Two weeks later.
Night crashed among the tough vines of Arima's soul realm. He groaned and stood up while huffing black flames. He was in his strongest form as an Eternal Dragon. His silver mane was dusty as he got back on his feet. He was wielding a huge dark red sword which was obviously Karma.
"{We are not getting anywhere like this.}"
"I know," Night responded to Karma and grunted as he straightened his neck. He winced because of the lingering pain and clicked his tongue. He was right at the edge of a giant crater.
At some places, it was so deep you couldn't even see the end while in others, the ground was elevated instead for some reason. It looked like a huge hole that had been dug specifically to create an artificial canyon inside.
And in the very center, a massive stone edifice that looked like an ancient tomb stood proudly and completely undamaged. It was the only place that still had a flat ground and some vines on it.
A skeletal dragon of the same size as Night was nonchalantly sitting on the top of the tomb. It was looking at Night with its blazing eyes.
"Still, how the hell can you be so strong?" Night complained and Malum sneered.
"I'm stronger than Arima in our normal state. He's the only one capable of entering the Kind Demon form with you though."
Night deadpanned as if his explanation wasn't convincing enough. "I'm using Karma's full power…" He mumbled and swung Karma to his right. The tough vines were cut apart easily and Malum merely shrugged.
"It just means you have a long way to go."
Night scoffed and lightning erupted around him. He became a literal lightning bolt and appeared right in front of Malum in the blink of an eye. He swung Karma with all of the accumulated energy and provoked an explosion.
The shockwave shook the soul realm and thunder roared. While the explosion was still going on, raging dark flames were suddenly added and amplified the magnitude of the damages. The crater was altered again and the water of the ocean above trembled as if it threatened to fall.
When the discharge of energy died down, you could see that Malum had stopped Karma's blade with his exposed humerus. The aftermath of the attack also didn't even affect the tomb below.
"You're starting to get on my nerves," he spoke up and the flames in his eye sockets turned purple. "Thankfully that woman had to leave. Her ability to see the future was really annoying," he added and his ribs started glowing.
Inside of his ribcage, a huge fireball was forming. The bones were also fuming and releasing heat on their own. The fire was both black and red and kept spinning around.
"Shit," Night cursed and flapped his wings to retreat. He pulled Karma by the chain hanging from the handle and made it spin. "Let's try it, now!"
"{You sure? You should use 'Vashta Nerada'. It's the first time I use it.}"
"Not enough time," Night retorted. "[Fifth Cryptic Art, Aeterna, Secundi Stella, Pisces] (Eternal Night, Second Star, Pisces)," he chanted and the spinning Karma began to produce lightning on a large scale. It even fell on the ground and annihilated some huge chunks of earth.
Malum's eyes glowed and became bigger as they left a purple trail around his skull. The fireball in the middle of his body then drifted upward toward his throat. When it reached his mouth, a tremendous aura abruptly weighed down on the surroundings.
"He created his own. I can too," Malum declared and gathered the flames at the under his maw.
"[Third Berserk Art, Bellum Baptismo] (War Baptism)," he jumped off from his tomb and roared. A massive wave of black and red fire erupted from his mouth. The whole thing was even larger than a planet.
Night grunted and two huge silhouettes were created from the lightning hovering around Karma. It took the shape of two giant fishes. One was made of black lightning, and the other was slowly turning white.
The newly formed creatures screeched and a strident sound resounded. Night grabbed Karma again and beckoned the two of them. They both turned toward the wave of fire launched by Malum and cried again. They flew away and became even bigger than the fire wave while approaching it. The fishes revolved around each other and halted right in front of Malum's magic.
The pattern created by those two looked like the yin yang. The black fish had white eyes and the white one had black eyes. The fire wave rapidly reached them and directly struck them.
They cried for the third time and the pressure brought by Malum's magic was countered. The wave of fire had been stopped by the two fishes and couldn't get any farther.
Malum stopped breathing his fire breath and looked at it clashing against the circular shield that those fishes had formed. His bones were fuming and cracking at some places. This was the theory he had chosen for his own Arts. The higher his Arts are in the raking; the more damage they do to him.
"What is that?" He scowled as he looked at his magic being blocked. "Is that Pisces? Did he combine 'Aeterna' and constellations?" Even though he was made of bones, Malum was already having a headache. "Will you stop making these scary magics one day?" He huffed.
"Too bad though… Not good enough," he uttered. He raised his skeletal hand while the clash between his fire and the fishes was still going on and drew a small magic circle. He then snapped his fingers and everything slowed down around him.
