248. ”What a novel idea.”
Two days later, Arima had already ended the lives of six more targets. Since Arima knew that his gun wouldn't work anymore, he had to take another approach. So, he used his uncanny spatial ability to get the first strike although he exposed himself to more danger.
He didn't know if he could defeat the Pillars and Guardians in a fair fight. But even if that was the case, he was in a hurry to get this over with.
He was aware of the ongoing fight between the Téra and Layla's group. But there was a reason why he couldn't go help them. He needed to complete the conquest of the Realities. It was something he needed for his plan.
In fact, when Arima first planned to invade and take control of the Mother Realities, he was also thinking about the Téra. He assumed that they would try to follow him and spread their terror.
Knowing Karaskan, it was more than possible. That's why Arima relied on Ahura to slow them down. But even then, he wasn't completely sure that it would happen and believed he could simply eliminate them after he had acquired the power of the Mother Realities.
But when he partially fused with Krynox, his plans changed drastically. He learned the ways he could use that power. That's one of the reasons that made him so pressed to finish.
"Fuck," Arima swore and blocked two swords with Superore's frame. One blade was red and the other green. Each one of them was releasing a deadly pressure.
Arima was in his Ancient Demon form which meant his opponent was quite tall as well. It was a giant lich who apparently enjoyed fighting with swords. The lich's appearance was unclear. It was wearing a hood, a metal mask, and gloves. Arima didn't even know if it was skeleton or not.
He gritted his teeth and Aeshma appeared behind him and helped him parry the lich's swords. The worst was that this lich was perfectly aware of the fact Arima could absorb elements and was exclusively using non-elemental magic.
When Arima managed to deflect the green sword, he fired once with Superore and the two bullets coming out of the barrels hit the lich's chest and pushed him back. But just after, preventing Arima from relaxing for even a second, a devastating arrow pierced his chest and made him cough blood.
The mere air pressure that the arrow carried was enough to destroy the massive planet they were on when it pierced his scales.
Arima swallowed back his blood and ordered his seven Evil Spirits to hold off the Lich. He rolled his eyes in the direction of that arrow's source and teleported.
The dark-elf like woman lowered her bow instantly and kicked the debris of the planet to escape the destructive lightning that exploded right where she was. As she was running away, Arima appeared in front of her and extended his hand.
"[Second Destruction Art, Cavum Nigrum]," he intoned and a small marble formed before fissuring and blowing up. A large mass of darkness formed a vortex and started to suck everything around to crush it.
The ice, vegetation, and stone that was still drifting in space because of the planet's destruction were swallowed and reduced to nothing. Natus was projected out of Arima's eyes and the black hole went wild and its gravitational field spread far and wide.
The dark-elf trembled and notched three arrows to her bow. She used spirit magic to empower herself and pulled the string. Her expression darkened as she did her best to oppose the attraction.
Arima was about to charge at her while she couldn't move freely but he heard the lich's sudden roar and shuddered. The seven Evil Spirits couldn't hold on any longer and were forcefully scattered.
When they disappeared, Arima groaned in pain. His four pupils narrowed and Natus shined. His mind went through the chanting process in less than half a second.
"[First Blue Art, Estuans Sors] (Burning Fate)."
He raised his hand and an azure fireball appeared. It looked like a burning star from an outside perspective.
"[Adolebitque ea] (Burn them)."
The fireball turned into a cackling blazing skull.
"Akoman, Aeshma!" Arima called and the two phantoms were invoked once again.
Akoman laughed and entered the skull. The skull's eyes turned red. Afterward, Aeshma took a physical form through Arima's aura and became a sort of huge humanoid monster. It grabbed the blazing skull and literally put it on its head.
Aeshma and Akoman shrieked together then a massive giant skeleton made out of a sparkling blue fire was created. That skeleton roared and shook the world before recklessly charging toward the lich.
The lich sneered under his mask and spread his arms open. A wand materialized in his left hand, replacing his swords, and the purple gem embedded at the end glowed. Then, an oppressive amount of death aura was manifested and gave birth to creatures from the other side.
