Life Hunter

"Yeah" Arima answered with an annoyed expression and cracked his neck "I also hate to admit it, but that other part of me actually saved me" He added.

"What do you mean?" Chulainn asked from the other side of the barrier since it still hadn"t disappeared.

"That final attack, it wasn"t meant to wake him up. That"s obvious. It was an attack meant to destroy my soul. And it was blocked because that thing got in the way" Arima explained "Seriously, who stationed this armor here? The Original G.o.d? Who the h.e.l.l could resist that soul attack normally?" He complained.

"Well, you apparently" Lilis smiled "Maybe it was waiting for someone like you thanks to, you know, fate"

"Fate is bulls.h.i.t" Arima retorted "Fate is an anomaly anyway. Everything is decided the moment you"re born? Of course, it is. The future can"t be changed or anything. You will just live your life how you"re supposed to. And no matter what choices you will make, it will still be what you were meant to do since the moment you were born"

"They just called that fate to somewhat give power to G.o.ds and make humans believe that we are inferiors" Arima ranted and everyone smiled wryly. He wasn"t wrong "It just means one thing, that G.o.d set this up for me. I"m not arrogant. I"m just sure that G.o.d can see the future and me going through this"

"Anyway" Arima walked to the place where the armor had disintegrated and picked up a small object that was lying there. It was a small white disc with a symbol on it.

"G.o.ds sure like white. It hurts my eyes" Arima jested and crushed the disc.

"Eh?" His companions exclaimed "Wait! It"s not because you don"t like white that you should break it!" Lilis shouted and her eyes widened just after "Oh"

When Arima broke the disc, the ruins around start moving in a spiral pattern around the center. Meanwhile, in that same center, a white stone emerged from the ground and raised up the group in the air. At the same time, Arima regained all of his powers and sighed.

After a few seconds, they were all on top of a temple made of white stone "It was meant to be broken" Lanya commented and Lilis glared at her.

"What if I told you I really broke it because it annoyed me?" Arima said and everyone looked at him with dumbfounded eyes "I"m just kidding. It had literally a sign saying to break it. At least G.o.d is straightforward for this" He uttered and jumped to land in front of the temple"s entrance.

"…" Lilis was speechless and so were the others. They all remembered to follow Arima only when he entered the temple.

"So, will that creepy you be a problem?" Chulainn jumped back on Arima"s shoulder and asked.

"Most likely. When he said he would come back, he wasn"t bluffing. Thanks to that annoying armor, he"s seriously awake and will try to get control at any occasion" Arima answered as they were walking in the corridors filled with paintings and beautiful decorations.

"You can"t destroy it?" Lanya asked after he finished.

"Nah, I can"t. Destroying him would mean destroying my soul. Who"s dumb enough to do that?" Arima said and traced the runes on the wall with his fingers "At best, I could try to a.s.similate with him but it"s impossible in my current state. That thing is as strong as me or stronger right now. To fuse with him, I would need him to be cooperative. I"ll let you wonder about the probabilities of that happening"

"So, what"s your plan?" Chulainn inquired and Arima sighed.

"Maybe I"ll take advantage of the Life Judgment. I don"t really know how that thing works, but let"s think like this; I will a.s.similate with parallel versions of me, but what if that other part of me can do that too? In that case, I would just need to integrate with more parallel versions then him and then I"ll be strong enough to do the same with him" Arima declared.

"But there"s the other case where I will just need to profit of that "a.s.similation" to take care of him" He added and shrugged "I hope it will be the latter"

"I see…" Chulainn nodded and fell silent.

"So, you have to fight with yourself basically. But isn"t that thing also a part of your soul? How can it be that hard to control? Can"t you just, I don"t know, accept its existence and fuse peacefully with it?" Lilis questioned since she was still a bit confused.

Arima laughed lightly at her question "I think there"s one thing you don"t understand" He said "I perfectly accept his existence. I have that darkness in me, I"m not trying to flee it or anything. It"s not because I rejected him that he was able to get his own ego"

"Everyone has a part of darkness. Mine is just bigger than most people. When I arrived in this world, he just mutated into a sentient being thanks to magic. Just that it was "asleep" at that time" Arima clarified "When I arrived in h.e.l.l, to be honest, I was scared that he would wake up completely but luckily, he just went back to slumber"

"But now, that d.a.m.n empty armor woke him up" Arima shook his head "Well, let"s just think of that as an opportunity to get stronger. It should be if I take care of the issue without messing up" He affirmed and stopped walking.

"With that said, I think we arrived at the place where our objective is" He said and pointed at a huge white cube floating in the middle of a hall they had just entered in.

"That"s Origin?" Night frowned.

"I think it is" Arima answered and smiled. He went toward the white cube and stopped just below.

"So, what do we do now?" Chulainn asked and Arima scowled at him.

"That"s what I should be asking you" He said, and the h.e.l.lhound covered his ears with his paws.

"I told you. I don"t know anything about this thing" He responded and Arima sighed.

"Let"s try to touch it then. If anyone has a better idea, you can say it" Arima declared and jumped lightly to reach the cube. He stopped just next to it and extended his hand to touch it.

