EPIC: Path of Demons and Dragons

'Well...that's different...' thought Vahn, having spent the morning tending his farm and catching up with the bunny family before teleporting to a floating island, atop which was a large lake with cascading waterfalls, a colossal palace that appeared to have been constructed for giants, and a sky-piercing tower that stretched nearly a kilometer into the sky. All of that was impressive, but what had Vahn feeling slightly taken aback was the large, cute, and somewhat chubby, pear-shaped black dragon seated before him in a demure posture with her hands on her knees. She easily exceeded ten meters even while seated and with her head lowered, but what made her stand out was the tapestry she wore as a shawl and the featureless but very prominent mammaries adorning her chest area...

"Well, say something..." muttered Aileen, averting her large blue eyes as she nervously fidgeted. She wasn't very familiar with human aesthetics, so she felt more than a little anxious, considering that Vahn might find her form unappealing or outright ugly.

Exhaling from his nose and smiling, Vahn alleviated Aileen's anxiety by calmly affirming, "You're even cuter than expected. I'm honestly a little taken aback."

"You're not just saying that to coax or placate me, right?" asked Aileen, reaching up to cup the sides of her rapidly warming face with her four-clawed, almost paw-like hands. This caused her breasts, each of which was larger than Vahn's entire body, to squish together, compelling him to wonder what it would feel like to be nestled between them.

'Something for the far future...' thought Vahn, pulling himself together as he nodded and reassured, "I have no reason to lie or butter you up. After all, we've already agreed to become a couple, even if not for another two to three hundred years."

Gaining a bit of confidence, Aileen caused Vahn to tense as she shifted forward with her elbows and hands propping up her head, towering over him with her cleavage forming a corridor as she hummed, "I knew it...you really are the best..." in a surprisingly sensual manner.

'Issei would die from happiness at this sight...' thought Vahn, the corners of his smile curling upward as he asked, "Do you want to continue praising me, or should I hurry and restore Omid's link to the Tower?"

Catching Vahn a little off guard, Aileen unabashedly remarked, "I want to stay like this a while longer..." with a faintly possessive gleam in her large, faintly glowing blue eyes.

With Aileen lowering her head to stare at him with slightly crossed eyes, Vahn couldn't help finding her adorable, even if her presence caused his body to vibrate as if his soul would break under the pressure she exuded. Fortunately, his SSS-Ranked Will of the Emperor seemed to grant him an innate resistance against spiritual pressure, allowing him to step forward, causing the black dragoness to blink in surprise, her eyes widening as he placed his right hand on her snout.

"Your hand is warm..." muttered Aileen, narrowing and then closing her eyes contentedly as she pushed her face forward, slipping past Vahn's hand to nuzzle his entire chest. Her head alone was larger than his body, but while he was tempted to ask her to let him ride her, Vahn resisted the urge and reciprocally caressed Aileen's head and snout. He couldn't help noticing she was sniffing him rather aggressively, but as she had basically been living alone for the better part of a hundred and fifty years, passing her days spying on the Tower's residents, it was to be expected she didn't have a proper understanding of boundaries...

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"Alright, that should do it..." said Vahn, standing with his hands on the oversized crystal ball that served as the Black Tower's Administrative Terminal while Aileen continued to nuzzle him with her snout. In truth, he didn't need to be anywhere near the terminal for Sis to reestablish the link between the Black Tower and the world Aileen's mother was trapped , but it was best to keep his true capabilities a secret.

As if to confirm Vahn's statement, the lighting within the library abruptly changed, the nearly two-meter-wide crystal ball before them flashing red as a series of notifications appeared.

[Former Administrator Elizabeth Pritani has been detected.]

[The System detects that the former Administrator is severely injured.]

[Activating emergency return protocol.]

"Wait, severely injured!?" exclaimed Aileen, shooting up from her lovey-dovey stupor. Black Dragons, as exhibited by her ability to survive the past two hundred years, could even survive having their hearts pierced or completely inoperable, so hearing the words severely injured in reference to her mother, one of the most powerful members of her species, caused Aileen to become flustered.

"Calm down, Aileen..." said Vahn, sporting a calm, confident smile as he remarked, "I'm here, aren't I?"

Taken aback by Vahn's words and confidence, Aileen stared at him in a daze for several seconds. She found it difficult to believe he could handle things with his Mana and parameters being around a thousandth her own, but instead of asking how he intended to help, she plopped onto her butt and sat with her hands on her stomach, observing him anxiously.

[Elizabeth Pritani will be transported here in 3...2...1...]

As the countdown neared zero, Vahn looked around curiously, his brows rising as the already spacious interior of the forbidden library ballooned outward. As for the reason, it became apparent when an elegant-looking Black Dragon, several times larger than Aileen, appeared, curled up like a small hill.

"Mother..." muttered Aileen, feeling pained but doing her best to restrain her desire to rush forward for fear of getting in the way.

"That voice...is that really my Aileen...?" asked the colossal Black Dragon, Elizabeth Pritani, opening her eyes to reveal icy blue irises that shone like pale blue stars. She was clearly weakened, but Vahn got the impression that if she wanted to, she could open her mouth and erase both him and Aileen on the spot.

Before she could respond, Aileen noticed Vahn abruptly take a knee, his complexion paling considerably as he cradled his stomach and trembled intensely.

