"When you gamble, you obviously need to bet something in order to gain another. For instance, if you wish someone's defeat or death, you have to bet something else in return.”
“You can choose to bet your own life, or maybe someone else's. But in that last case, it only works if that person is too weak to resist you. If that person is stronger than you, the 'world' will take that bet to be invalid, or to be exact, it will greatly diminish your chances of ‘winning’. Also, keep in mind that you can't bet a life that isn't connected to you in some way if the bet is something personal. I think you’ll understand what I mean soon."
"Now, the scary thing I was talking about is that the stake can go up indefinitely. Your wishes are only limited by your imagination. It's an omnipotent magic. But to fulfill that wish, it's not so easy as to take mana. The bigger the wish is, the bigger the price will become," Arima said and everyone swallowed their saliva.
"The worst case isn't death, if that’s what you’re thinking. When the 'world' determines that the life of the caster isn't enough to pay for the stake after the loss, it will start to take everything around the caster, anything that may hurt him or make him suffer until the debt is paid."
Arima smirked and looked at his students. "Do you understand? There are, of course, consequences. But what if you win the gamble? You could wish for anything and have it accomplished if you're lucky. You could wish for the destruction of the world; it would be possible. You could wish to become a true immortal; it's possible. You could wish to murder everyone, it's possible."
"But," He grinned "What could the price be?" He said with an ominous voice that made his students shiver. Arima snickered. “Incidentally, the grander the wish is the fewer chances you have to win.”
“Destruction of the world? What is the ‘world’ in that wish? Your planet? Your universe? A parallel world? Depending on how powerful you are originally the percentage of chance you may get your wish granted can vary between 90 percent, for relaxed bets, and let’s say (1*10^-20) percent for irrational ones. I think you get the point by now.”
“Well, there are also ways to steal luck from other people, create bad luck, and other things like that. But it’s quite inefficient so I won’t talk about it. Of course, you can check it out in the books I wrote if you want more details," Arima concluded and clapped.
"On this note, it's pretty much the end of this lesson," He declared and the forty students that needed to vacate their place left the room with a hazy mind. And the thirty or so students Arima had picked up were still dazed on their seat.
They recovered after every other student was out and started to read the books in front of them really enthusiastically. Arima observed them and sat on his chair when Night got off of it.
Since the 'spar' with his class, he had picked another ten students.
There were two students that deserved to be surveyed closely. They were called Gaodu and Ferzia. The former was a boy with a quite large body. He didn't have any special talents or abilities. The reason Arima chose him was even a mystery to the student in question. He was around 16 years old and his specialty surprisingly rested on Spirit magic.
The most remarkable one was definitely Ferzia. She was part of a very uncommon race, the dark elves. As the stories depicted it, she had silver hair and dark skin. As a dark elf, she had incredible magic and physical ability. Apparently, the reason she came to this academy was that she had heard of a rumor about the best teacher that ever existed. She always had been almost perfect in all domains and never found someone capable of teaching her.
But she had to admit, she had already learned something in Arima's lessons although she only had been here for two days. She was 18 years old and her forte was lightning.
Arima looked at her as she chatted with Arister. “(Those two are similar. They are both kinda gloomy…or is edgy perhaps a better word?)” He inwardly considered.
If Arister knew that Arima had thought those lines, he probably wouldn't know how to react.
For the rest of the day, as always, Arima sustained his all-purpose lessons and answered any questions his students could have. He also gave a set of books to the PA.
He directly went to the principal's office for that and put the books on the desk just saying that it was a gift. Then, he left the principal alone, when the latter was still wondering what the hell Arima came to his office for.
He then looked through the books and his eyes widened to the maximum as he read the content. He immediately called some people and made work his relations to print copies of those books.
For the next few days, Arima hadn't really anything to teach in the theory department and his books were going wild across the city. So, he started to bring his class elsewhere to train them to mainly teach them martial arts.
One day, Arima was casually laying down on a chair he created in the middle of a desert when he suddenly raised his head and looked afar with a purple light blinking in his eyes. He smiled and stood up and got the attention of his class. Night also got serious and his expression became sharper, even Karma.
"Alright, everyone. Today's classes will end early. Something came up," Arima announced and everyone looked at him in surprise. They stopped practicing and gathered around him. He nodded when all of his students were there and snapped his fingers. They all disappeared from that desert and reappeared in their classroom.
When the transfer ended, some of the students fell in the ground because of an ongoing earthquake. The ground was shaking as they had never seen before. Even the reinforced walls of the academy were cracking.
