"What do you mean?" Chulainn asked first. "If it's an array, I don't think it can resist us if we really want to go through."
"Well, see for yourself," Arima responded and did the same gesture as earlier for the third time. He then clenched his hands as if he was trying to grab something and then slowly moved his arms.
As he was moving, his fists would leave a white trail behind. Arima moved his hands so that the two white lines formed a circle once connected. After that, Arima just let go and the white circle started to shine. Complex and numerous runes appeared in it.
Arima backed off and looked at what was happening. When the white magic circle was complete, another four were drawn beside it. And then, another four formed around each new circle, some even overlapping the five first.
"Okay, it seems to have a large number of runes and layers but it should…be...okay?!" Chulainn's voice gradually turned weaker until he exclaimed in shock.
As he was talking, the circles just kept duplicating over and over, faster after each duplication. The starting point had already an incalculable number of circles superimposing each other. And still, the number of white circles just kept increasing every second.
Thus, a white 'wall' made of magic circles was now in front of the group. That wall was already so wide that none of them could see the end of it.
Arima sighed and tapped the circles. He slid his finger across the runes and made them spin with a casual swipe. "There you go. This is the thing you want to go through"
"Oh," Chulainn was himself so overwhelmed by the situation that he couldn't say anything else.
"So, what can we do?" Lanya inquired and Arima rolled his eyes at her.
He smiled oddly and knocked on the ‘wall’. "Do you really want to know?" He asked and Lanya pursed her lips. "Well, good choice," Arima chuckled and slid two of his fingers on the wall, one of the many magic circles spun and changed color to green.
"This one was easy, but it keeps getting harder. This is the kind of array we stumbled upon. That's why I'm not sure I can do it," Arima said as he analyzed the green circle.
"What are you talking about?" Night asked and Arima only turned toward him when he turned another circle into a green one.
"We have to decrypt these circles to break this array. I already have done two. You can see it as a puzzle, or hacking if you want," Arima answered and changed a third a circle.
"Wait, all of them?" Karma asked and gawked at the endless wall.
Arima chuckled darkly. "Yes," he said and continued on a fourth circle. "Come on, you can begin too. For now, it should be easy, so I'll summon as many familiars as I can to help us. But since they will be controlled by my parallel thoughts, I’ll have to reduce their number and eventually dispel all of them when it gets too complex. At that point, we’ll have to do our best to decrypt the very last ones."
Arima breathed in and chanted. "[Bestia Delphinus]."
An azure circle appeared in front of him and a vortex formed around it. From that vortex, shining blue figures emerged to enter the red sea. Those silhouettes became clearer over time as they kept circling Arima.
They were small dolphins with eyes glinting with intelligence. Their number continued to grow until Arima suddenly stopped the magic and sighed out of slight overexertion. He rubbed his temple for a second and looked at the circular ‘wall’ of dolphins around him.
"Go," he commanded and each one of those marine animals left. "They will begin from the corners and borders of this wall. We will do it from here. Let's get to work," Arima explained to his group and resumed the decrypting.
Karma and Night looked at each other with the same look of a desperate kid in front of his homework. They ultimately started working on the array. Lanya followed them and even if it was her, the lack of enthusiasm could be seen on her face.
Chulainn grunted. "Why did I follow you again?" He muttered and looked up. "This is not what I expected…"
*********************************************
"My goal is simple. I want to destroy Heaven," Karez declared to the three powerhouses in front of him; Utain, Vastra, and surprisingly, Baphomet was also sitting there cross-legged.
After hearing Karez’s words, Vastra giggled and Utain frowned. "Why?"
"Revenge," Karez answered simply and Utain was even more confused.
"I don't get it. I heard from the lesser devils that you tried to destroy Hell's core years ago. Now you come back to say you want to destroy Heaven for revenge. That makes your action against Hell's core odd," the beast-man exposed his thoughts.
"I didn't say that my revenge was against the gods," Karez said and both Utain and Vastra’s eyes widened in realization.
"Little human, are you saying that you want to destroy this plane?" The demoness asked with a cold and sweet voice. "There's a difference between just destroying an Original Land and completely erasing it. If you only shut down the core, the Land will die but the lower worlds will survive. But if you erase it, the entire plane will be obliterated," she briefly explained and squinted her eyes. "Is the latter your objective?"
