Life Hunter

Of course, it was extremely easy for Arima to integrate the soul and change it. In the end, Arima and Night stayed in a semi resonated form for a few hours. Both of them were silent, their Mind and Soul were closed and completely focused.

Arima felt like he entered a very complex program of which a single line of code could overload his mind. He managed to find the section of the soul which defines Night as a member of the dragon race. After a few tries, he invaded a small part of it with his own Soul and modified Night"s a bit.

After that, the resonance between them instantly terminated and they both reappeared in front of each other "So? Do you feel like you can do it?" Arima asked.

Night looked at his hand and activated a magic to change form, he looked at the blue hue around his claw and clenched it "I think I can do it" He smiled and answered.

Arima smiled "Then go ahead, what are you waiting for?"

Night breathed out and a circle appeared below him, his whole body started to glow and his figure became totally shrouded in a black and red light.

His silhouette began to shrink considerably and he slowly reached the same height as Arima"s. When the light died down, Night came back as a human this time.

Black hair, crimson eyes, facial features that made him look very serious and dependable. His expression looked even calmer than Arima"s. The clothes he was wearing were something that was formed unconsciously. It was almost the same ones as his partner, just that Night"s were red and black and his coat was more tough looking.

When Arima saw that, he smiled. If it wasn"t for the slight difference in hair length, eyes and clothes, they would look like twins, but even like that, anyone would definitely see them as brothers at the minimum.

After a few seconds of standing there, Night stretched a bit and tried to take a step toward Arima, then he felt a bit dizzy and wavered, along with the pendant he had received from Lanya which was hanging at his neck.

"Hard to get used? Karma got it almost instantly" Arima asked.

Night wryly smiled "Just a bit disoriented, maybe because it was a direct change of my soul imprint"

"Maybe" Arima nodded and then looked at Night "What"s your actual strength in this form?"

"Mm" Night mused and waved his hand a bit while he checked his aura and body "Maybe around the second sky. As expected, changing from my original form to another, even if it is a human one, makes me fall off two levels. Particularly my physical strength"

"That"s not so bad" Arima commented and then took out Ira, he could"ve called Karma and she would have directly appeared here but Arima chose to not do so.

"Do you remember?" He smirked and asked.

Night chuckled and took a stance "Of course"

Both of them looked at each other before kicking the ground and altering the entire plain with just a clash of fists.

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

"Who"s that?" Arister frowned and asked when he saw Arima come back with someone that looked like his brother, heck, like his twin.

"It"s Night" Arima said.

"It"s me" Night followed. Arister gaped, without a doubt, that voice was Night"s.

"First your weapon, now your soul dragon, what the h.e.l.l?" He muttered under his breath. Meanwhile, Karma with a bright look examined Night by turning around him.

"What are you doing?" He felt irritated and asked with a vein popping out on his forehead.

"Nah, it"s just very fun, you look a lot like Arima" Karma said "It"s also really cool that we are both in human forms now" She laughed and jumped on Night.

"Hey!" Night couldn"t escape in time; he was restraining himself or the Inn would be razed. Ultimately, he ended up being hugged by Karma. Night instantly started to push her away, but she kept clinging to him "Will you let me go already?!" He snapped.

Karma laughed cheerfully "Why?"

"…" Night almost destroyed this building along with the whole district.

Arima tilted his head at the two, he seemed to have a pensive expression while looking at them. He stared for a moment then smiled.

"They"re really close" Lanya commented while she looked at the two soul ent.i.ties together.

"Indeed" Arima nodded "Maybe their connection is even stronger than the ones they both have with me"

Arister stared blankly at Arima and Lanya and his expression twitched "Am I the only who thinks that a relationship between a dragon and a sword is really strange?"

At his words, Lanya tilted her head and Arima shrugged "…Are you serious?" Arister mumbled.

"Hey! Stop discussing scary and disturbing things and help me out there!" Night shouted to them. He was trying to flee Karma while she was coursing him in the Inn, they already had broken some chairs and tables and Arima always repaired them with just a thought. He also smiled and nodded toward the owner who smiled wryly in return.

Arister turned his head toward Night and furrowed "You"re saying it"s scary and disturbing, but you"re not saying it"s strange?" He asked with a piercing look.

"Huh?" Night was confused.

"Anyway, just go play somewhere else" Before he could answer, Arima sent him, along with Karma, into another dimension.

Arister glanced at where Night just vanished "He"s going to snap at you for that" He told to Arima and the latter just smiled.

"By the way, Arima, did you find anything about the deviants" rumor?" Lanya suddenly inquired.

"Yes" Arima laid back on his chair and briefly explained the situation to Arister and Lanya.

"A distraction? h.e.l.l? Monster overflow?" Arister listed with a dark countenance.

Lanya also looked at Arima with a strange expression.

"What? Do you want to add something?"

Lanya shook her dead "No, but…"

"What did you say about dungeons?" Arister completed her sentence.

"Well, it should be fun. I wonder how many monsters will appear if it really happens" Arima nonchalantly said.

"Do you realize what you"re saying?" Arister exclaimed "People could die if you don"t take care of it in time. You could destroy those dungeons if you want, I"m sure you could even do it from here"

"That wouldn"t be fun" Arima instantly retorted and Arister groaned. Arima smiled in return "Don"t worry, I"ll get them inside a dimension as soon as they appear. And it isn"t like I"m sure dungeons will actually overflow" He said and Arister sighed.

