Endless Path : Infinite Cosmos

Vahn spent a bit of time calming everyone down, eventually pacifying Eva by setting out a table and purchasing her a cheesecake from the shop. She had a bit of a weakness for sweets and ’patiently’ listened to Vahn as he explained the situation. Meanwhile, Fenrir had been looking around the once-familia area while Terra stood quietly at the side, listening to the conversation and observing Eva. She was intending to stay here for a while to increase her own strength so Terra wanted to ’understand’ her as soon as possible. Fortunately, she seemed to be another girl that was ’infatuated’ with her Master so they at least had a common ground to stand on...

Holding the small golden fork in her mouth, Eva released a contemplative ’hmmm’ before saying, "So, you’re essentially pawning them off on me for a few years...? Well, it gets pretty boring around here when I’m waiting for you to come back so, even though it’s troublesome, I’ll do it..." Eva didn’t really mind teaching them a bit since it would also allow her to convey her knowledge through them in the even that an ’incident’ occurred that would prevent her from having enough time to teach Vahn. Fenrir would be a little ’troublesome’ but Eva could tell that Terra seemed to be an intelligent woman with a strong affinity for magic.

Though she had been far away, Fenrir’s ears twitched when she heard Eva’s words, immediately running over to the table as she said, "Fenrir wants to become a mature girl that can take care of her Master. Please teach me lots, Eva~!" Surprised by Fenrir’s ’fervor’, Eva oriented her body away from the rambunctious wolf girl and said, "If you’re going to learn from me, you’ll have to call me Master as well. That goes for both of you...since your Master calls me Master, you can call me Great Master Evangeline..." Eva knew that Terra and Fenrir weren’t ’normal’ girls and wanted to establish her ’authority’ early on to avoid any problems.

The moment they heard Eva’s words, both Terra and Fenrir showed complicated expressions, with the later outright frowning with a great deal of frustration showing on her face. This caused Eva to frown as well until Vahn suddenly said, "Terra, Fenrir, when you’re learning things from Eva you should call her as Master, as the magic she will be teaching you is incredibly powerful and versatile. It is unlike anything that exists in our world and it would be ’rude’ to look down on her when she is already making an exception to teach you..." Eva smiled when she heard Vahn’s words, humming happily as she sipped on her tea. However, she nearly spat it out when he continued, saying, "However, when you’re not learning magic, you should do your best to get along with her as friends and family. Since Eva will be one of our companions in the future, everyone should do their best to get along...you should call her Eva and play around together so you don’t get bored."

Before Eva could ’rebuke’ him, Vahn reached out and grabbed her hand, showing a gentle expression on his face as he said, "Eva, you will be happier if you open your heart to other people. Terra and Fenrir are both ageless entities, so they will live forever, just like us...please try to get along with each other, okay?" Vahn knew it wasn’t easy for Eva to stay inside the orb for several years just so she could spend three days with him. When he left Fafnir in the orb, he noticed she had been a lot happier and believed Terra and Fenrir would be good friends to her after they got to know each other better.

Hearing that Terra and Fenrir were both ’immortals’, Eva was a little surprised before keying in on a significantly more important piece of information, the fact Vahn said he was also immortal. She had actually been hesitant to teach him Magia Erebea, as it would cause him to bear the same curse as her. Now, however, it seemed like her worries were unnecessary and she couldn’t help but ask, "How are you able to change if you’re immortal...?" in a confused tone. She knew Vahn had an affinity with ’transformation’ magic but had no idea about his ability to change race and appearance at will.

Vahn understood why Eva would ask such a question since most immortals didn’t age and, though they could sometimes change their appearance with magic, it wasn’t to the same extent as Vahn’s ability to change. He went on to explain how he had been able to read the flows of various different races, emulating them with an ability that he had always had access to, which was the ability to change his form based on his perception. Eva listened on in shock, feeling a fair amount of envy at how ’fortunate’ Vahn was for having such an ability. She could use magic to make herself appear more mature but it wouldn’t change the physical age and appearance of her ’real’ body...

Since he could see she was a bit shaken, Vahn squeezed Eva’s hand and said, "Eva, you should be able to tell if I’m being truthful...listen closely to my next words, okay?" Turning her blue eyes to Vahn, Eva felt very anxious as she waited for his next words, trembling as he said, "I can’t do anything right now, but I will be able to help your body mature in the future. When I meet your real self, I am confident I’ll even be able to remove your curse completely, allowing your time to move forward once again. You’ll have to spend a few years with your Magia Erebea seal, but your actual magic power won’t be restricted..."

