<h4>Chapter 1864 Burn</h4>


    With the body of the massive Guardian dissipating into a pale blue mist, the only thing standing between Vahn’s group and the man known as White was a single sealed door.


    Under normal circumstances, only those with the ’key’ would be able to gain ess to the sealed chamber. It was protected by a series of electric locks and a number of powerful curses, several of which were lethal to anyone attempting to probe the interior.


    Unfortunately, while there were a number of powerful spells and enchantments within the Tower, theirplexity was elementarypared to the magical system that existed within the Nasu and Akamatsuverses. It would have only taken a few minutes for Eva or Illya to thoroughly remove the seals protecting the door, but, with a ’cheat’ like Vahn present, they could just as easily ’force’ their way through. After all, he was ’immune’ to curses, and, even if there were lethal traps installed, they were ultimately ineffective against a being who could re-manifest fromplete destruction with a simple thought.


    Without minding the malicious spells and enchantments whatsoever, Vahn covered the entire vault-like door with a ck ooze formed from his own body. Then, by channeling the Law of Destruction through his own body,bining it with the Source Energy thatprised each individual cell, he began to eat through the seemingly indestructible door at a startling rate. In the end, it only took a little more than thirty seconds before the sound of a childish voice could be heard inquiring, "What the hell...?"


    With the ck ooze having worked its way around the perimeter of the door, Vahn jerked the entire thing free from its hinges before tossing the porous b of corroded metal to the side. This allowed him to see a youthful figure seated atop a throne. At a nce, the figure appeared no older than ten to twelve years old, and, from facial features alone, it would be very difficult to determine their gender. They also possessed long white hair that extended to their ankles, silvery-white eyes that reflected a palpable sword intent, and a delicateplexion thatplimented their androgynous features quite a bit.


    After briefly scanning the figure, Vahn shifted his gaze between the four-pointed silver crown atop their head and the strange ymore-like sword resting on the youth’s shoulder. The former had a ’very’ powerful enchantment fused into it, and, though the de of thetter was rtively in, it possessed an inordinately long handle and a cross-guard that looked like a saw-tooth de. There was also a silvery breastte covering their chest, it’s front-facing te possessing a simr rune to the crown listingzily atop their head...


    Feeling unnerved by the mysterious man’s gaze, the white-haired youth’s face formed into a frown as they asked, "Who the hell are you people? Are you with the Jahad Empire?"


    Ignoring the youth’s questions, Vahn shifted his attention to the Law of Identity, now appearing as an exact copy of the white-haired swordsman. In response, she nodded her head, saying, "His name is Hoaqin. He is the primaryponent of the being known as White. There should be four others: Vicente, Anna, David, and Albelda. They are his siblings. He tricked them into bing ’one’ with him in order to surpass their father, Arie Hon. They were forced to separate so he is currently a lot weaker than his yer counterpart."


    Continuing to ignore the questioning of the increasingly annoyed Hoaqin, Vahn nodded toward the Law of Identity before looking towards Asuna and saying, "You’re up. Don’t hold back."


    Nodding her head in understanding, Asuna, having already donned her modern-lookingbat attire, stepped forward with Ko in her hand. This caused Hoaqin’s pupils to shrink, and, though she had yet to attack, he could already feel an extreme threat radiating from the former. As a result, he unhesitantly swung his massive ymore as if it had absolutely no weight, shouting, "You ursed dogs of Jahad...!" as a cage of sword beams began to appear from the void.


    Though he had already seen a number of examples of Arie Swordsmanship, Vahn had to admit that Hoaqin was leagues bove someone like Serra. The only observable w in his technique was that it burned the energy contained within his Ego, stolen from countless others, as a fuel source. To make matters even worse, he seemed incapable of not using this energy, so, as Asuna continued to dance between his sword beams with remarkable speed and grace, he was steadily exhausting himself...


    For a fleeting moment, it seemed like Asuna was going to close the distance between herself and Hoaqin without needing to rely on her more anomalous characteristics. She was ’much’ faster than Hoaqin, and, though their ages were iparable to each other, Asuna had a substantial amount of experience fighting againstpletely iprehensible foes. This allowed her to see through all of his attacks, but, just as she was about to step in and stab him in the chest, Hoaqin proved why you should never underestimate someone who burned ’souls’ as a fuel source.


    Refusing to ept the reality that he was being outssed by a swordsman unrted to the Arie Family, Hoaqin’s silver eyes zed with a malicious light as he eximed, "Do you have any idea who you’re dealing with, you brat!?"


    Following his exmation, Hoaqin’s body seemed to be shrouded in ghostly white mes as the sword in his hands briefly changed into a sword formed entirely from the concentrated ’power of souls’. In essence, it was almost like he had activated Bankai, his power increasing by a factor of ten as he countered Asuna’s attack with near-perfect timing. This caused her pupils to shrink, but, rather than attempt to flee, she actually stepped further inward, a resolute light shing across her eyes as she stabbed Ko into Hoaqin’s body before attempting to phase through him with the State of Nothingness.


    Unfortunately, the ghostly mes shrouding Hoaqin’s body effectively turned him into a pseudo-spiritual entity. This made it impossible to phase through him as the State of Nothingness was, on its most fundamental level, maintained by a person’s mental and spiritual energies. If they actually became one with the concept of Nothingness, they would cease to exist, so, for the duration of its activation, the State of Nothingness effectively ced them into an immaterial, spirit, form.


