Life Hunter

"Hey, Vlad, when"s the plan supposed to begin?" Harion asked.

"Lady Ahura told us to act when Afriose would be ready to use the Stavrós Astéri. You would know that if you had attended the recent meetings"

Harion clicked his tongue and looked away "I was gathering my army as I was ordered. How could I be present?"

Dracula hummed and looked up at night sky. The planet they were standing on right now was a very special one. It was situated at the border of the farthest Plane there is from the center of the Reality. It was filled with s.p.a.ce magic, and right in the middle of a chaotic magic field which always occurs at the borders of a Plane. If you looked at the sky, you would be able to see every Plane as a big shining star.

And at that moment, they were all forming a straight line. Only one of them was slightly off. Harion stared at it for a moment and sighed "Anyway, it should be soon. Lady Ahura and Ambor did a really great job… That"s a really bold plan now that I think about it"

"They decided to push the planes instead of waiting for them to align. They could have destroyed one by mistake and completely spoiled the plan of using Stavrós Astéri. But they did it in the end" Harion muttered and Dracula snorted.

"Of course, it worked. Lady Ahura is the most powerful individual in all realities" He retorted and Harion laughed wryly.

"Maybe you"re right" He said and looked at the giant gate in front of him "She even made this ridiculous gate to transport our troops and boost them at the same time. It"s even better made than the Heaven and h.e.l.l Gates. Her ability has no boundaries" He stated and Dracula immediately agreed.

Shortly after that, someone ran up the mountain and kneeled next to Harion "I have something to report to you, General"

"What is it?"

"A large-scale fight just erupted at the center of Melumnia. The First Guardian"s castle has already been destroyed and four of the Guardians, Ambrogio included, are battling against a certain individual"

Harion"s eyes widened "Who is it?"

"It"s…" The man hesitated for a second. Bracing himself to tell this unbelievable information "The Kind Demon"

"What?" Harion exclaimed and Dracula raised an eyebrow.

"The man who was chosen by Raylein to be the next Seventh Guardian is currently fighting them. The ones engaged in that combat right now are Ambrogio, Shiva, Shakti, and Victor"

"No way… at best he"s a transcendental. He can"t win against a Guardian" Harion mumbled "How is that "Demon" holding out?" He hastily asked.

"He"s… pushing them back" The messenger responded and both Harion and Dracula were astounded "Actually, he has two people at his side. Two dragons to be exact and he himself actually transformed into a dragon"

"A dragon? Is he from the dragon race?"

"We don"t know. But we know that among the three dragons that are there, one of them is him. As for the two other dragons, one of them, a literal skeleton, is incredibly strong. He"s holding out against Shiva and Shakti at the same time"

Harion listened to the astonishing news and started laughing "This is hilarious!" He laughed even louder before waving his hand at his subordinate "You can go now. Contact the rest of the army and tell them we"ll act soon. The Stavrós Astéri has been advanced and will be occurring today. We will charge in Melumnia and invade them. Those new factors don"t matter"

"I"m sure that if even that Kind Demon wins his fight, he will be defeated under Lady Ahura"s and Afriose"s ability" Harion said and the messenger nodded before jumping down the mountain.

Dracula followed the messenger with his eyes until he left, then looked at Harion "Are you sure that person won"t cause us any problem?"

"Don"t worry, didn"t you say Lady Ahura was the strongest of all?"

"…I did say so"

"Just enjoy this moment" Harion said as he saw the last Plane in the process of aligning with the others.

If you were looking at that planet from very far away in the sky. You would see that the whole surface, except the mountain occupied by Harion and Dracula, was covered by countless soldiers of different races. Some were giants while others were not even as big as a finger. Among them, there were a lot of pale looking ones with two fangs sticking out of their mouth. They were commonly known as ghouls, servants, blood-suckers, etc. They were all Dracula"s converted p.a.w.ns.

The army that was in standby on this planet wasn"t the only one. This kind of thing was happening in at least a thousand other planets. They were all waiting for Harion"s and Dracula"s order to go through the gate leading to Melumnia.

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The skies of Melumnia had been replaced by a blazing azure fire. The earth and the elements had been put into chaos. Blood was splattered everywhere. Ambrogio waved his hand and countless puppets made of blood jumped and attacked Arima.

They were all mindlessly shrieking as if they were a dying soul put into a new body. Arima"s eyes flashed and he swung Karma. Lightning exploded and all of the blood puppets were destroyed in a single hit.

"Behind you!" Layla shouted and Arima"s sigil glowed urgently. The blue fire in the sky fell down as a huge pillar right behind him. Arima heard a grunt and Ambrogio escaped the flames with a trail of blood following him.

Arima then heard a boiling sound and looked down. A large circle of blood had been drawn around him "[Fourth Destruction Art, Vashta Nerada]" He slammed his hand on the ground and a ma.s.s of darkness enveloped him to protect him as an enormous explosion occurred.

As Ambrogio was retreating, the ground below suddenly attacked him. Even gravity and air went against his movement. He gritted his teeth and felt a change in the burning sky. He moved his hands in a pattern and cast a fire magic on his own upward. His magic clashed with the blue fire pillar and blasted.

