Life Hunter

"Well, what should I tell you first?" Zesta mused a bit in front of Arima "First, I can tell you that Azes brought you in this world for a reason, although I don"t know myself very well what he is planning, but I know that he is looking for something that could help him" She said "What I can say with cert.i.tude is that you are a jackpot for him"

Arima listened silently, his expression didn"t change once, he was still looking coldly at the G.o.ddess in front of him. Even the latter smiled bitterly when she saw how he treated her.

"Your soul is huge. When I say huge, maybe yourself doesn"t realize how much it is, the size of the mana pool depends a lot on the size of your soul, I"m sure you at least understood that the size of your mana pool is unnatural. It"s even bigger than a G.o.d"s" Zesta said helplessly "But the most important thing here is what you are" She pointed at Arima

Arima reacted to those words "What I am?" He said

"Yes, you"re a type of human which we thought became extinct tens of thousands of years ago. I"m sure you already understood it yourself, but the main characteristic of those humans was their ability to steal life force and use it as their own strength. They could steal the life force of any kind of living being, from small animals to even G.o.ds. That"s why they were feared by Heaven and were eliminated" Zesta explained "They were called from the technique they used, Life Hunters" She said

"How can I be one?" Arima shortly asked, he wasn"t shocked or scared

Seeing Arima so unfazed, Zesta sighed "(Even if he is a Life Hunter, he"s still human, how can he keep that calm when he is told that he"s basically an enemy of Heaven)" She thought and shrugged before answering Arima "Most likely, some of your ancestors fled to your world to hide, apparently they succeeded"

"I see, I understand" Arima nodded and looked at Zesta "And? Why are you here? You still haven"t answered properly to my first question. You said it was for fun and because Azes asked you, but I still don"t know what you"re supposed to do here exactly" He asked unperturbed

Zesta sighed "Even if you just fake it, can you act a bit more unsettled or stressed, now that I think about it, since you came to this world, I never saw you scared or panicked, is that something you also locked in your mind?" She ultimately asked

Arima stared at her "No, that"s how I was born"

Zesta"s expression twitched "(That"s worse, isn"t it?)" She shook her head "Like I said, there"s two reasons as to why I"m here. First, I"m curious and bored so I came here to spend some time, two, Azes asked me to help you hide your ident.i.ty as a Life Hunter" She said

"That"s all?" Arima had a disappointed expression and just said that "I don"t need your help, now that you told me that you can"t see inside my dimension, I just have to stop using Life Hunt outside of it, also, if Life Hunters have a unique aura then I can suppress it if I want. If we"re over, goodbye" Arima said and prepared to dispel the connection with dimension.

"Eh?" Zesta was shocked "Hey, wait! Aren"t you curious about yourself?! And why are you so untactful with me?! I"m a real G.o.ddess, you know?!" She shouted

Arima glanced at her, his expression had returned to normal, it wasn"t cold or happy "Someone who wants to prove their ident.i.ty shouldn"t say something like that" He said and the dimension broke.

Arima reappeared on the streets along with Zesta who was already sulking, the citizens there didn"t notice anything, strangely. Arima began to walk away and Zesta followed him.

"Why are you following me?" The former asked

"I said that I was bored and I came here to spend time. The most interesting thing here on this world is without a doubt, you" She said like it was an obvious thing and more than following, she was walking beside Arima like they were good friends.

"I never agreed to be something on which you cast away your boredom" Arima said annoyingly

"I never asked for your permission" Zesta smiled and said

Arima glanced at her for a moment and continued to wander in the city. He kept refilling his storage with sweets. Recently he had been working on time magic but he didn"t succeed to use it, but he could at least freeze time in his storage.

"By the way, Arima, what are your affinities? If I"m not wrong, Life Hunters can also steal that from the life force of their victims, right?" Zesta suddenly asked

Arima was a bit uncomfortable "(This woman is too familiar)" He thought and he looked at her "I don"t know; it"s been a while since I checked" he just said

"Then why don"t you try right now?" Zesta smiled and said

Arima sighed and did the test. The eight spheres appeared above his hand. Like always, the thunder and darkness were going wild, but now, the fire had become the same even without having to resonate with Night. Every other affinity also skyrocketed thanks to the Lilin people, the undead, Koden and all of those who died by Arima"s "Flower chain".

