Endless Path : Infinite Cosmos

While everyone else was focused on their missions, Sarina, entirely on her own, found herself in a rather precarious position.

Prior to the start of the Gift Game, Vahn had informed Sarina that she would be the Leader of the Sage Dragon's Hearth once he went on to establish the Aldrnari Empire. He also wanted to give her a platform to exhibit the power she had obtained during their stay in the Actualized World, so, with numerous blessings and various artifacts protecting her, Sarina managed to make her way into the very heart of Meng Zhang's, the Azure Dragon's territory without garnering attention.

Though he suffered quite a number of defeats at the hands of Wu, Meng Zhang was still among the most powerful beings affiliated with the Jade Palace. He was the Azure Dragon, Guardian of the East Gate, and Commander of the 4th Division of the Jade Palace's Divine Army.

Curiously enough, while Meng Zhang was famous for his mastery over the Dao of Space and Time, his true power resided in his ability to see the future and grant wishes. This was yet another reason he believed Vahn to be one of his manifestations or offshoots. After all, while it wasn't uncommon for Gods to impart Blessings and Gifts unto others, those with the power to grant wishes were few and far between.

Around the time of Zhao Shen's Immortal Banquet, Meng Zhang had greatly looked forward to his meeting with Vahn. He had even skipped out on the feast so that the two of them could meet in a less crowded, more traditional setting.

When Vahn failed to appear, Meng Zhang initially gave him the benefit of the doubt. He thought the former may have wanted to prepare a gift or something before their meeting, so, in the days following the banquet, Meng Zhang waited patiently for Vahn's arrival. Instead, the latter ended up departing both the Jade Palace and the Heavenly Domain without so much as sending a letter…

Though he had mellowed out quite a bit since the war against the Demon God, Meng Zhang had a reputation to uphold as an objective and ruthless individual. He was a True Long, a first-generation descendant of a Pure-Blooded Dragon. His pride didn't allow him to tolerate even perceived slights, so, following Vahn's failure to appear, Meng Zhang had entreated the Jade Emperor for the right to participate in the promotional Gift Game.

With his Lord's permission, Meng Zhang rallied every Player within his Community. This included his eight brides, twenty-three of his sons, seventeen of his daughters, and more than a hundred of their most promising descendants.

While eight wives, forty children, and more than a hundred grandchildren may sound like a lot, this was actually a painfully small amount in the eyes of Meng Zhang. Most of his immediate family had been wiped out during the previous war, and, while he would never admit it, the experience had left him a shell of his former self.

When Meng Zhang first witnessed Vahn's performance against the Leviathan's Tail Community, a rare smile replaced his characteristically impassive expression. He had spent the better part of the last three hundred years looking for someone to inherit his status and title as the Azure Dragon. In this regard, Vahn seemed like the perfect choice. Not only was he tyrannically powerful, but, more importantly, he hadn't been tainted by the politics of the Heavenly Domain and life within the Little Garden.

Unfortunately, Meng Zhang couldn't just come out and say he was looking for a replacement. If he did, his power would gradually wane as everyone, even his own sons and daughters would believe he had lost his spark. In the worst-case scenario, they would begin slaughtering one another over the opportunity to receive his Fragment of Origin.

Not wanting to see children brutalizing one another, Meng Zhang had decided, long ago, that his replacement would have to come from outside his family. To this end, the only two people he had informed of his intent to abdicate were the Jade Emperor and Huangdi. They lamented but wholly supported his decision, as, during the war against the Demon God, they each lost their fair share of descendants. Huangdi, in particular, ended up 'retiring' after losing all of his sons and all but one of his daughters in the conflict…

Unaware of Meng Zhang's intentions, a cold sweat broke had broken out across Sarina's body as she infiltrated the palatial structure that had appeared on the former's planet. The reason for her nervousness was the numerous, serpent-like dragons that dominated the sky overhead. Many of Meng Zhang's children were well over a hundred meters in length, and, much like their father, they possessed dominion over space, time, and lightning.

With the intention of giving Vahn an opportunity to redeem himself, Meng Zhang had ordered his children to protect their planet rather than venturing off to attack other words. As a result, the sky overhead was filled with the silhouettes of massive dragons playing amongst a backdrop of green, blue, gold, and even black lightning.

Though she was confident in her ability to defeat a dragon or two, seeing a literal flock had, at least for the time being, cowed Sarina's enthusiasm. Thus, rather than immediately throwing herself into the fray, she elected to gather information on the enemy's number and relative strength.

Fortunately, Sarina wasn't the only person to appear on Meng Zhang's planet. Members from the Kotoamatsukami, TrÄ?yastriá¹?Å?a, and Akuma Communities had also appeared around the same time, so, taking advantage of the stealth capabilities of her outfit, Sarina observed the groups battling it out from the relative safety of Meng Zhang's palace.

