Life Hunter

When she was about a thousand meters away from the "abyss", she could already see it clearly. She was shocked by the damage Arima had done but still continued forward among the chaos that h.e.l.l was going through at the moment.

It went far beyond some earthquakes or eruptions at that point. Fissures on the s.p.a.ce-Time started to open randomly. Anything touching them would be cut into pieces or reduced to simple dust. Even the air was being aspired like a vacuum.

Layla was using the same kind of magic as the "Lightning Serpent" and was traveling quickly in the form of a small dragon made of light. But when she reached the "abyss" her body instinctively froze and she ended up landing just in front of it.

Even as she concentrated all of her willpower, she wasn"t able to move more than that. Her instincts were telling her to get away from that hole.

She bit her lip and returned to her full draconic appearance. As she was about to force her way against her own mind, she stopped unconsciously because of a strange feeling she got.

This time, it was pure fear. Her face was slightly pale. She detected a wicked presence coming in her direction. Before she could jump back, two red eyes flashed for second in front of her and then something appeared behind her.

Layla recognized the figure shadowing her and exclaimed in surprise. But she still felt like she shouldn"t turn back. The presence behind her was jolting her survival instinct.

"Oh, you"re Layla" Then she heard an eerie voice p.r.o.nouncing her name. It sounded as if he had noticed something and then the pressure suffocating her vanished. When she was finally able to look back, her eyes widened as she saw the black dragon with his silver mane glowing.

The grin on his mouth and the mad l.u.s.ter in his eyes made Layla gasp "Sorry, this body is quite exhausted right now. So I had to sacrifice a bit of my spirit to move it. Didn"t recognize you until now. Thought you were a Téras survivor" The dragon spoke while grinning.

Layla shuddered but then stared at the dragon"s eyes with a sharp and deadly look "Who are you?"

The dragon blankly looked at her for a moment and then laughed "Oh, you"re right. You don"t know me" He said "You can call me Malum. Your charming prince called me like so" He joked and Layla frowned.

"{Stop messing around, we need to go}" Night"s voice resounded in Malum"s head.

The latter clicked his tongue "I know, I know…you"re no fun" Malum turned to look in the distance and the sigil on his chest glowed.

Just after, the sound of an engine was heard and Deva arrived and drifted just in front of them to stop "We need to go" Malum glanced at Layla and declared.

Deva"s engine weakly activated and the bike made a circle around Malum. Like it was probing the new body of its owner. Malum smirked and didn"t say anything. The bike made several turns before it started to change shape.

It glowed with a blue light and its size soon surpa.s.sed even Malum"s. It seemed to be taking the shape of a living being. It grew two pairs of giant wings and a long body like a snake. Two pairs of horns appeared in the head of the silhouette.

Then, it was the hair"s turn to grow along with what looked like feathers. Its head and mouth seemed to be quite threatening too.

"Wow" When the change ended and the light was gone, Layla exclaimed and even Malum was quite stunned.

At first glance, it looked like a three hundred-meters long sky dragon but if you looked more closely, you would some big differences.

First of all, the entire creature was covered by a soft white fur and there were even some black lines on it giving a certain appeal. The wings were not made of bones and a net, like dragons but it was made of feathers instead.

The head of the magnificent beast had four horns on its forehead and had more white hair to cover it. Its face looked like a dragon"s but the muzzle and fangs were shorter. Its eyes were glowing with a calm and composed l.u.s.ter.

The beautiful creature, which looked like the progenitor of all angels, looked at Malum with its white and green eyes.

"I see. So, that"s your original appearance" Malum snickered and flapped his wings. He immediately flew up and landed on Deva before sitting down. Layla was dazed for a moment but when she noticed Deva was glaring at her, she immediately imitated Malum.

When she landed on the huge creature, Layla was pleasantly surprised by the comfort brought by the fur. At the same time, Deva started moving and no wind was produced as she soared in the sky.

"It should be good now" Malum suddenly spoke and closed his eyes. The next instant, the huge dragon seemed to be asleep.

"{Hey! Don"t leave now…}" Night shouted but groaned just after "{Karma, you can get out now…make sure Arima doesn"t fall off Deva along with Layla}"

"{Sure}" Karma got out of Arima"s soul and returned to her human form, next to the dragon. She chanted a magic and seemed to have stabilized Arima"s body. She then looked at Layla and smiled.

She went to her and sat down. Layla tilted her head and also sat down after she released her dragon form "So you are both Lanya and Lilis now?" Karma asked first and Layla sighed as she realized what Karma was thinking.

"Yes. I am" She responded and smiled "But there"s no problem. I"m quite happy this way. Although I can"t say that I still am either Lanya or Lilis, I know that I"m born from their fusion and that I am a purely different person"

Layla explained and smiled calmly as she looked at Karma in the eyes "So you don"t have to worry the least about that. In fact, I would just wish you consider me as I am. I"m not Lanya or Lilis but just Layla"

Karma"s eyes widened. She blinked with a cute face and chuckled. Night was also listening and although he could talk to them through telepathy, he just stayed silent.

"I understand" Karma nodded "Nice to meet you, Layla" She beamed and gave out her hand.

"Me too" Layla smiled wryly and shook hands with Karma. Night, who was listening, smiled internally.

The group was then attracted by something else. Deva opened her mouth and let out a small roar. But even if it was weak for her, it sounded extremely loud and powerful that you could almost feel some physical pressure.

"{It seems like she is warning us. We"ll move out soon}" Night contacted the two girls and said. They nodded and sat down beside the sleeping Arima.

"You said "she" though. Night, is Deva a female?" Layla asked as she rubbed the soft fur she was sitting on.

"{Yes. I"m communicating with her through Arima"s soul}" Night answered and just after, Deva flapped her four wings at the same time.

