A high-pitched noise resonated and spread across Arima's soul realm. It even escaped its boundaries and not only Malum but also Shakti and the others heard it who were far away, some even Planes away. It even reached Ahura who was resting under Yggdrasil. She opened her eyes and turned to look at the man standing not that far from her.
That man was Ambor and he was trembling as he recognized the source of that sound. His eyelids were closed and there was nothing behind them. He had been revived inside Kymestuos and quickly released after having been judged. He wasn't the only one; Baba Yaga, Loran, Khione, Thanatos… Almost all of them had suddenly resurfaced out of nowhere with their life force purged.
Even Ahura had no idea about how it worked. "Ambor," she raised her voice. "Don't even think of bearing hatred toward him. I am enough for that. There's no reason for you to try taking revenge."
Ambor clenched his hands. "I don't hate him. I'm just frustrated. I should have been killed anyway. I should be happy that I'm alive," he released his fists and sighed helplessly. "And… I actually believe that he's the only one capable of bringing out the full potential of my eyes," he muttered. "…I suppose I can only live as a human now."
Ahura closed her eyes again. "Sebas," she called and the old butler appeared right next to her and bowed.
"Did you request my presence, My Lady?"
"I want you to assist Ambor and the others. If they want to go somewhere, help them," she instructed and Sebas nodded in understanding.
Ambor bitterly smiled. "Thank you for your care," he said and went toward the other Pillars with Sebas. Ahura breathed in and sighed. She couldn't hear the high-pitched sound anymore.
***
<< Integrating. Maledictus Natus. Terminated. >>
Arima heard his own voice inside his head. The crimson light died down and he stood up. Red electricity sparked around him and his aura caused a shockwave that blew away the dust surrounding him.
He slowly opened his eyes and once again heard himself talking mechanically.
<< Analyze of existence. Complete. Law of Life. Release. Break. >>
When his eyes were half-open, he abruptly opened them wide. Two pentagrams were immediately projected from his eyes. They receded afterward and shrunk until they became a mark on his irises.
<< Results. Failed. Conclusion. 40%. Terminated. >>
The pentagrams spun and vanished when he blinked. His pupils returned to their usual silver hue. Arima frowned and covered one of his eyes with his hand, then did the same thing with the other.
His mouth twitched. He cast a magic on himself and a blue light covered his eyes for a second. His expression darkened and he conjured a sort of transparent barrier in front of him. He waved his hand and started deforming it peculiarly.
Night, Karma, and Layla stared at him strangely. His actions looked silly to them. Arima ignored them for the meantime and his expression kept becoming more infuriated as he altered that barrier.
"Goddammit…" He grumbled and shattered the barrier.
"It needs to be a physical one," he grunted and waved his hand and a piece of metal along with a small plate of glass materialized. His sigil glowed and the two materials shined before fusing. It became smaller, then the shape gradually started changing.
The three onlookers dropped their jaws, dumbfounded, when they recognized the object he was making.
"…Arima, what the hell are you doing?"
"What?" Arima turned toward them with an annoyed expression. "Isn't that obvious?" He uttered and grabbed the object he had just made. It was a pair of glasses. A simple pair of corrective glasses mounted on a black frame.
He put them on, squinted his eyes, and gazed at his group. Layla stared back at him with a marveled expression. She looked like she had found the most valuable thing in the world. Arima sighed and grabbed the glasses before storing it in his soul.
Layla seemed to be disappointed while Night scowled. "What are you doing?" He asked. Arima shrugged and he promptly noticed that his eyes were not unfocused anymore.
"I managed to analyze the Law with Natus but I didn't manage to break it down completely. What I'm seeing right now is a blurry image. At best, I can only make out the shapes but nothing more detailed."
"I tried to use healing magic at first but it was a failure, then I opted to create a magic barrier that would change the way light and images are reflected in my eyes but the Law went against it and it didn't work. So, I tried using a purely physical object which had absolutely no magic inside and which could correct my vision," Arima explained, and his three companions were astounded.
Night snorted after a short moment then started laughing uncontrollably. Even Karma couldn't help but lift the corners of her mouth. Layla also smiled and covered her mouth to hold back her laughter.
"To think that one of the strongest humans in history, The Kind Demon, would be forced to wear glasses to be able to see," Night blurted out and Arima groaned. "Maybe it was better for you to be blind after all."
"Oh, shut up," Arima snapped. "I don't need to wear them anyway. I can perfectly fight without sight. I just have to use them when I want to know how something looks like…" He retorted and Layla raised her hand. Looking at her expression, it seemed like she was eager to say something.
"Can you put them back? The glasses, I mean."
Arima blankly stared at her and waved his hand. He put the glasses on for just a second. One more time, Layla's face brightened while Karma and Night snickered. Truthfully, those glasses suited Arima surprisingly well and that was the reason for Layla's amazement. With that in mind, they couldn't help but feel amused when they thought about who was wearing them.
"Alright, that's enough," Arima raised his voice and put the glasses away. "We're not going to lose time on this. Let me try something else first," he added and his eyes projected the pentagram formation.
