Life Hunter

At the same time, the water of the rain condensed and became small projectiles that attacked the h.e.l.lhound. While the latter was sucked in by the soil, stone spikes kept attacking him. And that wasn"t the end, the wind did his part of the job and transformed into a giant tornado, attacking Kerberos while lightning kept falling down on him.

It was really the world turning against him, Kerberos was shocked. Arima was doing all of this by just thinking. When he was being buried even more in the ground while being attacked by all elements. His sigil glowed and he started chanting for the first time.

"[I am the guardian of the gate]"

"[I"ve been bestowed that t.i.tle by h.e.l.l]"

"[I will carry its law and will]"

"[And bring everything to the purgatory]"

Kerberos chanted and the crimson flames around him burned stronger and burst around him, freeing him from every attack coming at him.

Arima looked as the explosion overthrew the earth for miles and created a mushroom cloud. When Kerberos jumped out of the deep crater Arima had trapped him in, one could see that he had undergone some changes. His fur was now longer, the color turned to be the same as his flames. That same b.l.o.o.d.y fire was now stronger and each time Kerberos took a step, the ground would turn into lava.

Arima felt the temperature going up and narrowed his eyes. The earth started shaking even more and fissures started forming everywhere around the continent. The sky turned darker and it started raining ma.s.sively. Litters of water kept falling from the sky, wetting the surface of the entire continent.

Meanwhile, the seawater that had gone away before, came back as gigantic tides. Those tides invaded the continent and drowned everything. It looked like they weren"t going to stop at all, they seemed to be driven by an external power. I wasn"t long before the water reached the two opponents.

When the water reached them, Kerberos frowned and the water coming at him just evaporated while Arima flew up a bit. Kerberos bent a bit and started charging at Arima, he didn"t know what Arima wanted to do but he knew he had to finish him the fastest possible.

He started running, as steam rose around him, he traveled miles in just a second before conjuring multiple fireb.a.l.l.s in the sky that began to fall on Arima. The latter just stared at those fireb.a.l.l.s and the water raised from below him and became pillars that clashed with the fire.

If he had to be honest, Kerberos was shocked. His fire should be in another realm of existence from that sea water. The moment the two touched, the water should have been instantly vaporized.

"(That magic…it"s not only made to control the world. All the elements that fall under his control will also be enhanced to his affinity level. This guy is now casting grand scales magic by just thinking about it)" Kerberos realized what was happening.

The three heads growled and the h.e.l.lhound jumped. The three mouths were leaking some fire, they all roared at the same time and a ma.s.sive wave of fire, a lot bigger than the ones before, immediately covered everything in front of him in a thousand miles radius, including Arima.

That fire was out if this world, but there was one place where it was stopped when the flames finished burning the area. Arima reappeared, surrounded by ice, water, earth, wind, lightning, all at the same time. It seemed he couldn"t use fire because of Kerberos but the latter was seeing things from another perspective.

"(His magic made it harder for me to control my flames)" Kerberos gritted his teeth. His muscles contracted and tensed, he kicked the ground and disappeared, leaving an after image. He found himself beside Arima and swung his paw at him, coated with crimson fire.

But before he could touch him, thunder rumbled, and all across the sky, an incalculable number of purple lightning bolts formed and fell on him at the same time. The magnitude of the thunder surpa.s.sed everything Arima ever created until now.

Kerberos roared in pain for the first time in a while and stared at Arima, his tail moved and the snake tried to bit Arima.

"Too late..." The latter suddenly said something and the earth raised to form a gigantic wall between him and the h.e.l.lhound. It was at that moment that the ground throughout the entire continent started tumbling down. The whole continent was now being sunk. As the shaking continued, most of the continent was already under water and now the mountains were slowly sinking too.

The wall Arima had created just earlier crumbled and the two opponents looked at each other while standing on water.

Arima was just casually standing on water. The sea was carrying him like he was its master, there was no need for him to use any magic. On the other hand, the ma.s.sive h.e.l.lhound had steam around his feet. He was simply standing thanks to the pressure of the vapor.

The two stared at each other, under the heavy rain and the sound of thunder. They stayed like that until the last mountains disappeared and the earthquake stopped. Now, the only sound was thunder going wild, and the water falling into the sea.

The steam suddenly shrouded Kerberos"s figure as he started running on the water toward Arima. The rain was still continuously attacking him and lightning was striking him time to time. But he just ignored the incalculable number of small injuries he got and charged at Arima.

"[The chains of the Guardian]" Kerberos chanted and ten small gates, miniature versions of the h.e.l.l gate, appeared in the sky. They all opened at the same time and a chain pa.s.sed through each one of those gates.

They wriggled in mid-air and surrounded Arima before closing in and coiling around him. Enchaining him. The only strange thing was that Arima didn"t move at all, he even closed his eyes.

Kerberos witnessed his load of strange things during this fight, he decided to ignore it and continue his fight. It"s not like he will win if he continues to wonder what is going on in Arima"s head every minute.

Maybe that was his biggest mistake since the beginning of this fight. While he was charging at the enchained Arima, the water around him, the whole sea started moving and became numerous streams of water that attacked him.

Kerberos expected that and just created even more fire to counter it. A screen of team instantly filled the area and then lightning fell on Kerberos and on the water around him. His body tensed for a second because of the electrocution but his sigil then glowed and revolved. He breathed in with all of his mouths and roared while enhancing his voice.

The soundwave spread around, it dispersed the steam and pushed the water back. Arima was close and couldn"t even cover his ears, he was also concentrating on something else, in the end, his eardrums ruptured and blood flowed down from his ears. But even like that, he didn"t move nor tried to free himself from the chains.

