Life Hunter

The latter kept dodging the blows or would just dissipate the light magic with his own like it was nothing. But the strange thing was that Arima didn"t attack once. His expression was still as dark and impa.s.sive as the beginning but he also didn"t seem to want to retaliate at all.

At some point, Layla stopped thrusting her rapier and started swinging it instead. That fact alone surprised Arima which showed how much he was not taking this fight seriously.

"You said you were holding back," Layla started talking as her rapier was entangled with Superore and Arima frowned slightly "But you"re not" She added and her scales brightened with silver light. Her figure blurred and her weapon moved strangely.

Arima couldn"t react and he was struck directly in the shoulder. He was taken off guard again and flew back to crash among the vines. His expression didn"t suffer any change as he stood up again. He glanced at his bleeding shoulder and tried to raise his left arm.

Layla had one more time aimed for a place at which she didn"t even spare a glance before "Just because of that. I can tell that you"re not even fighting" She said and Arima immediately fired Superore at her. She urgently blocked the wave of black and blue energy with light magic then jumped back.

She flapped her wings and was prepared to attack again but when she went over the explosion caused by Superore"s bullets, she witnessed Arima disappearing. He deployed his wings for a second then went behind her instantly.

"What do you mean by that?" Before she could turn around, Arima struck her in the back and sent her flying toward the ground. But the force behind the blow wasn"t that strong and she managed to stop her fall. She looked up quickly and raised her hand.

A star-shaped magic formed in the sky. It spun and released a giant wave of light energy toward Arima. He faced it expressionlessly and extended his palm. His body started expanding and right when the light was about to hit him, a huge shadow grasped the light and destroyed it.

It transformed into an explosion which shook the realm and tore the vines apart. If was important to know that this place was a least a hundred times tougher than an Original Land. A force strong enough to even make a cut on those vines could be enough to wipe out a mountain in the normal world.

When the light faded away, Layla ended up with a huge black dragon staring at her from the sky. His eyes were even bigger and scarier as the slit in his pupil glowed red.

Layla gritted her teeth. She really couldn"t feel any emotion from that look. She sighed but smiled as she checked the state of her body "What I mean is pretty simple. It"s not because you"re holding back. You don"t want to fight back. You can"t"

Arima"s expression twitched. Lightning sparked around him and he teleported right in front of Lanya. His giant body cast a shadow over her but she didn"t waver "Have you forgotten which domain Lilis reigned over?" She asked and Arima furrowed.

"Worldly Emotions"

"Exactly" Layla nodded and smiled "Do you know that I also have a pa.s.sive Manifestation? It"s what Lilis used to stop Pandora" She uttered and Arima abruptly remembered. He had actually never seen Lilis" Manifestation. He only learned about it through Layla"s memories. But he just never really looked into it.

"Emotion emphasis. That"s the power of my first Manifestation" Layla chuckled "I may be cheating. But in the end, I"m not making you feel anything. I"m just forcing your emotions to be a little stronger"

Arima snorted. Of course, he already had understood what she was saying "Earlier" Layla spoke up again "When you struck me in the back, not only did you hold your strength but you even made sure to not aim at a vital spot. The fact that you didn"t hit me with all you"ve got can be normal since, at least, I know you don"t want to kill me"

"But the fact that you don"t wish to injure gives me all the evidence. You are not being nice because I"m a woman or anything. I watched you behead that succubus back when we met. You don"t care about the gender of the opponent in a fight"

Layla beamed "Basically, I"m already inside your head. I"m proving that to you. And I"ll continue to fight until you acknowledge it" She declared and her eyes glowed. Her appearance returned to normal and her robe fluttered. She smiled calmly and her entire body turned into white particles.

Arima looked around and landed on the ground. He caused the rise of a dust cloud and when it dispersed, he was already back to his human form.

At the same time, everything around him turned white. The ocean in the sky was replaced by a white surface and so was the ground. The vines vanished and Arima noticed that even some walls formed far away. He was in the middle of a giant white cube.

The paint soon appeared on the blank canvas and drew the pretty scenery of a calm meadow. Arima breathed out and put Superore away.

His eyes flashed and his right arm gained black scales as he waved it to his right. Layla was about to hit him, but it seemed like she was going to get blocked. But she unexpected avoided Arima"s parry and hit the latter with a punch right on the face.

Arima bounced on the canvas and dispersed some of the pain. He slammed his palm to regain his stability and stood up again "…I forgot" He muttered. He was certainly not focusing enough to have overlooked Layla"s main ability.

Layla"s eyes were shining bright like a jewel and her slit pupils were quite intimidating "Round 2" She announced and vanished as the paint raised and shrouded her.

Arima groaned and sharpened his senses. Afterward, it was one-sided. This strange place gave a huge advantage to Layla. Arima could only defend. Not even escape or dodge. Every time he tried to avoid her magic, blade or even kicks and punches, she could always be a step ahead and still hit him. That was useless to try. She could see into the future to predict his movements.

