Life Hunter

When there were only ten circles left, Chulainn and Karma had stopped to decrypt the array. Since these two were the ones that had less technical knowledge on arrays" theory.

Karma was given sentience by Arima but her ability in that area couldn"t be compared to Night"s who was Arima"s soul beast. And Chulainn was just not suited for this kind of work.

The only people who managed to continue were Lanya, whose mind had been boosted by Chronepsis, Night, Lilis and of course, Arima who had an unbelievable understanding for magic although he was born in a world without it.

After another few hours, there were only two circles left and everyone except Arima couldn"t continue. The difficulty was so high, and the focus required was inhuman "How can he keep going?" Night muttered while sweating.

Lanya inhaled to try getting back some mental strength and looked at Arima "I don"t know. His focus also went beyond everything I can imagine"

"Yes, I bet he couldn"t even hear us if we talked to him now" Lilis added. Meanwhile, Karma and Chulainn felt a bit awkward since they bailed out much earlier.

"Where does he get that energy anyway? When I think of him, I can only think of a lazy guy" Chulainn commented and Arima turned the circle into a green one. He then touched the last circle without any other comment. When he interacted with it, every green circle around merged with the last circle and made it bigger.

After a few seconds, the last red circle became a huge one with a ten meters diameter. Arima rolled his eyes in a circle and started once again.

"No idea. I just think that he does things to the end once he starts them" Lilis waited for Arima to continue before answering to Chulainn.

"Mm, if you say so…" Chulainn responded and squinted his eyes to look at Lilis "I have a question for you. Did you go inside the Time Garden?"

Lilis"s eyes widened in surprise and looked back at the small pup. She hesitated for a moment and nodded "I see. So, did you see it?" Chulainn then asked.

"I did" Lilis answered.

"Saw what?" Lanya inquired. She was perplexed about what they were talking about.

"Arima"s past" Chulainn declared and Arima"s hand trembled. The circle acted strangely too and Arima"s entire arm was crushed by an odd force. His group reacted and was about to go toward him but Arima waved his hand and told them to not move.

"Just a rebound" He said and glanced at Lilis for a second "I will just tell you this. My past is not something I like to hear or recount" His voice resounded clearly in everyone"s ears and Lilis perfectly got that as a warning. Arima shook his arm and healed it before continuing.

"I don"t believe it. That guy was still paying attention to the conversation" Chulainn muttered with a shocked expression.

Also, after that, everyone just stared at Lilis. Now, they were all curious about Arima"s past. Particularly Lanya who had now taken interest to it. And she understood, as much as everyone else, that she wouldn"t get any answers from Arima himself. Lilis smiled wryly and shrugged to them.

Thirty minutes mater, Arima finally finished the last circle and the whole thing just broke like gla.s.s. Only a second after that, they all felt that the flow of water was pulling them down and it was growing stronger.

Arima frowned "This attraction is strange. It"s like the entire water around us is…oh" He didn"t finish his sentence and immediately went upward at full speed. He didn"t need to say it for everyone to follow him.

As they were going up, the flow of water was turning even more odd and chaotic. When everyone reached the surface, they saw a sky totally different from h.e.l.l"s. It had the usual color you would see in almost all world, a clear blue.

Arima didn"t bother to look up though and just looked below so did everyone else "What the…" Chulainn muttered as he witnessed the sea slowly getting farther from him. But it wasn"t him going up but the sea itself going down.

After a moment, a huge sound resounded everywhere, as a meteorite had just fallen. The red water also acted strangely and was slowly disappearing in the next instant. What emerged from the water first was a mountain peak on the horizon.

After that it was just a matter of time, while the water was going down, mountains, rocks, trees, even some houses, were revealed. The water continued to be drained until the ground was visible.

Arima"s group admired the scene thunderstruck. They looked around and observed everything there was in this unknown place "There are people down there" Night remarked as he looked down.

The group followed his words and noticed some people leaving the houses "That"s strange, those houses didn"t suffer any damage from the fall of the red sea" Lilis said and squinted her eyes "Also, those people are weak…"

"You"re right, the strongest I see is only at the third level of the Mortal Realm" Lanya uttered as her eyes shined with a blue and golden light.

"You"re right…" Chulainn muttered and floated toward Arima"s shoulder and sat on it "Hey Arima, I don"t know anything about the true emplacement of Origin. But I"m sure it should be beyond the red sea. I don"t know who said that first or how long it has been, but I don"t think that it"s wrong since the entire h.e.l.l has been told the same thing" He said and Arima glanced at him.

"And there"s one thing I can say about this place" Chulainn added and Arima nodded.

"This is a pocket world" Arima declared and it was Chulainn"s turn to nod.

"What is a pocket world?" Karma tilted her head and asked.

"A pocket world is basically a smaller world existing in the boundaries of another one much bigger" Lilis answered "The popular a.n.a.logy is a bubble on a soap. In this case, h.e.l.l is the soap and this place is the bubble" She explained

"Arima, what about..." Arima teleported away while Lilis was talking to him. She sighed and followed him along with everyone.

