Since Night was Arima’s soul beast, their souls were almost identical and it was incredibly easy for the latter to interact with it without much risk.
The process of altering the soul required the two of them to stay in a semi-resonated stated for a few hours. Both of them remained silent the whole time. Their minds and souls were closed and completely focused. To prevent any accident, they couldn’t even afford to open their mouth.
Arima felt like he had been inserted in a very complex program of which a single line of code could overload his thought process. He still managed to find the section of the soul which defines Night as a member of the dragon race and after a few tries, he invaded a small part of it performed some changes.
After that, the resonance was promptly terminated and they both reappeared in front of each other.
Arima breathed in as he felt a bit nauseous and looked at Night. "So? Do you feel like you can do it?"
Night looked down at his hand and cast a spell to change form. He observed the blue color congregating around his claw and clenched it. "I think I can.”
Arima smiled, "Then go ahead. What are you waiting for?"
Night exhaled and a circle appeared below him. His whole body glowed and his scales screeched as they were forcefully retracted. A black and red whirlpool enveloped him and cracking sounds resounded as his size decreased. When the light vanished, Night had become a human this time.
Black hair, crimson eyes, facial features that made him look very serious and dependable. His expression looked even calmer than Arima's although it was a bit sloppy. The clothes he was wearing were something that was made unconsciously. It was almost the same ones as his partner, just that in contrast his were red and black and his coat was tougher looking with two belts circling his waist and chest.
When Arima saw that, he smiled. If it wasn't for the slight difference in hair length, eyes, and clothes they would be two perfect look-alikes. But anyone would definitely see them as brothers at the very minimum.
After a few seconds of standing there, Night stretched a bit and tried to take a step forward but he then felt dizzy and wavered. The pendant he had received from Lanya shook and superbly ‘completed’ his looks.
"Hard to get used to?” Arima asked. “Karma got it almost instantly."
Night wryly smiled. "Just a bit disoriented. It’s probably because it was a direct change to my soul.”
"Maybe," Arima nodded and then inspected Night. "What's your current strength?"
"Mm," Night mused and softly waved his hand. Air gathered around his arm and was emitted, blowing the dust away.
"Around the second sky, I’d say. As expected, changing from my original form to another, even if it’s a human one, makes me fall off by two levels. Especially my physical strength."
"That's not so bad," Arima commented and then pulled out Ira. He could've called Karma and she would have immediately appeared in front of him but he chose to let her enjoy her night.
"Do you remember?"
Night chuckled and took a stance. "Obviously."
Both of them smiled at each other before kicking the ground and altering the entire plain with just a single clash of fists.
*******************************************
"Who's that?" Arister frowned and asked when he saw Arima come back with someone that looked like his brother, heck, like his twin.
"It's Night."
"It's me," Night nodded and emphasized it.
"…First, your weapon, now your soul beast, what the hell man?" Arister muttered under his breath. Meanwhile, Karma examined Night with bright look whilst walking around him.
"What are you doing?” The latter felt irritated and asked with a vein popping out on his forehead. “You’re making me dizzy, stop.”
"Sorry, it's just very amusing. You look exactly like Arima. It's also really cool that we are both in human forms now," Karma laughed and jumped toward Night.
"Hey!" Night couldn't escape in time. He was restraining himself or the Inn would have been razed. In the end, he ended up being hugged by Karma. He tried to push her away but she kept clinging to him and wouldn’t let go no matter what. "Will you let me go already?!"
Karma giggled. "Why?"
"…" Night almost destroyed this building along with the whole district.
Arima tilted his head at the two. He had a pensive expression while watching them.
"They're really close," Lanya commented and Arima nodded.
"Indeed, perhaps their connection is even stronger than the ones they respectively have with me."
Arister stared blankly at Arima and Lanya and his expression twitched. "Am I the only who thinks that a relationship between a dragon and a sword is really abnormal?"
At his words, Lanya tilted her head and Arima shrugged.
"…Are you serious?" Arister mumbled.
"Hey! Stop discussing scary things and help me out there!" Night shouted at them. He was trying to flee Karma while she was chasing him in the Inn’s restaurant. They already had broken some chairs and tables which Arima repaired with just a thought. He also nodded apologetically to the owner who bitterly smiled in return.
Arister turned his head toward Night and his eyes sharpened. "You're saying it's scary, but you're not saying it's strange?"
"Huh?" Night was confused.