<< Analyze of Existence. Complete. Law of Life. Release. Break. Success. >>
That same message echoed inside Arima's head. He still didn't know why it did that or even why it was his voice but he didn't really care. He immediately took a lollipop and put it into his mouth.
"Yep, it's better when you can taste it," he nodded approvingly.
"Of course. I'm still wondering how you were even able to eat something so unfazed without being able to taste it," Night calmed his laughter and commented.
"So, what do we do now?" Layla inquired. "Are you going to communicate with them?"
"Of course," Arima replied and sat down on the ground. The vines of his soul realm backed away on their own and the whole area became a flat ground. "It's actually very easy. It doesn't require a lot of preparation or even a lot of power."
"But because I don't want to be discovered by them too quickly. I'll try connecting to both of them at the same time," he stated and summoned two magic circles. One of them was white while the other was of the opposite color.
Arima smirked. "Hey, try to guess which circle links to which Creator."
"What?" Night scowled and Layla tilted her head in confusion.
"Well, isn't the white one for the Original God and the black one for the Original Devil?" Karma assumed and Arima chuckled.
"It's the other way around," he said and everyone was stunned.
"That's odd… why is it like that?" Layla inquired curiously.
"You see, black and white are merely colors. Well, only if you don't care about the annoying people that always want to say that they're not… When someone asks you about something's color and that thing happens to be either black or white, you're not gonna respond: 'It's white/black but, be careful, it's not a color, okay?' Who the fuck says that?"
"…"
"Exactly. No one. Anyway, I'm getting off track. In any case, they're just colors. But it's quite incredible how important they can be in magic theory. It's common sense if you think about it. The more something is close to white, the more you'll think about virtuousness and light. But the more something is close to black, the more you'll think about sinfulness and darkness."
"By this fact, those two colors have incredible power when you use them in magic theory. But they're also quite hard to handle and may sometimes fail to do what the caster wishes for because the distinction between good and evil is not clearly established."
"Tell me; when do you call someone evil? When do you call someone good?"
"What about me? I mainly use darkness magic. What does that make of me? A bad person? I presume you would say it's wrong."
"But what if you could see the 'color of my soul'? What color would it be? I made a certain theory a while ago when I was bored. It's the theory that you can define your own life and soul with colors. A bit like how emotions can be seen as such."
"The wicker someone is, the darker the color will be and vice versa," Arima pointed at the circles. "Look, these circles are really basic but are still connected to the people who are supposed to have created this universe. They are directly connected to them. It's a bridge between the humans' world and the mind of a Creator."
"With all of that in mind. Why is it like this? Why are the Devil light and the God darkness?" Arima put on his glasses and looked at his group. He saw them utterly confused by his words. He lightly laughed.
"It's a fundamental Law. One of equilibrium. There will always be something to counterbalance another. That's what the Creators are."
"They are the embodiment of light and darkness. But it doesn't mean that they are good and evil respectively. If you look at those circles, you can see that there's nothing else but white and black in both of them. That's not normal. Anyone with a sane mind will always have a part of darkness and light in them. Even if it's the most righteous man in the world, he will always have darkness in him."
"Light teaches you how to be compassionate while darkness teaches you how to be selfish. Imagine someone who managed to get rid of every ounce of darkness inside of him," Arima raised his hand and produced a sphere of light.
"If someone ever gets to do that, he will lose everything that makes him stray from the path of light. He will lose selfishness and cruelty. From that point onward, he will never be able to love anything, hate anything, care about anything… He'll just be on an endless quest to be a good person."
"Without love, he cannot cherish or share anymore. Without hate, he won't be able to swing his sword for his own sake. Without selfishness, he won't be able to survive for the sake of his own life. In the end, with no cruelty, the unadorned justice took over. He will kill, save, kill, save… endlessly."
Arima used his left hand to create a mass of darkness. "If you lose your light then you will never be able to be compassionate anymore. You will be thinking of yourself and about how to improve yourself. You don't care about others; you only care about yourself."
"In this case, you'll lose mercy and will always kill. But you will also lose justice and for your own self, you'll capture, enslave, build, and assault. You will spread war. But as a King, you'll rule. For your own self, you will be able to love and hate. But you will not be able to cry or regret."
Arima clasped his hands together and the two energies burst apart. His group trembled. "Look at that," he pointed at the circles again. "They are so simple yet represent a part of the Creators' essence. I just had to apply my theory of colors and," he looked at the circles through his glasses, and the pentagram was projected twice. "…use Natus to uncover these."
"Let me tell you, I don't know what those Creators are. I didn't even try to speak to them yet. But I already can tell, those two fell into the extremes. God became darkness because he has more blood on his hands than anyone else. Devil has become light because he's the only one saving people for his own sake."
Arima's eyes sharpened and he slowly lifted his glasses. "They are nothing like Gods. Maybe they are imposters. Maybe even they are a creation of something else… For me, they are just monsters," he verbalized his thoughts and watched as an invisible aura came out of the circles and formed the shape of an indescribable being.
Arima smirked. "That's what I call 'Vile Creatures'."