Life Hunter - Chapter 243

Arima waved his hand and retrieved Chulainn and Flavio who he had sent into another dimension to protect them. They reappeared out of nowhere and almost fell into the void.

Flavio grunted and clung to Chulainn’s fur with a tired face. “This will give me a trauma, I tell you.”

The Hellhound had already regenerated his head thanks to Flavio’s help and looked at Arima. “Did you finish him? That guy was way too strong for us.”

“I did,” Arima nodded and threw two transparent marbles at them. Chulainn downed one of them in flight while Flavio caught the other and swallowed it afterward. In the next instant, not only did they absorb a massive amount of life force but they noticed that the magic circuits in their body had changed.

“…How the hell did you do this?” Flavio inquired with a strange expression. It was obvious that Arima could use his magic again since he was in his human form. But there were other things too.

One of them was Arima’s clothes. The white lines on it were new. Flavio knew that Arima wouldn’t be adding those just for fashion. But the biggest change was his overall presence and aura. They had changed nature.

If before, Arima was a monster in human skin. Now, the impression he gave off was more that of an unknown being who had no relation whatsoever to any living creature.

“Not really important. The only thing you need to know is that I altered your internal magic structure so that it’s compatible with this Reality. But I’ll have to change it again when we return to our own,” Arima responded.

Flavio sighed and pointed at something else instead. “Then, what is that? Are they what I think?” He was referring to the seven phantoms hovering above Arima.

“If you know the legends, you should recognize them,” Arima nodded and looked at the phantoms from the corner of his eyes. They all looked back at him. From a closer look, one of them had two heads instead of one. “Angra Mainyu is said to have created all Evil that exists in this world. Those are the fruit of his work.”

“Akoman; The Evil Mind.”

“Indra Vayu; Death.”

“Saurva; Disease.”

“Aeshma; Violence and Fury.”

“Az; Lust, Greed and Jealousy.”

“Mithandruj; Dishonesty and Lies.”

“Taurvi and Zairicha; Fever and Thirst.”

Arima shrugged. “They’re the Seven Evil Spirits. The demons who were once imprisoned by Ahura Mazda.”

Chulainn groaned. “All of them have unfriendly titles. Could you make them disappear already? I don’t think I can stay sane with this kind of dark and heavy pressure on me.”

“Lemures,” Arima uttered and the phantoms went back inside the deepest parts of his soul.

“Anyway, let’s move. I absorbed some life force here but it’s far from enough to make me invincible. That Bhiunz was extremely strong for a simple god. We’ll have to be careful when hunting the Guardians and Pillars.”

“Do you know where they are?”

“Yes. I even know who they are and what they are capable of,” Arima smirked and Flavio frowned.

“How? What did you find inside the Chamber?”

Arima mused about how to explain it. “Have you ever heard of the term ‘Akashic Records’?”

“What?” Chulainn and Flavio were both astounded. That word was nothing new to them but what it meant was another thing altogether.

“The official definition in my planet is this; the Akashic Records are a compendium of all human events, thoughts, words, emotions, and intent ever to have occurred in the past, present, or future,” Arima said and smiled. “If you want to know what I found there, this is the best way to describe it.”

“That’s crazy…”

“Not really,” Arima laughed then deployed his wings. “Let’s go. We have to pay a visit to this Plane’s Hell. I have to restore the balance or everything will collapse.”

Flavio sighed. “Why… you don’t need us anymore… Can I go home?”

***

“Well, we finished our job here…” Aergia muttered in amazement. “I’m so glad I joined your group. I don’t have to do any work.”

When Apana gathered every Guardian and Pillar, their job had already been completed. Maybe because they were in front Apana, but none of them even tried to retaliate. Not only did they seem to respect Apana but they also realized that they couldn’t hope to beat the three mysterious women. But what they didn’t know was that the decision they arrived at was influenced by strong mind magic.

“Now, they will spread the name of the Kind Demon in this reality along with the army assigned by Arima,” Layla smiled and said. She patted the giant whale with a bright expression. “It all went quickly smoothly. All thanks to you.”

Apana cried happily.

“Let’s return to our reality now. This should be soon over even without our presence,” Layla added and the two others nodded. “Do you want to come with us, Apana?”

The large whale nodded and followed the group inside the nebula which they came from originally. Apparently, Apana had the ability to shrink his body at will. He became as small as a baby cat and swam around Layla cheerfully. When they used the gate to come back to their Reality, their reaction was pretty much the same as Jorga.

