Life Hunter

After eliminating the Orc, Arima traveled across the Reality to find the other Guardians and Pillars. He started with the weaker ones and managed to get rid of four of them in less than a day. Some Planes got the information quickly while others were late because of their time-flow.

Ultimately, when Arima attacked his sixth target, the Eighth Pillar, not only were they prepared for the bullet, but the Pillar even managed to deflect it.

Arima watched this with an indifferent expression. He stood up and stared at the planet he was aiming at just now. He played a bit with Superore and shrugged.

"It doesn't matter. All of them can resist that bullet's might now if it doesn't touch them. I've cumulated enough life force anyway," he said while looking at the bullet he shot earlier. It left the atmosphere of the planet and exploded in space. The shockwave displaced the surrounding planets out of their orbit.

"No choice," Arima sighed and reloaded Superore. Then his arm that was holding it suddenly expanded as the gun got bigger. He grew a mane, his muscles tightened, and became bigger. His hybrid wings were deployed and his clothes transformed into a robe. His head became draconic and he huffed fire.

"She's looking at us," he muttered as his four pupils scanned the other planet. "Flavio, you stay here."

"You bet I will."

Arima snickered. Both Indra Vayu and Mithandruj came back to him when the explosion of his bullet ended. He summoned the five other spirits and kicked the ground. He flapped his wings at the same time and the air depression shook the planet he was on. Flavio grunted as he escaped the crater that was forming because of that jump.

The Eighth Pillar was a woman named Ikoya.

"{She's a gorgon. You should be careful but there's no reason for you to lose,}" Krynox said.

"We'll see," Arima responded and spotted the woman in question. She was standing on top of a mountain looking up at the sky, directly in his direction.

Her appearance was nothing like the legends at first sight. She simply was a beautiful woman with dark green hair. But her eyes were indeed mystical and menacing. She appeared to be waiting for the occasion to strike and that's exactly what Arima wanted.

"Mithandruj," he whispered and stimulated the emerald star in his soul realm and made it start beating in tempo with his heart cycle. Vapor came out of his body and crystallized before a green energy enveloped his body.

His real body disappeared and what was left was the illusion made by Mithandruj. The time it took for Ikoya to notice was enough for Arima to launch an attack from behind.

Ikoya's eyes widened. A shadow a hundred times bigger than her own was being projected in front of her. She hastily activated her soul manifestation without hesitation. She knew she would die otherwise.

The moment she did that, countless snakes emerged from the ground and swirled around her. She jumped away as Superore's bullet exploded on the wall of snakes instead of her. She spun in mid-air then a giant snake materialized to carry her. That unique snake had many smaller ones coming out of his body like tentacles.

Arima clicked his tongue and glared at Ikoya with slaughter intent. At the same time, a new wave of snakes drowned him under a mountain of slithering pests and endless hisses.

"Aeshma," he called and his aura exploded outward and blew away the snakes as well as half of the planet's surface. The snake Ikoya was standing on grew a pair of wings and flew off.

Arima squinted his eyes. Behind him, his aura had taken the form of a dreadful phantom. Contrary to the other spirits, Aeshma was the only one capable to truly attack. He would take control of his master's aura and convert it into a terrifying weapon. Furthermore, the Spirit of Violence and Fury had a passive ability to attract people's enmity.

As a matter of fact, all of the snakes were attacking the phantom instead of Arima. And every single one of them would get violently torn apart when getting too close.

Ikoya frowned and her eyes opened wide. They slowly turned green and her pupils narrowed to a slit. Her hair wiggled and turned into snakes. Her piercing stare was directed at Arima but the latter casually stared back. Ikoya's expression twitched when she saw that.

Arima laughed and disappeared on the spot. But since Aeshma was still aggroing every serpent on the planet, it meant that the source of the aura was still nearby.

Ikoya looked around then abruptly leaned backward. A devastating and large bullet grazed her. It continued in a straight line and exploded in the stratosphere. Ikoya grunted and waved her hand as she flew away. The ground shook and mountains' worth of stone was lifted.

Arima calmly waited and didn't even bother to look. When the stone reached him, it slowed down before stopping altogether. It became a regular stone without any drop of magic inside. It soon crumbled away while Arima seemed to get even stronger.

Ikoya trembled. "He absorbed it?" She mumbled and ordered her snake to attack. The giant snake hissed and coiled around Arima and tried to bite his neck but its fangs couldn't even make a dent on his scales. Arima snorted and grabbed the snake's head before crushing it.

"You're weaker than I thought," he commented and thunder roared. Purple lightning fell from the sky and burned the giant snake's body to cinders. "Or maybe I'm stronger than I thought…"

Arima teleported again and threw a punch at Ikoya. She gritted her teeth and countered with a punch of her own. The aftermath opened a crack on the planet's surface and caused countless magma eruptions.

Ikoya commanded her snakes, who were relentlessly assailing Aeshma, to bite the arm of the demon in front of her. But even with thousands of them, none managed to make it through the scales and the skin.

