Life Hunter

"They were already like that when I woke up" Night said on the side

Arima looked at the two girls "Lilis, wake Lanya up, I want to leave now, don"t make me lose time" He said and walked out of the room, Lilis trembled. She sat on the bed and laughed bitterly.

"I was found out" She said. Night blankly stared at her and left the room soon after, because he couldn"t pa.s.s the door frame he used a short distance teleportation.

Ten minutes later, Lanya and Lilis left the room and headed to the restaurant of the Inn. In there, Arima was silently drinking some milk with chocolate and Night was happily eating a full plate of cooked meat.

Arima glanced at them "Oh, you"re here" He said and gulped down the rest of the milk. Night took all of his plate in one bit and licked his lips. Arima stood up "Let"s go then" He said and conjured the transfer circle. And the four vanished from the Inn.

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

They reappeared in a wide plain. There was a giant dome made of mist in front of them.

"…You could have asked before bringing us here" Lilis said and Lanya nodded

"Lanya, how do we go in?" Arima ignored them and pointed at the dome before asking. That huge dome was the barrier set around the whole spirit realm.

"Mh" Lanya pondered for a moment a walked back and forth around the dome "Here" She said and extended her arm. She touched the semi physical mist and her hand glowed in a silver light before the mist dispersed and revealed a tunnel to the inside "There it is" Lanya smiled and said to Arima.

The latter nodded "Thanks" He patted Lanya and went first inside.

Lilis saw that from behind "Hey, are they lovers or something?" She murmured to Night beside her and pointed at Arima and Lanya

Night glanced at her and looked at the two seriously "No" he said directly "The best comparison would be the relationship between a father and a daughter" He said and followed Lanya who entered after Arima.

Lilis tilted her head "Father-daughter?" She pondered "It doesn"t look like an inaccurate description" She said and followed them

They kept walking in the tunnel for around a minute until they reached the end of it.

"…That"s quite impressive" Arima said in awe

They arrived in a huge field of flowers. All kind of plants and flowers bloomed around the place giving mult.i.tude of colors and impressions.

The group of four took a stone paver in the middle of the field and followed it. Arima and Night kept looking around in curiosity

Lanya smiled "It hasn"t changed since the last time I came. The Spirit people always liked to be surrounded by verdure and flowers" She said

"Mh, I never saw this place from above, that"s interesting" Lilis said while touching a blue flower beside the stone paver.

"Ah, but more than half of those plants are actually eating flowers so you should be more careful" Lanya hurriedly said when she saw what Lilis was doing, and the latter jumped back in surprise.

"That…was unexpected" She said. Arima was also shocked, he hadn"t felt anything from this field of flowers.

"(Maybe because it"s only nature)" He thought.

"That"s why when you enter the spirit realm you have to know how pa.s.s the barrier correctly, if you don"t, you find yourself in the field of flowers without any stone paver like this one" Lanya followed and explained

"I see" Arima nodded

After half an hour of admiring the landscape. They arrived to a town without any external walls, only some fences. The houses inside could be either made of stone, wood, earth, even things like water, ice and leaves, there were also houses built in huge trees.

"Wow" The huge diversity of the view made Arima and Night exclaim at the same time.

"That"s beautiful" Even Lilis gave an honest impression "Not as much as Heaven though" But she said just after.

"Heaven?" Lanya asked perplexed

Lilis smiled "That"s the name of the place I come from"

"Is that so? It must be a good place" Lanya said

"A good place, huh?" Arima uttered

Lilius turned towards him "What? Are you saying it"s not?"

Arima didn"t say anything and just walked to the town "You"ll never be able to create Heaven, you"ll always look up to it from h.e.l.l" He said

Lilis froze and her eyes narrowed. She stared at Arima extremely seriously. In the end she smiled mysteriously and followed him to the town.

When they entered the town, the people living there directly spotted them. Spirit people were different from the ones we talk about when someone mention Spirit magic. The Spirit kind are said to be able to be born without parents, they can spring from anything, air, water, earth, fire, wood, plants and a lot of different things like that.

The people that were looking at Arima"s group could be extremely different one to another. Some could have their skin be blue or green, other could grow some horns or tails, they could be as small as an apple but still have a human appearance, but most of them had the appearance of a small animal. The only common characteristic that came back every time, was the pair of fairy-like wings on their back.

