Life Hunter

When you thought about it, it was strange that something would suddenly appear and be able to destroy one of the most powerful races in the world.

"Yeah" Arima smirked and directed his gaze at the ground. Oulan frowned and followed it "Tell me, do you know what is situated in the heart of your planet?" Arima asked.

"In our planet?" Oulan was confused "I"m not sure to understand what you mean…"

Arima chuckled "Well, do you know what is at the center of a planet?"

Oulan frowned "The planetary core?"

Arima laughed lightly "It is a little funny since I had to deal with some really big cores just before but you"re right. The core. What I am asking you is; do you know what is at the kernel of your planet?" When Arima asked with a more serious voice and expression, Oulan hesitated.

The center of the planet he had lived in for hundreds of years? If you asked him what was on the surface of this planet, he would have been able to answer. But he had never even thought about what was in its entrails.

He didn"t need to in the first place. He also had no reasons or means to check it. But now, the mysterious black and silver dragon in front of him had managed to root a strange fear in him "…I want to be sure if I understood correctly" Oulan raised his voice "Are you saying that what is susceptible of destroying our land is situated right in its core?"

Arima smiled "Yes. That is what I mean. That is something I sensed when I arrived" He said "It"s weak but I certainly felt it. Furthermore, its presence is rising quickly. You may not be able to feel it since it"s still incredibly frail and transparent. But it is definitely getting stronger"

"Normally, I don"t think that even I could sense it. It seems that something woke it up" Arima added "So even if the Téra are not a threat for you, it seems that they still caused something else to threaten you" Arima chuckled and Oulan smiled bitterly.

"Do you have any idea of what it is?" He asked.

"That"s what I should be asking you" Arima retorted and shrugged "I don"t know. But it"s not like I have no idea either. You know, dragons are a very important and powerful race. They are all n.o.ble, strong, wise and very popular…"

Arima paused and his eye twitched when he saw Layla and Karma casually eating some cakes next to him. He realized that he would need to eat a tremendous amount of food from now on. He shook his head and coughed.

"There are many legends about them in every world and plane" He resumed naturally "This place is supposed to be the planet of dragons. We can"t know what kind of creature would be dwelling at its center" Arima declared and Oulan started staring at the ground with a really uncomfortable expression.

It was weird to suddenly learn that there may be a life-threatening ent.i.ty living right below his home "Well, I"m not able to know what this thing is for sure, but I know someone who should be able to tell" Arima added and Oulan looked up.

"Who is it?"

"The inheritor of Jörmungandr" Arima responded and Oulan blanked "Well, I could also ask Leviathan. But I didn"t even meet that guy yet. I still can ask Chulainn to know where they are right now but it"s not worth it…" Arima continued to speak and the old dragon listening almost choked.

"(How does he have such acquaintances?!)" He shouted in his mind.

"Nah, I"ll ask him after all. Another favor for him is not a big deal" Arima muttered and both Karma and Layla looked at him in curiosity. Both of them weren"t here when Arima met Jorga back at the elves" forest.

"{So, you"re gonna ask Jorga?}" Night was the only one who was there. Jorga was also kind of his teacher for a day.

"{Yeah}" Arima responded and concentrated on the link he created to connect him with Jorga long ago.

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Jorga was casually getting rid of the Téra around the forest with a lazy expression when he suddenly received the call from Arima.

His azure eyes widened to the maximum. Earlier, he had thought about calling Arima because of the Téra but he held himself back because he didn"t want to waste his favor so he was quite surprised.

"{It"s been a while, Arima. Why are you calling me?}" He asked.

"{I just wanted you to come here quickly}" Arima answered immediately.

"{"Here"? Where is that?}"

"{Fantasia}" Arima responded and Jorga gaped.

"{How the h.e.l.l are you there…? What happened for you to end up on Fantasia?}" He was shocked "{It"s like…one billion miles away}"

"{One hundred billion}" Arima corrected him and Jorga snorted.

"{That"s worse!}"

"{That"s a long story. Things happened and I got here. Now, there"s a problem here and I want your knowledge. I may have my own right now, but I don"t think I can beat Jörmungandr"s when it concerns dragons. He was one of the prototypical dragons after all}" Arima said.

"{…Fine, I"m willing to go there. But first, you will owe me another one. And two, give me a f.u.c.king way to get there. Even if I use all of my mana, I don"t think I can make through half of the distance}"

"{No problem}" Arima accepted "{Just wait a few minutes. I"ll call you back}"

Jorga sighed when he cut the link with Arima "Xelio, I will have to leave soon. Take care of those monsters for me. Ask Lifa if you"re struggling" He called the sky dragon who was hunting the Téra with him.

