Life Hunter

"The difference between planes is basically how things occurred. The connection between the different worlds is basically like parallel world theories in your world, it"s just that the people in it are not copies of the other worlds" and things can happen differently. But they still have huge similarities. The main similarity is often the Worldly Energy used in it. For example, in our plane, the Worldly Energy is Mana" Chulainn explained.

Arima sat down and so did everyone else, listening to Chulainn "In other planes, that energy can change and be things like Qi, Prana, Barakah, Ase or Ether" He listed "Also, Planes are like parallel timelines, unlike Worlds, they indeed have a parallel version of ourselves. As a matter of fact, you can be sure that there are other versions of Arimane Blade in the different Planes, although they"re not inevitably Life Hunters too" He declared "Now, it"s crucial to say that it"s impossible to travel between planes. But there are two exceptions,"

"The first one is through Heaven and h.e.l.l. Those two Worldly Lands are truly infinite and connect everything, every world, and plane. But no one ever tries to travel between Planes like that because they end up lost or dead before even finding their path" Chulainn said and looked at Arima "But I heard that a Silver Emperor originating from this plane actually managed to find a path to another a long time ago. If I"m not wrong, he was called the "Lonely King"" Chulainn reminisced and Arima paid attention to the name as he engraved it in his memory.

"Also, to avoid any misunderstanding. I talked to you about the cores last time, but Heaven and h.e.l.l both have multiple cores, one core for each plane" He said.

"Now, the second way, what I want to actually talk about, is to be a Plane Guardian. They are beings capable of traveling across Planes like it"s a simple stroll. The legend says that their level of strength surpa.s.ses even the third divine" Chulainn declared.

"Then how does someone become one?" Night asked.

"From what I know, Plane Guardian is a privilege granted to someone chosen by the Original G.o.d. Once you hold the t.i.tle of a Plane Guardian, you basically become a sort of policeman. Your job would be traveling around the planes and the worlds to save or help the people that will become huge characters in the future, enough to change an entire world" Chulainn sighed and stared at Arima "You will become one of them"

Arima shrugged and stood up "Not a problem, even if I become one of them, I won"t be submitted to just do any job someone asks me to do"

Chulainn kind of expected that answer and just shook his head "Now that I think about it, Life Hunters are actually the ones who have the most chances of becoming one"

"Why?" Arima raised an eyebrow and inquired.

"Mh?" Chulainn tilted his head "You didn"t realize? You should be able to understand from what I said…" He stopped speaking "Oh, you don"t know about the Life Judgment?"

Arima frowned and looked at Night and Karma. He sighed "No I don"t. But those two most likely know, so I a.s.sume it"s enough"

Chulainn smiled wryly "I see, well it"s not really a bad thing too. Maybe I even gave you too many hints and you may already have an idea of what is the Life Judgment"

Arima shrugged "Maybe. Anyway, about the other things he listed, do you know anything about it?"

"No, these t.i.tles must be something special to you that I, of course, don"t know about. Silver Emperor is one thing. Same for your t.i.tle, Kind Demon, as well as your ident.i.ty as a Life and Death Hunter. But for the rest, I don"t have any idea. "Wicked One", a middle name, and seemingly a totally different race, Eternal Dragon. I don"t know anything about those three things" Chulainn responded "To be honest, it"s already shocking enough so don"t ask more" He said wryly.

"Well, I don"t know what just happened, but I certainly witnessed something interesting" Raal lightly laughed and said. Karia exaggeratedly nodded.

"Then let"s get out now" Arima picked Lanya up and his sigil revolved, they all reappeared on the castle"s roof.

"Why here?" Night casually asked.

"I thought it would be good enough for them" Arima pointed at Raal and Karia. They both nodded.

"We"ll go see the King now, let"s meet again in two days" Raal said and jumped out with Karia.

"Me too, I will go now. I have something to do" Arister also left after that.

Arima teleported to the Inn and laid Lanya on her bed. He then grabbed Chulainn and handed him to Karma "Stay here or do what you want, I want to be alone with Night for a moment" He said and snapped his fingers.

His soul gate appeared in the room in a smaller form, when the doors opened Arima stepped in and Night shrugged before following him. When the gate closed, Karma and Chulainn looked at each other "First things first, let me go" The latter said while he was being hugged.

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

"Do you remember the hypothesis I talked about before?" Arima asked Night when they were in the peculiar soul realm.

"The "Final Resonance", right? As you called it" Night was now in his dragon form, sitting cross-legged on the bluestone.

"Yeah, that"s something I found after a.n.a.lyzing the summoning circle of a soul beast. Basically, the usual resonance is not the complete one, or to be exact, I realized that there was something beyond. So, I thought we could find a way to complete it. At first, I thought that it was an even stronger link between our souls, but what I heard from Chronepsis changes things a little" Arima declared.

""Eternal Dragon"?" Night supposed.

