"[In tempore venit iudicium tuum] (The time of your sentence has come)."
"[Et millia talentorum appendam arcariis pretium] (You'll pay the price)."
Arima's chant echoed and every skull on the Kind Demon Crosses started laughing and clacking their teeth. Their eyes were ignited and a dark fire formed. The black smoke produced by those flames gathered just above the cross to condense a thick cloud.
Ambor's eyes glowed again and his expression twisted. "I think… he's about to destroy this planet and everyone on it at the same time."
Ahura glared at Arima and the stone stele which was gradually filling the engraved letters with a red color.
"Attack, now! Kill him before he finishes!" She commanded and the Pillars immediately moved. She also kicked the ground after she instructed them.
The first ones who reached Arima were the three heavyweights. Thanatos, Kronos, and Apep. The giant snake was the closest and jumped on Arima. He immediately tried to bite the huge dragon but his fangs were caught barehanded.
The venom started corroding his bones, but Arima didn't care less as he channeled his mana.
"[Terminus Confractus]," he grunted and broke Apep's fangs before kicking the huge snake away. Ambor analyzed the magic he had used and groaned.
"What a reckless technique," he commented and watched as Kronos swung his harpē. Thanatos also struck at the same time with his crystal blade.
Arima roared and increased his physical power by three folds. He wielded Karma in a whirlwind and caught Kronos' harpē with his katana's chain while blocking Thanatos' sword with the blade.
Kronos laughed. "Interesting indeed."
Thanatos remained silent and Arima scowled. The giant old man snickered again and bright white lightning erupted at his feet. He pulled his harpē toward himself to thwart Arima's sword and used his other hand to swing a sickle.
Arima sneered and blocked the small sickle with his tail. He then directly reached for Kronos' lightning and absorbed it.
"What…?!" Kronos exclaimed right before a large wave of purple lightning swept over him.
Arima then struck Thanatos's abdomen with his elbow and deviated the crystal sword with Karma. He approached the giant warrior and gathered mana inside his throat. Sparks and flames escaped through his teeth and he roared just after. A giant stream of dark-red fire shrouded the giant.
When Arima ended that bout, Apep finally touched the ground, and Odin came from the sky and used his halberd to hit him.
Kronos landed on the ground as his body fumed. "That was…"
"Elemental absorption," Ambor muttered. He was the one monitoring the fight and although he was a powerful asset among the Pillars, he always was the one directing the flow of the fight. The moment he saw Arima's ability, he instantly transferred it to everyone.
"Absorption and amplification?" Baba Yaga frowned and lifted her cane. She spun it and waved it like a wand. An odd fluctuation was felt and the ground around Arima raised. It formed humanoid shapes and started attacking him.
"Golems?" Arima's expression darkened. He called Superore and fired at Odin to buy some time. He flapped his wings and grabbed one of the golems' head before crushing it.
'It's not earth magic... Sorcery; the art of manipulating energies through circuit equations.'
"You just have to use non-elemental techniques," Baba Yaga pointed and everyone nodded. The next one who reached Arima was, without surprise, Afriose. He had easily gone through the life-magic field.
Arima gritted his teeth. He could feel his flesh rotting and even his soul corroding. He gripped Karma and huffed.
"[Fifth Black Art, Aeterna, Stella Quintus, Leo] (Fifth Star, Leo)," he chanted and Karma released a large amount of shadowy lightning. It emitted a red hue and took the shape of a lion before lunging at Afriose.
The latter breathed in and sighed deeply. A heavy miasma came out of his mouth and practically consumed the lightning beast before it could hit him.
"[Consummation, Adolebitque, Praemium, Rupti sunt] (Consume, burn, implode, burst)."
"[Usque ad quod manet] (Until nothing remains)."
Arima resumed the chant and both Trevy and Ishtar entered in range. Trevy opened his fist and a strange orb, filled with mixed colors, popped up. He threw it into the air and it suddenly produced a large beam.
"Shit!" Arima used his wing to block the attack and it almost made a hole through his bones, which were now the toughest part of his body.
'That's void! That guy actually made anti-matter as his magic!' He shouted inwardly then sensed a presence right behind him.
Ishtar smiled sweetly and placed her hand on Arima's back. He abruptly felt all of his strength being drained and almost collapsed right there and then.
"Oh, you're still standing. That's impressive."
"Shut up," Arima growled and released his slaughter intent to fight Ishtar's influence. "You damn paradoxical goddess."
"Hey, that hurts," Ishtar playfully answered as she retreated. Loki then arrived out of nowhere and managed to stab Arima, piercing through the remaining flesh he had and cracking his skeleton.
"I heard you killed the 'Assassin'. He was my prey," Loki whispered and a few runes on his sword glowed before exploding. Arima briefly staggered and Thanatos and Kronos profited of that opening to strike again.
He grunted and blocked the two of them with Karma and Superore respectively. He also heard and sensed Ishtar who was coming back and pressed the trigger of Superore which was already aiming at her.
"[Et reddet pretium] (You shall pay the price)."
"[Et nunc mutuas pecunias sumpsit infernum] (You took a loan from hell)."
"[Nunc suus 'vicis ut tergum ceciderit illuc aeternum] (Now it's time to fall back there, eternally)."
Arima advanced his chant one more time. From his voice, it was evident that he was struggling.
'We won't go far if I can't use any of my stronger Arts.'
