Life Hunter - Chapter 226

“Who called?” Two voices forcefully penetrated Arima’s mind. Those voices were exactly the same and were worded identically. Arima’s eyes narrowed as he felt the biggest headache he ever had. The three around him also suffered the same.

“What the heck is this?” Night almost fell on the ground while holding his head. “Is that supposed to be their voice?”

Arima grunted. “It isn’t,” he looked at the weird shadows coming out of the circles. It wasn’t clear but it didn’t look like something organic at all. At best, it resembled something like an unfinished sculpture with holes all over it. “I’m not even sure they are supposed to have voices. It’s just a synthetic sound made to communicate with humans.”

He explained to Night and his eyes glowed red as he started to analyze the two auras. After a moment, the two figures who had been summoned finally spoke again.

“It’s you…” The God said and noticed the other ritual meant for the Devil. “How dare you call him in my presence?” The God uttered and Arima’s soul realm shook. The latter even coughed blood but his eyes never stopped staring at the two Creators.

“Are you a follower of evil? Should I kill you?” The God’s voice emotionlessly asked and the other monster stepped in with his own aura.

“Are you so petty now that you would break the rules and kill a human?” The Devil spoke and Arima’s face darkened even more. His eyes were already bloodshot. He didn’t even need to look to know that his three companions’ state was worsening too. He waved his hand without delay and ejected them out of his soul realm.

“Wai-!” Layla couldn’t even say something before she was transferred away along with Karma and Night.

“You don’t have the right to talk, Slanderer. I will soon slay you as well.”

“Don’t tell me you think you can bring me down, Prayer?”

The two creatures spoke to each other, totally ignoring Arima’s presence. He was still silently observing them but his eyes were gradually closing.

‘Fuck this… I won’t be able to keep up at this rate,’ Arima gritted his teeth and released his aura.

The two Creators promptly fell silent and focused on him again.

“To fight the extreme… you have to become the extreme yourself,” he muttered and the nature of his aura changed.

***

Malum shuddered. “…I hate this,” he mumbled and Shakti, who was walking in front of him, turned around. She gazed at him while eating a caramel apple.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” Malum shook his head and walked past her. “I just feel so small. Every time, I’m scared of a man who is supposed to be my virtuous alter ego. Seriously, I can’t even call myself his dark-self at this point,” he uttered and Shakti opened her eyes wide in confusion.

***

“What are you?” The God inquired. “I don’t remember creating anything like you. You even killed my Guardians.”

“Me neither. I never produced such a wicked thing,” the Devil followed.

They both were glaring at Arima. He had killed everything inside him. His eyes were even more blank than the time he faced Layla. His whole presence had gone through a drastic transformation. This new state allowed him to resist the dreadful pressure of the creatures he was confronting.

“A living being without emotions; such a thing is impossible,” Arima stated with a chilling voice. “Because that’s nothing but a monster,” he declared and his eyes projected two pentagrams. “But I can become one to fight you.”

“Those eyes…” The Devil reacted slightly. “I see now, why you summoned us. You’re trying to understand what we are.”

The God stayed silent.

Arima’s expression gradually changed. His emotionless composure turned into an insane one. His lips curved into a mad grin and his eyes became those of Angra Mainyu. He was switching from one extreme to another. He leered at the Creators with his double irises and the two pentagrams split into four.

At that moment, the Creators finally began to feel apprehensive. “I only have one thing to say to you,” he said. “You will never get to rule this Existence. I will kill those you sent. Collect their force and get rid of you.”

“We are your creators. Even if you’re an anomaly which we failed to detect, you’re a simple variable. If you force us to act personally, we even can erase the entire world and start anew,” the Devil retorted.

“Do you think you can’t be beaten?” Arima squinted his eyes.

“We are not meant to be trampled or defeated. Angra Mainyu tried and he failed miserably. You will not succeed. We can’t be beaten by a mortal. We were born to make and are fated to endlessly make them. You won’t be able to break the cycle. I’m the Prayer, he is the Slanderer. We’ll always be here and you will always be living under our watch and never be capable of reaching us,” the God responded.

“You are mortal yourself,” Arima sneered and the God didn’t reply. Arima glanced at them both one last time. “I got what I wanted. The next time we meet will be the day of your fall,” he stated and broke the two circles with his aura. The Creators couldn’t bother to talk anymore and left without saying anything else.

Arima stood still for a few minutes and his eyes rapidly went back to normal. He coughed more blood and his expression also reverted to his usual one. He wiped the blood and grimaced.

