Life Hunter - Chapter 258

When Arima opened his eyes, he was standing in the middle of a bustling city. He definitely didn’t expect that as his pupils rounded and dilated. The reason for that was that he recognized the city he was in. He knew about these streets, roads, buildings, and shops.

Arima stared blankly at the cars passing by in front of him and looked around. “There’s no mistake… this is Earth,” he muttered then thought of something as he rushed toward a newspaper office and looked at the date.

“Seriously…?” His eyes couldn’t leave the date. 14th of December 2055. This was the day he turned eighteen and also the day Scatha and Tieria were killed by Karaskan’s Seed of Chaos.

Going back in time wasn’t really something hard to do. Sometimes it even happens by mistake. But the thing that actually shocked Arima was that this situation meant that he was in the same world as his younger self. That should not happen. Not only because of paradoxes but simply because one cannot travel on his own timeline.

“What the hell… is this a dream?”

“{That is maybe the first time I’ve ever heard you say that line,}” when Krynox’s voice resounded in his head, Arima knew that it wasn’t that simple.

“Krynox, what is happening?” He spoke out loud and for the passer-by on the streets, he appeared to be talking to himself.

“{I’m not sure myself. Maybe you are still dying. Your life was deconstructed and you most likely ended up in the most painful and memorable day of your life.}”

Arima’s expression darkened. “Are you saying that this is really the past and not a sort of illusion or dream?”

“{That is correct. It’s just my theory but I’m 90% sure that we’re currently in your timeline, decades ago.}”

Arima clenched his hands as if he was restraining himself to do something. His look wasn’t one of nostalgia, not even sorrow, or fear about what was going to happen. The most fitting words would be anxious and angry.

“Why am I here?”

“{I don’t know… Maybe this is just a coincidence. It’s not because Gods exist that ‘coincidences’ stopped existing after all.}”

Arima fell silent and the air around him changed. He took a single step forward and appeared on the roof of a distant building. He looked down with conflicting emotions. He spotted two people who looked like nothing more than a couple together.

One of them was a beautiful woman with black hair, wearing a pretty dress. She appeared to be the calm and cold type but her expression was more than bright at that moment. Beside her, a young man with silver eyes, wearing a familiar coat was walking lazily as he followed her.

Arima sat down as he observed them. “…This is when Tieria dragged me across the whole city just because she was happy to be able to officialize our relationship.”

“{What a cute thing to do. Humans until the end. It’s so uncanny to see you like this,}” Krynox replied and Arima groaned. He stared at his past-self for quite a while until the latter suddenly turned around to return it.

Arima’s eyes widened but he just had to use his aura to hide his image and presence. He watched as Tieria pulled ‘him’ again.

“I remember this,” Arima muttered. “I remember looking this way because I felt something ominous watching over me.”

“{That is one more proof that this your timeline.}”

Arima stood up and directed his eyes toward somewhere else. “Since I’m here, there’s something else I need to check on,” he said and teleported once again.

He emerged on top of a building again and his eyes drifted downward. When Arima saw the person walking there, full of charm, with a smile on her face, he couldn’t help but tremble and clench his fists. His crystal blood flowed down from his hand and fell on the ground.

The strength he was putting in his hand was enough to scare off what the people on this planet still called gods.

The charming woman reacted like ‘Arimane’ before. She raised her head and looked at the roof of the near building. She tilted her head when she saw nothing. That person was indeed Scathach Blade; Arima’s adoptive mother.

“{Calm down,}” Krynox said with a solemn tone.

Although he was saying that, Arima didn’t look like he was going to lose control at all. His expression was calm as ever. But his eyes were exuding a really dangerous light.

“Maybe it was too much after all to see those two again,” Arima raised his voice. “Every time I see them, I either get urges to kill or to destroy everything.”

“{…Don’t say scary things like that. You’re dying anyway.}”

Arima snickered and his eyes twitched when he spotted a figure coming out of an alley to stop in front of Scatha. At the same time, everyone in the district suddenly disappeared. That figure who caught Arima’s eyes was the one of an old man that he couldn’t forget even if he wanted to.

Scatha immediately halted when she saw him. She looked around and noticed that she was alone here with that man. Her expression sunk.

In a world where she couldn’t imagine that magic existed, she assumed that it was a planned attack against her. “Who are you?” She asked coldly while slowly reaching for a gun on her back, hidden under her shirt.

