Endless Path : Infinite Cosmos

Deciding it would be best to avoid further risks, Vahn slowly reformed his body before manifesting as his Realm-self. Throughout this entire process, the nameless redhead just watched him from the side with an intrigued smile on her face, seemingly very interested in everything he was doing.

Noticing the change immediately after it had happened, the mischievous redhead adopted an even more prominent smile as she remarked, "You got bigger~! Amazing!" in a cheerful tone.

Still feeling the same helplessness as before, a dry laugh escaped Vahn’s throat as he attempted to preempt any further disasters by saying, "You need to learn how to control your strength. It is fine to be a little playful, but your antics will put everyone else in danger..."

Tilting her head to the side, the redheaded woman seemed genuinely confused by his words as she asked, "I’m not really strong though~?" with her index finger touching her chin.

Resisting the urge to point out they were currently seated with a 6000km long crevice formed from her attempt to sit in his lap, Vahn tried being more direct, stating, "Just don’t destroy anything..." in an exasperated tone.

Appearing even more confused, the befuddled beauty tilted her head to the left this time as she remarked, "Eh? Destroyed? You’re not making any sense." with slightly furrowed brows.

This time around, Vahn didn’t hesitate to point out the devastation around them, gesturing to the bisected plateau as he explained, "This type of devastation is unacceptable. If anyone else had been present, they would have been annihilated. I know you might not mean any harm, but I can’t let you interact with the others if everything you do puts their lives at risk..."

No longer smiling, a frown that didn’t suit her appearance in the slightest marred the girl’s face as she exclaimed, "What are you talking about!? I haven’t done anything since I got here! You’re the one that keeps breaking everything, you dummy head...!"

As if to prove her point, the girl began to stamp her foot in frustration. This time, however, there was no feedback when her foot contacted the ground. Even the dust in the area was completely undisturbed by her actions, perplexing Vahn to the point all his mental faculties momentarily shut down...

Though she was just as confused as Vahn, Sis and her countless iterations were hard at work trying to make sense of the current situation. When she heard the woman’s words, she began replaying all of Vahn’s interactions with the anomalous entity thus far. This caused an uneasy silence to descend upon the normally bustling observation room, as, no matter how recent the memories, there wasn’t a single trace of the woman present in any of them...

Quickly sorting through their vast archive of information, Sis felt a ’cold sweat’ for the first time in her life as she attempted to give Vahn something, anything, to work with, explaining, (*She seems to possess a Nonexistent Physiology or exists outside the Causal Axis of Reality...I know this might sound a little strange, but try throwing something at her...*)

Coming back to his senses in response to Sis’ suggestion, Vahn frowned slightly as eyed a nearby stone. His intended target also followed his gaze, seemingly understanding his intentions. Despite this, an amused smile immediately spread across her face as she cheerfully remarked, "Go for it~!" without a single sign of fear or trepidation.

Since even the ’person’ in question was suggesting he followed Sis’ advice, Vahn hesitantly picked up the stone before lightly tossing it toward the smiling beauty. Unsurprisingly, despite causing his brows to raise quite a bit, the stone simply phased through her body. This effectively confirmed she had a form of ’Acausality’, the ability to act unrestrained by conventional cause and effect. This was the answer that made the most sense, as, if she truly had a Nonexistent Physiology, she wouldn’t be able to affect the world through her interactions with him...

Realizing the implications behind this revelation, Vahn began to massage his head and temples with an exasperated expression on his face. It basically implied that her power was directly proportional to his perception of her, and, rather than destroying their surroundings, it was his overexaggerated reaction that led to Heaven’s Arena being destroyed. This was troubling for a number of reasons, as, under normal circumstances, he wouldn’t have been able to achieve such a feat even if he went ’all out’...

Shaking his head, Vahn decided he would look into testing the true limits of his power in the future. For now, there was something he needed to test, so, while doing his best to assure himself that the adorable girl seated before him wasn’t actually an incomprehensibly powerful monster, he reached out his hand and began to pat her surprisingly fluffy hair. It actually seemed to get softer with the passage of time, seemingly adapting to his perception of its feel and texture...

Enjoying having her head caressed, the red-haired beauty’s expression melted into a lax smile as she began to giggle in a contented manner. Shortly after that, however, Vahn was compelled to retract his hand after it literally sank into her head, almost like she had suddenly become a slime or a Doppelganger. It was a very peculiar change, and, if not for his interactions with Doppel and Illya, Vahn would have been a lot more perturbed by the amorphous nature of her ’body’.

Upset that Vahn had stopped caressing her head, the petite anomaly adopted a slight frown before immediately pouncing on him with an, "Ei~!". Vahn reacted to this by assuring himself that the girl had no power, but, much like when he was facing an incomprehensibly powerful blow, the flow of time seemed to stagnate as the world gradually lost its color. He suddenly found himself unable to move a muscle, and, though she appeared to be moving in slow motion, it took, quite literally, no time at all for the girl to impact his chest...

