Life Hunter

The two reluctantly ended their combat when they saw that all of the G.o.ds were adamant to make them stop "Fine, we"ll conclude this on a tie" Hades said as he dispelled his manifested weapon.

"What? Did you take a look at yourself? This is my win" Poseidon snorted and did the same.

"Huh? What the heck are you talking about? If it had continued, you would have lost"

"No, it was definitely going to end by your defeat"

The mighty G.o.ds started to dispute like children and their original characters were completely broken now. Azes sighed and before he was able to call them, they fell silent on their own. And so did everyone else.

Azes"s eyes narrowed. He suddenly felt like he was being stared at by a million eyes, the other G.o.ds were undergoing the same experience.

"This omnipresent force…what is it?" Gabriel muttered.

"I remember this" Hades spoke up with a slightly perturbed voice and looked at Azes "You too" Azes returned him a glance and nodded.

"What is it?" Michael hurriedly asked.

"Pandora" Hades responded immediately and closed the mouths of the entire group "Exactly thirty-two thousand six hundred and forty-four years ago, Pandora appeared in h.e.l.l. That day, I instantly spotted it and directly contacted him" He said while pointing at Azes.

"He"s the only one that I could trust on that since his Domain clashes directly with Pandora"s existence" Hades explained and glanced at Azes "Your arm"

Azes shook his head and sighed, he rolled up his sleeve and showed the black mark on his arm. It was the mark that, as the G.o.d of Order, Azes received when Pandora appeared for the first time.

"I thought we had destroyed it. But I think Karaskan managed to retrieve it and seal it instead" Azes added and looked around with a tensed expression.

"Does that mean Pandora is in h.e.l.l right now?" Aphrodite raised her voice.

"…Apparently. But it"s not only here. It"s opening" Azes responded with a darkened expression.

"What would happen exactly if the box opens?" Zeus inquired.

"Depends on the opener and sacrifices made" Azes answered "But, I think that what opened it was Arima"s judgment"

"How?" Gabriel frowned "That man didn"t even make contact with Pandora, right?"

"Pandora asks for two things before it opens. The first one is death. Arima fulfilled that condition by going through the Life Judgement"

"The second one is a sacrifice. For this one, it was completed thanks to the Hunter"s Cry. And there you go, that"s all you need" Azes said "Karaskan just had to set Arima as a target for Pandora and that was enough for it to open"

"Does that mean it"s close?" Gabriel asked another question.

Azes shrugged "I don"t know. Most likely"

"Why are you so relaxed about that?" Michael couldn"t help but ask. Although they were G.o.ds and had the obligation to possess a resilient mind, Azes was showing too less worry.

"Because I don"t know what to do" Azes responded with a smile and Michael was speechless "Once Pandora opens, we can"t stop it anything. We can only bet"

"Bet?"

"Yes, bet. And hope," Azes smirked "On what kind of phenomenon will the Kind Demon bring to this world"

"But we still can find where the box is and try something" Poseidon spoke up "You said it was opening. In theory, if we can destroy, seal Pandora away or send it into another dimension or plane, we will be safe"

Azes chuckled "Where is it then? Karaskan must have been prepared for this. He must have done the necessary preparations to hide" He said and then thought of something "Maybe, the only one who could find it would be Kerberos…Oh" He exclaimed as he realized something.

"He went there already, huh?" Hades remarked and Azes nodded.

Gabriel mused. Her expression showed how much she was thinking hard. It was cute how childish it looked. Then, her expression suddenly brightened "What if we used this?" She enthusiastically pointed at the sky.

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

Back in Heaven. Only a few minutes after he met Karez, Arima was already holding the latter by the neck. But Karez was still smiling even though most of his bones were broken.

"Why don"t you tell me how to stop this corrosion?" Arima spoke calmly and coldly.

Karez laughed as he was in Arima"s grasp "You can"t stop it anymore. It will go on until Heaven collapses" He declared.

