[August 8th DxD/April 1st DBT]
"It's getting close to ten years..." muttered Vahn, his eyes narrowing as he checked the time of an ornate pocket watch whose time was linked to the Training Room. Every second that passed was six minutes inside, and tiny, gold-trimmed ports displayed the number of years, months, and days that had passed.
"Could something have gone wrong?" asked Eva, approaching Vahn, who was standing at a floor-to-ceiling window overlooking the sea surrounding Oma Island, from behind. They were in the penthouse suite of the capsule mansion he had placed near the beach, so she was wearing a transparent white babydoll negligee, cotton panties that had small pink ribbons on the front and sides, white stockings that left her toes and heels exposed, and full-length fingerless gloves.
With Sis reassuring him that everything was okay, Vahn waited for Eva to wrap her arms around him, her fingers stroking his chest and abs, and her lips lingering on his right shoulder before he answered, "Grougaloragran is just being thorough. Nox was previously able to injure him, so he wants to ensure Yugo and Adamai are prepared to deal with his Time Magic before they attempt to recover the Eliacube..."
"Mmn...I see..." muttered Eva, continuing to pepper Vahn's shoulder with kisses before surprising him by asking, "And, just to be clear...you could bring the Eliacube whenever you want, right? Like how you were able to pull funds from the Sadida Kingdom's treasury when we went shopping?"
"I could have also reunited Yugo with his family from the very beginning of his journey..." confirmed Vahn. "But, even if it has been troublesome at times, I'm certain you've gotten at least something out of this journey. It's such experiences that give life meaning..."
"Right...you've repeated from the beginning that you want to empower us to be able to solve our own problems..." reminisced Eva, closing her arms around Vahn and holding him tightly with her eyes closed. The room they were in was cold, but even if they were in the middle of a desert, she was certain she could find comfort in his warmth.
"Not that I mind you relying on me..." hummed Vahn, closing his eyes and leaning his head back with a faint smile. He felt that his time in the World of Twelve had been better spent than most of the worlds he had traveled. And while he had intervened a little more than he should have, he felt the role of a mentor and sponsor suited him—even if it made him feel a lot like a Devil.
'Not that that's a bad thing...' Vahn mused. After all, nearly half his harem and many of his children were Pureblooded Devils. If not for the negative connotation typically associated with the world, he might have embraced the moniker of Devil Dragon God when introducing himself...
vrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrm
"Hmmm? Do you feel that vibration...?" asked Eva, loosening her hold on Vahn but keeping her arms around him as she began looking around the spacious interior of the suite they were in.
"Indeed, I do..." affirmed Vahn, closing his eyes and spreading his Domain and senses to encompass the entirety of Oma Island. He had presumed it was secure with Grougaloragran restoring the invisibility barrier that kept it hidden, but he was evidently mistaken, as there were 147 of the horned humanoid monsters called Grambos on the far side of the island. At fewer than a hundred centimeters tall on average, they weren't especially scary or powerful, but they were exceptional builders...
"We've got company..." stated Vahn, his expression turning thoughtful as he revealed, "Nox's Grambos managed to construct a teleportation array on the far side of the island. A massive, six-legged clock is forcing its way through as we speak."
"Should I be worried...?" asked Eva, her body temperature rising and faint perspiration appearing on her skin.
"It's fine. Even if it only took him half a minute to reach here, that's three hours in the Training Room. I've sent a message to Yugo's group, so they should be returning shortly," explained Vahn.
"Then, shouldn't we get ready to support them...?" asked Eva, releasing Vahn fully and peeling away the layers of her sexy lingerie as she made her way over to a wardrobe. Vahn turned to follow her with his gaze, and though her slender waist, round ass, and toned thighs imbued him with a sense of temptation, he smiled, returned his gaze to the sea, and donned his black, grey, and gold-emblemed yukata and golden accessories—just in case he needed to intervene...
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"Go forth, my Grambos and Noxines! Find where the Dragons are hiding and deprive them of their Wakfu...!" commanded Nox, striking a pose as he hovered in the air, his grey, bandage-wrapped body further geared in bulky, clock-themed armor that amplified his Time Magic.
In response to Nox's command, a swarm of thousands of tiny, insect-like machines with bulbous butts and a singular eye reminiscent of a camera lens with a shutter spread out like a wave of locusts. Each tree and plant they landed on rapidly withered to lifeless husks as their hooked stingers absorbed every last drop of Wakfu from within them and the surrounding soil through their roots. And along the ground, a small army of humanoids with stubby grey bodies, elongated and powerful arms suited to mining and construction, and large metallic horns protruding from the sides of their heads marched forward, their heads garbed in white or blue cloaks that obscured their faces in shadow. Rather, their faces and the interiors of their bodies were shadows—with their eyes and mouths manifesting as ghostly white flames.
"At long last, my dream of the past two hundred years is finally coming to fruition. The only question is—what action will the Dragon God take? Will he oppose me as he did before, or will he observe? Either way, I'm ready for him this time!" hissed Nox, the upper shutters of his glowing, lens-like eyes angling to match his anger.
pshheewwwwBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOM
Interrupting Nox's manic imaginings, a thin yellow beam streaked across the sky before detonating within the swarm of Noxines, triggering a chain reaction of explosions. At the same time, massive vines erupted from the ground around the mechanical legs of his clock, their coiling producing a deep groan as the metal creaked under the pressure.
