Life Hunter

Jin squinted his eyes to observe Arima before laughing. He looked down at his body and managed to gather enough strength to stand up. Although he was far past a hundred years old, he was still one of the enhanced soldiers which brought Aurorae to life.

He breathed in and walked toward Arima "Glad to have you back" He spoke as he extended his hand.

Arima snickered and took his hand and hugged his brother in arms "It"s now that you say that?" He tapped on Jin"s back and said as he brought him back to his wheelchair.

"What? Did you want me to say this while you were still an eighty-meters-tall dragon?" Jin retorted as he sat down again.

"That"s indeed a weird disposition" Arima smiled.

"Who is that?" Jin pointed at Night with his chin. The latter was slowly backing away from Karma. She was looking at him with glinting eyes and dangerously approaching. Night seemed to have taken Jin"s question as an opportunity and teleported right next to Arima.

"I"m Night Bahamut. Arima"s partner. Pleased to meet you" He presented himself and bowed slightly.

Jin observed him from head to toe "You look like Arima in the old days" He remarked and Night tilted his head "Before, Arima definitely wasn"t as composed as he is now. He was a lot more hot-blooded in his prime age. I feel the same thing with you right now" Jin told and Layla looked back at Night with a pensive expression.

"Well, you"re a lot colder than before though" Jin followed as he looked back at Arima. The latter"s eyes widened and Jin smiled "But you"re also a lot warmer. I seriously wonder what happened to you. You talked about a time shift, how old are you right now? I can"t even tell anymore"

Arima smiled wryly. After all this time, he forgot that he went back from an old man to a twenty-year-old when he was transmigrated by Azes. Of course, Jin wouldn"t get his age by his appearance "Do you want the bulls.h.i.t version of the answer or the absurd one?"

"Which one is true?"

"Both" Arima responded.

"I"ll go with the absurd one then" Jin made his choice.

"Quant.i.tatively, I"m 5.6 billion years old" When Arima declared that, Jin fell silent and all the soldiers listening blanked. Some of them even had an expression saying "Is he crazy?". Some even went as far as saying it out loud. Jin appeared calm on the surface but he was holding his words back.

"Arima, are you actually messing with me? Five billion is already more than the age of the Earth" But he responded with something a lot nicer than what he had in mind.

"That"s only quant.i.tatively" Arima shrugged "The amount of memory I have and my knowledge only amount to around half a billion"

"…That"s still more than twice the age of the human race… in this world at least" Jin muttered as he rubbed his temples "What"s the bulls.h.i.t answer by the way?"

"Older than you" Arima jested and Jin laughed.

"That"s indeed some bull you"re saying there" Jin laughed full heartedly for a moment then stared at Arima with a grave expression "Let"s be serious now. I only want to ask one thing since the beginning; can you make me young again?"

The only answer Jin got was a laugh.

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

"It didn"t really change much since then, huh?" Arima commented as he walked on the streets of the capital which had been named after his organization.

"Well, a few years is not really enough to change something" Jin responded as his wheelchair was being pushed by his personal attendant, who was also his maid and nurse at the same time "In the first place, you were the one who banned the distribution or manufacture of any Eion device for the citizens"

Arima shrugged "It"s only normal. We couldn"t have kept the peace otherwise. But we should be able to give it back to the world in a few decades"

"Yeah; I remember that was on your little message" Jin snickered "Haze and I laughed when we saw what you had written on that letter. But it was also scary as h.e.l.l, you know? It felt like you had predicted everything that was going to happen"

"I just mused about how people would react and act. There was nothing scary with that" Jin sighed when he heard that.

"You don"t even know how terrifying it was"

Meanwhile, Night, Layla, and Karma were following the two, not even daring to intrude in this conversation. Instead, Night and Karma were listening to Layla"s story through telepathy. She was telling them briefly what Arima had done in his life.

"{I see. I understand better now}" Night was relieved of his curiosity and Karma nodded.

"{Yeah. So Arima conquered an entire planet while he was still a normal human…}"

Layla smiled wryly "{Normal may be a little inaccurate}"

"{You"re right}" Karma and Night affirmed simultaneously.

"Now that we"re talking about him, what about Haze? Is he still alive?" Arima asked Jin after waving his hand at the old people who had recognized him on the streets.

"No" Jin solemnly said and Arima nodded.

"I see… What about Moria and the rest of the squad?"

"Moria died two years ago… You completely vanished seven years ago" Jin snorted "Well, you were basically dead even before that though. It"s the first time I see you in person since you left. Which was 80 years ago… I"m still wondering what you did after you gave your Empire to Haze" Jin glanced at Arima and sighed.

"Anyway, most of the members of the squad are still good. Do you want to go see them?" Jin inquired and Arima shook his head.

"I have somewhere else to go first" He said with a dark tone and Jin silently looked at him. Arima stopped walking and so did everyone else. Arima"s eyes glowed and everyone was teleported by him without even bothering hiding it from the pedestrians.

