Life Hunter

This kind of thing couldn"t really be measured but it was like Arima had lived tens of thousands of years already and had also acquired the equivalent quant.i.ty of knowledge.

"How long?" In the end, "one day", Arima asked to his soul companions since they were able to keep their focus in here. His voice sounded a lot colder and darker than before.

"{…eleven years}" Night answered with a solemn tone. Both him and Karma had spent those years sleeping, most of the time. They could even sleep for hundreds of years if they wanted to but Night still kept the count for Arima during that time.

"{I think you integrated with almost seventy million of them}" Karma added and Arima groaned "{If we take an average of eighty years per life, you a.s.similated…}" She paused. The number she was about to give was too shocking, even to the point she wondered if she had messed up in the calculus.

"5.6 billion" Arima muttered and Karma fell silent. The former looked at the orb he had in his hand and then looked around him. The only light was coming from the sphere he was holding in his hand and nothing else "This is the last one, huh?" He said and sighed just after.

"5.6 billion years…that"s just what was poured in my head, not what I managed to keep. But I still gained colossal knowledge and inherited heavy emotions and memories" Arima uttered and crushed the orb before absorbing everything in it.

The next instant, his vision warped and he ended one more time in front of Triens. Malum was also beside him. But now, both of them were far from being as casual as they were at the start.

Even Malum who knew that he had absorbed more spheres than Arima wasn"t happy at all about the result. Only Triens was looking at them with a friendly smile "Congratulations, you finished the first step" He announced.

"Let me rea.s.sure you, this was the longest part of the Life Judgement. But keep in mind though," He paused "It"s definitely not the hardest" He said and the two in front of him didn"t react well. They spent eleven years under constant mental strain and it wasn"t really something they wanted to hear.

"Now, what will come next is quite special" Triens declared "I think you realized something by now. What you went through is not something that needs you to be oblivious about it" He said and Arima frowned.

"What will come next is the reason why the people around you kept the Life Judgment"s steps a secret" Triens revealed and snapped his fingers. Beside him, the figure of a woman slowly started to appear and continued to become clearer and clearer until her appearance was fully materialized.

Both Malum and Arima"s eyes narrowed when they saw that woman. That sweet smile was something that neither of them could ever forget. She was indeed one of the persons who affected Arima"s life the most. Scatha was standing in front of them.

After her, it was Tieria"s turn to make her appearance. But that wasn"t the end, more people, a lot, materialized in this dark s.p.a.ce. Each one of those persons was emanating a light that was piercing that darkness.

Men, women, children, elderly, even pets, that immense group was continuously growing in number; thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions. At that point already, both Arima and Malum were feeling extremely bad. They felt crushed by their own emotions.

Sadness, anger, pity, regret, fear, hope…all of those people in front of them, they recognized every single individual. They were all lost dear ones from the parallel lives they had just absorbed.

Arima shed one tear with a calm expression. That fact already showed how powerful the emotions he was feeling were. It was the same for Malum, he was gritting his teeth so hard that it sounded like his jaw was going to break. Even if he was a counterpart made of darkness, he still had a human mind. His whole being was also created by this kind of feeling. Each time he looked at Tieria and Scatha particularly, his entire being threatened to collapse.

It was also without counting the millions of people around. Additionally, both Arima"s and Malum"s memories were connected together. So, even if they collected the orbs separately and one of them was now stronger than the other, they both had the same memories.

So, they were feeling the exact same magnitude of pain. The joined pain of millions of different versions of them "I"m sorry" Triens surprisingly apologized "Not for what I just did…but for what I"m going to do now" His smile had disappeared and it was now replaced by an expression of genuine empathy.

He walked past by Arima and Malum before vanishing. Just as his figure disappeared, he muttered one thing: "Let the Judgment begin"

After he said that, the millions of people started to scream and die one after the other in nasty and cruel ways. Beheaded, stabbed, killed, from illness, even accelerated aging and suicide.

Arima and Malum witnessed everything with a blank expression and when they saw Tieria and Scatha smile at them, and die in the next instant, the world they were seeing turned into pure darkness. They had lost their minds.

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

In h.e.l.l, in the battlefield welcoming devils and G.o.ds. Everything stopped. A deafening noise escaped the sphere of life force and in the next second, cries and screams of despair resounded in the entire place.

It was the fusion of Malum"s and Arima"s voices of agony and sorrow. Everyone stopped moving, no matter who it was, they felt the despair of that howl penetrating their minds.

Lilis and Lanya lowered their heads and covered their mouths as tears fell down their cheeks. But although they were the most affected, they were not alone.

"Huh?" Gabriel exclaimed as she touched her tears with her finger. Michael also had covered his face and most of the angels, who were sensible to emotions, were also crying unconsciously.

Even Utain in his werewolf form wavered "s.h.i.t!" He cursed just after and shook his head to get those feelings out.

"The Cry of a Life Hunter…" Baphomet muttered. His expression didn"t show any changes but he had to admit that his mind was affected "But…"

"This one is too powerful" Far away, Hades mumbled "The Life Hunter"s Cry is when they enter the main part of the Life Judgement. It is supposed to show to the world the pain that a Life Hunter will suffer and that nothing in this world could lead them astray" He said while looking at the life force up there.

