EPIC: Path of Demons and Dragons-Chapter 263: Tempest

"Uwaaaaaaaah...I can't remember the last time I felt this full...!" exhaled Masane, slouching in her seat with her legs stretched and hands cradling her exposed stomach, visibly bulging after she put down enough food for five people.

"I'm glad you enjoyed it," said Vahn, sporting an appreciated, moderately amused smile. Masane's table manners were non-existent, but there was a certain charm to seeing her down his food as if she were afraid it would suddenly disappear.

"You're not going to suddenly tell me I owe you a bunch of money, are you?" asked Masane, her brows furrowing as she added, "Because I don't have much, and Rihoko-chan will get angry if she hears I repaid you with my body. She really doesn't like that."

"Right..." responded Vahn, his smile cramping as he assured, "That won't be necessary. I prepared you a meal because I wanted to, not because I expected something in return. And now that you've settled down, we can more easily discuss your and your daughter's current situation and future course. We'll start with you explaining how you came to be here."

"Well, let's see..." started Masane, crossing her arms and leaning her head back in a way that practically demanded a shift in focus as she recounted, "Until a few days ago, Rihoko-chan and I were living in a domestic shelter for women and girls displaced during the Great Quake five years ago. The NSWF wanted to take her from me, so she got the idea of running away in the middle of the night and sneaking away to start new lives for ourselves in the ruins of Tokyo. I wanted to go to Okinawa since it's supposed to be warm almost year-round, but we didn't have the money to purchase plane or multiple ferry tickets."

"It was Rihoko-chan's idea to run away...?" asked Vahn, his right brow rising slightly.

"Yeah! Rihoko-chan is super smart despite her age! I'm her mother, but it often feels like she's the one looking after me~" chimed Masane, beaming happily. Then, exhaling from her nose, she abruptly appeared despondent as she averted her eyes and muttered, "Rihoko-chan is my light...without her, I wouldn't have been able to endure these past five years after losing my memories. I know a smart girl like Rihoko-chan would be able to live a more fulfilling life after being adopted by parents who can provide for and nourish her talents, but what about me? Just because I look like an adult, I'm supposed to be able to take care of myself? It's not fair..."

"I'm sorry you've had to endure such hardships..." muttered Vahn, his expression and tone soft, tinged with melancholy as he imagined how Masane had gotten by the past five years. Beauty could be a weapon when wielded by capable or opportunistic women, but it was a curse if you were in a position to be exploited—wholly dependent on people you didn't know and a system that had no reason to care for you to survive...

"It's fine. You don't have to apologize," said Masane, regaining her smile as she contended, "My life hasn't been the easiest, but as long as Rihoko-chan and I can be together, we'll find a way to survive. I almost made the biggest mistake of my life by letting that mean hag from the Child Welfare Agency convince me it was in Rihoko-chan's best interest that I let them take her, but now that I've come to my senses, I'll do everything I can to keep us together."

"People who willfully separate children from their parents are the worst..." affirmed Vahn, his expression relaxed but a glimmer of deep resentment in the innermost depths of his eyes. He understood that there were cases when it was genuinely within a child's best interest to separate them from their parents, such as when they were being mistreated or abused. But in cases like Masane's and Rihoko's, where both loved and depended on the other, forcing them apart was an extreme injustice that served no one but the state and institutions that benefited from trafficking children over and often under the table...

"They really are..." sighed Masane, closing her eyes and exhaling wearily before abruptly perking up and smiling as she recounted, "Anyways, back to how I got here. After the Child Welfare Agency took Rihoko-chan away from me, I beat up a bunch of guys, stole a police car, ran several people off the street, and then crashed it. After that, I was thrown into a holding cell, thinking about how to get Rihoko-chan back, when a strange window appeared out of thin air—nearly causing me to pee my pants. It asked if I sought the power to alter my fate and some other complicated stuff, but I don't remember the specifics since there was a super loud explosion near my cell."

"An explosion...?" repeated Vahn, suppressing the urge to comment on Masane's casual admission to committing multiple fairly serious crimes. After all, if someone took one of his children away from him, there were no limits to the extent he would go to get them back.

"Mmn...there was definitely an explosion..." confirmed Masane, her face scrunching contemplatively as she uncertainly recounted, "After that...I remember my body feeling like it was on fire. Then, I suddenly began to feel really, really good...after that, everything became a blur. I thought I heard Rihoko-chan's voice calling me, but before I could search for her, I felt my head and limbs become really heavy. I'm pretty sure I was put in a car after that, but when I came to, I was lying in the middle of a meadow with weird mountains in the distance and a scary sky."

"If that's the case, I have a pretty good idea of what happened," stated Vahn, preempting Masane's asking by explaining, "There was an incident a while back where the God presiding over a world attempted to meddle with an Ascendee's ability to return to the Tower. In subsequent cycles, a failsafe was implemented that would transport Ascendees automatically if the System determined they were in peril or otherwise unable to decide if they wanted to enter or abstain from the Tower of their own accord. From what I'm being told, you were hit with an elephant tranquilizer in the thigh and subsequently abducted after the weapon slumbering in that bracelet of yours awakened and helped you kill something called an X-Con."