"I kinda like this place" Arima commented. While they were walking in the town, a sort of soldier with yellow skin and tail came in front of Lanya and bowed

"Lady Leana, it"s been a long time" He said

"Yes, it has been" Lanya smiled and answered

"You"ve really changed since last time I saw you, I almost couldn"t recognize you, but the stone path you used to enter is the special one the princess gave you, she instantly felt it asked me to come here to find you" The soldier said

"I see, I came here with some friends, tell Vinia that we"ll come soon" Lanya said to the soldier

"Understood" he respectfully responded and left

"Who is that Vinia?" Arima asked

"It"s the first princess of the spirit realm, also the one who saved me around thirty years ago" She answered

"A princess, huh? You have some luck" Arima commented

"Yes, I think so too" Lanya smiled while reminiscing the past "Now that I think about it, maybe it really was the luckiest day of my life. Spirit people are said to rarely get out of their home, but I met the princess outside of it" She said

"That was lucky indeed" Lilis suddenly said. She wrapped her arm around Lanya "Hey, is there some good stores in this town?" She asked and Arima"s expression suffered a great change when he heard that question.

"Eh? Yes, there is some I know about, but I"m not sure if they"re still there" Lanya answered

"That"s okay, Spirits live long, I"m sure they"re still at the same place, if they"re not, we just have to look others then" Lilis grinned and rea.s.sured her "Now let"s go" She cheerfully said and dragged Lanya with her.

Arima felt like he had no choice and followed them along with Night.

"{Arima, I think we"re being pressured}" Night said

"{Think? We"re being pressured, there"s two girls in front who wants to go shopping, one is the inheritor of an Earthen G.o.d and the other is an Heaven G.o.ddess. What are we? We can be called cheats or bugs. How do you want to fight that?}" Arima snapped out of the blue

Night looked at him in shock. Arima had a pale face, what he lacked right now was only some sweat "{What"s wrong? I never saw you like that}" Night asked him

"{Just…a trauma from when I was a kid}" Arima responded "{Back when I was twelve, my mom dragged me, for a week straight, in different shops, because she couldn"t find something that looked good on me, she said}" He narrated

"{Oh}" Night was interested. That was the first time Arima talked about his past, and it seemed, surprisingly, very cheerful "{If she dragged you for so long just for that, that means she cared a lot about you, I think it"s great}" He ultimately said

"{…Yeah, like you say. She was a great mother. Honestly…}" Arima told Night with an unusual gentleness in his tone and he fell silent afterwards

Night glanced at him and stopped asking him, he looked in front of him and soon realized he had a greater thing to worry about. Lilis already had pushed Lanya into a shop.

Arima and Night grunted at the same time.

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

Two hours later, it was around noon, Lanya finally led the group towards the "castle" of the town.

"Hummmmm" Arima hummed for a long time "What is that?" And finally asked

"Where the royal family lives, also the favorite place of the Spirit people" Lanya answered

"I…see" Arima responded with a small difficulty

The "castle" Lanya brought them to had, first, a big garden in front of it. The whole area was around nine square kilometers. The first thing that came into view after the garden was a strange structure in the sky that made some loops, besides that, there was also a circular structure, that kept turning and drew attention too. Below all of that, on the ground, there were a lot of people happily walking, entering in different stalls, there was particular thing that children liked a lot. It was a bizarre installation, with figures of different types of mounts revolving around a pillar. One could also see a mult.i.tude of small shops of sweets and keepsakes.

Arima"s eyebrow twitched "Isn"t that a d.a.m.n amus.e.m.e.nt park?!" He couldn"t help but shout

"Arima, you don"t look very perturbed if you hold that cotton candy in your hand" Night casually retorted

"What? I like those" He regained his calm and said "Still, is this place really appropriate for the royal family to reside in?" Arima asked to Lanya while eating his candy

"I don"t know, but if I"m not wrong this place was built from the description the Spirit people read on an ancient scripture" Lanya thought for a bit and said

"An ancient… scripture?" Arima uttered "(No matter how you look at that, it"s an amus.e.m.e.nt park, even this cotton candy)" Arima said in his mind

"Ah, so it was the Spirits who found it" Lilis muttered something and Arima didn"t omit that

"Hey, what is that supposed to mean?" he asked

Lilis laughed strangely "Well, you know, a group of G.o.ds which I am part of, found that this idea of amus.e.m.e.nt park created by some worlds, including yours, was interesting. So, for fun, we dropped a tablet describing it on a dozen of worlds or so, it was the Spirits that found it in this world apparently" She scratched her hair and explained

"Seriously? You G.o.ds have nothing else to do?" Arima retorted

"What? It was during the long-awaited holiday that comes every thousand years for most of the G.o.ds who did that" She said

Arima looked doubtfully at her "What about you? Why do you have time to be here?"

"I"m one of the rare G.o.ds that exist because of the emotions from the mortals, so I only need to exist, that"s my job" She said proudly "Also, sometimes I offer powers, for instance, that elf you met, the power she had was one I gave her" She said

"Is that so?" Arima said and turned around

"Hey, don"t ignore me! You asked!" Lilis shouted