Similar to the Scouter Vahn had made use of during their time in the Actualized World of Dragon Ball, Sarina's goggles possessed the ability to quantify and display the power of anything within her field of view. More importantly, it possessed a function to analyze the composition of various types of energy to give the user a basic understanding of the Laws at play in any given situation.

While her power level had exceeded 5.7 billion, Sarina had realized pretty early on that she didn't have a talent for martial arts. There was no way she could compete against powerhouses like Broly and Goku in terms of raw strength and potential, so, shortly after the defeat of Frieza, she resumed her alchemy training and focused most of her efforts on mastering her Zanpakuto.

As a result of her desire to bridge the gap between her and the more powerful members of the Z-Fighters, Sarina's Shikai manifested in the form of a large flintlock pistol. This had disappointed her in the beginning, but, after learning of its ability to ignore conventional durability, her fondness for the weapon increased by several orders of magnitude.

The one thing Sarina had always excelled at was agility. As a descendant of Hermes, her speed and perception developed at a pace most people couldn't even fathom. Had she been born in the West Side, she could have easily secured a position as a famous 'Speedster'.

The biggest downside to Sarina's Zanpakuto was that it could only fire a single shot before having to be manually reloaded. This feature had carried over to her Bankai as well, so, while she was able to one-shott unsuspecting opponents, Sarina always had to take into consideration proper timing and positioning.

With most of her potential opponents possessing power levels in the tens or hundreds of millions, Sarina was pretty confident in her ability to emerge victoriously in a direct confrontation. The only reason she remained hidden was because raw power meant very little when Gifts were concerned. Just as her Zanpakuto was able to ignore conventional durability, there were all kinds of cheat-like abilities that could completely invalidate the difference in power level and skill. This was one of the reasons she had developed a reliance on armaments and ranged abilities, as, more often than not, it simply wasn't worth it to try and fight fairly.

Not everyone could recreate themselves from nothingness…

Giving credence to Sarina's decision to pursue the path of a stealthy markswoman, the leader of the Akuma Community's raid party, a young girl veiled in a hooded, owl-like cloak possessed a number of ludicrous abilities. Not only was she able to summon an ostensibly infinite number of owls, but, every now and then, the dragons fighting against her would spontaneously just drop out of the sky.

Based on the analysis of her goggles, Sarina was able to determine that the barefoot girl's skill was related to the Law of Death. The problem was that she had absolutely no idea what the trigger was. To make matters exponentially worse, the hooded girl was simply observing the battle while sitting on the sideline and nursing a cup of tea. Whenever anyone struck her, she would simply vanish into a mist of black smoke before reappearing a few hundred meters away as if nothing had happened.

To add insult to injury, the hooded girl's power level was only around 17,000. Even the weakest of the Dragons present possessed a power level eclipsing ten million. In that regard, the owl-themed magus was around six hundred times less powerful than even her weakest opponent. It just didn't matter.

The only person that was even able to get a rise out of the petite magus was a handsome man from the Kotoamatsukami Community. Even then, the two had simply exchanged glances before the man promptly ordered his people to withdraw. The reason why this was significant, at least in the eyes of Sarina, was because the man possessed a power level exceeding eight billion. In terms of raw power level, he was even stronger than her, yet, the moment he peered into the hooded woman's glowing yellow eyes, he didn't even hesitate to retreat…

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Motivated by her desire to install Caulifla atop the planet's throne, Kale's highly penetrative ki blast slowly bored a hole through the planet. She didn't even consider that her attack might destroy the core and the contained throne room, as, prior to the start of the Gift Game, Vahn had explained to them that containing structure was borderline indestructible. As for why she didn't just search for a teleportation nexus?

Even in her base state, Kale wasn't particularly known for her mental acuity. When transformed, the only people she listened to were Vahn and Caulifla, as, unlike Broly, Kale had yet to commit the time and effort required to master her Super Saiyan Sage Transformation. As a result, she was essentially a mindless beast whilst transformed. A being propelled forth by pure, animalistic desire.

Under normal circumstances, the primal aura exuded by Kale would be more than enough to cow even the most violent of beasts. To the Yokai of Onigashima, however, she was like a beacon in the darkest of nights. They were drawn to bloodshed and slaughter, so, while others might have been deterred by the sight of an increasingly muscular woman boring a hole in a planet, the members of Onigashima released blood-curdling cries of excitement as they advanced towards Kale and Caulifla on clouds of flesh and blood. Leading the literal tide of Yokai was none other than Shuten, who, for the first time since the great war, had a genuine smile on his face…

"Let the game begin…"

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(A/N: Alternate Titles: 'I almost feel bad for him…','After spending so much time with Vahn, Sarina knows better than to underestimate anyone…','Unfettered Savagery vs. Absolute Violence…')