Vahn went on to explain how he would be able to use his blood, in conjunction with a few other techniques, to purify Eva’s blood completely. He could remove the ’contamination’ in her blood that made her a Shinso Vampire before sealing away the energy of Magia Erebea using powerful sealing magic or his [Enkidu]. This would allow Eva to age and, once she reached a growth she was comfortable with, the seal could be removed, once again making her an immortal. Unlike the ’corrupt’ version of Magica Erebea, however, Eva would have a refined version that would give her greater magical potential, perhaps to the point of being able to get her revenge against the Mage of the Beginning.

As he said, Eva could easily discern if Vahn was telling the truth since, other than looking at his face, she also had access to magic that allowed her to discern the truth. She had been saved by such magic several times in the past and almost always had it active, afraid of being lied to and being tricked. Hearing the process he described, Eva believed it would work, especially when Vahn explained how he used a similar technique to heal the curse on Hephaestus’ eye. Her own curse was nowhere near as powerful as the one that ’tainted’ Hephaestus since it was just the corruption of her cells with the Magia Erbea. If Vahn could truly purify her blood, Eva would be able to become a normal girl again...

A thought suddenly passed through her mind and a bright pink blush appeared on Eva’s face as she tightly gripped the hem of her dress. With the ability to reach physical maturity, Eva realized she would also be able to one day get pregnant, just like the other girls Vahn was talking about earlier. Though there was nothing stopping her from finding a different boy and living a ’simple’ life, Eva knew she wouldn’t be able to separate from Vahn unless something drastic happened. Her existence was almost ’defined’ by him at this point since he had pervaded her thoughts for over a thousand years, much longer than she had previously lived. When she fused with her original, Eva imagined she would feel the exact same way since the ’loneliness’ would be fresh on her mind and she would certainly fall in love with Vahn...

Unaware of what Eva was thinking, Vahn just smiled and stroked her long blond hair, causing her to startle a bit before biting her bottom lips and hanging her head. He could tell she was actually happy about his revelation and was probably starting to think about the future. With that in mind, Vahn whispered, "Eva, when we find your original self...lets get married, okay?" When they had talked in the past, Eva confessed that one of her dreams had been to become a beautiful bride one day, something he thought about often after the fact. This time, when she heard his words, Eva peeked up at him with a very pitiable expression on her face, emphasized by her large teary eyes...

Without caring about Terra and Fenrir, Eva ’tackled’ Vahn with a momentum that caused him to slide a few meters across the ground. She began sobbing loudly as she said, "Yes, I’ll marry you, you stupid idiiiooooooooooot-!" Vahn hugged her tightly in response, stroking her back in an attempt to comfort her, even though he could tell she wasn’t actually sad. Eva had spent a ’very’ long period of time alone and, unlike a god, she had been greatly burdened by her immortality. Her happiness had been robbed from her by the selfishness of the Mage of the Beginning and, for more than six hundred years, Eva had been on the run while trying to increase her strength. She wasn’t afraid of dying, as she couldn’t actually find a method to end her own life, but feared being captured and ’exploited’ by other people. Just like Vahn, she hated being ’used’ by people in a selfish manner and never wanted to be in a situation where she didn’t have enough power to protect herself.

Terra watched the interaction between Eva and her Master, feeling an aching in her own heart that was hard to describe. She could tell that Eva was burdened greatly by the experiences of her past and relied on her Master to ’cope’ with the loneliness in her heart. Now that they would be spending a lot of time together, Terra felt like she could help ’heal’ Eva’s heart if she tried hard to reach her. She pitied the youthful-looking vampire greatly, understanding that she had been forced to accept this kind of life without any opportunity to escape. She didn’t know how long Eva had been ’trapped’ with this kind of existence but Terra felt like it had been a very long time given the ’peculiarities’ of Eva’s behavior...

Fenrir was also observing from the side but for entirely different reasons than Terra, primarily trying to ’learn’ from Eva. She knew that her Master considered Eva ’mature’, even though Vahn felt like she was similar to Tina and Shizune. Since Eva was very ’clingy’, which Fenrir thought was ’bad’, she couldn’t quite understand why her Master was more lenient to Eva. Believing it was something she would be able to learn from Eva later, Fenrir hardened her conviction and promised to do her best to mature so that she could spend more time with her Master. Being able to cuddle and act selfishly without being ’bad’ seemed like a very exciting thing. Fenrir looked forward to the day where she would be able to tackle her Master and get him to pamper her whenever she wanted...

Eva continued crying for around twenty minutes before collecting herself, feeling very embarrassed when she remembered Fenrir and Terra were nearby. She told them to call her ’Master’ previously but had now shown them a very unseemly appearance. It was hard to get your students to show you the proper respect if you acted childishly and Eva was very self-conscious about appearing like a child. Especially after lashing out at Terra earlier for looking down on her...Eva now felt very embarrassed about her behavior and wondered if she should apologize. Looking over at the ’gently smiling’ Terra, Eva furrowed her brows and decided not to since there was just ’something’ about the elegant and mature woman that bothered her...

