Endless Path : Infinite Cosmos

After his stint within the relatively peaceful forests, Vahn had returned to the Hearth Manor in a much better mood than he had departed from The Plains. He spent the rest of the evening playing around with the youth troupe until eventually retiring to his room with Eina. She had been making a fair amount of progress in learning the basics for [Hands of Nirvana], though not quite enough to properly use the skill, so Vahn received a massage for her until he eventually fell asleep. This ’officially’ marked the end of his ’normalization’ period and was the small transition that meant it was time to return to work. Just like when he had been at the river, Vahn’s thoughts were constantly brought to his research and he had been slightly distracted whenever he wasn’t with the girls. There were simply too many things he wanted to work on, starting with his prototype armor, more reliable communication methods, and the ’growth weapons’ for Tina and Shizune.

There was an even more important task he needed to tend to, however, which was inarguably more important than almost anything else. Eina had arranged things with Rose, Misha, and Mona so that she would be able to take the weekend off to undergo the ’Nirvana’ procedure. Not only would this ensure that her future childbirth problems would be solved, but there were several other things Vahn wanted to ’fix’ that he had compiled into a small thesis for both Eina and Riveria to read. Riveria had received permission from Eina to attend the event and Vahn had been unable to refuse her after forgetting his previous promise to allow her to witness the naming ceremony, not that he truly minded her presence.

Within the doc.u.ment, Vahn detailed some of the anomalous things he had found within Eina’s body through observation, primarily using her mother Aina as a ’baseline’ for how he would continue forward. Because she was a Half-Elf, Eina wasn’t able to properly use mana because there were conflicts between the flow of mana in her body as a result of her shared heritage between Elves and Humans. Though there wasn’t a big difference between the ’racial’ systems, it was enough to make casting magic a nigh-impossibility without an incredible amount of effort. She would have had to isolate the individual flows and use them separately, something that was impossible for most people as they couldn’t actually sense the difference between the mana at all.

Vahn also described exactly how he planned to remedy the issue of childbirth for Half-Elves, which was slightly different than what he had seen in normal Elves. At least in the case of Ryuu, Vahn had seen that their body ’filters’ the vital energy within s.e.m.e.n to nourish the inside of their w.o.m.b to initiate the normal ovulation process. It would take constant nourishment to completely activate the body and there was a fair chance this would have to continue for a short while after the pregnancy was confirmed. The main reason why Elves had higher birth rates in the forest was that there was a greater amount of natural energy in the environment, including the vital energy they could naturally absorb into their bodies from the ’Sacred Trees’ within the area.

For Half-Elves, the reason behind their infertility was once again related to the differences between their Elf and Human halves. Eina’s body was still seeking nourishment from her partner, which wouldn’t be a problem in the case of Vahn, but her body also couldn’t properly regulate the energy even after she received it. Instead of being ’contained’ within the w.o.m.b, the energy would slowly dissipate over time and this would inevitably result in the pregnancy becoming a miscarriage. Vahn had several potential solutions to fix this, but he would be using ’Nirvana’ as a permanant measure by forcefully combining the two conflicting mana flows within her body using his source energy as a catalyst.

When he used ’Nirvana’, Vahn would be perfectly synchronizing his energy with Eina’s body, but this also meant that her mana would be intermingling with his pure source energy, a much higher form of energy than mana itself. Vahn was planning to ’bridge’ the two conflicting energies in her body by melding them together using his source energy. By the end of the procedure, Eina would technically be the only ’real’ Half-Elf in the entire world, except for a few naturally occurring exceptions. This meant she would be able to use both the Elven and Human systems of magic in the future, though they wouldn’t be nearly as strong as if she were a pure-blood of either race. She didn’t really have any interest in learning magic though, so the only important thing was that there shouldn’t be any problems with her future pregnancies.

Thus, after spending two days working on his prototype armor and spending time with the girls, it was time for Eina to undergo ’Nirvana’ and Vahn had cleared up his entire schedule in preparation. Everyone in the Manor knew how important this moment was so, even if there were a problem in the Manor itself they would have to take care of it without Vahn’s presence. It was unlikely anything would happen, but they still made a few preparations like giving the construction workers the weekend off and having everyone stay home instead of wandering about the City. Though they hadn’t gone out of their way to increase the tension by setting up a defensive line, everyone was still on hand to both serve as a deterrent against attacks and a failsafe for if something happened.

