EPIC: Path of Demons and Dragons
Chapter 284: Bestowal

Chapter 284 - Bestowal

"Hmmm? What the hell...?" remarked a tall and very curvaceous, orange-haired woman in a pale pink, form-fitting bodysuit, a baggy, dark purple jacket, pressurized purple boots that made whoever wore them look like they had hooves, and the words Punk 02 written across her left breast in red. Her hair was short and messy, and a hemispherical earpiece with an antenna covered her left ear, allowing her to communicate with her other selves, Dr. Vegapunk's Satellites.

With little to guard while on security detail, the woman, Lilith, representing Dr. Vegapunk's aspect of evil, had been perusing a technical manual with her feet kicked up and ankles crossed on a semi-circular control console, located a short distance from the training room's ten-meter-tall entrance. She and the other Satellites had restructured the encompassing area into a lab to study the door's properties and conceivably reverse-engineer the tech behind the training rooms. Unfortunately, the door had proven to be completely indestructible and appeared as a void when scanned, resulting in very little progress.

As the doors in question weren't supposed to open for another 1,418 days, Lilith was more than a little surprised to see them opening in the direction of the indestructible white stone stele backing them. However, instead of getting up from where she was seated, she tilted her head and craned her left brow curiously at the large group that emerged through them.

"Oh, my...this is a rather advanced facility..." remarked Venelana, standing cross-armed to Vahn's left, her violet eyes scanning the lab's interior with nearly every other member of his mostly pregnant entourage. To his right, as usual, was Grayfia, and behind them were Misla, Yasaka, Rias, Korra, Koneko, and, as a matter of course, Jack-O, Dizzy, Lupheria, Lastia, Masane, Rihoko, and the other children being raised under the care of the Dragon's Pavilion. One notable addition to the group was Kushina, but she would only be present until she had safely given birth.

"We have the Devil Fruits the Dragon's Pavilion gave us to thank for that," remarked Lilith, setting aside the manual she was reading before kicking off from her terminal and rolling over to Vahn's group with considerable momentum, prompting him to place his hands on her shoulders, arresting it entirely before she could crash into him.

Leaning her head back against Vahn's stomach and staring up at him, Lilith raised her hands and locked them around his waist as she asked, "Will you be joining us for the remaining three years, ten months, sixteen days, eleven hours, and thirty-seven minutes we're in here? If so, I'd like to research your body and blood. I'll make it worth your while."

"I'll consider it," responded Vahn, resisting the almost instinctual urge to stare at Lilith's large and shapely breasts and instead focusing on her sole visible eye, pale purple and glistening slightly as her intraocular heads-up display reflected various observational analysis, such as the dilation of his pupils and his pulse via the micromovements in his neck.

"Just remember that I asked first," said Lilith, pushing off from Vahn and spinning around in her chair to face the group before drawing her feet up in a very unladylike position, resting her elbows on her spread knees, and asking, "Do you guys need a place to stay, or what? Our proprietary Drago Capsules have come pretty far in the past year. The larger ones can store up to 3,300 cubic meters of material."

"We will prepare living arrangements for ourselves," expressed Venelana. "However, I would appreciate accommodations for our guests and the children traveling with us. Later, I would also like a tour of your facilities."

"If you want a guided tour, bug someone else," said Lilith. "If you want to look around or find a lounge to rest in, you can tap a wall panel and tell it where you would like to go. As long as you have the necessary clearance, it will create arrows on the floor to guide you."

"My, that's convenient," remarked Rias, crossing her arms under her milk-heavy breasts and adopting a distinctly devilish smile as she asked, "But what do you mean by, 'as long as we have the necessary clearance?' We will respect people's privacy, but there shouldn't be any facilities we can't access at our pleasure or discretion."

"If you want to set off alarms, destroy our security bots, and cripple our defense systems, go for it," said Lilith, spreading her hands in a dismissive shrugging gesture before crossing her arms in a manner that deliberately emphasized her breasts and cheekily appending, "Thanks to the mountain-sized meteors your Dragon God provided us, we have plenty of materials to engineer even more comprehensive defenses using your combat data."

"Hmn...I can see how you're Dr. Vegapunk's aspect of evil," hummed Rias, smiling appreciatively as she asserted, "You should consider becoming a Devil. You already possess the name of the Mother of all Devils from our world."

"Sure, let's do it right now," responded Lilith, her expression fearless and her eye glistening with scientific curiosity as she asserted, "I'm curious to see if a Satellite like myself can be reincarnated, and I backed up my data not too long ago. Even if things go ass or tits up and this body needs to be scrapped, it will give me a chance to review my research notes without the memory of creating them. Sounds interesting."

Surprised and simultaneously impressed by Lilith's boldness, Rias raised her brows and met the gaze of her mother, the two exchanging telepathic messages before Venelana looked to Vahn, smiled, nodded, and affirmed, "I'm also curious to see if a biomechanical entity representing a seventh of a person's personality can be reincarnated. It would suggest that even lab-created Homunculi and Androids possess at least the framework of a soul."

"If she fails independently, it might be possible by having the original Dr. Vegapunk reincarnate and serve as the Satellite's King," reasoned Grayfia.

"Bzzt. No way~" droned Lilith, forming an X with her arms before lowering them and stating, "I can't hate the old man since we're ultimately cut from the same cloth, but I'll never recognize anyone as my superior, not even a God."