After they sat back down, Vahn and Eva began discussing what they would be doing for their training. One of the problems that needed to be addressed outright was the fact that Terra and Fenrir needed ’fuel’ to keep themselves going or they wouldn’t really benefit from being in the orb at all. Terra could absorb the natural energy from the environment, but that would also slowly kill the plant life in the area since it all came from the land. There wasn’t anything like a sun inside the orb so she wouldn’t absorb energy that way, meaning she needed an external source to make use of. Fortunately, Fenrir, Terra, and Fafnir could all use items purchased from the system shop so Vahn would be able to leave her items to help replenish her energy, even though it wouldn’t be near as ’efficient’ as when he did it himself.

Fenrir was much easier to upkeep since she would be able to replenish her reserves just by eating food, though the efficiency was a bit terrible. As long as she didn’t get too frustrating, triggering her [Insatiable Hunger], it wouldn’t be too difficult to feed her by growing food for her. Terra was planning to help Eva ’organize’ things a bit and could also greatly accelerate the growth of plant life, essentially producing an endless supply of food for Fenrir as long as she had enough energy. The biggest problem was that Fenrir was ’very likely’ going to get frustrated and require a greater intake of food to subsist.

To compensate for her emotional burden, as Fenrir was very prone to separation anxiety, Vahn ended up purchasing an item through the shop called [Dakimakura]. It was like a large body pillow that had the ability to copy an image that Vahn had in mind when he purchased it. Since it was for Fenrir, Vahn imagined himself in his Vanargandr form before pulling out the 175cm long pillow, somewhat surprised by the fact it was the same height as him. However, this didn’t matter after a greater surprise appeared and he was tempted to burn the [Dakimakura] into ashes...

He had just imagined himself as normal but, instead of a version of him just smiling in a calming manner, the [Dakimakura] image was...significantly more graphic. The front image made it look like he was laying on a bed with his shirt removed, showing his glistening tanned skin while he ’clawed’ at the bed with his paws, looking forward with piercing red eyes and a predatory expression on his face. The backside was actually him laying on his stomach, this time completely n.a.k.e.d with only his tail protecting his dignity as he looked back at the viewer with a ’teasing’ look...

Fenrir immediately ’snatched’ the [Dakimakura] and took off running into the forest because she ’really’ wanted it and saw that her Master wanted to throw it away. Fenrir believed he wouldn’t take it away if she wanted to ’protect’ it so she grabbed it and ran off so it would be safe. Vahn just watched her go with dead-fish eyes that reflected no light, only coming back to awareness when Terra began laughing. Looking over, she was covering her mouth slightly as a peal of bell-like laughter escaped her lips, looking decidedly elegant until she asked, "My, can I have one of those wonderful items, Master~?" It wouldn’t have been that bad if not for the fact that Eva was ’glaring’ at him with a flushed face and a strangely ’hesitant’ look in her eyes...

Though it was a bit ’difficult’ to bear, Vahn ended up making a [Dakimakura] for both Terra and Eva, even giving them some extras in the event that the others got damaged. He couldn’t actually transform into Terra’s race, so Vahn just gave her a ’normal’ version of himself that was wearing what looked like women’s swimsuit bottoms with how little it covered. Terra showed a rare blush when she received it, saying, "I will treasure this always, my Master..." As for the one he gave Eva, she also wanted a ’normal’ one which ended up showed a version of Vahn, completely n.a.k.e.d, covering his crotch with a heart-shaped piece of Chocolate that said ’eat me’ on it. She had a very red face but accepted the [Dakimakura] nonetheless, turning crimson when she saw Vahn’s exposed butt on the backside...

For the rest of the time he was in the orb, Vahn discussed the training with Eva periodically but spent the majority of his time either lounging about or spending time with the three girls. Terra and Eva seemed to have come to some kind of compromise at some point, often showing a strange smile towards each other and talking about various subjects they had both studied. As for Fenrir, she spent a great deal of time just watching everyone and getting her fill of ’Vahnobtainium’ since she knew they would be apart for a long time.

When it was time for bed, Terra ended up sleeping outside after making a new ’roost’ for herself while Fenrir crawled into bed with Vahn and Eva, much to the latter’s annoyance. Fortunately, Fenrir was surprisingly comfortable to hug and, after Vahn got Eva to cuddle up with her, she wasn’t nearly as annoyed by the situation. However, they were both happier snuggling up with Vahn so he ended up sleeping with the two petite girls curled up in his arms, feeling a strange urge to ’protect’ them emerge from deep within his chest...

(A/N: Alternate Titles: ’Eva’s sweet tooth’,’Doki Doki Eva-Obaachan’,’Dangerous [Dakimakura]’)