"Ha! So the little Sadida Princess and her Cra protector are first up, are they?" barked Nox, his eyes focusing on the image of Amalia and Eva on top of the massive rock formation serving as the island's centerpiece and the concealment of Grougaloragran's temple and home.
Seeing Vahn standing calmly behind the duo, their gazes meeting, Nox's body tensed involuntarily. For a fleeting moment, he seriously considered withdrawing there and then, but if he wanted to reclaim all he had lost, he had no choice but to oppose even the Gods themselves.
pshheewwwwpshheewwwwpshheewwww
As Eva unleashed a quick volley of golden, light-formed arrows aimed at his face, chest, and left shoulder, Nox's body flicked out of existence like a glitch within a video playback before reappearing a few tens of meters to the trio's left. On his back was a large mechanical backpack, and as the hourglass contained within, filled with a menacing amethyst liquid, turned upside down, he unleashed two beams of spiraling amethyst energy from his palms...
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'Hmmm...that could be trouble...' thought Vahn, observing Nox's beams approaching in slow motion. They were formed from energy that was the polar opposite of Wakfu, colloquially called Stasis. In essence, the former was the energy of creation while the latter was the energy of destruction. It cannibalized Wakfu, so even if they had become much stronger thanks to their equipment and the time they had spent with him, Amalia and Eva would be seriously injured or disintegrated if the beams struck them.
As he obviously couldn't allow members of his harem to be erased, Vahn extended his left hand far faster than Amalia could hastily erect her shield of vines. The result was a golden portal that swallowed the Stasis-imbued beams and redirected them into a dimension of pure, nebulous Stasis.
"Nice...!" chimed Amalia, her expression lighting up with a toothy, gratified smile as Vahn's actions were proof that he wouldn't allow harm to come to her or Eva. As a result, she shifted her focus entirely to offense, producing a hydra of massive, man-eating plants that spat concentrated streams of glowing green acid the moment Nox's attack concluded and the villainous Xelor came into view.
Following Amalia's example but taking a different approach, Eva began to dash sideways through the air, her steps creating bluish-green ripples as she unleashed upwards of four light-formed arrows a second to force Nox to teleport to safety.
"I see the two of you have improved since our last meeting..." remarked Nox, his mechanical eyes narrowing as the various pieces of equipment adorning Amalia's and Eva's bodies highlighted in his vision. Then, as he teleported to evade a particularly swift arrow, which promptly exploded where he had been standing, he directed a withering stare at Vahn and remarked, "I was under the impression it wasn't your place to interfere in this world, Dragon God..."
"Your impression is correct..." responded Vahn, a faint smile adorning his lips as he gave the standing Amalia's butt a light smack, causing her eyes to widen and her cheeks to flush as he reasoned, "But these are fiancées you're attacking. And, you know what they say about Dragons. We're very protective of our treasures..."
"Ha! Then I suppose I have no choice but to eliminate you alongside them...!" shouted Nox, using the ports on his hands to dodge out of the way of Eva's arrow and move at high speed toward her. To his surprise, the courageous Cra stood her ground, or, more accurately, took a knee mid-air, reacting to his charge by taking aim and channeling energy into an especially powerful arrow.
"Web shot...!" shouted Eva, loosing the arrow. As she did, it spread like a spider's web of golden light, encompassing an area nearly twenty meters across.
Narrowing his eyes in contempt, Nox prepared to teleport out of the way only to realize at the last moment that he couldn't. Vahn had, once again, locked down the surrounding space, making it nearly impossible to tunnel or teleport through without an absurd amount of force or energy.
Unable to teleport, Nox was blown backward and promptly ensnared in Eva's web. It was only for a brief moment, as the armor he was wearing imbued him with more than enough strength to free himself, but midway through the attempt, Eva abruptly appeared on top of him, standing atop the mechanical gauntlet covering his right forearm with a charged arrow aimed down, directly at his face.
"Piercing arrow..." Eva muttered decisively, her green eyes sharpening as she released her hold on the light-formed arrow's fletching. For a brief but lingering moment, Nox perceived the world in slow motion without the use of his Time Magic. He still had many, many cards he had yet to play, so he couldn't believe he was moments away from being bested by a famously lazy Sadida Princess and her Cra protector...
As Eva's arrow pierced and fragmented his mask in slow motion, Nox's many regrets surged forward like a tiny stream shattering a massive dam. Along with it, decades' worth of stored Wakfu erupted from his body and reacted with the Stasis in his backpack to form a sphere of greenish-blue and sickly amethyst destruction that spread to encompass an area nearly seven hundred meters in diameter.
'Mmn...that could have been bad...' thought Vahn, reappearing far from the explosion's epicenter with a wide-eyed Amalia and Eva tucked under his arms. He had less time than it would have taken to blink to get both women to safety, but as that same amount of time translated to multiple seconds from his enhanced perspective, he managed to pull it off without a hitch. The question then became, how the heck did he explain to Yugo's group that the person they had spent the past ten years training to defeat had self-destructed...?
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