EPIC: Path of Demons and Dragons-Chapter 311: Outreach

"What’s with you? Is there like an underground chamber or something?" asked Bonney, interrupting Vahn’s moment of reflection by throwing her arms around him from behind and entrusting more than just her weight to his upper back.

"Mmn...let’s see..." responded Vahn, sending a series of pulses through the ground to create a three-dimensional map of the deeply entrenched icy terrain. His domain could expand through physical, particularly porous objects, but it took time, and the image wasn’t very clear.

Shaking his head after several seconds, Vahn revealed, "There are a few underground tunnels, but they feel natural and have collapsed at several points. Probably not worth exploring."

"Then, what now? These places aren’t like Dungeons, so it’s a waste of time to search for a treasure room," stated Bonney, tensing and relaxing her arms while speaking huskily into Vahn’s left ear.

"Did you have any other places in mind?" asked Vahn, causing Bonney’s expression to flatten as he transformed into his oversized Inu Inu no Mi model Wolf God form. There were still more than two hours before he had to meet with Rias, and since Riko and Prushka had thoughtfully refrained from joining them, he was allowing Bonney to determine where they went and how they spent their time together.

"There’s a hot springs biome near a mountain in the far east..." muttered Bonney, rising to a seated position and grabbing two clumps of Vahn’s fur like reins as she added, "But I’m guessing you’re too chicken shit to bathe with me without making things awkward."

"I’m fairly certain you would be the one to make things awkward," stated Vahn, lowering his head and closing his eyes as Ghislaine drew near. The tall and inordinately buxom cat woman raised her brows at this, but since it was obvious what he wanted, she didn’t hesitate to extend her left hand to caress his head and dig into his scruff with her long, sharp nails.

"Hey, cut it out...this is supposed to be my time..." complained Bonney, tugging on Vahn’s fur in a vain attempt to get him to raise his head. He did, eventually, but only after Ghislaine adopted a rare, slightly narrow-eyed smile and scratched under his chin.

"So, where to...?" asked Vahn, followed by a gloomy silence as Bonney pouted atop him.

"Somewhere thieving cats and third wheels aren’t allowed..." grumbled Bonney, causing Ghislaine to tilt her head slightly as she stared daggers at her.

"Should I excuse myself...?" asked Ghislaine, directing the question at Vahn.

"Hmmm...I suppose..." sighed Vahn, tilting his head back so that his neck was nearly flush with Bonney. He was aware that he shouldn’t reward her for throwing a tantrum, but since it was their first outing together in more than a year from her perspective, he figured he could afford her at least a bit of leeway.

"Ha! It’s about damn time you started using this big fat head of yours~!" hummed Bonney, wrapping her arms halfway around Vahn’s broad neck and rubbing her face against the base of his head.

While Bonney was celebrating like she had won a great prize, Ghislaine closed her eyes, bowed her head, and offered a curt, "As you will," before performing a deep, nearly ass-to-ground squat and leaping high into the air. Then, like a pale green comet streaking through the sky, she changed directions, instantly accelerating past the speed of sound as she made a beeline for the horizon.

"Alright, what now?" asked Vahn, following Ghislaine’s departure with his head before straightening out and lying on his belly.

"Well, I would like to make out or do something only couples do, but I’m assuming that’s off the table..." droned Bonney, leaning back, bending her knees, and tucking her feet nearly to her butt to focus her weight along the central axis of her body—reinforcing her balance in the absence of a saddle.

"That’s less of an assumption than you finally learning..." quipped Vahn, causing Bonney to briefly scrunch her nose and bare her teeth before he added, "As long as it doesn’t cross the line into intimacy, there are plenty of things we could do that are traditionally reserved for couples or close friends."

"Like what...?" asked Bonney, her curiosity piqued.

"There’s the hot springs you mentioned, for one," said Vahn, preempting Bonney’s excitement by adding, "As long as you wear a proper swimsuit and keep in mind decorum and personal space, there’s nothing stopping us from getting in together and chatting over some non-alcoholic drinks. Your biggest issue is that you toe the line so frequently that you can’t help but cross it..."

"And your problem is that you draw the line in random places that make no sense..." grumbled Bonney, puffing her cheeks. She wasn’t especially fond of alcohol, but since she was allowed to consume it due to the laws of her world permitting it, she couldn’t help feeling that Vahn taking it off the table was arbitrary and senseless.

"They make sense to me..." asserted Vahn, exhaling from his nose before adding, "And despite your punchy nature, you’re not a foolish girl, Bonney. I place restrictions on myself to preserve my humanity. If I simply did as I pleased without fetter, my nature would become increasingly twisted until I was no better than a Celestial Dragon..."

"You care too much to ever become like a Celestial Dragon..." countered Bonney, her expression softening as she conceded, "But I get what you’re saying. I’m just...frustrated. This whole puberty thing can suck a dick and choke on it..."

"It will get easier," assured Vahn. "Now, out with it. We only have so much time before I need to return. I can delay it until the last moment, but just as you would not want me to keep you waiting, I would prefer not to keep others."

"Yeah, yeah..." groaned Bonney, falling forward and burying her face into the soft fur of Vahn’s neck, her voice muffled as she confirmed, "Let’s go to the hot springs..."

"Very well," affirmed Vahn, offering a curt nod before rising from his belly, tensing his hind legs, and leaping into the sky. He already knew where the biome in question was situated, but since two and a half hours was a long time for a bath, he forwent teleportation and allowed Bonney to direct him where to go...