Karez had to bit his lip to resist the natural charming enchantment of her voice but he still replied firmly. “Yes.”
Vastra burst out laughing and Baphomet opened one of his eyes. "So, your revenge is against the world?" He asked with a frightening voice. It felt like each one of his words could crawl under your skin.
Karez shivered and looked at the hideous monster. He may have spoken with a calm tone, but that ‘thing’ was a master of the occult and a harvester of blood. It's impossible to even count how many people died by his hands. At his question, Karez nodded.
Baphomet stood up and stomped the ground with his hooves. He turned around and walked away in a certain direction; directly toward where the Heaven Gate had materialized.
"Vengeful human, I'll let you live since you freed me. But after you get what you want, I'll kill you for having used us for your own ends," the Evil God gave his warning. He snorted as he was getting farther. “World destruction,” he scoffed. “Even I didn’t venture in that. A human such as you has no right to hate it.”
Karez gulped and Vastra grinned as she stood up too. "Don't worry, I have no problem with your lovely endeavor. I have some things to settle with Aphrodite anyway. You can destroy Heaven as much as you want," she declared and clapped her hands.
At her signal, a giant at the Third Divine opened his palm for her to climb. The giant then followed Baphomet along with every devil and prisoner who had exited the purgatory.
Utain closed his eyes and lit up his cigar with a small flame. He then walked away silently, though he wasn't going with the others.
"Ojure, was it? I'm not a good guy myself but I don't want to associate myself with the deaths of every inhabitant of this Plane. I saved you from the Mad God, it should be satisfactory," he said to Karez without turning back.
"In any case, there's something requiring my attention," he added as he gazed at the horizon. "I'm feeling the presence of a Life Hunter," he uttered and Karez's eyes narrowed.
"Furthermore," the old beast-man continued with a graver tone. "It's one from the R. lineage," he gritted his teeth and put some strength in his legs. The ground burst and his figure disappeared, leaving an afterimage.
Karez watched quietly. He couldn't stop him even if he wanted anyway. He exhaled and turned his head to observe the army of Hell heading for the upcoming war.
Karez grinned and looked at the black-orange sky. "It's finally time to destroy this world that took everything from me," he muttered and took his first step.
************************************************
"I didn't expect The Destroyer to interfere," Karaskan muttered as he walked through a rocky plain. "Well, it’s not a problem. He shouldn't be able to destroy Heaven in time."
Karaskan took out the Pandora from his storage and stared at it.
"[Πανδώρα] (Pandora)," he chanted in Greek and the box started shaking. Karaskan smiled and threw the object.
When it fell on the ground, Pandora shined with a bright light and a tornado pierced through the scenery. The wind blew for a minute before stopping. During that time, Karaskan couldn't even approach.
When the tornado vanished, a huge palace was left there, seemingly made of the same material as the box. Karaskan immediately went toward it and stepped on the wide staircase at the entrance.
He climbed until the main edifice and entered a sort of prayer hall. In the middle of the room, there was a pedestal with a slightly bigger version of the box on top of it. And hanging from the wall in the far end of the hall, one could admire the massive portrait of a graceful and beautiful woman.
Karaskan smirked and then turned around without going further.
"Everything is almost ready; I need to get some basic sacrifices and then the preparations are done."
**********************************************
When Lilis arrived at the red sea, she immediately plunged into it and started going down really quickly. It didn't take her long to spot the giant blockade of green circles.
When she reached it, she was stunned to see the complexity of the array and looked around. She could only see green. She knew that it meant they had been decrypted and overwritten, but she couldn't see Arima's group anywhere.
She could only stay trace the wall as she advanced. After a moment, she detected azure dolphins altering the runes with their noses. All of those dolphins were in a circular formation around Arima's group.
"Arima?" Lilis approached them and called. Arima blinked in surprise and momentarily stopped his work. He turned around.
"Hey Lilis, you've come. Hum, could we skip the reunion? Help us crack this array, will you?"
Lilis smiled wryly and nodded. “Sure, no problem,” she went near the wall and looked around. To her surprise, the only person she recognized was Lanya. But even then, the latter's aura was extraordinary strong compared to before.
