Life Hunter

Karaskan looked at himself and saw that his injuries were gone. The world around him looked like a "mortal" warzone. It wasn"t like a battlefield created by magic. It was a barren land which had suffered mortar and bombardments.

Cartridges on the ground, smoke rising on the horizon, trenches and sandbags, fire and corpses, and a strangely bright sky. Karaskan observed the landscape with a strange expression and looked in front of him, at the man who looked like a normal human in this chaos.

Arima was sitting there, on few sandbags, smoking in his human form. He was staring at Karaskan with an emotionless face. The G.o.d returned his stare with a smile.

Arima sighed and stood up. He walked up to Karaskan and halted right before him "…First, let me make you understand why you"re gonna die today" Arima spoke and punched Karaskan in the ribs. The latter coughed and held his right side as he took a few steps back.

He realized with that strike that this world was special. Both his and Arima"s physical abilities were not bigger than a normal human. The punch he received was nothing more than an attack made by a human to hurt another.

He was then hit to the jaw, followed by a kick in the ribs again, a knee in the stomach…Each time, he took a hit, fragments of memory entered his head and were anch.o.r.ed there like they were the only one and true memories he should remember.

When he fell down by a single punch to his face, Karaskan laughed and coughed some blood at the same time "I…see" He said while covering his eyes "I understand. That"s indeed awful…"

Arima snorted and sat down again "Since we have time, what was the purpose of those Seeds?"

Karaskan snickered and looked at Arima with oddly serene eyes "You know, I loved this Original Dimension at first"

"Original Dimension?" Arima frowned.

Karaskan chuckled "I"m sure you"ve heard of it by now since you went through a quite peculiar Life Judgment"

Arima raised an eyebrow and Karaskan grinned "The world is bigger than what we can fathom" He said "I was there, with Azes, Chronos, Odin, and Gaia at the birth of this Dimension. We were present along with the other G.o.ds from the different planes. I was a regular and normal G.o.d back then"

The Mad G.o.d told with an unperturbed smile. Arima glared at him silently "I didn"t become the "Mad G.o.d" because I wanted revenge or something. After all, I"m one of the first G.o.ds in this Dimension, for what would I get revenge? I had the highest authority, no one could get me before I get them"

"When was it? That I started to hate this world?" Karaskan straightened his back and looked at Arima with his bloodied face "Oh, don"t misunderstand. I"m quite different from Azes. He"s trying to fix things, I just want them to disappear. For me, this world was too ugly, without even taking the G.o.ds into account"

As he was talking, a skeleton appeared from thin air just next to Arima. The two had the exact same height and "shape". The skeleton"s eyes were burning with a red flame out of anger. Karaskan"s smile became wider when he saw this.

"In any case, you asked me why I created the Seeds of Chaos, right?" He continued "I just gave you my answer. I was still quite young and didn"t know how to face the hate I was feeling for this world. Everything was imperfect, even if darkness and light existed while keeping their balance, I only saw ugliness"

"Both sides were incredibly stupid" Karaskan scorned.

"Bad people? What is that? Just kill them. They"re worth nothing"

"Good people? How silly is that? They only make things worse"

"Pathetic fear wielded by people who don"t understand what it really is. You need despair to make others feel horror"

"n.o.body needs fairness or rules wielded by simpletons. What people want are justice and impartiality"

"Neither of those types of people could do something so simple"

"Whoever decides to become evil needs to understand what it is to be on the dark side of the coin"

"Whoever chooses to be humane needs to know what it is to fight in the light"

"People who kill for a petty reason and others who apprehend rightfully those pitiful criminals don"t understand anything"

Karaskan glanced at both Arima and Malum "I"m sure you know what I"m talking about" He said and Arima showed his agreement without doing anything. Even Malum could only sneer.

"In the end, those despicable ones are worth nothing. Those benevolent ones don"t understand anything. If you asked me what is a perfect world, I would answer like so: "A world where evil and good can respect each other for the very reason that what they"re doing is not pointless… that"s a perfect world""

"Darkness and light will never disappear no matter what. True Heaven is pure nonsense, nothing can be relieved from darkness. True h.e.l.l is rubbish, nothing can be devoid of light" He paused.

