Life Hunter

Back in the Republic's continent, Lilis fended off a fifty meters tall tide for the umpteenth time. Lanya and Ratia were resting since the moment they understood that Lilis had enough mana and spirit to do it alone. It was quite selfish but Lilis didn't really pay mind to it.

"Oh, looks like it's over," Suddenly, she exclaimed. She then spotted a silver light on the horizon which was slowly fading away, "They should come back soon now. Let's leave."

Lilis sighed before heading back to the demon city. Ratia and Lanya looked at each other and followed after her. They were already back in the castle after ten minutes. Ratia fell on the bed and Lanya laid her whole body on a sofa, while Lilis just sat down.

"You are strong," Ratia glanced at Lilis and remarked.

"Of course, I am. I'm even stronger than Arima. But, well, I'm sure he'll catch up to me in no time. The scariest ability of a Life Hunter reveals itself just before he enters the Heavenly Realm. At that moment, he will be stronger than me without a doubt."

Although Ratia didn't understand a thing, Lanya had a pensive expression.

"And what is that ability?" A familiar voice resounded in the room and the three girls looked at the source. They found Arima standing in the room who was carrying Raal on his shoulder.

They immediately recognized Arima as the winner. They also noticed that he had no injuries. But the thing that caught them off guard was Arima's appearance. He was still in his draconic form and was quite intimidating. Especially for Ratia and Lanya. They felt as if Arima could crush them with a single of his claw-like hands.

Lilis leisurely smiled, "Sorry, I can't answer that."

Arima glanced at her and threw Raal on the bed. His wife was startled when Arima threw her husband like that, but she noticed later that he had no external injuries as well.

"I healed him. Raal can't heal injuries that I made to him. But it's a different story when I'm the one nursing them," Arima uttered and his scales, wings, and tail turned into a dark light that converged and was remodeled as a small wolf cub.

Lanya instantly caught Night as if she was waiting for it since the beginning. Arima snickered and massaged his own neck. He then sat down on a couch and closed his eyes.

Everyone in the room looked at him curiously. Arima didn't move for five minutes straight. When he finally opened his eyes, he eyed Lilis, "Can you help me a bit? I need to heal my organs that were affected by the alteration of time flow," He asked and Lilis's eyes widened.

She giggled and sat next to Arima. She put her hand on his shoulder and also closed her eyes, "That's what you get for suppressing your power. But I don't know much about time magic to be honest with you. I won't be that much of a help."

"Don't mind. I just need a little bit of support," Arima responded and they began to work on it.

Lanya waited by playing with Night and Ratia was taking care of her husband. Only after ten minutes did Arima and Lilis finish. Arima stood up and casually waved his hand. A pleasant breeze blew in the room.

"It's all good now. Thanks."

Lilis smiled and nodded, "No problem."

At that moment, Raal grunted and rolled on the bed before falling down on the floor.

"Ah," His wife exclaimed and everyone else blankly watched the scene. Of course, the Demon King was awake and slowly stood up while rubbing his head. He saw Arima looking at him, then he looked at himself and tilted his head.

"A dream?" He asked and Arima laughed before sitting down.

He shook his head, "No, it wasn't. You can be sure of that."

Raal wryly smiled, "I lost, huh? …Where is Rayord?"

Arima pointed at a window with his thumb, "Outside. He was too big to get him in. He's sleeping out there right now."

"I see. I should let him rest a bit then," Raal said and sat down on the bed. He extended his hand toward a nightstand beside his bed and opened a drawer. He took a scroll that was inside and threw it to Arima. The latter caught it and looked at its contents.

He studied the scroll for a few seconds before giving it back to Raal, "Thank you. I've memorized it."

Raal smiled, "It's nothing much. I should be thanking you for the fight you gave me. Also, the fact that you suppressed your full strength; I heard it. I'm sure you did it because it would've been unfair to me. I'm not blaming you, don't worry."

"I never did worry about it," Arima replied and no one knew if it was a joke or not, "Anyway, I suppose I can get the reward for my victory now, right?"

Raal nodded, "Go ahead, I gave you that map for that. Do as you please."

The scroll that he had given Arima was actually the fully detailed map of this city with all of its secret facilities.

"Well, see you," Arima said and snapped his fingers. He disappeared in an instant. He even teleported Lanya and Lilis without bothering to notify them.

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

Arima's group reappeared on a stone road, in the outskirts of the city. You could even see a wheat field nearby.

"Why are we here? Weren't we supposed to look for a prison?" Lanya asked after looking around.

Arima pointed at the ground and Night frowned, "Again?"

"The prison is down there. That's what the map said. Basically, it's underground," Arima explained and crouched down. He knocked on the ground a bit and hummed.

"We should go to the entrance then. What are you going to do here?" Lilis asked in wonder and Arima smirked at her.

"[Vita Venari] (Life Hunt)," He chanted, but unlike his previous instances using Life Hunt, a giant black magic circle appeared in the sky. The runes in the circle were drawn in Latin and the structure of the inner circles was extremely unusual and complex. There were many intriguing forms such as a clock of which the needles were inverted, a sun shadowed by a full moon, a sword stuck halfway through a shield, and more…

In fact, each symbol had a concrete meaning that Arima diligently composed to enhance and stabilize his 'hunting' ability.

Lilis stared agape at the five miles wide circle spinning in the sky. Some of the mysteries of that circle were still being drawn and replaced like gears gradually meshing together.