    Unable to phase through his body, Asuna crashed into Hoaqin with a force akin to that of a freight train. This caused most of the bones in the youth’s chest to shatter upon impact, but, at the same time, the mes shrouding his body quickly spread to Asuna’s, seemingly intent on burning and subsequently subsuming her. What he never could have anticipated was that Asuna’s soul was a lot more powerful than his, so, while she wasn’tpletely immune to the effects, it was like trying to evaporate an ocean by igniting its surface.


    Though she was unustomed to taking damage, Asuna didn’t even wince as she quickly reacted to the situation by retracting Ko and slicing off Hoaqin’s sword arm. Then, with a pivot, she kicked his already broken body in the diaphragm, sending him flying into the far wall and coughing up arge volume of pitch-ck blood. This same blood stained his pure white garb to create a rather eerie contrast as he fell to his knees, eyes burning with a malicious light as he uttered, "You filthy cowards...sending Rankers into a ce like the Hell Train..."


    With hazy white mes still burning on parts of her body, Asuna frowned in response to Hoaqin’s words as she answered, "We’re not Rankers. Besides, what ground do you have to stand on when you literally killed more than a billion innocent people for the sake of a ritual? Seriously, grow the hell up and stop ming others for repercussions you brought upon yourself."


    Without responding to Asuna’sment, Hoaqin attempted to draw several runes using his own ckened blood. This was concealed by the inordinately long sleeves of his white robes, but, as could be expected, Asuna had easily seen through his actions. As a result, she activated Ko’s ability, cutting through the air and severing Hoaqin’s body from above his left shoulder to just below his rib cage. This also cut directly through his heart, but, as an entity who had abandoned its physical body long ago, Hoaqin wasn’t instantly killed by themonly fatal blow.


    Unfortunately, while he did possess a surprising degree of mastery in the domain of Spirit Magic, Hoaqin was currently facing off against five Archmages. Vahn could even directly interfere with the casting of all magic within his domain, so, despite Hoaqin’s attempts to use the remnants of his life force to forcibly devour the ’souls’ of everyone present, his actions were ultimately futile. It was only after several seconds of smiling viciously that he seemed to realize this was this case, his expression morphing into one of utter disbelief as the light gradually faded from his eyes...


    As he had burned the energy within his own Ego during hisst desperate attempt at aeback, Hoaqin had effectively exorcised his own spirit prior to his death. Under normal circumstances, this would have meant he waspletely erased, beyond the hope of even Vahn’s resurrection, but, as part of the ritual to be one with his siblings, Hoaqin had effectively superimposed part of his Ego onto theirs. Thus, in a manner reminiscent of Orochimaru taking over people’s bodies, he could still be revived so long as even a single person possessed a fragment of his Ego.


    Sighing in exasperation, Vahn shed over to Asuna’s side in an instant, waving away the persistent white mes with the ease of extinguishing a candle before pulling her into his embrace and saying, "You really know how to worry me..."


    Feeling a paradoxically warm yet cooling energy diffusing throughout her body, a contented smile quickly reced the expressionless visage Asuna adopted whenever she was inbat. Then, after returning his embrace with her own, she rxed her head against his chest before musing, "We can say the same...I feel like my heart is going to burst every time I see you fight against a powerful foe. If it would help you be more self-aware, I wouldn’t mind burning for a few days longer..."


    Taken aback by Asuna’s teasing remark, Vahn found himself at a momentary loss, mouth hanging open for several seconds as he failed to find his words. This allowed Asuna the opportunity to perk up, standing on the tips of her toes in order to seal his lips with her own. Then, with a girlish giggle arising from her throat, she tightened her hold on him before separating their lips to remark, "Your bewildered expression is always so cute..."


    Though he was tempted to give the impish woman a light ’punishment’, doing so in the presence of a corpse would be rather tasteless. Instead, Vahn just adopted an amused smile as he held her head to his chest, gently caressing her silky hair as he finished healing her body. Afterward, they gathered the constituent parts of Hoaqin together before burning his remains as part of a perfunctory funeral rite.


    Hoaqin might have be an irredeemable monster over the course of his life, but, regardless of the weight of their sins, bearing resentment toward the dead was like consuming a lethal poison in the hopes of killing someone who had already passed. There was absolutely no sense in this, and, more often than not, such sentiments became the seeds of hatred that caused people to gradually be monsters themselves. Thus, while some might believe that Hoaqin deserved to suffer for each individual person he harmed, Vahn had no interest in such things.


    Though he was not without w, Vahn did not kill in order to pacify the victims, nor did he fight as a champion of the bereaved. Instead, he killed his foes almost entirely to satisfy his own sense of self-righteousness, and, most importantly, allow them a chance to start fresh in their next reincarnation.


    Nobody deserved to suffer, and, more often than not, those that perpetuated the greatest amount of suffering did so because their circumstances had forced them into a corner. This didn’t redeem them, not by a long shot, but it also didn’t justify having them experience even greater suffering. If that logic was applied to each and every situation, the amount of suffering in the world would only ever increase. This would invariably lead to the destruction of everything, so, regardless of how he felt about someone in life, Vahn would still pray for them in death...


    (A/N: Alternate Titles: ’Om nom nom...!’,’Asuna be like, "I’m fast as fuck, White boi...!"’,’Hatred is a very personal thing. If you find yourself hating ’something’ or a group of ’someones’, that isn’t true hate. You are just a patsy to someone else’s agenda or a bigot. You don’t have to be a part of the solution, but don’t be a contributor to the problems that gue our society. If we want Full Dive VR and gically engineered catgirls, we must first build a society of mutual understanding...!’)


    https://bit.ly/2XBzAYu \u003c-(p.atreon link)


    paypal.me/Einlion


    Discord Invite: https://discord.gg/Jwa8PKh