It was a whole army of ghosts and dark creatures that protected the lich.
Additionally, the lich waved his wand and space twisted violently. The connection to the space-time surface was instantly broken and Arima clearly sensed it. Additionally, strange fluctuations occurred and Arima's expression darkened.
"You… crazy motherfucker…"
"{Language,}" Krynox unconcernedly expressed.
The lich snorted as tens of planets and stars were being pulled by him in their direction at great speed. Arima was dumbfounded. "That bastard is actually throwing planets at us!"
"{What a novel idea,}" Krynox commented, sounding honestly impressed.
The fire skeleton was assaulted by the army of ghosts and slowed down. A few seconds later, the first planet burst apart on the skeleton's bones before turning into ashes.
Arima clicked his tongue. "There's no way I can save the people living on those planets."
The skeleton roared and approached the lich as much as it could. Fortunately, the First Blue Art was an exorcising flame so it had quite the advantage over death energies. When the skeleton was close enough, the flames composing it turned purple, then red, orange, red, yellow before cycling back to blue. When that phenomenon ended, the skeleton blew up and bathed space in a sea of blue flames.
Meanwhile, Arima had already shifted his focus back onto the dark elf. The time it took for him to cast 'Estuans Sors' had already been enough for her to enchant her arrows and shoot them.
The three projectiles flew toward the black hole and halted unnaturally before they could be consumed. The three arrows were connected together by a thread of light and formed a triangle. Inside of it, runes were rapidly being drawn.
Arima conjured the Fifth Blue Art multiple times to hinder it but it was already too late. The formation marked by the arrows reversed the black hole and made it close on itself.
When the black mass disappeared, the blank it left behind was instantly filled with azure flames and the aftermath thwarted Arima's attacks.
He flapped his wings in the middle of that sea of fire that showed no sign of calming down. He still could hear the planets and stars manipulated by the lich exploding and burning down. It seemed that he was using them to shield himself.
As for the dark-elf, she wasn't affected by the flames because Akoman and Aeshma were redirecting all of the destructive power of the Art on the lich; causing the flames outside the epicenter to not be more threatening than the ones coming out of a lighter.
Arima flew through the fire and left a trail behind him as he neared the dark-elf. Because of the lich, space had been locked away and he couldn't teleport anymore. His power to manipulate spatial energy was formidable but it could be countered if someone with great ability in spatial magic locked the dimensions.
The dark-elf reacted to Arima's charge by firing a volley of arrows. Each projectile she shot would split and pierce their target.
"[Fourth Destruction Art, Vashta Nerada] (The Shadow that Melts the Flesh)."
The shadows came out of Arima's body and melted most of the arrows coming toward him. He also fired Superore many times to deflect them and even summoned Az to help. But the dark elf's control and enchantments were virtually perfect. Some of the arrows still hit their mark.
Three of them to be exact. One pierced Arima's left shoulder, the second one pierced his abdomen, and the third one nearly went through his heart and grazed it before coming out on the other side. Arima's huge body shadowed the dark elf's even with the light of the flames raging around them.
As Arima was about to strike and take her life force, the dark-elf didn't show any sign of resignation and actually grabbed a luxurious golden arrow while dropping her bow. She shortly shouted and dispersed the flames for a second as she propelled herself toward Arima. She whirled and stabbed the arrow in his chest. The golden projectile released an overwhelming pressure and a crack appeared on Arima's body.
The crack caused many others to appear. They glowed strongly then Arima exploded and created an empty area in the sea of flames.
Blood was dripping down the elven woman's hand as she panted. She relaxed briefly but then her eyes narrowed. She started hearing muffled sounds that gradually became stronger and stronger. The clearer it became, the colder she felt.
She slowly turned her head to the right and saw a creepy phantom whispering in her ear. It was the same at her left; another phantom was there doing the same thing.
They were Saurva and Mithandruj. The former was making her already weakened-self ill while the latter was showing her an illusion. She paled and gulped. When the realization hit her, a certain presence was back just behind her. She closed her eyes and awaited her fate.
