After the massive explosion, Yrion was still completely unharmed and the hard fact made Ferzia sigh. She couldn't overcome the difference between their respective life force.
She lowered her sword after the light coming from the lightning faded away. Ferzia sharpened all of her senses to make sure she wouldn't get attacked from behind once again. But to her surprise, Yrion wasn't showing any sign of moving and remained impassively in the same spot.
Ferzia scowled but then raised her hands. "I surrender," She declared clearly and loudly.
Raal nodded. "Class's A student admitted defeat. Class C wins this fight. Please send the next students."
As everyone was already expecting the next fight, Yrion's expression twisted out of the blue and his killing intent suddenly flared. He kicked the ground and charged toward Ferzia who had turned her back to him.
The judges were unable to react as Yrion closed the distance separating him from Ferzia. The only people who reacted in time were Cekrad and Arister who both were keeping an eye on him. But before they could even take a step, the world around them slowed down.
Arister could only watch, unable to move, as Arima stood up from his seat and casually and slowly stepped on the arena before walking toward Yrion.
Arima casually approached him and frowned at his expression that reflected nothing more than the desire to kill. It was as if he was possessed by the thought.
Arima sighed and flicked the teen's forehead. Right afterward, the world recovered its normal 'flow' and Yrion was sent flying before crashing on the ground. He coughed blood, unaware of what hit him.
He felt extremely dizzy and brought his hand to his forehead. He then looked at his hand full of blood and tilted his head mechanically. He crawled out of the small crater he was in and then sensed something more horrifying and stronger than whatever he could have possibly imagined.
Despair; was penetrating his mind, tickling his skin, and making him feel like an insect. An emotion that he never experienced before invaded his mind; the fear of death.
He wasn't the only one. Everyone present shivered and paled. They were all frozen. They couldn't even move a single finger as they traced the source of their dread with their eyes. The man who was casually walking on the arena, releasing his killing intent that seemed capable of devouring their minds.
Although they were not even the target of that intent, it was so intense that even Cekrad didn't dare to breathe. It felt like there were a million blades touching the back of his neck, ready to impale him at any brusque movement.
The scariest thing with this killing intent was that it didn't make you run but nastily jolted your instincts.
The natural reaction your body would have if you had a blade touching the back of your neck would be turning around to see what it was. That was how Arima's slaughter intent was behaving.
Everyone couldn't help but feel the urge to turn around. But the fear that they might die once they turn their back to Arima made them stop any kind of movement. It was an awfully vicious cycle.
When Arima halted, Yrion could only see his foot as he looked from the corner of his eyes. As he was lying the ground, he could only feel Arima's stare while he himself couldn't move. On top of that, he could feel a faint aura pressuring him. He felt like the devil himself was preying on him.
"I gave you a second chance. But not only you didn't take it, but you also crossed a critical line. I don't care if you appear to have no control over your murdering pulses. You're too dangerous to be kept alive," Arima slowly said and it brought even more fear to Yrion.
"So, you leave me no choice. I don't kill for no reason. The day I can't find a reason to end someone else's life is the day I die," Arima uttered and grabbed Yrion by his neck and pulled him up. "Look at me in the eyes."
"[Fifth Black Art, Penitentia Conspiciunt] (Penance Stare)," Arima chanted his habitual magic and Yrion started screaming in pain.
After the kid's mind burned and his eyes turned into stone, Arima scoffed. "I see. There's really no need to let you live after all. [Vita Venari] (Life Hunt)."
A colorless energy escaped Yrion's dead body. Arima glanced at Ferzia who was gawking at the events unfolding in front of her. He waved his hand toward her. Yrion's life force directly went to her and she unexpectedly felt a surge of strength as she broke through to the ninth level.
She stared at her hands and the flickering lightning around her in shock. Arima nodded as if he was satisfied with the result and snapped his fingers. Yrion's body who was still in its dragon form slowly turned back to normal as the draconic features turned into a sort of mist. That mist congregated to create a small red marble in Arima's hand.
The latter inspected the marble and then threw it toward the benches. Night caught it nimbly and shockingly swallowed it. "Thanks."
"Well, I won't let you live. But dying like that is too easy," Arima muttered as Yrion's body twitched and came back to life with a gasp.
Arima smirked and his sigil glowed. Yrion transformed into an amassment of light which slowly compressed into a second marble; a black one this time.
"Chulainn, your turn. You can do it right?" Arima said and handed the small sphere to Chulainn who was on his shoulder.