"Yes. When Chulainn spoke about it as a new race, I realized how we could do it" Arima said and cracked his neck "Now, let"s try it. I want you to fuse with me, not only with your soul but with your body as well"

Night frowned "That"s…a bit risky, isn"t it?"

"Kinda, but it should be okay. Who do you think we are?" Arima smirked and retorted.

Night sighed "Yeah, sure" He inhaled and stood up, his wings were retracted and he tried to concentrate on his body and soul "I"m in" He smiled and declared.

Arima grinned and released his spiritual force and even exposed his mana cores. It was the same for Night as two mana cores formed around him. One red and one blue, the former coming directly from him, representing his ident.i.ty as a dragon and the blue one was his connection with Arima.

"The first step is to resonate like we always do but during that process I want you to separate your soul and body and make them fuse with me separately. I"ll do the same on my side. It"s quite simple on paper but we never know for sure, so let"s try it" Arima said and Night nodded.

"[Resonance]" They both chanted. Night"s body slowly became a black and red light that recovered Arima. It was a lot slower than usual.

When the light enveloped Arima, the latter inhaled and focused on his own body which was receiving Night"s physical body. He also had to keep an eye on his soul, but since it needed a lot less spirit than the body, he just used a parallel mind to take care of it.

Arima"s figure became slightly bigger, lightning and fire were going wild around him and a pillar of black light surrounded him. But a few seconds later, a powerful energy wave was created with the explosion of that same pillar. The ocean in the sky shook and all of the plants bent like they were pushed by a tempest. From the flames and lightning, Arima and Night were sent flying toward opposite directions and both crashed on the bluestone with a really awful sound.

The bluestone that didn"t suffer any damage with Lanya and Velvet"s fight broke instantly. Night grunted and punched the stone in annoyance and broke it completely as he stood up. Arima also sighed and jumped back on his feet.

"Okay. That rejection was a lot stronger than I thought it would be" He said while rubbing the blood on his lips. He also healed and cleaned himself at the same time.

"You bet it was. s.h.i.t, that broke my bones and crushed my scales" Night complained and also healed his injuries.

"But it started well. We"re on the good tracks" Arima smiled and said "Let"s try again"

""Let"s try again", he said" Night muttered and prepared himself to use the resonance one more time.

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

Fortunately, Arima"s soul realm could be controlled in every kind of way possible and since he was strong enough with Time magic, Arima could slow down time in it. After two weeks in the soul realm, Arima and Night were standing silently in front of each other. They both sighed and sat down. The blue stone around was full of small craters, obviously created by their own bodies.

"We can"t go any further" Night said and Arima nodded.

"Even for me, if we try more than that, the risks are too big" The latter declared and called the soul gate beside them "It was more than enough, I didn"t know we would spend two weeks working on this" Arima said and the gate opened. Before stepping in, he sharply looked at the gate and his sigil revolved once.

It was only after this that he went through the vortex, followed by Night. When he reappeared on the other side, the first thing he saw was Lanya standing, alone, in the room. He estimated that he spent thirty minutes in his soul realm from this side"s perspective. So, it was predictable that she would regain consciousness. But what surprised him was the look Lanya had. Her expression looked a lot more calm, wise and confident than before.

"He gave me some of the knowledge he possessed" Lanya raised her voice when she saw Arima looking at her like that "I also heard everything from Chulainn. I thought it would be a good idea to let you know" She smiled and continued.

Arima snickered "I see. What do you think about your new power?" He asked.

"It"s incredible. I can feel the draconic power even more now. My proficiency with light magic and all of the others also greatly improved since I inherited Chronepsis"s theories and some of his experience" She answered and paused "By the way, you really don"t want to know about the Life Judgment? I learned about it too"

Arima wore a wry smile, he thought that she was talking a bit more openly than before. But he thought it was a good thing and shook his head "I don"t want to" He said.

"I see" Lanya nodded and Arima looked at her. He sighed and sat on his bed.

"I don"t need to anyway. I can already deduce what kind of thing it is. Chulainn said it had something to do with Planes, then it"s simple. First, the Life Judgment, as I just called it, it has a name, a t.i.tle. Meaning that it"s something known and most likely endured by every Life Hunter. Also, Lilis once told me that I was the last Life Hunter, definitely. I"m sure she knows about Planes so she could have considered that a Life Hunter was maybe alive in another Plane. But she said that I was the last one" Arima put a lollipop in his mouth and Night just sat down on a chair.

"I conclude with this that Life Hunters don"t exist even in another Planes for some reason. Then, Chulainn talked about our…let"s call them doppelgangers. Our copies. From what I understand, the Life Judgment is something supposed to give a Life Hunter great power and the ability to rise to the Heavenly Realm" Arima said and looked at his hand which he clenched.

"To be honest, I"m already at the late fifth sky, but I can"t see the path to the Heavenly realm at all. And I"m sure that even taking the life force of Errastas will not allow me to do so" He declared and waved his hand.

"Anyway, with all of this, there is one possibility" Arima raised one finger and smiled.