Arima squinted his eyes. He pulled out the arrow planted in his shoulder and used life hunt on the dark-elf. He then made a magic barrier around her so that she won't die and threw her in a certain direction with all of his physical strength. The dark-elf was sent somewhere she would be able to rebuild herself.
"I won't kill you. I'll be content with this bastard," Arima muttered coldly as the flames of Estuans Sors vanished.
The lich's figure could be seen again. His cloak was slightly burnt and you could see that he was a bit tired. A moment of silence was established as Arima and the lich stared at each other.
A few minutes later, the lich dashed and left an afterimage. His red and green swords were swung from two opposite angles. Arima gritted his teeth and formed a weapon from lightning. He met one of the swords with Superore and parried the other with his newly created weapon.
The moment his lightning weapon came into contact with the red sword of the enemy, it was already threatening to break. Arima grunted and made the weapon self-destruct. He rode the explosion to pull back Superore and fire at the lich's head. The metal mask was destroyed by the bullet and revealed a half-flesh and half-bone face.
"You will die today!" The lich shouted and wielded his swords again. The staff he had summoned earlier hovered above him and fought against Aeshma with non-elemental magic.
Arima barely could keep up with the lich's swordplay.
‘It's during times like this that I realize how important Karma is…’ Arima lamented when his seventh lightning weapon broke. Then, his pupils suddenly dilated as he caught a glimpse of his gun. Black lightning abruptly erupted and separated the lich and Arima.
The Ancient Demon laughed as he looked at Superore.
"Right! Why did I never think about that?" He said to himself and started chanting something.
"[Et scan corrumpatur] (Scan and decompose)."
"[Post quod restituo] (Alter and restore)."
"[Et duplicare gemmarii sculpes] (Engrave and duplicate)."
"[Et conversum imperium] (Control and convert)."
"[Perdere crea] (Destroy and create)."
A complex magic circle was formed and Arima put Superore inside of it. At the same time, a white object appeared in his left hand. Superore made a bending noise and was covered by a white illuminance.
248. ”What a novel idea.”
Two days later, Arima had already ended the lives of six more targets. Since Arima knew that his gun wouldn't work anymore, he had to take another approach. So, he used his uncanny spatial ability to get the first strike although he exposed himself to more danger.
He didn't know if he could defeat the Pillars and Guardians in a fair fight. But even if that was the case, he was in a hurry to get this over with.
He was aware of the ongoing fight between the Téra and Layla's group. But there was a reason why he couldn't go help them. He needed to complete the conquest of the Realities. It was something he needed for his plan.
In fact, when Arima first planned to invade and take control of the Mother Realities, he was also thinking about the Téra. He assumed that they would try to follow him and spread their terror.
Knowing Karaskan, it was more than possible. That's why Arima relied on Ahura to slow them down. But even then, he wasn't completely sure that it would happen and believed he could simply eliminate them after he had acquired the power of the Mother Realities.
But when he partially fused with Krynox, his plans changed drastically. He learned the ways he could use that power. That's one of the reasons that made him so pressed to finish.
"Fuck," Arima swore and blocked two swords with Superore's frame. One blade was red and the other green. Each one of them was releasing a deadly pressure.
Arima was in his Ancient Demon form which meant his opponent was quite tall as well. It was a giant lich who apparently enjoyed fighting with swords. The lich's appearance was unclear. It was wearing a hood, a metal mask, and gloves. Arima didn't even know if it was skeleton or not.
He gritted his teeth and Aeshma appeared behind him and helped him parry the lich's swords. The worst was that this lich was perfectly aware of the fact Arima could absorb elements and was exclusively using non-elemental magic.
When Arima managed to deflect the green sword, he fired once with Superore and the two bullets coming out of the barrels hit the lich's chest and pushed him back. But just after, preventing Arima from relaxing for even a second, a devastating arrow pierced his chest and made him cough blood.
The mere air pressure that the arrow carried was enough to destroy the massive planet they were on when it pierced his scales.