The Hellhound hummed and gobbed the marble before swallowing it. "It should fine. I can still send people to Hell…although I can't go there myself," Chulainn's reply turned into a complaint in the last part.
Arima snickered and then looked at Olien. The man was glaring at him with a devious face. Arima silently drew Ira and pointed it at Olien. The targeted teacher clicked his tongue before his head exploded. His students shrieked as they witnessed the death of their teacher.
"What are you doing?" Cekrad couldn't stay silent anymore as he stood up. Arima's slaughter intent had been retracted so he was finally able to move without having to fight his own survival instincts.
Arima merely waved his fingers in response and badge flew off Olien's clothes and then fell into Cekrad's hands. The badge depicted the outline of cobra holding a knife between its fangs.
"This is your problem now. I will soon leave this continent anyway. It's apparently an organization of killers or something," Arima explained as if he couldn't bother. "That kid and his teacher, they were part of it. That's all I know. I didn't want to look into the memories of that creep."
Cekrad listened and gulped. He quietly decided to inform the king later.
"So, what do we do now? Do we continue the tournament or can you just end it now?" Arima inquired and Cekrad shook his head.
"No, that would be stupid. Your class is undeniably the winner. But, although these are the circumstances, that man's class will still be placed as second," Cekrad answered and the last part of his sentence was addressed to Velvet.
She nodded in understating and didn't try to refute his words. She had already accepted to be third even before things escalated like that.
When Arima's students heard that, they all sighed in relief and at the same time, in slight regret on what just happened. But they still smiled and cheered for their victory.
Arima grinned while looking at them. "Now, it's time for me to say goodbye," He suddenly dropped a bombshell and the students stopped cheering at once. "I don't really know if we will meet again but I have to go. As your teacher, I hope you'll all make me proud," Arima spoke without letting his students some time to react.
Arima was quite in a hurry. He eyed Arister who was standing beside Ferzia. "Will you stay here?"
Arister smiled and shrugged. "I think so. I wish you good luck. I'm sure you'll stop that war easily. But if you ever need my help, you can call me."
Arima chuckled and extended his hand. "It was fun to have you with us."
Arister shook his hand in return and laughed lightly. "The feeling is shared."
Arima nodded and looked at his group. "Let's go," He stated and made his way toward the exit along with Night, Karma, and Lanya.
"Yes, and hurry the hell up please," Chulainn grumbled and Arima smiled wryly as the small dog was hitting his head with his paws.
When Arima was about to leave, the students finally recovered and bid him farewell, "Thank you very much, Sir. Blade," Ofia spoke first with a hint of sadness in her tone and everyone followed her example.
Arima chuckled and left Cross Island in the next minute.
********************************************
"Alright…" Arima resonated with Night and Karma turned back into a sword while Lanya entered the spatial storage together with Chulainn.
Arima's eyes lit up with a purple light and his aura started rising exponentially. His hair grew until his waist and gradually turned silver. His expression hardened and his scales became covered by a silvery hue.
Arima flapped his wings and flew off at an unimaginable speed for any human on the planet. He broke through the sound barrier in a second and his speed started approaching a thousand meters per second as he exited the atmosphere.
He sent a message to the Natural God at the same time and thanked him for the ride before assuring him he would get some payback from Errastas. His wings started producing a glittering red mist to accelerated within the void.
"{How strong is that guy?}" Arima asked Chulainn while evading the different asteroids on his way and admiring the planets and stars far away. It was quite a unique experience.
"{I don't really know much about Errastas. You should have asked Zesta before,}" Chulainn responded. "{The only thing I know is that he is a descendant of the Ancient Giants, the most powerful mortal beings in this Reality after Pure Blood Dragons. And well, basically, he's really big.}"
"{I already know that. I saw it with my own eyes,}" Arima chortled and waved his hand, destroying a huge rock on the way.
"{Anyway, he's still an Earthen God. Don't underestimate him. Although you may have incredible magic formations and endurance, Earthen Gods possess special abilities and embody a literal legend,} Chulainn said and Arima nodded.
"There," After half an hour or so, Arima mumbled as he spotted a certain planet. He flapped his wings and boosted his speed one last time.
He soon pierced the planet's atmosphere and was caught in the gravitational field. Arima revolved during his fall and flapped his wings just before landing. But even if he decelerated as much as he could, when he reached the ground, he still razed several hundreds of miles worth of landscape.
The planet seemed to be absolutely deserted and looked like the entire surface was just an endless canyon. Arima unhurriedly walked out of the crater he made and gazed at a certain direction with his purple irises.