"Rather, shouldn"t you be more worried about what"s going on in h.e.l.l, right now?" He said and Arima frowned. The reaction Karez got widened his smile "Although I don"t know what he is going to do, I know that Mad G.o.d is preparing somet-!" Before he could finish, the pressure on his neck tightened and forced him to stop.

Arima was looking at him with a freezing stare, his lightning burst out of his body struck the earth around. He then smirked. It was clear that the anger in his expression didn"t disappear; but his unspoken rage made Karez shiver.

"You think I had no idea?" Arima spoke "I"m not dumb enough to forget about Karaskan. My goal is to kill him" He declared and Karez was baffled "Earlier, I suddenly lost track of Chulainn and my companions who were with him. I had no time to think about it because I was the only one capable of using Origin to come here" He explained and Karez swallowed back his words.

Arima was looking at him with a look that could kill "Back then, I resisted the urge to see if it was truly Karaskan because if I had went there and met him, I would have lost control and immediately attacked, I understand my own feelings. And I couldn"t risk that and let you destroy an entire plane" He said with a strange voice "Well, I"m not omniscient, I couldn"t guess that the core was like that. I may have a knowledge worth millions of lives but I can"t be aware of everything"

"...Then what now?" Karez managed to speak "Aren"t you scared that your friends will die?-kuh!" His neck was strangled once more.

"That"s not your problem. I left an insurance" Arima uttered.

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

The G.o.ds looked up and suddenly recalled as the blue light illuminated their faces. Even when Arima had left, the first Art didn"t disappear. Quite the opposite actually, it continued to spread across the sky.

Now, even the G.o.ds couldn"t see the end of it. It was as if the sky of h.e.l.l had really turned into flames.

"But, how do we use it?" Poseidon asked with a perplexed expression.

"I don"t know" Gabriel casually said and everyone just shook their heads "What? There"s maybe a way to use this fire. I mean, it can burn anything" She said while puffing her cheeks.

"It"s alright. I already ordered it to move" A voice entered her ears just after.

"Eh?" Gabriel was taken by surprise. She looked at the source and spotted Ifrit looking at her. She tensed immediately and the other G.o.ds also had their minds jolted "...What do you mean?" Gabriel asked hesitatingly.

"That guy told me before leaving; that he had transferred partial-authority to me, and that I had to use it to find the one hiding" Ifrit descended and quoted.

He then pointed at the sky with his chin "Look" The G.o.ds then realized that the fire in the sky had started to flow like a stream of water

"Caeruleum igne, rursus inferos invenire potes unum, qui latebat?" Ifrit suddenly raised his voice as he was speaking to the magic itself and gave an instruction. When did so, small blue lights began to fall down from the stream of fire. It looked like snow, just that the color was of a bright blue.

Gabriel exclaimed and caught one of those "flakes" in curiosity. It was a miniature flame that burned silently. She blew on it and it slowly went toward the ground.

Hades looked around "How is this supposed to find Pandora?" He voiced his doubts and Ifrit just continued to observe the blue flames.

"I"m sure it will work" Gabriel said very optimistically. The G.o.ds just sighed and waited.

Thousands of miles away from their position, the fire flakes were falling above the place where Chulainn had been trapped.

Normally, Karaskan made that barrier so nothing could detect it or even touch it. But those flames were special, they pa.s.sed over the rule and managed to touch the barrier before being extinguished.

At that exact moment, the First Art made its move like it possessed sentience. The fire condensed above Karaskan"s barrier and illuminated the ground even more. After that, it just looked like ma.s.sive destruction. A giant tornado was created and completely covered the earth.

"Look! There!" Gabriel shouted happily and the G.o.ds were shocked. If they had to be honest, they all believed it wouldn"t work.

"To be honest, I didn"t think it would work at all" Poseidon casually commented.

"That was supposed to stay in your head" Azes retorted.

Gabriel puffed her cheeks as if she was the one who did everything "(A child)" All the G.o.ds thought the same thing "Rather, why are you so proud of yourself. It"s not your magic. You didn"t even do anything" Michael retorted.

