A short moment after Arima left Hell, the gods finally managed to stop Poseidon and Hades. The two had reluctantly ended their combat when they saw that all of the gods were being adamant.
"Fine, we'll conclude this on a tie," Hades said as he dispelled his manifested weapon.
"What? Did you take a look at yourself? This is my win," Poseidon huffed.
"Huh? What the heck are you talking about? If it had continued, you would have lost!"
"No, it was definitely going to end by your defeat!"
The 'mighty' gods started disputing like children and their original character was now completely broken. Azes sighed and before he was able to call them out, they fell silent on their own. They weren't the only ones.
Azes's eyes narrowed. He suddenly felt like he was being stared at by a million eyes and his fellow gods were undergoing the same experience.
"This omnipresent force… what is it?" Gabriel muttered.
"I recognize it," Hades spoke up with a slightly worried voice and looked at Azes. "You too," he affirmed and Azes nodded.
"What is it?" Michael inquired.
"Pandora," Hades responded immediately and closed the mouths of everyone. "Exactly thirty-two thousand six hundred and forty-four years ago, Pandora appeared in Hell. The moment I sensed it, I immediately contacted him," he said whilst pointing at Azes.
"He was the only one that I could fully trust since his Domain clashes directly with Pandora's very existence," Hades explained and glanced at Azes. "Your arm."
Azes shook his head and sighed. He rolled up his sleeve and showed the black mark on his arm. It was the mark that, as the God of Order, Azes received when Pandora appeared for the first time.
"We believe it was destroyed. But Karaskan somehow retrieved it and sealed it instead."
"Then… does this mean Pandora is in Hell right as we speak?" Aphrodite asked.
"…Apparently. But it's not only here. It's already opening," Azes responded with a grave expression.
"What would happen exactly if the box opens?" Zeus inquired.
"Depends on who opens it and what the sacrifices made were," Azes answered. "Though, I'm fairly sure that the box's awakening was caused by Arima's Judgment."
"How?" Gabriel scowled. "That man didn't even make contact with Pandora, right?"
"Pandora demands two things to be unlocked. The first one is 'Death'. Arima fulfilled that condition by going through the Life Judgement."
"The second one is a sacrifice. For this one, it was completed thanks to the Hunter's Cry. And there you go. That's all you need," Azes said. "Karaskan just had to set Arima as a target for Pandora and that was enough for it to open."
"So, it's not only in Hell but also nearby?" Gabriel muttered.
Azes shrugged. "I don't know. Most likely."
"Why are you so relaxed?" Michael couldn't help but ask. Although they were gods and had the obligation to always possess a resilient mind, Azes was showing way too less worry.
"Because I don't know what to do," Azes replied with a smile and Michael was speechless. "Once Pandora opens, we can't stop it. We can only bet."
"Bet?"
"Yes, bet. And hope," Azes smirked. "On what kind of phenomenon will the Kind Demon bring to this world."
"But we still can find where the box is and try something," Poseidon spoke up. "You said it was opening. In theory, if we can destroy Pandora, seal it away, or send it into another dimension, there's a chance we can stop it from affecting anyone."
Azes chuckled. "Where is it then? Karaskan must have been prepared for this. He must have done the necessary preparations to hide," he said and then thought of something. "Maybe, the only one who could find it would be Kerberos…oh," he exclaimed as he realized something.
"He went there already, huh?" Hades commented and Azes nodded.
Gabriel mused. Her expression showed how much she was thinking hard. It was cute how childish it looked. Then, her expression suddenly brightened.
"What if we use this?" She enthusiastically pointed at the sky.
******************************************************
Back in Heaven. Only a few minutes after he met Karez, Arima was already holding him by the throat. But he was still smiling even though most of his bones were broken and his right arm was missing.
"Why don't you tell me how to stop this corrosion?" Arima asked calmly and coldly.
Karez laughed. "You can't stop it anymore. It will go on until Heaven collapses."
"Rather, shouldn't you be more worried about what's going on in Hell right now?" He said and Arima frowned. The reaction Karez got widened his smile. "Although I don't know what he is going to do, I know that the Mad God is preparing somet-!" Before he could finish, the pressure on his neck tightened and forced him to stop.
Arima was looking at him with a freezing stare. Lightning burst out of his body struck the earth around. He then smirked. It was clear that the anger in his expression didn't disappear; but his unspoken rage made Karez shudder.
"You think I had no idea?" Arima spoke. "I'm not dumb enough to forget about Karaskan. My life goal is to kill him," he declared and Karez was baffled. "Earlier, I suddenly lost track of Chulainn and my companions who were with him. I had no time to think about it because I was the only one capable of using Origin to come here," he explained and Karez swallowed his words.
Arima was glaring at him with a look that could kill. "Back then, I resisted the urge to see if it was truly Karaskan because if I had done so, I would have lost control. And I couldn't risk that and let you destroy an entire plane," he paused. "Well, I'm not omniscient. I couldn't guess that the core was like this. I may have a knowledge worth millions of lives but I can't be aware of everything."
"...Then what now?" Karez managed to speak. "Aren't you worried that your friends will die? -kuh!" His neck was strangled once more.
"It is not your role to remind me. I left an insurance," Arima uttered.
**************************************************
The gods looked up and suddenly remembered it as the blue light illuminated their faces. Even when Arima had left, the First Art hadn't disappeared. Quite the opposite actually, it continued to spread across the sky.
Now, they couldn't even see the end of it. It was as if the sky of Hell had really turned into flames.