"That's a mountain, right?" Lanya raised a question as she left the dimensional storage.
"A big mountain," Chulainn approved.
"Yep, a huge mountain in the middle of a canyon," Arima complemented.
"{A mountain is a mountain after all,}" Night remarked.
"{Arima, can you recall me the definition of a mountain?}" Karma tried to be sarcastic but ended up asking seriously as the ground trembled and the giant mountain they were joking about started moving.
"Well, literally; a mountain is a high area of land with steep sides," Arima answered whilst watching the 'mountain' move faster.
"…It can also describe a huge quantity of something…like a mountain of…meat?"
When Arima finished, the giant he had seen previously thanks to Evergreen's help was now towering in front of him. The ten-thousand-meter-tall abomination perfectly obscured the sky.
"Okay, even for me, this a bit intimidating…" Chulainn groaned. "Even if that thing is only an Earthen God, I can't see imagine myself beating him. It's more a problem with the limits of my imagination than anything else though."
"You're right…even if people say that size doesn't count. There's a limit. It's hard to overcome muscular density, weight, and size of a higher species," Arima added while making his sigil spin and collecting mana to cast his magic faster.
"I may have to use more than Ragnarok to beat this…" he alleged and his skin paled unnaturally until it became gray. Then a few seconds later, it started crumbling into pieces. Half of his face turned skeletal as purple flames in the form on his sigil replaced his eyes.
"I will help you as much as I can. But I didn't expect that thing to be like this. I only heard he was a giant dammit," Chulainn cursed as he slowly reverted to his original form. His size increased greatly and his three heads returned.
"Neither of us is currently in the Heavenly Realm. And this guy's body may not be that far from it," his three heads spoke together.
"Don't worry. We'll do this. It's not like our size doesn't constitute an advantage on its own," Arima said and crimson runes formed around him.
"[Agnitio Vultus Unus Mille] (One Thousand Parade)," He chanted a magic that he hadn't used before and his bones thickened. He became taller and his clothes were altered to match it.
The final result was a ten meters' tall draconic skeleton, wielding Karma who had turned herself into a great sword fitting the new stature of her partner.
Errastas' three eyes opened. The third eyeball located his forehead looked below at Arima's group.
After the massive explosion, Yrion was still completely unharmed and the hard fact made Ferzia sigh. She couldn't overcome the difference between their respective life force.
She lowered her sword after the light coming from the lightning faded away. Ferzia sharpened all of her senses to make sure she wouldn't get attacked from behind once again. But to her surprise, Yrion wasn't showing any sign of moving and remained impassively in the same spot.
Ferzia scowled but then raised her hands. "I surrender," She declared clearly and loudly.
Raal nodded. "Class's A student admitted defeat. Class C wins this fight. Please send the next students."
As everyone was already expecting the next fight, Yrion's expression twisted out of the blue and his killing intent suddenly flared. He kicked the ground and charged toward Ferzia who had turned her back to him.
The judges were unable to react as Yrion closed the distance separating him from Ferzia. The only people who reacted in time were Cekrad and Arister who both were keeping an eye on him. But before they could even take a step, the world around them slowed down.
Arister could only watch, unable to move, as Arima stood up from his seat and casually and slowly stepped on the arena before walking toward Yrion.
Arima casually approached him and frowned at his expression that reflected nothing more than the desire to kill. It was as if he was possessed by the thought.
Arima sighed and flicked the teen's forehead. Right afterward, the world recovered its normal 'flow' and Yrion was sent flying before crashing on the ground. He coughed blood, unaware of what hit him.
He felt extremely dizzy and brought his hand to his forehead. He then looked at his hand full of blood and tilted his head mechanically. He crawled out of the small crater he was in and then sensed something more horrifying and stronger than whatever he could have possibly imagined.
Despair; was penetrating his mind, tickling his skin, and making him feel like an insect. An emotion that he never experienced before invaded his mind; the fear of death.
He wasn't the only one. Everyone present shivered and paled. They were all frozen. They couldn't even move a single finger as they traced the source of their dread with their eyes. The man who was casually walking on the arena, releasing his killing intent that seemed capable of devouring their minds.
Although they were not even the target of that intent, it was so intense that even Cekrad didn't dare to breathe. It felt like there were a million blades touching the back of his neck, ready to impale him at any brusque movement.
The scariest thing with this killing intent was that it didn't make you run but nastily jolted your instincts.
