Life Hunter

Arima really went to the Holy City this time. When he arrived, he sneaked inside as planned. He jumped over the wall with a carefree expression and unnaturally mixed with the crowd as if no one could see him.

He strolled for a bit until he was standing in front of the church. Of course, he didn't need to go to the castle anymore since the Emperor was no more. The only one left was the Pope.

Arima mused while inspecting the church. "I need to take the egg back and I can't kill the Pope. Meaning that I can't destroy the building like last time, what a shame."

"I don't think that destroying the place should be one's first thought," Night retorted blankly.

Arima shrugged. "I'll steal the egg tonight so that I can use Sicarius Umbra to its full potential."

"Well, I guess we need to wait now."

Thus, the two waited for the night. Arima used his darkness magic and became a shadow before infiltrating the church. Night had to wait outside though.

Inside, he swiftly explored every room he passed by but he still couldn't find the egg. He crossed paths with many believers living there instead. But none of them noticed his presence. He also noticed something else about these people.

'These believers... they're weird. If Elia was here to see them, she would probably only see one, never-changing color.'

While thinking of that, he tried to open a pretty big door in front of him. But when he touched the knob, his hand was repulsed by a magic field.

Arima was surprised and took a second to look at the door more carefully. He spotted a few magic runes drawn on it. He had been lucky since this door also possessed a detecting function, but it didn't trigger any alarm since he was still in his shadow form.

He began to consider how going through without alerting anyone. He didn't know if teleporting inside would activate a trap or not. He could at least suppose that there was a high chance for the egg to be in there. He could destroy the barrier as fast as possible then take the egg in the same way. But if the egg was not there, and he came to be detected, it could be troublesome.

He didn't take too much time to choose. He decided to look at the rest of the church before trying to break this barrier. If he can't find the egg then that means it's in this room or not in the church at all. In that case, Arima wouldn't have any other choice but to interrogate the Pope directly.

After ten minutes, he had explored the entirety of the building and found nothing as expected. He located the Pope's quarters but didn't find any dragon egg in the vicinities.

"Well, I have no choice anymore," Arima returned to the previous door. "[Dimensional Gradus] (Dimensional Step)," he intoned his magic end teleported on the other side. Apparently, nothing went wrong and he sighed in relief.

"…Fuck," but when he looked at what was inside, he cussed. There was a blue egg, two meters tall and one meter large, inside that room. There was no doubt on what it was. Unfortunately, it was placed in the center of a magic circle drawn on the ground. If the egg was moved then it would alert the one who drew this.

"Wait. I don't need to be sneaky now that I think about it. The egg is in front of me now…" Arima suddenly realized. He didn't hesitate and directly destroyed the circle with his aura and stored the egg. Of course, he checked if it was the real one beforehand.

"[Atlantis]," he then teleported inside the Pope's room. But when he reappeared there, he didn't spot his target. Or to be exact, the room was simply empty and silent.

At this point, Arima didn't care about people finding him anymore. He cast a perceptive magic that encompassed the whole church, but he still didn't find the one he was looking for.

He frowned and was about to conclude that he wasn't here when he abruptly felt a presence behind him. He immediately cast Wild Spark to get away before turning around to look at where he was standing before. A man wearing a gray gown with golden motifs was standing there with a white light shrouding his hand.

He smiled ominously. "Who are you? Why did you rob the dragon's spawn?"

Arima smiled as well. "Well, because it would be troublesome if I had to fight the father to destroy your country."

The Pope's expression turned ugly. "Do you believe that an insect like you can destroy the Holy City? Don't be delusional."

"You're the insect here," Arima uttered coldly. He slowly drew Karma and released his aura.

The Pope harrumphed and his entire body became shrouded in a dazing light. He waved his hand and shot countless beams of light.

Arima conjured lightning to clash with them and rushed toward the Pope with Karma in hand. The Pope formed a sword made of light magic and parried with Karma. The aftermaths of the attack broke every furniture in the room and the walls began to crumble. The two opponents exchanged one blow after another until the roof fell on them.

Arima used his aura to clear away the rumbles and so did the Pope.

"Ira," Arima called his gun and aimed at the Pope. "[Fulgur] (Lightning)."

Just like with his rifle, the handgun began to emit a darkish glow. When he pressed the trigger, a black ray of plasma and electricity erupted from the muzzle.

The Pope used a displacement magic to dodge and the bullet went through the wall behind him. It melted and pierced all the walls of the church until it stopped a hundred meters away from the building.

The Pope didn't have time to process what just happened when Arima fired again and swung Karma within the same action. He blocked the bullet with a barrier and met Karma head on. But what he didn't expect was Karma cutting his light sword in two. The silver blade struck his chest and sent him flying before he crashing in another section of the church. He groaned and stood up as fast as he could.

He glanced at his injury going down from his left shoulder to his abdomen and laughed meaningfully.

"I don't know why, but it seems that you do not wish to kill me. That foolishness will be the cause of your downfall," he declared and the white light surrounding him changed into a dazzling golden one.

'It's him who gave that stone to the Emperor?' Arima instantly connected the pieces together. He also noticed that the aura of the Pope was mixed with something else.

"So, that's the power of a Pope, huh?"

"So, are we doing it or not?" Night appeared at his side and inquired.

Arima chuckled. "[Resonance]," the two chanted together and fused. When they finished their resonance, the Pope now looked younger and his hair had turned golden.

