Life Hunter

Night crashed among the tough vines of Arima"s soul realm. He groaned and stood up while black flames were escaping his mouth. He was in his strongest form as an Eternal Dragon. He was standing as a hundred-meters-tall dragon.

His silver mane was dusty as he got back on his feet. He was wielding a huge dark red sword which was obviously Karma. Night was quite tired and injured at the moment.

"{We are not getting anywhere like this}"

"I know" Night responded to Karma and grunted as he straightened his neck. He clicked his tongue and looked forward. He was actually right at the edge of a giant crater.

At some places, it was so deep you couldn"t even see the end while in others, the earth even went up for some reason. It looked like a huge hole which had been dug to create an artificial canyon inside.

In the middle of all of this, there was a huge stone edifice which looked like a tomb, completely undamaged. It was the only place which still had a flat ground and some vines on it.

A skeletal dragon of the same size as Night was nonchalantly sitting on the top of the tomb. It was looking at Night with its red flames burning inside the skull.

"Still, how the h.e.l.l can you be so strong?" Night complained and Malum sneered.

"I"m stronger than Arima in our normal state. He"s the only one capable of entering the Kind Demon form with you though"

Night stared at him with dead eyes as if his explanation wasn"t convincing enough "I"m using Karma"s full power…" He muttered and swung Karma to his right. The tough vines were cut apart easily. Malum just shrugged.

"It just means you have a long way to go"

Night scoffed and lightning erupted around him. He became a literal lightning and appeared right in front of Malum in the blink of an eye. He swung Karma with all of the black lightning c.u.mulated around him and caused an explosion.

The shockwave shook the soul realm and thunder roared. While the explosion was still going on, a blazing dark fire was suddenly added and raised the magnitude of the damages. The crater was changed again and the water of the ocean above trembled as if it threatened to fall.

When the discharge of energy died down, you could see that Malum had stopped Karma"s blade with the bones of his arms. The aftermath of the attack also didn"t even damage the tomb below and just made a simple cut on Malum"s bone.

"You"re starting to be annoying right now" He spoke up and the flames in his eyes sockets turned purple "Thankfully that woman had to leave. Her ability to see the future was really annoying" He said and his ribs glowed.

Inside his ribcage, a huge fireball formed. The bones were also fuming and releasing heat on their own. The fire was both black and red and kept spinning around.

"s.h.i.t" Night cursed and flapped his wings to retreat. He pulled Karma by the chain hanging from the handle and made it spin "Let"s try it, now!"

"{You sure? You should use "Vashta Nerada". It"s the first time I use it}"

"Not enough time" Night retorted "[Fifth Cryptic Art, Aeterna, Secundi Stella, Pisces] (Eternal Night, Second Star, Pisces)" He chanted and the spinning Karma began to produce lightning on a large scale. It even fell down on the ground and annihilated some huge chunks of earth.

Malum"s eyes glowed and became bigger as they left a purple trail around the skull. The fireball in the middle of his bones went up to his throat and it could be seen by anyone. When it reached his throat, a tremendous aura abruptly weighted down on the surroundings "He created his own. I can too" Malum declared and gathered the flames at the exit of his throat.

"[Third Berserk Art, Bellum Baptismo] (War Baptism)" He jumped off from his tomb then roared. A ma.s.sive wave of black and red fire erupted from his mouth. The whole thing was larger than a planet.

Night grunted and just after that, two huge silhouettes were made from the lightning hovering around Karma. It took the shape of two giant fishes. One was made of black lightning, the other was slowly turning white.

The newly formed fishes cried oddly and a strident sound resounded. Night grabbed Karma again and beckoned the two fishes.

They both turned toward the wave of fire launched by Malum and cried again. They flew away and became even bigger than the fire wave while approaching it. The fishes revolved around each other and halted right in front of Malum"s magic.

The pattern created by the two looked like a yin yang. The black fish had white eyes and the white one had black eyes. The two revolved around each other in a circle. The fire wave reached them and directly struck them.

The fishes cried for the third time and the pressure brought by Malum"s magic was countered. The wave of fire had been stopped by the fishes and couldn"t get any further.

Malum stopped breathing his fire and looked at it crashing against the circular shield that those fishes had formed. Malum"s bones were fuming and cracking at some places. That was the theory he chose for his own Arts. The higher his Arts are in the raking; the more damage they do to him.

"What is that?" He commented as he looked at his magic being blocked "Is that Pisces? Did he combine Aeterna and constellations?" Even though he was made of bones, Malum was already having a headache "Will you stop making these scary magic one day?" He complained and sighed.

"Too bad though. Not good enough" He casually raised his skeletal hand while the clash between his fire and the fishes was still going on and drew a small magic circle. He then snapped his fingers and everything slowed down around him.