Arima had not used any Art until now because some of the most useful ones had been wasted by Malum and because, as Layla was saying, he didn"t dare to use them to hurt her. But now, even using one to escape this world created by Layla was impossible since this Manifestation would absorb his power and release it against him.

In the end, there was only one way to get out. Arima chanted quietly and a black and white book opened in front of him. The Lawless Tome was the only magic that could get him out since it wasn"t actual energy that was released but more like a physical illusion. So, it couldn"t be absorbed by Layla"s Manifestation.

Layla jumped back "[Third Destruction Art, Pars Impios]" Arima chanted and book shined. Layla smirked and she waved her hand slowly. A big chunk of paint raised from the ground and took the shape of a book.

"[Third Destruction Art, Pars Impios]" She chanted too and Arima"s eyes narrowed. Layla had actually cast the magic before and had waited for Arima to use it.

"(d.a.m.nit, I can"t stop it now)" Arima cursed as he looked at the glowing book. Words were being written on it.

Error. "Pars Impios" has been cast by another user. The theory does not allow that. Closing…release…solution; self-destruction//

This was something that maybe only Arima and Layla knew about. Not even Night, Karam, or Malum knew since Arima never told them.

The "Lawless Tome" is a "unique" magic. It can"t be cast by two different persons at the same time. When that happens, it will stop working and self-destruct both invocations.

In this case, the two books will explode with pure energy that will be absorbable by Layla"s Manifestation afterward. That"s why Arima panicked a little.

He immediately transformed into a dragon again and got away from the book he had just summoned. Layla did the same but then actually turned her body into particles that fused with the realm she had created. She had the ability to turn ethereal in this place. So, she won"t be affected by the explosion.

Arima frowned as the books started cracking and releasing a weird noise. He had the choice at that moment. Getting away wasn"t impossible. But he would need to either use the First Destruction Art or the First Blue Art to break open this place. Both were too dangerous.

When the two books exploded into a white and black discharge of energy, Arima chanted an unexcepted Art "[Third White Art, Doppelganger]"

The energy released by the books filled the canvas but it was also soon absorbed. Just after, the energy was sufficient and Layla"s Manifestation"s last effect was triggered. Before, when she used that attack, Fafnir could have died if he had not used the Bell of Mictlan.

But Arima didn"t have something like that, at all. He took the full blow. Both of them were even kicked out of Arima"s soul realm because of the explosion.

Fortunately, all of the shockwave and energy had been released in Layla"s realm. But a blinding light covered the entirety of Earth. And just above the HQ of Aurorae, two shadows were spotted. Layla landed carefully on the roof and looked at Arima.

The latter was bleeding but it was quite odd. His body was fine except one place. His arm had been cut off and it was the only place from which the blood was flowing down "Doppelganger…" Layla muttered.

Doppelganger"s hidden aspect was indeed special and very mysterious. Basically, it didn"t summon a copy of the caster. Arima couldn"t even do that since Malum had busted the magic circuits for it. But the hidden aspect was like a secondary road.

It had no name. But its propriety was that it could define the target of any threat around the caster. In this case, Arima chose his left arm. He decided that every damage should be sent to his arm and that"s what happened.

His arm would most likely take a month to recover as well but at least he had prevented any critical injuries. For him, losing an arm was a lot less threatening than having damaged organs or other important areas.

"Fine, you win" Arima raised his remaining hand as he turned back into a human. His expression was also back to normal "During this whole thing. You were just pounding me. I can"t do this anymore"

Layla chuckled "Do you understand now?"

"Understand?" Arima laughed "Admit it. This was just a joke, right? You were never trying to really convince me that I loved you. You just profited of this to reach me and get into my head. In the first place, you were cheating since the beginning because you already have a big place in my head since I have all of your memories in it"

Layla grinned and stuck out her tongue. Arima sighed "I lost an arm for this…" He complained and stared at Layla "182 687" He uttered and Layla tilted her head in confusion.

"That"s the number of times I could have injured you or killed you" Arima stated and Layla gaped. Now she was really sweating. That was actually quite scary to know that.

Arima grunted as he stretched. He walked toward Layla and patted her head "Anyway, I got your point. Of course, I still have feelings and longings. And you managed to reach the top" He laughed "Congratulations"

Layla laughed with him then turned toward him "Then are we lovers now?"

"Before that; I need to sleep. I"m too tired because of all of this" Arima replied "And it"s time to go to bed too. Look" He pointed at the sky and Layla saw the moon rising. When she looked down again, Arima had already left. She pouted and teleported too.

"{Finally! I thought I was going to become insane!}" Malum shouted.

"Shut up. You are insane" Arima retorted.

"{…You"re kidding, right? Definitely not as much as you}"