"Anyway, just go play somewhere else," Before he could say anything, Arima sent him, along with Karma, into another dimension.
"…He will certainly be angry at you for that," Arister remarked and Arima smiled.
"By the way, Arima, did you find anything about the deviants' rumor?" Lanya suddenly asked as she remembered why Arima had spent two nights on the academy’s roof.
"Yeah," Arima laid back on his chair and briefly explained the situation to Arister and Lanya.
"A distraction? Hell? Monster overflow?" Arister listed with a dark countenance.
Lanya also gazed at Arima with a strange expression.
"What’s wrong? Do you want to add something?"
Lanya shook her head, "No, but… what did you say about dungeons?"
"Well, it should be fun. I wonder how many monsters will appear if it really happens," Arima nonchalantly replied.
"Do you realize what you're saying?" Arister uttered. "People could die if you don't take care of it in time. You can destroy those dungeons right now if you want, right? I'm sure you could even do it from here. Why don’t you do that?"
"That wouldn't be fun," Arima instantly retorted and Arister groaned. Arima snickered. "I’m joking. Don't worry, I'll get them inside a dimension as soon as they appear and let my students take care of it. And it’s not like I'm sure dungeons will actually overflow."
"What if you can't handle what pops out from Hell's gate?" Lanya enquired with a kind of worried expression.
"Well," Arima smiled wryly and scratched his head. "In that case, running is a viable option I guess."
Arister frowned and stared at Arima. "You're really not taking this seriously enough. But it’s so much like you that I have nothing to counter," He lamented and Lanya smiled wryly, she couldn't help but agree.
Arima shrugged and Night reappeared in the room with a ragged breath at that exact moment. He had managed to escape from the dimension earlier than Karma because he had attained sentience before her and had a better understanding of magic.
Night glared at Arima. "This is maybe the first time that I seriously have the urge to strangle you."
Arima laughed and snapped his fingers to bring Karma back. "Don't tease him too much."
Karma chuckled. "I’ll be sure to keep it under reasonable proportions."
Night was too tired to make a comeback. He headed toward the table and sat down before sighing. Karma followed him and obviously chose to sit right next to him.
Arima smirked seeing his soul beast shudder and scowl at Karma. "This is totally worth giving you two a human body.”
Night clicked his tongue. "Maybe I should have stayed as a wolf."
"Are you sure? Aren’t you having fun?"
Night looked back at Arima with a fed-up expression. "...Yeah, sure, having a human body is indeed quite pleasant.”
"Yep," Arima nodded exaggeratedly. "I can read the expressions on your face a lot better now."
A deep snarl that should be coming out of giant dragon escaped Night’s mouth. He didn't know if Arima was being sarcastic or not.
*****************************************
At the same time, on another continent.
A very young-looking man was meeting with the King of Firnea. From the outside, he appeared to be around 17 years old but his abyssal eyes didn't even let you try to determine his true age. His whole appearance, his clothes, and hair were so dark that it seemed like the light was avoiding him.
"Karez, how are your preparations?" The king asked with a polite smile. He told a servant to bring refreshment for the young man in front of him. He was indeed Ojure Karez.
"They're going well," Karez answered with an empty and uninterested voice. "The homunculi worked hard on it. The gate should open soon, maybe two weeks from now on," He gave the same estimation as Arima.
"That's good," The king nodded and his grin showed his good mood. " Incidentally, Karez, could you tell me the secret about your eternity?"
The only reason he was so polite toward Karez was that the latter had developed a technique to stop the aging process. Eternity was the dream of any ruler. Firnea’s King wasn’t an exception.
Karez stared at the king with dark eyes of an unmeasurable deepness. No one was sure as to how long he had lived. But if Arima was here, he would instantly notice that Karez was at least older than him. This guy could have lived hundreds or maybe thousands of years.
"I encountered many different kings and nobles, and they all asked me about that. My answer has never changed. I will give it to you if you can persuade me with your actions," He answered to the king. His tone was so heavy, dark, and casual at the same time.
The king was a bit displeased but he didn't lose his calm. "Fine, I'll do my best to prove myself," He declared and stood up. He slightly bowed to Karez and left the room.
The latter stood up lazily and his figure was warped by darkness before vanishing without an ounce of magic emanation.
*************************************
"Ah, right, I forgot to tell you," While Arima's group was eating together, discussing about Hell, they eventually started talking about Ojure Karez, the man who was supposedly behind it.
