Chapter 374: Acceptance
[January 12th DxD/September 4th DBT]
kacha
Hearing the sound of his study’s door open and sensing who had arrived, Vahn, seated on one of the two sofas present, specifically the one facing away from the entrance, casually inquired, "Did you enjoy your tour of my palace and its facilities?"
"Yeah, sure. But we didn’t come here to see you showing off your wealth," responded one of Vahn’s two guests, David, making his way around to the sofa opposite Vahn with his girlfriend, Lucy.
"It was to put things into perspective," said Vahn, taking a sip from his tea before meeting David’s gaze and asking, "Now, why did you come here? It wasn’t long ago that you had a gun to my forehead, stubbornly refusing to so much as hear me out."
Before the frowning David could say or do anything to defend his actions, Lucy placed her right hand on his left knee, her pale, red-lilac eyes fixed on Vahn as she calmly explained, "David and I have our reasons for being wary of those in positions of power and authority. Now that we know for a fact that you’re a God, we want to work alongside the Dragon’s Pavilion to complete its objectives..."
"Or..." started Vahn, alternating between the duo’s gaze as he stated, "You can follow through on your original decision. The two of you have suffered greatly and deserve the opportunity to live peacefully. There’s no need to force yourselves to fight for a cause you aren’t committed to. If you would rather stay in this world or take up residence in another, far removed from conflicts and corporate interests, that can be arranged."
"Can we do that...?" asked Lucy, her expression tinged with disbelief and a bead of sweat forming on the left side of her face.
"Lucy...this is our chance to really be someone. Are we really going to run away...?" asked David, his voice low and his expression somewhat anxious as he placed his cybernetic left hand atop Lucy’s right.
"Right..." muttered Lucy, leaning into David’s left shoulder and closing her eyes for a moment before raising her gaze to meet Vahn’s and asking, "If we choose to work for the Dragon’s Pavilion, what kind of assurances can you provide?"
"You wouldn’t be working for us as much as yourselves," stated Vahn. "As for the benefits you’ll receive under our purview, the main advantages are that you’ll be able to access the lower three Floors of my palace, allowing you to trade with people across the multiverse. A little more pertinently, if you lose your life while contracted to us, you will be resurrected in a place called the Tower of Ascension. In essence, you’ll receive a second chance at life but be unable to return to your original world due to your fate being severed upon death."
Blinking in surprise, Lucy asked, "You can grant people second chances at life? Can you also revive them...?"
"It’s possible," confirmed Vahn, nodding. "But if too much time has passed or the person’s death is a vital part of the history of a world, it’s best to let them rest in peace."
"Wait...does that mean you could..." started David, his words trailing off as he was afraid to finish his question and be denied.
"Resurrect your mother...?" completed Vahn, preempting David’s response by affirming, "It’s possible. But since her fate had ended at the time of her death, she would need to be resurrected in the Tower. You would be able to meet and interact with her, but she could never leave."
"What do you need me to do?" asked David, his expression turning more serious than it had ever been.
Producing a sizeable syringe of bright blue, audibly humming liquid in his right hand, Vahn explained, "I want you to surrender your cybernetics and inject these—Gear Cells. They will—"
"I’ll do it," said David, his expression and tone filled with conviction as he added, "I don’t care about the side effects. If you can resurrect my mom, I’ll give my everything to fight for the Dragon’s Pavilion."
"David..." muttered Lucy, her distinct opaline eyes tinged with a multitude of complex emotions.
"I understand your concerns, but he’ll be okay," assured Vahn, drawing Lucy’s gaze and smiling as he revealed, "In fact, I was hoping you would both undergo the procedure. Bar a few outliers, Gears are very near the pinnacle of biomechanical organisms. From your perspective, they would effectively be techno vampires, granting you longevity, power, speed, and the ability to interface with machines but without a weakness to sunlight."
"Wait, leave Lucy out of this," said David, his expression setting in a deep frown as he argued, "She’s stronger, but she’s not a fighter like me. If the Pavilion needs an obedient dog to follow its orders, you can leash me up. Just leave her and my mom out of your plans."
"You need to accept that people are free to choose their own path in life, David..." expressed Vahn, shaking his head and exhaling from his nose as he added, "More to the point, I don’t require obedience, much less people becoming my dogs. I’m not asking you to set aside your humanity—I want you to embrace it to emancipate your world and set an example for others to follow."
Shaking his head a second time, Vahn added, "Also, mothers are regarded as sacred according to the Pavilion’s precepts. The last thing I desire is to have your mother shedding tears and appealing to me to free you from my employ. I understand why you believe as you do, but you need to get out of the self-aggrandizing and toxic mentality that everyone is trying to use or take advantage of you because you’re special. Here in the Pavilion, we advocate that everyone has the capacity to be special, David. Where you end up in life is a result of the decisions you make and your willingness to push forward when others would have stopped."
"Yeah, and I want to believe that..." said David, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees, his fingertips pressed together, and his gaze fixed on Vahn as he claimed, "But I only trust what I’ve seen and experienced in retro. I’m not saying that you’re untrustworthy—I don’t trust anyone in a position I didn’t see them earn..."
