Life Hunter

Chapter 148: ''If I die today, this world is not doing its job.''

Arima and Malum had both lost consciousness. Normally, they should be able to resist emotional shocks. At least, enough to not lose composure. But this time, it was different.

They possessed millions of different memories and emotions in their head. Even they were not able to control that turmoil of emotions and were defeated by it.

Arima didn't know what was happening around him. His mind would rewind the scene he witnessed indefinitely. The death of his loved ones, including Tieria and Scatha and all of the others he shouldn't have known but whom he still cared about unconsciously.

Arima could only see darkness around him, nothing more, nothing less. His mind was also recovering at its own pace. But at the same time, it felt like he was slowly sinking.

His thoughts turned blank after a while. He felt like his own existence was fading away. But when he was about to lose that last wisp of consciousness, he heard voices calling him.

"Hey! Arima, wake up!" He heard Night's shout.

"Arima! Open your eyes!" It was Karma's voice that echoed next. When he heard their voices, Arima's spirit shook and he began to reinforce his mind. He remembered that he had something to do.

Arima struggled then exerted all of his willpower. He opened his eyes and suddenly regained consciousness. He blinked and looked at Triens who was unperturbedly smiling. After that, his vision distorted and he grunted. He grabbed the side of his head and stumbled. He felt extremely tired and was pushing himself to not collapse.

Arima glanced at his right to see Malum madly trying to erase the emotions he was feeling. He was growling to keep his mind straight and a dark mist whirled around him.

Although Malum was a being made of negative emotions, he was born with a rational mind. Even if he was created from madness, he could not feed on it.

"It seems that you barely managed to survive the 'pain ordeal'," Triens spoke. Neither Arima or Malum had the strength to retort or get angry at him. They just listened as they rested their mind and soul. "To be honest with you, I half-expected you to fail. But, unexpectedly, you managed to pass thanks to the efforts of both of you. Although you suffered the same shock, you shared it without even noticing. You too, Arima. Your soul beasts helped you. This is quite a special situation you are in. Normally, no Life Hunter should have survived a Judgment so hard," Triens casually explained and clapped.

"With this said, there's not much to hide now," Triens shrugged. "The next test is the last one. The 'rage' ordeal," he declared and the two who were 'tested' glared at him.

"I'll let you rest for a moment. The final trial will begin soon," Triens added and disappeared. Only leaving a small orb of light to illuminate the place.

Arima relaxed all of his muscles, from which he was squeezing the last drops of strength, and immediately sat down. He sighed and then laid down on his back.

"{Are you okay?}" Karma asked worriedly.

"Yeah I think so," Arima answered with a somber tone that couldn't be heard from him usually. His emotions were still in a chaotic state but weak enough for him to restrain them.

"{Hey, what do you think of him?}" Night suddenly inquired as he sent a cognitive message to Arima, telling him to look at Malum.

Arima looked at his right and saw the three meters tall skeleton barely holding in his emotions and gritting his teeth. "Hey," he called and Malum grunted in response.

"You better not snap. At least fuse with me before you do so," Arima said and his counterpart snorted.

"Why should I listen to you?"

"There are a lot of why's actually. But my main worry is that if you are destroyed then I will follow suit. And that's not something I wish for," Arima replied.

"Is that so?" Malum snickered. "Aren't you the one who wanted to die a few decades ago?"

Arima raised his eyebrow, he sat up and gazed at Malum. "These are different matters. Don't even dream that I would keel over because of your words. On top of that, you were most likely born because of that period of my life. You have nothing to say."

Malum laughed and straightened his spine. He seemed to have regained some of his composure and stared back at Arima.

"I have no intention to give this up deliberately."

When he said that, Triens came back and flashed a composed smile. "Let's continue"

"You call that a rest?" Arima retorted as he stood up.

"Of course, it should be enough for you," Triens clapped. "It's time for the last trial. For this test, there's only one rule: watch," he emphasized and both Arima and Malum were perplexed.

"Also don't move. If you go against this rule, you'll die," Triens casually informed them and like before, he snapped his fingers and a figure started forming beside him.

Arima and Malum silently observed, apprehensively. They had a really bad experience from last time. When the appearance of the person was completely visible, Arima and Malum froze.

"You never met him. But I gave you the favor of planting it inside your mind," Triens uttered as he pointed at the man next to him.

Dark clothes, sharp and cold white eyes, and a suffocating aura of darkness. It was the person Arima hated the most, the one he swore to chase until his own death. Triens had just transferred Karaskan's appearance in Arima and Malum's minds.

"Hey what's the meaning of this?" Malum's voice sounded even eerier than before and it carried a strong slaughter intent. The flames in his eye sockets turned from purple to a bright crimson. And surprisingly, he wasn't alone as Arima's eyes were slowly turning bloodshot too.

Although he covered his eyes with his hand, he was still clenching his fists and trembling. It wasn't only because Karaskan appeared in front of him. From a rational point of view, Arima could easily calm himself down if he reminded himself that it was a fake.