"What is it?" Lanya tilted her head and asked. The three others also gathered their attention to him.
"That guy, Ojure, he's dangerous. More than you imagine," Arima warned with a serious tone.
Night's eyes widened and Karma also had the same kind of reaction. "What are you talking about? In terms of danger, you stand atop of everyone."
Arima ignored Karma’s remark and put a lollipop in his mouth. "When I analyzed the array, I found something similar to my set of arts. And that thing, even for me, was quite alarming."
His group couldn't even imagine something able to scare Arima and waited for him to continue.
"The theory, no, the aura behind it was something that I only felt when meeting a god."
"Like Lilis?" Lanya asked.
"Yes, but even stronger than that. Maybe around Azes's level…" Arima muttered. "But there's something weird concerning that aura. I'm sure of it. The holder of that aura has a 100% human essence."
"What?" Arister frowned. "It doesn't make any sense."
"I know," Arima nodded. "The only conclusion I could reach was that he was someone wielding a sort of external power. There's actually a part of the magic formation that I found extremely disturbing. To build a path to Hell, you need sacrifices, but there's a need for energy as well; mana provided by the main caster. And the quantity required is almost equal to all of mine," Arima explained and when he said the last sentence, Night almost choked and Karma’s widened.
The two of them were the ones who understood the best how colossal Arima’s mana pool was. Now, he was saying that there was someone who had as much mana as him. It was a quantity that even surpassed gods.
Karma laughed dryly and waved her hand. "Nah, nah, nah, that's a joke, right?" Arima smirked and shook his head. Karma’s mouth twitched and she slowly put her hand down
"In any case, the thing I'm most curious about is why someone of his caliber would create an array so chaotic. That’s the reason why I thought that he may know something about Hell since he dared to do something like that. On top of that, I can’t see a guy like him sincerely supporting a small country. He should be able to destroy this planet if he wanted to. He must have a goal… but I have no idea of what it may be and I don’t like that.”
Arima snickered and his eyes turned slightly purple. Even his hair gained a taint of gray. His companions trembled a bit when they felt the unnatural aura coming from him.
“Ojure Karez, huh? Interesting. I’m curious to know how strong he is. I didn’t get a proper fight for a while now.”
Since Night was Arima’s soul beast, their souls were almost identical and it was incredibly easy for the latter to interact with it without much risk.
The process of altering the soul required the two of them to stay in a semi-resonated stated for a few hours. Both of them remained silent the whole time. Their minds and souls were closed and completely focused. To prevent any accident, they couldn’t even afford to open their mouth.
Arima felt like he had been inserted in a very complex program of which a single line of code could overload his thought process. He still managed to find the section of the soul which defines Night as a member of the dragon race and after a few tries, he invaded a small part of it performed some changes.
After that, the resonance was promptly terminated and they both reappeared in front of each other.
Arima breathed in as he felt a bit nauseous and looked at Night. "So? Do you feel like you can do it?"
Night looked down at his hand and cast a spell to change form. He observed the blue color congregating around his claw and clenched it. "I think I can.”
Arima smiled, "Then go ahead. What are you waiting for?"
Night exhaled and a circle appeared below him. His whole body glowed and his scales screeched as they were forcefully retracted. A black and red whirlpool enveloped him and cracking sounds resounded as his size decreased. When the light vanished, Night had become a human this time.
Black hair, crimson eyes, facial features that made him look very serious and dependable. His expression looked even calmer than Arima's although it was a bit sloppy. The clothes he was wearing were something that was made unconsciously. It was almost the same ones as his partner, just that in contrast his were red and black and his coat was tougher looking with two belts circling his waist and chest.
When Arima saw that, he smiled. If it wasn't for the slight difference in hair length, eyes, and clothes they would be two perfect look-alikes. But anyone would definitely see them as brothers at the very minimum.
After a few seconds of standing there, Night stretched a bit and tried to take a step forward but he then felt dizzy and wavered. The pendant he had received from Lanya shook and superbly ‘completed’ his looks.
"Hard to get used to?” Arima asked. “Karma got it almost instantly."
Night wryly smiled. "Just a bit disoriented. It’s probably because it was a direct change to my soul.”
"Maybe," Arima nodded and then inspected Night. "What's your current strength?"
"Mm," Night mused and softly waved his hand. Air gathered around his arm and was emitted, blowing the dust away.
