"When I said you should invite me for a drink, I didn't expect that it would happen immediately after our match..." mused Merlin, sporting a narrow-eyed smile as she sat across from Vahn atop an ivory-white barstool with a lower back rest. Her purple top, which wasn't connected by fabric at the center, looked like it would slide open at any moment, but it was kept from doing so by a magic spell.
"Someone as informed as you should know, but I've been meeting with everyone to help them spend their Rank Points," explained Vahn, mixing a Negroni using a chilled silver cocktail mixer.
"Oh? So you didn't want to see me? How heartbreaking~" hummed Merlin, leaning forward slightly and resting her cheek on the knuckles of her right hand.
"I'm pretty content with my current lifestyle..." remarked Vahn, emptying the contents of the mixer into a glass and placing it before Merlin, smiling as he added, "Though if you're serious about it, it's not like I would refuse you. Given your talents, I imagine you would make a suitable Head for the Pavilion's Division of Magical Research and Development. Then you could have access to grimoires and texts from countless worlds."
"It seems you're well aware of why I'm called the Boar's Sin of Gluttony..." hummed Merlin, taking a moment to seductively lick her lips and sample her drink before setting it down and asking, "But what can the Pavilion or, more accurately, what can you provide me that I can't acquire on my own in the Tower? Isn't its shop a functionally infinite repository of knowledge and magical items~?"
"It is," confirmed Vahn, nodding affirmingly before adding, "But infinite does not mean it includes everything. And certain items, such as Devil Fruits, have limited quantities available. That restriction doesn't exist for high-ranking affiliates of the Pavilion."
"Hmmn...I would be lying if I said I wasn't tempted..." admitted Merlin, her smile gaining a hint of seductive malice as she revealed, "After all, I once betrayed my own people and nation to acquire knowledge and blessings. Parting with my maidenly virtue would ordinarily be a paltry price for the kind of knowledge you're offering, but as I've preserved mine for the past three millennia, I'm going to require a tad more convincing."
"In what form...?" asked Vahn, curious. He wasn't married to the idea of Merlin joining his harem, but if she were willing, the Pavilion would gain a powerful ally.
"Well, as a general rule, most people divest of their souls in exchange for power..." stated Merlin, tracing her left index finger around the rim of her glass as she added, "You may not be asking me to pay such a price, but I don't imagine you or the Pavilion would be too pleased if I were to depart or betray you at some point. And with the power and means you possess, I wouldn't be able to flee..."
"That's not strictly true, but I understand what you're getting at," affirmed Vahn, catching Merlin's interest. Before she could ask him to explain what he meant, he revealed, "More to the point, anyone who enters the Pavilion or becomes a member of my harem is free to leave whenever they please. I do expect those in my harem to forgo becoming romantically or sexually involved with other men, but if you were ever to find someone you loved, I wouldn't stop you from leaving me to pursue them. Everyone has the right to follow their heart and make decisions for themselves—so long as those decisions do not negatively affect or deprive that right from others."
"Very compelling..." conceded Merlin, rising from her seat before adding, "But, at least for the time being, I have matters to attend in my world that require my full attention. But if it would persuade you to keep the position you offered open, I could leave you with this."
Holding her right hand out to the side, Merlin released what looked like a large amount of grey-brown clay from her palm, tinged in rainbow-hued, predominantly purple energy. Seconds later, a nearly identical version of herself formed from the clay, mirroring her appearance down to the hairs on her head and, most notably, completely naked.
"This is a kind of golem I use for menial tasks that I'm either too busy or don't feel like doing myself..." explained Merlin, revealing, "It's capable of emulating most of my abilities at one-tenth of my power, and so long as it hasn't received fatal damage, it's body, inside and out, is indistinguishable from my own."
Shaking his head, Vahn didn't hesitate to respond, "Like I said, I'm pretty content with my current lifestyle. And as much as it looks like you, it isn't. As such, I have no interest in it."
Seeing Vahn barely glance at her golem, undistracted by its appearance, Merlin's valuation of him increased. It was already fairly high, but as she still harbored hope that her unrequited love would one day bear fruit, she eventually departed the VIP viewing box with an A-Rank Intelligence Skill Crystal to research and possibly replicate...
...
..
.
After seven more matches, six of which had ended with his victory, Vahn finally found himself positioned across from the person who had inspired the Ranking Competition, Erza, fresh off successive wins against Xenovia, Yamato, Natsu, and a shinobi-esque youth with bright blue, notably spiky hair named Black☆Star.
"I know I've said this before, but you look phenomenal in that outfit..." remarked Vahn, referring to Erza's scarlet, gold, and feathery Phoenix Empress Regalia, emitting so much heat he could feel it from more than twenty meters away.
"Oh? Shall I wear it the next time we're alone~?" asked Erza, adopting a smile that had become increasingly alluring with time. At the same time, she held out her hands near her waist, materializing a pair of feathery, phoenix-themed cutlasses that caused the ground around her to liquefy, producing an expanding pool of white-orange, molten stone.
"I'm sure I could scrounge up some fireproof bedding..." hummed Vahn, equipping his Legendary Spear and transforming its head to resemble a fiery guandao glaive.
