151. “You sure are an immortal.”
The gods were watching Arima's fight with trembling eyes. They were simply baffled by his power.
"What is going on?" Gabriel mumbled.
"I have no idea…" Michael responded dumbfounded.
"There's something wrong," Azes suddenly remarked. "He shouldn't be so strong just after the Life Judgement. On top of that, I'm not sure, but I think his life force level is barely at the early stage of the Third Divine."
"Then how do you explain this?" Zeus retorted.
Azes shook his head. "At first, I only thought that it was because he had become the 'Kind Demon'; a powerhouse in the same category as a god. But it seems I was wrong. It's not only that. From what I'm seeing right now, Arima has a lot of experience. A tremendous amount of it. Even more than me or any of us," he said and Zeus frowned.
"Life Hunters become stronger by absorbing the lives of the ones sharing their identities across the Planes. We can assume Arima did the same. And that's the problem. I don't know how he did it but…" Azes paused. "He somehow assimilated the knowledge and experience of his other versions."
"What?" Michael and Zeus exclaimed at the same time.
"What do you mean? Isn't that the same for every Life Hunter?" Aphrodite was perplexed though.
"Are you crazy?" Zeus snapped at her. "If all Life Hunters were like this, they would have never gone extinct. If this is true, he must have assimilated billions of years of lifetime. Not only his experience, his techniques, knowledge, magic theory... they all went up by several levels," he said and Aphrodite closed her mouth.
Gabriel looked around and most of the devils had been apprehended or killed. Mostly thanks to Arima's zombies which could even create undead by killing people. Truthfully a terrifying magic.
It was also due to Vastra’s death that they could finally suppress the devil side, since the people she controlled lost their strength all of sudden. Now, the only people remaining to defeat were the four Arima was fighting and Hades.
"…This is quite infuriating," Baphomet uttered as he straightened his fuming body.
"Indeed…" Lucifer replied whilst holding his arm in pain.
Beelzebub just snorted as he regenerated. Asmodeus joined them in a really bad state. He had suffered a full-powered lightning bolt to the face after all.
Although these four were not really friends or allies in any way, they realized one thing. Arima wasn’t an opponent that they could defeat alone. Their only chance was to cooperate.
Baphomet growled and kicked the ground with his sword over his shoulder. His muscles bulged and his speed and strength raised to another level.
His dark aura gathered around his weapon and he swung it at Arima. Lucifer also boosted Baphomet with his own magic and prepared to attack Arima directly. Meanwhile, Beelzebub and Asmodeus were surprisingly waiting.
To counter Baphomet's attack, Arima did something that not only shocked his opponents but also the gods watching.
He simply bent his body. Not only once or twice. His body bent in different ways as Baphomet kept swinging his sword at him. Arima had closed his eyes and was dodging the strikes with perfect accuracy.
The Evil God was frowning heavily. He slowed his movements down and focused on performing timed and unpredictable strikes. But even then, no matter how good his timing was, how fast he was, how accurate he could be, his attack always missed as if the time slowed each time to help Arima.
"Is that time magic?" Gabriel questioned with a solemn tone. For her, sometimes, it looked like there were two Arimas dodging at the same time.
"No," Azes answered. He was the one with the most understating of time among them. "In fact, he's not using magic at all. All of this is…"
"Martial arts," Michael finished for him. "What he's doing right now is pure body control. Every move he makes is devoid of any useless motion but nonetheless produce feigns that are almost illusion-like. His proficiency reached a mind-blowing level. It’s likely that he could even fend off Baphomet with a single hand."
As if to prove his words, Arima suddenly grabbed Baphomet's sword barehanded.
"[Terminus Confractus, CC] (Limit Break, 200)," he intoned and Baphomet immediately tried to pull back his sword. But it wouldn't even budge. His expression twitched but he took a decision in the blink of a second. He released the handle of his sword and placed his palms on the ground.
The earth cracked and a black fog escaped from the fissures. The next instant, it exploded into a large pillar of dark energy. Inside of it, Arima's eyes widened a little. He kicked Baphomet out of the pillar and lightning burst out of his body before breaking Baphomet's magic.
He then was struck by the dark-light that Lucifer had been preparing. Black and white spheres formed around him to form a circle.
Arima was about to swing Karma to destroy them, but he was a tad late. They all fell on the ground and burst in a devastating way.