"How are you not petrified yet?! Who are you?!" Ikoya shouted and summoned hundreds of giant snakes this time. They all attacked Arima and tried to restrain him.

"Oh, right," Arima exclaimed as he realized something. He released even more of his aura and Aeshma tore apart every snake around him in a very gruesome way. Blood fell like rain.

"You fight with the petrification ability of your eyes and the poison of your snakes. Normally, most people would have lost a huge chunk of their power while fighting you. It's a shame that your opponent is me. It's a very bad match. My bad, I should have asked Krynox for more details."

"{I said that there was no reason for you to lose. Also, don't kill that woman. She can be of use.}"

Ikoya was dumbfounded and greatly offended. She breathed in and ordered all of her remaining serpents to rush at her enemy. She even summoned thousands of giant snakes with the rest of her mana.

Arima raised an eyebrow and looked around. "Okay, I may have spoken too quickly. Please, don't pull that flag..."

When he saw that the snakes' eyes and mouths were letting out an ominous light, he slightly panicked and drove the emerald star to its maximum output. Otherwise, he felt like it would be too late.

"[Shasa, erioka, kraiteus anra oient]," Ikoya chanted in a language that even Arima didn't understand.

"{That's one of the most ancient languages that ever existed. Right now, she's saying 'Sacrifice yourself for victory'.}"

"Sweet!" Arima quipped with a voice filled with urgency.

A green mist promptly mixed with the vapor coming out of his body. The snakes around started exploding one after the other right after. Natus shined strongly and time slowed down for Arima.

"[Second Forbidden Art, Continuitatis Legem Evertit]," he chanted.

The Law behind that magic was Continuity. It can refer to many things. But in this case, it immediately completed Arima's charging and triggered his teleportation.

Just after, the self-destruction of the serpents showed its results and spread for more than a galaxy's worth. Arima who reappeared out of the explosion's range cursed and held his chest in pain.

"Shit, even with Natus, using this Law is freaking hard," he muttered and waited silently. He retracted his aura and made it look weak on purpose.

After a moment, he sensed Ikoya's transfer and Aeshma reformed above him. The phantom grew arms and grabbed Ikoya who had just teleported.

"What?!" She shouted in shock. "How?!"

She didn't get an answer as Aeshma screeched and threw her toward a nearby planet. She couldn't resist because she had exhausted herself and miserably crashed.

Arima sighed and looked back with an awkward expression.

"…Akoman, Indra Vayu, Az, go resurrect Flavio before his soul breaks apart," he instructed and the three phantoms obeyed.

Arima forced a cough to help him forget this really uncomfortable situation and changed back into a human. Only his eyes didn't revert to normal; they still had two irises. It was for him to resist the petrification of the gorgon.

He landed on the planet and nonchalantly walked toward Ikoya. When he was about two meters away from her, she immediately stood up and tried to kick him but he vanished in front of her eyes. Her attack served nothing except to damage this intact planet.

"That won't do. You should stop," Arima's voice echoed in her ear. She shivered and looked at her left.

"How… no matter how strong you are… how can you teleport like that when our auras are at the same level?" She asked helplessly. She clenched her hands. She perfectly knew that she had lost but her pride couldn't allow her to surrender.

"Space-time has become a playground for me. My opponent's aura doesn't affect me as much as you. I can fold spatial layers at will to make things easier for me. Look," Arima beckoned and his eyes glowed. Ikoya slowly moved her eyes to where Arima was pointing. When she saw that her arm had been lightly cut although nothing touched it, she paled and bit her lip.

"If I wanted too, I could kill you with just a thought right now. That's how much control I have although your aura is protecting you."

"That's… impossible," Ikoya uttered through her teeth.

Arima smiled and grabbed her neck before lifting her. "Don't worry, I won't kill you. Let me show you why your petrification doesn't work as well," he stated and looked at her in the eyes.

The demon's eyes faced the gorgon. A pentagram was formed and Ikoya lost all of her strength. At the same time, Arima chanted a very familiar magic, "[Fifth Black Art, Penitentia Conspiciunt]."

Ikoya's mind was invaded and her life force robbed in a second. When Arima let her go, she collapsed on the ground and started coughing.

"Now," Arima looked up and spotted a figure approaching this planet. It was the silhouette of a man wielding a black sword and armor. "The black knight in armor is coming for his princess," he chuckled and the man arrived in no time.

His eyes were cold and filled with rage. He swung his sword at lightning speed. A staggering amount of mana had been infused in the blade. Arima casually teleported away along with the powerless Ikoya. He reappeared in outer space and watched as the planet he was standing on had been cut in two.

The core of the planet exploded and the rest of the planet melted into hot lava. But the light coming from it still couldn't illuminate the dark figure that was standing in its center. Arima leisurely observed until the shadow disappeared from his sight to be replaced by a fierce killing intent coming from behind him.

"Well, well, will you be able to rescue your princess in distress?" Arima jested.

"{Don't forget about the flags.}"

"..."