"Around the second sky, I’d say. As expected, changing from my original form to another, even if it’s a human one, makes me fall off by two levels. Especially my physical strength."
"That's not so bad," Arima commented and then pulled out Ira. He could've called Karma and she would have immediately appeared in front of him but he chose to let her enjoy her night.
"Do you remember?"
Night chuckled and took a stance. "Obviously."
Both of them smiled at each other before kicking the ground and altering the entire plain with just a single clash of fists.
*******************************************
"Who's that?" Arister frowned and asked when he saw Arima come back with someone that looked like his brother, heck, like his twin.
"It's Night."
"It's me," Night nodded and emphasized it.
"…First, your weapon, now your soul beast, what the hell man?" Arister muttered under his breath. Meanwhile, Karma examined Night with bright look whilst walking around him.
"What are you doing?” The latter felt irritated and asked with a vein popping out on his forehead. “You’re making me dizzy, stop.”
"Sorry, it's just very amusing. You look exactly like Arima. It's also really cool that we are both in human forms now," Karma laughed and jumped toward Night.
"Hey!" Night couldn't escape in time. He was restraining himself or the Inn would have been razed. In the end, he ended up being hugged by Karma. He tried to push her away but she kept clinging to him and wouldn’t let go no matter what. "Will you let me go already?!"
Karma giggled. "Why?"
"…" Night almost destroyed this building along with the whole district.
Arima tilted his head at the two. He had a pensive expression while watching them.
"They're really close," Lanya commented and Arima nodded.
"Indeed, perhaps their connection is even stronger than the ones they respectively have with me."
Arister stared blankly at Arima and Lanya and his expression twitched. "Am I the only who thinks that a relationship between a dragon and a sword is really abnormal?"
At his words, Lanya tilted her head and Arima shrugged.
"…Are you serious?" Arister mumbled.
"Hey! Stop discussing scary things and help me out there!" Night shouted at them. He was trying to flee Karma while she was chasing him in the Inn’s restaurant. They already had broken some chairs and tables which Arima repaired with just a thought. He also nodded apologetically to the owner who bitterly smiled in return.
Arister turned his head toward Night and his eyes sharpened. "You're saying it's scary, but you're not saying it's strange?"
"Huh?" Night was confused.
"Anyway, just go play somewhere else," Before he could say anything, Arima sent him, along with Karma, into another dimension.
"…He will certainly be angry at you for that," Arister remarked and Arima smiled.
"By the way, Arima, did you find anything about the deviants' rumor?" Lanya suddenly asked as she remembered why Arima had spent two nights on the academy’s roof.
"Yeah," Arima laid back on his chair and briefly explained the situation to Arister and Lanya.
"A distraction? Hell? Monster overflow?" Arister listed with a dark countenance.
Lanya also gazed at Arima with a strange expression.
"What’s wrong? Do you want to add something?"
Lanya shook her head, "No, but… what did you say about dungeons?"
"Well, it should be fun. I wonder how many monsters will appear if it really happens," Arima nonchalantly replied.
"Do you realize what you're saying?" Arister uttered. "People could die if you don't take care of it in time. You can destroy those dungeons right now if you want, right? I'm sure you could even do it from here. Why don’t you do that?"
"That wouldn't be fun," Arima instantly retorted and Arister groaned. Arima snickered. "I’m joking. Don't worry, I'll get them inside a dimension as soon as they appear and let my students take care of it. And it’s not like I'm sure dungeons will actually overflow."
"What if you can't handle what pops out from Hell's gate?" Lanya enquired with a kind of worried expression.
"Well," Arima smiled wryly and scratched his head. "In that case, running is a viable option I guess."
Arister frowned and stared at Arima. "You're really not taking this seriously enough. But it’s so much like you that I have nothing to counter," He lamented and Lanya smiled wryly, she couldn't help but agree.
Arima shrugged and Night reappeared in the room with a ragged breath at that exact moment. He had managed to escape from the dimension earlier than Karma because he had attained sentience before her and had a better understanding of magic.
Night glared at Arima. "This is maybe the first time that I seriously have the urge to strangle you."
Arima laughed and snapped his fingers to bring Karma back. "Don't tease him too much."
Karma chuckled. "I’ll be sure to keep it under reasonable proportions."
Night was too tired to make a comeback. He headed toward the table and sat down before sighing. Karma followed him and obviously chose to sit right next to him.
Arima smirked seeing his soul beast shudder and scowl at Karma. "This is totally worth giving you two a human body.”
