The people Arima had called numbered to fourteen in total. The first one was Arister who was the one he trusted the most in the other world.
The ten others who had appeared inside the Hall were, of course, his best students; Ofia, Lena, Melody, Balan, Isla, Gaodu, Irian, Ferzia, Airon, and Kine.
And outside, three individuals had been summoned; Hieran, Rex, and Evergreen. They were the ones he had encountered in the beasts' territory. Rex and Hieran had requested his help to stop the eruption of the volcano while Evergreen was the dryad who had helped him locate Errastas.
"Why did you call us?" That same dryad asked as she entered the Hall through the window. "I don't want to be out of my forest for too long. Since the apparition of those strange monsters, I can't allow myself to be away anymore," she stated, completely disregarding everyone around.
"Right, I'm glad to see you too, Evergreen," Arima jested and grinned. "Don't worry about that. Someone is already taking care of the protection of your planet," he said and Evergreen frowned. In contrast, Night burst out laughing.
"Deki," Arima added and chuckled.
***
Back on a small continent, a small black cat meowed with a cheerful expression.
"Hm? What's wrong, Deki?" Lifa asked the cat on her shoulder.
Deki raised his paw as if to say it was nothing and meowed again. He waved his tail and his eyes glowed. At that exact moment, all the Téra present across the surface of the planet were suddenly crushed by an unknown pressure.
The ground shook and Elia's eyes twitched. She looked at Lifa who was in the same room as her and scowled. She stared at the cat for a minute then closed her eyes. She wasn't mistaken; she had seen a red-purple color around Deki cat for a second. Her power allowed her to see emotions as colors and when it'd display this one, in particular, it usually meant that it was killing intent.
Deki cried cutely again after he finished wiping out every Téras and Lifa gave him a treat. That cat was still directly linked to Arima's soul and his actual strength was comparable to the First Divine but it was also his limit.
Since that small cat wouldn't be able to absorb more power than that, Arima had already made sure to stop feeding him with life force and energy. Deki would have to nurture his own strength from now on.
***
"All of the Téra are already dead. You'll be fine for a while," Arima said and Evergreen looked at him bizarrely.
"So, what are we going to do, teacher?" Ofia raised her hand and asked. Arima looked back at her and the other kids then smiled. "Well, first of all, stop calling me 'teacher' because you'll be the ones teaching from now on," he announced and everyone exclaimed in surprise.
"Who are we teaching then?" Arister inquired and sat down on a sofa with Ferzia. "Oh, hello," he greeted Jin who was near. But the man in question seemed to be in a daze. Everyone followed Arister's example and took a seat. Only the dinosaur and the dragon outside couldn't do the same.
"It's quite simple. My world didn't have magic circuits until a few weeks ago. I want you to work as teachers in an academy for children and anyone who wants to learn magic and fighting techniques."
"Hm, I see. It's reasonable that you want to strengthen your world and I'm certainly in debt with you for saving our territory. But why did you even call us?" Rex spoke up and scared the shit out of Aurorae's employees.
"That's because you have the best magic control I have ever seen. Your knowledge is also quite valuable," Arima answered and Rex laughed.
"You hear that?!" The T-Rex shouted at his friend next to him. Hieran grunted and rolled his eyes at Arima.
"You didn't need to inflate his ego," he remarked. "Anyway, I can understand why you called that old geezer but what about me? I don't think I can teach well to kids."
Arima snickered. "You managed to break through to the Earthen Realm. That's good enough for me. And I also need big guys like you two to give them some experience against bigger creatures."
Hieran mused and then nodded in understanding. "Fair enough," he said and backed his head away from the building. He hit Rex once to calm him down and a small earthquake occurred.
Evergreen sighed and when the trembling went away, she stepped forward. "So? What about me? I don't even owe you or anything."
Arima shrugged. "I assumed you'd be willing to accept."
"Why?"
"Because I'm asking it."
Evergreen's expression twitched and she couldn't bring herself to deny it. Since the day she had tried to strike Arima's mind when she met him, a deep fear rooted itself in her psyche and made her feel completely powerless in his presence.
"…Fine. I guess you chose me because I'm the best when it comes to mind magic. But let me tell you; I won't go easy on them. And I also won't be staying here for too long."
"No problem," Arima replied. "I just want you to instruct general knowledge. You can pick a student and make him a successor of sorts before leaving though," he said and Balan, the small elf prodigy, raised his hand.
"Teach– I mean, Sir, can we use the recordings we have of your lectures?"
"You can. I even invite you to do so. Same thing for the books I gave you. You can use them as material for your lessons. I'll give you fully translated ones then you will be able to copy them," as he was saying that, Arima abruptly froze. "Ah… I forgot," he wryly smiled and glanced at Jin who was blinking uncontrollably. He even was sweating as he looked around him.
Since the moment Arister had started speaking, he was completely lost. Strangely, he could understand what he was saying but he didn't get any word of what the others were saying.
He could also understand Arima's words but then couldn't comprehend at all what the others gave in response. But they appeared to be understanding what he was saying, which confused him even more.
Arima apologized inwardly and snapped his fingers. The group of fourteen people, except two people, suddenly felt strange and only Evergreen and Rex widened their eyes as they realized what happened.
"This is…" The dryad tried to speak and Jin's eyes widened as he finally could understand her.
"He just gave you all the Gods' language," Layla smiled and said.
"I see. This is an incredible tongue…" Rex noted and Evergreen couldn't help but agree.
