EPIC: Path of Demons and Dragons-Chapter 236: Guidance

After relocating to a training room, Vahn and Gojo positioned themselves roughly ten meters apart, encircled by a mountainous vista and flanked by a large lake.

"So, any rules? How will we determine when the match is over...?" asked Gojo, casually stretching each of his legs before placing his palms against the small of his back and loudly popping it.

"If you're worried about seriously injuring or killing me, don't be," stated Vahn, wearing a confident smile as he assured, "Even if my body appears to be destroyed, I can recreate it. And as long as you're within this place, you will respawn at the platform we arrived at, even if you're atomized or reduced to subatomic particles."

"Suggesting you have the power to do both..." hummed Gojo, popping his neck and loosening the joints in his fingers and wrists as he stated, "Then let's settle on a traditional best of five. The first to destroy their opponent three times is the victor."

"When you're ready, come at me however you please," responded Vahn, smiling. The information Sis had provided made it clear Gojo wasn't to be underestimated, but as the man originated from a world where exceeding the speed of sound placed you among the strongest in the verse, the only real danger was the man's Cursed and Reverse-Cursed Techniques.

'He's not just being cocky...he's strong...' thought Gojo, the smile on his face growing as he couldn't recount a time when his opponent felt beyond his reach rather than the opposite being true. Vahn didn't possess an iota of Cursed Energy, but in its place, something unfathomable permeated his being, surging outward from a source even his Rikugan(Six Eyes) couldn't perceive.

"Alright, I usually let my opponent go first, but I can't ignore Dragon God-sama's invitation~" hummed Gojo, causing Vahn to experience a sense of tugging within his mind as space contracted along a linear path within his domain, allowing the white-haired Sorcerer to near-instantaneously to his left.

'That felt weird...' thought Vahn, casually raising his left hand to block the swift, scythe-like heel kick Gojo launched at his head. A sonic boom was produced when the kick approached its maximum velocity, but there was no feeling of impact when it appeared to meet Vahn's forearm. Instead, it felt like he was wearing a metal gauntlet and someone was attempting to force two identical magnetic poles together.

"Well, that's not good..." remarked Gojo, retracting his foot and performing a swift back handspring to create distance. Under normal circumstances, his body functioned as a kind of spatial anchor that repelled anything that drew near it, allowing him to effortlessly bat aside objects and opponents regardless of their mass. When he tried kicking Vahn, however, it was like trying to reposition all the water within a large aquarium by kicking a pillar protruding from its base.

This 𝓬ontent is taken from freeweɓnovel.cѳm.

"You're connected to the space around us..." deduced Gojo, exhibiting his startling battle sense.

"That's correct," confirmed Vahn, seeing no harm in revealing, "Right now, I'm connected to everything within a hundred meters, including the space beneath us. And depending on the form I take, my range can extend up to a hundred kilometers."

"Alright, so conventional hand-to-hand combat is a no-go..." concluded Gojo, extending his right hand to Vahn with his spread fingers contracting to produce a pulling motion.

'Ugh...what an unpleasant technique...' thought Vahn, grimacing slightly as he felt as though invisible tethers had latched onto every cell and organ in his body, tugging at each individually. The same force affected his yukata and haori, nearly pulling them from his body, but in response to his finding the sensation unpleasant, Chainbreaker abruptly activated, causing Gojo's pupils to contract before he was sent reeling, not by an impact but due to the spatial link between them severing like a snapped rubber band.

Instead of tumbling backward and losing his balance, Gojo performed several more back handsprings before leaping into the air, appearing to stand atop it but actually creating a fixed distance between himself and the ground.

"I've never encountered anyone with such a refined mastery over space and distance..." remarked Vahn, extending his left hand to Gojo, causing the smile on the latter's face to broaden as he added, "I invited you here to teach someone else, but I might have some questions for you myself..."

Though he managed to resist and cut through it to avoid being drawn toward Vahn, Gojo got goosebumps when he felt the space around him, usually something only he could perceive and influence, surge toward the center of Vahn's palm like a powerful current drawn toward a single point. Its similarities to his Cursed Technique Lapse: Blue were startling, but his technique produced a singularity first, while Vahn's formed one out of necessity, giving the space he drew toward him a place to feed into rather than compressing.

'But his technique has a weakness...' noticed Gojo, grinning as he moved beyond the effective range of Vahn's domain. Others might not be able to, but with his Rikugan, he could perceive that Vahn's ability to influence the space around him required him to extend an imperceptible energy, similar to an Innate Domain but superimposed onto the fabric of reality. With his Cursed Technique Reversal: Red, he could repel the influence space away from his body and cut through it like a salmon swimming against a stream.

Seeing Vahn cease his attack and attempt to spread out his domain, Gojo seized the opportunity to connect to the invisible membrane, producing a counterforce that pushed him away at the rate of its expansion. With this, he was able to confirm that, rather than one hundred meters attested, the range of Vahn's domain was actually 113.83.

"This isn't as far away as I expected," remarked Gojo, causing the already surprised Vahn's eyes to widen as the former brought his hands together as if praying before jabbing his fingers into what most people would have perceived as empty space. Then, with a spreading motion, Vahn felt as if the two halves of his body were being repelled from each other before he was abruptly split from crown to crotch.