Arima coolly regained his balance and nonchalantly stepped out of the room followed by Lanya, Night, and Karma. The students looked at each other in confusion and followed. Only Ofia and Lena had a pale countenance, they knew what this shaking implied.
Arima walked through the corridors, completely disregarding the disoriented students leaning against the walls to keep balance. When he stepped out of the building and entered one of the courts of the academy, he looked up to the sky.
The students following him mimicked his action and looked up. They instantly regretted it. In the direction of the castle, far up in the sky, a tremendous gate had appeared. It was ashen grey in color and was decorated with some unknown runes.
There was a great number of bones encrusted on it. Bones of all kinds and all sizes. The gate itself was maybe around a hundred meters tall and twenty meters wide. The biggest bone on it was around ten meters long and one meter wide.
But the most predominant one was certainly the huge skull placed on the gap between the two doors of the gate. A skull, shining with a red brilliance and with a golden light flickering the eye sockets. That skull seemed to be alive and was looking around as if he was waiting for something.
Arima solemnly analyzed what he was seeing. "So that's the Hell Gate, huh?" Arima muttered and smirked. "It would certainly be thrilling to wait for something to come out, but I still need to test it, don't you think so?" He asked a question to seemingly no one. But Karma and Night shrugged. Lanya could only sigh wryly as she stepped back and told everyone to get away from the trio.
Night’s body started changing and he soon turned back into a majestic noble dragon. The students nearby who hadn't seen or heard about Night's true appearance were stunned. Even the teachers who had arrived at the same time. They were all strong and reputed scholars, warriors, mages, and former mercenaries. But they all felt cold in front of Night’s appearance and aura.
Velvet, who was among them, was truthfully relieved to not be fighting Arima. She couldn't even measure the soul beast's strength; how could she possibly beat him? She even believed that this dragon could kill her with just a wag of his tail.
"Karma," Arima called and she smiled before turning into a red light that landed on Arima's hand. The sheathed katana materialized in Arima's hand. After she became sentient, Karma had undergone another few changes.
The blade became a bit longer and the sheath changed a bit in consequence. The wolf mark engraved on it had also changed to a dragon one and the chain hanging from the handle had become even longer and bigger.
Arima cracked his neck and opened his mouth. "[Resonance]," His and Night’s voices overlapped and the two became a single light. After Night's soul was altered to be suited for human physiology, even the resonance's result evolved.
When Arima stepped out of the light caused by his fusion, you could see that the scales became even thinner. It really looked like a thin layer of metallic skin. But those thin scales still seemed to be unbreakable. The wings became a bit smaller but the force they could exert was a lot higher. His tail was thinner as well and a lot more practical now.
At that point, everyone was bewildered and their mind blank. Looking at Karma, a sword that made them feel like every weapon they had seen in their lives were just trash, the strongest looking soul beast they had ever met, and the most intimidating resonance they ever witnessed. All of that was too overwhelming for them.
Arima slowly unsheathed Karma and the blade was out to for everyone to admire. At the same time, the chain of the sword started to coil around Arima's arm.
"[Primum, Secundum, Tertium, Confractus] (First, Second, Third, Break)," Arima chanted and Karma's aura was then fully released. The spectators almost collapsed on their knees. They couldn't believe that just being in the presence of a sword could bring this kind of pressure to them.
Arima deployed his wings and flapped them. His figure instantly disappeared and it's only a tenth of a second later that the ground he was standing on was crushed. The dust was lifted in the air and a sonic boom resonated in the ears of everyone in the academy. Lanya and Arister quietly watched as Arima flew off toward the gate at an unimaginable speed.
As he was soaring, Arima stared at the gate and his sigil revolved once. After a few seconds, Arima frowned and triggered his sigil a second time. But even after that, nothing happened.
"I can't send it into another dimension…"
"{Why so?}" Night asked.
"There are two probable reasons. One, this gate is continuously protected by Space and Time magic. Two, I’m not qualified to bring it into another dimension," Arima responded whilst probing every feature of the gate. He purposefully slowed down to have the time to think.
"{Not qualified? This must be a joke. If Arima is not qualified then who could be?}" Karma retorted when she heard that. Even if she was in her weapon form, she could still speak as Night did.
Arima snickered and conjured purple lightning around Karma. The latter could now help with that process now that she was sentient and greatly increase the output of any magic cast through her as a catalyst.
"We'll give it a try," Arima declared and started to chant as he neared the gate.
"[Fulgur, et ferrum anima mea] (Lightning is my blade and soul)."
"[Quid sub hoc mundo mihi firmi et a me non accipere] (I won't accept anything unthreatened by me under this sky)."