The ground quaked and the sound it produced made the entirety of Hell shake. Arima was struck by the magic and a whistling noise entered his ears. He crossed his arms and then tried to get out by flapping his wings. But he then saw Asmodeus and Beelzebub among this chaos of magic, totally unaffected, rushing toward him.
"(Dark-light is ‘unbalance’. Though, as much as it is unstable, it also knows how to make a difference. That’s why its wielder can accurately choose who gets harmed or not…)" Arima browsed through his newly acquired knowledge and blocked Beelzebub's punch with Karma; causing the energy around to recede a little before it came back.
Arima scowled and outside of this discharge of dark-light, the skies lightened up and lightning started falling on Lucifer's magic. Normally, Arima shouldn't have been able to use magic within that formation of dark-light. But his control over ‘Ragnarök’ was absolute and cognitive.
He deviated Beelzebub's huge fist and cut his head off before kicking him away. He then parried Asmodeus's sword with his tail again. He drew Superore and aimed over his shoulder. The muzzles flashed with a black and purple light. Asmodeus was carried by the plasma out of the dark-light explosion.
Arima proceeded to unleash his aura to obtain some leeway. It felt like Lucifer's magic would never stop.
"[Abscondere tu in obumbratio] (You hide in the shadows)," he started chanting. A pitch-black mist, which absorbed the source of every light it touched, emerged from Arima's shadow.
"[Vos carnes edere, et privavit illas vitae suae] (You eat their flesh and rob them of their life)."
"[Est tempus ad crescere fortius et devoret] (It's time for you to grow stronger and consume)."
The mist suddenly expanded and pierced through the dark-light until it became a sort of fountain on top of it. Lucifer stared at it with narrowed eyes. The mist increased in volume and soon covered the entirety of Lucifer's magic. Not a single millimeter of black or white energy could be seen anymore.
As Lucifer was watching it unfold, he suddenly lost connection with his magic. It had been dispelled against his will.
"[Fourth Destruction Art, Vashta Nerada] (The Shadows that Melt the Flesh)," Arima intoned quietly. The shadow immediately disappeared, leaving nothing behind except its caster.
'Vashta Nerada's hidden effect was to consume everything and anything, even magic.
Arima stood in the middle of the crater caused by the dark-light. He snorted and pointed Superore at the sky. He fired and Baphomet had to use another sword technique to block it. He dropped the idea of a surprise attack and retreated swiftly.
Arima exhaled softly and the small cuts and injuries on his body closed within seconds.
"Immortality?" Baphomet was shocked.
"Not really," Arima rolled his eyes at him. "I'm already dead," he said. And it was the truth, Arima's death force had also been used to create the Kind Demon after all.
"Anyway, it's time to end this farce. Thank you for helping me assess my new capabilities," Arima uttered and his every fiber of his body tightened.
"[Accelerans] (Accel)," he chanted and vanished. Just vanished. Without any mana or space fluctuation and without lightning or wind pressure to speak of.
He just disappeared and rematerialized next to Baphomet in the next instant. With a brisk metallic sound, the Evil God’s head was detached from his body. Karma had engendered such a powerful shockwave during the swing that even space-time had been slashed and created a void that lasted for one second.
Arima then conjured 'Aeterna' which blasted apart the whole area.
Lucifer realized something bad was happening and used as much mana as he could to protect himself. His luck worked out since Arima's blade was surprisingly stopped a millimeter away from his neck.
Arima wasn’t even surprised or concerned. He merely began to chant another magic as a white orb crowned with a magic circle was assembled above his palm.
"[Et oblinito facta es] (You were made to seal)."
"[Pessuli fiunt ligandi] (Made to bind and lock)."
"[Prohibere ad reprimendum] (Made to restrain and prohibit)."
"[Monstra te statim ultra regula] (Show your rule once more)."
"[Fourth White Art, Upper-Layer, Sigillum Aeterna] (Eternal Seal)," Arima activated his Art.
His sigil glowed and humongous chains emerged from the ground. Some even suddenly fell from the sky and were hanging from seemingly nothing. They were static at first but soon moved to constrain Lucifer. The latter’s magic could defend him from attacks. But sealing techniques were much harder to deal with or counter.
“NO!” Lucifer roared. The chains grew in number and then locked him in a sort of white cocoon.
Arima exhaled a blue mist and then vanished again. He reappeared above Asmodeus and fired Superore at full power.
The resulting pillar created by the bullets shrouded Asmodeus and destroyed his body and soul. After that, Arima gritted his teeth. He gathered his strength and used his Time magic for the third time.