"The weakness of your type of control is that it's connected directly to your body," remarked Gojo, touching down on the ground and watching with intrigue as Vahn's two halves turned to light before reuniting at his original position. The realization that Vahn could turn into and manipulate light caused his skin to crawl, but he maintained an undaunted smile and continued, explaining, "Against an opponent who can directly interact with it, you become similar to a stone sphere. All it takes is one sharp impact to a compromised point, and the space under your control breaks cleanly in two. Pretty neat, huh?"

"Thanks for the lesson," responded Vahn, causing every nerve in Gojo's body to tense as he cupped his right fist with his left hand and offered a slight bow. Then, feeling a little vindictive, he accelerated forward as a physical mass of light, holding out his right arm like he was performing a lariat.

'Well, that just isn't fair...' thought Gojo, his Limitless drastically reducing Vahn's near lightspeed to less than 0.0001% of its usual velocity at the moment of contact, but that was still 299.79 meters per second. As such, while his head wasn't separated from his body, his trachea was promptly crushed before his head and shoulders indented the ground, producing a near-perfect indentation as his Limitless forced away the grass and soil, smoothly compacting it precisely two centimeters away from the surface of his body.

"That evens us up, one-all..." remarked Vahn, pain briefly permeating his throat before promptly fading as he used Wounds Transfer to absorb the damage Gojo had sustained.

Remaining half-buried in the ground, Gojo asked, "Just out of curiosity, was that a technique, or are you capable of moving that fast whenever you please?"

"It's a power derived from a Logia Devil Fruit called the Pika Pika no Mi," explained Vahn. "Consuming the fruit allows the user to become and emit light from their bodies, with the only cost being stamina. As my stamina is functionally unlimited—yes, I can use it whenever I please."

"Devil Fruit...Pika Pika no Mi...does that mean anyone who eats this Devil Fruit can gain its power...?" asked Gojo, his curiosity piqued. He had heard about the Tower of Ascension and spent the past three and a half months investigating the first three floors of the Intertwining Dragon's Palace, but now that he had tasted a power beyond his own, he couldn't help wanting to acquire or overcome it...

"It's possible," confirmed Vahn, extending his hand to help Gojo out of his hole, pulling the white-haired Jujutsu Sorcerer to his feet before divulging, "But, as a general rule, once even a single bite is taken out of a Devil Fruit, its powers exclusively become the consumer's until their death. My use of the fruit is due to my ability to emulate other forms of energy. The current wielder of the Pika Pika no Mi is a powerful Marine Admiral by the name of Kizaru, hailing from a reality designated OP-1074."

"In other words, even if I become an Ascendee in the future, there's little chance of me getting my hands on it..." concluded Gojo, casually brushing himself off as if he hadn't nearly been decapitated.

"That's not the case," countered Vahn, shaking his head before clarifying, "As all new Ascendees are informed when they enter the Tower, virtually anything that can be imagined can be found within its Shop. That includes Devil Fruits, but their cost is understandably exorbitant. Lesser fruits, like Zoans and Paramecias, can be acquired with time and effort, but Logias are on a level that makes them easier to acquire them from rare events or special gacha boxes. Furthermore, the stock is restricted, with only one of each Devil Fruit being available for purchase or acquisition."

"I guess it would be difficult to maintain order if you had a large number of people darting around at the speed of light," remarked Gojo, his brows rising as Vahn promptly shook his head, revealing, "There are a number of people who can move at or even exceed the speed of light already among the Ascendees. You'll comprehend this better once or if you become one, but in the scope of a functionally infinite cosmos, there are essentially an infinite number of beings that can destroy entire galaxies, much less move at the speed of light. The only limit to an Ascendee's growth is their will to continue growing stronger."

"And what do you get out of all this?" asked Gojo, speculating, "I assume that, as a God, your strength and growth depend on the amount of faith or spiritual energy you accumulate. I imagine a place like the Tower provides a pretty steady supply."

"It does," confirmed Vahn, nodding affirmingly before appending, "But I try to avoid being worshipped, and while I have a reasonable degree of sway over the changes it experiences, the Tower is ultimately outside of my purview, awaiting its true masters in the form of those who clear the trial of the 50th Floor."

Raising his gaze to a point above Gojo's head, Vahn added, "The easiest way to think about it is in relation to your situation. Your existence caused the strength of Curses within your world to grow stronger. The Tower is a counterbalance to the influx of power and influence Ascendees have over the fates of their worlds. When their power exceeds a threshold, the only way they can grow stronger is to migrate to the Tower or settle in a world with a markedly higher power ceiling. My only use for it is networking, but to those with grand ambitions, it's a personal crucible and the penultimate proving ground."

"Suggesting you don't need people's faith to stand at the top..." surmised Gojo. In response, Vahn simply smiled, choosing not to reveal the truth as he and Gojo weren't especially close—at least not at that moment. He felt like he and the inordinately handsome Sorcerer could become friends, but before that, they had a match to settle...

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