When his hand interacted with the cube, the latter shrunk immediately, and its size went from twenty meters large to ten centimeters. Arima blinked and silently grabbed the cube. He observed it and then juggled with it for a bit "Will you stop playing with an artifact created by the Original G.o.d himself?" Chulainn rebuked and Arima smiled as he returned to his group.

"That"s it?" Karma tiled her head and asked.

"Well, apparently" Arima answered while showing the cube to everyone "Of course if you ignore the fact that I could have died because of that armor and being overtaken by an evil counterpart. Yes. That"s it"

Karma pursed her lips and laughed awkwardly "Seriously though. Can you use it?" Lanya asked in curiosity as she stared at the cube.

Arima shrugged "I have no idea" He casually responded, and everyone stopped talking.

"…I remembered something, try giving it a name" Chulainn interrupted this silence and Arima looked at him in surprise "It"s just a story I heard. "Origin" is just a name used to designate it and to actually appropriate it, you need to give it a name" Chulainn explained "If it"s true, Origin will reveal itself to you if it accepts you and the name it was given"

"Mm" Arima mused as he observed the cube. He threw it in the air and nodded when he caught it back "You will be called Deva then" He stated, and the cube started shaking as it left his hands.

The white cube became a ray of light that went through Arima"s body and then began transforming into something else just after. It became bigger and then landed on the ground with the sound of thunder.

When Arima saw what it was, he snickered. Origin accepted his new name and immediately connected itself to Arima"s soul. The latter now knew that Deva would take the form most suited for his owner. He felt amused at the form Deva had chosen.

It was an imposing motorcycle with four wheels. On each side of the bike, there was a transparent crystal-like material that allowed to see the inside. There were mysterious mechanisms and energies in there. Lightning would occasionally appear inside of it too.

Arima smirked and promptly rode it. The bike made a roaring sound as if to welcome its owner. The mechanisms all started moving, some gears started spinning and some pumps began to move. There were some lines across the entire bike which looked like circuits and were circulating a sort of white energy in them.

When Arima used the throttle, not only thunder resounded, the wheels also released white steam. Everyone admired the power and magic contained in that vehicle.

"Well, let"s see how well this thing can do. From what I understand, I should be able to bring you with me" Arima said and released the brake. When he did so, his group felt a breeze going past them and the next instant, their sight completely twisted. They felt like the world around them had blasted and that they were sliding down a slope really quickly.

The next thing they heard was the sound of the bike slowly calming down and water splashing. They opened their eyes instantly and saw h.e.l.l"s sky above them and the red sea around.

Arima was casually looking at them with a smile while his bike was perfectly stable on top of the water with some sparks coming out time to time. Everyone looked at him with strange expressions. They had no words to explain what just happened to them.

"You shouldn"t daydream now. Something bad is coming" Arima said and looked up, in the direction of the land. His companions also looked at the same place.

After a few seconds, they spotted a small dot on the horizon. When they realized it was someone, it was already too late. That person reached them in less than second and raised the water all around them.

Arima stared at the figure who was now hovering in mid-air in front of them. Deva didn"t even move when the water was pushed back. It wasn"t actually on the water anyway, Deva could simply circulate on anything as if it was on something invisible.

"Let me be sure. Are you a Life Hunter?" Utain, who had just arrived, immediately asked.

Arima frowned and also everyone else was shocked at his question. It wasn"t something people would ask these days since Life Hunters were supposed to be extinct and forgotten by most people. And they all knew that this man was one of the prisoners of the purgatory thanks to Chulainn. And the way he asked proved that he wasn"t told by anyone about it.

"I am, why?" Arima answered.

Utain didn"t answer and squinted his eyes "What"s your name?" He ignored Arima"s question and responded with another.

Arima"s expression twitched "…Arimane Blade" He was quite displeased, but he only answered because he knew that Utain was definitely stronger than him and the only one who could maybe face him was Chulainn.

"Arimane…I heard that name before. Where was it?" Utain muttered and focused on Arima "Your father? Who was it?"

"What?" Arima was perplexed "I don"t know who my father is" He answered the truth.

"What about your full name?" Utain asked something else and Arima was starting to be annoyed.

"I don"t know what you"re talking about" He answered.

"You don"t know?" It was the beast-man"s turn to be confused "You didn"t go through the Life Judgment?" His face showed a hint of shock "Are you telling me the death aura around you, the different mana cores and even the silver mark, are something you got before your Judgment?" He couldn"t believe it "I thought you just had failed to enter the Heavenly Realm…" He muttered.

A vein popped up on Arima"s forehead "Hey, will you stop being condescending toward me. Let me tell you I don"t answer gently to that"

Utain snorted and sent daggers at Arima "Sorry kid, you will die today. If I"m not wrong, your full name should be Arimane Reigen Blade" He declared and Arima was now sure that this guy knew something about his own race "I swore to destroy the Reigen clan. No matter if you"re the last of your race or completely unaware of the circ.u.mstances, I can"t let you live"

Utain clenched his fists and just that small action made the water burst, the sky to clear and the earth to shake. His aura also materialized just after to pressure Arima and his group.