"…What did you just say?" Raylein asked Arima who was casually swallowing different sweets placed on a table. Arima had gathered the former Guardians and randomly picked a location in a certain plane. They were currently on an alien city, holding a simple meeting."There"s only Anubis, Trevy, and Ahura left. I also made a deal with the latter and she will not act anymore" Arima replied and Raylein opened his mouth wide. The others had the same kind of reaction. They already had a hard time believing that Arima could face all of the Pillars alone and get out of it alive. Raylein could kind of believe it though since he certainly knew about Arima"s ability to absorb and repel elements.
Only Aergia"s reaction was maybe a little different "Wait a second," She raised her voice and Arima looked at her. She seemed to be angry for some reason "Then why did you make us gather a hundred stars? Don"t tell me it"s gonna be useless because I would seriously be p.i.s.sed off!"
Arima laughed and shook his head "Don"t worry, it"s far from a waste of time"
"But what do you want to do in the end?" Chulainn, in his canine form, raised his paw "What about the army you requested us to a.s.semble? What was the point of that?"
Arima sighed lazily and laid down on the couch "Well, first of all, that army is obviously not to fight the Pillars. At least, it isn"t meant to fight the Pillars of this reality"
"What do you mean?"
"I"m saying that we will use that army to invade the other mother realities, take care of the Plane Guardians and Elysium Pillars present there, then take control of it. That"s my plan" Arima explained and silence fell. Night rolled his eyes while Layla rubbed the corner of her eyes. Everyone else had a blank expression.
"…Seriously?" Chulainn mumbled and Arima nodded. Shakti woke up at that exact moment and widened her eyes as she looked around. She felt a weird atmosphere and tilted her head. She turned toward Malum who was standing beside her and blushed a little before sitting up.
She coughed "What is going on?" Malum glanced at her and shrugged.
"Arima is being crazy again. Nothing new. The Pillars have been defeated, their leader forfeited, and now Arima is talking about going to other realities to rule them" He summarized and Shakti blinked.
"Eh?"
"Before you ask, as I already said to Night, I have an idea on how to travel between realities" Arima raised his voice to catch everyone"s attention "And also, that was the reason I sent you to gather stars and put them into a semi-stasis" He said while looking at Aergia.
"I"m going to use them to create a natural formation, then use them as a backup to generate a link capable of connecting realities. Of course, for that, I will also need the help of Deva. To be exact, it cannot be accomplished without her" Arima uttered and the imposing bike parked in the corner of the room responded to him with a short rumbling.
"…Then?" Raylein followed "What do we do now? Are you ready to open a path toward other realities?"
"Well, not really. I have to prepare first" Arima retorted and gazed at Aergia "Give me what you have collected"
Aergia frowned "How?"
"Just open a small link to your spatial storage" Arima told and she complied. A peculiar wormhole immediately appeared in front of Aergia.
Arima"s sigil glowed and a beam of light was shot inside the wormhole for a second "It"s good now" Arima said and Aergia gaped in shock when she saw that the one hundred stars she had collected had been taken so quickly. Maybe she was even more surprised than when she heard Arima had beaten the Pillars.
"…How much spatial storage do you have?" She muttered and Arima smiled.
"Enough to keep at least one thousand stars" Aergia stared at Arima with a deadpan face and everyone thought that they should really stop to try understanding Arima"s abilities at this point. They couldn"t even imagine how strong he was at the moment after absorbing the life forces of seven Pillars.
"Anyway, it"s time to scatter. You can do what you want while I finish everything. In fact, you won"t have to do anything really hard anymore. You will just have to lead the army and make sure the realities are put under control. That means you would have to take care of the strong and people as well as the Guardians and Pillars there" Arima stated.
"But the ones who will mainly be taking care of those two groups will either be me, Night, Malum, Layla or Karma" He added and everyone on the room fell silent "But until then, you can do what you want" Arima stood up and declared "You can sleep, train, or go on a date for all I care" Arima joked but still directed those words toward Malum and Shakti.
"Also, Gilga, you"re keeping the army in Babylon, right?" He asked afterward and Gilgamesh nodded slowly "For how long can you keep them inside?"
"…As long as I want. I can also a.s.sure that they will all come out equipped with high tier armors and weapons" Gilgamesh answered and Arima nodded satisfyingly.