"And if you can"t handle what pops out from h.e.l.l"s gate?" Lanya asked with a kind of worried tone.

"Well" Arima smiled wryly "In that case, fleeing is a possible option" He scratched his hair and said.

Arister frowned and stared at Arima "You"re really not taking this seriously enough" He scorned before sighing "Sounds like you" He added and Lanya smiled wryly, she couldn"t help but to agree.

Arima shrugged and at that moment, Night reappeared in the room with a ragged breath. He managed to escape from the dimension because he knew himself about the magic behind it, but to Karma, it will be harder since she had formed sentience not long ago.

Night stared at Arima "This is maybe the first time that I seriously have the urge to strangle you" He said and Arima laughed. He snapped his fingers and Karma came back.

"Karma, don"t play too much" Arima said to her.

Karma chuckled "Fine, Arima" She easily accepted and Night frowned. He headed toward the table and sat down before sighing. Karma also sat down, next to Night of course. The latter trembled and shot her a glare.

Arima smirked when he saw those two "You"re funny" He said and Night frowned.

"Maybe I should have stayed as a wolf" He muttered.

Arima grinned "Then, are you having fun?"

Night looked back at him with a fed-up expression "...Yeah, it"s fun to have a human body" He responded.

"Yep" Arima nodded exaggeratedly "I can read the expressions on your face a lot better now"

Night grunted, he didn"t know if Arima was being sarcastic or not.

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

Meanwhile, on another continent. A very young-looking man was meeting with the king which Arister had met before. He seemed to be around 17 years old but his empty eyes didn"t even let you try to determine his true age. His whole appearance, his clothes, and hair were so dark that it seemed like the light was fleeing away from him.

"Karez, how are your preparations?" The king asked with a polite smile. He told a servant to bring a refreshment for the young man in front of him. He was indeed Ojure Karez.

"They"re doing good" Karez answered with an empty, uninterested voice "The homunculi worked hard on it, the gate should open soon, maybe two weeks from now on" He gave the same estimation as Arima.

"That"s good" The king nodded with a cheerful mood "By the way, Karez, could you tell me the secret about your eternity?" He asked with an expectant expression.

The only reason he was so polite toward Karez was that the latter had developed a technique to stop the aging process, and then, to basically live for eternity as long as someone or something didn"t kill him.

Karez stared at the king with dark eyes of an unmeasurable deepness. No one was sure as to how long he lived. But if Arima was here, he would instantly realize that Karez was older than him. This guy could have lived hundreds of years or maybe thousands.

But Arima would actually freak out about something if he met him. He would not be able to sense anything from him at all like his aura was inexistent.

"I met a lot of different kings and n.o.bles, and they also asked me about that, my answer has never changed. I will give it to you if you can convince me with your actions" He answered to the king. His tone was so heavy, dark and casual at the same time.

The king was a bit annoyed but he didn"t snap "Fine, I"ll do my best to prove myself" He said and stood up, he bowed slightly to Karez and left the room.

The latter stood up lazily and his figure warped by darkness before vanishing without an ounce of magic emanation.

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

"Ah, right, I forgot to tell you" While Arima"s group was eating together, talking about the h.e.l.l gate. They eventually started speaking about Ojure Karez, the man who is supposedly behind it.

"What is it?" Lanya tilted her head and asked. The three others also gathered their attention to him.

"That guy, Ojure, he"s dangerous, more than you may think" Arima declared with a serious tone.

Night"s eyes widened and Karma also had the same kind of reaction "What are you talking about? In terms of danger, you stand atop of everyone" Karma commented and Arima faked a cough.

"When I a.n.a.lyzed the array, I found something like my own set of arts" Arima ignored her and continued "And that thing was absolutely terrifying, even for me"

His group couldn"t even imagine someone able to scare Arima "The theory, no, the aura behind it was something that I only feel when I meet a G.o.d" He affirmed.

"Like Lilis?" Lanya asked with a grave tone.

"Yeah, but even stronger than that. Maybe around Azes"s level" Arima muttered the last part "But there"s another thing I noticed about that aura" He paused "I"m sure of it, the owner is just a simple human"

"What?" Arister exclaimed "It doesn"t make any sense"

"I know" Arima nodded "The only conclusion I could reach was that he was a simple human, wielding a certain power. There"s actually a part of the h.e.l.l array that I found extremely disturbing. To make a link to h.e.l.l, you need the sacrifices, but there"s a need for energy, mana directly coming from the main caster. And the quant.i.ty is almost equal to the entirety of my mana pool" Arima explained and when he said the last sentence, Night almost choked and Karma gaped.

The two of them perfectly understood the quant.i.ty of mana Arima possessed, and now he said that there was someone with the same amount as him. A quant.i.ty that even surpa.s.sed G.o.ds.

Karma started to laugh dryly and waved her hand "Nah, nah, nah, that"s a joke, right?"

Arima smirked and shook his head. Karma blinked and put her hand down "Still, the thing that I"m curious about is why someone of his caliber would create an array so chaotic" Arima wondered "…Maybe he knows something about h.e.l.l itself" Arima"s eyes turned slightly purple and his hair a bit gray. His companions trembled a bit when they felt the unnatural aura coming from him.

"Ojure Karez, huh? Interesting" He grinned.