Life Hunter

Chapter 133: ''What the hell are you?''

When Lilis exited the Time Garden, she became aware that most of the gods were gathered in front of the Heaven Gate. The situation confused her and she marveled about what kind of issue could possibly require the attention of every god. Arima flashed past her mind, and she seriously hoped she was wrong.

When Lilis reached the Heaven Gate, she immediately went to Azes who seemed to be waiting for something. He had, in fact, sensed Lilis the moment she left the Garden and stayed in front of the gate instead of going in with the other High Gods.

"What is happening?" Lilis asked the second she landed.

"Hell's Purgatory was forced open by Ojure Karez Do you remember that human?"

"Ojure? The human who fled from Hell? Why would he empower Hell's forces?" Lilis frowned as she recalled the individual.

"A war most likely. He appears to be baiting us for some reason. But that's not what I want to talk with you about. You finished watching Arimane's past, right?" Azes changed the subject and Lilis nodded with a darkened expression.

Azes glanced at her expression and grunted. "It's worse than I thought, huh? At first, the reason I wanted you to look at it stemmed from a mild curiosity and a detail I wanted to verify. But things changed since then," he said and rolled his sleeve to reveal the black mark.

"This is a seal I made a long time ago with my Unique Magic. This means that Pandora has been retrieved," he declared and Lilis's eyes narrowed.

"As you know, the only way to open Pandora is the sacrifice of an existence deeply connected to the River of Time and Fate. Silver Emperors, Life Hunters, and Death Hunters. These three are perfect matches and Arimane is all of them at the same time," Azes explained and shook his head.

"My personal curiosity aside, the main reason I sent you to the Time Garden was to find out if Arima had indeed confronted one of Karaskan's Seeds in his world. That's important because it would indicate that Karaskan is either the 'target' of Arimane's destiny as a Death Hunter or simply its first step," Azes concluded and eyed Lilis with an inquisitive look.

"So, even though I think it's pretty obvious, was it really Karaskan?" He asked and Lilis slowly nodded.

"No doubt, it was him. He blatantly introduced himself in front of Arima," she replied whilst recalling the gruesome scene.

"I see. That's one thing already. We'll have to be careful about Arima and Karaskan's encounter. Now, we arrive at the main point, which is Pandora," Azes continued.

"When the Pandora opens, it delivers across the entire plane a manifestation of the life of the one who opened it. Pandora has been opened only once before and it was done by Gabriel. Nothing bad actually happened. Gabriel has such a pure soul that she most likely didn't even produce anything back then. In any case, if a saint-type person opens Pandora, the world will be bathed in light but the opposite is also true," he then turned toward Lilis, "Now, what kind of life Arima lived, and what are its most important events?"

Lilis was rapidly overwhelmed by the question, as the answer was rather complex. "I don't think I can answer that easily"

"Arima lived more than a wretched or bloody life. At first, it wasn't really dramatic or cruel except the fact that he was an orphan. But during his prime age, Arima did things that overturned an entire planet, with terror and death following him at every instant," she tried to explain Arima's life the best way she could.

"But his identity not only represented death or terror it also symbolized power and dominance. He ended up being the most powerful person in his world," she added and breathed in

"Compared to powerful figures like us, his feats could perhaps be considered very mediocre. But, in my honest opinion, anyone that would dare to say that is either arrogant beyond reason or straight up stupid," she uttered and Azes was a bit surprised by the grave tone of her voice.

"Even gods would cower if they were told to conquer their world. They'd probably die within the first days. Arima was born pretty much equal to every other human. And he still managed to take over the entire planet. That feat is comparable to a god conquering Heaven," Lilis paused and wryly smiled. "Just on a smaller scale."

Azes closed his eyes mused, "Well, I can't possibly predict what will happen if Arima ever opens the Pandora," he muttered after a moment. "If I'm not misunderstanding what you're saying, something really special should happen."

"Azes," Lilis suddenly called and Azes looked up to see her very serious expression. "While he was in his world, Arima died once and something that I couldn't comprehend followed. At one point he had been obliterated by an explosion, the next he was lying down in the middle of the ruins without a scratch," she finally said and Azes froze.

"What?" He exclaimed. The look in his eyes was weirdly shifting from happiness to wariness every second. Then, he started laughing. "What is this? Even fate has its limits and this is just crazy," he grinned.

"If he was revived without any plus, and that he forgot about it, it means that he didn't get the chance to undergo the Life Judgement. Instead, he created an anomaly by reviving without achieving the Judgement. His current condition can be compared to a sort of perfect undead. What would happen if he goes through the Life Judgment now?" Azes wondered and suddenly thought of something.

"Wait, from what we learned within the last hour, Kerberos was trapped outside of Hell by Karez. But we never checked where he was sent," he was suddenly caught with worry. "Don't tell me!" He waved his hand hastily and a strange pen appeared in his hand. He started writing on mid-air some quaint words that were undecipherable even with the Gods' language.

When he finished writing, the words slowly merged to form a new text. It now displayed: '63.5B'. The two first numbers referred to the world; the other two characters designated a planet.

