Life Hunter

"Well…" Raylein was stumped. He actually didn"t think about that "You"re a good guy…right? By turning into a Plane Guardian, you"ll become stronger. I"m sure your strength can be a great help to beat the Pillars. You"re someone who is able to resurrect even after the soul has been dissipated after all"

"The resurrection factor is delicate" Arima"s eyes sharpened "It always depends on the circ.u.mstances if I can use it or not"

"I understand that" Raylein followed "But putting that aside, you may also be dragged into this war even if you want it or not. So, it"s better if you receive the Guardian"s legacy and attack before they can…" Raylein voiced what he had just said in his head then nodded as if he was satisfied with his little speech. He was sure that it was pretty convincing.

Arima sighed and his expression relaxed. He looked lazily at Raylein and made the latter doubt "I accept," But Arima"s answer made him smile "But I"ll do the test in a month. Come back then" Arima added and teleported back inside the hall with his group.

"Huh?" Raylein"s smile froze "Hey!" He followed them inside and saw Arima was already sitting down, talking to Jin"s secretaries.

"Gather the ministers. I want to talk with them" He heard Arima then walked toward him.

"Why do you want to wait for one month? Do you not understand what I just said?"

"No, I fully understand" Arima retorted and Raylein frowned "I accepted, no?"

"…I"m telling you that there"s gonna be a war between the G.o.d… and the Devil…" Raylein started gesturing as if he was explaining to a child. Everyone was already looking at him strangely "And that you may be a.s.saulted and killed in the process of the destruction of your world" He said everything in one breath.

"I heard well the first time" Arima responded and stood up. He cracked his neck and looked up "Deva, come down" He ordered and the HQ was suddenly illuminated by a bright light. A feathered serpent appeared in the sky and landed on a mountain not far.

"I never said that I"ll let them have one month" Arima declared and his coat fluttered as a silhouette formed behind him. A hooded skeleton laughed and made his teeth clack. He lifted his brush and started painting.

Raylein was confusedly watching when he felt a thick and seemingly infinite aura filling the air around him. It was spreading in the air and infiltrating the earth "What are you doing…? Are you trying to destroy your own planet?"

"Don"t mind. Just stand back" Layla spoke up and Raylein frowned again.

"Mm, since Jormungand is back. The theory should be even stronger" Arima muttered casually as the skeleton finished drawing the snake biting his own tail "Anyway," Arima crouched and placed both of his hands on the ground.

"[First Red Art, Fata Deorum, Ragnarök]" He chanted and the entire planet shook. The building"s wall even started to crack in some places. The paint of the skeleton came alive and shined.

Some weak mountain across the surface of the planet cracked open and collapsed. Some volcanos erupted and creva.s.ses opened everywhere. The painter behind Arima laughed again and went inside Arima"s chest like a ghost.

Arima sighed. His sigil glowed and Raylein only needed to blink once to see everything back to normal, without any sign of destruction. Every mountain was standing again, the creva.s.ses were closed and even the small lives who had been lost were brought back.

"…What did you do?" Raylein was more puzzled than ever. He could now feel Arima"s aura over the entire planet but that did not explain to him what was happening.

"I just took control of Earth" Arima answered and smiled "For this," He snapped his fingers and from s.p.a.ce, you could see that a red and blue barrier instantly formed around the planet. Strange drawings and runes were drawn on it. There was particularly a giant clock making up of at least half of the barrier.

That clock could even be seen from the surface of the planet. From outside of the atmosphere, the needles were turning at a normal speed but from the inside, the needles were moving in slow motion.

"[Sanctuarium autem Dei finis Mundi] (Sanctuary of the End of the World)"Arima"s eyes glowed for a second then he sat back "There you go" He pointed at the sky through the window "When that needle will have made a complete turn, one month will have pa.s.sed"

Raylein"s expression was changing quite comically "Wait… did you just take control of all elements on the entire planet then slowed down time to a 1/30 ratio?"

"Yes"

""Yes"? What do you mean "yes"?! This is not even a dimension. It"s actually an array. Where the h.e.l.l do you plan to get the mana to keep it active?"

"What? Were you not paying attention? I"m an Eternal Dragon now. The "Eternal" relates to my mana and ability to use mana efficiently" Arima nonchalantly uttered "Basically; this thing takes me less mana than I recover naturally"

"No way…" Raylein couldn"t believe. He put his palm on his forehead then rubbed his face "I understand now. Your true strength is not about your life force, the intensity of your killing intent, your energy property, or even your peculiar body… but your mana pool and unbelievable magic theory"

Raylein eyes sparkled "Then let"s start now! If you have such an advantage, winning the war is far from an incert.i.tude. If you do the test now and master your power during this month, you"ll be almost invincible!" He was quite excited but as he was shouting those pretty lines, Arima had already left the hall and only Karma and Night were left there, looking at him as if he had suddenly become dumb.