"Are you…Night?" Lilis then squinted her eyes and inquired as she stared at Night under his human form.
"Yes…" Night responded weakly as he had been working on the array for almost ten hours straight now. It seemed that the time naturally flowed differently within the red sea.
"And you are?" Lilis asked the other person she didn't recognize. "Hey, the red-haired lady over there?" She spoke out one more time when she didn't get any response.
Karma was half-asleep when she heard the question. She reacted strongly when she heard it for a second time and looked around perplexed. "Oh," when her eyes fell on Lilis, she exclaimed and smiled. "I'm Karma. Nice to meet you, Lilis."
"…Eh?" Lilis took some time to process and rolled her eyes at Arima with a look urgently demanding for confirmation.
"Yes, she’s the same Karma you're thinking about," Arima replied and sighed as he finally finished a certain circle. He had been working on it for five minutes in total. A huge difference from the time he needed at the beginning.
When he finished that one, he groaned and one of his dolphins fell apart. Since the parallel thoughts were stronger when they were less in number, he had to slowly reduce their number overtime to keep up with the difficulty.
"I see…it’s an evolving array. Always harder…?!" While she was talking, Lilis a small dog with a zombie-like expression floated in front of her. "You are… Kerberos?" She asked with a hesitant voice.
"Huh?" Chulainn moved his eyes and lazily took a glimpse at Lilis. "Oh, you're that young goddess, Zesta Lilis, right? If I'm not wrong, your domain was Worldly Emotions," he muttered and Lilis nodded. "I see, it's cool that you're back. I'm going to sleep, take my place at doing this annoying thing."
The Hellhound said and yapped as he received a bullet in the head. He made some spins in water and growled while staring at Arima. "What was that for?!"
"Go back to work."
"I'm not good with decrypting work," Chulainn complained. "I'm not good with meticulous labor in general..." he then muttered as he started working on another circle.
Lilis chuckled and followed by sliding her fingers on the runes. "I'll help you finish."
"Thanks," Arima smiled. "Glad to have you back."
"What do you mean?" Chulainn asked first. "If it's an array, I don't think it can resist us if we really want to go through."
"Well, see for yourself," Arima responded and did the same gesture as earlier for the third time. He then clenched his hands as if he was trying to grab something and then slowly moved his arms.
As he was moving, his fists would leave a white trail behind. Arima moved his hands so that the two white lines formed a circle once connected. After that, Arima just let go and the white circle started to shine. Complex and numerous runes appeared in it.
Arima backed off and looked at what was happening. When the white magic circle was complete, another four were drawn beside it. And then, another four formed around each new circle, some even overlapping the five first.
"Okay, it seems to have a large number of runes and layers but it should…be...okay?!" Chulainn's voice gradually turned weaker until he exclaimed in shock.
As he was talking, the circles just kept duplicating over and over, faster after each duplication. The starting point had already an incalculable number of circles superimposing each other. And still, the number of white circles just kept increasing every second.
Thus, a white 'wall' made of magic circles was now in front of the group. That wall was already so wide that none of them could see the end of it.
Arima sighed and tapped the circles. He slid his finger across the runes and made them spin with a casual swipe. "There you go. This is the thing you want to go through"
"Oh," Chulainn was himself so overwhelmed by the situation that he couldn't say anything else.
"So, what can we do?" Lanya inquired and Arima rolled his eyes at her.
He smiled oddly and knocked on the ‘wall’. "Do you really want to know?" He asked and Lanya pursed her lips. "Well, good choice," Arima chuckled and slid two of his fingers on the wall, one of the many magic circles spun and changed color to green.
"This one was easy, but it keeps getting harder. This is the kind of array we stumbled upon. That's why I'm not sure I can do it," Arima said as he analyzed the green circle.
"What are you talking about?" Night asked and Arima only turned toward him when he turned another circle into a green one.
"We have to decrypt these circles to break this array. I already have done two. You can see it as a puzzle, or hacking if you want," Arima answered and changed a third a circle.
"Wait, all of them?" Karma asked and gawked at the endless wall.