Arima's mana flowed out and the sky was gradually covered with dark clouds. The skull on the Hell Gate rolled its 'eyes' and looked at the sky. He then rolled them once again and gazed at the approaching silhouette.
"[Et mundus per ipsum contere fortitudinem meam] (Let the world crumble under my might)."
Karma was vibrating and leaking lightning in abundance. The clouds also started to be irradiated by a purple glow. Lightning linked each cloud together, making thunder roar everywhere.
When Arima was around a hundred meters away from the gate, he flapped his wings and flew higher, going even past the gate. The red skull followed his movements.
Arima grabbed Karma with a reverse grip and made the edge of the blade face the sky whilst he glared at the gate. The lightning discharging from the katana connected with the one coming from the clouds. Numerous lightning bolts fell on Karma.
Arima then sheathed Karma and the lightning vanished and the clouds strangely condensed before being siphoned by Karma. The sword was now emanating a faint purple light and a sort of dark smoke.
Arima squinted his eyes. With a simple thought, a magic circle appeared below him and he disappeared from his position. The skull moved its sight when Arima's afterimage waned and looked at what was right in front of it. Arima had teleported in front of it. He was in an Iai stance, tightly gripping Karma.
"[Noctem Aeternum Adimens] (Eternal Banishing Night)," He intoned as he inhaled and drew out Karma. The lightning abruptly returned to destroy everything as Arima swung Karma against the skull in a swift and strong motion.
Afterward, a deafening sound reverberated throughout the whole city. A beautiful and strong purple light illuminated the sky. That light originated from a giant lightning sphere of the same color. The Hell Gate was entirely shrouded along with Arima.
Then, the sphere’s color erratically darkened and turned black. A second explosion ensued when the color changed and thunder rumbled. The usual sound you hear during a storm was heightened. It would make you shudder in fright no matter what.
The massive sphere of energy turned into a sort of spiky ball. Remarkably, the castle and city below received minimal damage.
The explosion and the roar of thunder remained for a few minutes. A sparking noise echoed and everything brusquely stopped. The raging lightning appeared to have been constricted and every energy in action died down as if they were being disintegrated.
When that happened, blood dropped from the sky and a human figure crashed in the middle of the city, creating a huge crater and destroying every structure around.
"When you gamble, you obviously need to bet something in order to gain another. For instance, if you wish someone's defeat or death, you have to bet something else in return.”
“You can choose to bet your own life, or maybe someone else's. But in that last case, it only works if that person is too weak to resist you. If that person is stronger than you, the 'world' will take that bet to be invalid, or to be exact, it will greatly diminish your chances of ‘winning’. Also, keep in mind that you can't bet a life that isn't connected to you in some way if the bet is something personal. I think you’ll understand what I mean soon."
"Now, the scary thing I was talking about is that the stake can go up indefinitely. Your wishes are only limited by your imagination. It's an omnipotent magic. But to fulfill that wish, it's not so easy as to take mana. The bigger the wish is, the bigger the price will become," Arima said and everyone swallowed their saliva.
"The worst case isn't death, if that’s what you’re thinking. When the 'world' determines that the life of the caster isn't enough to pay for the stake after the loss, it will start to take everything around the caster, anything that may hurt him or make him suffer until the debt is paid."
Arima smirked and looked at his students. "Do you understand? There are, of course, consequences. But what if you win the gamble? You could wish for anything and have it accomplished if you're lucky. You could wish for the destruction of the world; it would be possible. You could wish to become a true immortal; it's possible. You could wish to murder everyone, it's possible."
"But," He grinned "What could the price be?" He said with an ominous voice that made his students shiver. Arima snickered. “Incidentally, the grander the wish is the fewer chances you have to win.”
“Destruction of the world? What is the ‘world’ in that wish? Your planet? Your universe? A parallel world? Depending on how powerful you are originally the percentage of chance you may get your wish granted can vary between 90 percent, for relaxed bets, and let’s say (1*10^-20) percent for irrational ones. I think you get the point by now.”
“Well, there are also ways to steal luck from other people, create bad luck, and other things like that. But it’s quite inefficient so I won’t talk about it. Of course, you can check it out in the books I wrote if you want more details," Arima concluded and clapped.
"On this note, it's pretty much the end of this lesson," He declared and the forty students that needed to vacate their place left the room with a hazy mind. And the thirty or so students Arima had picked up were still dazed on their seat.
They recovered after every other student was out and started to read the books in front of them really enthusiastically. Arima observed them and sat on his chair when Night got off of it.