The place they reappeared was in the middle of the small village that was below them. Arima ignored the people there staring at him and murmuring as he walked toward one of the houses. He placed his palm on the wall and white runes revealed themselves.

"I see, so that"s what protected them from the water" Chulainn commented and tried to read the runes "This thing is quite intriguing, it doesn"t use any known language"

"It"s more than that" Arima immediately said and everyone looked at him "No matter how I see this, I can"t find a way to crack or break it" He stated and walked away from the house to observe it.

"What do you mean you can"t find a way?" Lilis asked.

"Literally, I can"t find any kind of way to break this. I must say it, this enchant is perfect" Arima said and his group was speechless.

While they were talking, the crowd around them kept becoming bigger until it split to let pa.s.s an old woman on a wheelchair pushed by a young girl "Travelers, may I ask why you"re here?" The woman asked.

Arima looked at her and frowned. He approached her and crouched just in front of her which surprised both the elder woman and the girl behind. Arima"s eyes glowed with a blue light and the old man gulped as she felt like her whole existence had been decrypted by the man in front of her.

"You have the same kind of enchant on your body…same for that girl behind you" Arima muttered and stood up "(Those runes seem to hold a divine power even stronger than Azes"s from what I can see)" He thought and looked around.

"(Origin is an artifact created by the Original G.o.d. Can I a.s.sume it"s him that drew these runes?)" Arima wondered and stared at the old woman in the eyes "Do you know anything about Origin?"

When Arima mentioned Origin, the old woman"s composure crumbled "So you really came here for that?" She asked with a trembling voice.

"Well, yes" Arima responded and the woman"s expression darkened. Arima raised an eyebrow at her reaction "What"s wrong? You just have to tell me where it is if you know"

"Sorry, I won"t tell you to leave or anything. I can lead you to the place where Origin is" The old woman paused "But, you"re not the first one to have tried. Many people came here in the hope of obtaining it. But they all died, some even couldn"t do anything as they were forced to leave. Our village only see that "Origin" as a curse"

"I see, bring me to it" Arima responded and the old lady sighed and nodded. She understood Arima didn"t care about what she had to say.

"Before that, you"ll have to pa.s.s a little examination" She announced and signaled the girl behind her. The young girl nodded and went close to Arima "Her lineage was granted the ability to see if an individual could use or had the right to get Origin"

"Please relax" The girl said and grabbed Arima"s hand before closing her eyes. She breathed in and chanted silently. After a few seconds, she slowly opened her eyes to see Arima. But what reflected in her eyes was something that made her step back and cover her mouth.

In front of her, in a world filled with blood and darkness, a fiendish skeleton was standing there. It had two horns on his skull and his stature didn"t look human at all. His bones also seemed to have been made to welcome two hearts.

The young girl shivered in fear and hugged herself. The skeleton opened its mouth and a vociferous scream entered her ears. The young girl shrieked, and her mind returned to reality where Arima was looking at her strangely.

"What happened, Emilia?" The old woman hastily asked.

"I-I don"t know. I saw something terrifying and horrible inside of him…" Emilia said and shuddered before retreating behind the old woman "If I was able to see something, it means he has the qualifications but…"

"I see" The woman nodded and observed Arima "I"m sorry, but can I ask yo-?!" She swallowed back her words as Arima"s glare fell on her.

"Listen, you just have to tell me where it is" Arima sternly said "Or, I can just take it directly from your mind. Which one do you choose?"

The old woman gulped and pointed her finger in one direction "If you go in that direction, you"ll find stone ruins. It"s there" She answered and Arima nodded.

"You see? Wasn"t that hard" He said and immediately flew away.

"I"m sorry" Lanya politely bowed the villagers and also went with everyone else.

"Stop bullying these poor people" Lilis"s voice resounded while they were flying away. The old woman sighed when they had all left.

"They will most likely die like the others" She lamented like it was already carved in the stone. Emilia looked down when she heard her though.

"I don"t think it will be like everyone who came here before" She retorted "What I saw in his soul is not only dreadful but also extremely powerful. For that person to not be already mad is proof of his mental fort.i.tude"

The old lady widened her eyes and looked at her pupil "If you say so. But when you"re in that place, any kind of strength is useless" She said.

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

Arima"s group reached those ruins in less than a minute with their speed. When they landed in the middle of it, they immediately realized that this place was called ruins just in appearance. All of the stones here were placed in a very orderly way.

The whole thing formed something like a circle and Arima went to the middle of that circle without any hesitation. What he saw there was a small circular area, about twenty meters large, with only gra.s.s covering it, and a tall black armor standing in the middle of it.

That black armor trembled a little and turned his head toward Arima"s group. The eyeholes of the helmet shined with a red light and it prepared his longsword for a fight.