Heaven was collapsing, the earth was shaking and numerous crevasses opened on its surface. Lava started erupting and burning the dazzling verdure. Heaven was slowly turning into something nearing the description of Hell.
Every angel, god, and spiritual divinity had already begun to evacuate through the Heaven Gate that was directly connected to Hell. And, when they reappeared on the other side, what they felt almost made them go back instantly. The great pressure of the World Laws weighed on them along with a colossal aura.
Thousands of miles away from them, the light shrouding Arima had blackened and his silhouette was slowly expanding. His aura was also growing dangerously, to the point Layla found it hard to breathe.
Within the black and red light, Arima's kept becoming bigger and bigger. The shadow of his robe was long gone but the ones of his wings and tail were enlarging menacingly. Black lightning erupted and covered the sky like a spider net. Thunder roared and it felt like gravity had suddenly been augmented just because of the physical manifestation of his aura.
When Arima's height reached the fifty meters bar, you would need to be dumb to not understand what was happening. The Law of Libra had worked beautifully and triggered the Final Resonance.
Even though Arima was experiencing tremendous pain at the moment, it couldn't be compared to what happened during the Life Judgment.
In the end, the Final Resonance wasn't something like a perfect fusion like Layla's case. Each time Arima and Night resonated together, they were not actually mixing their abilities and appearance. To be exact, Arima approached the classification of a true dragon after each resonance. And at the moment, the final result was nearing what Arima thought was the 'Eternal Dragon'.
When the black energy reached its brightest glow, a pair of red eyes opened and an ear-breaking roar resounded. Hell's shaking became even stronger, the sky cleared up and the lightning vanished. A huge tornado was produced by a single flap of those titanic wings as Arima's figure was temporarily lost.
When the wind died down, everyone could now see what was the result as they looked at the giant figure standing on the ground. A very tall body reaching eighty meters. When the wings were deployed, their span was probably past a hundred meters.
The pitch-black dragon was standing surprisingly straight. The dragon's physique was quite different from Night's. It looked more humanoid. The scales covering his body were quite thick but the muscles outlined by them looked a lot like a human's.
His legs were slightly bent but they were just as much as any normal bipedal animal. Red lines were spread across his body and replicated Arima's sigil on his chest. There was a brighter hue of red constantly circulating through these lines like a photonic circuit. Similar to Night's, there was a silver mane going from the top of the dragon's head to the end of the tail.
When the ebony dragon loosened his jaw, smoke escaped his mouth and electricity sparked naturally. Arima squinted and scanned the Téra with his new pair of eyes. His sclera was now completely red while his irises had mostly disappeared. There was just a yellow and orange halo surrounding his slit pupils that were glowing purple. Like an overlord, Arima stood there with his arms crossed, gazing at the horde of monsters.
"{…Wow,}" Karma garbled as she sunk in Arima and Night's power. The soul in which she was residing became even wider and potent than before.
The dragon grinned and opened his mouth. "I like this sensation a lot," his voice was double-toned and sounded incredibly bestial. Rather than words, it sounded more like a growl.
Arima spent a few minutes to get used to the feeling of having a different physiology. He waved his tail and crushed the ground with the wind pressure. He snorted and black fire escaped his nostrils. He uncrossed his arms and clenched his hands repeatedly. He then stretched his right hand and a purple flash appeared for him to grab. When he pulled on it, he drew a terrifyingly large katana.
It looked more like a saber in fact. There was no sheath and the fascinating red-purple blade was exposed for everyone to admire. The chain hanging from the handle had coiled around Arima's arm, reaching his shoulder.
Arima didn't even look back at the astounded gods and took a step forward. The earth crumbled and the dragon disappeared. The sound of thunder echoed and the sky above the Téra had already been covered by dense and dark clouds.
The purple lightning that connected them from time to time even made Zeus grimace. But once they fell down on the ground, they made him sweat like crazy. Lightning started falling from every angle and formed a sort of impenetrable wall blocking the Téra's path.
Scary explosions would come with each lightning bolt. The thunder that continued to resound stronger every second, the trembling that never stopped, and the huge dragon who split in half hundreds of Téra with a single swing of his blade. This scenery was mindboggling.
Arima landed in the middle of the stampede and started going wild. As expected, the Téra were strong. Each one of them had at least the strength of a First Divine and the stronger ones seemed to be even stronger than the limit of the Heavenly Realm; at Ifrit's level.
Arima grabbed one of the bigger Téra with his claw. He easily lifted the thirty meters tall monster and crushed its head before throwing it at the others.
The smaller and weaker ones would simply die or be vaporized by the dragon's lightning and movements. A single move from him would cause lightning to discharge and a crater to appear right under him. And when he turned his back, it was his tail that would fight against the Téra.
"{Those guys, it seems that they can't use magic}" Arima remarked as he deflected a giant blade-like arm. He then grabbed the large Téras and inhaled before breathing a cruel and unstoppable dark fire.
"{That's fortunate,}" Night responded.
"{True,}" Karma immediately agreed.
Arima snickered and kicked the ground as he flew up. He spun in mid-air and deployed his wings. He looked at the ground and took an Iai stance. Karma was ignited and charged with black fire and lightning.
