Life Hunter

The gate made a strange sound and the bones trembled. Karez stepped in then looked back from the other side of the gate. He pointed his hand toward the gate "You stay here" He muttered and the doors of the h.e.l.l gate were suddenly forced to close.

The red skull reformed and the golden light in his eye sockets flickered before the gate started to slowly dissipate like a mirage.

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At the same moment, Kerberos"s ma.s.sive body trembled and his three pairs of eyes widened. Even the snake was shaking as it lost strength and released Arima.

The latter didn"t know what was happening but he took out Ira and shot behind him. Those bullets were surprisingly strong and destroyed the eyes of the snake. Arima then tightened his grip on Superbia and observed Kerberos closely. His waved his right hand a bit and a black smoke covering it was dispersed. He was ready to use his undead form, but Kerberos"s actions made him stop.

Meanwhile, the h.e.l.lhound was currently in a state of shock which was translated on his heads by his three different expressions "Impossible…" He muttered.

Arima frowned and put down his rifle "Hey, what the h.e.l.l are you doing?" He asked.

Kerberos sighed strongly "…My connection with the gate has been severed" He answered with a weak tone "Someone actually forced the gate to close and leave me behind"

Arima heard him and felt extremely confused "What does that mean for you?"

"I can"t go back to h.e.l.l, as even my t.i.tle has been erased, I can"t be the Guardian of the h.e.l.l gate if I don"t have a gate to protect" Kerberos tried to loosen his body but with Karma piercing him, he just groaned in pain and gritted his teeth "I don"t even have the obligation to obey my summoning anymore"

When Kerberos added the last part, Arima shook his head and sighed. His silver hair slowly faded away, his eye returned to normal and his resonance ended with Night reappearing in his human form beside him. At the same time, his clothes were restored and his empty left sleeve fluttered in the wind.

"Karma" Arima called and the harpoon became a red light that flew to him and came back as a woman standing together with Night. Arima smiled wryly "If you want me to spare you, why don"t you say so?"

Kerberos snickered "That wasn"t my intention at all" He said and freed himself of the ice bounding him after Arima weakened it.

"Now, let"s be fair. Give me the antidote please, if I choose to take care of this poison alone, it will take weeks. I can"t even expel it with my Death magic" Arima then waved his hand and demanded.

Kerberos waved his tail; the head of the serpent was reattached and his sigil glowed. A green light surrounded Arima and the latter then smiled and nodded "Thanks"

Night shrugged and sighed while Karma chuckled "What are you going to do now?" Arima asked Kerberos after the poison had entirely left his body.

"I don"t know" The huge beast answered with a difficult expression "I can"t go back to h.e.l.l anymore, maybe I"ll just wander around in the different worlds"

"I see" Arima nodded "By the way, what"s your strength now, without being in h.e.l.l?"

"Right now, I should be between the fifth sky and the first divine. In h.e.l.l, I"m at the second divine" Kerberos answered and Arima exclaimed in surprise. The h.e.l.lhound then looked at him "When you fought with me, you were around the same level as me. But I"m sure you didn"t show me everything. The maximum level you can reach is around the first divine, right? You also hid many trump cards from me, didn"t you?"

Arima laughed lightly "Yeah, you"re right. I mean, you were fighting with a handicap so big since the beginning, I wasn"t trying to be impolite" He responded and shrugged.

Kerberos snickered and then thought of something "Can"t you bring me back to h.e.l.l? Your magic is impressive; it almost looks like it"s omnipotent" He remarked.

Arima mused for a moment "I think I can. And if you help me, then it would be even easier. But why would you go back to h.e.l.l? It"s not like you gain anything by going back there"

Kerberos shook his heads "No, I was born in h.e.l.l and protected the gate since then, it"s my duty to be there. Also…" He paused "h.e.l.l is a lot more important than you may think" He added "I also need to find out who cut my connection with the gate. That person most likely went to h.e.l.l for some reason"

"Ah" Arima remembered something and raised his voice "I know the name of the man who summoned you" He declared and Kerberos listened "His name is Ojure Karez" When he said that, the h.e.l.lhound"s body tensed.

His eyes widened "…Ojure" He muttered "That escapee!?" He shouted in shock and Arima covered his ears, so did Karma and Night.

"Escapee?" Arima inquired while rubbing his ears.

"Six hundred and fifty years ago, one man discovered the emplacement of the h.e.l.l"s core. He stole a part of its power then fled instantly after" Kerberos told.

"The core?" Arima reacted to that word.

"The core is basically the heart of h.e.l.l. If the core is destroyed, h.e.l.l will collapse" Kerberos explained with an anxious tone "The collapse of h.e.l.l means the destruction of all the lower worlds. h.e.l.l and Heaven are two opposite original lands, maintaining most of the worlds in place together. If one of them is destroyed, all of those worlds will disappear too"

"Six hundred years ago, we supposed that Karez"s goal was to destroy h.e.l.l, but in the end, he failed but, he still managed to take a part of the core"s energy" Kerberos fell into deep thought "He must have pa.s.sed the gate and cut my connection with that same energy…" He concluded.

Arima quietly listened then snapped his fingers. They left the dimension and reappeared in the middle of the crater made by the gate when it opened.

"Do we still have time before that man take action?" Arima asked Kerberos.

The latter nodded "The time flows differently; a day here barely represents an hour on the other side. And considering the time it should take for Karez to prepare, we should still have around a few months in this timeline"

"That"s fine then, I only need a month. Just come with me. I"ll go to h.e.l.l when I finished my business here" Arima said and started walking toward the FDA.