He transferred to another place instantaneously. He arrived in front of Beelzebub who had barely just regenerated his head.
"[Limit Break, CCC] (Limit break, 300)," Arima forced his body’s strengthening again. At that level, his bones were under the risk of being literally minced. He used it to overpower Beelzebub and compel him to make eye contact.
"A large quantity of essence and soul is perfect for this one," Arima said.
"[Fifth Black Art, Penitentia Conspiciunt] (Penance Stare)."
Beelzebub's eyes convulsed and his eyes turned into stone after a minute. Arima then sighed and coughed a bit of blood. It was the repercussion of using Time magic repeatedly.
"(Well, it's going to heal soon anyway,)" Arima casually thought and jumped off Beelzebub's body whilst retrieving the life force of his fallen enemies. His realm was rapidly approaching the peak of the Third Divine.
Arima threw a lollipop in his mouth and casually started walking through the devastated battlefield. The candy surprisingly suited his actual appearance, although it provoked a great conflict in the minds of everyone watching.
The gods also stared at him, not only in shock but also apprehension and fear.
Arima heedlessly continued to savor his candy as he made his way toward Baphomet who was already standing up. His head had been reattached and he was completely fine at first sight. But his eyes revealed how stunned he was.
"Let's see… your Manifestation is interesting, to say the least," Arima remarked. "You won't die no matter how many times I kill you. It's quite different from me. I have a Third-Degree Immortality. I can heal anything, even a head or a heart. But I die when my mana tires out," he explained and everyone clearly heard his cold and baritone voice.
"You are different. You possess First-Degree Immortality. Although your regeneration can get weaker as you use it, you will never actually die since you don't need mana to survive. On top of that, there’s your Manifestation,” Arima added while pointing at the dark clouds in the sky. “It keeps your regeneration strong and restores your mana each time you die."
He stopped walking and gazed at Baphomet. He smiled and broke the lollipop into small bits before swallowing them. "You sure are an immortal."
Baphomet's expression twitched. "…What's your point?"
"Nothing much, I just wanted to chat for a bit," Arima shrugged and extended his hand. A blue flame ignited above his palm. It wasn't emitting any heat and glowed faintly.
"Let me show you why they are called Blue Arts."
151. “You sure are an immortal.”
The gods were watching Arima's fight with trembling eyes. They were simply baffled by his power.
"What is going on?" Gabriel mumbled.
"I have no idea…" Michael responded dumbfounded.
"There's something wrong," Azes suddenly remarked. "He shouldn't be so strong just after the Life Judgement. On top of that, I'm not sure, but I think his life force level is barely at the early stage of the Third Divine."
"Then how do you explain this?" Zeus retorted.
Azes shook his head. "At first, I only thought that it was because he had become the 'Kind Demon'; a powerhouse in the same category as a god. But it seems I was wrong. It's not only that. From what I'm seeing right now, Arima has a lot of experience. A tremendous amount of it. Even more than me or any of us," he said and Zeus frowned.
"Life Hunters become stronger by absorbing the lives of the ones sharing their identities across the Planes. We can assume Arima did the same. And that's the problem. I don't know how he did it but…" Azes paused. "He somehow assimilated the knowledge and experience of his other versions."
"What?" Michael and Zeus exclaimed at the same time.
"What do you mean? Isn't that the same for every Life Hunter?" Aphrodite was perplexed though.
"Are you crazy?" Zeus snapped at her. "If all Life Hunters were like this, they would have never gone extinct. If this is true, he must have assimilated billions of years of lifetime. Not only his experience, his techniques, knowledge, magic theory... they all went up by several levels," he said and Aphrodite closed her mouth.
Gabriel looked around and most of the devils had been apprehended or killed. Mostly thanks to Arima's zombies which could even create undead by killing people. Truthfully a terrifying magic.
It was also due to Vastra’s death that they could finally suppress the devil side, since the people she controlled lost their strength all of sudden. Now, the only people remaining to defeat were the four Arima was fighting and Hades.
"…This is quite infuriating," Baphomet uttered as he straightened his fuming body.
"Indeed…" Lucifer replied whilst holding his arm in pain.
Beelzebub just snorted as he regenerated. Asmodeus joined them in a really bad state. He had suffered a full-powered lightning bolt to the face after all.
Although these four were not really friends or allies in any way, they realized one thing. Arima wasn’t an opponent that they could defeat alone. Their only chance was to cooperate.