"Then let’s skip the explanations and take action," suggested Vahn, his expression hardening slightly as he asked, "Are you ready to surrender your cybernetics and become human again?"
"Let’s do it," responded David, offering a curt nod and holding Vahn’s gaze without a hint of fear or hesitation. At that exact moment, luminous golden vapor erupted from his body, compelling Lucy to flinch and shield her face before realizing the light wasn’t dangerous. Instead, it felt comforting, her eyes full of intrigue as she tentatively lowered her arm to get a glimpse of David, now markedly shorter and significantly less muscular.
"What the—that’s seriously all it took...?" asked David, staring down at his now flesh-and-bone hands in disbelief. He had steeled himself to undergo a painful surgery, but it didn’t even take Vahn a wave of his hand to return his body to its pre-cybernetic state.
"What about you, Lucyna?" asked Vahn, causing the white-haired woman to startle slightly as he asked, "Will you walk this path alongside David, or will you support him another way?"
"I..." started Lucy, lowering her gaze and reaching up to touch the deep-dive port at the base of her skull with her left hand. She had dreamed of becoming fully organic again, but she had lived nearly her entire life as a Cyberrunner. Without that capability, she wasn’t sure how she would live, much less support David.
"You don’t need to do this, Luce..." said David, using his now organic left hand to squeeze Lucy’s right. The latter couldn’t help noticing that it felt much softer and warmer than before, prompting her to smile, bump David with her shoulder, and mutter, "We’re in this together..."
Now filled with conviction, Lucy met Vahn’s gaze, gave an affirming nod, and said, "I’m ready," with her expression and tone full of resolution. As a consequence, her body was veiled in even more golden light than David’s, the result of her having been modified from a very early age. Fortunately for the two lovebirds, she didn’t emerge from the process as a child. She was, however, noticeably less shapely, her body slender and petite since a lot of her curves were the result of biosculpting...
"So this is the real you, huh? You’re beautiful, Luce..." muttered David, adopting a broad, supportive smile. He would be lying if he said he didn’t prefer his and Lucy’s previous, markedly more mature appearances. Still, there was something comforting about knowing he no longer had to front and that they were starting over at the same point.
"And you’re finally looking like the boy I fell in love with instead of a half-machine gorilla..." teased Lucy, holding David’s gaze with an affectionate, loving smile. She couldn’t help feeling as though something was missing without her cybernetics, particularly her deep-dive port. However, seeing David’s unforced, innocent smile, Lucy believed she had made the correct decision...
Feeling that the rejuvenated couple would benefit from some privacy, Vahn rose to his feet, compelling David and Lucy to turn and stare as he made a swiping gesture with his right hand and stated, "Let’s wrap here for now. I’ve transferred some TP, Tower Points, to each of your accounts. Head back to the First Floor and take some time to get reacclimated with your organic bodies. I’ll send someone to retrieve you tomorrow morning or afternoon."
"Hey, wait—" started David, but before he could finish speaking, Vahn’s body dissolved into pale golden flower petals. He knew what the young man wanted to ask, but he had other matters to attend to and had grown weary of dealing with his standoffishness...
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Even before he had terminated his conversation with David and Lucy, another Vahn had received the ashes of the former’s mother. There were other ashes mixed in, but after filtering them, he used a truly miraculous machine developed by the Nedians of the Star Ocean universe to restore David’s mother’s body from a piece of thigh bone. Transplanting her spirit was more difficult, but it was nothing Sis couldn’t handle.
psssh
As the glowing green liquid she had been suspended in drained away, Gloria Martinez, a beautiful, half-Hispanic woman with prominent red hair, red-brown eyes, and a full figure emphasized by her immaculate health, roused within the circular base of the cylindrical container she was in. For several seconds, she simply stared off into space with a blank look on her face, her mind seemingly devoid of thought. But as Vahn approached and the crystalline glass containing her retracted into the ceiling and floor, her eyes reacted to his presence.
"Gloria Martinez...welcome back to the world of the living..." said Vahn, offering his most reassuring smile as he covered the naked woman’s body with a warm and thick off-white bathrobe.
Just as Vahn was beginning to wonder if the transpiritation had been a failure, Gloria’s brows creased slightly, followed by her rising to a seated position without concern for her modest but shapely breasts being on full display as she asked, "Who are you? And what do you mean by ’welcome back to the world of the living?’ What do you want from me?"
"I will explain everything in detail..." reassured Vahn, maintaining his smile as he grabbed the bathrobe and pulled it up and closed it around Gloria’s shoulders. He certainly didn’t mind the sight, but while he felt that David could benefit from the presence of a father figure in his life, he wasn’t in a hurry to fill the role...
Fortunately for Vahn, while it was clear David had inherited his stubborn nature from his mother, Gloria was considerably more mature and open to discussion. She was initially skeptical of everything he said, but when he showed her that David was not only alive but happily spending time with a girl, she became a lot more receptive...
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