"I'm surprised," Raylein said as he stood up. He turned around and faced Arima. "When did you notice?"
"When I perfected the Eternal Dragon," Arima answered indifferently. His three companions appeared behind him at the same time. "I'm capable of sensing everything that goes against the flow of nature. And if I connect to a planet with my mana, anything on its surface falls under my perception."
Raylein's eyes widened. "That's impressive. No wonder I couldn't hide from you," he muttered and Arima frowned.
The real problem in his opinion was how the man in front of him had actually succeeded to hide from him before he could use this peculiar method.
Arima glanced at Karma. "Did you do something to her?"
Raylein's eyes fell on Karma. He smiled and shook his head. "I didn't. Don't worry, I just erased the memories of our encounter. And to be honest, I'm still wondering if I should do the same to you right now."
Arima scowled. "I don't think you'll be able to do it so easily."
Raylein's smile widened. "Maybe, maybe not; as long as I'm fast enough. If you're not at your full power I have all my chances," he stated and Arima clicked his tongue.
Raylein laughed. "I don't know anything about your origins, but I know your current body is entirely human and that you require to use another form to go all out. But well, I can't be sure of my success. Although I'm certain that I can defeat you, I'm not when it concerns my well-being. Even I don't want to carelessly battle someone who erased one of Hell's cores so quickly."
"So? What are you here for?"
"Well, let me give her back her memories," Raylein glanced at Karma and she promptly recovered her memories as if she had never lost them. She blinked in shock then hurriedly transmitted everything to her group. Arima wasn't anxious about Raylein's identity but Night and Layla reacted strongly.
"Initially, I wanted to wait a little more but I didn't expect you to find me in such a way," Raylein scratched his head. "But I guess it's fine. So, here's my matter Arimane, I want you to become a Guardian in my place. If you can go through the test, you'll become the Seventh Plane Guardian, the Kind Demon. How does that sound?"
Arima was taken aback. Since the beginning, he knew that Raylein wasn't here to cause harm. But his words were still surprising.
"What is your motive?" Layla stepped forward and asked.
"Well…" Raylein seemed to be pondering about what to say. "First of all, I have to explain to you what the Plane Guardians exactly are"
"Before I go any further, I have to tell you that there are ten Plane Guardians across the entire existence. Each Guardian is responsible for a certain number of planes and only act when they receive orders from the Original God. Otherwise, Guardians usually are responsible to get rid of OWLs that went out of control or to prevent any event that could lead to the destruction of a Plane of Existence."
"Ultimately, we're elites at the service of God. I was one until a few hundred years ago. I chose to step down from my post because I was getting tired of all that stuff," Raylein shrugged and Arima remained impassive as he listened to him.
"Plane Guardians are not chosen by the Original God. To be exact, not anymore. The very first Guardians were indeed chosen by him. But now, each Plane Guardian has to pick his successor," Raylein declared and pointed at Arima. "The one I chose is you."
"Do I have to accept?" Arima replied.
"Depends," Raylein replied evasively and smirked. "If I choose to make you go through the test by force, then yes."
"Why?" Night spoke with a cold expression. He didn't like Raylein from the get-go because of what he had done to Karma. "Why are you so adamant?"
"Well, because I'm bound by a contract to choose a successor. And if I die prematurely, someone completely random might take my place. Once a Guardian, always a Guardian, I guess. I just don't want anyone malicious to step in and bring terror to billions," Raylein explained.
"The third reason is that some very iffy problems are emerging and we need talents to deal with them. I'm retired but it's not like I am willing to see the world end while doing nothing."
"What kind of problems?" Arima probed and Raylein contemplated about it again.
"In a few words…" He uttered. "The Devil is coming."
***
Meanwhile, Harion was walking toward a giant structure in the middle of a meadow. Actually, he appeared to be on a planet with absolutely nothing more than fields of grass and a giant building covered in vegetation and moss.
When he arrived at the front door, an old man in a black suit abruptly appeared.
"Welcome, Sir Harion," he said and the door opened right away.
"Sebas, huh?" Harion glanced at the butler. "Is everyone here?"
"I'm afraid no. The First Pillar and the Third Pillar are absent today while the Eighth Pillar should arrive soon."
Harion nodded and walked in. When he went through the door, he ended up in the middle of a vast inner garden with a really huge banyan tree right in front of him. There was an actual sky with a bright sun even if it was supposed to be under a roof.
The entire garden was around a hundred square kilometers large. And within this ridiculously vast area, there were small rivers, waterfalls, and countless flowers planted all over the place. The banyan tree was also so big that its branches reached almost every corner of the garden.
The vines were hanging down and gave a very serene atmosphere. There were also a lot of different varieties of trees to decorate everything; sal trees, cherry blossoms, oak, eucalyptus, mahogany, cedar…
At the very back of the garden, there was another giant tree. The trunk was unbelievably large and the leaves were so green it would blind you every time they were struck by the sunlight. The tree was releasing a really powerful aura that could restore your strength and fatigue.