At the same time, Layla blocked Victor"s strike head on and instantly collected its power as a pure energy thanks to her new body. Her eyes then trembled and she rotated her body before punching Victor"s clone who was behind her. She then punched the original and drew two magic circles facing each direction. They glowed with a golden light and two star-like explosions shrouded both the clone and the original.

"Dammit! How can you predict my every move!?" Victor shouted and grasped thin air as it was physical. He pulled on it and a wave of darkness erupted out of nowhere and drowned the area. Layla felt her vision being robbed. One more time remembering how hard it was for Arima. But her pupils were glimmering and she turned her body accurately to avoid Victor"s next strike. A single strike from both of them dispersed the darkness and created a depression in the air and on the ground.

As they were about to charge at each other again, a large chunk of ice fell from the sky and crashed between them. They jumped back and only glanced for a second toward the people who were at cause and went around it to continue their fight.

Malum laughed madly as he used his bare hands to destroy Shiva"s ice. Shakti teleported behind him and used a hand sign to conjure a huge barrage of water blades. Malum turned his head and his scales formed a shield which defended him from the a.s.sault. Shiva took the occasion to attack and a giant statue of ice formed behind him and punched Malum who was around the same size.

"[D] (500)" Malum chanted and punched the animated statue. The ice broke without delay and crumbled to pieces.

"No f.u.c.king way!" Shiva exclaimed and closed in by himself. His whole body started producing really cold vapor. He punched again when he was close to Malum and a giant ice fist was immediately created to convey his strike. Shiva then threw a kick and another ice limb appeared before tumbling down again.

"[Fourth Red Art, Nativus Dominare]" Malum chanted and Shiva"s ice abruptly stopped and turned against its own caster.

"What!?" He gasped and crossed his arms as he took his own ice fist. Then it was Shakti"s turn as her light and water magic were reflected toward her. But in her case, she managed to teleport away and retrieve Shiva at the same time.

"[Furorque tenebris] (Darkness and Madness)

"[Difficile est docere illos quid est morietur] (Teach them how hard it is to die)

"[Second Blue Art, Nova Tenebris, Mesperyian ludum scriptor] (Black Nova, Mesperyian"s game)"

Malum used the hidden effect of the Second Blue Art and in the mind of both Shiva and Shakti, a copy of themselves, made of dark fire, appeared right in front of them and began attacking them.

"This is an illusion!" Shakti shouted, but for some reason, she couldn"t stop herself from trying to counter the attacks of those illusions.

"Of course, they are! Now how do we stop them!? This illusion is too strong!" Shiva retorted and cast a large-scale magic, trying to confine those strange creatures into the ice. But they were not real and reappeared next to him just after.

Malum snickered "They will never stop. But they will never harm you. That"s weird, isn"t it?" He uttered as he raised his hands. He mumbled a chant and a sort of volcanic stone appeared at the tip of each of his fingers.

They were becoming bigger and bigger as Malum inject his mana in them "s.h.i.t! Shakti, retreat!" Shiva shouted and made multiple hand signs in less than a second. His eyes produced vapor and his members even became covered in ice.

Malum scowled and looked up at the blazing sea being opened. His eyes widened when he saw a humongous ship of ice falling from the sky "[The Itinerant Ship]" Shiva chanted and the figurehead was about to reach Malum.

"[Third Blue Art, Fragor Magnus]!" Malum barely managed to cast his magic and the ten bombs he was making flew away toward Shiva and Shakti just before the ship was able to hit him. The ice ship exploded into a magnificent outburst of ice shards and blue light. And on the other side, the ten fireb.a.l.l.s fired by Malum exploded into a very large-scale zone.

If they were fighting on a planet like the Earth, it would"ve been destroyed a lot more than a few times.

"{Now}" Arima signaled and Layla nodded while Malum smirked as he pulled out a large ice pole out of his chest.

"[Third Destruction Art, Pars Impios]" The three of them chanted at the same time and the same number of Lawless Tomes were summoned. The three books flipped their pages and started crackling.

"Go!" Arima shouted and turned into a lightning ent.i.ty which flew away at incredible speed. Ambrogio tried to confine him by trapping him inside a large gla.s.s cage.

"[Third Red Art, Semita Vitisque Repertor] (Path Finder)" But Arima went past that cage as it was nothing. The vampire groaned and had a bad feeling about what was going to happen.

The haggard Malum, Layla, and Arima joined back together and all chanted an Art as they were flying "[Second White Art, Calces Porta]" The familiar silver disc was formed.

"If you want to get away, it"s now" Arima said toward the six other Guardians who were not fighting him and went through the gate he just created along with his two partners.

Ganesha laughed and immediately took his advice and retreated as much as possible. Aergia was next "I don"t like moving" She groaned and complained. The rest followed too.

As for Victor, Shiva, Shakti, and Ambrogio, they were unable to escape in time anymore. The three books disintegrated and released a chaotic outburst filled with different energies; from simple mana to even World Laws.

"Gather around me!" Ambrogio directed and the three Guardians went in his direction "[I invoke this Law and offer my humble essence as a tribute]" He chanted at high speed.

"[Erase]" He uttered and the light of the Lawless Tomes shrouded his group just after. It spread far and wide, covering a fourth of the absolutely t.i.tanic planet.