Life Hunter

Koden and Arima were silent during the first minutes.

"[From the underworld, the doom will rise]," The one who broke that silence was Koden. He started chanting and a tornado of darkness emerged from the ground and enveloped him

Arima smiled, "First, let me apologize. I won't use my strongest magic but the most effective I have against you."

The lich looked up while he was concentrating on his magic and Arima's voice echoed afterward.

"[Tempus vitae] (Life is time)."

"[Sapientia est iudicium] (Wisdom is a trial)."

"[Ne forte oculis elevatis occurras superbiae] (When you look up, you meet your pride)."

At this point, Arima's surroundings glowing with an azure light. Koden felt greatly threatened and resumed his chant.

"[The world from above will absolutely return to nil,]"

"[What deserves to perish will fade away.]"

"[Infernum caelum oculos reflectere] (The eyes of heaven reflect hell)."

"[In mundo fluxus meus intercluditur] (The flow of the world is stopped)."

A sort of competition of incantations began.

"[Return life to its rightful owner.]"

"[Give him what represents his existence.]"

"[Drown under the Death's wing.]"

Koden finished his chant. Behind him, a giant figure emerged from the shadows. It was a black skeleton wearing a really large cloak and he was holding a really iconic scythe. Everything around him would rot and die.

"[Capto et torquem anima tua et tenebrae in eo] (Grab the chain of your soul and bring it into darkness)."

"[Voca ejus adsentiri necesse est, ne moriatur, et uri] (Call it a choice, do not die, and burn)."

"[Estuans sors] (Burning Fate)"

Arima finished next and the sky was covered with blue flames. Those flames moved in the sky like a tourbillon and finally gathered above Arima as a frightening and giant fireball.

"I see. Sacred magic," Koden remarked. "Normally, there's no way you should be able to conjure something like that as an undead. But who am I talking to?" Koden shook his head and his 'eyes' burned a lot fiercer. Almost to the point that the red fire was shrouding his entire skull. The summoned reaper from before advanced slowly and placed himself right in front of Koden.

Arima's flames burned stronger as well and his bones shined. He waved his hand and the fireball floating in the sky slowly began to go forward.

The situation paused for a few minutes before the two opponents released their aura with all their might.

The one-mile-wide blue fireball fell from the sky very quickly. A lot more than what you would expect. The cloaked reaper flew off toward it a wave of darkness following him. That reaper didn't lose in the slightest when it came to their size. He raised his scythe and slashed the blue fire.

In less than a second, the circumstances in the dimension changed drastically. Maybe this time, it wasn't just the surrounding area, but the whole continent that experienced an earthquake. And at its borders, the sea water was being pushed back. The shock wave traveled to every corner of the land and destroyed countless obstacles on the way.

"[Turris Babel] (Tower of Babel)," The specter of a huge and majestic tower appeared above Arima.

"[Final Gate]" An imposing gate made out of bones formed in front of Koden.

They were both doing their best to withstand the damages.

The clash between the reaper and the blue fireball still didn't show any hint about the possible winner. The darkness and the scythe of the reaper were trying to cut through the flames and absorb them. The blade of the scythe had even managed to hack through half of it.

But the azure fire just kept burning to destroy the enemy. Stronger every second. The reaper's figure was getting weaker and the flames were spreading dangerously.

The whole zone below that was already as good as being in the void of space. There was no air, only darkness, and fire. There was no earth, just magma, and decayed nature. There was no gravity, the pressure was repelling it like a gas.

Some parts of the two magic would stray off and fall somewhere else, destroying everything. As if it was a nuclear assault, countless mushroom clouds would form on the horizon, be it black or blue.

Koden and Arima were not safe from the destruction at all. If they were to lose control of their respective magic, death was the only possible outcome.

"{Night, how long can you keep up if I give you three-quarters of this magic's spiritual toll?}"

Night was silent for a moment then answered Arima's question, "{Thirty seconds.}"

Arima grinned, "{That's good enough.}"

Just like that, Arima gained a clearer mind by giving Night more toll. He immediately extended his skeletal hand and began to write something in midair with his finger.

"[Scriptura](Scripture)" He chanted and intoned every word he was writing as his finger continued moving.

"[Choris et mortuus est] (The dead is dancing)."

"[Cantat et inferni] (All of hell is singing)."

"[Nunc autem venit amiserat] (Now comes the lost being)."

"[Et quis prohibere qui enim mortuus est] (The one who will stop the dead)."

"[Silentio et inferni] (And silence hell)."

"[Judicii] (Judgment)."

Arima finished chanting and writing in ten seconds. The words he wrote and the runes he drew transformed into a blue light that was shot at the sky.

The darkened skies changed once again. The dark clouds moved away and created an inverted pit in the sky. From the inside, a black and red sphere of lightning slowly descended.

Koden watched the sight with utter shock. He was totally overwhelmed by the magic he was using and couldn't hope to do more than that. But Arima cast a second magic which couldn't be considered weak at all.

