Trace

It was only after Cú Chulainn's body began to disappear into particles of light that Scáthach finally appeared from within the void. She manifested herself right in front of her former student, a wistful look in her ruby-like eyes as she muttered, "You always were a foolish boy..." Then, just before Cú's body disappeared, Scáthach gently ran her hand down his face, closing his lightless eyes to give him a more peaceful appearance...

When Cú's body finally disappeared completely, Vahn could hear Scáthach audibly inhale before she turned around, her gentle look nowhere to be seen as she stated, "I had not expected something like this to happen. Now that it has, only your final challenge awaits...once you have steeled yourself, find me on the Isle of Skye. I will await you at the place where my legend began..."

With her words finished, Scáthach disappeared within the void, leaving Vahn at a loss for words. The last few months had been relatively uneventful so it was rather disorienting to have things progress so quickly. Though he knew Scáthach had been losing her patience as of late, the appearance of Cú Chulainn seemed to be the straw that broke the camel's back. Now, the next time he met the purple-clad beauty, it would undoubtedly be a fight to the death.

Feeling more than a little exasperated, Vahn released a tired sigh before looking toward the top of the wall and waving down Boudica. In response, she unhesitantly jumped down and, even without reinforcing her body with mana, her physique alone was enough to withstand the 50m fall, even in full armor. Though she landed rather roughly, without much grace, Vahn dutifully pretended not to notice as he turned his eyes toward where Cú had been standing moments prior...

After taking a few deep breaths to collect herself, Boudica approached Vahn's side, a confident and dignified look on her face as she asked, "Is there something you require of me, Master?"

Answering Boudica's inquiry with a curt nod, Vahn explained, "Make sure nothing snuck in during the personnel evacuation. Once the Supercolony had been cleared out, we'll be performing a detailed sweep and scan of the entire region. Cú must have been sent here for a reason...we'll not rest until it is found."

With her orders received, Boudica performed a knightly salute, striking her breastplate with her gauntleted hand, before shouting, "Ha! I will carry out your orders without fail!" Afterward, she gave a courteous bow and, after being dismissed by Vahn, quickly set out to perform her duties.

After watching Boudica's departing figure, cloaked in a thick white cape, Vahn released another sigh before turning his eyes skyward and expanding his senses through the area. Now that he was here, he was compelled to sweep the area a few times. Part of him was tempted to give chase and pursue Scáthach directly to the Isle of Skye but, knowing he wasn't in the proper state of mind to face her in an unrestricted battle, this was the next best thing.

Fortunately, or perhaps not, Vahn's senses did, in fact, pick up the presence of an anomalous magical signature. Sensing it, he couldn't help but roll his eyes before muttering, "I suppose we're not at the point where you'll inform me every time something like this happens, huh?"

Without replying to his question directly, Alaya made her intentions known by wiggling around and biting him a little harder than before. Truthfully, there were a lot of things she could tell Vahn but, as it would only stress him out even further, she never proactively fed him information. The only reason she had informed him about Tristan being attacked was due to a prior order, not out of her concern for the red-haired Knight's safety. This information had to be paid for with Magical Energy so, unless Vahn fed her a phenomenal amount, there were limits to what she could actually provide him.

Vahn, of course, knew that Alaya was still bound by the restrictions placed on her. This was actually a very good thing as, with the recent changes in her behavior, it would cause a lot of problems if she was able to act freely. Thus, while part of him wished she would be more 'proactive' when it came to important matters, it, honestly, wasn't really her job. He already expected quite a bit from her so, as frustrating as her silence was, at times, Vahn couldn't hold her accountable...

After teleporting to where the anomalous magical signature was, Vahn found a peculiar metallic box that, from appearances alone, seemed high tech. It had a sleek black surface with a laser-engraved runic pattern embossed onto its surface. This was a technology that Da Vinci had developed around two years ago but, as only Imperial Tech made use of such systems, seeing a foreign device possess a similar level of tech showed just how advanced their enemies were.

Since nothing good would come from leaving the device alone, Vahn placed his palm against its surface and, after a brief tug-of-war against whatever was controlling it, he forcibly took control of the object before throwing it into his Inventory. Then, passing his intent through the foreign magical energy, Vahn attempted to trace the energy back to its source. He had been able to send his intent around freely even before entering the Nasuverse and, with his mastery over Space Laws, it would be difficult to avoid his detection.

Unfortunately, while Vahn was able to pursue the source for several seconds, whoever had been in control seemed to realize what was happening. In response, they sent an explosive pulse of magical energy through the original signal. This was similar to how Modern Magi used Counter Curses and, if he was a normal person, Vahn could even receive a backlash if he continued his pursuit. Fortunately, he was anything but normal so, despite a small trickle of blood running down his nose, Vahn forced his way through the surge, latching onto the original signal and tracking the source to a mountain range near the border between Pakistan and China.