"I will go then, do what you want. Call me if you need anything. Jorga will contact you when I"m finished" He said and went inside his soul almost instantly. Leaving no time for anyone to object.
Aergia yawned and laid down on a couch. She fell asleep in less time than it took for her to lay her head "Well, we can only wait now. I will excuse myself until then" Ganesha smiled and teleported away. Flavio shrugged and disappeared too. Night, Karma, and Layla looked at each other and joined Arima inside his soul.
Evangeline, Raylein, and Gilgamesh left together soon after and the only ones left were Malum and Shakti. The former glanced at Shakti and sighed "Hey, we"re going" He spoke up and Shakti tilted her head.
"Where?"
"I don"t freaking know..." Malum groaned. He didn"t transfer like everyone else and approached the door "Are you coming or not?" Shakti stared blankly and chuckled before following him.
"Mm, what do I do?" Chulainn whispered and peeked at Aergia sleeping. He mused a little and went to sleep on a chair.
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"So? The truth?" Layla inquired when she arrived inside Arima"s soul.
"What? I didn"t lie" Arima retorted and Layla scowled "…Just didn"t tell everything" He wryly smiled and took out Ambor"s eyes which he had taken earlier "Before making that bridge to another reality, I will have to integrate the ability of these eyes. To be honest, I didn"t expect that I would meet someone like Ambor. It will help me quite a lot"
"What are you going to do with it?" Night sat down and asked "Are you going to retrieve your vision?" He presumed and Arima gazed at him.
"I don"t really know. Getting my sight back would be really complicated. As I said already, my vision has been robbed at a fundamental level. But indeed, if I manage to tame these eyes, I will not only be able to gain an insane a.n.a.lyzing ability and magic copying but I may also have a chance to get my sight back" Arima answered and Layla"s expression brightened.
"In any case, Ambor used these eyes pretty well. But his own strength limited them. I think I can bring their power to a whole new level. As for what I"m going to use it; explicitly, I"m going to use them to get stronger. But princ.i.p.ally, I will use them on the Original G.o.d and Devil"
"Why would you do that?" Layla was perplexed.
"Obviously because I want to know what I"m fighting against. When I fought the Guardians and the Pillars, along with their life force, I managed to collect the "blessings" they had gotten from the Creators. But I couldn"t get anything from it since I always had to destroy it. Instead, I learned how I could communicate with the Creators from the memories I collected"
"That"s what I want to do" Arima stated "I won"t actually meet the Creators. Just enter in contact with them. And these cursed eyes will help me a.n.a.lyzing them and understand them. I want to know what kind of being they are so I can destroy them" He declared and looked at the pair of frozen eyes he was holding in his hand.
Arima ignited a fire and the ice cubes melted to let the eyes come out. At the same time, the crimson pentagram reappeared on them and actually tried to reject Arima. The latter smirked and crushed the power of the eyes with his aura.
"How are you going to a.s.similate that?" Night questioned while staring at the eyeb.a.l.l.s.
"It won"t be really difficult" Arima replied and opened his eyes wide "Maybe just a bit painful" He mumbled and didn"t leave any time for his comrades to react. He grabbed the eyes and literally pushed them into his owns.
Layla and Karma gasped while Night shuddered. Blood flowed down Arima"s eyes which he was covering with his hands. Soon after, a bright crimson light escaped through his fingers. It turned into a giant red pillar which pierced the ocean above.
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At the same time, Malum who was calmly walking together with Shakti stopped on his tracks. His expression twitched. He slowly rubbed his eye and looked at the blood on his finger. He quickly washed it so Shakti wouldn"t see it and furrowed "(It actually hurts… what is he doing? How can something make me feel pain?)" Malum"s body had been created with the Third White Art, Doppelganger.
It means that Arima and Malum have virtually the same body. If one of them sees their body structure change drastically, the other will experience the same thing.
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Arima gritted his teeth and grunted. The man who had withstood the a.s.saults of G.o.ds and Demons without even frowning actually wanted to scream because of the pain.
From the inside of the light pillar, countless pentagrams were drawn and threatened Arima. The cursed eyes were actually trying to kill the man trying to master them.
"Shut the f.u.c.k up!" Arima shouted and his aura mixed with the crimson light. The pillar expanded and Night, Karma and Layla had to retreat "Whether you want it or not, I"m your owner now. I name you;"
"[Maledictus Natus]"