"But, how do we use it?" Poseidon scowled at Gabriel.
"I don't know," she casually said and everyone just shook their heads. "What? There's maybe a way to use this fire. I mean, it can burn anything," she added while puffing her cheeks.
"It's alright. I already ordered it to move," a voice entered her ears just after.
"Eh?" Gabriel was taken by surprise. She looked at the source and spotted Ifrit staring at her. She tensed immediately. "...What do you mean?" Gabriel asked hesitatingly.
"The Hunter told me before leaving; that he had transferred partial-authority to me, and that I had to use it to find the one hiding," Ifrit descended and quoted.
He then pointed at the sky with his chin. "Look," the gods then noticed that the fire in the sky had started to flow like a stream of water
"Caeruleum igne, rursus inferos invenire potes unum, qui latebat?" Ifrit suddenly raised his voice as if he was talking to the magic itself. When he did so, small lights began to fall down from sky. It looked just like snow, just that the color was of a bright blue.
Gabriel exclaimed and caught one of those 'flakes' in curiosity. It was a miniature flame that burned silently. She blew on it and it slowly went toward the ground.
Hades looked around. "How is this supposed to find Pandora?" He voiced his doubts and Ifrit just continued to observe the blue flames.
"I'm sure it will work," Gabriel said very optimistically. The gods sighed and waited.
Thousands of miles away from their position, the flakes were falling above the place where Chulainn had been trapped.
Karaskan had made that barrier so that nothing could detect it or even touch it. But those flames were not concerned. They touched the barrier before being extinguished.
At that exact moment, the First Art made its move as if it was sentient. The fire condensed above Karaskan's barrier and illuminated the ground even more. After that, a blazing tornado struck the land.
"Look! There!" Gabriel shouted happily and the gods were shocked. If they had to be honest, they all believed it wouldn't work.
"To be honest, I didn't think it would work at all," Poseidon commented.
"That was supposed to stay in your head," Azes retorted.
Gabriel puffed her cheeks as if she was the one who did everything.
"(A child,)" all of the gods thought the same thing.
"Why are you so proud of yourself? It's not your magic. You didn't even do anything," Michael deadpanned.
"Ah," Gabriel laughed wryly and scratched her head. "It's true, but at least I believed that it would work," she said with a serious face.
"Let's go. I don't think it will take very long for this fire to dissolve the barrier," Ifrit declared and flew off. Everyone followed suit.
The truth was that they were really shocked. Ifrit included. When they realized how versatile Arima's magic was and how strong it was, it gave them goosebumps. Just the fact that such powerful magic could stay active for so long and could actually receive orders and interpret them to act on its own was already shocking enough.
"I want that as my Manifestation…" Gabriel dazedly muttered as she was flying. They all laughed and retorted with the same thing, even Ifrit wryly smiled.
""Who wouldn't?""
********************************************
When Chulainn was engulfed by the spatial hole along with Lanya and Lilis, he ended up in front of Pandora's temple. Karaskan was standing at the entrance, overlooking them. Behind him, a black and red light was coming out of the temple's walls.
"This…!" Chulainn suddenly felt the pressure of Pandora's presence and started sweating.
"…Pandora," At the same time, Lilis blurted out.
"What did you just say?" Chulainn's eyes contracted violently. It then struck him. He had indeed felt that pressure before. "That's impossible! I was there when Hades and Azes destroyed it!" He shouted and Karaskan chuckled.
"I took it under your eyes and you didn't even realize," he said and laughed.
Chulainn gritted his teeth. "Who did you use for the opening?"
Karaskan smirked. "Our common friend; Arimane Blade."
Chulainn was taken aback and was about to deny it when he realized that it wasn't impossible. He could be impulsive but he wasn't dumb. He understood that Pandora could have been triggered by the Life Judgment without Arima even needing to touch the box.
"How dare you say 'friend' after what you did to him?!" On the other side, Lilis shouted for a completely other reason.
"Hm?" Karaskan was surprised to hear a sudden rebuke for something so small. "What I did to him? Oh, perhaps you saw his past. So, I really did something that bad to him, huh?" He uttered nonchalantly as if he had just confirmed a casual fact. His action angered Lilis even more. Lanya was also shocked as she saw the tears in the corners of Lilis's eyes.
Karaskan tilted his head and stared at Lilis. "I see. The emotions you felt through the reminiscence of his past must have touched you enough to develop strong feelings for him. Probably because of your very high sensitivity toward human emotions," Karaskan snickered.
"Interesting," he commented and Lilis gritted her teeth before calming herself as she realized that she had lost her temperament. Chulainn silently listened to the conversation while keeping an eye on the temple with an anxious expression.
"Anyway, I'll have to kill you," Karaskan's words jolted his mind. He then noticed that those words were addressed at Lilis. "Your power over emotions is a threat to Pandora," he said and extended his hand. A screen of darkness emerged from the ground.
Chulainn growled. Karaskan was at the Third Divine while he was only at the Second. He could confront those of the higher levels thanks to the support Hell offered him. But now, he was on a territory owned, not by Hell, but by Pandora.
"Lilis, Lanya. Back off," he directed and his eyes and sigil glowed dangerously. Lilis and Lanya nodded and followed his instruction.
"What are you trying to do?" Karaskan asked with a smile.
Chulainn snorted and his four heads glared at Karaskan. The three dogs snarled and the snake hissed. Karaskan scowled at them.
"[Resurrection]," Chulainn chanted. His fur straightened like needles and his eyes turned fully bloodshot. His aura burst and his Manifestation began.