Arima chuckled darkly. "Yes," he said and continued on a fourth circle. "Come on, you can begin too. For now, it should be easy, so I'll summon as many familiars as I can to help us. But since they will be controlled by my parallel thoughts, I’ll have to reduce their number and eventually dispel all of them when it gets too complex. At that point, we’ll have to do our best to decrypt the very last ones."
Arima breathed in and chanted. "[Bestia Delphinus]."
An azure circle appeared in front of him and a vortex formed around it. From that vortex, shining blue figures emerged to enter the red sea. Those silhouettes became clearer over time as they kept circling Arima.
They were small dolphins with eyes glinting with intelligence. Their number continued to grow until Arima suddenly stopped the magic and sighed out of slight overexertion. He rubbed his temple for a second and looked at the circular ‘wall’ of dolphins around him.
"Go," he commanded and each one of those marine animals left. "They will begin from the corners and borders of this wall. We will do it from here. Let's get to work," Arima explained to his group and resumed the decrypting.
Karma and Night looked at each other with the same look of a desperate kid in front of his homework. They ultimately started working on the array. Lanya followed them and even if it was her, the lack of enthusiasm could be seen on her face.
Chulainn grunted. "Why did I follow you again?" He muttered and looked up. "This is not what I expected…"
*********************************************
"My goal is simple. I want to destroy Heaven," Karez declared to the three powerhouses in front of him; Utain, Vastra, and surprisingly, Baphomet was also sitting there cross-legged.
After hearing Karez’s words, Vastra giggled and Utain frowned. "Why?"
"Revenge," Karez answered simply and Utain was even more confused.
"I don't get it. I heard from the lesser devils that you tried to destroy Hell's core years ago. Now you come back to say you want to destroy Heaven for revenge. That makes your action against Hell's core odd," the beast-man exposed his thoughts.
"I didn't say that my revenge was against the gods," Karez said and both Utain and Vastra’s eyes widened in realization.
"Little human, are you saying that you want to destroy this plane?" The demoness asked with a cold and sweet voice. "There's a difference between just destroying an Original Land and completely erasing it. If you only shut down the core, the Land will die but the lower worlds will survive. But if you erase it, the entire plane will be obliterated," she briefly explained and squinted her eyes. "Is the latter your objective?"
Karez had to bit his lip to resist the natural charming enchantment of her voice but he still replied firmly. “Yes.”
Vastra burst out laughing and Baphomet opened one of his eyes. "So, your revenge is against the world?" He asked with a frightening voice. It felt like each one of his words could crawl under your skin.
Karez shivered and looked at the hideous monster. He may have spoken with a calm tone, but that ‘thing’ was a master of the occult and a harvester of blood. It's impossible to even count how many people died by his hands. At his question, Karez nodded.
Baphomet stood up and stomped the ground with his hooves. He turned around and walked away in a certain direction; directly toward where the Heaven Gate had materialized.
"Vengeful human, I'll let you live since you freed me. But after you get what you want, I'll kill you for having used us for your own ends," the Evil God gave his warning. He snorted as he was getting farther. “World destruction,” he scoffed. “Even I didn’t venture in that. A human such as you has no right to hate it.”
Karez gulped and Vastra grinned as she stood up too. "Don't worry, I have no problem with your lovely endeavor. I have some things to settle with Aphrodite anyway. You can destroy Heaven as much as you want," she declared and clapped her hands.
At her signal, a giant at the Third Divine opened his palm for her to climb. The giant then followed Baphomet along with every devil and prisoner who had exited the purgatory.
Utain closed his eyes and lit up his cigar with a small flame. He then walked away silently, though he wasn't going with the others.
"Ojure, was it? I'm not a good guy myself but I don't want to associate myself with the deaths of every inhabitant of this Plane. I saved you from the Mad God, it should be satisfactory," he said to Karez without turning back.
"In any case, there's something requiring my attention," he added as he gazed at the horizon. "I'm feeling the presence of a Life Hunter," he uttered and Karez's eyes narrowed.
"Furthermore," the old beast-man continued with a graver tone. "It's one from the R. lineage," he gritted his teeth and put some strength in his legs. The ground burst and his figure disappeared, leaving an afterimage.
