Life Hunter

The time distortions actually made Lilis come back at the exact moment where both the G.o.ds and Arima were going to h.e.l.l.

When Lilis arrived at the Heaven Gate, she immediately went to see Azes who seemed to be waiting for something. He had, in fact, sensed Lilis the moment she left the Garden and stayed in front of the gate instead of going in with the other High G.o.ds.

"What is happening?" Lilis asked the second she reached Azes. The latter looked at her and sighed.

"h.e.l.l"s purgatory was opened by Ojure Karez. Do you remember that human?" He said.

"Ojure? That human who fled h.e.l.l? Is he trying to start a war?" Lilis frowned when she recalled about the individual.

"Most likely. But that"s not what I want to talk with you about. You finished watching Arimane"s past, right?" Azes changed the subject and Lilis nodded with a darkened expression.

Azes glanced at her expression and clicked his tongue "That"s worse than I thought, huh?" He muttered "At first, I wanted you to look at it just for one reason. But things changed since then" He declared and pushed his sleeve to reveal the black mark that had appeared on it.

"Pandora has been retrieved" He announced and Lilis"s eyes narrowed as she covered her mouth "The only way to open Pandora is the life of an existence which is deeply connected to fate. Silver Emperors, Life Hunters, and Death Hunters. These three are the perfect choices for that and Arimane is all of them at the same time" Azes explained and shook his head.

"As I said, at first, there was only a single reason why I sent you in the Time Garden. That reason was to not only find out what had happened with Karaskan but also to be sure that Arima indeed confronted Karaskan"s Seed in his world. That"s important because it means only one thing, Karaskan is either the target of Arimane"s destiny as a Death Hunter or simply the first step of it" Azes concluded and Lilis attentively listened.

"So, I will still ask it, even though I think it"s pretty obvious, was it really Karaskan?" Azes then inquired and Lilis nodded.

"No doubt, it was him. He presented himself to Arima" She answered as she recalled the horrifying scene.

"I see. That"s one thing already. We"ll have to be careful about Arima and Karaskan"s encounter. Now, we arrive at the main point, which is Pandora" Azes continued.

"When Pandora will open, it will deliver across the entire plane, a manifestation of the life of the one who opened the box. So, it"s not definitely bad things, if a saint-type of person opens Pandora, the world will be bathed in good things and so, the opposite is also true" He then turned toward Lilis "Now, what kind of life Arima lived, and what are the most important events in it?"

Lilis was overwhelmed by the question, as the answer was more than complicated "I don"t think I can aswer that easily…" Lilis gravely said.

"Arima lived more than a wretched or b.l.o.o.d.y life. At first, it wasn"t really dramatic or cruel but during his prime age, Arima did things that overturned an entire planet, with terror and death following him at every instant" She tried to explain Arima"s life I the best way she could.

"But his ident.i.ty not only represented death or terror. It also symbolized power and dominance. He finished to be the most powerful person of an entire planet" She added and breathed in "Powerful figures like us, divine or magical beings, would maybe act haughty about that. Saying that they could conquer a world like that with just a thought. But they would just be arrogant and stupid" She said and Azes was a bit a surprised by the tone of her voice.

"Those people, if they were ever told to conquer their world, they would just cower or die in the first days. What they don"t understand is that Arima was born in a world pretty much equal to every human. And he managed to take over the entire planet. That feat is comparable to a G.o.d conquering Heaven" Lilis paused and wryly smiled "Just on a smaller scale"

Azes closed his eyes mused "…I can"t predict what will happen if Arima ever opens the Pandora" He muttered after a moment "If I"m not misunderstanding what you"re saying, something really special would happen"

"Azes" Lilis suddenly called and Azes looked up "While he was in his world, Arima died once and revived" She finally said and Azes froze.

"What?" He exclaimed, and his expression started changing, he seemed to be happy and scared at the same time "Are you sure about that?" He asked to confirm and Lilis nodded "Why does it seem like the world is revolving around him? Seriously" Azes started laughing wryly.

"If he was revived without any plus, and that he forgot about it, it means that he didn"t get the chance to pa.s.s the Life Judgement. But instead created an anomaly by reviving without achieving the Judgement. His actual situation must be something like a perfect undead to the point I didn"t even notice. What would happen if he goes through the Life Judgment now…" Azes said and he suddenly thought of something.

"Wait" He murmured "From what we learned in the last hour, Kerberos was trapped outside of h.e.l.l by Karez. But we never checked where he was sent" His face started to show a bit of panic "Don"t tell me…!" He waved his hand hastily and a strange pen appeared in his hand. He started writing on thin air some strange words that were undecipherable even with the G.o.ds" language.

When he finished writing, the words slowly merged with each other and formed a totally different text. That text was: "63.5B". The two first numbers designed the world; the two other characters represented a planet.

