"You can start the Life Judgement now, Triens."
Arima's reflection reluctantly accepted his new name and started speaking.
"It's quite simple. You two already are aware that it's a process where the Life Hunter absorbs his parallel versions from other planes. So, the real question is, how will this unfold?" He said and snapped his fingers.
Around them, in the thick darkness, small lights lit up and circled the three of them. Then, more appeared behind those. It repeated itself until everything around them was completely covered by those tiny lights.
Triens waved his hand and two of the lights flew to his hands. He caught them and showed them to Arima and Malum. As they were looking at it, the small lights slowly turned into spheres.
"These spheres are your other versions," Triens declared and Arima frowned.
"As I said, the Life Judgment is quite simple," Triens smiled. "At least on the surface. Try it," he added and threw one sphere to both Arima and Malum.
The two looked at each other with the small orbs in their hands.
"You just have to absorb it as if you were you gathering mana inside your pool. Go ahead," Triens smiled.
Arima closed his eyes and the sphere dissolved into some strange liquid that penetrated his skin and flowed inside his entire body. It was the same for Malum, but the liquid entered his bones.
Just a second after consuming it, Arima's heart pumped harder and he fell on his knees. Memories, emotions, and knowledge were invading his mind along with great pain. Meanwhile, Malum's bones made a creaking sound and he gritted his teeth as he suffered the same kind of experience.
When it finally ended, both of them were quite tired mentally but Arima was in a worse condition than his counterpart.
"That's how you will fuse with your different versions," Triens stated. "There are exactly 174,685,928 'lives' for you to absorb."
"What?" Arima's eyes widened and Malum groaned. The former stood up and rubbed his temples in aggravation. "Then this guy has an advantage," he uttered while pointing at Malum. "His entire being is something created from my unstable side of the spectrum, his mind is a lot more suited than mine to withstand all of this."
"It's not my problem," Triens shrugged and retorted. "I'm just a copy of you created by an Owl. I will fade away after the Life Judgement. Whoever will take over the other is not my problem. My only job is to give you guidance for this ritual," he explained.
Arima clicked his tongue. "Of course," he muttered and Malum snickered.
"Looks like I may win this after all," the skeleton smirked and cracked his fingers. Arima glanced at him and scowled.
"You shouldn't drop your guard," Triens chuckled and commented. "Anyway, you have some work to do. I wish you good luck," he clapped his hands and his figure disappeared. Just after, all of the small lights that had appeared earlier became neat spheres.
Malum sneered and glanced at Arima before rushing inside the sea of 'lives'. Arima didn't even say anything to him as he dashed in the opposite direction and started amassing the spheres.
"{What can we do?}" Karma solicited Night.
"{We have no way to help him absorbing all of those lives. The only thing we can do is what Lilis warned us about. We absolutely need to keep him company,}" Night solemnly answered and Karma fell silent.
Each time Arima grabbed a sphere, he would immediately absorb it along with everything that was inside. Ignoring the pain and, sometimes, the hard to take memories, he would force himself to continue. And even for him, after the tenth sphere, he was already exhausted.
His mind had been invaded by so many things already. They were everything contained in the lives of his parallel versions. Each one possessing unique histories with families, friends, lovers and their own abilities, experience, and knowledge.
All of this was too much for a single individual to bear. And even considering that the number could possibly be halved thanks to Malum, Arima couldn't help but wonder how long.
How long would it take to assimilate every timeline?
**********************************************
Back in Hell, Michael opposed Lucifer's magic with one hand and parried Satan's sword with his spear at the same time.
"Well, your teamwork is improving at least," the archangel commented and pushed Satan away with a kick before thrusting his spear at him.
But Lucifer came and parried the spear with his own. The fallen angel then gathered his mana and made it explode in a powerful combination of light and darkness magic.
Michael's wings glowed with a bright light and folded to form something like a cocoon protecting him from the explosion. He escaped the range of explosion and raised his spear toward the sky.
"[Heaven's Volley]."
A hole appeared in the dense assembly of clouds and a bright light illuminated a small part of Hell through it. Within the illuminated area, anything touched by the light started producing the same shine on its own. Arrows made of light then emerged from the affected materials.
The massive barrage of arrows made its way toward Satan and Lucifer who had withdrawn. The latter nodded to Satan and flapped his dark wings before flying away to somewhere else.
Michael frowned and was about to chase him when Satan howled like an enraged animal. His body expanded in a strange way and the armor he wore was torn apart. His skin turned red and two pairs of horns grew on his head. His teeth turned into fangs and his silhouette easily reached ten meters in height.