Baphomet growled and kicked the ground with his sword over his shoulder. His muscles bulged and his speed and strength raised to another level.
His dark aura gathered around his weapon and he swung it at Arima. Lucifer also boosted Baphomet with his own magic and prepared to attack Arima directly. Meanwhile, Beelzebub and Asmodeus were surprisingly waiting.
To counter Baphomet's attack, Arima did something that not only shocked his opponents but also the gods watching.
He simply bent his body. Not only once or twice. His body bent in different ways as Baphomet kept swinging his sword at him. Arima had closed his eyes and was dodging the strikes with perfect accuracy.
The Evil God was frowning heavily. He slowed his movements down and focused on performing timed and unpredictable strikes. But even then, no matter how good his timing was, how fast he was, how accurate he could be, his attack always missed as if the time slowed each time to help Arima.
"Is that time magic?" Gabriel questioned with a solemn tone. For her, sometimes, it looked like there were two Arimas dodging at the same time.
"No," Azes answered. He was the one with the most understating of time among them. "In fact, he's not using magic at all. All of this is…"
"Martial arts," Michael finished for him. "What he's doing right now is pure body control. Every move he makes is devoid of any useless motion but nonetheless produce feigns that are almost illusion-like. His proficiency reached a mind-blowing level. It’s likely that he could even fend off Baphomet with a single hand."
As if to prove his words, Arima suddenly grabbed Baphomet's sword barehanded.
"[Terminus Confractus, CC] (Limit Break, 200)," he intoned and Baphomet immediately tried to pull back his sword. But it wouldn't even budge. His expression twitched but he took a decision in the blink of a second. He released the handle of his sword and placed his palms on the ground.
The earth cracked and a black fog escaped from the fissures. The next instant, it exploded into a large pillar of dark energy. Inside of it, Arima's eyes widened a little. He kicked Baphomet out of the pillar and lightning burst out of his body before breaking Baphomet's magic.
He then was struck by the dark-light that Lucifer had been preparing. Black and white spheres formed around him to form a circle.
Arima was about to swing Karma to destroy them, but he was a tad late. They all fell on the ground and burst in a devastating way.
The ground quaked and the sound it produced made the entirety of Hell shake. Arima was struck by the magic and a whistling noise entered his ears. He crossed his arms and then tried to get out by flapping his wings. But he then saw Asmodeus and Beelzebub among this chaos of magic, totally unaffected, rushing toward him.
"(Dark-light is ‘unbalance’. Though, as much as it is unstable, it also knows how to make a difference. That’s why its wielder can accurately choose who gets harmed or not…)" Arima browsed through his newly acquired knowledge and blocked Beelzebub's punch with Karma; causing the energy around to recede a little before it came back.
Arima scowled and outside of this discharge of dark-light, the skies lightened up and lightning started falling on Lucifer's magic. Normally, Arima shouldn't have been able to use magic within that formation of dark-light. But his control over ‘Ragnarök’ was absolute and cognitive.
He deviated Beelzebub's huge fist and cut his head off before kicking him away. He then parried Asmodeus's sword with his tail again. He drew Superore and aimed over his shoulder. The muzzles flashed with a black and purple light. Asmodeus was carried by the plasma out of the dark-light explosion.
Arima proceeded to unleash his aura to obtain some leeway. It felt like Lucifer's magic would never stop.
"[Abscondere tu in obumbratio] (You hide in the shadows)," he started chanting. A pitch-black mist, which absorbed the source of every light it touched, emerged from Arima's shadow.
"[Vos carnes edere, et privavit illas vitae suae] (You eat their flesh and rob them of their life)."
"[Est tempus ad crescere fortius et devoret] (It's time for you to grow stronger and consume)."
The mist suddenly expanded and pierced through the dark-light until it became a sort of fountain on top of it. Lucifer stared at it with narrowed eyes. The mist increased in volume and soon covered the entirety of Lucifer's magic. Not a single millimeter of black or white energy could be seen anymore.
As Lucifer was watching it unfold, he suddenly lost connection with his magic. It had been dispelled against his will.
"[Fourth Destruction Art, Vashta Nerada] (The Shadows that Melt the Flesh)," Arima intoned quietly. The shadow immediately disappeared, leaving nothing behind except its caster.
'Vashta Nerada's hidden effect was to consume everything and anything, even magic.
Arima stood in the middle of the crater caused by the dark-light. He snorted and pointed Superore at the sky. He fired and Baphomet had to use another sword technique to block it. He dropped the idea of a surprise attack and retreated swiftly.
