Life Hunter

Arima frowned and took a step forward before taking another backward. He waved his palm and a transparent sphere formed in his hand. He threw it to the front and it exploded in its course. After the explosion, the air blurred and returned to normal after a second.

"That"s not a physical or an illusion barrier, huh?" Lilis commented

"Then what is it?" Lanya asked in curiosity. She didn"t even bother about thinking whether or not they could pa.s.s through it. With Arima and Lilis here, no barrier could stop them.

"I"d say it"s something like a projection" Arimane said "It hides things from outsiders. Something like we can"t see the city from outside but they can see us from the inside. But most likely, just entering isn"t enough to get rid of this projection. It"s like walking in the enemy territory while being blind. Well, I can sense their presence though" He explained

"How do we break it?" Night asked, it seemed like he was liking to be carried on Arima"s shoulder and didn"t move at all since the moment he jumped on it.

"We don"t break it" Arima said and called Karma "We cut ourselves in" He said and unsheathed his sword

"…What"s that supposed to mean?" Night was confused

"[Primum, confractus] (First, Break)" Arima broke the first seal and raised Karma. The blade became endowed with a transparent, white and blue aura "[Quod temporaria Inanis] (Temporal Void)" He chanted and swung his katana effortlessly. A wave, made of the two different colors, flew away and halted in mid-air to clash with something invisible, but it only lasted a second and the attack pa.s.sed through. A vertical cut appeared in mid-air and behind, the landscape of a city along with some people, was revealed. It felt like a sort of painting.

Arima sheathed Karma "See? Done" Karma disappeared in red particles "s.p.a.ce magic is the best to cut barriers, add Time magic to it, and it can cut through any magic arrays" He said and jumped in the crack of the barrier with Night on his shoulder.

"…Did he just say time?" Lilis mumbled "The hardest magic theory to understand in the entire universe?" She said and looked at Lanya who was staring at her with innocent eyes and she sighed "Of course, you don"t know how tremendous it is. If Cronos knew this, he"ll go on rampage" She muttered and followed Arima. Lanya let out a chuckle and followed too, the crack on the barrier closed afterwards.

Inside the barrier, Arima was admiring the vehicles that were used here. It was simple carriages but they weren"t pulled by beasts or monsters but simply by using a magic crystal that collects the mana of the conductor and propels the wheels.

"And here I thought I will never see anything like that in this world" Arima uttered "But apparently, the demons are actually a kind of scientific race" He said started appreciating the view.

The city was a bit different from the ones he had seen before, it was perfectly arranged, the houses and buildings looked very neat and clean. And even the type of gla.s.s used was different, it was simply of better quality.

The second thing Arima saw was a cake shop in which he directly entered. He looked around for the most good-looking cake and chose it. He directly cut a slice of it and ate it. The cream on the exterior melt in his mouth and tasted like candy. He then felt biting on a biscuit layer and touching the chocolate inside.

It was so good that Arima almost cried "Is it that good?" Night asked and a flash pa.s.sed through Arima"s eyes, he cut another slice and put it in the mouth of the wolf cub on his shoulder. The latter was caught off guard and almost spat it out to complain, but when he tasted the cake, his expression endured a total change. He began to chew on that cake earnestly and asked for more after that.

Lanya laughed wryly and Lilis sighed "Let"s go visit ourselves, they"ll come back after they"re done" The latter said and dragged Lanya away.

After that, it was, of course, shopping time. For both sides, Arima particularly started to buy every patisserie in the city.

When Arima was walking on the streets and looking around, he felt something and looked at the sky, he saw that the sun had bulged a bit and he smiled bitterly "Well, of course it can"t be perfect" He commented

"Yeah" Night nodded "By the way" He then said

"Mh, what?" Arima asked

"People have been looking at me for a moment now, it"s uncomfortable" He complained

"Oh, that" Arima smiled and glanced at the people around. There were a lot of them who would smile and look at Night. No matter if it was girls or boys, they would find him cute, holding onto Arima"s shoulder. What would they think if they knew that even in that form, Night could kill all of them in one magic "Don"t bother, it"s normal, everyone is attracted by cute things" Arima said

Night"s eye twitched "It doesn"t make me feel better" He said. Arima smiled and his look fell on an interesting shop. In front of it, a short man, which seemed to be a dwarf was working on a man propelled vehicle with two wheels, you could see a saddle and a handle bar.