His two swords burned and heated up before also getting bigger to match their wielder. The newly transformed monster roared and cast a giant wall of fire that blocked all of Michael's arrows. The fire also went to the clouds and covered the hole created by Michael earlier.
"Bothersome," Michael flapped his wings. A circle of light remained behind as his figure vanished and reappeared in front of the huge demon. He put his spear away and placed his palm on Satan's abdomen.
"[Sacred Palm]," he chanted and his mana flowed through his arm.
A white mark drew itself on Satan made him unable to move. Michael pulled his spear back and bashed Satan with it before sending him flying away with an explosion of light energy.
As Satan was soaring through the air, the mark on his body glowed and the clouds opened up again. A giant palm descended from the sky and crushed Satan on the ground with a tremendous force.
The earth shook and a huge amount of dust raised. When the palm dispersed into particles, there was a crater on the ground in the shape of a hand.
Michael sighed and suddenly narrowed his eyes. He wasn't the only one as Gabriel also reacted and immediately teleported beside her comrade.
"That aura, is that him?"
"I think so," Michael wryly smiled and answered.
Thousands of miles away from them, the largest volcano of this Plane's Hell erupted with a powerful vibration. Near the volcano, Lucifer was grinning whilst looking at the mountain spitting lava. He only stayed there for a few seconds before leaving.
A minute after the eruption, a huge shadow rose from the lava and instantly became a giant fire cone that made its way toward the battlefield at very-high-speed.
"Gabriel, back off," Michael said and gripped his spear with both hands. He closed his eyes and inhaled. Gabriel silently complied and moved back.
"[Lord, Grant Me Your Protection]," he chanted and a sort of projection materialized behind him, depicting similar to god's statue. Its arms moved in front of Michael to protect him.
After just half a minute, the unknown fire cone reached the angel and clashed against the statue. Michael gasped and he almost lost control over his magic because of the shock.
At the same time, the flames that struck him burned stronger and took the shape of a twenty-meter-tall monster. It only lasted for an instant and the flames started to die down, starting from the legs. As the flames were extinguished, the figured under it was revealed.
Sharp claws, dark skin, red fur, and magma flowing down the body. The horned beast that revealed itself looked down at Michael with its crimson eyes. The archangel gritted his teeth under the pressure.
Hades who was fighting against Poseidon also trembled for half a second because of it. Even Baphomet also reacted badly to this pressure.
"Shit, I forgot about him. Lucifer, you bastard, did you have to do this?" Chulainn complained and swiped Utain with his paw.
"Who is that?" Lanya flapped her wings and closed the Lawless Tome which she had been using in its weaker form.
"Ifrit," Lilis answered for Chulainn. "In the legends, he may not be described to be really strong but they're utterly wrong. The truth is that his legend is one of the strongest out there. Although his name isn't known as much as Kerberos or other famed figures, there's one thing that makes Ifrit special."
"In the first place, Ifrits are not supposed to be a single individual but just a class of infernal djinn. But people began to think of him as a powerful fire beast. That incongruity created something unique. The Ifrits that were once multiple entities became one. And what allowed all it to happen was Ifrit's connection to the death spirits."
"When his legend became twisted, he was supposed to die. But he instead was revived in Hell as an anomaly because of his power to drain the life force of others in certain circumstances. Everyone considered Ifrit as the creature the closest to Life Hunters," Lilis finished her explanation and sighed strongly.
"To be honest, we hoped that he wouldn't join this war. He has been sleeping for thousands of years now. He is usually neutral. We don't know what he will do," Lilis added and stared at Ifrit from afar. "Nowadays, Ifrit is most likely the strongest creature in this Plane. His choice will most likely determine the winning side," she declared with a grave tone and Lanya's eyes widened.
Meanwhile, Ifrit calmly reached for the arms of the statue created by Michael and broke the already weakened magic with a single hand. The archangel grunted and retreated as fast as he could.
"What is going on?" Ifrit muttered and looked around. "A war? For what?"
He had slept for a long time and he absolutely had no idea of what was happening. He couldn't even begin to consider Karez's involvement since the incident of him fleeing Hell also happened while he was asleep.
"Furthermore, there's a Life Hunter…no, a Death Hunter going through his trial up there." The more he analyzed the situation, the more confused he became. "Hey, Gabriel. Explain"
"What do you mean 'Explain'!? I'm not your ser-hmm!!" The archangel snapped at him but Michael covered her mouth before she could continue.
"Sorry about that," he apologized in her stead. He couldn't afford to have the strongest being of the Plane against them too. "I will tell you everything myself," he said and Ifrit focused on him.