"Only Arister and Gaodu didn't need it since they already had it from their inheritances," Layla added and the two individuals in question nodded.
"I have a headache," Jin complained. Hearing a foreign language in these conditions while also trying to understand what was going on had already exhausted him.
"It's all right. You didn't miss much," Arima said. "We were just discussing how things were going to unfold. Anyway, Ofia, do you have copies of my books with you?" He then asked. He was sure that Ofia would have them.
"Yes," she nodded and immediately took out a pile of books from her storage. She waved her hand and the books flew toward Arima.
He caught them with his aura and chanted, "[Second Red Art, Scientia est Nisi Cesarem] (The Alchemist's Science)."
He surprisingly used one of his Arts and each book was immediately cloned. The duplicated books had also been completely translated into English during the process. He could have used the Gods' language instead but it would have lost its effect after being copied.
He threw them back and Ofia timidly caught them with telekinesis. She opened one of the books and gaped. She had the Gods' tongue now but she could see that the text was structured differently than the original book.
The Second Red Art was an extremely simple and inoffensive spell. But it could also become a terrifying tool. It was a magic made to analyze, emulate, and modify. The hidden aspect was that it could change the overall object while cloning it. Just like with those books and the language used.
It was called 'The Alchemist's Science' for a reason. If Arima wanted it, he could actually turn iron into gold and water into wine. However, when the original object is too 'precious' or large to copy, or the sought result is too dissimilar, the magic won't work and will be forced to directly alter the original product, in a bad or a good way. In the end, it can be summarized with a single word; transmutation.
"There you go," Arima uttered. "I'll show you your new place of work right away. You too, Jin. I want you to stay at the academy for the next few months and learn under them. At least like that, you'll be able to become younger by yourself. I'll also bring the squad later."
"…What?"
"Wait a damn minute!" A voice suddenly resonated in the hall and drowned Jin's voice of confusion. A new circle formed and a pup jumped out of it before rushing toward Arima. "Why the hell were you about to leave already?! Did you forget about me?!"
Arima blinked. "Oops…" He mumbled inaudibly and the pup glared at him. "Ahem, don't worry, Chulainn. I didn't forget."
"Yeah sure," the small dog snorted. "I was in the middle of something to re-establish Hell. I couldn't answer your call immediately. Anyway, we meet again. Sooner than I thought," he added and sighed. "You can go now, I heard everything from the link you made."
Except for the eleven people who had met Chulainn before, the two beasts and Evergreen were lost.
"Oh, yes. It would be quite senseless of me to not introduce myself. I am Chulainn Kerberos, Former Guardian of the Hell Gate."
"The three-headed hound…!?" Evergreen's group was shocked and Jin was going mental.
Arima snapped his fingers and before Jin could get a proper answer, he was teleported once again to the institute along with everyone else. Night, Layla, and Karma remained in the now-empty hall though. They looked at each other and shrugged before simultaneously looking at the roof.
***
This time, the kids witnessed a dinosaur and a dragon appear right next to their yard. Some of them fainted but there were a lot of humorous reactions concerning Rex.
Evergreen groaned. "Are we really going to teach to these annoying brats?"
"Yes," Arima nonchalantly replied and Evergreen helplessly closed her mouth.
"Hm," Chulainn, who was back on his favorite spot, Arima's shoulder, hummed.
"This is ridiculous… In that case, I will be the one teaching him," the dryad pointed at Jin. "This is acceptable, right? He'll count as my successor so I don't have to teach a kid personally."
Arima's eyes widened and Jin paled. His expression was really distorted. Quite oddly too. He was quite happy to have a beautiful woman as a tutor but also not when he thought about what kind of woman it was. That contradiction clearly showed itself on his face.
"Why not." And it crumbled when Arima approved.
"Now, I'll let you familiarize yourself with the place. Ask Jin for details. You can also speak to him if you want arrangements to be made to welcome you."
"It's all right. I'll just grow a mother tree near this place," Evergreen said.
"Hieran and I are good too. We can just sleep anywhere. It's not like there's any sort of building suitable for us," Rex remarked and Arima nodded.
"Then it will just be for Arister's group. A separate dorm should be enough. Oh yeah, along with a two-people room for him and Ferzia."
Arister snickered and didn't even bother to retort. It's not like it wasn't true and it was far from a secret by now. The dark elf beside him even chuckled.
"Thank you for your consideration. But more importantly, I'd want you to tell me why you're not teaching them yourself? Do you have something else to do?" Arister questioned and it's true that everyone also wondered the same thing.
"Well, first I have to rest and recover my magic circuits. I fought a certain resuscitated cursed gold-freak dragon recently, you see."
Hieran almost made a spit take at the very blunt description of one of the Dragon Kings.
"But most importantly…" Arima paused. "It seems that someone is knocking at my door as we speak and I have to check what it is." He didn't give any detail but no one asked for it.
"Anyway," he grabbed Chulainn by the neck and placed him on Arister's shoulder. "Teach them well. Also, if anyone in this institute ever dares to act inadequately toward other races; Kine, Airon, Irian, Arister, I allow you to beat the shit out of them up as long as you don't kill them," he said that to the ones who were the most comfortable to get physical.
Arister glanced at Ferzia and sneered. "I would have done it without you telling me."
Arima laughed. "Jin, concerning Aurorae, I'll arrange things for the next few weeks myself. I'll do that at least. Train well," he added and teleported back to the HQ. Jin laughed dryly when he left.
***
Arima exhaled when he came back. He stepped forward on the tiles of the roof.
"My matter is settled now, tell me about yours."