“That was harder than I thought. It felt like I was interacting with something that is not supposed to exist. Like I was facing a paradox…” He mumbled to himself.

“It’s a chance that I managed to resist by killing off my emotions. It wouldn’t have been possible without this legacy,” he created a mirror and looked at his own eyes. He sighed and took off his glasses.

Just after, someone appeared inside his soul realm and kicked him. He wasn’t expecting that and flew for a few meters. He landed and looked up with a deadpan face. “Why’d you do that? You could have slapped me or something… But a kick? Really?”

“I don’t care!” Layla puffed her cheeks. “It’s your fault.”

Night and Karma arrived next and shook their heads helplessly. Arima groaned and sat up. He crossed his legs and rested his chin on his hand.

“Did you find out something in the end?” Night came to him and sat down too. Layla and Karma followed.

“Well, the first thing I learned is that they’re too strong to even be met,” Arima shrugged. “I just listened to their synthetic voice and almost fell unconscious by just resisting the power it carried. Well, I was also using Natus, and I could tell that their mind alone would be strong enough to kill all humans”

“That’s… scary” Layla commented and Arima chuckled.

“It is. But ultimately, I still managed to uncover what I was looking for when I called them both. I didn’t really find out what they were or where they were, but now I know how I can win against them,” he told. “In the first place, what I was analyzing wasn’t them directly.”

Karma tilted her head. “What was it then?”

“The way they were talking to me,” Arima replied. “Simply that. I just focused on how they were sending me their aura, mind, and voice through these circles. Initially, I thought it was the kind of magic formation that would connect identical circles and allow communication between the holders.”

“But I was wrong,” he casually drew the magic circle he had gotten from the Guardians’ and Pillars’ memories. “These circles are nothing more than beacons. That’s why it’s not a complex formation. So, what I did is pretty obvious. I followed the path taken by those Creatures’ minds with Natus and ended up realizing that they were talking to me with the help of something.”

“‘Something’?” Night scowled. “You don’t know what it is?”

“I don’t,” Arima nodded. “I couldn’t even determine where it was. To be exact, it seemed to be everywhere. So, I came to this conclusion. They were talking to me through what you could call the ‘heart’ of this Reality. Maybe I’m right, maybe not. But if you assume that their power mainly comes from Realities, it’s not too far-fetched of a guess.”

Night mused and Layla raised her hand. “Can you put back your glasses on?”

Arima looked at her with dead eyes and she coughed awkwardly.

“Sorry, I just thought that it really suits you every time you explain something…” She lowered her voice at the end. “Then a real question this time; you said ‘hearts’. Does that mean you found out how to use Realities for yourself?”

Arima looked back at her with an expressionless face and sighed before putting on his glasses. Layla’s eyes twinkled and he resumed. “I didn’t figure that out. But at least, now I have a way to link myself to those hearts,” he said and rubbed his chin.

“I actually have an idea on how it is used though,” he raised one finger. “The biggest clue for that is that the Creators need to have the Realities under their rule to employ them. Although they are the ones supposed to have made them… That’s weird, right?”

“From that, I can come up with some theories. First of all, where is that heart supposed to be? Is that something physical or is it just an idea? In that case, the thing we need to understand is how interacting with it. Now, if you add the condition of having the Realities conquered; I would say that the factor is people.”

“People?” Layla was perplexed and Night closed his eyes to think.

“So basically, the inhabitants of the Reality have to acknowledge you as their King or something similar?” He assumed and Arima smiled.

“Exactly. The key to control the Realities’ hearts is what people think. If they all think that I’m supposed to be their leader, it will allow me to control the Realities’ essence,” he disclosed and looked at Layla.

“For example, Lilis was a goddess born naturally from the beliefs of billions of people. All of these thoughts gathered into one and created a goddess,” he said and Layla looked down at herself with a pensive expression.

“Moreover, remember what Raylein told us. Realities, other than the Mother ones, are created when enough people have matching thoughts,” Arima snickered. “That’s funny how powerful mortals can be when they work together, isn’t it?”

He stood up and put his glasses away once again. He looked up and gazed at the ocean above his head. “Anyway, it’s time to create that path to other realities.”

“Huh? You’ll do it here?” Night stood up as well and exclaimed.

“Of course,” Arima affirmed. He deployed his wings and smirked. “That ocean you see up there is not just some decoration. That’s the deepest part of my soul. Now, it’s time to dive in,” he said and flew off.