"I'll show you the power of my Lord!" The Pope bellowed and the whole church started shaking and the surroundings lit up. His raised his hand and two golden suns were conjured in the sky.

Arima looked at those two humongous spheres of light and scowled. 'It is said that a Pope can use the power of the God in which he believes. That's some power he has there.'

"[Tenebris Dominium] (Darkness domain)," he chanted and his surroundings darkened, no light could illuminate the area around him. Even the one emanating from the two suns, the moon, or the starry sky. Only the red and silver color of his eyes could be seen in this zone of absolute darkness.

"[Infinitae Tenebrae] (Infinite Darkness)."

The same phenomenon occurred above him. Two separated zones of darkness emerged. But if one happened to circle those 'zones', they would realize that they were perfectly round. They were identical to the Pope's suns; Arima had conjured two spheres of absolute darkness.

Arima and the Pope both waved their hands and the globes of opposite attribute clashed with one another. Each sphere pushed the other as if they were alive and were competing to see who would push back the other first.

Some people would think that the two sides were equally strong, but the Pope's expression stiffened as he watched the situation unfold. He saw that the brightness of his suns was gradually dimming.

And he was indeed right, it only took a minute for the two suns to be consumed by darkness. When that happened, everything burst apart and drowned half of the city into absolute darkness. Even the Pope felt scared by his sudden blindness. He tried to produce some light but each time he tried; it was immediately overtaken by darkness.

Then, he felt a shiver going down his spine. He slowly raised his head and his quivering eyes drifted left and right. Just a few meters away from him, a pair of red eyes was staring at him. In that instant, he had the impression to be the weakest being in the Universe and collapsed on his knees.

Arima walked to him and grabbed his head with one hand.

"Did you know? Light and Darkness are two very special magics. Light can reveal and abolish but darkness can bury and consume. When night falls, darkness wins," Arima said with an emotionless voice.

"I won't kill you but," Arima grinned peculiarly and his eyes glowed with an unusual light. "[Vita Venari]," he chanted and the Pope lost all of his strength before fainting.

Just after that, the darkness dispersed. Arima was standing in the ruins of the half-destroyed church. He was in a daze for a moment, then he looked at his own hand with a weird expression.

"Why did I do that?" He said out loud, in a strange tone. He was genuinely confused about his own actions.

Night released the resonance by himself and reappeared at Arima's side and threw a confused look at him. "What was that about?"

Arima clenched his hand. "I don't know, I did it without thinking. Vita Venari… Life Hunt, huh?"

"What did that magic do?"

"No idea, but, when I used it, I noticed that my physical ability increased to the ninth level and my mana pool expanded a bit," Arima replied after confirming his current state.

Night was shocked. He rushed to the Pope and checked his condition. "This guy… he doesn't have mana anymore and his body became as weak as a normal human."

The dragon's eyes widened. "You actually stole his life force. It's not impossible to destroy the life force of someone but how did you assimilate it as your own?"

Arima shrugged in return. "I don't know, don't look at me like that. We'll think about it later," he casually said and woke the Pope up. "By the way, Night. Let me show you what a real trade is."

Arima used his most 'gentle' smile and raised his voice. "Where is your treasury? I already know the Emperor's but I'm sure you have your own, right? If you tell me, I won't kill you in a horrible way."

The now powerless Pope screamed in fear. "It's underground! In the very center of the church, there's a hatch under the carpet!"

"Thanks. Go sleep now," Arima said and knocked him out again.

Night's mouth twitched. "Don't tell me that's why you did all of this…"

"Nah, of course not, it's just a secondary reward," Arima innocently shook his head and dashed toward the treasury. Night sighed and followed him.

In the end, Arima stowed away all the contents of the treasury. He found a massive amount of money, enchanted crystals, ores, and metals that included mithril and adamantite. But he also obtained something that made him extremely happy as a craftsman.

"That's…" He looked at the big rock in front of him. "This guy had almost a unit of orichalcum."

Orichalcum was a metal that could evolve and upgrade another to an extreme level. For example, if a certain metal could withstand a ton normally, with orichalcum, it might be able to withstand twenty tons instead. But its greatest value was its magic-negation properties.

"I'll coat my equipment with it later. Especially my bullets."

After that, Arima burned down the church with a smirk on his face and headed to the castle to, of course, plunder the treasury. He found a lot of different things but nothing like the orichalcum.

"How much gold did you get in the end?" Night asked in curiosity.

Arima laughed like a greedy old man. "In terms of pure money, almost a thousand shining golds."

"You won't give any to the Alliance or the Kingdom?"

"Huh? What are you talking about?" Arima responded in a genuinely confused voice.

"I assumed that you would do that. You don't look like the money-loving type in my opinion."

"Listen, money doesn't make you happy, but you can't be happy without it. It can be extremely useful in situations that you won't expect."

"Your true thoughts are?"

Arima stared at him and paused. "…It feels good to have more money than others, especially when you took it from bad people," he admitted way too honestly.

Night sighed. "I don't even know if you're joking or not."

"Well, forget about that, money could help one day. It's true. In any case, by the end of this week, the Kingdom should be able to absorb the Empire, our job is over. Our next destination is the Republic and its mother continent."

"Already? You're too energetic for a generally indolent guy who likes to sleep and eat sweets like a kid," Night grumbled.

"What? Don't tell me you're not curious about a bigger continent with more beasts and monsters?"

Night scowled as he reflected about it. "…It's probably because of you."

Arima snickered and left the capital with Night while carrying the Pope inside his spatial storage like a luggage.