He made a step forward and appeared right behind Night "Apparently, Arima still didn"t teach you how to use this Art correctly" He said before punching Night with a 300% strength boost. He was sent flying and crashed on the ground.

He created a giant hole and caused the formation of some mountains around it "You were defenseless behind an impenetrable shield. How ironic is that?" Malum snickered.

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

Far away from there, Arima was frowning in annoyance. He was working on a really huge magic circle. That circle was so big that maybe it was even bigger than the sun in diameter. It was so unreal that he had to work on it while flying around with Layla.

At the moment, he was irritated because the fight between his three soul partners was producing some repercussions around his location. He especially didn"t want any mana disturbance that could affect the circle and make him restart everything from the beginning. Particularly when it was almost finished.

When he noticed that they had stopped for a moment, he shook his head and sighed. He resumed his work on the central part of the circle with Layla. The two were silent and they placed the final runes a moment later.

Layla released her breath as if she had held it from the beginning "Finally…" She muttered and the circle gradually became smaller until it was as small as a palm. Then it split into two and went inside Arima"s and Layla"s forehead.

"Indeed…" Arima nodded but he wasn"t checking the magic or even looking at Layla. He was strangely looking up, at the reversed ocean. After a few seconds, he lowered his look "Night, Karma, come back" He muttered and Layla"s expression changed.

"You can rest now" Arima smiled and told her "Should be good. We have Raylein on our side" He said and left the soul realm.

Layla blinked and sighed "Seriously…" She sat down and closed her eyes to a.n.a.lyze the circles they had just drawn.

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

Night once again raised from the devastated earth. He had managed to stop Malum"s Art but gave an occasion at the same time. He knew that he could have been killed just now if Malum had wished to do so.

He rolled his eyes at the skeletal dragon who was back on his tomb. His bones had already been healed and like before, he was calmly staring back.

When Night was about to charge again, he heard Arima"s call and stopped moving "{We have to go}" Karma said and Night couldn"t help it. He returned to his human form along with Karma and left the soul realm.

After that, there was a minute of silence then Malum groaned loudly before turning back into a human skeleton "Finally!" He shouted and laid down. He had been fighting for two weeks; against Night and Layla at first, then it was Layla and Karma, and Night and Karma at the end. They were coming at him like some battle junkies.

It was to the point that even he felt it was a bit too much. He was actually completely spent after all of that. He looked around at the destroyed land then waved his hand toward the ocean above.

The water started to condense into a single drop then it continuously happened until it was raining. In this soul realm, that water was like a holy substance. It could heal anything, cancel anything, and repair anything. At the moment, it was already reforming the original shape of the landscape while erasing the remnants of mana.

"…I"m gonna go back to sleep" Malum mumbled and entered his tomb before closing the ma.s.sive stone gate leading to the inside.

Ten minutes later, he sensed a powerful beam of light falling on him "d.a.m.n woman! Leave me alone!" He bellowed as he created a magic barrier again.

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

As Arima"s group was leaving the soul realm, the shadow ent.i.ty who had penetrated the array was flying around Earth. He was trying to find Arima but no matter how much he tried, he couldn"t find any aura bigger than Chulainn"s.

"Where is he?" He grumbled and stopped right above the capital of Aurorae. He at least knew that this city was the main one on this planet. It was easy for him to hear the conversations of the planet"s inhabitants.

"You"re looking for me?" As he was thinking, he suddenly witnessed the shadow of someone covering him. He shivered. Even for him who was literally made of darkness. That shadow brought an unknown fear to him.

He looked back and his crimson eyes shook as he saw the three meters tall demon behind him. Gray skin, long black hair, the red eyes looking like the combination of a dragon and a human, a cold and indifferent expression, a runic robe which seemed to detain even more secrets than he ever learned in his entire life, thick scales on the arms, a large pair of dragon wings and a dark red katana which seemed to be able to cut anything.

"(What… is that?)" He couldn"t believe it. He was completely frozen "(How is that possible? He"s supposed to be a human. Even if it"s a Life Hunter, he"s still supposed to be a human! How can a human be so strong without even being a transcendental?! His killing intent alone can make me fear him!)"

"I know right," Raylein appeared next and got the shadow"s attention. He was wearing his red robe and the clothes of a king "He"s not that strong from the Guardians" or the Pillars" standards. But he"s as strong as a transcendental without even being one" He laughed.

"It"s also quite something that he could detect you" Raylein added "You"re Yeion, right? "The Shadow". You are rumored to be undetectable by even Guardian level existences. You seem to uphold your reputation, without Arimane, I wouldn"t have been able to find you"

Yeion was completely silent and his mind was in turmoil. Without even a word, he transformed into a small ma.s.s of darkness which flew away toward the sky.

"Do you want to get him by yourself?" Raylein asked and Arima snorted. He flapped his wings and followed Yeion.

"I won"t say no to his life force" He responded and Raylein smirked before going to.