Basically, it was a bike. He was working on it while it as upside down.

Arima became curious and approached "Hey, how do you call that?" He asked to the dwarf. The latter glanced at Arima and Night.

"I called it ricycle" He answered to the question

Arima chuckled "You should call it bicycle" He said. The dwarf looked at him one more time then restarted working on the bike "Why do you work on that?" Arima asked "I"m sure a lot of people wouldn"t like it, it"s not made to work with magic after all, and it"s not that fast"

The dwarf trembled and stopped his movements for a second and then resumed "…Because I have a poor magical ability, I decided to live without it, the things that weakness brought me in the past made me like this" He said after a short silence

Arima smiled "I see" He walked towards the dwarf, he crouched down on the other side of the bike and looked at the dwarf "Look at this" Arima said and conjured a black flame in his right hand, the dwarf frowned but waited. Arima then conjured a ball water in his left hand "You know what happens when water is heated to a maximum, right?" He asked to the dwarf.

"Yeah, of course" The latter responded

Arima nodded and put the fire he created under the ball of water, the heat of the fire was such that the water started evaporated instantly. Arima caught the vapor with magic and made it sustain its gaseous form. He then made the vapor fly around him "That"s what you call steam" Arima said

The dwarf looked at the steam hovering in the air "Why do you want to show me this?" He asked

Arima grinned and waved his hand, the steam followed his orders and flew towards one of the pedals of the bike, the steam was then liberated and the pedal started revolving around its shaft and the wheel also turned. At first the dwarf watched with confusion but he then suddenly thought of something and rushed into his store. But a few seconds after, he came back outside and bowed with a hurried expression "Thanks" He said and returned inside.

"What did you do?" Night asked while eating a small slice of cake he had taken from his storage

Arima smiled and began to walk towards the center of the city "I just taught him a cool thing" And answered "Call the girls, tell them the play time is over, we go to the castle" He said and disappeared from the streets without anyone noticing.

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

An hour later, near a giant gate made entirely of t.i.tanium enhanced by orichalc.u.m connecting to the castle, Arima was trying his best to keep a straight face.

"Hey, Night"

"Mh"

"I"ve got an idea"

"If it"s destroying the city to make them come back, it"s denied"

"…"

"…"

"I never said that…nor thought of it"

"Yeah, sure"

They fell silent "Why don"t you teleport them back here?" Night asked

"Lilis concealed herself along with Lanya, I can"t detect them" Arima answered

They waited one more hour before Lanya and Lilis arrived. When the two girls came back the first thing they saw was dark electricity filling the air and a vein popping on Arima"s forehead. Night fell asleep on his shoulder.

"Well, it"s not really anger…I think" Lilis wryly said and Lanya instantly hid behind the latter.

Ultimately, Night woke up and calmed Arima before they could move towards that gate.

"Who are you?" When they arrived at the main gate, a soldier stopped them in a rude way.

Arima smiled in a way that made tremble the people around him, even the ten or so soldiers at the gate. But, he was smiling, of course, so no one said anything him. He took out a gold and silver card and handed it to the soldier.

The latter took it, trembling, and looked at it. When he saw what was on it, his eyes widened and he rushed inside the castle by a small entrance on the side.

"Are you still angry? Stop bullying these soldiers" Night said to Arima.

The latter sighed calmly "It"s not anger, I"m irritated. It"s good now though, I spent it" He responded.

A few minutes later, the soldier came back with a higher ranked officer and they brought them inside by the small private gate.

"What"s the point of that main gate?" Lanya asked an innocent and pure question and that made all of the soldiers turn their head away.

"Well, it must be something like that. It"s too big to open casually, so they just built a small gate to use instead" Arima answered and the soldiers felt like they took a critical attack.

"That"s stupid" Lilis and Night said at the same time. This time, the personnel of the castle wore a defeated expression.

"Why are you all so depressed?" Arima asked and that was the final attack that brought them to their knees.

Seriously, a technologically advanced city had to have this kind of gate for the castle, that was almost humiliating. It was just all because the King wanted an imposing and really strong gate to be at the entrance of his castle. Because of that, they couldn"t open it unless someone at the eight-level acted.

"That"s dumb" Arima said and he almost killed the mental of those poor demons.