southern Sands, and it was very eye-catching with how much skin it revealed. After Vahn stared at her for nearly a minute, she bowed forward slightly and said, "Good morning, Master."

When she bowed, Vahn saw the golden ornaments around her neck dangle slightly and he could clearly see down the cleavage of her dress. Though it hugged her figure, whenever she leaned forward, he hung from her body slightly and created a captivating view. Vahn was in a bit of a daze as he habitually reached out his hand and started stroking her ears. In a somewhat complacent sounding voice, he said, "Good morning Anubis...I see you've changed outfits."

While enjoying Vahn's 'petting', Anubis laughed a bit and said with her head still lowered, "I wanted to wear something that would please Master. What do you think, does it suit me?" As she asked the question, Anubis lifted her head and did a cutesy pirouette that contrasted her usual noble demeanor. The various pieces of jewelry she was wearing made beautiful sounds as they clashed against each other during the movement. However, what caught Vahn's attention the most was the areas where Anubis's tail was.

Instead of the normal cut cloth that would allow a chienthrope to wear clothing without restricting their tail, Anubis's current clothing actually hung under the base of the tail instead of allowing it to pass through. Vahn hadn't realized it from the front, but almost her entire back was uncovered, and he could vaguely see the area where her back began to form into the shape of her butt. For the first time, Vahn got a close-up view of how the tail was connected to the body, and he almost instinctively stretched out his hand to touch it.

Anubis had wagged her butt a bit while swaying her tail and watching Vahn's reaction. She had always been paying attention to his interactions with Hephaestus, and she knew he likely had an appreciation for women's butts. She also knew that his eyes often wandered to the ears and tails of herself and the children, so she suspected he also had an inclination towards chienthropes and other demi-human races. Seeing his hand reach out like he wanted to touch her 'butt', Anubis had a playful smile on her face as she said in a slow and sensuous manner, "Go ahead...Master."

Her words were like a spell to Vahn, and his hand slowly made its way forward toward the base of her tail. Unfortunately for her, when her tail began to wag due to the excitement, Vahn was snapped out of his dazed stand and pulled his hand away with a slight blush on his cheeks. "Let's not keep the children waiting." When his words finished, Vahn started making his way down the corridor with Anubis looking at his back in a somewhat 'sad' manner. She released a quiet sigh that Vahn was unable to hear as she fell into step with him while standing at his left.

(A/N: Alternate Titles: 'Vahn gets wrekt','Sad Pupper','Ice Queen')