"Wow" Even Zesta was impressed "You have an Elemental Emperor Const.i.tution after all" She said

Arima never heard this term "What is that?" He asked

"In Heaven, the level of affinity you have with thunder, darkness and fire is called Absolute Dominance. People with one element under Absolute Control are said to have an Elemental Ruler Const.i.tution, those with two are called Elemental Kings and those with three are called Elemental Emperors" She explained "And you also possess another rare const.i.tution, you have what we call the Dark Emperor Const.i.tution" She said

"Does that have something to do with my darkness affinity?" Arima asked

"Yes, those who possess Absolute Dominance over Light or Darkness elements possess the Light or Dark Emperor t.i.tle respectively" Zesta said "The main characteristic of that peculiarity is the change in color of other elements you use" She said smiling

"I see, then, can I get Absolute Dominance over all elements if I continue to use Life Hunt?" Arima asked and Zesta laughed

"No, that"s impossible, even for Life Hunters, these types of const.i.tutions are decided at birth, you can"t get it with Life Hunt. At best your affinities will stagnate at the peak but never go to the Dominance level" She said

"But my fire affinity wasn"t at this level when I came to this world" Arima retorted

Zesta was still half laughing when she heard him "Huh?" And could only be utterly shocked "What did you just say?"

"I said that my fire affinity became like that with Life Hunt" Arima repeated himself

Zesta now began to look at Arima like he was a monster, even a G.o.ddess couldn"t escape that apparently "…Are you a kind of unique type of Life Hunter?" She mumbled

Arima frowned "How am I supposed to know?" He said and continued to walk

Zesta looked at him from behind "Lucky you Azes, you found the perfect monster you need" She murmured and quickly followed Arima.

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

An hour later, Arima found an Inn and called Night to come back. When Night and Lanya arrived, they directly noticed the woman with Arima. Night was confused and Lanya was surprised

"Who is it?" She asked

"Just think of her as a curious pet following us" Arima said

"Huh?" Lanya was perturbed by the answer and failed to understand was he was saying.

Zesta was unfazed by Arima"s att.i.tude, she took a step ahead "My name is Zesta… Blade" She said with a huge grin

Arima crushed the cup he had in his hands and the water inside fell on the ground "Don"t ever say that again" He said with an extremely cold voice that even made Night shiver

Zesta was surprised though, she just wanted to make a small joke but apparently Arima"s family name was important to him "I"m sorry about that" She said, even she knew how to apologize when it was her fault.

Arima waved his hand, the cup restored itself, the water came back inside, and he returned to his usual self.

Zesta coughed "Sorry about that, I"m Zesta Lilis. Lilis is actually my first name, you can call me with it if you want" She smiled to Night and Lanya "You can too" She turned to Arima and said. The latter just stayed silent.

"Nice to meet you, Arima named me Night Bahamut" Night said, surprisingly

"Hum, my name is Lanya Leana" Lanya also presented herself hesitatingly

Lilis smiled and nodded "Pleased to meet you, I"m going to integrate your little group so let"s get along" She said

Night frowned "{Hey, what"s that?}" He said telepathically to Arima. He didn"t say "who" but "what", that represented his first impression of Lilis.

"{A Heaven G.o.ddess}" Arima replied

Night"s eyes narrowed "{Seriously? I was wondering why you were so tense since we came back, now I know why}" He finally understood

"{I don"t think she has any bad intentions against us, but it"s a habit of mine to observe and judge the people I met that try to get close to me}" Arima said and glanced at Lilis

Night nodded "{I see}"

Lilis already realized those two were discussing, but even if she was a G.o.ddess, she couldn"t interrupt a telepathic link between a soul beast and its creator, even more when the soul of Arima was a lot bigger then hers.

So she decided to get along with Lanya while the dragon in a wolf form and the "monster" with a human appearance were talking, they surprisingly got along pretty well and laughed together time to time.

Night noticed that "{Hey, isn"t that a bad thing?}" He said urgently to Arima

The latter nodded "{Without a doubt. A bad thing}" He responded with a stiff expression "Lilis" And he suddenly called

"Mh?" She smiled "What is it?" She asked

"Right now, how strong are you?"

Lilis pondered for a moment "Around the tenth level, it"s already a great achievement for it to be so low" She said

"Low?" Lanya was completely confused on the side

"I see" Arima nodded "I suppose it"s reasonable"

Lilis turned towards Lanya when she realized Arima didn"t have anything to say "Lanya, where are you all going after this?" She asked

"The spirit realm" Lanya answered "I"ve got an acquaintance there" She said

"Mm, and what about you Arima? What are you planning to do on this continent?" Lilis took the chance to ask him.

"I plan to sleep" Arima said, he laid down on the bed of the Inn and closed his eyes

"Eh? Wait…" Lilis was took off guard

"Well, good night then" Night said and laid down

"Hum, good night" Lanya did the same as Arima and Night and laid on the second bed.

"…Where do I sleep?" Lilis asked but only received silence. Her expression twitched and she looked at Lanya with an "evil" smile.