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"Troublesome as she may be, it sounds like the two of you had a lot of fun..." hummed Rias, smiling as she ran her fingers through Vahn’s hair, gently scratching his scalp as he lay with his forehead against her belly on a crimson-hued leather sofa—his head supported by her increasingly pillowy thighs.

"Honestly, if the two of us were in the same age group, she’d likely have me wrapped around her pinky..." sighed Vahn, caressing Rias’s belly with his right hand. Their son kept kicking him in the face, but he endured the onslaught with an affectionate smile and wist-tinged eyes.

"Kind of like me when we were first getting to know one another~?" asked Rias, a hint of sentimentality flashing across her bright blue eyes. She had few scruples about her current life, but she missed the comparably simple time when she was a student by day and a Devil by night.

"It’s true..." affirmed Vahn, planting a kiss on Rias’s belly that earned him a kick in the nose before he softly appended, "Fortunately for the others, you chose to share me. If you hadn’t, there’s no way I could have avoided dedicating my everything to you and you alone..."

"As romantic as that sounds, I’m fairly certain you would have broken me if it was just the two of us..." hummed Rias, her eyes narrowed and voice sultry as she playfully confided, "Though I can imagine much worse ways to go than pinned beneath you..."

"I was a tad out of hand back then..." admitted Vahn, attempting to exhale a soft chuckle before he was abruptly kicked in the nose for the fifth time. It was a disconcerting thought, but he got the distinct impression that his unborn son had a vendetta against him...

"He becomes more lively with each passing day..." noted Rias, her eyes filled with love as she ceased combing her fingers through Vahn’s hair to caress the left side of her belly.

"I can’t wait to meet him..." affirmed Vahn, adopting a wry smile as he joked, "Let’s just hope he isn’t trying to kick me in the face even as an adult..."

"I’m certain he’ll grow up to be just as handsome and compassionate as you," stated Rias, adopting a wry smile of her own as she added, "Though I could do with him being less popular..."

DONG DONG

"And with that, our time draws to a close..." sighed Rias, shifting her gaze to a nearby grandfather clock before returning it to Vahn, preempting his response by asserting, "You should go spend time with Princesses Carla and Hisui. Mother invited them over for lunch, but they should be free by now."

"Carla did invite me over to her boutique," affirmed Vahn, smoothly rising to a seated position before adding, "But I was thinking about visiting the Vegapunks to discuss what we talked about earlier."

"Ah, yes...the matter of monsters developing self-awareness..." muttered Rias, crossing her left arm under her breasts, touching her chin with her right index finger, and tilting her head thoughtfully. She personally didn’t feel it was a particularly big deal, as humanoid monsters always behaved with a certain degree of cognizance. However, since they weren’t tyrants and the monsters in question were ultimately Vahn’s creations, she could understand his desire to understand and possibly preserve them.

"Well, I’m certain you and the Vegapunks can figure something out. Keep me posted~" concluded Rias, adopting a smile and giving Vahn a peck on the lips. She had enough on her plate with her approaching delivery date and studies. And with the festival right around the corner, she didn’t have time to concern herself with something that could easily be remedied with a failsafe to prevent monsters from lingering indefinitely after their spawn was triggered.

"Without fail..." affirmed Vahn, nodding once and giving Rias’s belly one final caress before getting up to leave. He always felt a pang of regret at such times, but as he only had so much time and many people to spend it with, he ultimately departed after turning to meet Rias’s smiling gaze from his position at the entrance of her room.

"Go," said Rias, her smile broadening as she sonorously appended, "I’ll be here when you return."

"And I will always return..." affirmed Vahn, nodding one final time before departing Rias’s room, closing the door behind him, and lingering outside the entrance. There, it occurred to him that the Vegapunks probably had other matters to attend to, so rather than dropping in on them out of the blue, he teleported to his room, discovering that Koneko and Kuroka had once again made themselves at home. It may have made more sense for him to meet with Carla and Hisui, but after the events of that morning, he found himself in the mood to simply cuddle for a few hours...

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psha psha psha

With each of his steps producing a loud reverberation, Kuma walked calmly through a plateau-ridden biome, carrying with him a large, black, leather-bound book bearing Vahn’s seven-winged crest on the cover. He was an honorary Deacon of the Intertwining Dragon faith, and though the tenets he followed were decidedly different from those of the Sisters, his faith was no less.

rumble rumble rumble

"Dragon God-sama...guide my hand so that these poor souls need not suffer..." muttered Kuma, offering a quick prayer as a group of more than thirty raptor-esque monsters covered in bright plumage came charging at him in a stampede, led by their much larger counterpart. The smaller ones were roughly two meters tall and four in length, including their tails, but the leader of the pack was thrice that size, placing his long beaked head nearly level with Kuma’s.

Ding!

Though he was more than a little surprised to receive a priority message from his daughter—who generally ghosted him—Kuma didn’t hesitate to sweep his paw-padded left hand at the swiftly approaching stampede. A large and fast-moving wave of paw-shaped air pressure tore through the group like a lawnmower before exploding, but since he had other matters to attend, Kuma hardly paid attention to the outcome as he pulled up his Chat interface and found that Bonney wished to meet and maybe have a meal with him. With that, he didn’t even bother collecting his loot before he struck himself in the chest with his Nikyu Nikyu no Mi, making it seem as though he had teleported when in actuality he had sent himself flying at hypersonic speeds in his daughter’s direction...

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The source of this c𝐨ntent is freewe(b)nov𝒆l