'Yggdrasil… they actually brought it back here.' Harion frowned when he saw the legendary tree and spotted six figures casually resting under the shade of the tree. He took one step forward and turned into some sort of phantom. He reached the group and slowly sat down.
He looked around at the people gathered. There were three women and four men quietly sitting or lying down. All of them had a stunning appearance and a domineering presence.
***
"The Devil?"
"Yes. Devil with a big 'D'. As there is an Original God, there is an Original Devil. These two existences are said to be the first to have ever existed. Even before time was flowing, before space was stabilized, and before the matter was even a thing. They are what we call the Creators."
"What do you mean by 'the Devil is coming' then?"
"Explicit. The Original Devil is moving to take over his natural counterpart. It is happening in every mother reality as we speak."
Arima's expression twitched. "Mother reality, huh?"
Raylein laughed. "Yeah. As you must already know, a congregation of planes usually form a reality. The mother realities are essentially the five most important ones and each one of them has their own Guardians."
"Every mother reality has at least 600 000 planes composing it and, for instance, the reality we're in right now has 789 526 of them, and yes, it's finite. In contrast, the other realities usually can't even get more than a hundred even though they're themselves infinite in number."
"Back to the Creators; it is said that they dwell outside of the realities, in an unknown realm between one and another. And from there, they see and hear everything. Normally, they never act and even if they are technically omniscient, they don't pay attention to what's happening. They generally just maintain the Original World Laws in place and make sure they work properly."
"But, recently, the Devil has started choosing his own e. They call themselves the Pillars. An abbreviation for 'Pillars of Elysium'."
"Elysium…"
"Yeah. Like the Guardians, they are a group made of ten people. Now you get it, right?" Raylein sounded a lot more serious now. "I will evidently fight together with the Guardians but I can't come back into their ranks. Instead, I can add someone else to boost our chances. It's nothing complex."
Arima sighed and disappeared from the roof. "Huh?" Layla exclaimed in surprise and so did the two others. Even Raylein was confused. Night's group looked below by reflex to see if Arima had returned inside the hall but Raylein looked up instead.
The clouds were becoming thicker and darker and moving in a spiral. Then, from the center, a thick blue mist surged.
"I see…" Raylein immediately figured it out.
"{He's telling the truth,}" Jorga's voice resounded in Arima's mind. The latter had deployed his wings and was floating in the middle of the mist. "{The World Serpent has always been a sort of information broker for the Guardians. I can assure you that Raylein is not being dishonest.}"
"I see. Thanks for answering my call," Arima replied. "One more thing; is it possible to travel between realities?"
"{From what I know, it's not impossible. But you need a pretty damn good reason to travel from one to another and get the approval of the Creators. In the first place, realities are quite special in nature. It's hard to get a grasp on it and it makes traveling between them quite hard.}"
"{Mother realities have the particularity to create other realities based on what people are doing or thinking inside of them. For example, a man could produce a movie with a detailed script and then show it to the world. If enough people are thinking about that movie, a reality will be born from it. If later the movie is altered, a new plane will be added to this reality.}"
"I get it. Also, that guy said there were Guardians for each reality; is it the same for the Pillars?"
"{Yes. But Raylein knows about that. You can ask him about it. If he ever lies, I'll come back. But I don't think you need to worry.}"
"Thank you. I appreciate the help."
"{No problem. I'm everywhere. You can call me whenever you want,}" Jorga responded and his silhouette returned inside the clouds. The mist disappeared and the clouds dispersed just after.
Arima teleported back in front of Raylein. "Tell me how do you plan to stop the Devil?"
Raylein smiled. "Simple. To take over the world, and I mean World with a big 'W', the Devil needs to control all mother realities. Therefore, it's a war between the Guardians and the Pillars. If all mother realities fall, the win goes to the Devil. But we have a big advantage. If we manage to save even one reality, God will be able to take back his territory over time."
"So, we just need to defeat the Pillars of our reality?" Layla asked.
"Yes," Raylein smiled bitterly. "But that's easier said than done."
***
Ten minutes after Harion sat down near Yggdrasil, another man with a skinny build arrived. He was looking around with a scowl.
"Hey," he raised his voice when he sat down with everyone. "Gardener, why did you make this kind of base for our group?"
A middle-aged man who was reading a book peeked over the pages. "What is wrong with it? It's not because we are on the invading side that we can't have a beautiful base," he retorted and the skinny man snorted.
"Please, do not fight," Sebas appeared out of nowhere and said. Everyone looked at him. The ones who were sleeping on the grass opened their eyes and sat up. "Let's begin this meeting, shall we? First of all, let's count the forces we gathered."
"Sir Harion's army located Odin, Anubis, Loki, and Thanatos. Let's start from there."
When the butler said that, everyone started listing a bunch of different names. Sometimes they'd be unknown while at other times they were well-known personas.
"So, we have… around fifteen individuals as strong as a semi-ascended… 178 elites at the Third Divine and a few million troops," Sebas smiled.
***
"They aren't actually ten in total. They have many elites under their command."
"Seriously? Another grand-scale war?" Arima grumbled.