Life Hunter

The next day, Arima woke up to the sight of Lilis sleeping on the second bed while using Lanya as a hugging pillow. Lanya had an uncomfortable expression as if she was having a bad dream.

"They were already like that when I woke up," Night commented from one of the room's corners.

Arima glanced at the two girls, "Lilis, wake Lanya up. We'll leave right away. Don't make me lose my time," He uttered and walked out of the room. Lilis trembled and sat up on the bed. She wryly laughed.

"I was found out?"

Night blankly stared at her and left the room afterward. Since he couldn't get through the door frame, he had to use a short distance teleportation.

Ten minutes later, Lanya and Lilis left the room and headed to the restaurant bar of the Inn. In there, Arima was silently drinking some hot chocolate and Night was gleefully eating a full plate of cooked meat.

Arima spotted the two girls and gulped down the rest of his hot chocolate. Night cleaned his plate in one bite and licked his lips. Arima stood up, "Let's go then" He stated and conjured a transfer circle.

*************************************

The group reappeared in a vast meadow. The flora looked resplendent and the sun was bright. But there was a strange giant dome made out of mist in the middle of the landscape.

"…You could have let us eat our breakfast before bringing us here," Lilis complained and Lanya nodded in agreement.

"Lanya, how do we go in?" Arima ignored her and pointed at the dome before raising his question. That huge dome was a barrier set around the whole city of the spirits.

"Mh," Lanya mused and walked back and forth in front of the dome. "Here," She said and extended her arm. She buried her hand in the fog and it glowed silver. A small portion of the dome dispersed as a tunnel to the inside was revealed.

"There it is," Lanya said and smiled.

Arima nodded, "Thanks." He patted Lanya and went inside first.

Lilis observed that from behind. She blinked and leaned toward Night, "Hey, are they lovers or something?" She murmured and Night side-stepped to avoid her.

"No," He responded. "The best comparison would be the relationship between a father and a daughter," He declared and followed Lanya who entered after Arima.

Lilis tilted her head, "Father-daughter, huh?" She shrugged, "It doesn't look like an inaccurate description but nothing is set in stone." She chuckled and went after them.

They took around a minute to reach the end of the tunnel.

"…This is quite impressive," Arima remarked whilst admiring the view.

The place they arrived to was a huge field of flowers. All kinds of plants and flowers were blooming around. Offering a multitude of color combinations and relaxing sensations.

The group of four used a stone path that was going around the whole field. Arima and Night kept looking around in curiosity.

Lanya smiled, "It hasn't changed much since last time I visited. The spirit people always adored to be surrounded by verdure and flowers."

"Mh, I never clearly saw this place from above. It's fascinating," Lilis commented while touching a blue flower beside the stone paver.

"Ah, but more than half of those plants are actually carnivorous flower. So, you should be more careful," Lanya exclaimed when she noticed what Lilis was doing. The proud goddess yelped and jumped back in surprise.

She blushed and coughed awkwardly, "I was just a bit surprised."

Arima was also startled in fact. He hadn't felt anything from this field of flowers and couldn't sense the presence of man-eating plants at all. The fact that even Lilis couldn't detect them showed how well hidden they were.

"Maybe because it's only a product of mother nature," Night guessed and Arima agreed.

"That's why you need to know how to pass the barrier correctly. Otherwise, you'll find yourself in this field of flowers without any stone path like the one we're walking on right now. That would leave us right in the middle of an army of plants," Lanya smiled and explained.

After half an hour of admiring the scenery, they finally arrived at a town. It had no external walls. The houses were either made out of stone, wood, earth, or even things like water, ice, and leaves. There were also houses which had been built in the cavities of massive trees.

"Wow," Night sighed in amazement and Arima whistled.

"It's lovely," Even Lilis gave her honest impression. "Not as much as Heaven though."

Lanya was baffled, "Heaven?"

Lilis laughed, "That's the name of the place I come from."

"Is that so? It must be a good place."

"A good place, huh?" Arima overheard their conversation and muttered.

Lilis turned toward him, "What? Are you saying it's not?"

Arima didn't reply immediately and walked ahead of everyone, "Unreachable and fake. You will never be able to create Heaven. You will always look up to it from Hell… Have you ever heard this?"

Lilis froze and her eyes narrowed. She stared at Arima in an extremely serious way. In the end, she smiled mysteriously and caught up to him, "That's an interesting quote? Is it yours?"

"Maybe," Arima indifferently answered and Lilis snickered.

"…What does that quote mean exactly?" Lanya asked and Lilis smiled.

"It's simple. It means that no matter where you are standing, you'll never be in Heaven and that if you find a place that holds the same name, it signifies that you're still in Hell. Basically, everything is Hell and Heaven is a pipe dream."

Lanya didn't know what to say in face of that then Night leisurely added something, "You missed the 'create' part. When he said, 'you will never be able to create Heaven' hints to the fact that if you try to do it, you'll end up making Hell instead."

Arima shook his head, "'Heaven' and 'Hell'. Such silly concepts. To be frank, none of them exists and it will never exist. The notion of 'Heaven' itself is self-contradictory on so many aspects and the main problem is that you'd need to be dead to enter those places. But if you ever walk up to me and say you saw Heaven or Hell, I would just punch you. What kind of bullshit can you spout when you're perfectly alive in front of me? No matter if you're a ghost or a death god, if you're still able to open your mouth to speak your thoughts, you're alive."

Lilis's eyes widened and Lanya had the same kind of reaction.

"Well, I can say one last thing that you missed." Arima smirked, "Hell is without a doubt the closest one to be truly real."

After that ambiguous debate, they entered the town. The people living there instantly spotted them. Spirit people were different from the ones we talk about when someone mentions Spirit magic. The spirit folks are said to be able to be born without parents. They can spring from anything; air, water, earth, fire, wood, plants, etcetera.

