Endless Path : Infinite Cosmos

Chapter 2145: Sowing the Seeds of Change

"Just let me know when you feel like being sensible and talking things out."

Freeing himself from the personalized crater Vahn had created for him, the heroic man spit a mouthful of blood onto the ground before wiping his mouth and saying, "You can't defeat justice. No matter how many times you knock me down, I'll keep getting back up. If you kill me, someone else will rise to take my place...!"

Finished with his speech, the spandex-clad fool accelerated like a projectile fired from a MAC gun. Both of his fists were extended in an effort to reduce drag and slam into Vahn's body at the highest speed he could manage within atmosphere.

Exhaling a sigh, Vahn allowed the man to pass, unobstructed, through his body. This confused the caramel-skinned hero until his companion, the bespectacled woman flitting around the battlefield with a barrier that also made her invisible, explained, "He has the ability to become immaterial! Try and hit him with a sound-based attack...!"

"Actually, no."

Without waiting for the man to attempt yet another fruitless attack, Vahn teleported right behind him before grabbing the back of his head. The heroic man's body immediately went limp, and, as a result, the tinkerer-like woman shouted out, "Dauntless...!" in a panicked tone.

Teleporting next to the woman, Vahn tossed the man known as Dauntless onto the ground as he said, "Relax. I just knocked him unconcious. Unlike you two fools, I wouldn't go out of my way to try and kill an opponent because of a misunderstanding."

Rather than respond to Vahn's words, the ponytailed woman erected a spherical barrier with a hexagonal pattern before tapping the device on her wrist and manifesting a pair of twin gatling cannons attached to a mechanized exoskeleton. Then, despite the fact Vahn was just standing in place, she began firing a volley of puple-black projectiles that radiated a violet hue.

Ignoring the superdense gravity projectiles, Vahn extended his hand to make a grabbing motion. The moment he pulled back, all of the devices on the woman's body were ripped away as if pulled by a powerful magnet. The only things spared were her artificial eye and the biomechanical nanites in her body.

Tossing a blanket towards the half-naked woman, Vahn's expression hardened as he said, "I invited you here with the hope of reaching an agreement that would be benefit everyone. In exchange for functionally unlimited resources, the only thing I was asking for was your support as I endeavor to make the Little Garden a better place to live. Instead, you regard me as an opportunist despite the fact your Community benefits exponentially more from the agreement. Are you daft...?"

Though she had been glaring fiercely after having her gadgets deprived and clothes torn, a look of grim realization appeared on the woman's face as she said, "Return my equipment and there is still a chance we can work things out..."

Using his telekinesis, Vahn caused the woman's gadgets to crash into her body with enough force to knock her back without severely injuring her as he said, "I require neither your trinkets nor your cooperation. People like you and your little friend make me sick. You purport to be Heroes but the reality of the situation is that you've simply placed yourselves in an opportunistic position that lets you act however you please. I don't need ignorant and hypocritical fools within my organization."

Snapping his fingers, Vahn brought the duo back to the room they were meant to discuss terms in. This caused a look of panic to appear on the woman's face, but, before she could utter so much as a single additional syllable, he promptly teleported away...

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"That could have gone better."

Seeing Shiroyasha cover her smile with her fan, Vahn had to resist the urge to bend her across his knee and give her a spanking as he retorted, "As if you didn't know what kind of people they were before arranging our meeting..."

Snapping her fan closed, Shiroyasha shrugged her shoulders before explaining, "Truth be told, I've never really understood the society of the West. Before the 'Age of Enlightenment' a few thousand years ago, the West was the most peaceful region in the entire Divine Realm. Now, it has become a veritable cesspool of corruption. I doubt this will come as much of a surprise but humans, especially those who have been swayed by demons, are remarkably terrible at governing themselves."

Suppressing a sigh, Vahn shamelessly over to Shiroyasha's side before plopping down next to her. This caused a glimmer of expectation to flash across her eyes, but, feeling he ought to punish her for making her meet such an asinine group of people, Vahn promptly adjusted his position before laying his head in her lap and saying, "Wake me up in a few hours..."

Sensing Vahn's consciousness slip away, Shiroyasha's brow began to twitch as she muttered, "You damned tease..." before pinching his cheek stretching it like a piece of mochi...

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Though Vahn's meeting with the 'Justice Association' hadn't gone particularly well, it would be inaccurate to say it was fruitless. It had taught him a very important lesson, chiefly that he didn't need to rely on outsiders to achieve his goals.

Since he was already planning to spread the Empire into the Divine Realm, Vahn decided to take a risk by creating the additional Communities he would need to ascend to a 4-Digit Gate. He could still recruit additional Communities to his cause, but, for the sake of preventing future troubles, he decided to fill the central positions of the Alliance with people he could trust.

Fortunately, while it was a strange way to view things, Vahn hadn't specifically targetted 'good' or 'righteous' women when he was expanding his harem. Quite a number of his women were outright considered villains in their previous worlds, so, while he would have a much easier time establishing Communities affiliated with the 'light', Vahn wasn't left wanting for options.