After finishing their own preparations, Vahn, Eina, and Riveria made their way into his private forge located in the secret room attached to the Master bedroom. Other than Hephaestus’ workshop, this was the safest place within the Manor itself and it would prevent any outside interference since Vahn was the only person with the activation key besides Hephaestus, Hestia, and Eina.

Vahn set up the table he would be using as Eina nervously waited at the side in a bathrobe, clearly more than a little concerned about the changes she was going to experience in her own body. It was a little scary, imagining that someone would be ’shaping’ her body without her having any means of resistance, but she also placed a lot of trust in both Vahn and the nearby Riveria. Seeing Eina cast a glance at her, Riveria nodded her head slightly and said, "Vahn knows what he is doing and you are well aware of the significance behind this procedure. Just relax your body and, before you know it you’ll be up and about, ready to live the rest of your life in ’balance’." Eina smiled somewhat awkwardly at Riveria’s words and said, "I believe in Vahn...I’m just worried about the changes a bit."

Hearing Eina’s words, Vahn asked in a comforting tone, "Is there anything you’re specifically worried about...? If it isn’t anything drastic, I can make small alterations..." Eina laughed slightly before remarking, "If possible, I wouldn’t want my appearance to change too much...the biggest worry I have is that I’ll come out looking younger than before and that my own little sister would end up looking like the eldest between us...hahaha~" Eina was only nineteen years old right now, so she was genuinely concerned she would look like a child after Vahn was finished. Though her height didn’t really change, Tsubaki looked like she had regressed a good ten years...as for Eina, she didn’t have ten years to spare...

Vahn smiled, stifling an urge to laugh, before saying to the now bashful looking Eina, "You don’t have to really worry about that, Eina. Your skin may look very revitalized, but your proportions wouldn’t change much unless I proactively try to change them. If anything, you will look roughly the same age, but have a more ’refined’ look to your already incredible beauty...I’m glad I had the chance to marry you before since I imagine there would have been a lot more competition had I used ’Nirvana’ on you at the start~." Eina puffed her cheeks slightly with a ’Muuuu’ before eventually laughing along with Vahn as a healthy blush spread to her ears...

After the last preparations were made, Eina stripped off her bathrobe and climbed on to the table with a lot of her nervousness having faded away. Vahn caressed her cheek lovingly before looking to Riveria and reminding, "From this point onwards, you must not interfere or disturb me regardless of any questions you may have..." They had already discussed the precautions previously, but Vahn still felt compelled to remind her. Riveria understood his concerns so she nodded her head without saying anything and just prepared to watch from the side. She would be allowed to move around and observe from up close, but she had to take all of her notes away from Vahn at a table that had been set up. Even if there was a negligible chance she would disturb him with her note-taking, it was too high. If she accidentally dropped her notebook or something, a momentary lapse would be all it took for potentially devastating consequences.

Vahn contracted his domain and brought his mind to an absolute state of focus as he placed his hands on Eina’s back and officially started the long process required to complete the procedure. He started off relaxing each of Eina’s muscles while targetting the various nerve centers in her body carefully. By the time he was finished, Eina was completely limp and couldn’t even breath by how on volition, requiring Vahn’s assistance and the nourishment of his energy to sustain her life. Riveria watched this from the side with bated breath and understood, at least from a basic level, the complexity and danger of what Vahn was trying to do...

After relaxing her body completely, Vahn rubbed his hands together and the glow from his palms increased in intensity until it spread completely through his hands and up his forearms. This was the sign of using ’Nirvana’ and it made Vahn look almost ’divine’ in nature as he pressed his hands against the area above Eina’s heart and her lower back. Vahn watched attentively with his [Eyes of Truth] active to make sure that there were absolutely no abnormalities. At this point, he felt like he knew more about Eina’s body than his own, and it was almost like he was having an out-of-body experience as he carefully observed her interior.