"{Try the Fourth White Art,}" Night proposed and Arima's eyes widened. He unconsciously looked at the sky even if he couldn't see.
He smirked. 'I'm already trying to finish the Black Art's chant… seriously,' he made up his mind and punched the ground. The planet quaked and the earth crumbled. His figure was hidden for a second and he managed to escape Trevy's anti-matter explosion.
Arima inhaled and dodged Odin's spear. He then summoned a new formation and Ambor became confused when he saw through it.
"I don't know what you're planning but," he muttered and unsheathed his sword. Lightning sparkled around it. "[Fifth Black Art, Aeterna, Stella Quintus, Leo] (Fifth Star, Leo)," he intoned and swung his sword.
The lightning lion roared and ran up the sky. Arima's expression twitched.
"I noticed you can't absorb your elemental arts. Because you added too much theory, most of them lost the definition of an element and are purely what you call an art," Ambor grinned and Arima huffed.
"{I'll do it,}" Karma shined and turned back into a human. Her sudden appearance threw off a lot of the Pillars. She summoned a copy of herself and channeled her mana.
"[Fifth Black Art, Aeterna, Secundi Stella, Pisces] (Second Star, Pisces)," she almost whispered and two fish materialized to stop the lion.
When the two arts collided and exploded, Karma stuck out her tongue and turned back into a sword in Arima's hand. Meanwhile, the latter had finished his incantation.
"[Fourth White Art, Mid-Layer, Gaia Vineam] (Gaia's Vines)."
From his palm, a green vine grew and ascended at high speed. Arima snorted and moved Karma to defend against a powerful blow that sent him flying until he crashed like an asteroid. The moment he touched the ground, he instantly stood up again and evaded Apep's bite. The vine he had let go of was now rooted on the ground; still growing.
He then looked up and saw Ahura falling to hit him. He chuckled and fired Superore at her. She waved her hand and her magic easily deflected the bullets. She flashed behind Arima and landed a blow on him with her palm.
At this point, Arima was just bones. But he still felt a large amount of pain going through his body.
"I see… a mix of light and life magic. I can't absorb it because it's not fully elemental and because my undead statute rejects it. As always, you're quick-witted, Ahura."
He had no memory about her but his mouth was moving by itself.
"It's the same for you. You're as vicious, Angra," she replied and struck with another wave of white-blue light. Arima felt paralyzed for a moment but he ultimately stamped the ground and used Ragnarök to destabilize Ahura before kicking her.
"You're not as strong, unfortunately."
Ahura smiled. "I'm not alone, Angra."
Arima suddenly got a bad feeling and turned around just to lose everything; his eyesight and taste were already out of the picture but he had abruptly lost all of his senses. He could only rely on his mana sense but a certain aura had surrounded him and blocked his senses.
"Nyx," Arima growled.
He urgently improvised a light-attribute magic and conjured it. The area became filled with a bright light and the absolute darkness immediately vanished. When he recovered his senses, the first thing he saw were the countless magic formations targeting him.
"Fuck," he cursed and everything exploded on him.
Odin's familiars released a large energy discharge. Ishtar covered the entire battlefield with poisonous energy. Anubis acted for the first time and drained the water within the atmosphere before mustering a massive sand tempest.
Loki threw dozens of enchanted knives. Thanatos summoned a giant crystal spear that he threw and Kronos decided to cast as much space blades as he could. Apep hissed and spat out his venom.
Ambor cast a gravity spell and Trevy provoked an anti-matter outburst. Khione used neutral magic instead of water magic and deformed the very matter. Baba Yaga used illusion magic as well as her golems. Nyx conjured a magic that employed the moonlight to strike the planet. Afriose released a myriad of deadly curses and Lorus used his green magic to empower them all.
Ahura used her legacy theory and a giant eagle of light dived toward Arima and detonated into an unescapable holy explosion. The entire scene looked unreal. There were many different auras and energies blending together. Melumnia was being ravaged and the nearby planets were suffering tremendous damages. All of it just to get rid of a single person.
When all of their magics were invoked, the Pillars relaxed as they thought it was over.
"It's not over! Don't slacken!" But Ambor's howl and warning jolted their mind. They all turned toward him and gasped when they saw his eyes bleeding. They had never seen that happen and couldn't imagine what kind of magic was capable of doing this to those Mystic Eyes.
"[Ostende mihi faciem tuam timore] (Show me your fear)."
"[Dicite orbem tu times mortem] (Tell the world you're afraid to die)."
They heard a panting voice completing the incantation. The stone stele from before glowed and came out of the devastated land.
"[Hoc erit iudicium tuum] (That'll be your sentence)."
Everyone looked behind with narrowed eyes. Arima was standing far away. He was not a dragon anymore and had reverted to his Kind Demon form. He seemed to be completely healed and he wasn't a sack of bones anymore but he sounded and looked extremely weak.
"He reversed causality!" Ambor bellowed whilst covering his bleeding eyes with his hand.
Arima inhaled as the space-time dimension around him returned to normal. When he finished the chant of the First Black Art, a hooded shadow appeared on top of each cross. The shadow had no face or body and was shouldering a large black scythe. Additionally, the vine Arima had thrown into the sky earlier was now hanging next to him, attached somewhere in outer space.
Arima first waved his hand at the vine and it glowed before starting to descend as if there was someone invisible pulling it. Afterward, his sigil shined and two red dots appeared under the hoods of the crosses' shadows.
"[First Black Art, Messor] (The Reaper)."