And, of course, both corresponded to the place Arima was. Azes's expression twitched, "What were the chances that I send him to the same planet Karez was on?" He muttered, and he also became even more anxious for some reason.

"If by any chance" he paused and shook his head. "Who am I joking with? Of course, he's going to go to Hell somehow. This is bad."

"Why?" Lilis was perplexed.

"There's no way to predict what would happen to Arimane if he enters Hell with a body that is essentially dead. It's the Life Judgement that allows a Life Hunter to resurrect from the trigger event; death. Arima didn't even attempt the Judgment, thus he was technically not resurrected. He's basically a dead person living just because of an Owl," Azes explained and his pupils dilated in realization.

"The Purgatory has just been emptied and can't retrieve its former prisoners but that won't stop it from accomplishing its duty. That prison can very well be considered a living being. And right now, it's hungry! Very hungry! Arima could very well be sucked into the Purgatory because of his Death Energy!" He shouted and flew off toward the Heaven Gate. Lilis was stunned but still hurried to follow him.

**********************************************

Above a forest composed of tall red trees, crimson grass, and bloody thorns, a giant white cog formed in the sky and five figures emerged from it before dropping down.

During their fall, two of them transformed. A small pup became a giant hound with three heads and one human figure turned into a jet-black noble dragon.

Kerberos had finally returned to Hell and howled. The realm seemed to acknowledge him as the ground shook. Meanwhile, Night caught Lanya, Arima, and Karma carried them to the ground. After using the gate, they had lost their control over magic and aura for a brief period of time and only he could fly without it.

"The killing intent here is so dense" Lanya muttered as she probed Hell's atmosphere. Night nodded and let her step down from her back along with Karma.

But something unexpected happened just after. Arima literally fell from Night's back and rolled on the ground like he had been knocked out by something. Everyone was surprised at the sight and couldn't react in time as the ground started quaking again, but with much more intensity.

A black mist that seemed to be able to kill at contact abruptly emerged from Arima's body and created a tornado. Arima grunted and punched the ground as he stood on all four. The color of his irises was flickering; sometimes bright silver, sometimes unnerving crimson. Lightning began to crackle and the electricity reached every corner of the forest.

At the same time, crevasses opened without warning and an incalculable number of crimson chains surfaced before coiling around Arima like preying snakes.

"That's" Chulainn couldn't believe his eyes. "That's the Inquisitor! He's about to get sent to the purgatory!" He bellowed and tried to burn the chains with his flames. He attempted to communicate with them but they didn't seem to be willing to listen to him.

Night, Karma, and Lanya also tried to help but they were blown back by the spiraling sphere made of chains that managed to form around Arima.

Lanya gritted her teeth and activated the power of the Unblinking Eyes. But she grunted in pain shortly after as she immediately covered her eyes while blood flowed down her cheeks.

"We can't do anything?!" Night hastily asked Chulainn. The latter's expressions darkened, and he shook his heads.

"I don't know. This phenomenon should only occur when Hell has to catch a convicted and imprison him. I don't know how to stop it. This should have never happened in the first place. I know that Death Hunters are said to be able to control Death, but it's just a legend and it only means that they are deeply connected to it," he said as the number of chains increased and the ground started 'swallowing' the sphere.

Chulainn gritted his teeth. "I had noticed that Arima had a unique control over Death magic, but I never even considered that Hell would see him as a dead person meant to be confined."

As he was speaking, Lanya tried to use her eyes again and more blood came out of her strained eyes.

"Stop! You'll lose your eyes if you keep up like this!" Karma ran to her and grabbed her wrists to calm her down. But when she saw the small smile that had found its place on Lanya's face, she immediately froze.

"I'm fine" Lanya whispered and sighed in relief. "And we don't need to do anything," she added and the three others glanced at her in confusion. To their surprise, they soon heard a strange, eerie and powerful howl that resounded across the entire forest and perhaps even further.

***

Up until Hades, who shuddered and turned around astounded. Until Lucifer who froze and stared at his hand which was quivering. Until the ex-prisoners of the purgatory and all the residents of Hell who promptly felt pressured by the pure might of Death itself.

***

Even Chulainn faltered. The chains which were tightly tangled together emitted splintering noises as dark lightning covered them. A silver light could be seen through the gaps of the chains and soon enough, everything burst.

Everyone disregarded the powerful shockwave and squinted to spot Arima's figure through the dispersing smoke. The silhouette reflected in their eyes was alarming, to say the least.

Once there was nothing to obstruct the view, a gray skeleton could be seen standing in the middle of a crater. Its right half was that of a regular human being, but the other half was simply distorted. The bones were considerably thicker, some of which had an entirely dissociate structure compared to the other half. But the most eye-catching detail was the sharp red horn on the skull pointing forward.

The deformed skeleton hollered again before everything came back to normal. The skeleton slowly regained flesh and Arima gasped the moment his head was fully recovered. He staggered and fell on one knee.

He panted for a minute then rolled his eyes at Chulainn. "What the hell was that?"

The Hellhound gawked at Arima. "What the hell are you?"