Arima swallowed back his blood and ordered his seven Evil Spirits to hold off the Lich. He rolled his eyes in the direction of that arrow's source and teleported.
The dark-elf like woman lowered her bow instantly and kicked the debris of the planet to escape the destructive lightning that exploded right where she was. As she was running away, Arima appeared in front of her and extended his hand.
"[Second Destruction Art, Cavum Nigrum]," he intoned and a small marble formed before fissuring and blowing up. A large mass of darkness formed a vortex and started to suck everything around to crush it.
The ice, vegetation, and stone that was still drifting in space because of the planet's destruction were swallowed and reduced to nothing. Natus was projected out of Arima's eyes and the black hole went wild and its gravitational field spread far and wide.
The dark-elf trembled and notched three arrows to her bow. She used spirit magic to empower herself and pulled the string. Her expression darkened as she did her best to oppose the attraction.
Arima was about to charge at her while she couldn't move freely but he heard the lich's sudden roar and shuddered. The seven Evil Spirits couldn't hold on any longer and were forcefully scattered.
When they disappeared, Arima groaned in pain. His four pupils narrowed and Natus shined. His mind went through the chanting process in less than half a second.
"[First Blue Art, Estuans Sors] (Burning Fate)."
He raised his hand and an azure fireball appeared. It looked like a burning star from an outside perspective.
"[Adolebitque ea] (Burn them)."
The fireball turned into a cackling blazing skull.
"Akoman, Aeshma!" Arima called and the two phantoms were invoked once again.
Akoman laughed and entered the skull. The skull's eyes turned red. Afterward, Aeshma took a physical form through Arima's aura and became a sort of huge humanoid monster. It grabbed the blazing skull and literally put it on its head.
Aeshma and Akoman shrieked together then a massive giant skeleton made out of a sparkling blue fire was created. That skeleton roared and shook the world before recklessly charging toward the lich.
The lich sneered under his mask and spread his arms open. A wand materialized in his left hand, replacing his swords, and the purple gem embedded at the end glowed. Then, an oppressive amount of death aura was manifested and gave birth to creatures from the other side.
It was a whole army of ghosts and dark creatures that protected the lich.
Additionally, the lich waved his wand and space twisted violently. The connection to the space-time surface was instantly broken and Arima clearly sensed it. Additionally, strange fluctuations occurred and Arima's expression darkened.
"You… crazy motherfucker…"
"{Language,}" Krynox unconcernedly expressed.
The lich snorted as tens of planets and stars were being pulled by him in their direction at great speed. Arima was dumbfounded. "That bastard is actually throwing planets at us!"
"{What a novel idea,}" Krynox commented, sounding honestly impressed.
The fire skeleton was assaulted by the army of ghosts and slowed down. A few seconds later, the first planet burst apart on the skeleton's bones before turning into ashes.
Arima clicked his tongue. "There's no way I can save the people living on those planets."
The skeleton roared and approached the lich as much as it could. Fortunately, the First Blue Art was an exorcising flame so it had quite the advantage over death energies. When the skeleton was close enough, the flames composing it turned purple, then red, orange, red, yellow before cycling back to blue. When that phenomenon ended, the skeleton blew up and bathed space in a sea of blue flames.
Meanwhile, Arima had already shifted his focus back onto the dark elf. The time it took for him to cast 'Estuans Sors' had already been enough for her to enchant her arrows and shoot them.
The three projectiles flew toward the black hole and halted unnaturally before they could be consumed. The three arrows were connected together by a thread of light and formed a triangle. Inside of it, runes were rapidly being drawn.
Arima conjured the Fifth Blue Art multiple times to hinder it but it was already too late. The formation marked by the arrows reversed the black hole and made it close on itself.
When the black mass disappeared, the blank it left behind was instantly filled with azure flames and the aftermath thwarted Arima's attacks.
He flapped his wings in the middle of that sea of fire that showed no sign of calming down. He still could hear the planets and stars manipulated by the lich exploding and burning down. It seemed that he was using them to shield himself.