The people that were gazing at Arima's group were extremely dissimilar from one another. Some could have blue or green skin. Others could grow some horns and tails. They could be as small as an apple and have a human appearance. Most of them had the appearance of a small animal. The only common characteristic that came back every time, was the pair of fairy-like wings on their back.

"I kinda like this place," Arima expressed out of nowhere and Night shot him a glance. While they were strolling in the town, a sort of local soldier with yellow skin came to meet Lanya and bowed in respect.

"Lady Leana, it's been a long time."

"Yes, it has been," Lanya smiled and beckoned the soldier to stand up.

"You've really changed. I almost didn't recognize you. But the stone path you used to come in was the special one the princess gave you. She instantly felt it and ordered me to escort you."

"I see. I came here with some friends. Tell Vinia that we'll visit her soon," Lanya gently smiled and the soldier trembled.

"Understood," He responded and left right away to deliver the message.

Arima hummed, "Who is that Vinia by the way?"

"It's the first princess of this spirit-city. She is also the one who rescued me thirty years ago."

"A princess, huh? You have some luck."

"Yes, I think so too," Lanya smiled while reminiscing the past. "Now that I think about it, maybe it really was the luckiest day of my life. Spirit people are said to rarely get out of their homeland. But I met the princess outside of it."

"That was fortunate indeed," Lilis said and abruptly wrapped her arm around Lanya. "So, are there some noteworthy stores and locations in this town?" She asked and Arima's expression stiffened for some reason.

"Huh? Yes, there is some I know about. But I'm not sure if they're still there," Lanya answered after some thought.

"It's fine. Spirits live long. I'm sure they're still at the same place. If they're not, we just have to look for others," Lilis grinned and reassured her.

"Now let's go," She cheerfully added and pulled Lanya with her.

Arima felt like he had no choice and quietly followed them along with Night.

"{Arima, I think we're being pressured.}"

"{Think? We are being pressured. Emphasize on that. There are two girls right there who want to go shopping. One of them is the inheritor of an Earthen God and the other is a Heavenly Goddess. What are we? We can be called cheats or errors. How do you want to fight that?}"

Arima snapped and Night turned toward him in shock. Arima had an anxious expression. The only thing lacking was some sweat.

"{What's wrong? I never saw you like that.}"

"{Just…a sort trauma I suppose. From when I was a kid,}" Arima groaned and reverted back to his normal face.

{Back when I was thirteen, my mom dragged me around for a week straight. All of that just because she said couldn't find something that looked good on me.}"

"{Oh,}" Night was deeply interested. This was the first time Arima had talked about his past and it sounded, surprisingly, very jovial.

"{If she dragged you for so long just for that, that can only mean she cared a lot about you. I think it's great.}"

"{…Yeah, as you say. She was a great mother. Honestly…}" Arima told Night with an unusual gentleness in his tone and fell silent afterward.

Night glanced at him and didn't ask anything else. He looked ahead again and soon realized he had a greater dilemma to worry about. Lilis already had pushed Lanya into a shop.

Arima and Night grunted at the same time.

*************************************

Two hours later, it was around noon, Lanya finally led the group toward the 'castle' of the town.

"Hummmmm," Arima's reaction was obviously exaggerated. "What is that?" He pointed at 'that' and asked.

Lanya couldn't tell what bothered Arima and titled her head, "This is where the royal family lives as well as the favorite place of the spirit people."

"I…see…" Arima responded with a bit of difficulty.

The 'castle' Lanya brought them to had, first, a big garden in front of it. The whole area was around ten square kilometers. The second thing that came into view after the garden was a strange structure reaching the clouds, that was built in order to form a bunch of loops and long tracks that went downhill. Besides that, there was also a circular structure, that kept spinning and which drew a lot of attention as well.

Below all of that, on the ground, there were a lot of people happily striding. Entering in different and diverse stalls. There was a particular thing that children liked a lot. It was a bizarre installation, with the figures of different types of mounts endlessly revolving around a pillar.

One could also see a multitude of smaller shops selling snacks, food, tickets, and keepsakes.

Arima's eyebrow twitched, "No matter how you look at it, isn't this a freaking amusement park?"

"Arima, you don't look very perturbed if you hold that cotton candy in your hand," Night casually retorted.

"What? I like those," Arima nonchalantly said. "Still, is this place really appropriate for the royal family to reside in?" He asked to Lanya while eating his cotton candy.

"I can't say. But if I'm not wrong, this place was built from the description the spirit people read on an ancient scripture."

"An ancient… scripture?" Arima was confused, "(No, no, no… it's undoubtedly an amusement park. Even this cotton candy. It's too much to be a coincidence.)"

"Ah, so it was the spirits who found it," Lilis muttered something and Arima couldn't omit that.

"Oi, what is that supposed to mean?"

Lilis strangely laughed, "Well, in short, a group of gods, which I am part of, found this idea of amusement park created by certain worlds, including yours, was appealing. So, for fun, we dropped a tablet describing it in a dozen of worlds or so. Apparently, it's the spirits who found the one we dropped in this world."

"Seriously? You gods have nothing better to do?"

"What? It was during the long-awaited holiday that comes every thousand years."

Arima glared apprehensively at her, "What about you? Why do you have time to be here?"

She snorted and puffed her chest, "I'm one of the rare gods born from the emotions of mortals. So, I only need to exist. That's my sole job. Also, sometimes, I offer blessings. For instance, the elf you met before, the power she had to see emotions was granted by me."

"Is that so?" Arima chewed on the cotton candy and turned around.

"Hey, don't ignore me! You were the one who asked!"