It was the dragon which Arima helped to retrieve his egg. He had reached the tenth level since then and his child was playing around on his back. When he heard Jorga, he nodded without any hesitation.

Jorga was at the fourth sky of the earthen realm so he knew it was a loss but when he thought about the small black cat on the shoulder of a certain innocent girl, he shivered and was instantly relieved of any worry.

"I"ll go tell everyone that I will be leaving for a moment" Jorga declared but as he was about to jump back into the sea, a light shone around him.

"{It"s finished. You can come}" Jorga heard a voice then disappeared from the planet he was on before he could say anything.

Xelio blinked and his child looked with a surprised and innocent face "…Should I tell them myself?" Xelio muttered.

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

Arima had just drawn a strange spatial circle on the ground then a blue light illuminated the mountain top. Just after that, a big and magnificent gray serpent had teleported in front of them.

Jorga looked around with blank eyes and then flew up with his long body although he didn"t have wings. He looked around one more time and his expression twitched.

"What the freak is going on…?" He mumbled "How the h.e.l.l did you teleport me here so easily?!" He snapped at Arima who was below "Eh? Wait… aren"t you bigger than before…and of a completely different race?"

Jorga had definitely felt Arima"s familiar aura when he arrived but he was so shocked that he didn"t even have the time to see his appearance. He descended and stopped at the level of Arima"s head. He himself was quite big, even more than when they met back at the continent.

Jorga"s entire body out of the water was fifty meters long and around ten meters large. He was an imposing serpent. But even like that, he was quite small compared to Arima.

The latter laughed "A lot happened" He said the same thing and Jorga frowned. He also glanced at Layla and Karma and frowned. Arima sighed and then used the following ten minutes to tell him about the important things.

"Humhum, so you met both a G.o.ddess and the inheritor of Chronepsis after leaving the continent then because one of them was dying, they fused to create this girl here" Layla smiled gently and nodded.

"That girl there is your sword…" Karma did the same as Layla. Jorga turned awkward and skipped that part "Then, you taught some kids in the Main Land and met Kerberos. After that, you went to prevent Heaven"s destruction but, in the end, you not only failed to save it but you also had to destroy h.e.l.l. Because of that, you ended up being stuck in a resonance with Night and turned into a dragon" Arima nodded.

"And while you were there, you found Origin which you called Deva and used it to escape h.e.l.l"s chaos and to come here to fulfill the promise you made with The Silent Watcher" Jorga nodded too and started laughing.

Oulan was completely lost at that point. No, to be exact, he started to wonder how the h.e.l.l he had gotten himself in a conversation which obviously involved G.o.ds, h.e.l.l and Heaven.

"Hahaha! You"re not funny at all, so I suppose it"s the truth. That"s something!" He laughed for a moment and then rolled himself on the ground like a snake would do and gawked at the sky.

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

"So, that"s why you called me?" Jorga asked with a serious face as he looked at the ground. After he had recovered from the outrageous story he had heard, he was finally able to concentrate.

"Yes" Arima nodded.

"Well, you were right that there"s something waking up at the moment we"re talking. Right in the center of this planet" Jorga affirmed Arima"s sayings and nodded "At first, I thought it was the Moon-Eater, Bakunawa. But even if the aura looks the same, Bakunawa was banished by Bathala long ago as the legends say"

"The only creature which fits this kind of aura other than him is none other than Fafnir" When Arima heard that name, his expression turned strange.

"Fafnir was a greedy dwarf who turned into a dragon, right? Did not Siegfried kill him?"

Jorga shook his head "Yes and no. The legends transmitted to the mortals have their limit. Siegfried indeed killed Fafnir. The latter died but he came back from the dead by an unknown method soon after. All the G.o.ds of that time concluded that it was because Odin"s powerful curse on the Nibelungen gold actually made him mutate even more"

"But since that day, no one even saw Fafnir again and the gold he was supposed to guard had indeed disappeared from the place he died the first time" Jorga said and stared at the ground as if he wanted to pierce the earth "I think it"s bad. Fafnir wasn"t that strong back then,"

"But if he lived all of those years alone with his gold. I can"t predict what kind of level his greed reached and if we think about what Chronepsis told you;" He paused "He actually managed to go beyond the third divine"