After a considerable amount of discussion with the residents of his personalized Little Garden, a total of six Communities were decided upon. They had more than enough people to establish ten Communities but Artoria had proposed letting established groups fill the other four openings so they wouldn't need to spread themselves too thin.

In the end, those that were interested ended up diving themselves into six different groups, each serving as the foundation for a future Community.

Representing the first group, comprised of six people, was Artoria. She was going to be the Leader of a Community whose founding members consisted of Nero, Lakshmibai, Gray, Gareth, and, after a very long discussion, Arthur. As for the name of their Community, they had decided to go with the Saberface Alliance.

Though Vahn felt they were establishing a dangerous precedence by drawing attention to the fact they had very similar features, the name Saberface Alliance wasn't the worst. That honor went to the Community founded by Mordred, Altria, X, and Jeanne, who, despite a number of protests, decided upon the name 'Sage Dragon Riders' as their Community name...

Wrapping up the 'righteous' Communities was the group led by Ureko. She had decided to put off reincarnating in order to create a foundation for her clan in the Divine Realm. After all, if she could spread their name in the Little Garden, countless iterations of her clan would appear in the Realms below. This was, inarguably, the best way to ensure their continued existence, and, as interested as she was in the Realms below, Ureko was far more excited by the prospect of fighting powerful foes in the Divine Realm.

Following Ureko's example, nearly every woman that Vahn had picked up in the Tower, specifically those with battle-hungry natures, decided to join her. This included Yuri, both Maschenny(s), Jaina, Lotte, and, somewhat surprisingly, Ryun.

Vahn had expected Ryun to insist on joining him but she had apparently come to an agreement with Ureko to document the latter's exploits. In other words, she was intending to become a Poet by recording and publicizing the stories of Ureko and the other girls. Her penultimate goal was to reinforce the identity of everyone affiliated with the Aldrnari Empire, but, understanding the futility of trying to document Vahn's story, Ryun decided to start with Ureko and the girls originating from the Tower as she was already intimately familiar with their background.

As someone who had always advocated for the independence of his women, Vahn didn't oppose Ryun's plan. He could literally visit any of his lovers whenever he wanted so it really didn't matter what they decided to get themselves up to. He was happy so long as they were.

Representing the first 'dark' Community, not that she was even remotely evil, was Da Vinci. Vahn had basically entrusted her with taking over the entire West Side, so, while most of the other groups were relatively small, Da Vinci had the support of nearly every Magus Vahn had encountered in the Nasuverse.

Vahn's hope was to reintroduce the concept of Magic in the West Side, as, ever since the rise of a being known as Yehowah, science and reason had suppressed pretty much everything else. This led to a situation where even Divinity was pretty much useless as people in the West had built a system of belief that devalued the existence of Gods to an extreme degree. They had even wiped out most magical creatures, so, with the exception of humans and a few genetically engineered subspecies, the West was inhospitable to and outright intolerant of other races.

Simply put, Da Vinci was a 'hard counter' to the belief system embodied in the West. Magi on the level of Rin, Illya, and Aoko were also more than capable of actualizing the effects of their spells using pure imagination and willpower, so, unless they were against something that specifically negated magic, they could still use it.

Unfortunately for the people in the West, creating technology that negated Magic was the same as accepting its existence as you couldn't make something to counter a concept you didn't believe in. To make matters even worse for them, the West, much like the South, was currently participating in a perennial Gift Game that affected everyone that chose to live there. This was what allowed Heroes and Villains to run rampant as they were basically the Players in an endless struggle between 'Good' and 'Evil'.

All Da Vinci and the girls would need to do in order to cement their position in the West Side was create a profitable and reasonably powerful business. This was the reason they were considered a 'dark' Community, as, despite having good intentions, the powers that govern the West Side were bound to regard them as a villainous organization unless they decided to play ball or submit to the existing system.

While it wasn't impossible to work with the people in power, the simple truth of the matter was that the people in charge of the West Side were irredeemably hedonistic and corrupt. They were also an extremely patriarchal society, so, the moment they set sights on the incomprehensible beauty of Da Vinci and the rest, they were bound to get greedy.

As an additional precaution, Vahn asked Nobunaga, Kenshin, Musashi, Scathach, Okita, Yoruichi, Madara, and several other frontline combatants to assist with Da Vinci's efforts. If it came down to it, they were more than prepared to go to war against the entire West Side. A dystopian society had no place in Vahn's vision of the Little Garden's future...

Wrapping things up, Vahn entrusted Semiramis with the Leadership of a Community consisting of their daughters Ebony and Raven. They were more than capable of protecting themselves and she had already built a literal kingdom for herself in one of Gaia's Textures. As for the final Community, it was comprised of Tamamo, Shuten, Ibaraki, and pretty much every animalistic member of Vahn's previous Menagerie. The latter group would be stationed in the East alongside the Sage Dragon's Hearth, as, even if he trusted them with all his heart, Vahn wanted to keep a close eye on the more 'mischievous' members of his harem...

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(A/N: Alternate Titles: 'The ultimate punishment for a mischievous demon...','Vahn be like, "Fine, I'll do it myself..."','We all know why Vahn wants to keep the members of his Menagerie close OwO...')