Life Hunter

"Well, see for yourself" Arima responded and did the same gesture from earlier for the third time. He waved his right hand to the left and also the opposite of that. He then clenched his hands like he was trying to grab the water and then slowly moved his arms at the same time.

As he was moving, his fists would leave a white trail behind. Arima moved his hands so that the two white lines form a circle once connected. After that, Arima just let go and the white circle started to shine. Complex and numerous runes appeared in it.

Arima backed off and looked at what was happening. When the white magic circle was complete, another four were drawn beside it. And then, another four formed beside each new circle, some even overlapping the five first.

"Okay, it seems to have a large number of runes and layers but it should…be…..okay?!" Chulainn"s voice was gradually turning weaker until he exclaimed in shock.

As he was talking, the circles just kept duplicating over and over, faster after each duplication. The starting point had already an incalculable number of circles superimposing each other. And still, the number of white circles just kept increasing.

And a white "wall" made of white circles was now in front of the group. That wall was already so big that none of them could see the end of it.

Arima sighed and touched the circles. He slid his finger across the runes and made them spin "There you go. This is the thing you want to go through"

"Oh" Chulainn was himself overwhelmed by this whole thing that he couldn"t say anything else.

"So, what can we do?" Lanya inquired and Arima rolled his eyes at her.

He smiled really strangely and knocked on the wall "Do you really want to know?" He asked and Lanya pursed her lips "Well, good choice" Arima added and slid two of his fingers on the wall, one of the many magic circles spun and changed color to green.

"This one was easy, but it keeps getting harder, that"s the type. That"s why I"m not sure I can do it" Arima said as he looked at the green circle.

"What are you talking about?" Night asked and Arima only turned toward him when he turned another circle into a green one.

"We have to decrypt these circles to break this array. I already have done two. You can see it as a puzzle, or a hacking" Arima answered and changed a third a circle.

"Wait, all of them?" Karma asked and looked at the endless wall.

Arima chuckled darkly "…Yes" He said and continued on a fourth circle "Come on, you can start too. For now, it should be easy, so I"ll summon as many familiars as I can, and I"ll give them one of my parallel thoughts but after that, it"ll become too hard and we"ll have to do our best to decrypt the last ones"

Arima breathed in and chanted "[Bestia Delphinus]" An azure circle appeared in front of him and a vortex of the same color formed too.

From that vortex, shining blue figures began to enter the red sea. Those blue figures became clearer over time as they kept revolving around Arima.

They were small dolphins with eyes glinting with intelligence. Their number just continued to grow until Arima suddenly stopped the magic and panted a little. He rubbed his temple for a second and looked at the circular wall of dolphins around him.

"Go" He ordered and each one of those marine animals left "They will begin from the corners and borders of this wall. We will continue here. Let"s get to work" Arima said to his group and resumed the decrypting.

Karma and Night looked at each other with the same look of a desperate kid in front of his homework. They ultimately started to work on the array just after. Lanya followed them and even if it was her, the lack of enthusiasm could be seen on her face.

Chulainn grunted "Why did I follow you already?" He muttered and looked up "That"s not what I expected…" He then began his work too.

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"My goal is simple. I want to destroy Heaven" Karez declared to the three powerhouses in front of him; Utain, Vastra, and surprisingly, Baphomet was also sitting there crossed legged.

After Karez talked, Vastra laughed a little and Utain frowned "Why?" The latter asked.

"For revenge" Karez answered simply and Utain was even more confused.

"I don"t get it. I heard from the smaller devils that you tried to destroy h.e.l.l"s core years ago. Now you come back to say you want to destroy Heaven for revenge. That makes your action against h.e.l.l"s core odd" The beast-man exposed his thoughts.

"I didn"t say that my revenge was against the G.o.ds" Karez said and both Utain and Vastra were surprised.

"Little human, are you saying that you want to destroy this plane?" The demoness asked with a cold and sweet voice at the same time "There"s a difference between just destroying an Original Land and completely erasing it. If you only shut down the core, the Land will die but the lower worlds will survive. But if you destroy it, the entire plane will be obliterated" She briefly explained "Is the latter your objective?"

Karez gritted his teeth when he heard her voice and glanced at her when she finished "…Yes"

Vastra laughed even harder and Baphomet opened one of his eyes "So your revenge is against the world?" He asked with a frightening voice. It felt like each one of his words could crawl under your skin and eat you alive.

Karez shivered and tried to look at the hideous monster. He may have spoken with a calm tone, but that thing was a master of the occult and a harvester of blood. It"s impossible to even count how many people died by his hands. At his question, Karez nodded.

Baphomet stood up and stomped the ground with his hooves. He turned around and started walking toward a certain direction; directly where the Heaven Gate opened "Vengeful human, I"ll let you live since you freed me. But after you get what you want, I"ll kill you for having used us for your revenge" The Evil G.o.d gave his warning.

Karez gulped and Vastra grinned as she stood up too "Don"t worry, I have no problem with you as he does. I have some things to settle with Aphrodite anyway. You can destroy Heaven as much as you want" She declared and clapped her hands.

