Life Hunter

When they were able to escape the huge stampede, they all rushed to the Heaven Gate to join with the G.o.ds and angels who were coming from Heaven.

At the same time, all of the princes expect Satan, Beelzebub, Asmodeus, and Lucifer, who were already dead, had gathered there too. Although they were not really friendly toward Heaven, they understood that they stood no chance against all of the G.o.ds alone and actually just came to talk. Even Leviathan who was rumored to never leave his home was there.

"Belphegor" Hades called one of the three princes who had a tired and emotionless expression. The demon looked up to see Hades arriving with all of the other G.o.ds and blinked.

"What happened?" Belphegor asked once they landed. He pointed at all of the Téra who were being killed by Heaven"s forces. Those were the weakest Téra since all of the stronger ones were now surrounding Arima, ready to fight him.

"A lot. But summarized; Pandora opened" Hades responded and Belphegor"s eyes widened. The latter was Hades" first subordinate and friend so, of course, he knew about Pandora.

"What do we do now?" Michael suddenly asked and everyone focused on him. He was talking about the G.o.ds and the angels" situation. If Heaven was collapsing, they had nowhere to return to.

"I don"t know…" Gabriel uttered with a darkened expression.

Hades mused for a moment "I can give you a territory to stay in while you"re in h.e.l.l. There"s no reason to fight anymore. And we also need to talk about the Téra" He said and everyone agreed.

"Wait" Layla spoke up and everyone looked at her "We can"t stay in h.e.l.l" She said wryly.

"…What?"

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

A few minutes earlier.

When Layla reached the Heaven Gate, she instantly received a telepathic link from Arima "{Have you arrived?}" He asked hastily. He seemed to be in rush.

"{Yes}"

"{Good. Now tell them to leave h.e.l.l}"

"{Eh? What do you mean? The G.o.ds?}" Layla was confused.

"{No, everyone-! Dammit! This bird is annoying!}" Arima retorted and suddenly gasped before cursing at something "{Anyway, everyone has to leave h.e.l.l. G.o.ds and devils alike. If I"m not wrong, it"s Zeus and Chulainn who can respectively control the Heaven Gate and the h.e.l.l Gate. Tell them to open a path to the lower worlds and send everyone through it}"

Layla was perplexed "{Why do they have to leave?}"

"{Because I will destroy it soon-!}" Arima answered and he seemed to have been interrupted by something as the telepathic link was cut off.

Layla gaped and smiled wryly before raising her voice to call the G.o.ds.

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

While Arima was fighting against the "human" and bear Téra, a third one joined in and begun to make the balance tilt. That new Téras was a bird, he could attack Arima and fly away extremely quickly.

In the end, it turned into a 1v3. Each time Arima blocked the bear with Karma, the "human" one would attack him from an unpredictable angle and force Arima to either retreat or parry with his tail. And after that, it was the bird"s turn to attack and he often succeeded in injuring Arima.

Arima had to abuse the First Arts from the Destruction and Blue categories to get out of those situations each time. There was some really bad news for him too. First of all, the worst was that the Téra kept becoming smarter and more coordinated over time and brought more pressure to Arima.

And at the same time, the weaker Téra had stopped waiting and were closing in dangerously. Arima groaned as he was in the middle of a contest of strength with the bear. They were both locked into a grappling motion.

Arima was in a bad condition already. Not only had he increased his strength to 400%, but he also already had used the "One thousand parade". With both of those techniques active, you can be sure that the toll on his body, even draconic, was really huge.

On top of that, he had injuries all over his body caused by the d.a.m.n bird who always perfectly chose his timing to hit Arima.

"(I think it"s time to bail out)" Arima thought and pulled on his katana"s chain. Lightning flowed from his arm to the blade and "Aeterna" was cast by Karma herself.

The explosion separated Arima and the bear while pushing back the human Téras. It also allowed Arima to evade the bird who was diving toward him.

"{Are we going there now?}" Night inquired.

"{Yeah}" Arima responded and transformed into a black electric snake which flew away in the opposite direction of the Heaven Gate"s location "{I can"t waste any more time. I fought these guys enough. What is even more annoying is that they don"t have any life force for me to take, so I can"t recover my stamina by killing them}"

Arima said as he arrived in front of the horde. He stopped there and returned to his physical form before conjuring another magic "[Third Blue Art, Fragor Magnus]" The powerful fireball exploded in the middle of the stampede and created a path for Arima which he immediately took before the three Téra behind him could catch up.

It was just after that, while he was heading to a certain location that he contacted Layla. And shockingly, the bird he was fighting before managed to follow him and attack him until he was forced to cut the telepathic link.

"Will you leave me alone already?" Arima frowned and muttered after he returned to his physical form. He inhaled before spitting out a huge wave of black fire that couldn"t be evaded by the opponent.

"I don"t have time for this" Arima muttered and continued to fly toward his destination. The entire plane was shaking at that moment.

The collapse of Heaven was starting to be felt by everyone "{Still, the solution for saving the plane is quite radical}" Karma commented while they were being pursued by the entire army of Téra.

"{Well, if you think about it, it"s quite logical}" Night retorted casually "{If h.e.l.l and Heaven form an equilibrium; when one of them suffers a change, you just have to do the same to the other to fix the problem}"

"{So, that"s why we need to destroy h.e.l.l too, huh?}" Karma muttered and Arima laughed.

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

"He will what?!" Hades shouted when he heard Layla"s explanation. She was basically saying that Arima was going to destroy his home and the place he was supposed to rule on.

"Oh, so that"s why he said that my wish would be granted soon" Azes exclaimed.

"I"m shocked at how you can be so honest about the fact you planned to destroy both h.e.l.l and Heaven…" Aphrodite remarked and Azes shrugged.

"I didn"t really want to destroy them. I didn"t even know that the planes could be saved if both Original Lands were destroyed. I just wanted to break the cores and stop the Lands from getting any energy without actually erasing them" He explained and everyone sighed.

"Anyway, we better do it now. I suppose we don"t need to set the same destination, Zeus" Chulainn said and walked toward a cleared area. The moment he stopped walking, the ground below him bulged and a giant Gate emerged as if it was natural.

Zeus sighed and went to the Heaven Gate and placed his hand on it. The doors closed and like Chulainn, he started to change the destination and open a new path. He had to do it quickly since the Gate will lose its power the moment Heaven collapses completely.

Hades felt heartbroken as he saw Chulainn summon the h.e.l.l Gate. He clenched his fist and jumped inside the small army of Téra near their group to vent some steam. Poseidon mused for a moment and followed him. Gabriel shook her head and just waited calmly with everyone else.

Layla had released her draconic form but her eyes were still like Chronepsis", the Unblinking Eyes, as she looked at a certain direction.

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

"We arrived" Arima barely reached his goal that the bird attacked him once again. This time, Arima clashed with the Téras head-on and managed to stop him in mid-air. He easily won the strength contest in his dragon form and grabbed one of the bird"s wings.

Arima snickered and bit the bird"s neck before igniting his throat with fire. His fangs penetrated the bird"s neck and the fire infiltrated the monster body and burned it from the inside. Arima then threw him away and snorted "You are not really a problem without your friends"

Arima landed and breathed out "I have a few minutes before those guys arrive" He muttered and his aura reached a level stronger than ever.

The soil below him was being crushed by his presence alone. He clasped his hands together and a large magic circle was drawn in the sky.

"Time to unleash the last Destruction Art"