"[Fortasse Aeterna Noctem] (Flamboyant Eternal Night)," Arima chanted and swung his sword. The wave of lightning and fire reached the ground and exploded with a loud detonation.
From the gods' position, it looked like a bouquet of fire crowned by a halo of lightning. It certainly was a breath-taking sight. Especially if you could feel the energy it was emitting.
"Let's go now," Layla spoke up and flapped her wings. The gods looked at each other and then realized that she was going toward the explosion and not Arima who was already somewhere else.
They quickly understood that she was trying to take advantage of the hole Arima had created to go through the horde. Chulainn was the first one to follow and started running to catch up with her. Gabriel was next and the rest followed suit.
Meanwhile, Arima hadn't left the zone of the explosion because he wanted to but because he was forced to by a strange Téras. It was relatively small compared to some Téra, barely reaching ten meters in height but its appearance was special compared to others.
That Téras was the one that looked the most like an actual human. Even if its face was emotionless and its eyes uneven and closed, the limbs and body structure were the exact same.
And at the same time, it was also the strongest he had encountered until now. Arima grunted, he planted his sword on the ground and the chain loosened up. He would not be fast enough with Karma.
He started using his body to attack that Téras. Most of the time, it would evade but Arima wasn't inexperienced enough to strike mindlessly. By making good use of his tail and the continuous lightning that was falling here and there, he was directing the fight.
Even so, he was stunned by the monster's strength. If it wasn't for the fact that he had raised his physical limit to 200%, he would have been overwhelmed by his opponent.
"(This physical strength is unreal! He even seems to possess innate resistance against magic. This is crazy!)" He complained in his mind and his pupils contracted when the enemy he was fighting abruptly vanished right in front of him.
The next instant, he felt that he was hit in the back and ended up in the middle of a giant crater before he could defend himself.
"(No way… did he become even faster?)"
Arima immediately sensed something else and called Karma. The katana came to him and arrived in his hand at the speed of light. When he grabbed the sword, he immediately used it to block a shadow that was charging at him from the side. The shock of the impact was transmitted through the blade and numbed his hand.
"[Fulgur Anguis] (Lightning Snake)," Arima chanted without any hesitation and transformed into a being made of pure electrons. He escaped through all of the collapsed Téra who had been killed by his clash with the abnormal monster and soared toward the sky.
Once he had a decent elevation, he dispelled his magic and stared at the ground while gathering mana to use Time magic on his body. He spotted the humanoid Téras who hit him and extended his hand.
"[Fifth Destruction Art, Spatium Horti]."
Among the Kind Demon's Arts, the Fifth Destruction Art was definitely the one who needed the least mana and time to cast while also being very destructive. The dark sphere immediately trapped the Téras and the red roses bloomed on its surface.
"[Gaudete] (Burst)," Arima activated the hidden effect and the sphere began to twist in all kinds of strange ways. But before it could explode, cracks appeared on its surface and the Art broke soon after by the Téras' punch.
"…Seriously?" Arima was dumbfounded.
"{This may be the first time someone ever managed to stop one of your Arts,}" Night commented and Arima clicked his tongue.
As he was about to continue his assault, a new presence suddenly appeared above him, totally unaffected by the chaos of lightning around him.
Even with decelerated Time, Arima was too late to react. But he still managed to parry the strike with Karma before turning into a comet that crashed on the ground and dug out the soil and stone as he was buried hundreds of meters underground.
Arima roared and a massive pillar of lightning fell from the sky and annihilated every Téra nearby and a huge chunk of land at the same time. He flew out of the giant hole he had just made and landed on a flat zone where, except two Téra, nothing else was present.
One of the Téra was the one he was fighting since the beginning while the other was the one who punched him and sent him miles underground.
That one was a lot bigger than his abettor. He wasn't as big as Arima's current form, but he was still sixty meters tall and quite buff. He didn't really appear as a human, like the other, but he had a clear appearance contrary to the other Téra who seemed to be a mix of different animals.
Basically, he was a giant shadowy bear. Arima smirked as he stared at them. The lighting had stopped falling and even the other Téra didn't approach anymore. The battlefield was quiet and the two Téra didn't seem to be eager to take the first move.
Arima looked around. "{So these guys have intelligence, huh?}"
"{What's so surprising about that?}" Karma inquired gullibly and Arima chuckled.
"{They were born barely twenty minutes ago. If they have this kind of intelligence already, it means that they'll be quite dangerous if left alone in the wild for too long,}" Night answered her.
Arima silently agreed and glanced at Layla's group. It seemed that they were going to make it through. "Alright," he spoke and the Téra raised their heads as if they wanted to listen.
"(They want to learn…?)" Arima thought and shouldered Karma. He smirked and channeled his mana through his entire body. "[Terminus Confractus, CD] (Limit Break, 400)."
His physical strength was increased by another 200% in no time and the Téra immediately recognized that change.
"Come at me with all you've got," Arima taunted while waving his fingers. "Let me learn more about you all," he cackled and thunder roared before the rain started to fall heavily.