With Lilith meeting his gaze and exuding unshakeable resolution as she spoke, Vahn couldn't help but smile and nod approvingly. Then, though he intended to gift it to Dragon to reinforce his future position as ruler of the One Piece world, he produced a crystalline King Piece from his Inventory, its interior producing rainbow-hued refractions as he explained, "This is a King Piece. It won't reincarnate you as a Devil, but it should enhance what you are. Just keep in mind that anyone you persuade to join your Peerage will reflect that, conceivably inheriting biomechanical traits of their own..."

Though she had anticipated it, Venelana couldn't help closing her eyes and exhaling a faint sigh when she saw Vahn casually produce the King Piece. More accurately, it was a Great King's Piece, a borderline SS-Rank item valued at 100,000,000 OP. Such precious items were supposed to be reserved for World Representatives and those committed to upholding the Pavilion's tenets, but this was the second time Vahn was giving one away on a whim, first to Kazuma and now Lilith.

"Are you seriously suggesting that the members of my hypothetical Peerage could be reincarnated as part machine? Hurry up and give it to me~!" exclaimed Lilith, lowering her feet to the metallic floor, rising with a start, and boldly approaching Vahn with her hands extended and a broad, starry-eyed smile. If he were anyone else, she would have snatched the Great King's Piece from his hands and pummeled him if he protested, but since he could flick her across dimensions, she restrained herself as much as her enthusiasm allowed.

"It goes here," stated Vahn, extending his right hand and the Great King's Piece past Lilith's to insert it into her chest, a few centimeters below her collarbone. Lilith watched as he did this, and instead of asking what he was doing or trying to avoid him, her smile broadened as she reached up to cup and squeeze her breasts together, causing them to graze his hand as she hummed, "Naughty boy..." in a playful, hushed tone.

"On occasion," affirmed Vahn, retracting his hand and reciprocating with a relaxed smile of his own. Lilith's eye glistened opportunistically at this, but before she could offer a retort, her messy orange hair billowed, becoming off-white with a golden tint. At the same time, her purple eye turned deep crimson, reminding many present of the Minks' Sulong and Luffy's Gear 5 transformation, but demonstrably more stable as she didn't have crimson-hued or bright blue lightning erupting from her body.

"I feel...different..." muttered Lilith, touching where Vahn had inserted the Great King's Piece and her lower abdomen, her crimson eye gleaming with fascination as she appended, "I feel whole..." with significant emphasis on the word whole.

"Looks like you possess a perfectly fine soul," affirmed Vahn, plopping his hand on Lilith's head and tousling her surprisingly warm hair as she gazed at him with a mix of awe and barely suppressed intrigue.

[Lilith would like to establish a Telepathic Link]

Seeing the familiar notification, Vahn raised his brows slightly and quickly accepted it. He didn't expect Lilith, of all people, to filter herself in front of others, but there were exceptions to everything.

[What's up?] asked Vahn.

[When you're finished looking around and whatever, come and find me] said Lilith, her expression exuding boundless confidence as she added, [I've been wanting to experience sexual intercourse as a woman for a while, and now I have even more reasons to let you be the one to break me in and possibly wear me out. Also, be wary of York. She also wants a piece of you, but she's insatiable and selfish by nature. If not for her size, she might have slept with every male in this place by now.]

[I'll consider it] affirmed Vahn, tousling Lilith's hair one final time before retracting his hand. Then, interrupting Lilith's response, as his messages always had priority, he added [I don't mind having sex for fun, but I also take relationships seriously. If you're simply curious, I imagine just about any man would be willing to let you proposition them. If you get involved with me, expect to stay involved...]

Before Lilith could respond to his warning, Vahn peered back over his left and then his right shoulder, expressing, "Let's head out. I'm not in a hurry, but I feel guilty having everyone stand and wait on my account."

"Understood," responded Grayfia.

"Very well," appended Venelana.

"I'm curious to see how everyone has changed," remarked Rias.

"As am I," affirmed Misla, nodding.

"I wonder how much Kunou-chan has grown~?" hummed Yasaka.

As everyone offered their respective affirmations, Vahn returned his gaze to Lilith, adopted a faint smile, and offered a slow nod, stating, "Until next time, King Lilith..." in a poised yet playful tone.

"By all means," responded Lilith, stepping aside and gesturing to the exit with her left hand. Telepathically, however, she reiterated [You're free to try and convince me to stay involved with you, but regardless of how that turns out, we will have sexual intercourse. I'm not going to waste my first time on some random man who might not have a clue what they're doing, so when you get a chance, come by and show me what your infamous S-Rank Bedroom Arts can do.]

[I'll consider it] repeated Vahn, raising his left hand without looking back as he and his entourage passed Lilith by. An annoyed frown marred the former Satellite's face, but before she could get too angry, he added [But you can rest assured. If I don't do it with you, there's no way I'll have sex with York. You're not the only one who knows how two-faced she can be.]

Catching Vahn a little off guard, Lilith regained her smile and responded [If nothing else, you should drop by and allow me to cast a mold of your penis. That way, I'll have something to practice with until you inevitably come around—because you will. And when you do, I'll be taking as many genetic samples as you can pump out.]

[We'll see] responded Vahn, shaking his head but smiling as he severed the telepathic link. He would be lying if he said he didn't find Lilth's form very appealing, but since he was almost certain she would sleep with at least one other man to compare his performance, he wasn't in a hurry to participate in her personal exploration and experimentation...

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