"You know… Arima activated this array, not to train, but to rest" Karma tilted her head and said.

"…Rest? Why?"

"I don"t know. He just said that he"s tired and also wants to recover his magic circuits peacefully" Karma quoted "Oh, he also said that he was too lazy to do it now" She added with a smile and left the hall. Night shrugged and followed her.

Raylein killed his own enthusiasm and coughed in the middle of the empty room "Right… makes sense…" He mumbled and scratched his hair "Well, d.a.m.nit. I have to wait a month now. Well, I could leave this array then come back but knowing Harion, he may try to kill Arimane… I"m sure he already knows about my location too"

He wondered and went to sit down on a couch "It"s a month here for a day outside. If someone comes during that single day, it could be at any moment during this entire month period…" He lied down on the sofa "Let"s just wait…"

After a few minutes of lying down, he raised an eyebrow "Wait…why am I bowing to his demands in the first place?"

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After Arima"s group left the hall, they soon went to another section of the HQ and arrived at a really big conference room with a long row of comfortable seats placed around a round table.

Many people were sitting at that table and they all turned to look at the people entering. Most of them were quite old and exuded a really intimidating kind of presence. Karma"s expression stiffened and so did her smile. Even Night felt uncomfortable. Mainly because those kinds of people were not something that anyone would like to meet.

Only Layla was kind of unfazed while Arima smirked "h.e.l.lo, everyone" He raised his voice and every politician in the room wavered. Even his own companions shuddered. The tone Arima had just used was a lot more "vicious" than usual.

It was like he was planning some evil plan. He was definitely used to this kind of atmosphere "I don"t have much time to waste on you, so I"ll be as brief and quick as possible" Arima continued and already every minister felt upset. But as much as they wanted to retort, the man in front of them was basically a G.o.d-like existence for them. Heck, the entire planet was his own.

If it was Jin, they would have been able to speak up but with the name "Arimane" engraved in their brain as one of the most terrifying things ever, they couldn"t do anything.

"Jin will be absent for around a month while I"ll be staying for around the same amount of time. It may change according to what happens in the future but for now," Arima paused and glanced at the giant monitor on the wall.

It was switched on instantly. Everyone looked at the screen baffled. Words were quickly being written there. Arima could easily control electronic devices with magic. It only required a bit of knowledge in the domain and Arima had more than enough.

"Read carefully everything written there. It"s your main instructions for the next few years. I checked how things were going when I came back. First of all, the training for the army became weaker which is really disappointing. You also let some terrorists rise up which I nicely destroyed for you already"

Night"s eyes widened and Layla almost choked. Their expressions were clearly shouting "When!?". Karma hummed from the corner of the room and tilted her head "Wasn"t that during Ragnarök"s activation?" She deduced.

"…I pity those terrorists" Layla said "There"s absolutely no chance for them anymore since Arima has control over the entire planet now"

"If you continue with this type of indolence, this "peace" won"t last long" Arima continued over his companion"s little chat. He was so domineering that not a single one of the ministers was talking back "That was the most important thing. Next is about the citizens. I talked about this with Jin earlier. But it"s soon the time to integrate Eion devices in their daily lives"

When he said that, some people exclaimed in surprise "Of course, it will be done slowly. And to begin, I want you to set up a covered black market to sell a limited amount of it in the next months. Not much. Just a few thousand per city…"

After that, Arima continued to talk about everything. Going from the military to the citizens, architecture, next spatial projects, agriculture, food, environment, terraforming deserts, laws, economy, and even some stupid demonstrations he had heard of. That day, he ordered the destruction of any kind of stupid polemic.

After a few hours of continuous talking, Arima had already given enough work for the next ten years; "Aaaaaaaaaaaaa…" Night sounded like a zombie "I was just listening and I still feel like I went through the toughest ordeal of my life" He grumbled.

"My head hurts" Karma weakly said and was holding her head as if it was going to explode.

Layla smiled wryly as she was looking at them. Even she had to admit that the whole thing was extremely tiring "Layla, we have to talk" Arima called her and her mind was suddenly jolted.

"You two can go anywhere you want" Arima said to Night and Karma and immediately went into another dimension with Layla.

Night was staring at the place the two had disappeared and breathed in "I want some crepes"

"Me too" Karma nodded and the two actually agreed as they went inside the town to eat crepes.