Eventually, the light had spread from Vahn’s hands into Eina’s body and Riveria got to see the somewhat terrifying sight of Vahn’s hand ’sinking’ into Eina. She had read the descriptions Vahn had provided, but seeing it in person was completely different than reading a doc.u.ment on paper. It was somewhat difficult to even imagine the process, but this fundamentally proved that Vahn’s ’theory’ about magic was far more accurate than this world’s current understanding. The fact that he could perfectly synchronize the ’mana’ within his own body, to the point where he could use it to revitalize and even reshape the body of another person was something unfathomable within the ’old’ system...

By inserting his energy directly into her heart, Eina had slowly entered the sublime state of ’Enlightenment’ as the light spread through her body and nourished the trillions of cells contained within. Just as he had done with Tsubaki, Vahn began working from the inside to the outside, targetting the important marrow, bones, organs, muscles, veins, and even the fine capillaries of her body. As Eina was still young, there weren’t many sequelae contained within her body at all, so Vahn didn’t have to worry about ’undoing’ any damage she might have sustained. Instead, he immediately set about fixing the most important problems, starting with combining the two varying flows of mana within her body.

Though it wasn’t the same as the physical body, the mana body was perfectly linked together with the physical processes which meant that it could be influenced by altering the bloodflow and regulating how the energy passed through the body. Vahn had placed his left hand on Eina’s lower back earlier with the intent of ’overwriting’ the mana in her body by diffusing his own source energy directly into the ’core’ of her mana contained around the navel. After inserting his index finger into the small vortex of mana, Vahn began to let his own source energy flow naturally into Eina’s body alongside the other bands of mana as they slowly intermingled with each other.

Eina’s mana was a very gentle green in coloration, but there was a subtle blue contained within that made it look almost ethereal in nature. As for his source energy, it looked completely white at first but a thorough investigation would show that the core was actually ’rainbow-like’ in composition, being the amalgamation of all elements and comprised of laws that Vahn couldn’t even begin to understand. Eina’s own mana ’coiled’ around the bands of his source energy almost like they were drawn to it naturally and, after nearly three hours had passed, the color contained within her mana slowly began to fade until it settled on a translucent cyan color. Vahn confirmed that the two varying energies had completely bonded with each other before he allowed his source energy to naturally filter out of her body, as the only thing keeping it inside had been his ’guidance’.

Vahn released an almost inaudible sigh before all of the pores in his body ’opened’ and began to absorb the ambient energy within the air, including his own source energy that had escaped Eina’s body. His [Spirit Healing] had evolved into [Well of Spirit] after reaching S-Rank, and the replenishment of his own source energy could now be accelerated slightly by the ambient energy from the void itself. Though his body was currently very hot, it made his skin feel cool as if there was an airflow pervading through his bloodstream before coalescing around his navel and condensing, somewhat inefficiently, into source energy.

After nearly ten hours, Vahn had completely fusing the mana within Eina’s body, revitalized her blood marrow to ensure her natural recovery would be increased, strengthened her bones and removed any signs of microfractures, nourished her blood by infusing his source energy through her heart and allowing it to naturally spread, and cleansed her lungs of a small buildup of liquid that had spread into the alveoli, the microscopic air sacs the processed oxygen within the body. It might not have ever affected her, but Vahn wanted to prevent things like bronchitis and pneumonia from occurring in the future due to temperature variations and infection...

With the core structure of her body ’refined’, Vahn started on the organs and muscles, ensuring that each important organ was in proper working words and being nourished by the mana in Eina’s body properly. This was also when he checked to make sure Eina’s w.o.m.b was in working order before inspecting the individual eggs contained within her ovaries to ensure they were healthy. Unlike Tsubaki, who had a large number of ’dead’ eggs, Eina’s seemed perfectly fine, albeit a little lacking in vitality. Vahn nourished them with his own energy for a short while before moving on to the larger muscles of her body, what could be described as the ’reshaping’ process.