"Weapon? X-Con...?" repeated Masane, staring at the elaborate silver bracelet that perfectly conformed to the contours of her right wrist, set with a teardrop-shaped, blood-red gemstone. She had been wondering where the bracelet had come from, as she had never owned anything like it, but she didn't expect it to be a weapon.

"It would probably be easier to show rather than explain things to you..." said Vahn, prompting Sis to create a light-formed display to his left and Masane's right. On it, Masane herself could be seen, blades of grass stuck to the right side of her face as she sleepily looked around, having just awoken after having the elephant tranquilizer purged from her body by the Tower's transfer process.

"This is when I first arrived..." recognized Masane, her brows rising as she suddenly cupped her breasts, leaving Vahn at a momentary loss for words as she unabashedly asked, "Are my boobs really that big?"

Sparing Vahn from having to respond, the voice of Sis, playing the part of the Tower's Administrator, emanated from the display, explaining the rules of the Battle Royale and clarifying that participants could choose whether to participate and rescind their consent at any time without penalty.

"Oh, I remember this part!" exclaimed Masane, expanding, "I had no clue what was happening, so I was going to withdraw when—"

Before Masane could finish speaking, her on-screen counterpart suddenly fell to her knees, clutching her right wrist as her bracelet emitted a vibrant crimson light. From it, an ebon-black metallic substance rapidly spread up her arm, forming a reddish-black exoskeleton as a contour-adhering blade emerged from her ulna, jutting from her wrist like the fang of a shark and extending past her elbow—its edge a reflective silver sheen. At the same time, her hair became blood-red and grew much longer, becoming almost like a wild, unkempt mane with prominent, blade-like ahoge as her clothes burst apart, replaced by exceptionally skimpy black armor that left little to the imagination. Last but not least, her skin noticeably darkened, crimson streaks forming on her face, neck, and other parts of her body, the sclera of her eyes turning black, and her eyes themselves becoming a predatory, luminous gold.

"Is that me...?" asked Masane, her mouth ajar in disbelief. Vahn was about to confirm this, but he was once again left at a loss as Masane, her brown eyes glistening like the starstruck fan of a famous idol, softly remarked, "I look like such a badass..."

"Honestly? You do..." confirmed Vahn, deciding to go with the flow since Masane didn't appear even remotely troubled by her counterpart's nearly naked appearance. Immediately after, however, he added, "But, this isn't you so much as it's the weapon in your wrist, the Witchblade, possessing you. I have no doubt that you could master its power with time, but if you would prefer to live an ordinary life alongside your daughter, the Dragon's Pavilion could remove it from you."

Though she heard what Vahn had said, Masane's eyes remained fixed on the display as her on-screen counterpart moved with superhuman speed and agility, leaping tens of meters in a single bound and beaming as she battled against a male Ascendee who was unsurprisingly taken aback by her striking appearance and aggression. In the process, her memories of the encounter resurfaced, causing her body to warm from her core as she recalled how stimulating the battle had been. She was ultimately defeated as her opponent was a decently skilled Fallen, but that only caused her to feel more excited...

"I...I think I want to try mastering its power..." decided Masane, her voice tinged with heat and her breathing slightly labored as she reasoned, "This is a place where people can grow more powerful by fighting, right? I don't want to keep having to depend on others, and if I'm strong, I'll never have to worry about anyone taking Rihoko-chan from me ever again..."

"It is better to be powerful than dependent on others..." confirmed Vahn, nodding. He wanted to assert that Masane wouldn't have to worry about such things if she put her trust in him and the Dragon's Pavilion, but with the weapon possessing her sharing the same name as her world of origin, it wasn't difficult to conclude that Masane was its protagonist. If she had decided to pursue the path of independence through strength, he would support her as he would any other Ascendee.

"Thank you for tolerating my selfishness..." expressed Masane, bowing her head and inclining her body as far as her seated position permitted. Vahn shook his head, smiled, and was about to tell her not to mind it, but she once again caught him off guard by raising just her face, revealing an awkward, flushed smile as she asked, "Do you...maybe wanna have sex? I get the feeling you're going to be helping me a lot, and you're really good-looking...so..."

Seeing Masane gesture toward her bed with her head, Vahn found himself at a crossroads. The buxom brunette ticked off a significant number of his preferential checkboxes, but her five years of memories functionally made her a child in a very mature body. She was very clearly aware of what sex was, but that only made him more uneasy as it wasn't particularly difficult or pleasant to imagine how she acquired that knowledge...

"I want to agree..." confessed Vahn, extending his right hand to caress Masane's head as he added, "But there are things you need to be aware of before becoming involved with me. More importantly, your daughter is currently waiting for you..."

"Rihoko-chan!? She's here...!?" exclaimed Masane, bouncing to her feet and looming over Vahn with an intense, fiery-eyed expression—like she was prepared to beat him up for not telling her that Rihoko was waiting sooner. Then, as if a switch had been flipped in her mind, she suddenly plopped down in front of him, crossing her arms on his knees and resting her head atop them as she sulkily appealed, "Before that, do what you did before...if Rihoko-chan sees me arriving all hot and bothered, she's going to scold me..."

'This woman is like a hurricane...' thought Vahn, returning his right hand to Masane's head and gently caressing her hair. Due to the potency of his S-Rank Petting, it only took a few seconds to settle her urges, but since she closed her eyes and made herself comfortable, he ended up petting her for a solid three minutes before she decided she needed a quick shower...

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