"Ah" Gabriel laughed wryly and scratched her head "It"s true, but at least I believed that it would work" She added with a serious face.

"Anyway, let"s go now. I don"t think it will take that long for this fire to dissolve the barrier" Ifrit declared and flew away. Everyone followed suit.

The truth was that they were really shocked. Ifrit included. When they realized how versatile Arima"s magic was and how strong it was, it gave them gooseb.u.mps. Just the fact that such powerful magic could stay active for so long and could actually receive orders and interpret them to act on its own was already shocking enough.

"I want that as my Manifestation…" Gabriel dazedly muttered as she was flying with everyone else. They all laughed and retorted with the same thing, even Ifrit wryly smiled:

"Who wouldn"t?"

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

When Chulainn was gobbed by the hole along with Lanya and Lilis, he ended up in front of Pandora"s temple. Karaskan was standing at the entrance, looking at him. Behind him, a black and red light was coming out of the temple"s walls.

"This…!" Chulainn suddenly felt the pressure of Pandora"s presence and started sweating although he didn"t know about the source.

Lanya"s draconic eyes also shook and she immediately closed them "…It"s the same" She muttered after a few seconds.

"What?" Chulainn was confused and inquired while keeping at least a pair of eyes on Karaskan. The latter was just standing there, for now, just smiling and observing.

"This power…it"s the same one that Chronepsis asked Arima to protect his planet from" Lanya answered and Chulainn frowned.

"…Pandora" At the same time, Lilis blurted out.

"What did you just say?" Chulainn"s eyes contracted violently. It then struck him. He had indeed felt that pressure before "That"s impossible! I was there when Hades and Azes destroyed it!" He shouted and Karaskan chuckled.

"I just had to take it under your eyes and you didn"t even realize" He said and laughed.

Chulainn gritted his teeth "Who did you use for the opening?"

Karaskan smirked "Our common friend; Arimane Blade"

Chulainn was taken aback and was about to shout back when he realized that it wasn"t impossible. Chulainn could be impulsive but he wasn"t dumb. He understood that Pandora could have been opened by the Life Judgment without Arima even needing to touch the box.

"How dare you say "friend" after what you did to him?!" On the other side, Lilis shouted for a completely other reason.

"Mm?" Karaskan was surprised to hear a sudden rebuke for something so small "What I did to him? Oh, you saw his past maybe. So, I really did something that bad to him, huh?" He said as if he just confirmed that fact. His action angered Lilis even more. Lanya was also shocked as she saw the tears in the corners of Lilis"s eyes.

Karaskan tilted his head and looked at Lilis "I see. The emotions you felt through his past because of your high sensitivity must have touched you enough to develop strong feelings for him" Karaskan snickered "Interesting" He uttered and Lilis gritted her teeth before calming herself as she realized that she had lost her temperament.

Chulainn silently heard the conversation and looked at the temple behind Karaskan with a stressed expression "Anyway, I"ll have to kill you" Karaskan"s words jolted his mind. He then noticed that those words were addressed to Lilis "Your power over emotions is a threat for Pandora" He said and extended his hand. A screen of darkness emerged from the ground.

Chulainn grunted. Karaskan was at the third divine while he was only at the second divine. He could confront those of the higher levels thanks to the support h.e.l.l gave to him. But now, he was on a territory owned, not by h.e.l.l, but by Pandora.

"Lilis, Lanya. Back off" He shortly said and his eyes and sigil glowed dangerously. Lilis and Lanya nodded and followed his instruction.

"What are you going to?" Karaskan asked with a smile.

Chulainn snorted and his four heads stared at Karaskan. The three dogs growled and the snake hissed. Karaskan scowled at them.

"[Resurrection]" Chulainn chanted slowly and gravely. His fur straightened like needles and his eyes turned fully bloodshot. His aura exploded too and his Manifestation began.