"…What did you just say?" Raylein asked Arima who was casually swallowing various sweets placed on a table. He had gathered the former Guardians and randomly picked a location in a certain Plane. They were currently in an alien city, holding a simple meeting. Among them, Shakti was still unconscious, lying down on a bed with Malum leaning against the wall near her.
"There's only Anubis, Trevy, and Ahura left. I also made a deal with the latter and she will not act against us further," Arima replied and Raylein opened his mouth wide. The others had the same kind of reaction.
They already had a hard time believing that Arima could face all of the Pillars at once and stay alive. Only Aergia's reaction was a little different.
"Wait a second," she raised her voice and Arima looked at her. She seemed to be angry for some reason. "Then why did you make us gather a hundred stars? Don't tell me it's gonna be useless because I would seriously be pissed off!"
Arima laughed and shook his head. "Don't worry, it's far from a waste of time."
"But what do you want to do in the end?" Chulainn, in his doggy form, raised his paw. "What about the army you requested us to assemble? What was the point of that?"
Arima sighed lazily and lied down on the couch. "Well, first of all, that army is obviously not to fight the Pillars. At least, it isn't meant to fight the Pillars of this reality."
"What do you mean?"
"I'm saying that we will use that army to invade the other Mother Realities, take care of the Plane Guardians and Elysium Pillars present there, then take control of it. That's my plan," Arima explained and silence fell.
Night rolled his eyes while Layla rubbed the corners of her eyes. Malum snorted in amusement and everyone else had a blank expression.
"…Seriously?" Chulainn mumbled and Arima nodded.
Shakti woke up at that exact moment and her eyes widened as she looked around. She felt a weird atmosphere and tilted her head. She turned toward Malum and blushed a little before sitting up.
She cleared her throat. "What's going on?"
Malum glanced at her and shrugged.
"Arima is being wild again. Nothing new. The Pillars have been defeated, their leader forfeited, and now he's talking about going to other Realities and rule them," he summarized and Shakti blinked.
"…Eh?"
"Before you ask, as I already said to Night, I have an idea on how to travel between realities," Arima elevated his voice to catch everyone's attention. "That was the reason I sent you to gather stars and put them into a semi-stasis," he added while looking at Aergia.
"I'm going to use them to create a formation, then use it as a backup to generate a link capable of connecting Realities. Of course, for that, I will also need the help of Deva. To be exact, it cannot be accomplished without her," Arima uttered and the imposing bike parked in the corner of the room responded to him with a short rumble.
"…Then?" Raylein followed. "What do we do now? Are you ready to open a path toward other realities?"
"Well, not really. I have to prepare first," Arima retorted and gazed at Aergia. "Give me what you have collected."
Aergia frowned. "How?"
"Just open a small link to your spatial storage," Arima told and she complied. A peculiar wormhole immediately appeared in front of her.
Arima's sigil glowed and a beam of light was shot inside the wormhole for a second.
"It's done. Thanks," he said and Aergia gaped in shock when she saw that the one hundred stars she had collected had already been taken.
"How much spatial storage do you have?" She muttered and Arima smiled.
"Enough to keep at least a thousand stars."
Aergia stared at Arima with a deadpan face and everyone thought that they should stop trying to understand his abilities at this point. They couldn't even imagine how strong he was at the moment after absorbing the life forces of seven Pillars.
"Anyway, it's time to scatter. You can do what you want while I finish everything. In fact, you won't have to do anything really difficult anymore. You will just have to lead the army and make sure the realities are put under control. That means you would have to take care of the strong and people as well as the Guardians and Pillars there," Arima stated.
"But the ones who will mainly be taking care of those two groups will either be me, Night, Malum, Layla or Karma. I might as well call Ifrit too. He should have reached a decent level with the life hunt I gave him," he declared and everyone on the room fell silent. "But until then, you can do what you want. You can sleep, train, or go on a date for all I care," he jested.
"Also, Gilga, you're keeping the army in Babylon, right?" He asked afterward and Gilgamesh nodded slowly. "For how long can you keep them inside?"
"…As long as I want. I can also assure you that they will all come out equipped with high tier armors and weapons," Gilgamesh answered and Arima nodded satisfyingly.
