Endless Path : Infinite Cosmos

Chapter 2356: Drawing the Curtain

"That's enough," said a gentle voice, interrupting Chaos's imminent existential crisis.

Alongside everyone else present, Vahn shifted his attention to the entity that had spoken, an androgynous figure with pearl-like eyes, short black and white hair, large fluffy ears, and a two-toned tail that drooped from a black, gold-trimmed, oversized, high-collared, long-sleeved smock. Their height barely crested 140cm, but they gave anyone who observed them the impression of staring at a boundless, star-filled sky.

"Is..." muttered Vahn, recognizing the diminutive entity as the Progenitor of Poets, a conceptual being that gave form to thought. Their existence was just below the Law of Identity, but without them, there would be no 'stories' and, thus, no fate.

Adopting a faint smile, though it wasn't visible due to the collar obscuring the lower half of their face, Is stunned nearly everyone present by asking, "How have you been, father?"

"It's time for you to rest," replied Vahn, casually making his way over to caress Is's head with his right hand. It had yet to happen but Is was the child of him and Fenrir from a collateral timeline. They wouldn't be born until near the end of time itself, but due to the concepts they represented, their origin could be traced to the beginning, creating the 'closed loop' necessary to ensure a Record's stability.

After narrowing their eyes contentedly, Is's body abruptly disintegrated, returning to Vahn. Afterward, the latter looked around, gazing at Ahura Mazda, True Buddha, Samsara, Chaos, An, Indra, Ame-no-Minakanushi, and Fulcrum.

"You now have a choice," said Vahn. "The Central Network will soon be overhauled, enabling it to handle the Administrative Functions of the Little Garden. I will not strip you of your powers or deprive you of the Gates you occupy, but there is no longer a need for you to serve as the lynchpins of reality."

Raising his right hand, Vahn generated a total of seven spheres, each representing an Actualized World on par with the Transcendental Path to Heaven in terms of scope.

"If you'd like, I can allow you to experience a world outside the bounds of your knowledge. Inversely, you could stay here and try to oppose me, but unless you can obtain a power outside the scope of omnipotence, there is little chance of you succeeding."

As Vahn spoke, the seven remaining Primordials saw visions of the future extending to the end of the current Order. They also became aware that he had already created a closed loop of fate, open to change but with the same origin and endpoints. In many ways, it was similar to how advanced computers ran simulations, each Order improving upon the last in a never-ending cycle.

"There is no such thing as perfection," said Vahn. "Even with this kind of structure, there will eventually be an 'end.' All I can do is prolong things for as long as possible."

Adopting a gentle smile, Vahn added, "After all, so long as there is the potential for awareness and the notion of standing at the pinnacle of all things, there will eventually come a time when the person standing at the top grows weary of their burden. This can be offset by sharing the burden with others, but even that has limits..."

Meeting the gazes of the pensive Primordials, Vahn sent the spheres floating toward them. Chaos frowned deeply when a sphere came to rest in front of her, but as an entity that had existed before time, she wasn't oblivious to the 'burden' Vahn spoke of. She once had aspirations of ruling over all of Creation, but after being stuck at Rank 5 for eons, she knew it was impossible to overcome the very Concepts that gave her being.

Interrupting the tense silence, Samsara, a six-armed youth representing the Six Paths and the Cycle of Reincarnation, softly remarked, "It would be interesting to experience the Cycle directly..."

Without waiting for anyone to respond, Samsara placed one of their hands atop the sphere, disappearing in an instant. Fortunately, as both Samsara and the Actualized Worlds were ultimately a part of Vahn, the Concepts of the Six Paths and Reincarnation didn't cease to exist. Rather, they were an integral part of the current Order and inscribed into the foundation of just about every Record, so even if there weren't a being directly representing the process, souls would continue to be repurposed and recycled.

"Anyone else?" asked Vahn, knowing the answer but feeling compelled to ask. Unfortunately, even though they were fully aware of its existence, none of the remaining Primordials deviated from the 'script' he had written and presented to them. Vahn wasn't disappointed by this, but to ensure the existence of concepts such as free will, he had to willfully desire that events outside the scope of his boundless knowledge would occur, even if the chances were slim...

"Then, let's all do our best to make the Little Garden a better place from here on," said Vahn, turning away from the group of Primordials to reclaim his position atop his throne. Chaos eventually made her way over to sit on his lap, but as the 'Mother of Creation' and the 'Primordial Dragon God,' it wasn't an exaggeration to say her place was at his side...

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"How much longer are you planning to stay...?" asked Shiroyasha, staring at the version of Vahn using her lap as a pillow. The Little Garden was in a celebratory mood after the unexpected defeat of Azi Dahaka and the rise of the Aldrnari Empire as a 3-Digit Community, but the atmosphere within her traditional, Japanese-style room was comparably melancholic.

"Forever..." replied Vahn, opening his eyes to meet Shiroyasha's golden, cat-like gaze. In reality, he had already done exactly that, but he forced his consciousness to exist at the moment after his defeat of the Ethereal Queen, intent on playing the part he had assigned himself.

Running her fingers through Vahn's hair, Shiroyasha muttered, "You may very well be the greatest fool in all of Creation..." in a faint, chiding tone.

"So long as even a single person continues to love and have expectations for me, I can live with that..." replied Vahn. He knew that only Sis, Fenrir, and a handful of others would stay with him to the very end, but the fact there was more than one person that could endure eternity alongside him was enough to compel him forward. Shiroyasha herself would eventually leave his side after the final stars disappeared from the night sky, but he didn't fear that inevitably. Rather, he looked forward to meeting her anew, countless times over...