He made a step forward and appeared right behind Night. "Arima still didn't teach you how to use this Art correctly," he said before punching Night with a 300% limit break. He was sent flying and crashed on the ground. He formed a giant hole and caused the formation of some mountains around it.
"You were defenseless behind an impenetrable shield. How ironic is that?" Malum snorted.
***
Far away from there, Arima was frowning in annoyance. He was working on a really huge magic circle. That circle was so big that maybe it was even bigger than Earth in diameter. It was so unreal that he had to work on it while flying around with Layla.
At the moment, he was irritated because the fight between his three soul partners was producing some repercussions around his location. He especially didn't want any mana disturbance that could affect the circle and make him restart everything from the beginning. Particularly when it was almost finished.
When he noticed that they had stopped for a moment, he shook his head and sighed. He resumed his work on the core section of the circle with Layla. The two were very silent and they placed the final runes a moment later.
Layla released the breath she had been holding it from the beginning. "Finally," she muttered and the circle gradually shrunk until it was as small as a palm. Then it split into two and merged with its creators' bodies.
"Indeed…" Arima nodded but he wasn't checking the magic or even looking at Layla. He was strangely looking up, at the reversed ocean. After a few seconds, he lowered his look.
"Night, Karma, come back," he ordered and Layla's expression changed.
"You can rest now," he smiled and told her. "It should be fine. We have Raylein on our side," he added and left the soul realm.
Layla blinked and sighed. "Seriously…" She sat down and closed her eyes to analyze the formation they had just drawn.
***
Night once again emerged from the devastated ground. He had managed to stop Malum's Art but gave an occasion at the same time. He knew that he could have been killed just now if Malum had wished to do so.
He rolled his eyes at the skeletal dragon who was back on his tomb. His bones had already been healed and like before, he was calmly staring back. Night was about to charge again when he heard Arima's call and stopped moving
"{We have to go,}" Karma said and Night couldn't help it. He returned to his human form along with Karma and left the soul realm.
After that, there was a minute of silence before Malum groaned loudly and turned back into a human skeleton.
"Fucking finally!" He shouted and lied down. He had been constantly fighting for two weeks straight; against Night and Layla at first, then it was Layla and Karma, and Night and Karma at the end. They were coming at him like some battle junkies.
It was to the point that even he felt it was a bit too much. He was spent after all of that. He looked around at the destroyed land then waved his hand toward the ocean above.
The water started to condense into a single drop then it continuously happened until it was profusely raining. In this soul realm, that water was like a holy substance. It could heal anything, cancel anything, and repair anything. At the moment, it was already reshaping the landscape while erasing the remnants of mana.
"…I'm gonna go back to sleep," Malum yawned and entered his tomb before closing the massive stone gate leading to the inside.
Ten minutes later, he sensed a powerful beam of light falling on him.
"Damn woman! Leave me alone!" He bellowed as he erected a magic barrier again.
***
As Arima's group was leaving the soul realm, the shadow entity who had penetrated the array was flying around Earth. He was trying to find Arima but no matter how much he tried, he couldn't find any aura bigger than Chulainn's.
"Where is he?" He grumbled and stopped right above the capital of Aurorae. He at least knew that this city was the main one on this planet. It was easy for him to hear the conversations of the planet's inhabitants.
"You're looking for me?" As he was thinking, he suddenly witnessed the shadow of someone covering him. He shivered. Even for him who was literally made of darkness, that shadow oddly brought an unknown fear to him.
He looked back and his crimson eyes shook as he saw the three-meter-tall demon behind him. Gray skin, long black hair, red eyes combining a dragon and a human, a cold and indifferent expression, a runic robe which seemed to detain more secrets than he had learned in his entire life, thick scales, a large pair of dragon wings and a dark red katana which seemed to be able to cut anything.
'What… is this?' He couldn't believe it. He was frozen in place. 'How is this possible? He's supposed to be a human. Life Hunter or not, he's still supposed to be a human! How can a human be so strong without even being a transcendental?!'
"I know right," Raylein appeared next and got the shadow's attention. He was wearing his red robe and the clothes of a king. "He's not that strong from the Guardians' or the Pillars' standards. But he's as strong as a transcendental without even being one," he laughed.
"It's also quite a feat to be able to detect you," Raylein added. "You're Yeion, right? 'The Shadow'. You are rumored to be undetectable by even Guardian level existences. You seem to uphold your reputation, without Arimane, I wouldn't have been able to find you."
Yeion was completely silent and his mind was in turmoil. Without even a word, he transformed into a small mass of darkness that flew toward the sky.
"Do you want to get him by yourself?" Raylein asked and Arima snorted. He flapped his wings and followed Yeion.
"I won't say no to his life force," he replied and Raylein smirked before following after him.