The old man laughed eerily and Scatha’s body trembled. She couldn’t move her body at all.

‘Poison? No. That’s ridiculous. Fear? Am I actually fear-stricken? What is happening?’ Her mind was working calmly and fast but she couldn’t operate her body at all.

“There’s no point in resisting. A weakling like you can’t hope to leave this place alive,” the old man stated and walked toward Scatha with a smile on his face.

She still couldn’t move at all and the more the old man approached her, the more she could feel death looming around her. But before it could get worse, someone appeared in front of her when she blinked. The fluttering coat was something she knew about but the silhouette wearing it perturbed her.

“{Arima! If you do that, you’ll change the future! This is your timeline. If you do something like this, you will change yourself and what you will become. There’s even a chance that you will never become the Kind Demon at all!}”

“I know,” Arima responded out loud. His voice which seemed to carry more pressure than anything else brought both Scatha and the old man to their knees.

“What… what are you?! There shouldn’t be anyone else apart from me who can use magic! Do you also come from another world?!” The old man shouted but Arima ignored him lifted him by the throat.

“{I know that you know! I was merely saying this to make you recall what you’re trying to ignore!}” Krynox seemed to be in a rare moment of panic. “{If you do that, don’t even mention paradoxes! You already became an entity capable of ruling the Existence. If you change your own timeline, you will destroy the entire world!}”

“Krynox,” Arima’s voice was colder than ever. “Shut up,” he then proceeded to release his aura and forced Krynox to stay silent.

Behind him, Scatha’s eyes widened. In her eyes, Arima felt like a God of War protecting her. In contrast, the old man could see Arima’s face and feel his aura, he felt like he was a God of Death here to torture him.

In his vision, Arima was being shrouded in dark flames as a pair of horns grew on his head. The four crimson pupils were glaring through the fire. The Seed of Chaos, Karaskan’s creation, made to bring despair to humans, was being consumed by the most horrifying terrors.

The old man was immolated until he transformed into a gargoyle that roared and broke into pieces.

Scatha watched everything from the beginning until the end and still couldn’t believe what happened. She then noticed she could move again and stood up. She tried to speak but her voice couldn’t leave her throat, as if it wasn’t allowed.

Arima turned around and looked at her with a smile. Scatha covered her mouth and her eyes teared up for some reason.

“Thank you,” Arima uttered and bowed to her. The pieces of the gargoyle at his feet scattered. He then extended his hand toward her and chanted a magic.

“[Third Forbidden Art, Essentia Dominus].”

A white light bathed the entire planet for several minutes. When Scatha opened her eyes, Arima had vanished and people started walking on the streets again.

***

Arima was looking at Earth from space with a solemn expression.

“{This is… indescribable,}” Krynox exclaimed.

The Earth Arima was looking at wasn’t the real one but an artificial one that he had just created and put inside a pocket dimension. On that planet, the Seed of Chaos was still alive and was going to do things as they had happened in his past.

“{You just scanned every single living being on Earth with Natus and made a copy of them with the Law of Life. Even…}”

“Even myself,” Arima followed. “This fake Earth you see here will swap with the real one after I die. Like that, Azes will detect my ‘soul’ and reincarnate it.”

“{I can’t believe this. If there’s no paradox happening… it means that your plan worked. No fucking way,}” Krynox started laughing. “{You’re just an artificial life made by yourself… The real Arimane Blade lived his life as a normal human.}”

When Krynox said that, a new memory entered Arima’s head. Since he was a Life Hunter and a God, Arima obviously could absorb every timeline concerning himself. This meant that the timeline he had just created by himself was integrated into his memories.

He breathed in and covered his eyes. “So, it was fun, huh? Arimane…” He mumbled as he experienced the family life of his original-self in a few seconds. The days spent with Tieria, his mother, his children, and his comrades in arms… Everything flowed inside his head.

He showed the warmest smile ever and suddenly thought of a single person. A quirky and sweet girl who never stopped sticking to him. Maybe it was because of that new life he ‘experienced’, but now he truly felt like he should respond to her.

Arima sighed. “I have to return after all.”

“{What? What do you mean?}”

Krynox couldn’t get an answer as Arima’s vision warped and he ended up somewhere else. This time, it was in front of a large property during night time.

His eyes drifted upward and happened to spot a baby surrounded by a weak light slowly descending toward the ground.

“So, I fell from the sky when I was born, huh?”

“{There are so many things wrong with that sentence.}”