Feeling Vahn's love flow into her from the tips of her fingers, a pang of guilt permeated Shiroyasha's being before disappearing just as quickly. She felt like she had dragged him into his current predicament and was actively preventing him from reuniting with the family he had left behind in the Record of Danmachi. Still, so long as he continued to love her, she felt compelled to do the same.

"I guess we're both fools..." muttered Shiroyasha, bending over to plant a lingering kiss on Vahn's lips. She also knew the fate that awaited them in the distant future, but, much like the other Primordials, she was willing to see things through to the end. That was the 'curse' of beings at their level of existence, but so long as she had someone to share it with, Shiroyasha didn't fear the end...

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With Creation updating retroactively to reflect the changes to the Divine Realm and its structure, most people weren't aware of how the dynamic of power had shifted. When Da Vinci substituted Laplace and upgraded the Central Network to administrate the entirety of the Little Garden, the only people who noticed it were those affiliated with the Aldrnari Empire. From everyone else's perspective, the Central Network had 'always' been in charge.

Similar to how the Central Network had always been in charge, Vahn made good on various promises, such as reuniting Lily with her mother, making it so that Anak's had never died, restoring the Vampire race, and preventing the destruction of the Moon Rabbit tribe by transplanting them into the present at the moment before their destruction. To a similar end, he made it so that anyone who experienced tragedy during their life was given the same opportunity as himself, inheriting a variation of The Path that would allow them to live their next life as they pleased.

As all beings within the Record stemmed from Vahn's Universal Mind and Keeper of the Akashic Tome Innates, providing others a variation of The Path was no different from using it himself. In fact, after his 'awakening,' he realized that his existence as Vahn Aldrnari Masion had come to be in a similar light. Sis informed him that this was one step short of the truth, but until he was ready to abandon his current existence, it was impossible for him to grasp the final piece of the puzzle. All he knew for certain was that his existence was fundamentally linked with the beings of all Records, not just the Transcendental Path to Heaven...

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Name: [Vahn Aldrnari Mason]

Age: Ageless

Race: Aiua's Shadow

Parameters: [Transcendental Path to Heaven]

Strength: ∞

Agility: ∞

Dexterity: ∞

Intelligence: ∞

Luck: ∞

Spirit: ∞

Wisdom: ∞

Charisma: ∞

Divinity: [Vahn Aldrnari Mason]

Authority: [Vahn Aldrnari Mason]

Soul Tier: 0

Karma: ∞

Innate(s): [Will of the Emperor: (-)], [Vessel of the Soul:(-)], [Origin Terminal:(-)], [Rakshasa Body: (-)], [Keeper of the Akashic Tome: (-)], [Eyes of Truth: (-)], [Universal Mind: (-)], [Actualization: (-)]

Gift(s): [Vahn Aldrnari Mason]

Talent(s): [Vahn Aldrnari Mason]

[Vessel of the Soul]

Rank: Innate (-) *Innate Skills cannot be identified. Attempts to do so will result in a backlash.

[Passive]: Allows the user to exist.

[Active]: Allows the user to overwrite the existence of another.

[Origin Terminal]

Rank: Innate (-) *Innate Skills cannot be identified. Attempts to do so will result in a backlash.

[Passive]: Allows the user to access Records.

[Active]: Finalize events within a Record to enable the user to separate themselves from causality.

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Sitting atop an old, dust-covered sofa, lit by the rainbow-hued flames of a hearth, Vahn, sitting next to Sis and absentmindedly caressing Fenrir's fur, watched in silence as the tiny orb representing the Transcendental Path to Heaven lost its light.

"And there it goes..." muttered Vahn, feeling a pang of loneliness as even the fire from the hearth began to wane. Fortunately, even after a span of time beyond comprehension, he was never truly alone. It had been eons since Fenrir opened her eyes, but when he ran his fingers through her fur, her tail would waggle slightly...

"Will you not be starting again?" asked Sis, raising her head from Vahn's shoulder to observe his face.

"That is my purpose," replied Vahn. However, while he infused a trace of Source Energy into the tiny sphere, he didn't enter it. Instead, he used his Origin Terminal to finalize events within the Record before allowing it to float like a bubble into the 'ceiling' above, joining the innumerable points of light representing his Actualized worlds like a tapestry of stars in the night sky.

Sensing Vahn's actions, a mechanical doll, perfectly emulating Eva in her prime, opened its eyes and looked over, asking, "Have you finally formed your resolve...?"

Without waiting for Vahn's response, a faint light spread across the doll's body, restoring its complexion to that of a living being. Then, while Vahn silently observed her actions, she made her way over to a wall lined with dozens of crystalline capsules, inputting a series of commands that would awaken those slumbering within.

Emerging from the first capsule, Medusa covered her mouth to stifle a cute yawn before directing her gaze to Vahn, ignoring Sis and Fenrir as she adopted a cheeky smile and asked, "Did you miss me~?"

Reacting to Medusa's voice, Fenrir's ashen fur abruptly regained its cobalt blue luster, followed by her opening her crimson eyes and remarking, "You should go back to sleep..." in an irritable tone. The thought of returning 'home' caused her once-still heart to palpitate with excitement, but she was saddened that her eternity of snuggling with her Master had come to an end. Fortunately, even if it took countless epochs, Fenrir was confident she would outlast even Sis as his final companion...

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(A/N: Alternate Titles: 'Is, Is Not...','Fading Twilight...','Fenrir, Goddess of Good Girls...')