"I'm looking forward to it...!" exclaimed Erza, kicking up a wave of molten earth as she charged forward, accelerating mid-leap using her fiery Devil wings as afterburners. In total, it took her precisely 0.00291 seconds to span the twenty meters separating their starting positions, but as he had become acclimated to much faster opponents, Vahn found himself waiting patiently for her to reach him and swing the sword in her right hand at his left side.
Sweeping his spear from a low angle near his right foot and brandishing it in a swift, vertically ascending arc, Vahn deflected Erza's initial attack and her spinning follow-up. As her second blade impacted his spear's golden shaft, a thin blade of flames bypassed it and struck his body. However, as he had preemptively converted his body to mimic Ravel's constitution, the blade phased harmlessly through his body but left a deep flaming channel behind him.
Twisting his spear to deflect Erza's sword at the ground, Vahn thought to aim for her chin with his pommel but changed its course mid-spin to strike her right shoulder. The blade on his pommel's end could slice through a typical B-Rank's defenses like a hot knife through butter, but with Erza's S-Rank Phoenix Empress Regalia, the force of his blow was disseminated across her body as a crimson pulse, knocking her slightly off balance but failing to inflict any meaningful damage.
Demonstrating her remarkable combat sense and flexibility, Erza twisted her body mid-stumble, forcing Vahn to step back with two quick vertical slashes before landing on her right foot and lunging forward to assail him with a flurry of unrelenting, full-force blows. Her phoenix-themed swords were also S-Rank, so while Vahn was able to deal with her speed, each of her attacks felt like sledgehammers against the guard of a normal person.
"Helmet Splitter...!" shouted Erza, executing an overhead, downward slash that caused Vahn's feet to sink into and crack the ground as he raised his spear to block it. Immediately after, a secondary impact radiated through his guard, producing a crater more than fifteen meters in diameter and six deep.
"Not bad..." said Vahn, allowing a battle-hungry grin to adorn his face as he met Erza's gaze, her eyes fierce and full of determination, but grinning excitedly as she countered, "I appreciate the compliment! But this hardly qualifies as a warm-up!"
Punctuating her statement, Erza shot several tens of meters into the air in an instant before spreading fiery wings spanning nearly ten meters. Then, with both of her blades raised skyward, she channeled her Phenex flames into a sphere that rapidly expanded to ten, twenty, and even thirty meters in diameter, generating heat on par with the sun's surface.
Wielding it more as a hammer than a projectile, Erza sliced downward at Vahn, causing her artificial star to follow their trajectory and slam into the ground. Even for Vahn, 5,500°C was an oppressive heat, but while he was compelled to close and shield his eyes with his left forearm, he didn't take any substantial damage from the attack. His yukata billowed violently and nearly opened up as the flames swirled around him like the currents of a rain-heavy river, but after several seconds of waiting for them to disperse, Vahn swept his left hand and scattered them with his Domain.
"Meteora...!"
Appearing as soon as Vahn had cleared her flames, Erza, wielding a giant silver hammer whose head was ten meters across with a cross-section of five meters, slammed it down on him. Vahn raised his spear in a defensive posture, but the force transmitted through his body caused the ground to erupt beneath him, creating a rising pillar of dust and debris more than six hundred meters tall and nearly as many across.
Riding the debris into the air and out of its effective range, Vahn couldn't help feeling awe as he saw that the devastation wrought by Erza's attack rippled out as a wave of debris spanning several kilometers. It was like a nuclear bomb had been detonated, but the source was a hammer and an exceptionally beautiful woman.
"As expected, even my most powerful attacks can scarcely faze you..." remarked Erza, exhaling faintly from her nose as she appeared a short distance from Vahn, kept airborne by flaming wings.
"Well, resilience and stamina have always been two of my selling points," quipped Vahn, adopting a cheeky smile and winking.
"Indeed," hummed Erza, brandishing her swords as if she were preparing to perform a spinning attack before charging forward. She knew from the start that it was next to impossible for her to win, but since it wasn't often she got to go all out against Vahn, in particular, she intended to have him accompany her a while longer...
...
..
.
papapapapa
Though there was a chance that someone could challenge him at any moment, Vahn felt compelled to reward Erza's performance during their match by forcefully fucking her from behind as they watched the bouts that followed. The heat, elasticity, and tightness of her pussy were nearly on a level of their own due to her Phenex constitution and Dragon lineage, but Vahn had no trouble moving, his hips smacking loudly against her ass and sending ripples through her entire body.
"This feels better...each time we do it..." panted Erza, doing her best to maintain her composure as she shifted her weight back each time Vahn thrust his hips forward. Her grip on the metal railing caused it to deform, but even if it broke, the tilted glass beyond was even more durable and one-way.
"I aim to please~" hummed Vahn, bucking his hips with enough force to make Erza briefly shift her weight to the tips of her toes before she sat back against him with enough to produce a shockwave that caused the alcohol bottles behind the bar to shatter. As for Vahn, he didn't so much as shift a single millimeter, his eyes flashing and his smile broadening as he picked up his pace, producing several additional shockwaves that laid waste to the interior of the viewing box and caused those with especially keen senses among the spectators to feel a faint vibration...
...
..
.