Arriving at his workshop around 8 AM, Vahn was relieved to see Bonney hard at work with Ghislaine assisting her. He couldn't help but notice she had swapped her pants for form-fitting black shorts and fire-resistant leg warmers, but he didn't pay it much mind as he shifted his attention to Riko and Prushka.
Seeing Vahn look her way, Prushka briefly startled before pressing the tips of her green, gem-like fingers together, retracting her shoulders, and hanging her head in shame. Everyone kept reiterating to her that she had done nothing wrong, but she wouldn't have received careful lectures from three different people if she hadn't done something she shouldn't have.
'Poor girl...' thought Vahn, exhaling faintly from his nose before promptly deciding he wouldn't be spending the morning in the workshop. Instead, he softly clapped his hands together and said, "Please wrap up whatever you're working on and gather at the rest area."
Though Bonney frowned when she heard Vahn's request, she immediately set aside what she was working on to help Ghislaine clean up their shared workstation. By the time they were finished, Riko and Prushka had already made their way over, occupying the spots at Vahn's sides as they sat atop floor cushions in a square clearing reserved for meals.
Raising his gaze to meet Bonney's surly expression as she approached, Vahn wasn't even a little surprised when she chose to stop in front of him with her thumbs hooking the waistband of her shorts as she asked, "Well? Out with it..." in a standoffish tone.
Observing Bonney's actions and seeing how close everyone was to Vahn, Ghislaine tilted her head and plainly asked, "Should I sit or stand closer as well...?"
Holding Bonney's gaze with a smile, Vahn casually affirmed, "You can sit wherever you like," thinking that Ghilsaine would perch herself atop one of the prepared cushions. Instead, she awkwardly positioned herself behind Bonney, causing the pink-haired Princess no small amount of confusion as she towered over her and stated, "Very well," before sitting down.
"What are you—!?" started Bonney, her words cutting off as Ghislaine abruptly grabbed her by her waist and guided her to sit down in her lap. Then, wrapping her arms around her in a firm bear hug, she used a firm, chiding tone to say, "It is not courageous to posture before someone you know would never harm you..."
Flushing to the tips of her ears, Bonney struggled violently in Ghislaine's embrace, shouting, "Let go of me, you traitorous cat...!"
"I refuse..." responded Ghislaine, squeezing Bonney even tighter while rubbing her right cheek against the latter's left. Bonney could have used Bukujutsu or unleashed her Haki to free herself, but since that would very likely destroy the workshop, she eventually settled down after looking to her front and seeing Vahn observing her with a conflicted look. He didn't approve of Ghislaine's methods of wrangling her, but Bonney interpreted the look as one of disappointment in her.
"Just say why you called us over already..." muttered Bonney, her face an almost luminous shade of pink as she looked to her right to avoid meeting Vahn's gaze directly.
"All things considered, I'm still relatively new to life here," answered Vahn. "With that in mind, I was wondering if there were any interesting places or favored biomes you could introduce me to."
"You...want to go exploring...?" asked Bonney, staring at Vahn as if he had grown a second head.
"It's an opportunity to practice bukujutsu, and if there are any monsters you've been struggling with over the past year, I might be able to lend a hand," reasoned Vahn, smiling.
"That sounds like a lot of fun," affirmed Riko, her smile cramping slightly as she added, "But Bonney and Ghislaine are B-Rank while Prushka and I are barely D-Rank. I'm not sure how much help we'd be in a battle against monsters they struggle with."
"Your raw physical stats may be D-Rank, but since you can externalize your life essence to perform Bukujutsu, you should be able to increase your strength, speed, and durability by a factor of two to ten," rebutted Vahn, contending, "It functions similar to the Chakra used by Kakashi's group or the Touki used by Ghislaine here."
"So I'm between two to ten times stronger while flying...?" asked Riko, her green eyes glistening with fascination.
"And that's just the baseline," affirmed Vahn, explaining, "As you train your body and become more accustomed to utilizing your life essence to strain your limits, it increases exponentially. Most people reach a bottleneck due to their environment and what they believe to be possible, but Ascendees are free from that impediment. If you want to reach a level where you can blow up planets or even a solar system with a wave of your hand, the only things hindering you are your drive and time."
"Could you destroy a planet...?" asked Ghislaine, her pointy, more canine than feline ears perking.
"It's possible," affirmed Vahn, causing even Bonney to raise her brows in surprise until he explained, "But it heavily depends on the setting. Planets are much like people in that they can evolve and grow stronger, becoming Gods. In settings with more relaxed Laws, the average B-Rank capable of utilizing Ki would be able to destroy small planetoids. In others, even the most powerful S-Ranks might struggle to destroy a town due to the world itself limiting them."
"Now, hold on," interjected Bonney, frowning deeply and looking more than a little skeptical as she pointed out, "I'm B-Rank. Are you seriously telling me I'm powerful enough to destroy a planet?"
"If it's incapable of protecting itself, certainly..." affirmed Vahn, quickly appending, "But your planet, for example, is not only larger but far more durable than the average planet. At your current level, you could destroy towns or sink entire islands. To pose a threat to the planet, you'd need to reach at least S-Rank."