But what was really putting Arima and Malum in such a state were the visions they were suddenly experiencing. Visions from when the Chaos Seed twisted their lives in the worst way possible. The Life Judgement was forcing them to replay that scene over and over again.

"This is the final trial," Triens answered Malum. "If you can get past this, you'll have finished the Life Judgement." He then spread his arms open. Once again, a great number of silhouettes formed everywhere.

When Arima and Malum looked at them, their countenance suffered an even bigger change. Countless memories burst into their minds. All of them were about people that killed or robbed what was dear to them.

"Fuck!" Malum cursed loudly. He was shaking uncontrollably and his aura was also escaping his body. This fact surprised Arima who had been able to bear the rage a lot better than Malum.

Since the beginning of the Life Judgment, although they had kept their physical ability, they had lost the ability to control their magic or aura. Arima felt confused about how Malum was able to use it all of a sudden. Then his eyes fell on Karaskan once more.

He gritted his teeth and resisted the urge to attack immediately. That self-control was actually very impressive. After all, Arima had to restrain himself from going berserk while being shown countless visions displaying how disgusting these 'silhouettes' were. In his position, anyone would have already lost his mind.

Both Arima and Malum stayed in this condition for hours, perhaps even days. Neither of them was really able to tell. They continued being tortured mentally until Arima saw Malum's bones crack. Though, it wasn't because Malum had lost control over his aura or anything of the sort.

His bones were actually falling apart for no apparent reason. Arima widened his eyes when he saw that. He remembered what Triens said to them, 'Don't move. If you go against that rule, you'll die.'

Arima suddenly realized something. He smirked and started laughing.

"I see I finally understand."

"What?" Malum looked back at him. His bones were crumbling apart at the moment. His ribs had already been half destroyed, his right arm was on the verge of falling and countless cracks were already visible on the other bones.

"This whole thing is just a scam," Arima grinned and declared. He glanced at Malum and snickered.

At that moment, Arima felt like the hate he was feeling was nothing. He now understood what was this all about. Additionally, what he was about to do allowed him to get over it pretty easily.

Arima extended his hand toward Malum and the latter glared at him, puzzled at his action.

"Let's fuse," Arima suggested and Malum was stunned for a moment.

He then burst into laughter. "As I said, why should I listen to you?"

Arima shook his head and shrugged. "You realized it by now. You're dying," Arima said. "And so, I'm dying with you. It's not something I wish for."

"So, what? Why would I give up the chance to drag you down with me? Also, do you think that fusing back together will give you a chance of going through this? Nothing will change."

"You're wrong."

"What?" Malum exclaimed.

"The reason you're slowly destroying yourself is that you're forcefully restraining your rage. If I'm not wrong, this place has the particularity of connecting our minds and bodies together. If our mind is destroyed, so will our bodies. That's why we were lucky for the first trial. We both fainted before it could destroy us forever," Arima explained.

"What's your point?"

"This whole thing is a trap," Arima coldly snorted. "Not moving from here never was a condition for us to pass the test."

"What are you talking about? Triens said that we would die ifwe" Malum froze.

"Yes. Who said that our death was a failing move? Didn't we come here thanks to it? Do you think we're alive right now? Also, hatred is a weapon. If the Life Judgement treated it otherwise, I would have been severely disappointed in Life Hunters."

Malum fell silent and stood up. The moment he grasped Arima's explanation, his bones had stopped crumbling away. He looked down at his skeletal hand and cackled.

"Fine. You win."

Arima chuckled and extended his hand again. "How about this? You don't need to let go of your ego. And you will get to take over our body whenever I deem it to be a good occasion," he offered and Malum was thunderstruck.

"As for now, let's end this in the best way possible," Arima added with a smile and Malum shook his head. He then shook Arima's hand and snorted.

"Maybe we're not so different all things considered," he remarked and Arima nodded as if it was obvious. "It's not a bad deal. I accept," Malum said and his skeleton glowed before transforming into an orb that flew in Arima's chest.

"{I will sleep here then. Call me when you need me. I will be your Way of the Berserker,}" Malum uttered before completely falling asleep in Arima's soul.

Arima exhaled and his expression turned cold once more. He cracked his neck and fingers and glared at the bastards whose presence made him want to puke.

"{Just saying though; what if you're wrong?}" Night asked out of the blue.

"{YeahI'm a bit anxious about that too,}" Karma complemented.

"Oh, don't worry" Arima responded casually. "I'm a Death Hunter, aren't I? If I die today, this world is not doing its job."

"{That is not a convincing argument,}" Night retorted and Karma fell silent.

"Well, we'll find out soon," Arima laughed. Karma appeared in his hand and he slowly performed an Iai stance. Black lightning gathered around him and his aura filled the strange dark world.

Arima sneered as he glanced at Karaskan. "I'll get to cut the real one soon enough," he muttered and jumped in the air. His eyes flashed and he unsheathed his blade as he swung it

"[Terra Aeterna] (Eternal Night Over the World)."

Thunder roared and blinding discharges of lightning destroyed each one of those fake illusions.

""

"Well, you did it. I guess it's finally time for me to give you your titles," Triens voice echoed as Arima's consciousness was fading away.