Eina didn’t want her body to change too much, which Vahn could understand as she was already a young and inarguably beautiful girl, so he just ensured that her muscles had improved flexibility so that she wouldn’t experience muscle strains as easily in the future. She didn’t do any heavy exercising, so there weren’t many things he needed to ’balance’ out except for the muscles around her abdomen and the connecting muscles supporting her b.r.e.a.s.ts. Eina’s b.r.e.a.s.ts were still growing, but they had already become a healthy and pert B-Cup at this point. However, perhaps due to her diet and lack of proper exercise, but the muscle tension had decreased marginally which made her b.r.e.a.s.ts curve slightly as they hung from her pectoral muscles. If they got larger in the future, Eina might have to worry about sagging later in her life so Vahn nourished the muscles before ensuring that the glands within her b.r.e.a.s.ts were properly forming. It was almost imperceptible, but her left b.r.e.a.s.t was marginally larger than her right so Vahn ’fixed’ it for her.

As for her abdominal muscles, Vahn felt like Eina could probably benefit from doing a bit of stretching and proper exercise in the future. She had almost no discernable body fat, which seemed to be a trait she inherited from her Elven bloodline, but the tension of the muscles themselves and nerves were somewhat ’lax’ compared to what Vahn considered normal. He couldn’t imagine she would ever get fat, other than during pregnancy, but Vahn thought it help with her posture and prevent future back strains if he helped strengthen the muscles around her abdomen and lower back a bit. This required him to also work on all the surrounding muscle groups as well, to ensure everything was balanced and working together, but it would also guarantee that Eina wouldn’t have common aches and pains in her body unless she strained herself for long periods of time.

By the time he had finished nourishing, strengthening, and massaging Eina’s muscles, spending perhaps too long on her somewhat small butt and long legs, twenty hours had passed and Vahn was feeling very taxed, not that his expression showed any signs of exhaustion or lack of focus. Riveria had been watching from start to finish, even straining her own mind to process everything that was happening, so she had started to feel tired as well. When Vahn had been ’massaging’ Eina’s b.r.e.a.s.ts and butt, her brows had twitched slightly but she hadn’t said anything for fear of actually disturbing him. She knew Vahn’s ’preferences’ well and had even thought about her own body on occasion so, seeing him ’fondling’ the body of an unconscious Eina made her mind wander a bit. Riveria had seen the ’care’ it put into Eina’s butt and legs and wondered if she would have to experience something similar in the future...

Vahn entered the final phase of ’Nirvana’ and was slowly returning Eina’s body to a natural state as he prepared to ’break’ her free from the state of ’Enlightenment’. This was always one of the more awkward parts of the procedure because he needed to ’awaken’ her body and stimulate all of her nerves simultaneously so they would all function properly. The only way to do this was to bring her down from ’Heaven’ and return her to ’Earth’, which meant using the ’Heaven and Earth Convergence’ technique. Vahn quickly pressed each of Eina’s pressure points and nerve centers in reverse order before placing his fingers against the base of her neck and the end of her spine.

He felt somewhat guilty but still brought his fingers together as powerful stimulating energy spread through her body and caused her to convulse. Eina’s eyes immediately shot open and she released a silent shout for nearly twenty seconds before laying limp against the table and breathing heavily, body still twitching about like all of her nerves were exposed to the air and salted. Vahn continued to scan her with his [Eyes of Truth] to ensure that all the nerves were firing properly, periodically touching some areas to make them ’activate’ in concert with the rest of her body. Unlike the previous incident with Tsubaki, Vahn still had a bit of energy to spare so he helped Eina calm down from the intense orgasm that wracked her entire body and whispered soothing words to relax her mind...

Riveria watched Vahn use the ’Convergence of Heaven and Earth’ and it caused a fierce tremble to run through her body, almost as if she was experiencing the echoes coming from Eina for herself. It was a little scary and made Riveria feel somewhat nervous to be in the same room as the two because Vahn’s care for Eina was strangely disconcerting to observe from the side. To distract herself, since the procedure seemed to be complete, she sat down at the table and began writing notes about everything she had witnessed. Though she could have done so during the procedure, Riveria didn’t want to miss anything important so she had walked around and observed from start to finish. Using Vahn’s original ’outline’ as a guide, she began making notes of her own observations and wrote down several questions that she wanted to ask about the procedure. She also intended to observe Eina over the next few days, months, and even years since it was very important to doc.u.ment the long-term effects of such a ’ridiculous’ technique...

(A/N: Alternate Titles: ’Important Matters’,’Eina, "Don’t do anything weird..." -shortly before Vahn does all the things’,’It’s not proper Science without doc.u.mentation~!’)