Kerberos blinked. He pondered then looked at himself. He was too big, definitely too big. Maybe in the action, people may forget it, but Kerberos was an eighty meters" tall beast. If you put Arima and him beside each other, Arima would only look like a small insect. Although that same insect beat the huge h.e.l.lhound.

Ultimately, Kerberos quickly changed his form like Night did before and became a one-headed small dog pup with a snake tail before jumping on Arima"s shoulder.

Night smiled wryly as he looked at the pup on Arima"s shoulder "That"s how I looked like?" He commented and Karma chuckled while nodding. Night grunted and got rid of his awkwardness.

"Oh, yeah. I haven"t presented myself yet, right?" Kerberos remarked and Arima nodded.

"Now that you say it" He said "I"ll start then, I"m Arimane Blade, you can call me Arima"

"I"m Night Bahamut, this guy"s soul beast" Night followed.

"I"m Karma, Arima"s sword" Karma presented herself with a smile.

Kerberos nodded "I"m Chulainn Kerberos, nice to meet you" He said and Arima was a bit surprised.

"I never heard of that name in your legends" He said and the former h.e.l.lhound just shrugged and the serpent he had for tail tilted his head.

"You don"t expect our first names to be recorded in mythology books, right? Chulainn is how my father called me and that"s all I know" He responded and Arima smiled.

"Fair enough" He said and they arrived at the FDA shortly after. Most of the students had left and his own cla.s.s wasn"t here. He just sat down on at his seat and waited there with his soul companions and his new friend by discussing a bit.

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"Arister Zeola…" Ofia muttered as he looked at Arister from afar. When the latter presented himself under his true name, Ofia was astonished. She knew about that name, she even talked about him to Arima and when she did, her teacher only said that it wasn"t a problem. Never did she expect that another S rank mercenary was actually in her cla.s.s as a student.

"Hey, princess, don"t lose focus" Arister said and Ofia turned back toward the situation at hand a bit fl.u.s.tered. She observed the view she had and then sighed.

"How long are we going to continue this?" She quietly complained. She, along with all the cla.s.s, was fighting against a horde of monsters that escaped a dungeon, the one Arima didn"t take care of.

The whole cla.s.s spread around the place and started fighting at different places, it really looked like some sort of battlefield. Of course, when a stronger monster appeared, either Lanya or Arister would take care of it to avoid any incidents or casualties.

Ofia conjured a bow and fired arrows made of light as she was flying with her c.o.c.katrice wings. That"s what Arima had advised her to do. She was suited to become a really good support. Her observation ability was the best in the cla.s.s and she could act effectively to help her cla.s.smates.

She oversaw the battle and observed everyone fighting. There was Balan casually making use of s.p.a.ce magic to send attacks back to the source, physical as well as magical. Lena who was in her harpy form, dived toward the ground time to time, mowing every monster with her wings and wind magic. Isla was casually cutting some monsters apart with water and ice while keeping a smile on her face.

Irian went wild in the middle of the horde in his bear form and reaped the lives of countless monsters with a single wave of his claw and a discharge of fire. Arima said so himself, that kid"s physical ability alone was around the eighth level after his resonance.

Melody was working together with a beautiful green deer. The two of them were teaming together instead or resonating their souls. Melody had greatly improved her control over gravity since the training session with Arima. She now managed to create gravity blades and Arima even considered teaching her the second destruction art. Of course, even if she learns it, she won"t be able to reach the same level as Arima, destroying a planet, so easily.

The next was Gaodu, to be honest, his ability was very average but he was making good use of his Spirit magic, choosing the element that was perfectly suited for the situation.

And finally, the most eye-catching one of the bunch of students, Ferzia. She simply was a monster herself on the battlefield. She mainly used a great sword to fight while thunder kept rumbling around her as she sent lightning everywhere. Her actual strength was at the eight level, but she had had also made a contract with a Thunder Wolf when she learned about Arima"s soul contract. Allowing her to raise until the ninth level and increase her lightning ability by far. The Thunder Wolf is also a beast rumored to be extremely fast.

As Ofia was observing and supporting her cla.s.smates, particularly Irian, she suddenly felt something and turned toward a certain direction.

Three figures appeared beside Arister. Two of them were Karma and Night while the other was Arima. What shocked Ofia was the latter"s state. His left arm was severed and his left eye was burned along with a part of his cheek, even though they had already cicatrized, Ofia perfectly saw the magnitude of the injuries and she never thought that she would see her teacher in this state.

But at the same time, she realized that the burn on his face was fuming a bit and slowly disappearing, apparently, it already had started healing. She also spotted a black small dog on his shoulder. She was curious and approached them.

When she got closer, she saw Arister looking back and forth at Night and the small dog on Arima"s shoulder "That"s not Night…hey, don"t tell me…?" He finally pointed at Chulainn and asked

"Yeah, it"s the fellow that arrived from the h.e.l.l gate" Arima casually answered and Arister"s jaw dropped. Even Ofia had no other reaction but to gape and cover her mouth.

"What about your arm?" Lanya arrived near them and asked Arima when she saw him. The latter pushed back his sleeve and revealed a skeletal arm, slowly being recovered by a new layer of flesh.

"It"s easier to heal it with Death magic, it should be back entirely by tomorrow" Arima one more time said something outrageous and Ofia didn"t know how to react anymore.