Life Hunter

"I think the tornado is Arima, for the other…" Lanya said and tilted her head.

"It"s Ifrit" Lilis told them "That power is definitely him. Anyway, why can"t we reach that thing at all, you"re sure it"s in this direction Chulainn?" She then asked.

Both her and Lanya had left with Chulainn when he said that he felt something invading h.e.l.l. Since they knew Arima was going to take some time to finish, they thought that going with him wasn"t a bad idea. But no matter how far they went, they never reached their destination.

"It should be around here" Chulainn frowned and said "Is it some kind of misdirection?" He mumbled to himself and walked around the rocky plain they were in.

Chulainn looked at the ground with his three heads and squinted his eyes. His sigil was glowing but nothing was happening "I can"t control the circuits in this place" He uttered "I"ll try something"

Chulainn inhaled and his belly swelled. He stomped the ground and roared with great strength. Lanya and Lilis covered their ears at the sudden sound. The earth trembled and the dust was pushed back. Chulainn maintained his voice for a minute and some cracks seemed to appear on thin air.

The h.e.l.lhound pushed his lungs a bit more and infused more mana in his voice. The cracks grew in number and then cracked open a hole. Chulainn then stopped his roar and panted a little "Hey! Warn us before you do that!" Lilis snapped at him and smacked the head she was sitting on.

"Look at that" Chulainn ignored her and pointed at the hole in s.p.a.ce. Lanya was already looking at it with a piercing look.

"Huh?" Lilis rolled her eyes to the front and peeked inside the hole. Behind it was a dark temple that stood in the middle of the plain "…What is this?" Lilis uttered while raising her eyebrow. She had a bad feeling when she looked at it.

"No idea"

"Wait!" When Chulainn was about to go inside that hole, Lanya suddenly shouted to stop him. Chulainn and Lilis looked at her with confused expressions. Then they saw her sky-blue eyes glinting like a diamond "This is bad…" She weakly said and her countenance was dark.

"Hey, what"s wrong?" Chulainn probed.

"Leave! Now! We have to call Arima!" Lanya shouted at him instead of answering. Lilis"s eyes widened and Chulainn"s expressions fell. He didn"t know why, but if she insisted like that, it meant it was something really dangerous.

Chulainn immediately turned around and was about to run at full speed but one of his legs was grabbed by an ominous shadow before he could run away.

"I can"t let you go now. I still need a bit of time" An eerie voice resounded "I"m already lucky that neither Ifrit or the Hunter spotted me yet. I won"t let you ruin that"

Lilis and Chulainn"s eyes narrowed. With the exception of Lanya, they both recognized that voice "Karaskan!" Chulainn exclaimed and the Mad G.o.d just laughed.

"s.h.i.t!" Chulainn was about to use his telepathy to contact Arima but his actions were stopped because the hole he created earlier enlarged and "swallowed" him along with Lanya and Lilis before closing. The wind blew and the plain regained its calm.

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Arima failed to sense what was happening with Chulainn since his perception had been perturbed by Karaskan without him noticing.

"Where are Lanya, Chulainn, and Lilis?" Night still asked though.

"I don"t see them anywhere" Karma added.

"That"s odd, I can"t detect them too" Arima muttered and started to doubt but a telepathic connection cut his thoughts.

"{Sorry, Hunter. That guy went through}" It was Ifrit who was standing in front of the place where the golden door was before. Tiatus was laying down just in front of him. Although he was injured, he was still breathing "{Maybe you should have come too. Now, we need to hope that the Heaven Gate will open in time}"

"{No, it"s okay. There"s no problem}" Arima responded casually and Ifrit was surprised.

"{What do you mean?}"

"{I"m going to Heaven now. I"ll catch him}" Arima declared and cut the link. Ifrit blinked with a confused expression.

"Let"s go" Arima stood up from the sofa and looked at the G.o.ds "It"s a deal I suppose. If you are not my enemy. I won"t be yours" He said and the G.o.ds nodded.

Azes chuckled smiled "Oh, yeah. I almost forgot" Arima remembered something and went to Azes. He put his hands on his shoulders and smiled too.

"Eh?" Azes had a bad feeling about this though. And he knew he was right when he was punched and sent flying for a few hundreds of meters "Hey! You were serious that time?!" He shouted as he stood up at the place he crashed.

Zeus snickered and Azes glared at him "Anyway, let"s get rid of that guy. I just stayed here because I needed to get used to this new power" Arima uttered and turned around. His eyes wandered and he seemed to be looking for something.

"Hey, where did Utain die?" Arima strangely asked and the G.o.ds were perplexed.

"There" Gabriel pointed at the place where the Second Destruction Art went wild "But why?"

Arima didn"t answer her question and went to the place she pointed "Mm, so he died because of the berserk state, huh?" Arima commented and snapped his fingers.

A blue light lightened up the area and small wisps of light gathered together to form a small ball. Arima then grabbed it with one hand. He looked at it for second before pressing it against his chest. The blue sphere entered his body and the light disappeared.

"What was that?" Aphrodite was the only one who asked but that"s what everyone was wondering.

