Life Hunter

Guardians were at a totally different level from transcendentals. A transcendental is someone who went above the heavenly realm. Basically, you"re considered a simple mortal as long as you"re in the mortal realm or the earthen realm.

Once you reach the heavenly level and go through the refining of your soul, you basically become a divinity. That was what happened during Arima"s life judgment.

Next comes the transcendentals. To become one, you have to discard your flesh and blood and become something transcending every limit of your body.

For example, Yeion became a literal shadow when he became a transcendental. The process for transcendence is quite simple actually. The basic method is to convert your entire life force into what we call original force. That name signifies that you"re getting closer to the power of the creators.

This was the reason why Yeion was so shocked about Arima"s strength. He was not a transcendental, and only was a simple human.

The humans are the weakest intellectual species. They are far from being known for their physical or magic ability overall.

Even if Arima had become an Eternal Dragon recently, his DNA actually never changed.

At the moment, Yeion was just trying to flee. His plan was to leave the time array first. Thanks to the time shift, he should be able to gain a few hours and vanish without any trace.

But Arima wasn"t going to let him go so easily. In the first place, this array had been created from Ragnarök"s hidden aspect. This only meant one thing.

Arima"s eyes glowed and the giant clock projected in the sky slightly changed.

A new dial formed behind it. It was smaller and the needles were moving extremely fast. Before he knew, Yeion had been forced to stop and both Arima and Raylein were in front of him "(This entire planet is under his control… even time and s.p.a.ce are his…)" Yeion silently lamented.

Now he was desperately trying to find a way to get out of this situation. He peeked below and got an idea. He waved his hand and summoned a small black knife. He stared at Arima and threw it to a mountain on the planet"s surface.

The whole mountain was immediately reduced to nothing after an explosion resembling a black hole had completely destroyed it.

Arima frowned and glanced at it for a second. Yeion conjured another knife and pointed it at the city of Aurorae "If you want your people to live then let me go. You just have to put me in another time zone and they"ll be spared"

Arima snickered when he heard that threat "Go ahead" He replied and Yeion wavered. He felt that something wrong and looked down again. He didn"t even need to squint his eyes even if they were almost out of the stratosphere. He scanned the planet with his eyes and realized there was no one on it. Not even animals or insects. Everything was empty as if it had just been abandoned.

"We are in another dimension" Arima stated "Anything you destroy here will not be of any effect to the outside world"

Yeion clicked his tongue and glared at him. He didn"t have a choice. He summoned two carved scimitars from his soul and prepared himself to fight. If he was only against Arima, he may have a chance to get away. But the moment Raylein also decides to fight him, he"s definitely dead.

"(That"s also why I can still make it. The Traveler hasn"t moved yet. Perhaps he doesn"t want to intervene for now)"

"Well, now that things are set, let"s start" Arima declared and his eyes flashed for a second. Yeion abruptly felt a presence behind him and urgently evaded.

He hastily took a glance over his shoulder while keeping Arima and Raylein in sight but he saw absolutely nothing. Yeion was mystified. He alleged that he would become crazy if he stayed on this planet for too long.

"[Veluta aeim, quifa quifa]"

"[Samda maa kaav]"

He then heard a chant but before he could react, as if time had trapped him again, a green circle was formed right above him. He only had the time to blink "[Fourth Cryptic Art, Tertio Apparatum, Exist] (Third Armament)"

A large pillar of green energy shrouded Yeion"s figure and descended toward Earth. It easily went through the surface and disappeared inside. In the next instant, the entire planet fissured until it exploded and propelled all kinds of asteroids into s.p.a.ce.

Arima and Raylein were not affected at all by the explosion and just stood still until everything regained its calm. At the same time, some scattered black dots floating around gathered together to form Yeion"s silhouette.

The latter didn"t seem to care about the obliterated planet and gawked at Arima"s doppelganger who had just shot him with Superore "…What is wrong with your magic? How did you make a clone with the exact same strength as you? How did you bring me in this dimension? Why is this time array here too? How do you even keep up with the mana consumption in the first place?" He threw a barrage of questions which really needed to be answered.

He perfectly understood his situation now. He was trapped. He almost was a prisoner in this case. He was in another dimension and couldn"t threaten Earth in consequence, Arima even already destroyed it.

The array was still here even though the planet had disappeared. That meant he would not be able to escape and Arima could fight him by using that advantage. There was also a s.p.a.ce lock stopping him from leaving by teleportation.

"You don"t need to know, do you?" Arima responded and tilted his head. Lightning escaped his body every time he moved by even a single millimeter. He unsheathed Karma and disappeared on the spot. He displaced right in front of Yeion and hacked with his katana.

Yeion reacted correctly this time and received Arima"s sword with his scimitars. That first blow reduced every asteroid around to cinders. A few clashes like that followed before Arima"s doppelganger acted.

Yeion tried to parry him with one of his swords but the time array activated once again and the doppelganger moved behind him. In the meanwhile, Arima kicked him and conjured Aeterna immediately. His doppelganger pressed Superore"s trigger just after and both attacks struck Yeion.