The lightning sphere fell from the sky and crashed onto the blue sun. Thunder roared and the two fused together. The fireball expanded when it assimilated the lightning and started producing electricity on its own. The color of the flames gradually changed as well until Arima was left with a giant purple fireball fenced by lightning.

At that moment, Arima almost lost control of his magic. It was to say that half of his spirit was taking care of the 'One hundred parade' and a third of the remaining spirit was exploited by the azure flames. And now, he had to use the rest. Arima felt like his head was going to explode.

After twenty seconds, Night already showed signs of weakness and could barely last ten more seconds.

The newly made purple sun was clearly winning over the reaper. But it was too slow. It needed a lot more time than ten seconds to triumph.

In the end, Arima made a choice. He spent even more mana on his dimension link and improved the concealment so that no one would be able to sense anything from the real world at all. Then, he released his slaughter intent.

The wave of bloodlust hit Koden and even he couldn't help but to shiver and shift his attention. That small mistake was enough for the purple flames. The scythe of the reaper broke as he was incinerated. Just after, the purple fire flew toward Koden like a predatory beast and detonated.

Before he was completely turned to ashes, Koden's laugh resounded and his fading voice resounded, "That was a good fight, Arimane!"

The explosion extended over the whole undead zone until it died down completely.

Arima was left standing on a barren land with nothing to be seen as far as the eye could perceive. He sighed and released his strengthening technique and the resonance.

He and Night collapsed instantly and laid down to rest.

Arima dispelled the death magic and his flesh and organs grew back. There weren't any injuries, but tremendous fatigue overwhelmed him.

He took a deep breath and lifted his arm. He extended his arm toward the sky and a colorless wave of energy entered his body.

His aura immediately rocketed and his body underwent some changes. He was now around two meters tall and his eyes had gained a faint white symbol on the pupils. Night also received a boost thanks to his connection with Arima's soul and also broke through. His body now reached a height of twenty meters.

"Seems like we respectively broke through the tenth and ninth level," Arima commented whilst hopping to get used to his new height and weight. "Why did I need to get taller? I hope I won't become a giant later on," He complained and cracked his neck. "Well, it shouldn't be a problem for you."

"What? Why would it be a bad thing for you and not for me?" Night retorted, "I don't want to be too big as well, you know?"

"Huh?" Arima gave him a very confused look, "What are you talking about? You're a dragon."

Night was speechless for a moment and repeated in his mind what Arima just said to him. His expression darkened, "…Why can't I think of any argument to contradict you?"

"Anyway, it's time to leave this dimension. It's still draining my mana and I don't want to collapse because of a mana deficiency." Arima said and his eyes glowed before the scenery warped. The ground, the sky, the horizon; everything cracked and broke like glass.

The first thing they saw when they returned was Lanya pouting whilst sitting on the stone remnant of the mausoleum. When she spotted Arima and Night, she immediately rushed to them.

"Why did you leave me here?!" She shouted to them, "Why you…wait, you got bigger…?"

"If I had brought you, you would have died. Also, we just broke through that's why we are like this," Arima simply responded and walked toward the stone ruin.

Night returned to his wolf form which had changed once again. Now, he was two meters tall and there was a red pattern on his fur.

"Don't think too much about it," He told Lanya and followed Arima.

"How do you want me to do that?! Even you, master, you broke through the ninth level. What happened in there?" She replied loudly, running after Night.

Arima was looking attentively at the material that the ruin was made of. He called Ira and shot at the stone. The bullet could only leave a faint mark. He tried one more time with lightning magic but the bullet could only pierce a distance as deep as itself.

"There was a type of stone that had those properties if I remember correctly," Arima alleged and looked into his memories, "Was it trinite?"

Night sat down next to him, "What's trinite?"

Lanya then arrived near them and exclaimed in surprise when she heard the question, "Trinite is the most solid mineral which one can find naturally. On this continent at least," She answered in Arima's stead.

"Yes, it's quite an impressive material. But it can't really be used as weapon material. It's too rough and rigid. But it still can be useful," Arima said and put the whole ruin into his spatial storage. "When Karma is restored, I'll be able to cut this and maybe engrave it."

"So, where do we go now?" Night asked with a blank expression. He knew what answer he would receive but still did it.

"As I said…" Arima was going to leave the choice to Night as always but abruptly stopped. He turned toward Lanya, "Do you want to go somewhere? I'm sure you're not from the monster territory, right?"

Night's ears perked and Lanya's eyes widened a bit, "…Indeed, I'm not from here. Actually, I was born in the Republic. But when I was ten years old, I became an orphan and wandered inside the monsters' land somehow. Then, as you already know, I was captured by that vampire to be sold there."

Arima frowned. He noticed that there was something wrong with her story but didn't question her about it, "So?"

"I don't have a family in the human country but I have someone to whom I'm indebted. I'd like to go there," She said earnestly.

"Good, where is it?"

"The spirits' city."

Arima nodded, "I see. We'll go there then. But before that, I want to visit a place not far from here."

"What place?" Night inquired. A place where Arima wanted to go personally was definitely a worrisome thing in his opinion.

Arima pointed at the rising sun and smiled, "The frontiers."