"…Arimane, the purpose of my Seeds is not to bring destruction" Karaskan called Arima"s name "Right now, they have all disappeared because Pandora is finally opened, but their original purpose was to find "evil" people to kill, and "good" people to reeducate"

"In your case, my Seed didn"t attack you just because it was fun. That Seed saw in you a true potential to either become a true bringer of light or darkness" Karaskan said and laughed lightly just after.

"No matter what you say, Arimane, you are kind" Karaskan declared "And right now, you"re the good guy while I"m the bad guy" Both Arima and Malum didn"t speak.

"Because of all of that, I created the Seeds to change the world. Then, several thousands of years later, I created the box of Pandora using Hephaestus"s abilities. Pandora will now create a true balance. It was made to spread to the other planes and bring out humans" true nature. Only those nurtured by blood are worth to live in this world" He said and sighed.

"Now, I have said everything you wanted to know. You can do anything you want"

"Tch" Arima clicked his tongue. Malum stayed silent and didn"t move an inch "I don"t have to do anything. The "Final Grace" is already in action. You"re gonna die. No matter if I leave now or even if I die myself. My revenge was accomplished the second you were struck by the Fifth Art" Arima explained and Karaskan frowned.

"You didn"t realize?" Arima swapped the cigarette he had in his mouth by a lollipop and spoke coldly to the Mad G.o.d. He then pointed at Karaskan"s arm.

The latter looked at his right side and widened his eyes when he saw that his hand had vanished. It was the same for his other hand and even his feet. They were slowly disappearing "The moment it gets to your head, you will most likely experience the biggest pain your mind is capable of feeling, continuously, until you die" Arima explained and Karaskan snickered.

His feet had disappeared and he was now like a ghost floating above the ground "I see. Fascinating. The magic you wield is indeed impressive" He said that calmly but he couldn"t help but feel anxious. His body was slowly fading away and now that he knew what would happen once it reached his head, he felt scared for the first time in thousands of years.

"…This place also interacts with my own mental fort.i.tude apparently" He commented when he noticed how weakened his will was "Are you going to stay there?" He then asked.

"Of course, if we don"t witness your end, it would be meaningless" Malum scoffed at him and Arima closed his eyes.

"I see, that"s fair" Karaskan nodded. His neck started to be affected "Let me tell you something before I go"

"Pandora"s "sp.a.w.n settings" work like this; the stronger the c.u.mulated aura at one place is big, the stronger will the Téra be" He said "And yes, those monsters are called Téra. A single one of them is called a Téras"

""Monster" in Greek, huh?" Arima remarked "Quite simple"

"Of course, "monster". That"s exactly what I expect them to be" Karaskan laughed as his neck had almost completely disappeared "And so, right now, the strongest G.o.ds are gathered in h.e.l.l, what do you think will happen with that ma.s.sive power gathered into a single place? Furthermore, their strength will be boosted by the Original Land"

"Once you get out of here. Prepare yourself for a hard battle…!!" Karaskan suddenly closed his mouth and gritted his teeth. In the next second, he was screaming so hard that it was possible to misunderstand it for the last cry of a beast.

He vomited and cried blood as he screamed in pain. If he still had hands, he would be scarring himself right now. It"s not only the physical pain, but his memories were also being probed, altered and deleted. All of it to bring him despair, regret, and fear.

In the end, he was completely broken. His wailing and screech remained audible even after his entire body had vanished. When the voice completely stopped, Arima opened his eyes and snapped his fingers.

The world created by the "Final Grace" started to change. The vestiges of war dissipated and the earth created a huge mound at the place Karaskan died. The same was happening in the outside world.

Just after that, a wooden cross fell from the sky and planted on top of the mound "…You didn"t need to do that for that sc.u.m" Malum spoke up.

"That"s how it works" Arima retorted as he looked at the tomb "The "Final Grace" gives the greatest pain for the criminal to attain repentance, in exchange, it makes sure that he gets an indestructible tomb," He stood up and looked at the cross.

"Because this is forced repentance… Let me tell you, if he had lived after that, he wouldn"t have been able to make the same speech that he did before. Most likely, it would be just endless apologies. That"s how this Art works"

Malum grunted "I know that already" He said and left immediately after. Arima glanced one more time at the tomb then also left the world created by the "Final Grace".

There, in an empty battlefield under a bright sky, rests the grave of the Mad G.o.d.