His body was like a real shadow and couldn"t be affected deeply by physical attacks but magic a.s.saults like Aeterna and Superore"s bullets could injure him. Even so, Yeion was also trying to avoid Karma"s blade. He noticed earlier that it actually had the ability to injure or even kill him.

In the end, Yeion was completely being dominated. Arima had a tremendous advantage and Yeion wasn"t specialized in close combat too. After all, he was called "Shadow" because of his skills in a.s.sa.s.sination, spying, infiltrating and reconnaissance.

So that"s why that even if he was a transcendental, he couldn"t match up with Arima. It was also true that Yeion had to sacrifice a lot of raw power to have this kind of ethereal body. At best, his overall strength would be equal to Fafnir or a bit lower.

Raylein was watching and although he expected Arima to win, he was still astounded. When Arima opened the dimension, he didn"t even notice it. That was the first thing.

The second thing was how he was using this time prison to his own ends. Even he had to admit it would be pretty hard and annoying to defeat someone if he was to be trapped in this kind of array "Truly fearsome… but…"

"{Hey! We"re dangerously low right now!}" Night shouted and Arima"s expression twitched. Night was talking about his mana reserves. Even for him, keeping the connection with this dimension active, while also fueling the two time-arrays in both the real world and the dimension, was a little bit excessive. His mana quant.i.ty was dangerously going down since he started to fight.

"{This guy is on the defensive right now. We"ll run out of mana before we can get him}" Karma added. Yeion was using darkness magic to consume and block Arima"s attack as much as he could.

"I know... I just wanted to check and try something anyway" Arima replied to his partners out loud and retreated. Yeion had already become skeptical after all of this. He couldn"t even a.s.sume that Arima would give up. As a matter of fact, the doppelganger was still fighting with him. But what intrigued him was that he had stopped using the time array.

"He"ll soon be injured. Can you catch him for me when it happens?" Arima asked and Raylein shrugged.

"If you want. That"s not a problem"

Arima nodded and looked at his doppelganger. His sigil glowed "[Gaudete]" He chanted and his copy froze for a second before madly charging at Yeion. The latter panicked and cast a large-scale magic. The entire zone became filled with darkness. It was like a physical substance and it restrained Arima"s doppelganger like a swamp.

Yeion finally could catch his breath. He didn"t know why the doppelganger had approached him so recklessly but it had given him an occasion to contain him.

As he was being absorbed by the darkness, the doppelganger chanted something "[Third Red Art, Semita Vitisque Repertor] (Path Finder)" He discarded all of his defenses and the darkness instantly lost grasp on him. He then activated the time array one last time and went straight toward Yeion.

When the doppelganger finally reached him, Arima snapped his fingers and his clone"s skin turned red before expanding and crackling. Just after that, the doppelganger imploded and a surprisingly small and powerful explosion consumed Yeion.

Then, the time array disappeared and the dimension started collapsing. Arima sighed and waited quietly. The explosion was exceptionally bright. It almost looked like a white fireball.

It took a minute for a strange shadow to fly away from it. It was heading toward one of the s.p.a.ce cracks of the collapsing dimension. Yeion was incredibly fast and seemed to have put everything on that escape.

But as he was about to leave, Raylein teleported right next to him then stopped his movements with his aura. Yeion couldn"t do anything to free himself. The pressure alone was too big for him.

Raylein smiled and teleported back beside Arima "Is that why you"re called "The Traveler"?" Arima asked when the dimension had totally collapsed and they were back on Earth.

Raylein laughed "Indeed. My teleportation is perfect. I can transfer to anywhere and anytime I want. I can even travel through planes now. That"s why they called me like that" He explained.

"I see…" Arima replied shortly and sheathed Karma. Thunder roared and he took an Iai stance while staring at Yeion. Raylein frowned and looked at the sky. Even though it was the day, some stars were lighting up and forming a constellation.

"[Fifth Cryptic Art, s.e.xtus Stella, Cancer] (Sixth Star, Cancer)" Arima chanted and swung his sword at an exceptional speed. Even Raylein had to focus to see it and what he saw was definitely unexpected. The blade of the katana went through Yeion as if it was air. It wasn"t because Karma couldn"t cut him. It simply looked like the blade itself turned into a phantom. Even the air had not been affected.

While he was contemplating about what happened, Raylein found out that the constellation had vanished and that Yeion was dead. His body transformed into particles which were dispersed by the wind.

Raylein looked back at Arima for answers and saw that there was a small white sphere posed on the tip of Karma"s blade. His eyes widened when he noticed what it was "That"s…"

"His original force and memories" Arima answered "As expected, I can take it out with the life hunt. But I can"t absorb it without being a transcendental myself..."

"…Do you want me to teach you how to convert your mana?"

"No" Arima shook his head "The reason I fought that guy was for this anyway. I experienced his internal force first hand, I already know how to do it"

"...Why didn"t you just ask me?"