Karez watched quietly. He couldn't stop him even if he wanted anyway. He exhaled and turned his head to observe the army of Hell heading for the upcoming war.
Karez grinned and looked at the black-orange sky. "It's finally time to destroy this world that took everything from me," he muttered and took his first step.
************************************************
"I didn't expect The Destroyer to interfere," Karaskan muttered as he walked through a rocky plain. "Well, it’s not a problem. He shouldn't be able to destroy Heaven in time."
Karaskan took out the Pandora from his storage and stared at it.
"[Πανδώρα] (Pandora)," he chanted in Greek and the box started shaking. Karaskan smiled and threw the object.
When it fell on the ground, Pandora shined with a bright light and a tornado pierced through the scenery. The wind blew for a minute before stopping. During that time, Karaskan couldn't even approach.
When the tornado vanished, a huge palace was left there, seemingly made of the same material as the box. Karaskan immediately went toward it and stepped on the wide staircase at the entrance.
He climbed until the main edifice and entered a sort of prayer hall. In the middle of the room, there was a pedestal with a slightly bigger version of the box on top of it. And hanging from the wall in the far end of the hall, one could admire the massive portrait of a graceful and beautiful woman.
Karaskan smirked and then turned around without going further.
"Everything is almost ready; I need to get some basic sacrifices and then the preparations are done."
**********************************************
When Lilis arrived at the red sea, she immediately plunged into it and started going down really quickly. It didn't take her long to spot the giant blockade of green circles.
When she reached it, she was stunned to see the complexity of the array and looked around. She could only see green. She knew that it meant they had been decrypted and overwritten, but she couldn't see Arima's group anywhere.
She could only stay trace the wall as she advanced. After a moment, she detected azure dolphins altering the runes with their noses. All of those dolphins were in a circular formation around Arima's group.
"Arima?" Lilis approached them and called. Arima blinked in surprise and momentarily stopped his work. He turned around.
"Hey Lilis, you've come. Hum, could we skip the reunion? Help us crack this array, will you?"
Lilis smiled wryly and nodded. “Sure, no problem,” she went near the wall and looked around. To her surprise, the only person she recognized was Lanya. But even then, the latter's aura was extraordinary strong compared to before.
"Are you…Night?" Lilis then squinted her eyes and inquired as she stared at Night under his human form.
"Yes…" Night responded weakly as he had been working on the array for almost ten hours straight now. It seemed that the time naturally flowed differently within the red sea.
"And you are?" Lilis asked the other person she didn't recognize. "Hey, the red-haired lady over there?" She spoke out one more time when she didn't get any response.
Karma was half-asleep when she heard the question. She reacted strongly when she heard it for a second time and looked around perplexed. "Oh," when her eyes fell on Lilis, she exclaimed and smiled. "I'm Karma. Nice to meet you, Lilis."
"…Eh?" Lilis took some time to process and rolled her eyes at Arima with a look urgently demanding for confirmation.
"Yes, she’s the same Karma you're thinking about," Arima replied and sighed as he finally finished a certain circle. He had been working on it for five minutes in total. A huge difference from the time he needed at the beginning.
When he finished that one, he groaned and one of his dolphins fell apart. Since the parallel thoughts were stronger when they were less in number, he had to slowly reduce their number overtime to keep up with the difficulty.
"I see…it’s an evolving array. Always harder…?!" While she was talking, Lilis a small dog with a zombie-like expression floated in front of her. "You are… Kerberos?" She asked with a hesitant voice.
"Huh?" Chulainn moved his eyes and lazily took a glimpse at Lilis. "Oh, you're that young goddess, Zesta Lilis, right? If I'm not wrong, your domain was Worldly Emotions," he muttered and Lilis nodded. "I see, it's cool that you're back. I'm going to sleep, take my place at doing this annoying thing."
The Hellhound said and yapped as he received a bullet in the head. He made some spins in water and growled while staring at Arima. "What was that for?!"
"Go back to work."
"I'm not good with decrypting work," Chulainn complained. "I'm not good with meticulous labor in general..." he then muttered as he started working on another circle.
Lilis chuckled and followed by sliding her fingers on the runes. "I'll help you finish."
"Thanks," Arima smiled. "Glad to have you back."