Since the 'spar' with his class, he had picked another ten students.
There were two students that deserved to be surveyed closely. They were called Gaodu and Ferzia. The former was a boy with a quite large body. He didn't have any special talents or abilities. The reason Arima chose him was even a mystery to the student in question. He was around 16 years old and his specialty surprisingly rested on Spirit magic.
The most remarkable one was definitely Ferzia. She was part of a very uncommon race, the dark elves. As the stories depicted it, she had silver hair and dark skin. As a dark elf, she had incredible magic and physical ability. Apparently, the reason she came to this academy was that she had heard of a rumor about the best teacher that ever existed. She always had been almost perfect in all domains and never found someone capable of teaching her.
But she had to admit, she had already learned something in Arima's lessons although she only had been here for two days. She was 18 years old and her forte was lightning.
Arima looked at her as she chatted with Arister. “(Those two are similar. They are both kinda gloomy…or is edgy perhaps a better word?)” He inwardly considered.
If Arister knew that Arima had thought those lines, he probably wouldn't know how to react.
For the rest of the day, as always, Arima sustained his all-purpose lessons and answered any questions his students could have. He also gave a set of books to the PA.
He directly went to the principal's office for that and put the books on the desk just saying that it was a gift. Then, he left the principal alone, when the latter was still wondering what the hell Arima came to his office for.
He then looked through the books and his eyes widened to the maximum as he read the content. He immediately called some people and made work his relations to print copies of those books.
For the next few days, Arima hadn't really anything to teach in the theory department and his books were going wild across the city. So, he started to bring his class elsewhere to train them to mainly teach them martial arts.
One day, Arima was casually laying down on a chair he created in the middle of a desert when he suddenly raised his head and looked afar with a purple light blinking in his eyes. He smiled and stood up and got the attention of his class. Night also got serious and his expression became sharper, even Karma.
"Alright, everyone. Today's classes will end early. Something came up," Arima announced and everyone looked at him in surprise. They stopped practicing and gathered around him. He nodded when all of his students were there and snapped his fingers. They all disappeared from that desert and reappeared in their classroom.
When the transfer ended, some of the students fell in the ground because of an ongoing earthquake. The ground was shaking as they had never seen before. Even the reinforced walls of the academy were cracking.
Arima coolly regained his balance and nonchalantly stepped out of the room followed by Lanya, Night, and Karma. The students looked at each other in confusion and followed. Only Ofia and Lena had a pale countenance, they knew what this shaking implied.
Arima walked through the corridors, completely disregarding the disoriented students leaning against the walls to keep balance. When he stepped out of the building and entered one of the courts of the academy, he looked up to the sky.
The students following him mimicked his action and looked up. They instantly regretted it. In the direction of the castle, far up in the sky, a tremendous gate had appeared. It was ashen grey in color and was decorated with some unknown runes.
There was a great number of bones encrusted on it. Bones of all kinds and all sizes. The gate itself was maybe around a hundred meters tall and twenty meters wide. The biggest bone on it was around ten meters long and one meter wide.
But the most predominant one was certainly the huge skull placed on the gap between the two doors of the gate. A skull, shining with a red brilliance and with a golden light flickering the eye sockets. That skull seemed to be alive and was looking around as if he was waiting for something.
Arima solemnly analyzed what he was seeing. "So that's the Hell Gate, huh?" Arima muttered and smirked. "It would certainly be thrilling to wait for something to come out, but I still need to test it, don't you think so?" He asked a question to seemingly no one. But Karma and Night shrugged. Lanya could only sigh wryly as she stepped back and told everyone to get away from the trio.
Night’s body started changing and he soon turned back into a majestic noble dragon. The students nearby who hadn't seen or heard about Night's true appearance were stunned. Even the teachers who had arrived at the same time. They were all strong and reputed scholars, warriors, mages, and former mercenaries. But they all felt cold in front of Night’s appearance and aura.
Velvet, who was among them, was truthfully relieved to not be fighting Arima. She couldn't even measure the soul beast's strength; how could she possibly beat him? She even believed that this dragon could kill her with just a wag of his tail.
"Karma," Arima called and she smiled before turning into a red light that landed on Arima's hand. The sheathed katana materialized in Arima's hand. After she became sentient, Karma had undergone another few changes.
The blade became a bit longer and the sheath changed a bit in consequence. The wolf mark engraved on it had also changed to a dragon one and the chain hanging from the handle had become even longer and bigger.
Arima cracked his neck and opened his mouth. "[Resonance]," His and Night’s voices overlapped and the two became a single light. After Night's soul was altered to be suited for human physiology, even the resonance's result evolved.