Kerberos stared to really worry about what he was preparing. He one more time gathered fire in his throats and spat out three jets of fire. But that fire didn"t go toward Arima but flew above him and formed a pentagram in the sky.

That pentagram conjured a whirlpool of fire that surrounded Arima, not even being hindered by the water and lightning attacking it. Arima finally frowned but didn"t open his eyes.

The pentagram glowed and the whirlpool became smaller and slowly closed in on Arima. The chains of h.e.l.l bounding the latter also tightened and Arima gritted his teeth.

"[Final Judgment]"

"[Fall into the h.e.l.l"s Purgatory]"

Kerberos chanted and the whirlpool closed on itself and transformed into a sphere of fire, surrounding Arima. The pentagram slowly descended and touched the sphere of fire. Kerberos stomped on the water and made it raise.

He looked up at the sky with his three heads and all of them started howling. The pentagram shined along with the sphere and the two became bigger until an explosion occurred and covered the earth and the sky.

Kerberos"s howling was covered by the sound of the explosion and his figure shrouded by the flames. The crimson fire spread for thousands of miles. If the continent hadn"t already sunk, it would have been incinerated.

The explosion dispersed the clouds and transformed most of the water into steam. The rain stopped and the thunder faded away too.

When the flames died down, the water came back and filled the parts which were vaporized by Kerberos"s magic. When the sea became calm once again, the sun illuminated the water and made it gleam under the light.

The h.e.l.lhound was standing on the water, this time, his fire was gone and the three heads were slightly panting. He wasn"t using fire to stand on water anymore, he was actually just using neutral magic to stand on water, and his fur turned back to be black.

When the light of the sun came back, all the injuries he received from Ragnarök were now clearly visible. He had injuries all over his body and blood kept flowing even now.

Kerberos felt like falling down here and now but he kept staring at a strange scene in front of him. A silver coc.o.o.n made of ice and surrounded by silver lightning was hovering just above the water.

"(Don"t tell me…)" Kerberos was shocked internally but when the coc.o.o.n broke apart, and Arima got out, he took back his thoughts. To the point, he was confused.

Arima was in a really sorry state. His whole body was still fuming and some parts of his clothes were burned. The whole area around his left eye was burned and the eye itself was destroyed. Arima fell down one knee and glanced at his left with his remaining eye. His left arm wasn"t just burned, it simply wasn"t there anymore.

He looked at Kerberos and smirked "You really went all out on that attack" He said then stood up once more.

Kerberos looked at him with strange eyes "(What is going on?)" He thought then he suddenly felt an ominous feeling crawling over his back. A strange sensation invaded his body and he then lost the control over his magic as he fell into the water and ended up floating.

Arima grinned "I finished" He said and the temperature suddenly fell. The water at Arima"s feet instantly froze and it then spread at an unimaginable speed. Kerberos couldn"t escape as his legs and a part of his chest and belly were freezing. After that moment, maybe everything in a twenty thousand miles radius became completely frozen, maybe even until the bottom of the sea.

Arima raised his hand toward the sky and suddenly waved it vertically. A red dot appeared in the sky and fell down on the h.e.l.lhound at an extreme speed. That object was Karma under the form of a harpoon. She pierced Kerberos in the middle of his back and then left his body around his chest area before piercing the ice below.

The h.e.l.lhound roared in pain as he lost every ounce of strength in his body. He tried to ignite his flames once more but no matter how many times he tried, he couldn"t produce some.

"It took me time" Arima declared and called Superbia before shouldering it "I first prepared to freeze the water to a point where you wouldn"t be able to move. Then I had to get Karma above you. But the most important thing, I had to get rid of your flames. When you used that last attack, you calmed down a bit and reduced your dominance over the fire. I took your last magic head-on with my body and ordered every fire spirit to leave the place. I forcefully extinguished the flames on your body then I extracted the oxygen out of this place. I"m sure you didn"t realize it because you don"t need it to breathe anyway"

Arima explained and Kerberos struggled to get out of the ice and pull Karma out of his body. But Arima took a step forward and a ma.s.sive gravity field pinned him down and the ice cracked at his feet.

"Of course, that"s not the only thing I did. All of this would just annoy you at best, but it was just an occasion for me to cut off your connection with the magic circuits. Of course, I can"t use magic anymore myself, but unfortunately for you, Ragnarök is not a continuous magic requiring my mana to stay active. It"s an infinite magic. Right now, for a hundred thousand miles radius around me, everything will eternally be under my control" Arima said and took another step and the blood flowing down his lips fell on the ice.

"Well, it"s just a dimension anyway. I won"t be able to come back here anymore if I cut the current link" Arima wryly said and pointed Superbia at Kerberos"s heart with one hand "This rifle is loaded with an anti-matter bullet. I don"t even need to use lightning to kill you with it"

Kerberos listened to everything and then, the three heads started laughing together "You"re certainly an interesting fellow. But you failed to notice something. I took my precautions when I realized you were up to something" The three heads grinned. The h.e.l.lhound raised his tail and Arima"s eye narrowed. The head of the snake was gone.

Then, Arima felt a sharp pain on his neck. He looked behind him and in the corner of his eye, he saw the huge maw of the snake opened behind him, with its fangs ready to bite on his neck.

Arima smiled and stared at Kerberos "I didn"t consider that you could control your tail like this. It doesn"t even have a presence... So, what do we do now? Should we make a duel of speed? Or wait who dies first? I realize that your snake already put his venom in my veins, but with Karma piercing your spine and vital organs, you will die soon, your healing a.s.set won"t save you from my sword"

Arima declared and the two of them stared at each other for a long time. Even if Arima pressed the trigger faster, the snake would bite him. And the opposite case is also possible. But, if they wait, the two of them will still die together.