Life Hunter - Chapter 194

“What do I get from all of this?”

“Well…” Raylein was stumped. He hadn’t thought about that. “You’re a good guy… right? By turning into a Plane Guardian, you’ll become stronger and I’m sure you’d be a great help. You’re someone who can resurrect even after the soul has been dissipated after all.”

“The resurrection factor is delicate,” Arima’s eyes sharpened. “It depends on the circumstances if I can use it or not.”

“I understand that,” Raylein nodded. “But putting that aside, you may also be dragged into this war whether you want to or not. So, it’s better if you receive the Guardian’s legacy and attack before they can…” Raylein repeated what he had just said in his head then nodded as if he was satisfied with his little speech. He was sure that it was pretty convincing.

Arima sighed and his expression relaxed. He looked lazily at Raylein. “I accept,” Arima’s answer made Raylein smile. “But I’ll do the test in a month. Come back then,” Arima added and teleported back inside the hall with his group.

“Huh?” Raylein’s smile froze. “Hey!” He followed them inside and saw Arima was already sitting down, talking to Jin’s secretaries.

“Gather the ministers. I want to talk with them,” he heard Arima then walked toward him.

“Why do you want to wait for one month? Do you not understand what I just said?”

“No, I fully understand,” Arima retorted and Raylein frowned. “I accepted, no?”

“…I’m telling you that there’s gonna be a war between the God… and the Devil…” Raylein started gesturing as if he was explaining to a child. Everyone was already looking at him strangely. “And that you may be assaulted and killed in the process of the destruction of your world,” he voiced this last line in one breath.

“I heard well the first time,” Arima said and stood up. He cracked his neck and looked up. “Deva, come down,” he ordered and the HQ was suddenly illuminated by a bright light. A feathered serpent appeared in the sky and landed on a hill nearby.

“I never said that I’d let them have one month though,” Arima added and his coat fluttered as a silhouette formed behind him. The hooded skeleton cackled and lifted its brush before starting to paint.

Raylein was confusedly watching when he felt a thick and seemingly infinite aura filling his surroundings. It was spreading in the air and infiltrating the earth.

“What are you doing…? Are you trying to destroy your planet?”

“Just stand back,” Layla spoke up and Raylein frowned again.

“Hm, since Jormungand is back, the theory should be even stronger,” Arima muttered casually as the skeleton finished drawing the snake biting his own tail. He crouched and placed both of his hands on the ground.

“[First Red Art, Fata Deorum, Ragnarök],” he chanted and the entire planet quaked. The painting of the skeleton came alive and shined as the walls of Aurorae started cracking.

Several mountains across the surface of the Earth collapsed, volcanos erupted, and crevasses opened everywhere. The undead painter laughed one last time and vanished.

Arima’s sigil glowed and Raylein only needed to blink once to see everything back to normal, without any sign of destruction whatsoever. Every mountain was standing again, the crevasses were closed, and even the lives that had been lost were restored as if nothing happened.

“…What did you do?” Raylein was more puzzled than ever. He could now feel Arima’s aura over the entire planet but that did not explain to him what was happening.

“I just took control of the Earth,” Arima replied with a smile. “For this,” he snapped his fingers and from outer space, you’d be able to see a red-blue barrier forming around the planet. Peculiar drawings and runes were drawn on it. One of them was a giant clock that made up for at least half of the barrier.

This clock could even be seen from the surface of the planet. From the outside, the needles were turning at a normal speed but from the inside, the needles were moving in slow motion.

“[Sanctuarium autem Dei finis Mundi] (Sanctuary of the End of the World).”

Arima’s eyes glowed for a second then he sat back. “There you go,” he pointed at the sky through the window. “When that needle makes a complete turn, one month will have passed.”

Raylein’s expression was changing quite comically. “Wait… did you just take control of all the elements then slowed down time to a 1/30 ratio?”

“Yes.”

“‘Yes’? What do you mean ‘yes’?! This is not even a dimension, it’s an actual array! Where the hell do you plan to get the mana to keep it active?”

“Were you not paying attention? I said I was an Eternal Dragon now. The ‘Eternal’ relates to my mana and ability to use mana efficiently,” Arima shrugged. “In other words, this thing consumes less mana than I recover naturally. Although barely.”

“No way…” Raylein couldn’t believe it. He put his palm on his forehead then rubbed his face. “I get it now. Your real asset is not your life force, the intensity of your killing intent, your energy property, or even your peculiar body… but your mana pool and unbelievable magic theory.”