"Nothing much" Arima shrugged and looked at the sky with blank eyes "I think you should stop them, seriously" He wryly smiled.

Poseidon and Hades were still fighting up there. Fire and water were still competing together for supremacy "I think they don"t care about this war at all" Arima remarked and Michael actually laughed.

"Don"t worry, they will stop eventually" He waved his hand and said "It may not look like that. But those two are friends since a long time ago. Although they fight every time they meet, they won"t kill each other"

Arima hummed and indeed see that the two were beaming, happy to be fighting "Simple minded people…" He muttered unconsciously and the G.o.ds laughed.

"I will go now" Arima extended his arm and acted like he was going to grab something. From there, Deva revealed itself and the engine roared for everyone to hear.

Arima mounted it and both Karma and Night had a difficult expression "That thing makes me sick" The latter honestly admitted it and Arima chuckled.

"Let"s go" Arima turned the throttle and the wheels produced some steam. When he released the break, he completely disappeared along with his two soul companions.

"That was…" Azes was gaping at what just happened "Was that Origin?" He just asked like that. He wasn"t expecting any answer. And that"s exactly what happened as the G.o.ds just shook their heads to indicate they didn"t know.

Just after, the ground next to them was struck by two b.a.l.l.s of fire and water merged together "Let"s stop them…" Zeus proposed and everyone agreed on that.

******************************************

Arima followed the path to Heaven with Deva and quickly arrived in the middle of a plain with shining verdure. The sky was clear and bright. It was completely different from h.e.l.l"s environment.

"I mean, they"re called h.e.l.l and Heaven respectively. It was kinda expected" Night remarked and while Karma was admiring the view.

Arima dismounted Deva and looked around. Of course, he wasn"t expecting Karez to be around here but he did not really know where he could find him. In the first place, Arima didn"t know where the core is.

And apparently, Karez strangely knew about it "I have no choice" Arima sighed and said. The sigil in his eyes glowed and he started to chant: "[Omnia mihi revelare] (Reveal everything to me)"

"[Non pro mundo et quaerere] (I won"t ask for the world)"

"[Sed non pat.i.tur ut abscondas a me aliquid] (But I won"t allow it to hide anything from me)"

Arima crouched and placed both of his hands on the ground "[Third Red Art, Orbis Terrarum Index] (World Index)" His spirit flowed into the earth and also into the air around him. It spread at a terrific speed and Arima became aware of everything happening thousands of miles away from him.

The imposing magic pressured anyone it would scan. The G.o.ds and angels across Heaven were perplexed and panicked.

Arima ignored their presences and continued to scan everything. As far as he could. When he was already searching for more than five thousand miles away from his position, Arima finally spotted what seemed to be Karez"s aura and stopped his magic since it would just waste his mana.

Arima quickly mounted Deva and went full throttle. The wheels fumed and the engine roared. Arima vanished in the next instant with Karma and Night.

He reappeared in the sky and drove Deva on thin air to drift just in front of Karez who was just standing there, immobile. He seemed to have waited for Arima to arrive when the Third Art swept over him instead of fleeing.

"That"s the first time we meet, huh?" Arima said as he stood in front of Karez.

The latter shook his head with his expressionless face "To be exact, we crossed paths"

Arima smirked when he heard that "Yeah, you used me as a bait" Arima scoffed "Quite frustrating"

Karez just smiled and didn"t answer. Arima frowned "Weren"t you supposed to look for the core?"

"Yes" Karez nodded "I already found it"

"Where is it?" Arima scowled at him.

"You"re standing on it" Karez smirked and pointed to the ground. Arima raised an eyebrow and looked through the soil with his magic.

His eyes widened in shock and then glared at Karez. He saw it. He definitely saw the core. But Arima didn"t expect it to be like that.

The core was giant. Simply, giant. He looked down through the soil and the first thing he saw was a bright white stone that shined like a pearl while releasing the purest mana he ever felt.

But the problem was how big it was "(This freaking thing is even bigger than Earth!)" Arima shouted in his mind.

"You noticed it seems" Karez said and Arima looked back at him "You didn"t need to hurry. Since the moment I arrived here, I had already entered in contact with the core"

"You didn"t destroy it yet though" Night retorted and Karez burst into a mad laugh.

"Who said destroying it was needed?" He sneered and the earth started to shake. A dark aura spread around heaven and covered the ground.

Arima"s pupils contracted and he looked below him one more time. The white core was slowly being corrupted by a black color.

"h.e.l.l"s power…" Arima muttered and clicked his tongue.

Karez laughed at his reaction "It had already begun even before you arrived"

Arima gritted his teeth and chanted "[Genus Daemonium] (Kind Demon)" Night immediately resonated with him. His air turned silver and his bones were modified. His body made cracking noises as he grew bigger.

His skin hardened and became grayish. His wings were deployed and his deep and sharp eyes stared at Karez "That"s indeed scary" Karez nodded as if he wasn"t intimidated a single bit.

Meanwhile, creva.s.ses started to open across Heaven"s surface. The inhabitants started to open the Heaven Gate to call back the high G.o.ds who had left for h.e.l.l. But little did they know that a bigger problem had emerged there.