"Alright then, you're all dismissed. Call me if you need anything. Jorga will contact you when I'm ready," he said and went inside his soul realm almost instantly, leaving no time for anyone to object.
Aergia yawned and lied down. She fell asleep in less time than it took for her to rest her head.
"Well, we can only wait now. I will excuse myself for now," Ganesha smiled and teleported away.
Flavio shrugged and disappeared too. Night, Karma, and Layla looked at each other and followed Arima inside his soul.
Evangeline, Raylein, and Gilgamesh left together soon after. Malum sighed and glanced at Shakti.
"Hey, we're going," he spoke up and she tilted her head.
"Where?"
"I don't freaking know..." Malum grunted. He didn't use space magic like everyone else and walked toward the door. "Are you coming or not?"
Shakti stared blankly and chuckled before following him.
"Hm, what should I do?" Chulainn uttered and peeked at Aergia sleeping. He mused for a while and proceeded to go sleep on a chair.
***
"So? The truth?" Layla inquired the second she landed on the vine field.
"What? I didn't lie," Arima retorted and she scowled. "…just didn't tell everything."
He wryly smiled and took out Ambor's eyes which he had taken earlier.
"Before making that bridge to another Reality, I will have to integrate the ability of these eyes. To be honest, I didn't expect that I would meet someone like Ambor. It will help me quite a lot."
"What are you going to do with it?" Night sat down and asked. "Are you going to retrieve your vision?" He presumed and Arima gazed at him.
"I don't know. Getting my sight back would be really complicated. As I said already, my vision has been robbed at a fundamental level. But indeed, if I manage to tame these eyes, I will not only be able to gain insane analyzing and copying skills but I might also have a chance to get my sight back," he answered and Layla's expression brightened.
"Anyhow, Ambor used these eyes pretty well. But his strength limited them. I think I can bring their potential to a whole new level. As for what I'm going to use it; unambiguously, I'm going to use them to get stronger. But, above all, I will employ them on the Original God and Devil."
"Why would you do that?" Layla was perplexed.
"Obviously because I want to know what I'm fighting against. When I fought the Guardians and the Pillars, along with their life force, I managed to collect the 'blessings' they had gotten from the Creators. But I couldn't get anything from it since I always had to destroy it. Instead, I learned how I could communicate with the Creators from the memories I collected."
"That's what I want to do," Arima stated. "I won't actually meet the Creators. Just enter in contact with them. And these cursed eyes will help me analyze them and understand them. I want to know what kind of being they are so I can destroy them," he said and looked at the pair of frozen eyes he was holding in his hand.
He ignited a fire and the ice cubes melted to let the visual organs come out. At the same time, the crimson pentagram reappeared on them and actively attempted to reject their current holder.
Arima smirked and crushed the negative response of the eyes with his aura.
"How are you going to assimilate that?" Night questioned while staring at the eyeballs.
"It won't be really hard," Arima replied and opened his eyes wide. "Maybe just a bit painful," he mumbled and didn't leave any time for his comrades to react. He grabbed the eyes and literally pushed them into his own.
Layla and Karma gasped while Night shuddered. Blood flowed down from Arima's eyes which he was covering with his hands. Soon after, a bright crimson light escaped through his fingers. It turned into a giant red pillar that pierced the ocean above.
***
At the same time, Malum who was leisurely strolling with Shakti stopped on his tracks. His expression twitched. He slowly rubbed his eye and looked at the blood on his fingers. He quickly washed it so Shakti wouldn't see it and furrowed his eyebrows.
'It actually hurts… what is he doing? How can something make me feel pain?'
Malum's body had been created with the Third White Art, Doppelganger. This meant that Arima and he had virtually the same body. If one of them sees their body structure change drastically, the other will experience the sensation coming with it.
***
Arima gritted his teeth and groaned. The man who had withstood the assaults of Gods and Demons without even frowning actually wanted to scream out of pain.
From the inside of the light pillar, countless pentagrams were drawn and threatened his very existence. The cursed eyes were trying to kill him.
"Quiet!" Arima shouted and his aura mixed with the crimson light. The pillar expanded and Night, Karma, and Layla were forced to retreat.
"Whether you want it or not, I'm your owner now. I name you;"
"[Maledictus Natus.]"