Raylein’s eyes suddenly sparkled. “Then let’s start now! If you have such an advantage, our victory is assured. If you do the test now and master your powers during this month, you’ll be almost invincible!” He was quite excited, but as he was shouting these pretty lines, Arima had already left the hall and only Karma and Night were left there, looking at him as if he had suddenly become dumb.

“You know, Arima activated this array, not to train but to rest,” Karma tilted her head and said.

“…Rest? Why?”

“He said that he’s tired and also wants to recover his magic circuits peacefully,” Karma quoted.

“But, to be honest, I think he’s probably too lazy after all the fights he had to go through recently,” Night added nonchalantly and Karma followed him out of the room.

Raylein killed his own enthusiasm and groaned in the middle of the empty room. “Right… makes sense…not…” He grumbled and scratched his hair. “Well, damnit. I guess I can only wait. Well, I could leave this array then come back but knowing Harion, he may try to assassinate Arimane since I made contact with him.”

He sighed and sat down on a couch. “It’s a month here for a day outside. If someone comes during that single day, it could be at any moment during this entire month period…” He relaxed on the sofa and abruptly raised an eyebrow. “Wait a second… why am I even bowing to his demands?”

***

After Arima’s group left the hall, they soon went to another section of the HQ and arrived at a very large conference room with a round table and a long row of comfortable seats around.

The people sitting at the table all turned to look at the newcomers. Most of them were quite old and exuded an intimidating kind of presence. Karma’s expression stiffened and so did her smile. Even Night felt uncomfortable. Mainly because those people were not something that he was eager to deal with.

Only Layla was kind of unfazed while Arima smirked. “Hi, everyone,” he casually said and every politician in the room shuddered. Even his companions shuddered. The tone Arima had just used was a lot more ‘vicious’ than usual.

It was like he was planning an evil plan. He was definitely used to this kind of atmosphere.

“I don’t have much time to waste on you, so I’ll be as brief and quick as possible,” Arima continued and already every minister felt upset. But as much as they wanted to retort, the man in front of them was a god-like existence for them. Heck, the entire planet was his own.

If it was Jin, they would have been able to speak up but with the name ‘Arimane’ labeled in their brain as the most terrifying thing ever, they couldn’t do anything.

“Jin will be absent for a month or so while I’ll be staying for around the same time. It may change according to what happens in the future but for now,” Arima paused and glanced at the giant monitor on the wall.

It was switched on instantly. Everyone looked at the screen baffled. Words were quickly being written there. Arima could easily control electronic devices with magic. It only required a bit of knowledge in the domain and he had more than enough.

“Read carefully everything written there. It’s your instructions for the next few years. I checked how things were going when I came back. First of all, the training for the army became weaker which is disappointing. You also let some terrorists rise which I nicely destroyed for you already.”

Night’s eyes widened and Layla almost choked. Their expressions were shouting ‘When!?’.

Karma hummed from the corner of the room and tilted her head. “Wasn’t that during Ragnarök’s activation?” She deduced.

“…I almost pity those terrorists,” Layla said. “There’s no chance for them to hide or survive anymore since Arima has control over the whole planet.”

“If you continue with this type of indolence, this ‘peace’ won’t last long,” Arima continued over his companion’s little chat. He was so domineering that not a single one of the ministers was talking back.

“That was the most important thing. Next is about the citizens. I talked about this with Jin earlier; it’s soon the time to integrate Eion devices in their daily lives.”

When he said that, some people exclaimed in surprise. “Of course, it will be done slowly. Though it will be most likely downplayed by the coming of magic. But anyway, I want you to establish a covered black market to sell a limited amount of it in the next few months. Not much. Just a few thousand per city…”

After that, Arima talked about pretty much everything one could possibly think of. Going from the military to the citizens, architecture, spatial projects, agriculture, food, environment, terraforming, laws, economy, and even some silly demonstrations. That day, he ordered the dismantlement of any kind of stupid polemic.

After a few hours of continuous talk, Arima had already given enough work for the next ten years.

“Aaaaaaah…” Night sounded like a zombie. “I was just listening and I still feel like I went through the greatest ordeal of my life,” he grumbled.

“My head hurts,” Karma weakly said and was holding her head as if it was going to explode.

Layla smiled wryly as she was looking at them. Even she had to admit that the whole thing was extremely tiring. “Layla, we have to talk,” Arima called her and her mind was suddenly jolted.

“You two can go anywhere you want,” he said to Night and Karma and instantly disappeared along with Layla.

Night was staring at the place where they had been standing a second ago and opened his mouth, “I want some crepes.”

“Same,” Karma nodded and the two agreed as they went inside the town to eat crepes.