Arima exhaled softly and the small cuts and injuries on his body closed within seconds.
"Immortality?" Baphomet was shocked.
"Not really," Arima rolled his eyes at him. "I'm already dead," he said. And it was the truth, Arima's death force had also been used to create the Kind Demon after all.
"Anyway, it's time to end this farce. Thank you for helping me assess my new capabilities," Arima uttered and his every fiber of his body tightened.
"[Accelerans] (Accel)," he chanted and vanished. Just vanished. Without any mana or space fluctuation and without lightning or wind pressure to speak of.
He just disappeared and rematerialized next to Baphomet in the next instant. With a brisk metallic sound, the Evil God’s head was detached from his body. Karma had engendered such a powerful shockwave during the swing that even space-time had been slashed and created a void that lasted for one second.
Arima then conjured 'Aeterna' which blasted apart the whole area.
Lucifer realized something bad was happening and used as much mana as he could to protect himself. His luck worked out since Arima's blade was surprisingly stopped a millimeter away from his neck.
Arima wasn’t even surprised or concerned. He merely began to chant another magic as a white orb crowned with a magic circle was assembled above his palm.
"[Et oblinito facta es] (You were made to seal)."
"[Pessuli fiunt ligandi] (Made to bind and lock)."
"[Prohibere ad reprimendum] (Made to restrain and prohibit)."
"[Monstra te statim ultra regula] (Show your rule once more)."
"[Fourth White Art, Upper-Layer, Sigillum Aeterna] (Eternal Seal)," Arima activated his Art.
His sigil glowed and humongous chains emerged from the ground. Some even suddenly fell from the sky and were hanging from seemingly nothing. They were static at first but soon moved to constrain Lucifer. The latter’s magic could defend him from attacks. But sealing techniques were much harder to deal with or counter.
“NO!” Lucifer roared. The chains grew in number and then locked him in a sort of white cocoon.
Arima exhaled a blue mist and then vanished again. He reappeared above Asmodeus and fired Superore at full power.
The resulting pillar created by the bullets shrouded Asmodeus and destroyed his body and soul. After that, Arima gritted his teeth. He gathered his strength and used his Time magic for the third time.
He transferred to another place instantaneously. He arrived in front of Beelzebub who had barely just regenerated his head.
"[Limit Break, CCC] (Limit break, 300)," Arima forced his body’s strengthening again. At that level, his bones were under the risk of being literally minced. He used it to overpower Beelzebub and compel him to make eye contact.
"A large quantity of essence and soul is perfect for this one," Arima said.
"[Fifth Black Art, Penitentia Conspiciunt] (Penance Stare)."
Beelzebub's eyes convulsed and his eyes turned into stone after a minute. Arima then sighed and coughed a bit of blood. It was the repercussion of using Time magic repeatedly.
"(Well, it's going to heal soon anyway,)" Arima casually thought and jumped off Beelzebub's body whilst retrieving the life force of his fallen enemies. His realm was rapidly approaching the peak of the Third Divine.
Arima threw a lollipop in his mouth and casually started walking through the devastated battlefield. The candy surprisingly suited his actual appearance, although it provoked a great conflict in the minds of everyone watching.
The gods also stared at him, not only in shock but also apprehension and fear.
Arima heedlessly continued to savor his candy as he made his way toward Baphomet who was already standing up. His head had been reattached and he was completely fine at first sight. But his eyes revealed how stunned he was.
"Let's see… your Manifestation is interesting, to say the least," Arima remarked. "You won't die no matter how many times I kill you. It's quite different from me. I have a Third-Degree Immortality. I can heal anything, even a head or a heart. But I die when my mana tires out," he explained and everyone clearly heard his cold and baritone voice.
"You are different. You possess First-Degree Immortality. Although your regeneration can get weaker as you use it, you will never actually die since you don't need mana to survive. On top of that, there’s your Manifestation,” Arima added while pointing at the dark clouds in the sky. “It keeps your regeneration strong and restores your mana each time you die."
He stopped walking and gazed at Baphomet. He smiled and broke the lollipop into small bits before swallowing them. "You sure are an immortal."
Baphomet's expression twitched. "…What's your point?"
"Nothing much, I just wanted to chat for a bit," Arima shrugged and extended his hand. A blue flame ignited above his palm. It wasn't emitting any heat and glowed faintly.
"Let me show you why they are called Blue Arts."
