Life Hunter

Anything that had gold on it was here. Fafnir flew inside that place until he reached a door which contrasted greatly with the rest as it was entirely made of steel. He stopped in front of it and hesitated for a second before opening it.

Behind was a dark room. There a was cube silently sitting in the middle. No more than thirty centimeters high and large. It was not gold or anything. But there were indeed some golden gears turning on its surface.

Fafnir inhaled and his body transformed. In an instant, he turned into a handsome human with golden hair and eyes. He approached the cube and grabbed it. When he did so, something else appeared in front of him.

He looked up and saw a small girl floating in mid-air. She had a smile which was both childish and cold. Her eyes pierced through Fafnir "What is your goal? Tell me your target" She uttered and Fafnir immediately opened a path to outside of his Vault.

"I"ll just show you" He responded and leaped through the gate he had created. He reappeared where he had left before and Arima was still at the same place.

When the latter saw a golden-haired human coming out of the Vault, his expression changed immediately. It took him a few seconds to understand that it was Fafnir "(Why…?)" Arima was perplexed then spotted what Fafnir was holding in his hands.

A single glance of that cube was enough for him to step back. His eyes showed how apprehensive he was to say in front of that thing "{What"s wrong? Do you know what it is?}" Night asked and Arima nodded slowly.

"That thing appeared in many fictional stories in many different worlds. Movies, books, songs, poems… apparently, everything has a source. It wasn"t only fictional" Arima wryly smiled "In fact, nothing that has ever been fiction somewhere doesn"t actually exist"

Fafnir smirked "You"re right. We live in a world where anything can be real and where most things can become legends for the weaker" He followed "And when an object with large spiritual presence or aura is created, its name will be transmitted to every world and plane"

Fafnir snorted then glanced at the small girl who had not disappeared from his sight since he took hold of the box "Are they my target?" She asked while starting at Arima and also past the mist, until Jorga.

"They"re both quite something" She said "Particularly him" She pointed at Arima "He"s scary" The little girl acted like a scared child and Fafnir frowned and looked back at Arima with dubious eyes.

"Are you still hiding your power from me?"

Arima smiled when he heard that "I may be" He answered and Fafnir"s frown became deeper "But I have morals. There are magic that I don"t want to use if necessary"

"(Morals?)" Fafnir was stunned "(What kind of magic could force someone to hold them in while in a fight just because it goes against morals?)"

While he was thinking that, the girl turned from a scared child to a curious one as she floated around Arima with wide-open eyes. Even Arima seemed to not be able to see her. In fact, he could only feel some presence around him.

"{She"s floating right above you right now}" Layla"s voice suddenly resounded in Arima"s head and the latter was so surprised he almost fell.

"When the h.e.l.l did you get inside my soul?"

"Just about when you ignored me and went to fight with Fafnir" Layla answered a bit annoyed.

Arima sighed and abruptly froze "Wait…how did you get inside my soul?" He asked what should"ve been asked in the first place.

"I don"t know, I just could" Layla indifferently said "More importantly, I can see a little girl flying around you curiously. Do you know what it is?"

Arima was thinking hard about how Layla entered his soul but when she mentioned the girl, he immediately rolled his eyes at the box in Fafnir"s hands "That thing is a weapon" He declared.

"To be exact, it"s the mightiest weapon in the entire universe; The Eye of Discord. The girl you"re seeing is the weapon itself. It"s its sentient projection" Arima explained out loud and the girl backed away in surprise and returned beside Fafnir.

"So, you know about it, huh?" Fafnir remarked and Arima didn"t answer. He then turned toward the girl "Your verdict?"

"I"ll do it. It"ll be half of your Vault if you want me to get rid of both that scary guy and the big guy behind" The girl answered and Fafnir"s expression twitched. Half of the Vault meant that she would take half of the original models he had. Meaning that he will really lose half of his gold and he would not be able to duplicate them.

He gritted his teeth "Do it" He said "I"ll just have to get my gold back after they are dead"

The little girl wickedly smiled and the box"s gears started to spin quickly. Mechanics sounds resonated inside the box and it shook as it began to float. It stopped when it was really high above Fafnir. The latter looked up for a moment then locked his eyes on Arima before turning back into a giant dragon.

"So that"s why it was impossible for us to survive without Jormungand?" Arima mumbled.

"{Yes…it looks like it is}" Layla said "{I couldn"t see it clearly but there"s no mistake}" At the same time, the blue mist appeared again and was even denser than before. Then, a huge ma.s.s of darkness covered the stars above them. But only across a certain line which was slowly moving like a snake.

"{…Arima, The Eye will not activate very soon. I want you to do something. One way or another, separate, for at least a second, the cursed gold from Fafnir"s body. I will only be able to act once, I have to care of both simultaneously}"

A calm and powerful voice penetrated Arima"s mind and instructed him "No problem" Arima instantly accepted "But I"m also at my limit…" He muttered then thought of something.

"Layla" He called and she exclaimed in surprise inside his soul "Come out" When he said, Layla instantly appeared on his shoulder. She had full trust for him.

"What do you want me to do? I"m sorry but I don"t think I can help you much. My mana is depleted and my "Eyes" are also tired" She uttered.