And, of course, both corresponded to the place Arima was. Azes"s expression twitched "What were the chances that I send him to the same planet Karez was on…?" He muttered, and he also became even more anxious for some reason.

"If by any chance…" He was going to say something, but he shook his head "Who am I joking with? It"s sure that he"s going to go to h.e.l.l, one way or another. That"s bad" He said.

"Why?" Lilis was perplexed.

"I don"t know what will happen if Arimane enters h.e.l.l with a body that is basically dead. You know that that it"s the Life Judgement which allows a Life Hunter to resurrect from the trigger event, death. Arima didn"t even try the Judgment, he was not revived. He"s basically a dead person living just because of an Owl" Azes muttered and his eyes widened "He could…very well be sucked into the purgatory himself!" He shouted and flew away to the Heaven Gate. Lilis was astounded but still hurried to follow him.

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Above a forest made of high trees with red leaves, gra.s.s, and thorns everywhere. A big white cog formed in the sky and five figures emerged from it before falling directly into the forest.

In their fall, two of them transformed. A small pup became a giant hound with three heads and one human figure turned into a jet-black dragon.

Kerberos had finally returned to h.e.l.l and he howled to the sky. Meanwhile, Night caught Lanya, Arima, and Karma and brought them to the firm-ground because only him could fly since after they pa.s.sed the gate, they lost their magic for a brief period of time.

It felt like when they pa.s.sed the gate Arima created, they had been instantly disconnected from every magic circuit for a second and then suddenly reappeared in an unknown place. And so, only Night managed to fly in the air by using his original form and Chulainn landed on the ground with his ma.s.sive body.

"The killing intent here is so dense…" Lanya muttered as she probed h.e.l.l"s atmosphere. Night nodded and let her step down from her back along with Karma.

But something unexpected happened just after. Arima literally fell from Night"s back and rolled on the ground like he had been knocked out by something. Everyone was shocked at the sight and couldn"t react in time as the ground started to shake.

Arima became surrounded by a black mist that could kill someone with just a single contact. He grunted and punched the ground as he stood on all four. Lightning also began to escape his body and reached every corner of the forest.

At the same time, around the group, creva.s.ses opened, and an incalculable number of crimson chains appeared from it before they all went to Arima"s and coiled around him like snakes.

"That"s…" Chulainn couldn"t believe his eyes "That"s the h.e.l.l"s inquisitor! He"s about to get sent to the purgatory!" He shouted and tried to burn the chains with his flames. He even attempted to control it as h.e.l.l was his territory, but it didn"t work.

Night, Karma and Lanya also tried to help but they were pushed back by the huge sphere made of chains that managed to form around Arima.

Lanya gritted her teeth and activated the power of the Unblinking Eyes but she shortly screamed as she immediately covered her while blood flowed down her cheeks.

"We can"t do anything?!" Night hastily asked Chulainn. The latter"s expressions darkened, and he shook his heads.

"I don"t know. This phenomenon should only occur when h.e.l.l has to catch an escapee and send him to the purgatory. I don"t know how to stop it. This should have never happened in the first place. I know that Death Hunters are said to be able to control Death, but it"s just a legend and it only means that they are deeply connected to it" He said as the number of chains increased and the ground below started to absorb the sphere.

Chulainn gritted his teeth "I noticed that Arima had a unique control over Death magic, but I never even considered that h.e.l.l would see him as a dead person meant to be imprisoned"

While he was talking, Lanya tried to use her eyes once more and more blood flowed "Stop! You"ll lose your eyes if you keep up like this" Karma advised her but Lanya just smiled.

"It"s okay, we don"t need to do anything" She declared, and the three others looked at her. To their surprise, they suddenly heard a strange, eerie, and powerful howl that resonated across the entire forest and maybe even further.

Until Hades who trembled and looked behind him in shock. Until Lucifer who froze and stared at his shaking hand. Until the prisoners of the purgatory and to all the residents of h.e.l.l who felt pressured by the power of Death itself.

Even Chulainn wavered. The chains which had made the sphere produced a cracking sound and black lightning covered them. A silver light also illuminated from the gaps of the chains and it didn"t take long before everything blasted.

When everyone looked back to see how Arima was doing, they just saw a strange gray skeleton. Half of the bones were human, but the other half was twisted as it was larger, with different forms, and there even was a horn on the skull.

The skeleton howled one more time before everything came back to normal. The skeleton recovered his usual appearance and the flesh slowly returned. Arima gasped when his head was fully back, and he fell on his knees.

He panted for a moment and rolled his eyes at Chulainn "What the h.e.l.l was that?"

The h.e.l.lhound stared at Arima with the same kind of expression "What the h.e.l.l are you?" He responded with another question and the two fell silent.