The natural reaction your body would have if you had a blade touching the back of your neck would be turning around to see what it was. That was how Arima's slaughter intent was behaving.
Everyone couldn't help but feel the urge to turn around. But the fear that they might die once they turn their back to Arima made them stop any kind of movement. It was an awfully vicious cycle.
When Arima halted, Yrion could only see his foot as he looked from the corner of his eyes. As he was lying the ground, he could only feel Arima's stare while he himself couldn't move. On top of that, he could feel a faint aura pressuring him. He felt like the devil himself was preying on him.
"I gave you a second chance. But not only you didn't take it, but you also crossed a critical line. I don't care if you appear to have no control over your murdering pulses. You're too dangerous to be kept alive," Arima slowly said and it brought even more fear to Yrion.
"So, you leave me no choice. I don't kill for no reason. The day I can't find a reason to end someone else's life is the day I die," Arima uttered and grabbed Yrion by his neck and pulled him up. "Look at me in the eyes."
"[Fifth Black Art, Penitentia Conspiciunt] (Penance Stare)," Arima chanted his habitual magic and Yrion started screaming in pain.
After the kid's mind burned and his eyes turned into stone, Arima scoffed. "I see. There's really no need to let you live after all. [Vita Venari] (Life Hunt)."
A colorless energy escaped Yrion's dead body. Arima glanced at Ferzia who was gawking at the events unfolding in front of her. He waved his hand toward her. Yrion's life force directly went to her and she unexpectedly felt a surge of strength as she broke through to the ninth level.
She stared at her hands and the flickering lightning around her in shock. Arima nodded as if he was satisfied with the result and snapped his fingers. Yrion's body who was still in its dragon form slowly turned back to normal as the draconic features turned into a sort of mist. That mist congregated to create a small red marble in Arima's hand.
The latter inspected the marble and then threw it toward the benches. Night caught it nimbly and shockingly swallowed it. "Thanks."
"Well, I won't let you live. But dying like that is too easy," Arima muttered as Yrion's body twitched and came back to life with a gasp.
Arima smirked and his sigil glowed. Yrion transformed into an amassment of light which slowly compressed into a second marble; a black one this time.
"Chulainn, your turn. You can do it right?" Arima said and handed the small sphere to Chulainn who was on his shoulder.
The Hellhound hummed and gobbed the marble before swallowing it. "It should fine. I can still send people to Hell…although I can't go there myself," Chulainn's reply turned into a complaint in the last part.
Arima snickered and then looked at Olien. The man was glaring at him with a devious face. Arima silently drew Ira and pointed it at Olien. The targeted teacher clicked his tongue before his head exploded. His students shrieked as they witnessed the death of their teacher.
"What are you doing?" Cekrad couldn't stay silent anymore as he stood up. Arima's slaughter intent had been retracted so he was finally able to move without having to fight his own survival instincts.
Arima merely waved his fingers in response and badge flew off Olien's clothes and then fell into Cekrad's hands. The badge depicted the outline of cobra holding a knife between its fangs.
"This is your problem now. I will soon leave this continent anyway. It's apparently an organization of killers or something," Arima explained as if he couldn't bother. "That kid and his teacher, they were part of it. That's all I know. I didn't want to look into the memories of that creep."
Cekrad listened and gulped. He quietly decided to inform the king later.
"So, what do we do now? Do we continue the tournament or can you just end it now?" Arima inquired and Cekrad shook his head.
"No, that would be stupid. Your class is undeniably the winner. But, although these are the circumstances, that man's class will still be placed as second," Cekrad answered and the last part of his sentence was addressed to Velvet.
She nodded in understating and didn't try to refute his words. She had already accepted to be third even before things escalated like that.
When Arima's students heard that, they all sighed in relief and at the same time, in slight regret on what just happened. But they still smiled and cheered for their victory.
Arima grinned while looking at them. "Now, it's time for me to say goodbye," He suddenly dropped a bombshell and the students stopped cheering at once. "I don't really know if we will meet again but I have to go. As your teacher, I hope you'll all make me proud," Arima spoke without letting his students some time to react.
Arima was quite in a hurry. He eyed Arister who was standing beside Ferzia. "Will you stay here?"
Arister smiled and shrugged. "I think so. I wish you good luck. I'm sure you'll stop that war easily. But if you ever need my help, you can call me."
Arima chuckled and extended his hand. "It was fun to have you with us."
Arister shook his hand in return and laughed lightly. "The feeling is shared."
Arima nodded and looked at his group. "Let's go," He stated and made his way toward the exit along with Night, Karma, and Lanya.