"But this is too much" Poseidon spoke "The magnitude is too big. I can"t even fathom how annihilated this Hunter"s spirit is. No matter how strong one"s mind is, I can"t believe there is someone who is able to get through this" He gravely declared.

A common thought appeared in everyone"s mind at that instant "(He is doomed to fail)"

"This…" Karaskan was aghast. Even he couldn"t smile or laugh under these crushing feelings "That"s too odd" He muttered and suddenly looked behind him.

Miles away, the temple holding Pandora, shined strongly "With the Cry alone…Pandora is satisfied?" Karaskan was completely stunned. When the Cry finally stopped, Karaskan gasped and smirked before flying away "(Seriously though, who is he?)" He wondered.

"That was unexpected…" In the center of his volcano, Ifrit murmured to himself.

Chulainn retrieved his breath when Arima"s voice faded away "…I don"t have words for that" He gritted his teeth and said.

Lilis wiped her tears and looked up with a dark countenance "This is the start of the Judgment. It will test him to see if he can survive; first, the strongest pain, two, the strongest…rage"

Lanya also looked up with worried eyes "So that"s why we couldn"t tell him?" She asked out loud.

"…Of course," At her surprise, it was Utain who answered her question "If he had known that beforehand, he would have either refused to go through the Life Judgment, or his mind would have been destroyed by his parallel timelines while he was collecting them" He explained while glaring at the formation in the sky.

"I know this well. The last trial about rage is also another reason why you can"t tell a Life Hunter about it. Because a test becomes flawed when you know about it before trying it. Basically, if you had told him, he would have failed the Life Judgment with a hundred percent chance" He added and looked back at his three opponents with a smirk. His fangs were sticking out.

"Well, even now, I can"t be sure if he will survive considering the Cry we just heard" He laughingly said "Anyway, you made me use my Manifestation. I"ll end this now" His tone darkened a lot and his tail waved.

At one time, he was standing on the ground, the next instant, he was kicking Chulainn in the stomach. The ma.s.sive h.e.l.lhound coughed blood and even lost contact with the earth.

Utain didn"t stop there and his claws transformed into fire ones. He struck Chulainn with them and provoked a huge explosion of which the shockwave alone sent Kerberos flying.

After that, Lanya and Lilis arrived behind Utain and attacked him at the same time but the werewolf didn"t even look behind as the blows landed on his body. He didn"t suffer even a scratch. He then grabbed both the girls who attacked him and threw them toward Chulainn.

He then dug his claws in the ground and infused his mana in it. His veins bulged and his legs were dug in the stone. Ten miles away from him, the ground started cracking.

Utain used even more strength and the ground began to rise. After a moment, a ten-miles-wide "boulder" was pulled off the ground, solely carried by Utain.

The latter smirked and spun before throwing the giant rock at Chulainn, Lilis, and Lanya. The strength with which he threw that stone was enough to make it burn as if it was a meteorite. It wasn"t only that, a magic formation was hidden inside that rock, ready to explode and destroy anything it would touch.

"Lanya, Lilis! Help me out!" Chulainn shouted a little earlier than that and started chanting something at high speed.

Lilis and Lanya then started to chant something else while supporting him with their mana "(My Soul Manifestation isn"t enough to block this. Same for Lilis"s. We can only bet on this)"

"[Ipsum clauderent] (Close yourself)" Chulainn started chanting for a really dangerous magic.

"[Captionem frangere solvere eliminare] (Trap, crush, destroy, eliminate)"

"[Origo tantum perdere] (Your only motive is to destroy)"

"[Esses nisi quod ad rem] (Your existence is only for that purpose)"

Chulainn huffed as he was about to say the keyword. His whole body was aching but he was doing his best to not lose control. He gave one last effort and finished the incantation.

"[Second Destruction Art, Cavum nigrum]" A black marble formed in front of him and quickly flew toward the boulder which Utain had just thrown.

The marble cracked and broke just after. A strong attraction immediately commenced then Lilis and Lanya instantly cast a magic to protect the group and retreated at the same time.

The black marble became a huge black hole in just a second. When the "meteorite" reached the black hole, the latter was already bigger than the former. Ultimately, when the meteorite arrived in front of the black hole, it was aspired in the vortex and completely crushed in the following seconds. Even the explosion that was supposed to occur was entirely suppressed.

"What?" Utain exclaimed and the black hole wasn"t finished. It was still sucking in everything around, the air, the ground, and everyone on the battlefield felt the vacuum forming not far as it pulled them. Not only that, the black hole did something extremely perturbing.

It disappeared for a moment and reappeared just in front of Utain as if it teleported. Utain was instantly caught by the attraction, but no matter how strong he resisted, he was slowly getting aspired by the thing "Why is it this strong?!" He shouted and then howled as his figure vanished inside the black hole.

"{Hey! Stop this now!}" Gabriel tried to protect her weaker troops from the gravitational field and then shouted directly into Chulainn"s mind.

When the h.e.l.lhound received the instruction, he stuttered and responded: "{I can"t stop it. I lost any connection to it…}"

"What?!" Gabriel completely forgot about the telepathic link and shouted out loud.