Night clicked his tongue. "Maybe I should have stayed as a wolf."
"Are you sure? Aren’t you having fun?"
Night looked back at Arima with a fed-up expression. "...Yeah, sure, having a human body is indeed quite pleasant.”
"Yep," Arima nodded exaggeratedly. "I can read the expressions on your face a lot better now."
A deep snarl that should be coming out of giant dragon escaped Night’s mouth. He didn't know if Arima was being sarcastic or not.
*****************************************
At the same time, on another continent.
A very young-looking man was meeting with the King of Firnea. From the outside, he appeared to be around 17 years old but his abyssal eyes didn't even let you try to determine his true age. His whole appearance, his clothes, and hair were so dark that it seemed like the light was avoiding him.
"Karez, how are your preparations?" The king asked with a polite smile. He told a servant to bring refreshment for the young man in front of him. He was indeed Ojure Karez.
"They're going well," Karez answered with an empty and uninterested voice. "The homunculi worked hard on it. The gate should open soon, maybe two weeks from now on," He gave the same estimation as Arima.
"That's good," The king nodded and his grin showed his good mood. " Incidentally, Karez, could you tell me the secret about your eternity?"
The only reason he was so polite toward Karez was that the latter had developed a technique to stop the aging process. Eternity was the dream of any ruler. Firnea’s King wasn’t an exception.
Karez stared at the king with dark eyes of an unmeasurable deepness. No one was sure as to how long he had lived. But if Arima was here, he would instantly notice that Karez was at least older than him. This guy could have lived hundreds or maybe thousands of years.
"I encountered many different kings and nobles, and they all asked me about that. My answer has never changed. I will give it to you if you can persuade me with your actions," He answered to the king. His tone was so heavy, dark, and casual at the same time.
The king was a bit displeased but he didn't lose his calm. "Fine, I'll do my best to prove myself," He declared and stood up. He slightly bowed to Karez and left the room.
The latter stood up lazily and his figure was warped by darkness before vanishing without an ounce of magic emanation.
*************************************
"Ah, right, I forgot to tell you," While Arima's group was eating together, discussing about Hell, they eventually started talking about Ojure Karez, the man who was supposedly behind it.
"What is it?" Lanya tilted her head and asked. The three others also gathered their attention to him.
"That guy, Ojure, he's dangerous. More than you imagine," Arima warned with a serious tone.
Night's eyes widened and Karma also had the same kind of reaction. "What are you talking about? In terms of danger, you stand atop of everyone."
Arima ignored Karma’s remark and put a lollipop in his mouth. "When I analyzed the array, I found something similar to my set of arts. And that thing, even for me, was quite alarming."
His group couldn't even imagine something able to scare Arima and waited for him to continue.
"The theory, no, the aura behind it was something that I only felt when meeting a god."
"Like Lilis?" Lanya asked.
"Yes, but even stronger than that. Maybe around Azes's level…" Arima muttered. "But there's something weird concerning that aura. I'm sure of it. The holder of that aura has a 100% human essence."
"What?" Arister frowned. "It doesn't make any sense."
"I know," Arima nodded. "The only conclusion I could reach was that he was someone wielding a sort of external power. There's actually a part of the magic formation that I found extremely disturbing. To build a path to Hell, you need sacrifices, but there's a need for energy as well; mana provided by the main caster. And the quantity required is almost equal to all of mine," Arima explained and when he said the last sentence, Night almost choked and Karma’s widened.
The two of them were the ones who understood the best how colossal Arima’s mana pool was. Now, he was saying that there was someone who had as much mana as him. It was a quantity that even surpassed gods.
Karma laughed dryly and waved her hand. "Nah, nah, nah, that's a joke, right?" Arima smirked and shook his head. Karma’s mouth twitched and she slowly put her hand down
"In any case, the thing I'm most curious about is why someone of his caliber would create an array so chaotic. That’s the reason why I thought that he may know something about Hell since he dared to do something like that. On top of that, I can’t see a guy like him sincerely supporting a small country. He should be able to destroy this planet if he wanted to. He must have a goal… but I have no idea of what it may be and I don’t like that.”
Arima snickered and his eyes turned slightly purple. Even his hair gained a taint of gray. His companions trembled a bit when they felt the unnatural aura coming from him.
“Ojure Karez, huh? Interesting. I’m curious to know how strong he is. I didn’t get a proper fight for a while now.”