Before they knew it, they standing in front of a steel gate leading to a private cemetery. Jin closed his eyes and sighed again "I"ve not been here in years" He muttered and Arima wordlessly jumped over the gate.

Jin wasn"t surprised by this supernatural stuff anymore but the maid was staring with a really stiff expression "Don"t be surprised about this" Jin smiled "He could do that even before he became a monster with magic" He told and the woman behind him trembled.

She had only heard about Arima"s name and feats from History books. Just seeing him as a young adult was already shocking for her since she wasn"t even born when Arima created Aurorae. But now she even had to put up with this kind of unbelievable sight.

Jin smiled wryly and signaled her to approach the gate. Jin touched the cold steel gate and it reacted to his touch as it opened automatically "Why did you not follow him?" He turned toward Night"s group and asked "Particularly you" He directed that to Layla.

Layla shuddered and shook her head "I just thought that he should go alone first. We don"t need to follow him so quickly"

"Same" Night agreed calmly.

"I think so too" Karma nodded.

"A good team" Jin chuckled and approved before going inside the cemetery. Everyone else followed just after.

They walked among the tombs for a few minutes then finally reached Arima"s location. They found him sitting cross-legged in front of two big headstones.

When Layla read the names on those stones, her heart felt like it was being squeezed. She wasn"t alone though, even Night and Karma felt strangely melancholic and anxious. The names engraved there were forever preserved in Arima"s mind, that was pa.s.sed down to Night and Karma without even them knowing it.

Arima had his eyes closed as if he was meditating. "Tieria Walker" and "Scathach Blade". He was calmly calling these two names in his head. Even Malum was forced to wake up because of that. In a sense, he was born from the death of those two girls.

Arima wasn"t just here to pay respect. If it was only that, he could have done it during the 80 years he was staying incognito on Earth. He came here for a simple reason. Too many things had happened to him. He wanted to see how sane his mind was. He wanted to check it out. If he hadn"t lost his humanity.

He just wished to confirm that one last time. But as he expected, nothing changed. He was still in pain. He had now ended the life of the one responsible for their death, but that fact never changed anything about his pain nor will it ever do.

Sorrow always comes to you in two parts. Hatred and Pain. The two form an equilibrium. If one disappears, the other takes the place.

You feel hatred for what robbed you of your happiness and you feel pain for that loss. Human minds are simple, they will always choose to escape the pain and try to find refuge with something that they think would make them feel better.

When you forget the pain, you focus back on hatred and seek what people call revenge.

Many like to say it doesn"t mean anything. That nothing will be resolved. But it is only the words of a hypocrite. If you are truly sensitive and intelligent you would never try to take the hatred away from someone. It is the only thing keeping you safe from the pain. But in the end, you can"t avoid it forever and you will always need to face it one day if you want to look forward. Revenge is the best path for that.

A long time ago, every time Arima looked at these tombs, the only thing he felt was frustration, and his anger always took over in the end. That"s why he never visited again.

Now he had gotten rid of the hatred, the balance became dominated by the pain. That"s the only thing Arima was feeling. Revenge was never wrong. People may do it the wrong way. Some may not even understand why they"re doing it. Others could even fail to comprehend how deep they"ve fallen.

But at least, Arima knew since the beginning that he wouldn"t be able to sit down like this, in this cemetery, without killing Karaskan first. Did he regret to have fled from this pain? No. He never did. Now, he could face it without regret and stop tainting his grief with hatred.

Jin, Layla, Night, and Karma watched silently. After ten minutes or so. The sky darkened and the rain fell. Night looked up and furrowed.

"This is…" Karma extended her hands and caught the drops with her palms.

"He"s doing it unconsciously" Layla said as her eyes never left Arima "This rain is deeply connected to his mental state… Do you remember the rain that was pouring down in his Soul Manifestation? It was the same thing when he released his mana cores…"

"One day, he took the decision to restrain the hatred and bury the pain. He stood two hours under this rain before taking that decision" Layla told and everyone looked at her. Jin"s eyes widened as he heard her words.

Layla bitterly smiled "I only know about it from images and sounds… I have no idea of what went through his mind at that time" She added and the rain suddenly stopped but the clouds didn"t go away.

Arima stood up and breathed out. He raised his hand and a dark aura formed around it. Night"s eyes narrowed and Layla abruptly became restless while Karma covered her mouth.

"Arima!" Night couldn"t stay silent anymore but Arima just waved his hand at him.

"Really hard indeed" Arima"s voice was serene but his left hand was shaking as the dark aura thickened "I seriously wonder how I thought I could hold myself back" He mumbled and Night"s expression darkened.

"You perfectly know you can"t do that" He uttered and Jin was now looking at him in confusion "That is only the Fifth, but also the most taboo of them all. Particularly in your situation and condition" He almost shouted.

"You set it yourself. Don"t you remember? The first rule you told me about when you created the Fifth Prohibited Art;" Night stepped forward and raised his voice slightly.

""You shall never resurrect based on your personal longings"!"