Life Hunter

They possessed millions of different memories and emotions in their head. Even them were not able to control that turmoil of emotions and were defeated by it.

Arima didn"t know what was happening around him, he only knew that he had fainted because of the shock. His mind would rewind the scene he witnessed indefinitely. The death of his loved ones, including Tieria and Scatha and all of the others he shouldn"t know but whom he still cared about unconsciously.

Arima could only see darkness around him, nothing more, nothing less. His mind was also recovering at its own pace. But at the same time, he felt like he was slowly sinking in this darkness.

His thoughts turned blank after a moment, he felt like his own existence was fading away. But when he was about to lose that last wisp of consciousness, he heard voices calling him.

"Hey! Arima, don"t lose focus!" He heard Night"s shout like he was beside him.

"Arima! Open your eyes!" It was Karma"s voice that echoed next. When he heard their voices, Arima"s spirit shook and he began to reinforce his mind. He realized that he had to do something now.

Arima struggled to even move and then used all of his will to do one thing. He opened his eyes and suddenly regained consciousness. He blinked and looked at Triens who was in front of him. After that, his vision distorted and he grunted.

He grabbed the side of his head and almost stumbled. He felt extremely tired and just wanted to faint. But he knew that he couldn"t do that.

Arima glanced beside him and saw Malum madly trying to erase the emotions he was feeling. He was shouting to keep his mind straight and a dark mist surrounded him. Although Malum was a being made of negative emotions, they were Arima"s.

Malum was born with a rational mind. Even if he was created from darkness, he could not feed on it. But it was also true that the emotions he was forced to feel basically went against the pure meaning of his existence. Of course, he would be hurt by that.

"It seems that you barely managed to survive the "pain ordeal"" Triens smiled and said. Neither Arima or Malum had the strength to retort or get angry at him. They just listened as they rested their mind and soul "To be honest with you, I think that you only managed to survive because you are both pa.s.sing at the same time. Although you suffered the same shock, you shared it without even noticing" Triens explained and clapped.

"Well, with this said, there"s not much to hide now" Triens shrugged "The next test is the last one. The "rage" ordeal" He declared and the two who were "tested" glared at him.

"I"ll let you rest for a moment. The final trial will begin then" Triens added and disappeared. Only leaving a small orb of light to illuminate the place.

Arima relaxed all of the muscles, from which he was squeezing the last drops of strength, and instantly sat down. He sighed and then laid down on his back.

"{Are you okay?}" Karma asked worriedly.

"Yeah…I think so" Arima answered with a grave tone which couldn"t be heard from him normally. His emotions were still in a chaotic state but weak enough for him to restrain them.

"{Hey, what do you think of him?}" Night suddenly probed as he sent a cognitive message to Arima, telling him to look at Malum.

Arima looked at his right and saw the three meters tall skeleton barely holding in his emotions and gritting his teeth "Hey" He called and Malum grunted "You better not snap. At least fuse with me before you do so" Arima said and his counterpart snorted.

"Why would I fuse with you?"

"There are a lot of whys actually. But my only problem is that if you are destroyed then I will follow suit. And that"s not something I wish for" Arima stated with a stern tone.

"Is that so?" Malum snickered "Aren"t you the one who wanted to die a few decades ago?"

Arima raised his eyebrow, he sat up and glared at Malum "These are different matters. And don"t try to make me falter with that. You were most likely born because of that period of my life too" He said.

Malum laughed and he straightened his spine. He seemed to have regained some of his composure and stared back at Arima "I don"t have any intention to give up deliberately"

When he said that, Triens came back and smiled one more time "Let"s continue"

"You call that a rest?" Arima retorted as he stood up.

"Of course, that should be enough for you" Triens clapped "It"s time for the last trial. In this test, there"s only one rule: watch" He gravely said and both Arima and Malum were perplexed "Also if you move once, you"ll die" Triens casually informed them and like before, he snapped his fingers and a figure started forming beside him.

Arima and Malum silently observed, apprehensively. They had a really bad experience from last time. When the appearance of the person was completely visible, Arima and Malum froze "You never met him. But I gave you the favor of planting it inside your mind" Triens said as he pointed at the man next to him.

Dark clothes, sharp and cold white eyes, and a suffocating aura of darkness around him. It was the person Arima hated the most, the one who he swore to chase until his own death. Triens had actually transmitted Karaskan"s appearance in Arima and Malum"s minds then made him materialize here.

"Hey, …what"s the meaning of this?" Malum"s voice sounded even eerier than before and it carried a strong killing intent. The flames in his eye sockets turned from purple to a bright crimson. And surprisingly, he wasn"t alone as Arima"s eyes were slowly turning bloodshot too.

Although he covered his eyes with his hand, he was still clenching his fists and trembling. Not only did Karaskan appear in front of him. If you thought calmly about it, Arima could easily calm himself down if he reminded himself that it was a fake.

But what was really putting Arima and Malum in such state were the visions they suddenly got since he appeared. Visions from when the Chaos Seed twisted their lives in the worst way possible.