"That's a custom circle… you created a circle for your Life Hunt. This is the first time that ever happened. How far did your understanding of magic go? It should be impossible to convert something as incomprehensible as the 'Life Hunt' into an elaborate formation…" She was astounded.

"The worst is that Heaven also worked for centuries trying to imitate Life Hunter's ability but never reached a single positive result. But you… even if this circle is made to work only with a Life Hunter, I'm sure you would be able to convert it to anyone's use," Lilis turned toward Arima and didn't know what to say anymore.

"…This is insane," She mumbled inaudibly.

Arima grinned and the circle in the sky glowed. A transparent energy caused a whirlpool to rise in the area and penetrated the ground. But although that energy spread far and wide, no one actually managed to sense it. They could only see the circle in the sky which was completely unknown to them.

"I can only take the life force of those below level ten I think…" Arima muttered and his custom circle started spinning faster. The runes on it also started moving in a strange way.

At that moment, a massive amount of life force resurfaced and integrated with the magic circle. If one could perceive the effects of the circle with their eyes, they would see countless tentacle-like tubes going underground and pumping life force that they gave to the magic circle.

Obviously, when the life force of thousands of people was involved, everyone on the continent could feel it. They all looked in with a sweating and pale face, fearing that it would drain their life force too.

Arima's eyes shined strongly and the stars deeply inscribed on his pupils started spinning crazily. The black circle kept growing bigger and bigger. After a minute, the magic formation already had taken over the sky of the entire demon city. That phenomenon wasn't omitted by the various powerhouses of this continent, or to be exact, the 'three' continents.

The Demon King silently observed with a smile on his face.

The Elven Priestess also watched from afar.

Rex, Hieran, and Evergreen only knew one person who could do something like that.

Even one of the powerhouses that Arima didn't meet, the Vampire Lord, was looking at it from the monster territory.

The old mage who had been granted the SSS rank by the guild and titled 'True Magus' squinted his eyes as he analyzed from the top of his tower.

His eyes flashed, "This is… impossible. A circle that collets Life Force and gives it to its caster. Does something so outrageous really exist?" He muttered.

The life hunting circle seemed to never stop to operate. Its size already covered an area that could fit a megapolis. Even Arima was surprised by the result, he gawked at the sky and whistled.

"That's big," Night commented while trying to keep a calm face and Lanya nodded.

Arima scratched his hair, "Actually, as the circle was growing bigger, I thought that I could take the life force of every criminal I found by looking into their darkness… and it became scarier than I expected," He stated and dryly laughed before looking one more time and the circle in the sky.

"…Oops," He innocently exclaimed.

"You don't have time to regret! Quickly! Stop this thing!" Night snapped, "At this rate, it'll take the life force of every person holding a bit of darkness! It's essentially everyone excluding toddlers!"

Arima forced a cough, "[Altera Rationem Terram] (Next Dimension Territory)," He chanted and immediately set up a dimensional connection.

He looked up and surveyed the giant circle. He raised his hand to the sky, "[Veni ad me] (Come back to me)," The circle wildly spun like a wheel until it became a whirlpool that was siphoned by Arima's palm. It took around five minutes for the whole thing to be absorbed.

After it was finished, Arima fell silent and froze in the same position. His eyes were closed and his expression was not that good.

"Hey, Arima…" Night tried to call him and only received a signal from Arima to be silent. It lasted for a good ten minutes. During those ten minutes, Night gradually understood what was happening. There was a tremendous amount of strength building up in his body at a terrifying speed. He also had to concentrate on controlling the energy entering his soul.

Arima then exhaled and sat down,"…It's finally under control. I got much more life force than I thought I would," He uttered whilst trying to regulate the strength in his body.

Lilis's was trembling nonstop, "Arima… at which level are you right now?"

Arima mused, "If I take reference on what you explained me, I should be around the peak of the first sky," He answered and Lilis almost suffered a breakdown.

"He improved by an entire level in just half an hour…"

"Sorry, but I will like to have a day before leaving to the Main Land. You can do what you want in the meantime. Be careful to not be late when I call you," Arima told Lanya and Lilis.

Night jumped from Lanya's arms and turned back into a dragon before sitting down as well.

Lilis sighed, "Let's go Lanya. We have time to spare," She said and disappeared from the dimension. Arima had already fashioned this place to let them go in and out freely.

"See you tomorrow," Lanya smiled to Arima and Night then also left.

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

Twelve hours later, Arima stood up and practiced his body a bit. He also 'played' a bit with death, space, and time magic.

Night opened one eye, "You already finished refining it?"

"Yeah," Arima smiled and then eight spheres of different colors formed above his palm. When he looked at it, he couldn't help but smirk, "Success."

Night glanced at the affinity spheres, "So you finally attained absolute dominance over all elements, huh?"

"Yes. The main reason I wanted to extract the life force of those criminals was for this. Now, I can experiment something I wanted to do for a moment," Arima stated and conjured eight other spheres for each element. But these were a lot bigger than the previous ones and were not made to measure affinity.

He flicked his fingers and every sphere fused together to create a rainbow orb that only lasted for a few seconds before exploding. Arima shielded himself and dispersed the smoke.

"I see… If you succeed, that would be extremely frightening," Night commented after he saw what Arima just did.

"Say exciting. Well, anyway, I can only try," Arima replied and resumed his research.

The next day, Arima called back Lilis and Lanya to leave the continent. Fortunately, this time, Lilis spared him of waiting an hour before departing.