As for the dark-elf, she wasn't affected by the flames because Akoman and Aeshma were redirecting all of the destructive power of the Art on the lich; causing the flames outside the epicenter to not be more threatening than the ones coming out of a lighter.
Arima flew through the fire and left a trail behind him as he neared the dark-elf. Because of the lich, space had been locked away and he couldn't teleport anymore. His power to manipulate spatial energy was formidable but it could be countered if someone with great ability in spatial magic locked the dimensions.
The dark-elf reacted to Arima's charge by firing a volley of arrows. Each projectile she shot would split and pierce their target.
"[Fourth Destruction Art, Vashta Nerada] (The Shadow that Melts the Flesh)."
The shadows came out of Arima's body and melted most of the arrows coming toward him. He also fired Superore many times to deflect them and even summoned Az to help. But the dark elf's control and enchantments were virtually perfect. Some of the arrows still hit their mark.
Three of them to be exact. One pierced Arima's left shoulder, the second one pierced his abdomen, and the third one nearly went through his heart and grazed it before coming out on the other side. Arima's huge body shadowed the dark elf's even with the light of the flames raging around them.
As Arima was about to strike and take her life force, the dark-elf didn't show any sign of resignation and actually grabbed a luxurious golden arrow while dropping her bow. She shortly shouted and dispersed the flames for a second as she propelled herself toward Arima. She whirled and stabbed the arrow in his chest. The golden projectile released an overwhelming pressure and a crack appeared on Arima's body.
The crack caused many others to appear. They glowed strongly then Arima exploded and created an empty area in the sea of flames.
Blood was dripping down the elven woman's hand as she panted. She relaxed briefly but then her eyes narrowed. She started hearing muffled sounds that gradually became stronger and stronger. The clearer it became, the colder she felt.
She slowly turned her head to the right and saw a creepy phantom whispering in her ear. It was the same at her left; another phantom was there doing the same thing.
They were Saurva and Mithandruj. The former was making her already weakened-self ill while the latter was showing her an illusion. She paled and gulped. When the realization hit her, a certain presence was back just behind her. She closed her eyes and awaited her fate.
Arima squinted his eyes. He pulled out the arrow planted in his shoulder and used life hunt on the dark-elf. He then made a magic barrier around her so that she won't die and threw her in a certain direction with all of his physical strength. The dark-elf was sent somewhere she would be able to rebuild herself.
"I won't kill you. I'll be content with this bastard," Arima muttered coldly as the flames of Estuans Sors vanished.
The lich's figure could be seen again. His cloak was slightly burnt and you could see that he was a bit tired. A moment of silence was established as Arima and the lich stared at each other.
A few minutes later, the lich dashed and left an afterimage. His red and green swords were swung from two opposite angles. Arima gritted his teeth and formed a weapon from lightning. He met one of the swords with Superore and parried the other with his newly created weapon.
The moment his lightning weapon came into contact with the red sword of the enemy, it was already threatening to break. Arima grunted and made the weapon self-destruct. He rode the explosion to pull back Superore and fire at the lich's head. The metal mask was destroyed by the bullet and revealed a half-flesh and half-bone face.
"You will die today!" The lich shouted and wielded his swords again. The staff he had summoned earlier hovered above him and fought against Aeshma with non-elemental magic.
Arima barely could keep up with the lich's swordplay.
‘It's during times like this that I realize how important Karma is…’ Arima lamented when his seventh lightning weapon broke. Then, his pupils suddenly dilated as he caught a glimpse of his gun. Black lightning abruptly erupted and separated the lich and Arima.
The Ancient Demon laughed as he looked at Superore.
"Right! Why did I never think about that?" He said to himself and started chanting something.
"[Et scan corrumpatur] (Scan and decompose)."
"[Post quod restituo] (Alter and restore)."
"[Et duplicare gemmarii sculpes] (Engrave and duplicate)."
"[Et conversum imperium] (Control and convert)."
"[Perdere crea] (Destroy and create)."
A complex magic circle was formed and Arima put Superore inside of it. At the same time, a white object appeared in his left hand. Superore made a bending noise and was covered by a white illuminance.