"But why would anyone need that much power?" asked Riko, her brows furrowing as she appended, "Destroying planets...it seems so wasteful..."
"You're right..." affirmed Vahn. "But, as a general rule, realities with beings capable of destroying planets often have others capable of creating them. However, you shouldn't assume that all destroyers are inherently bad and that all creators are inherently good. In many instances, destroyers come into being to rectify the mistakes or imbalances created by creators who got carried away. In others, they're the other half of the Primordial God of Creation, who, after laying the foundation for their reality, split themselves into two or more personas to maintain balance."
"Where do you and the Dragon's Pavilion fit in all of that?" asked Bonney, noting, "You're always going on about balance and not interfering unless a price is paid, so what does that make you?"
"An observer with too much time on his hands?" submitted Vahn, smiling and shaking his head before confiding, "As strange as that sounds, it's not far from the truth. You see, reality, on the grandest scale, exists in layers. Those at higher layers regard those below as fantasy or imagination. So if you've ever drawn a picture, written a story, read someone else's, played pretend, or simply allowed your thoughts to wander, you've peered into or given form to a lower layer. All that's required to make them real is power, authority, and belief."
"Does that mean our worlds aren't real?" asked Prushka, tilting her head nearly forty degrees to the side.
"That might have been the case at one point, but you wouldn't have the wherewithal to ask questions like that or think about them if you weren't alive and self-aware," assured Vahn, plopping his left hand on Prushka's head and ruffling her warm and fluffy hair, causing her to narrow her red eyes contentedly.
"But if you're an observer, you must have come from a higher layer, right?" asked Bonney.
"That's right," affirmed Vahn. "However, when a being from a higher layer descends to a lower one, that layer is gradually elevated. It requires time and certain conditions to be met, but soon enough, all the realities linked to the Tower of Ascension will become just as real as the layer from which they were previously observed."
"And we have you to thank for that?" asked Ghislaine, barely following the line of discussion despite increasing her previously F-Ranked Intelligence to D-Rank.
"In a sense, but I'm more of a facilitator," contended Van, shaking his head before explaining, "I'm not the one who conceived your worlds or the Laws that govern them. I helped lay the foundation for their coming into being, but it was the first generation of Ascendees that set things in motion. If they hadn't had the courage or awareness to deviate from the fates foisted upon them, we wouldn't be here now."
Before anyone could ask, Vahn smiled and explained, "Think of it like this. Say you were writing a story and provided your characters with a choice. Under normal circumstances, nothing would happen until you, the author, decided what they would do, correct?"
"Then...by making the decision to become Ascendees...we made our worlds real...?" surmised Riko, staring down at her palms and flexing her hands open and closed as if to confirm they were real.
"That's why I afford the first generation of Ascendees special treatment," affirmed Vahn, caressing Riko's hair with a proud expression as he stated, "Because, from the moment they made their decision, every world linked to the Tower—past and future—became just as real."
"To think that Paul would have such a grand achievement under his belt..." muttered Ghislaine, recalling that Paul was one of the first generation that Vahn was referring to.
Disregarding Ghislaine's comment, Vahn added, "And that's why I only intervene in specific instances or when a sufficient price has been paid. Every reality has a central axis along which fate and time flow, linking all things. When external forces act upon a world...well, to put things simply, actions have consequences. The actions of outsiders, more so."
"Huh...well, if I ever meet the person who conceived my story, I'll be sure to give them a piece of my mind," stated Bonney, cracking the knuckles of her right hand.
"Honestly, I don't think he would mind," contended Vahn. "After all, most lower-layered worlds are conceived by completely ordinary people. When the day arrives that you're able to travel from this layer to the one directly above, it's going to shock you just how normal things appear—at least on the surface."
"Is there a layer above even that...?" asked Bonney, not really caring but curious enough to ask.
"I would say there are at least two," affirmed Vahn. "But as you go higher up in the layers, the number of people looking down decreases. After all, there are as many individual stories as people, and those people are able to create stories of their own. If you travel back through the layers to the very top, you will theoretically reach one where a single being responsible for observing all of reality exists."
vrrrrrrrrr
Though he was the only one who felt it, Vahn got the impression that the transdimensional boundary—the intervening space between spaces that incorporated Invirtua—had contracted and become more defined. It was a very strange sensation, like a change in frequency or vibration that only he could perceive...
...
..
.
Far from the confines of the training room, the Intertwining Dragon's Palace, and Termina, a small figure rose from a pool of nebulous black liquid. As it sloughed away, the figure was revealed to be a young boy with pale, translucent skin, messy white hair that framed his face, and heterochromic eyes, one pale red and the other icy blue.
"It's cold..." muttered the boy, the center of his chest and between his shoulders faintly pulsing as his heart, a mix of crimson and gold, began beating—each sluggish but powerful contraction producing an audible rushing sound like liquid being forced through a pipe.
In response to the boy's remark, the liquid sloughing off him climbed up his body and adhered to it, forming loose garments. Then, with feet that glowed faintly crimson, he rose and began walking forward with no clear destination in mind, only purpose.
"Hungry..."
...
..
.