At her signal, a giant at the third divine opened his palm for her to climb. The giant then followed Baphomet along with every devil and prisoner who left the purgatory.

Utain closed his eyes and lit up his cigar with a small flame. He then walked away silently but he wasn"t going with everyone else "Ojure, was it? I"m not a good guy myself but I don"t want to a.s.sociate myself with the deaths of every inhabitant of this plane. I saved you from that Mad G.o.d, so it should be enough" He said to Karez without turning back.

"Anyway, more than all of that. There"s something requiring my attention" He added as he stared at the horizon "I"m feeling the presence of a Life Hunter" He said and Karez"s eyes narrowed.

"Furthermore," The old beast-man continued with a graver tone "It"s one from the R. lineage" He added and put some strength on his leg. The ground burst and his figure disappeared, leaving an after image.

Karez watched as he left. He couldn"t stop him if he wanted anyway. He exhaled and turned his head to observe the army of h.e.l.l heading for the upcoming war.

Karez grinned and looked at the black and orange sky "It"s time to destroy this world that took everything from me" He muttered and took his first step.

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"Well, I didn"t expect The Destroyer to interfere" Karaskan muttered as he walked in the middle of a rocky plain "That"s not a problem. He shouldn"t be able to destroy Heaven in time"

Karaskan took out Pandora from his storage and looked at it "[Πανδώρα]" He chanted in Greek and the box started shaking. Karaskan smiled and threw the small box to the front.

When it fell on the ground, Pandora shined with a bright light and a tornado struck the plain. The wind blew for a minute before stopping. During that time, Karaskan couldn"t even approach.

When the tornado stopped, a huge palace was left there seemingly made of the same material as the box. Karaskan immediately went toward it and stepped on the large staircase at the entrance.

He climbed until the main edifice and entered a sort of prayer hall. In the middle of the room, there was a pedestal with a slightly bigger version of the box on top of it and hanged on the wall in the far end of the hall, one could admire a big painting of a graceful and beautiful woman.

Karaskan smirked and then turned around without going further "Everything is almost ready, I need to get some basic sacrifices and then the preparations are done"

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When Lilis arrived at the red sea, she immediately plunged into it and started going down really quickly. It didn"t take her that long to see a giant wall made of green circles.

When Lilis reached it, she was shocked to see the composition of the array and looked around. She only saw green. She knew that it meant they had been decrypted and overwritten, but she couldn"t see Arima"s group anywhere.

She could only stay beside the wall as she advanced. After a moment, she spotted azure dolphins with their heads stuck in the array. All of those dolphins were in a circular formation surrounding Arima"s group.

"Arima?" Lilis approached them and called. Arima was surprised and turned around to see her coming toward them.

"Hey Lilis, you"re here. Can we skip the reunion though? If it isn"t too much, can you help us crack this array?" Arima asked.

"Well, sure" Lilis smiled wryly and nodded. She went near the wall and looked around, to her surprise, the only person she recognized was Lanya even though the latter"s power was extraordinary strong compared to before.

"Are you…Night?" Lilis squinted her eyes and inquired as she stared at Night under his human form.

"Yes…" Night responded weakly as he had been working on the array for almost ten hours straight now. It seemed like the time flowed differently here and Arima didn"t even do anything for it to happen.

"You are?" Lilis asked the other person she didn"t know "Hey, the red-haired lady over there" She spoke out one more time as she didn"t get any response.

Karma was half-asleep when she heard the question. She reacted strongly when she heard the second time and looked around perplexed "Oh" When her eyes fell on Lilis, she exclaimed and smiled "I"m Karma" She then answered.

"…Eh?" Lilis took some time to process and urgently rolled her eyes at Arima with a look asking for confirmation.

"Yes, that"s the same Karma you"re thinking about" Arima answered and sighed as he finally finished the circle, he was working on it for five minutes now. A huge difference from the time he needed at first.

When he finished that one, he grunted and one of his dolphins fell apart since the parallel thoughts were stronger when they were in less number and the increase in difficulty required that.

"I see…that"s an evolving array. Always harder…?!" While she was talking, Lilis saw a small dog with a zombie-like expression floating in the red sea "You are… Kerberos?" She asked with a hesitant voice.

"Huh?" Chulainn moved his eyes and lazily took a glimpse at Lilis "Ooh, you"re that young G.o.ddess, Zesta Lilis, right? If I"m not wrong, your domain is Worldly Emotions" He muttered and Lilis nodded "I see, it"s cool that you"re back. I"m going to sleep, take my place at doing this annoying thing"

The h.e.l.lhound said and yapped as he received a bullet of water in the head. He made some spins in water and growled while staring at Arima "What was that for?!"

"Go back to work" Arima instructed.

"I"m not good with decrypting work" Chulainn complained "I"m not good with meticulous labor in general..." He then muttered as he started to work on another circle.

Lilis chuckled and followed by sliding her fingers on the runes "I"ll help you finish"

"Thanks" Arima smiled "Glad to have you back"