A swarm of Téra, Deva spitting out a beam of energy, Gilgamesh swinging his swords, an army of gold armors, and Ahura Mazda fighting a rabbit along with a giant red goat and the silhouette of a serpent whose body went far past the horizon.

Aergia blinked and turned around to go back inside the portal but Layla grabbed her collar without even looking. Evangeline gaped as she watched the battle between the leader of the Téra and three legendary figures.

Apana tilted his head though. His eyes landed on Sebasfiel and Jorga. They shined and he gave a short cry which was heard by both of them.

“Huh?” Jorga and Sebas both raised their voices at the same time. When they spotted Apana, their eyeballs seemed to be getting bigger.

“Rak… no fucking way,” Sebas muttered then laughed. “Rak! Help us! With three Divine Beasts in this affair, there’s no way we can lose… ah, never mind.”

As if to mock his words, another Téras with tremendous aura materialized just as Ahura was about to catch the rabbit.

“Still! Help us please!” Sebas shouted. The new Téras who had the appearance of a harpy tried to cut him with her claw. Then she waved her wings and generated a tornado.

A few wounds opened on Sebas’s large body. He roared and the fire between his horns exploded to disperse the wind. Jorga came to his help and locked the harpy inside a cage of illusion.

“Ten seconds! Finish the other in the meantime! Rak-Loyra, please help that woman to catch the rabbit!”

Apana waited for Layla to nod before flying toward Ahura. His body returned to its original size. At the same time, the area became filled with water. Apana swam until the rabbit and opened his mouth. The sound of his voice reverberated and made the water vibrate. The light of the stars blinked and the vibrations gathered around the rabbit.

The small Téras saw its speed plummet. Ahura exploited the opening and flapped her wings. Her eyes split in four as she approached her target. A holy sword was summoned in her hand. She planted it in the rabbit’s head at lightning speed then jumped away. She snapped her fingers and the sword exploded beautifully.

The water was evaporated by the light emission and Apana conjured a black hole with space, earth, darkness, and death magic. That black hole consumed every bit of the rabbit that could have remained. Then, the ten seconds had passed and the illusion cage was torn apart by wind blades.

“Goddammit! This one is as fast as that fucking rabbit and can use wind magic on top of that,” Sebas cursed loudly while destroying the wind blades. “Shit! It’s also possible that more will come after. If it comes to this, I would be really happy to see the last Divine Beast magically appear.”

Layla looked at it from below and squinted her eyes. She deployed her wings. “Aergia, Evangeline, go assist Gilgamesh,” she instructed and flew off in Deva’s direction.

Evangeline shook her head and was about to go kill the Téra when she noticed Aergia was immobile. She thought that it was because she didn’t want to exert herself but she was instead pondering about something, quite seriously.

“I remember now…” She muttered and Evangeline’s eyes blinked.

“What do you mean?”

“There are four Divine Beasts,” Aergia replied with a weird tone. Her voice sounded gloomy and heavy.

“The First Beast. The One who Knows, Jörmungandr.”

“The Second Beast. The One who Controls, Rak-Loyra.”

“The Third Beast. The One who Hunts, Fenrir.”

“The Fourth Beast. The One who Destroys, Sebasfiel.”

Evangeline shivered. She had a foreboding feeling when she heard those names and Aergia’s way of speech. “I think I heard about that story once…” She said. “The one where four envoys cloaked with the appearance of animals will descend to bring judgment.”

“There’s also another part to that story. Once the four Divine Beasts are gathered together, they are said to be able to overcome anything. There’s even a legend saying that the beasts were even stronger than the God who created them, once they cooperated.”

“But why are you telling that now?”

“Because I know where the third beast is,” Aergia replied and Evangeline backed away when she saw Aergia’s eyes turn gold like a wolf.

“Well, damn… I forgot I had that slumbering in me,” she chuckled and her hair started growing.

Her nails became claws and her teeth fangs. Dark blue fur grew all over her body as her size neared the other beasts’.

“Holy shit! Seriously?!” Sebas exclaimed when he sensed the familiar aura. “I was just ranting. I didn’t actually think Fenrir would appear. Just having three of us in the same place is already a miracle!”

***

Arima snorted after he destroyed Hell’s core.

“{The gathering of the Four Divine Beasts… It should be interesting,}” Krynox commented.