Feeling a ripple through the fabric of time and space, a woman with two-tone white and black hair, much like Kenshin, spontaneously opened her eyes. She had large pointed ears atop her head, pale-pink eyes that possessed rings of light instead of pupils, and a short tail that, much like her hair, was white on one side and black on the other. As for her clothing, she appeared to be garbed in a form-fitting black garment that vaguely resembled a bunny suit, black stockings with a matching garter belt, a long-sleeved white top that extended to the tips of her fingers, and white boots with very prominent heels. All of this was adorned with golden trimmings, glistening green gemstones, and, most notably, two long ribbons that ran from the ring-like ornament near her lower back.

Though she had the appearance of a taciturn and intelligent beauty, this peculiar pointy-earned woman was none other than Arceus, the Creation Deity of various Pokemon Records. She was an exceptionally powerful being with the capacity to produce a Pocket Realm despite being restricted by Vahn’s Soul Tier. This was largely thanks to her surrogate sons, Palkia, Dialga, and Giratina, but it was still a remarkable feat considering she was severely weakened due to Vahn’s ’mishap’ and her own expectations.

Sensing that her Creator was experiencing duress, Arceus didn’t hesitate to teleport directly to the Ninth Layer, her aura flaring out to stabilize the chaotic space that was on the verge of collapsing into non-existence. The fact the Ninth Layer was in this state made her feel extremely panicky, but, showing absolutely no change in her expression, Arceus followed her instincts. This allowed her to manifest next to her Creator in an instant, ignoring time, space, and distance completely.

Finding the Creator appearing as a cloud of anomalous black ooze that resembled a nebula, Arceus manifested countless cloth-like hands formed from a shadowy-black material. Each of these allowed her to literally ’grasp’ the fabric of reality, contracting and forcibly stabilizing the surrounding space until it had formed an isolated sub-dimensional sphere. After that, Arceus fearlessly approached the nebulous black ooze, her expression calm even as it began to envelop and spread across her body...

Sensing a familiar warmth, Vahn opened his eyes to find a stoic beauty with bronzed skin and tiny green dots under her eyes staring down at him. There was also a softness against the back of his head so it didn’t take him long to realize he was currently receiving a lap pillow from Arceus. This caused a natural smile to spread across his face, an expression that promptly froze when the usually expressionless woman suddenly returned his smile...

Since he had just been about to greet her, Vahn was left unable to respond even as Arceus placed her hand atop his forehead and asked, "What happened here? I never imagined such destruction would occur within the Little Garden..."

After peering through his memories and noticing that Arceus had never actually smiled, a frown immediately spread across Vahn’s face as he rose to a seated position. He noticed that the Ninth Layer had been completely destroyed, the previously boundless and extremely durable expanse of space now little more than a destructive and chaotic abyss. It wouldn’t take him very long to fix this, but the fact it had been destroyed as a result of his perception the Law of Identity’s existence was a haunting thought...

The very instant she crossed his mind, Vahn found himself staring at the red-headed beauty, now with an apologetic smile on her face as she drooped her shoulders. This caused him to instinctually regress back to his Record manifestation, fearful of what might happen if she forcefully reinstigated contact between them. The amount of destruction seemed to be proportional to his own power, so, with his Realm manifestation having functionally unlimited power, Vahn wasn’t willing to take any chances.

Gesturing for the Law of Identity to remain silent, Vahn looked toward Arceus in order to gauge her reaction. This was a little difficult considering she practically never showed emotions, but, thanks to their connection, he was able to quickly intuit that she was wholly unaware of the Law of Identity’s existence. Rather, the moment he looked towards Arceus, Vahn had the impression that she and the Law of Identity were one and the same.

Feeling profoundly exhausted, Vahn turned away from the increasingly confused Arceus to find that the Law of Identity had spontaneously manifested again. Her existence seemed to be directly linked to his perception of her, so, unless he was willfully perceiving her at all times, she simply ’ceased’ to exist. During those moments, her existence seemed to overlap with others, and, though he had yet to confirm it, Vahn got the distinct impression that her existence was now intrinsically linked to all of his Templates.

Though he couldn’t deny that it had been his intention to use the Law of Identity to help his other Templates develop a True Ego, Vahn never anticipated that she would actually manifest with power similar to the concept she embodied. There was even a chance she was linked to the actual Law of Identity, sharing her existence with literally every creature that existed within the Records. This was a rather terrifying thought, as, even if she wasn’t actually able to act through them, Vahn felt uneasy imagining the somewhat ditzy red-head as a part of everyone he would ever encounter.

Realizing he had seriously underestimated himself and The Path, even though neither had any limits to speak of, Vahn resolved himself to be more conscientious of his decisions in the future. He didn’t regret creating the Law of Identity as a Template. Rather, if she had the actual power of the concept she embodied, it virtually guaranteed that his other Templates would be able to manifest a True Ego in the near future. The only thing he lamented was his own inability to comprehend the true nature of her existence, the clear cause of all the destruction that had transpired...

Shaking his head, Vahn shifted his attention away from the Law of Identity, the latter vanishing from his perception the moment he took his eyes away from her. Then, understanding she was extremely worried about him despite her stoic and unperturbed expression, Vahn began to caress the top of Arceus’ head, smiling as thanked and assured her that everything was going to be okay...

(A/N: Alternate Titles: ’What is this fuckery...’,’The most dangerous Bakadere in existence...’,’I wonder if Arceus is truly the one Vahn is trying to convince xD...’)