"Yes, and hurry the hell up please," Chulainn grumbled and Arima smiled wryly as the small dog was hitting his head with his paws.
When Arima was about to leave, the students finally recovered and bid him farewell, "Thank you very much, Sir. Blade," Ofia spoke first with a hint of sadness in her tone and everyone followed her example.
Arima chuckled and left Cross Island in the next minute.
********************************************
"Alright…" Arima resonated with Night and Karma turned back into a sword while Lanya entered the spatial storage together with Chulainn.
Arima's eyes lit up with a purple light and his aura started rising exponentially. His hair grew until his waist and gradually turned silver. His expression hardened and his scales became covered by a silvery hue.
Arima flapped his wings and flew off at an unimaginable speed for any human on the planet. He broke through the sound barrier in a second and his speed started approaching a thousand meters per second as he exited the atmosphere.
He sent a message to the Natural God at the same time and thanked him for the ride before assuring him he would get some payback from Errastas. His wings started producing a glittering red mist to accelerated within the void.
"{How strong is that guy?}" Arima asked Chulainn while evading the different asteroids on his way and admiring the planets and stars far away. It was quite a unique experience.
"{I don't really know much about Errastas. You should have asked Zesta before,}" Chulainn responded. "{The only thing I know is that he is a descendant of the Ancient Giants, the most powerful mortal beings in this Reality after Pure Blood Dragons. And well, basically, he's really big.}"
"{I already know that. I saw it with my own eyes,}" Arima chortled and waved his hand, destroying a huge rock on the way.
"{Anyway, he's still an Earthen God. Don't underestimate him. Although you may have incredible magic formations and endurance, Earthen Gods possess special abilities and embody a literal legend,} Chulainn said and Arima nodded.
"There," After half an hour or so, Arima mumbled as he spotted a certain planet. He flapped his wings and boosted his speed one last time.
He soon pierced the planet's atmosphere and was caught in the gravitational field. Arima revolved during his fall and flapped his wings just before landing. But even if he decelerated as much as he could, when he reached the ground, he still razed several hundreds of miles worth of landscape.
The planet seemed to be absolutely deserted and looked like the entire surface was just an endless canyon. Arima unhurriedly walked out of the crater he made and gazed at a certain direction with his purple irises.
"That's a mountain, right?" Lanya raised a question as she left the dimensional storage.
"A big mountain," Chulainn approved.
"Yep, a huge mountain in the middle of a canyon," Arima complemented.
"{A mountain is a mountain after all,}" Night remarked.
"{Arima, can you recall me the definition of a mountain?}" Karma tried to be sarcastic but ended up asking seriously as the ground trembled and the giant mountain they were joking about started moving.
"Well, literally; a mountain is a high area of land with steep sides," Arima answered whilst watching the 'mountain' move faster.
"…It can also describe a huge quantity of something…like a mountain of…meat?"
When Arima finished, the giant he had seen previously thanks to Evergreen's help was now towering in front of him. The ten-thousand-meter-tall abomination perfectly obscured the sky.
"Okay, even for me, this a bit intimidating…" Chulainn groaned. "Even if that thing is only an Earthen God, I can't see imagine myself beating him. It's more a problem with the limits of my imagination than anything else though."
"You're right…even if people say that size doesn't count. There's a limit. It's hard to overcome muscular density, weight, and size of a higher species," Arima added while making his sigil spin and collecting mana to cast his magic faster.
"I may have to use more than Ragnarok to beat this…" he alleged and his skin paled unnaturally until it became gray. Then a few seconds later, it started crumbling into pieces. Half of his face turned skeletal as purple flames in the form on his sigil replaced his eyes.
"I will help you as much as I can. But I didn't expect that thing to be like this. I only heard he was a giant dammit," Chulainn cursed as he slowly reverted to his original form. His size increased greatly and his three heads returned.
"Neither of us is currently in the Heavenly Realm. And this guy's body may not be that far from it," his three heads spoke together.
"Don't worry. We'll do this. It's not like our size doesn't constitute an advantage on its own," Arima said and crimson runes formed around him.
"[Agnitio Vultus Unus Mille] (One Thousand Parade)," He chanted a magic that he hadn't used before and his bones thickened. He became taller and his clothes were altered to match it.
The final result was a ten meters' tall draconic skeleton, wielding Karma who had turned herself into a great sword fitting the new stature of her partner.
Errastas' three eyes opened. The third eyeball located his forehead looked below at Arima's group.