Despite the constant lectures he received about taking action on his own, Vahn wasn't the type to just sit around while his enemy slithered in the shadows like a snake. He was already holding council back in Avalon, the benefit of having two bodies, so he instantly gave out mobilization orders while teleporting to the location, courtesy of Alaya. Moments later, several other ripples appeared in the surrounding space as, from within the void, Arcueid, Okita, and, as he knew she had been longing for battle, Altera appeared.

Vahn was tired of just letting his enemies do whatever they wanted so, with a calm and commanding tone, he ordered, "Arcueid, I want you to pull this entire mountain into your Marble Phantasm. Okita, make sure none of the enemies are able to escape. If you have the option between killing or sparing them, lean towards the latter but do not be afraid to strike them down if they are dangerous. Altera, you will stay at my side...if there are any powerful enemies, I will let you take care of them..."

Though Arcueid could manifest her Marble Phantasm with ease, pulling things from the real world into it was considerably more difficult. Despite this, she unhesitantly stepped forward and brought her hands together, much like she was praying. In the next moment, her aura seemed to cover the heavens themselves and, after a couple of seconds had passed, the night sky became a bright blue as she forcibly pulled everything in her surroundings into her Marble Phantasm. This left her gasping for breath but, after a minute or so of absorbing energy from the earth, combined with Vahn feeding her a considerable amount of Source Energy, she was back at full capacity.

The moment Arcueid's Marble Phantasm manifested, Okita vanished like a phantom from Vahn's side, immediately followed by the latter muttering, "ORT, keep watch from above. If anything tries to fly away or forcibly intervene, feel free to capture or kill them..."

With just a few simple commands, Vahn now had three Tier 5 existences acting on his orders while, back in Avalon, Aoko and Maxwell were helping to feed magical energy into his body. It wasn't the most efficient process but, with Maxwell being able to output an infinite amount of energy, Vahn would be able to muster a functionally infinite amount of his own. As a result, his normally green eyes began to blaze with a divine blue light, his momentum seeming to rise even higher than the 8600m mountain before him.

---

Mountains had always been a source of great mystery and mysticism, even dating back to the Era of the Gods. Most mountains were natural formations that came into being as a result of two tectonic plates moving against each other. As a result, the energies contained within the earth spilled out in these regions and, while not necessarily part of a Leyline, many acted as Artificial Leylines as a result. It was for this reason that so many Magi, Sages, and Spiritual Hermits had made their home atop mountain as, more often than not, many were direct portals to Spiritual Lands.

A Spiritual Land was an area on the Surface Texture where the boundaries between the Surface and Reverse Sides, at times, became weakened. This allowed for various mutations in plants and animals, often resulting in the formation of treasure-grade medicinal herbs and powerful monsters. Since the strength of a Magus family was often directly related to the number of Spiritual Lands under their influence, it wasn't uncommon to find powerful Bounded Fields wherever famous mountains existed.

Due to lacking the personnel to police them, and generally not caring about the resources inside, the Empire had left most Spiritual Lands to whoever felt like claiming them. Eventually, the entire planet would become a Spiritual Land so, while there were certainly benefits to be had, the Empire would have to invest manpower it didn't have in an effort to claim them. Most of them had been left to the Mage's Association to police and, now, as a result of his half-measures, Vahn bore witness as, from within the subsumed Bounded Field, a veritable army of Golems and Magical Constructs poured out.

Despite a seemingly endless sea of enemy forces, neither Vahn nor any of his allies showed any sign of perturbance. They all remained calm and collected as, when it came to true power, numbers rarely made much of a difference. A billion ants might be able to take down an elephant but even a billion times that number could do little against entities on the level of planetary bodies. Vahn himself had yet to reach this level but Arcueid, ORT, and even Altera, easily qualified as Tier 5 existences.

As there were some enemies within the air, a brilliant flash of emerald green light caused all other colors to fade into darkness as ORT, appearing much like an angular green spaceship, tore through every aerial enemy in seconds. At the same time, Okita was leaving behind cuts in the air that, even after several seconds passed, continued to sever the void. This caused a powerful and destructive gravitational force to suck in anything foolish enough to near the affected area and, as her attacks continued to build, lightning formed from reddish-black energy began to dance between each of the rifts.

Since it was a good opportunity, Vahn gave a small nod towards the patiently waiting Altera, saying, "Take care not to cause collateral damage to the mountain and your allies. You have enough power to wipe these enemies out with devastating your surroundings. Other than that, feel free to cut loose as much as you want."

Hearing Vahn's words, Altera simply replied with an, "I see..." before pulling her tri-colored sword out of her chest. In the next moment, she kicked off the ground with enough force to cause Vahn's and Arcueid's clothes to flutter as a shockwave of dust and debris crashed into them. This caused Vahn to issue a small sigh and, though she was slightly annoyed by Altera's actions, Arcueid decided to just laugh it off. Then, entangling her arm with Vahn's, she adorned a radiant smile on her face, asking, "Shall we go~?"

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