The sight of h.e.l.l"s destruction seemed to become a blurry image. A white ring of light flashed before Deva disappeared in the blink of an eye.

From the Gates, Chulainn witnessed both the apparition of Deva and her departure. He smiled with his three heads and turned around to go through h.e.l.l"s gate which was about to close.

"See you again" He muttered and jumped inside the gate.

In the next ten minutes after he left, both Gates had vanished to never be summoned again. Heaven and h.e.l.l reached the same state and truly began to collapse.

As if the earth was ethereal, it went inside the fissures on the s.p.a.ce-Time dimension like a liquid. The stone and soil were consumed just like that.

The sky lost its clouds, stars, and sun.

It soon became a world of darkness and then it was the turn for the matter to vanish. The molecules were torn apart one after the other and at some point, even Arima"s abyss didn"t matter anymore because everything else had become as empty.

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

"Why did you retrieve my soul?"

Arima heard a voice and woke up. He opened his eyes to see the world of his soul manifestation. He was lying down in the middle of the vines growing in it.

He immediately stood up and cracked his neck "So I was knocked out in the end, huh?" He muttered "I swapped with Malum…" He looked around and his eyes fell on the man who called him.

The old beast-man was sitting there, looking at him "Yo, Utain" Arima smirked and called. Utain sneered and didn"t answer. Arima snickered "First of all, don"t be mistaken. I didn"t retrieve your soul because I was being nice"

He said and walked toward the beast-man "Your mind was saved only because I want you to tell me what you know about the Life Hunters" Arima declared and Utain frowned.

"Why do you want to know?"

"Well, I"m simply curious about my origins" Arima retorted "Why don"t you begin with my clan? The Reigen clan?" Utain closed his eyes and fell silent. Arima waited without saying anything.

"The Reigen clan was the biggest group among the Life Hunters" Utain spoke after a moment "Thousands of years ago, Life Hunters made a place for themselves in this plane. They had formed different clans to have a better organization"

"The ruler of all was precisely the Reigen clan. I"m sure you know already that the reason Life Hunters went extinct was that the G.o.ds acted to eliminate all of them"

Arima nodded and sat down "The reason why the G.o.ds moved was the Reigen clan" Utain looked up "In short, your own ancestors are responsible for the death of your entire kind" He said but Arima didn"t even blink.

Utain snorted "What they did was simple; they became crazy for power. The head of the clan was infuriated that he couldn"t get stronger after he entered the Heavenly Realm. The life force he could get from other beings wasn"t enough. So, they got the brilliant idea to search for creatures with abundant life force"

"Guess who they set their eyes on, after years of slaughter in the lower worlds?"

"G.o.ds" Arima answered shortly "I suppose that Heaven was their target"

"…Yes. Of course, Life Hunters had never been weak. They managed to kill hundreds of G.o.ds and angels until Odin and Ifrit both acted together to push them back. Ifrit only acted because he feared that the Life Hunters would attack h.e.l.l afterward"

"In the end, the Life Hunters were eliminated and the head of the Reigen clan was sentenced in Heaven and put through eternal suffer in h.e.l.l"s core" Utain paused and grinned "Which you just destroyed"

Arima emotionlessly listened "Your name;" Utain raised his voice "I finally recalled where I heard it. It was during the last stages of the war between Life Hunters and G.o.ds"

Arima scowled and signaled him to continue "If I"m not wrong, you were the last child of the entire race. Life Hunters had a wise oracle. He saw that the Life Hunters would be able to perdure thanks to that single child… That child"s name was Ahriman" Arima"s expression twitched.

"Ahriman is a demon coming from the Zoroastrianism. One of the oldest religions in the world. Usually, most religions are actually true like G.o.ds as Zeus and Hades. But Zoroastrianism is a universal religion that is carried across parallel worlds"

"Basically, when you were born, Arimane, your race thought of you as the true Ahriman" Utain chuckled "You were a true demon from the start. Your incredible strength does not only come from your talent"

"You were born under the name of Ahriman. You"re a True Demon" Arima glared at Utain and made him stop.

"…What about you? Where is your story?" Arima asked back.

Utain laughed "Me? I was in the background of that story. In the very first part" He paused "…During the first wave of a.s.saults by the Life Hunters in the lower worlds, my town was also attacked"

"We actually welcomed them because we didn"t want to be killed. I was the son of the chef. When the head of the Reigen came to meet him, he didn"t even try to talk" Utain gritted his teeth "He just grabbed his head and crushed it like a weak fruit under the eyes of my mother and me"

"Then, that man dared to toss the body of my father with a disappointed expression. And when my mother approached him, pleading to save me while crying, he glanced at me and sneered. He waved his hand and my mother died right there"

"After that, that man actually decided to let me live and left the town after he had killed everyone" Utain told with unhidden rage and stared at Arima "It"s just a small story in the middle of everything. But here I am now. I may have died. But I killed hundreds of Life Hunters and then decided to kill all kinds of people like them. That"s how I became The Destroyer"

"Satisfied?"

"Sure" Arima nodded and stood up "Thank you for the information. You will now disappear. Go meet your family if there"s an afterworld" He said and turned around.

Utain"s eyes sharpened "Do you really think there"s an afterworld?"

"Well," Arima stopped walking "We don"t know. How can we be sure that there isn"t one? Also, who said that the afterworld had to be something like Heaven or h.e.l.l" Arima smiled "As long as someone is capable of talking with me, he"s not dead. So, he"s not able to say that he saw if there was an afterworld or not"

"That possibility will only be verified when someone who actually died completely comes back to tell us" Arima laughed and disappeared "But that"s a paradox" He added laughingly.

When Utain was left alone, he looked down at his fading body and sighed. He didn"t even say one last word and just perished mutely.