Arima shook his head "Don"t worry about that. It"s really simple. I want you to perform a Resonance with me" He declared and Layla suddenly trembled.

"…Are you serious?"

"Of course, you"re strong enough to do that now. I already was thinking about it before" Arima responded "Now let"s go. Lanya and Lilis did a resonance too. So I"m sure you can do it easily. Both our strength and personality are closer now too"

Layla listened wide-eyed then chuckled "I never thought about it before. I"m really curious as to how it would be to make a resonance with a monster like you" She said and Arima grunted. Layla laughed lightly "Let"s go then"

Arima shook his head and snickered. Layla beamed and they both released their aura and spirit "{This is going to be really interesting}" Karma commented.

It was a simple Resonance between Arima and Layla. But both of them were also the result of a combination of two people. Arima was in a "Final Resonance" with Night while Layla was born from Lilis and Lanya"s fusion.

Two people into one. Four people resonating. It was a really intriguing and fascinating thing when you thought about it.

When Layla and Arima started to glow with a strange light, Fafnir finally acted. In the first place, since he had used The Eye of Discord, he didn"t want to do anything else. But when he saw Arima and Layla resonating, he suddenly felt scared that he would not be able to survive before The Eye could be activated.

He also noticed the colossal serpent which was hidden in this blue mist, but he didn"t feel any fighting aura coming out of it. So, he ignored it and focused his attention on Arima and Layla.

"[Full Release]" He chanted.

"[The Castle is attacked and the King is desperate]" He seemed to be telling a story as countless golden portals lighted up around him.

"[The walls are crumbling but the powder is still filling the air]"

"[The soldiers are howling for the Kingdom]"

"[They are shrouding the cries of pain and despair]"

"[The last order of the King]"

"[Open the Vault. Give them everything]"

"[We will vanquish the enemy]"

Fafnir roared and his wings shined as he deployed them. A sea of golden weapons and artifacts appeared behind him. Swords, spears, chains, shields, bows, cannons, guns, artifacts, the Bell of Mictlan, potions, all sorts of accessories, and a dazzling quant.i.ty of money which started deriving in s.p.a.ce… Everything was out of the Vault.

At the same time, two other roars resounded. Even stronger than Fafnir"s. The latter looked ahead and gasped. Before he knew it. Another dragon had appeared. Arima had changed appearance. He was a little smaller but his body became slightly more human.

His scales were now a mix of black and silver and the mane he had in his back was white instead of silver. The second dragon beside him was of the same size and appearance. The only difference was that the colors had been inverted.

Any scale that was black for one, was silver for the other. And the mane of the second dragon was not white or black but was strangely a mix of the two.

The two of them were, of course, Arima and Layla. But neither of them was talking at the moment. Their eyes were in a daze as if something had struck them really hard. They remained like that for a moment until Arima coughed blood and Layla roared like a true dragon as if she was in great pain. Her voice carried extreme suffering.

Fafnir was shocked "What is going on?"

Arima gritted his teeth and hurriedly healed her before using another magic "[Fourth Black Art, Secundi versum, alligatum] (Second verse, Confinement)"

Layla then stopped howling and then panted violently as if her lungs were threatening to explode.

When they did this Resonance, Arima didn"t take into account a crucial detail. To be exact, it was not that he didn"t think of it, rather, he only thought that it wouldn"t do much. That thing he overlooked was the state of his magic circuits.

In a Resonance, the souls are connected by a strong link. The souls will then gather the information from the other and change the body in consequence. But during that process, among other things, the magic circuits of the two resonating are combined to form a new network.

Ultimately, it indeed didn"t cause much trouble, as Arima had predicted, but it gave them a really unexpected side effect.

During the Resonance, Arima and Layla received the memories of the other. Arima was not really affected by everything and he only coughed blood because he was the one with an injured body. But Layla received all the memories he had gathered in his Life Judgment in one go.

Fortunately, Arima managed to act in time and sealed most of them with the Fourth Art but Layla had still a.s.similated around 25% of Arima"s memories including his life as a human.

She turned her head toward Arima who was looking at her and trembled. She was still going through what Arima had experienced while he was in his world. She was shaken the moment she learned about Tieria and Scatha.

She breathed in and calmed down when she saw Arima was looking at her calmly "I"m fine" It was the first time she talked as a dragon. It sounded a lot graver but still feminine "I"m sorry I lost my cool"

Arima"s eyes widened and smiled "I see" He had also received both Lanya"s and Lilis"s memories. So, he knew that Layla had feelings for him, but it was not something he learned just now "How do you feel?" He asked as he stared at Fafnir.

Layla smirked "I"m overflowing with power; that may be the most accurate way of describing it" She said and laughed.

"It turned out perfect in the end. We can take care of him now" Arima said and deployed his wings "We"ll talk later" He added with a more serious tone.

Layla immediately understood what he meant and nodded "I"m okay with that" She responded and followed Arima as she flapped her wings.

At the same time, all of the cannons on Fafnir"s side fired and The Eye of Discord had already started to produce some ripples on the s.p.a.ce-time dimension.