When Arima stepped out of the light caused by his fusion, you could see that the scales became even thinner. It really looked like a thin layer of metallic skin. But those thin scales still seemed to be unbreakable. The wings became a bit smaller but the force they could exert was a lot higher. His tail was thinner as well and a lot more practical now.
At that point, everyone was bewildered and their mind blank. Looking at Karma, a sword that made them feel like every weapon they had seen in their lives were just trash, the strongest looking soul beast they had ever met, and the most intimidating resonance they ever witnessed. All of that was too overwhelming for them.
Arima slowly unsheathed Karma and the blade was out to for everyone to admire. At the same time, the chain of the sword started to coil around Arima's arm.
"[Primum, Secundum, Tertium, Confractus] (First, Second, Third, Break)," Arima chanted and Karma's aura was then fully released. The spectators almost collapsed on their knees. They couldn't believe that just being in the presence of a sword could bring this kind of pressure to them.
Arima deployed his wings and flapped them. His figure instantly disappeared and it's only a tenth of a second later that the ground he was standing on was crushed. The dust was lifted in the air and a sonic boom resonated in the ears of everyone in the academy. Lanya and Arister quietly watched as Arima flew off toward the gate at an unimaginable speed.
As he was soaring, Arima stared at the gate and his sigil revolved once. After a few seconds, Arima frowned and triggered his sigil a second time. But even after that, nothing happened.
"I can't send it into another dimension…"
"{Why so?}" Night asked.
"There are two probable reasons. One, this gate is continuously protected by Space and Time magic. Two, I’m not qualified to bring it into another dimension," Arima responded whilst probing every feature of the gate. He purposefully slowed down to have the time to think.
"{Not qualified? This must be a joke. If Arima is not qualified then who could be?}" Karma retorted when she heard that. Even if she was in her weapon form, she could still speak as Night did.
Arima snickered and conjured purple lightning around Karma. The latter could now help with that process now that she was sentient and greatly increase the output of any magic cast through her as a catalyst.
"We'll give it a try," Arima declared and started to chant as he neared the gate.
"[Fulgur, et ferrum anima mea] (Lightning is my blade and soul)."
"[Quid sub hoc mundo mihi firmi et a me non accipere] (I won't accept anything unthreatened by me under this sky)."
Arima's mana flowed out and the sky was gradually covered with dark clouds. The skull on the Hell Gate rolled its 'eyes' and looked at the sky. He then rolled them once again and gazed at the approaching silhouette.
"[Et mundus per ipsum contere fortitudinem meam] (Let the world crumble under my might)."
Karma was vibrating and leaking lightning in abundance. The clouds also started to be irradiated by a purple glow. Lightning linked each cloud together, making thunder roar everywhere.
When Arima was around a hundred meters away from the gate, he flapped his wings and flew higher, going even past the gate. The red skull followed his movements.
Arima grabbed Karma with a reverse grip and made the edge of the blade face the sky whilst he glared at the gate. The lightning discharging from the katana connected with the one coming from the clouds. Numerous lightning bolts fell on Karma.
Arima then sheathed Karma and the lightning vanished and the clouds strangely condensed before being siphoned by Karma. The sword was now emanating a faint purple light and a sort of dark smoke.
Arima squinted his eyes. With a simple thought, a magic circle appeared below him and he disappeared from his position. The skull moved its sight when Arima's afterimage waned and looked at what was right in front of it. Arima had teleported in front of it. He was in an Iai stance, tightly gripping Karma.
"[Noctem Aeternum Adimens] (Eternal Banishing Night)," He intoned as he inhaled and drew out Karma. The lightning abruptly returned to destroy everything as Arima swung Karma against the skull in a swift and strong motion.
Afterward, a deafening sound reverberated throughout the whole city. A beautiful and strong purple light illuminated the sky. That light originated from a giant lightning sphere of the same color. The Hell Gate was entirely shrouded along with Arima.
Then, the sphere’s color erratically darkened and turned black. A second explosion ensued when the color changed and thunder rumbled. The usual sound you hear during a storm was heightened. It would make you shudder in fright no matter what.
The massive sphere of energy turned into a sort of spiky ball. Remarkably, the castle and city below received minimal damage.
The explosion and the roar of thunder remained for a few minutes. A sparking noise echoed and everything brusquely stopped. The raging lightning appeared to have been constricted and every energy in action died down as if they were being disintegrated.
When that happened, blood dropped from the sky and a human figure crashed in the middle of the city, creating a huge crater and destroying every structure around.
