Life Hunter

Chapter 157: ''Your wish will come true soon.''

When Arima arrived, Karaskan's expression sunk and Hephaestus' eyes seemed to regain some luster. Chronos seemed to be unfazed at first but when he took a closer look at Arima, he became shocked as if he had seen something that was never supposed to happen. That peculiar sequence of reactions looked really odd.

Meanwhile, Arima took one step forward and the earth quaked. The gods' pupils contracted and they took one step back unconsciously, Karaskan was no exception as he suffered the most killing intent. Hephaestus displayed emotions for the first time and frowned.

Lilis felt ashamed and frustrated as she saw Lanya in Arima's arms.

"Hyacinthum ignis!" Arima shouted and the air trembled too. The flames in the sky stopped any fluctuation and remained frozen in place without making any sort of noise.

"Unbelievable his own magic is scared of him," Azes muttered and Gabriel gulped.

"Adolebitque ea," Arima ordered and the flames blazed. They stopped gathering strength and focused everything into a single point. The sky burned and illuminated Hell. Pandora even started moving from one side to the other as if it was panicking.

The azure fire appeared to be condensing into a certain shape. When it finished, the gods smiled wryly; a giant skull was now burning in the sky.

It turned toward Hephaestus and the eyes sockets became filled with purple flames. When the skull had set its target, the purple fire sucked in the blue one and then merged together to form an incredibly small fireball with one half purple and the other blue.

In the next moment, the fireball vanished from everyone's sights with a loud detonation. Then, they saw the light illuminating them again. But it was from below this time and dangerously close as well.

When everyone looked at the ground, they caught a glimpse of the fireball one last time. They watched it fall as if it was a drop of water sliding down a leaf and then they heard it hit the ground as if it had fallen into a pond.

After the sound faded, in the blink of an eye, their sight changed. A perfectly undamaged land was laid before them. No craters, deformations, or blazing flames in the sky. Everything was back to normal.

"This is another dimension," Azes remarked as he looked around. His eyes fell on Arima who was carefully placing Lanya on a bed that came out of nowhere.

Arima didn't even bother to acknowledge their presence and checked Lanya's state with strained serenity. He put his hand over her bleeding injury and started healing her. Lilis rushed to him with tears in her eyes.

At the same time, another figure teleported right next to Arima. It was Dopper, his clone.

"I think I know how to resolve it," he said.

"Thanks. Could you take care of him for me?" Arima pointed at Ifrit who was breathing heavily. His injuries were slowly getting better thanks to his healing factor but it was painfully slow.

Ifrit squinted his eyes and saw the blurry shape of Dopper approaching him. "I'm sorry" That's the first thing he said.

Arima's eyes widened and he turned around. Dopper also had a surprised expression as he crouched at his side and healed him.

"I failed to stop Karez myself so you had to go there."

"Don't apologize, Ifrit. I just collected Lanya's memories. You rescued Lilis and Chulainn selflessly. You even saved Lanya's soul with your Manifestation. Hephaestus almost damaged it. So, you have my gratitude," Arima said and waved his hand above Lanya's body. Her clothes were restored and the blood on it disappeared. Her face had recovered her color and she seemed to only be asleep.

Arima then started drawing a red symbol on her forehead with magic.

"What are you doing?" Lilis asked with a weak voice.

Arima glanced at her and his gaze softened a bit. "A seal. Her soul may be intact but it's unstable. I'm locking her soul in her body to prevent it from fragmenting or escaping."

"Huh?" Lilis shuddered. "But if you need to lock her soul"

"She is dying. This is just to buy some time," Arima voiced the truth.

"You won't be able to save her" Chronos spoke evenly. And the only thing he got as a response was a horrifying pressure that brought him to his knees. He was already weakened because of Pandora and his Time magic somehow didn't have any defensive effect on Arima's aura.

"Shut. Up." Arima emphasized each word slowly without even looking at the old god. "I know who you are. Your power to see the future must be realms above Lanya's. You must have known what was going to happen the moment you entered that battlefield."

Chronos closed his mouth.

"When I arrived, I was wondering what happened for Lanya to be injured although there was a whole team of gods to fight Hephaestus."

"Then I saw Lilis. The guilt and regret in her expression were immense. But why?" Arima continued as his magic covered Lanya to stabilize her soul.

"I felt Lilis' aura all over the place when I arrived. The really domineering type. The only thing I could deduct from that was that Lilis used her Manifestation and most likely was targeted because of it."