"Vahn...!?' exclaimed Aileen, feeling even more panicked and flustered as she had no idea what had caused him to collapse.

"I'm fine..." responded Vahn, lowering himself onto his side and curling into a fetal position and jaw clenched as he groaned, "Just give me a few seconds..."

Realizing that Vahn was in pain, Aileen raised her hands as if she wanted to reach out and help him, but her focus was promptly diverted when her mother, who previously looked beyond exhausted, blinked in surprise, sat up, and remarked, "My injury...it's gone..." in disbelief.

Looking between her mother and Vahn, Aileen found herself at a loss as to who she should rush to. Fortunately, Vahn wasn't lying when he said he just needed a few seconds to recover, his body soaked with sweat but his complexion rapidly improving as he sat up, gazed up at Aileen with a tired, supportive smile, and questioned, "What are you waiting for? Go and hug your mother, you peanut..."

Though her reaction wasn't immediate, Aileen eventually exhaled loudly from her nose, eyeing Vahn with a teary-eyed, emotion-filled smile before darting past him on all fours to nuzzle and rub up against the bewildered but composed Elizabeth like an oversized cat. It was a precious sight to behold, especially when Elizabeth began nuzzling her back affectionately, but since he was utterly exhausted after using Wound Transfer to take on the latter's wounds, Vahn sprawled out on the floor with his arms and legs splayed and his eyes closed, breathing loudly to reassure Aileen he hadn't suddenly keeled over...

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"So you're the boy who has my little Aileen wrapped around his finger...?" questioned Elizabeth, prompting Vahn to open his eyes and discover the two dragonesses staring down at him.

Rising to a seated position and rolling to his feet, Vahn adopted his best smile as he replied, "My name is Vahn Mason. It's a pleasure to meet you, Elizabeth."

"You will refer to me as mother-in-law..." asserted Elizabeth, narrowing her eyes in a manner that suggested no room for discussion.

"Of course, mother-in-law..." answered Vahn, his smile cramping slightly as Aileen anxiously gestured for Elizabeth to lower her head, allowing her to whisper something into the opening that served as her ear.

"Oh, I see..." muttered Elizabeth, narrowing her eyes anew, this time with a hint of enmity as she towered over Vahn and asserted, "It's not good to treat relationships casually. However, as you treated my daughter's heart, restored the link to Omid, and mended my wounds, I will not prohibit your relationship. But if you hurt her..."

Raising her colossal right hand, well over five meters across, Elizabeth stomped down on Vahn, narrowly missing him with the space between two of her claws. If the two-hundred-year-old Aileen were a thousand times stronger than Vahn, her mother was several tens of thousands of times more powerful at over 80,000 years old. The pressure she exuded made Vahn feel as though his bones were on the verge of being reduced to powder, but he managed to appear calm as he nodded and affirmed, "I understand..." with a smile.

"You're certainly no ordinary young man..." remarked Elizabeth, retracting her hand and plopping down onto her butt, still towering more than thirty meters over Vahn with breasts individually as large as single-unit Capsule homes. She then had a bashful and apologetic-looking Aileen sit in front of her before subjecting him to a lengthy interrogation. Vahn struggled a bit near the start, but as he acclimated to the pressure Elizabeth exuded by simply existing, he became increasingly relaxed, his adaptability and composure impressing the long-lived and buxom dragoness considerably more than she let on...

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[Seven Hours Later]

With Elizabeth's curiosity provisionally satiated, Vahn was finally freed to return to his and Grayfia's subterranean abode. There, he found the silver-haired beauty humming a pleasant tune as she relaxedly prepared enough food to feed dozens of people. Her skirt was so short that it exposed the base of her butt and the lace thong she was wearing, so even though he knew for certain that Elizabeth was monitoring him, Vahn approached and wrapped his hands around her stomach, kissing her neck and nestling his bulge against her pillowy cheeks as he muttered, "I'm home..."

Though she had sensed Vahn long before he made his presence known, Grayfia feigned pleasant surprise as she leaned back against him, smiling as she turned her face and hummed, "Welcome back..." before permitting him to kiss her. From there, they would normally transition to having slow and controlled sex so she could continue cooking. However, as Vahn still had a few matters to attend to before he called it a day, he caressed her abdomen with his right hand, specifically the location of her womb, as he muttered, "Soon..." in a smoldering tone.

"Anytime, anyplace..." responded Grayfia, leading to another protracted kiss before Vahn reluctantly released her, relocated to a cozy chair, and sat down with his chat open. The Contacts Function remained active outside the Tower, so he had received many messages, particularly from Riko. She was starting to worry that he wouldn't visit the orphanage that day, so after resting his mind for a few minutes, he surprised Elizabeth by disappearing into thin air, reappearing atop what looked like an old, moss-covered school building with a rounded, red-tiled roof. There was a three-tiered tower with a wind vane atop it directly adjacent to the building, but Vahn's gaze was drawn to the massive hole a few hundred meters away, well over a kilometer in diameter and several tens of thousands of meters deep...

'All things considered, this scenery is amazing...' thought Vahn, having arrived at the rim city of Orth just before sunset. He expected it to be a lot more crowded since there was very limited space to construct residences and open shops, but while there were tens of thousands of red-tiled roofs visible, some of which were precariously perched over the Abyss, luscious forests interspaced the buildings, giving the settlement a uniquely organic feel...

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