"This is the final trial" Triens responded to Malum "If you can get past this, you"ll have finished the Life Judgement" He then spread his arms open. And like last time, a great number of silhouettes formed everywhere.

When Arima and Malum looked at their faces, their countenance suffered an even bigger change. Countless memories burst into their minds. All of them were about those people killing and robbing what was dear to them.

"f.u.c.k!" Malum cursed loudly. He was shaking uncontrollably and his aura was also leaving his body. That fact surprised Arima who had been able to resist the rage a lot better than Malum. Since the beginning of the Life Judgment, although they had kept their physical ability, they had lost the ability to control their magic or aura.

Arima felt confused that Malum was suddenly able to use it and then his eyes fell on Karaskan once more. He gritted his teeth and resisted the urge to attack immediately. That self-control was actually very impressive, after all, Arima had to restrain himself from going berserk while because of the thousands of people who were all increasing his rage and disgust each time he saw one vision. In his position, anyone would have already charged at them.

Both Arima and Malum stayed like that for hours, no, maybe days. Neither of them was able to know. They kept being tortured mentally like that until Arima saw Malum"s bones crack. It wasn"t because Malum had lost control over his aura or anything.

His bones were actually falling apart for no apparent reason. Arima widened his eyes when he saw that. He remembered what Triens said to them: "Don"t move…if you go against that rule, you"ll die"

That"s what he said, and Arima suddenly realized something. He smirked and started laughing "I see… I finally understand"

"What?" Malum looked back at him. His bones were crumbling apart at the moment. His ribs had already been half destroyed, his right arm was on the verge of falling and countless cracks were already visible on the other bones.

"This whole thing is just a scam" Arima grinned and declared. He glanced at Malum and snickered. At the moment, Arima felt like the hate he was feeling was nothing. After all, he now understood what was this all about. Additionally, what he was about to do allowed him to get over it pretty easily.

Arima extended his hand toward Malum and the latter glared at him, puzzled at his action "Let"s fuse" Arima proposed and Malum was stunned for a moment.

He then burst into laughter "As I said, why would I listen to you?"

Arima shook his head and shrugged "You realized it by now. You"re dying" Arima said "And so, I"m dying with you. It"s not something I want"

"So, what? Why would I give up the chance to drag you with me? Also, do you think that fusing back together will give you a chance of going through this? Nothing will change"

"You"re wrong on that"

"What?" Malum exclaimed.

"The reason you"re slowly destroying yourself is that you"re forcefully keeping negative energy inside you. If I"m not wrong, this place has the particularity of connecting our minds and bodies together. If our mind is destroyed, so will our bodies. That"s why we were lucky for the first trial. We both fainted before it could destroy us forever" Arima explained carefully.

"What"s your point?"

"This whole thing is a trap" Arima coldly said "Not moving from here never was a condition for us to pa.s.s this test" He revealed.

"What are you talking about? Triens said that we would die if…we…" Malum froze.

"Yes. Who said that our death was a failing move? Didn"t we come here thanks to it? Do you think we"re alive?" Arima smirked and sarcastically asked.

Malum stared at him and stood up. The moment he understood Arima"s explanation, his bones had stopped crumbling away. He looked down at his hand and snickered "Fine. You won" He said.

Arima chuckled and extended his hand one more time "What about this? You don"t need to fuse your mind with mine. And you will get to take over me when I deem it to be a good occasion" He suggested and Malum was thunderstruck.

"And for now, let"s end this in the best way possible" Arima added with a smile and Malum shook his head. He then grabbed Arima"s hand and snorted.

"Maybe we"re quite different after all" He remarked and Arima nodded as if it was obvious "It"s good for me anyway, I accept" Malum said and his body glowed before he transformed into an orb which flew into Arima"s chest.

"{I will sleep here then. Call me when you need me. I will be your Way of the Berserker}" Malum uttered before completely falling asleep in Arima"s soul.

Arima exhaled and his expression turned cold once more. He cracked his neck and fingers and stared at the b.a.s.t.a.r.ds that he had to bear for all this time.

"{…Just saying though, what if you"re wrong?}" Night asked out of the blue.

"{Yeah…I"m a bit anxious about that too}" Karma agreed.

"Oh, don"t worry" Arima responded casually "I"m a Death Hunter, aren"t I? If I die today; this world is not doing its job"

"{.. I don"t know if I should be convinced}" Night retorted and Karma fell silent.

"Well, we"ll see it soon" Arima declared and smirked. Karma appeared in his hand and he slowly took an Iai stance. Black lightning gathered around him and his aura filled this strange dark world.

Arima sneered as he glanced at Karaskan one last time "I"ll get the real one soon" He muttered and jumped in the air. His eyes flashed and he unsheathed his blade as he swung it "[Terra Aeterna] (Eternal Night over the World)"

Thunder roared and everything there exploded with lightning destroying each one of those fake people.

"…"

"Well, you did it. I suppose it"s finally the part where I give you your t.i.tles" Triens voice echoed in the empty dark world.