"It's all fine until this point," Arima said and glared at Chronos. "Yeah, everything would be fine if you weren't the one who told her to cast her Manifestation." He snorted. "You must have known about Lanya's future but you not only decided to not warn her, but you also instigated the trigger event. You don't how much I want to kill you right now."

"You don't-"

"I do," Arima cut Chronos immediately. At the same time, a white crack appeared in mid-air and everyone raised an eyebrow.

"I know why you did it," Arima ignored the crack and resumed his conversation with the old man.

"I may not look like it, but I am technically older than you, O Father Time. Lilis is the Goddess of Worldly Emotions. Pandora feeds on dark emotions to open and activate. Most likely, for you, Lilis' Manifestation that forces people to a state of absolute peace was the only way to reduce Pandora's power and save what you think you had to save."

"You manipulated someone else to do it on top of that. Pathetic," he added and Chronos furrowed his eyebrows.

"You, gods, are the cause of most disasters in the lower worlds. Did you know that?" Arima suddenly said and every god trembled. The most innocent, Gabriel, was stunned.

"Before the Life Judgement, it was just a theory. But now I'm sure of it. You gods and devils are the cause of most catastrophes in mortal worlds. You have no idea how many times parallel versions of me stumbled upon the path of a Heaven God or a Hell Devil and lost their dear ones because of it."

"The Lands of Heaven and Hell provide you with power from religion and prayers and their attractive force, that is supposed to hold the world together, is responsible for the destruction of numerous galaxies just because some gods were playing on their surface. I'm sure many people died while we were fighting this pitiful war instigated by a mere human."

The whole dimension was silent. The gods were both ashamed and speechless. Only Doppel was unaffected and snickered, making them feel even more miserable.

Arima huffed. "Now I get why Azes wants to annihilate both forces," he said and Azes did a spit take. He stiffed and glanced both at his right and left and forced a cough before looking straight as if nothing had happened.

"Well, your wish will come true soon anyway," Arima added and Azes blinked owlishly.

Arima didn't say anything else as he finished to stabilize Lanya. He pressed his fingers on her throat and sensed her pulse along with her mana flow. "Lilis," he called calmly and she walked toward him.

"Can you save her?"

Arima sighed. "It's easier to show you directly," he whispered and his sigil glowed slightly. He pointed his finger at Lilis' forehead and a blue mana string entered it.

Lilis felt a sharp pain invading her mind that lasted for a brief second. Afterward, her eyes gradually became shocked because of the information she had just obtained.

"So?" Arima asked.

The cracks in the dimension were widening by the minute and it threatened to collapse at any instant.

"I'll do it," Lilis replied without any hesitation. Her eyes were filled with determination.

Arima breathed in and his spirit suddenly filled the entire dimension. Even Gabriel and Aphrodite felt small in front of it although they were divinities who had focused their growth on empowering their mind and spirit.

Arima's sigil rotated and was projected in front of his eyes. It started becoming more complex over time. The star-shaped sigil quickly became something like a magic formation surrounded by runic circles.

"Give me a hand," Arima directed that at his doppelganger who had just finished mending Ifrit's wounds.

Doppel nodded and looked at Ifrit before going to help. "I gave you the complete and perfect formula of the Life Hunt. I also integrated it into your soul. It's my, our, thanks to you. Be careful, the Life Hunt is powerful but not limitless. Don't chew more than you can," he warned before kneeling next to Lanya before unleashing his entire mana pool.

Ifrit stood up with a grunt and stared at his hand that was wrapped in a sort of pulling force that seemed to be connected to his soul. "Thank you," he said and both Arimas shook their head.

"You deserve it," Doppel replied.

"Anyway, I will expend a great deal of power and energy to do this. My doppelganger will be dispelled and I will probably be out of commission for a few minutes at least," Arima said and two giant magic circles were drawn both below and above him. The same phenomenon happened for Doppel.

Arima smiled at Lilis. "You can do anything you want until then," he said with an evocative tone then looked at the gods. "You just need to leave Karaskan alive for me. I'll be the one to put him down."

He instructed and everyone nodded. Arima then chanted and the dimension broke apart, not from the outside, but from the inside. Because of an unknown energy that even Chronos, the oldest god, had never seen before.

"[Third Forbidden Art, Essentia Dominus] (Essence Domination)."