Arima's group resurfaced in outer space next to a bright and mighty star.
"Oh, shit," Arima cursed and the green mist coming out of his body consumed a part of the star.
"Hey! What are you doing?!" Chulainn shouted and just after, Arima lost control over the peculiar power around him and the trio disappeared again.
This time, they ended up in the center of a planet and almost destroyed it before they went missing again. The last place they ended in, was shockingly the Heaven of that Reality. It looked a bit different from the one they knew. The main difference was unmistakably the large cumulonimbi transporting temples and shrines in the sky.
Arima, Chulainn, and Flavio crashed in the middle of the blooming flowers. They dug the earth and upturned the soil but they had no time to care about that.
Chulainn and Flavio distanced themselves from Arima as the green mist around him constantly opened space cracks. The noise it produced sounded like thick glass breaking apart.
Even Arima himself seemed to be affected as some of his scales were splintering and letting his blood flow out.
"Damnit! Will you stop, already!?" He shouted and punched the ground. A large chunk of earth instantly came out of the ground and formed a new chain of mountains.
In the center, he sighed in relief and stood up. He waved his hand annoyingly and forcefully closed the space cracks. "Done," he muttered and jumped out from the mess he had made. He landed next to Chulainn and dusted his robe. He also looked at himself and clicked his tongue.
Now that he wasn't an undead anymore, he had to be more careful about his body. And even if his body's regenerative abilities were enough to heal the small injuries he just suffered from in a few seconds, it wouldn't work for bigger injuries carrying more intent and aura.
"What the hell was that? I wasn't dreaming, right? We were traveling through space," Flavio raised his voice and Arima shrugged.
"You could say that it's what I used to fuel the Reality portals. It's a special formation I made inside my soul realm. I actually didn't expect it to become what it is now. But apparently, I can weaken and make my way through matter and time at my will. Essentially, I attained the power to manipulate space with my mind and body only."
"…Seriously?" Chulainn's ears were bending in random ways.
"Yes. But that power is tricky. First of all, it's very hard to control. Well, I got the hang of it I think, but you saw what just happened. My body could have been shredded to pieces. The other thing is that the core of the formation, the mutated neutron star, kinda acts like an engine."
"The more it is used, the more heat it will produce. Then, that heat will have no choice but to be evacuated to the water around it. Ultimately, if the water gets too hot, it will probably hurt my soul. So, I have to be wary of that."
"That's an interesting ability," Flavio commented but his eyes were not looking at Arima. It was the same for Chulainn.
"I can't say the opposite," Arima snickered. He cracked his knuckles and looked up. There was already an army of angels coming toward him. He opened his eyes wide and Natus revealed itself in all of its splendor.
"Hm, luckily, they aren't that broken it seems. Almost none of them are below the Heavenly Realm but none of them are above it either. Well, the leading gods likely have the power of the average transcendental."
"It's not that reassuring for me," Chulainn growled and Flavio rolled his eyes.
"Do you think it is for me? I might have been granted power by the Original God as a Pillar but if I'm not able to use magic against transcendentals, it's gonna be a hassle for me too," he sighed. "Why are we here anyway?"
"The Sanctuaries," Arima replied and the green mist appeared once more. The temperature suddenly increased; a lot more than earlier. "There are two special places in Heaven; The Sage's Chamber and the Time Garden. Together, they are called the Sanctuaries."
"I know what it is," Flavio frowned. "But no one can use the Sanctuaries unless they have the permission and aptitude for it. Even Ambrogio tried to visit them but didn't even manage to go through the entrance."
"Do I look like Ambrogio to you?"
"Well, obviously not, since you're the one who killed him if I may remind you," Flavio uttered. "When are you going to revive him anyway?"
"He aggravated me a bit so I'll do it when I feel like it. Anyhow, I will use those Sanctuaries. That's the only reason I came here."
"…Sure, I can understand if you want to go for it but why didn't you do it back in the other Reality? Heaven was maybe destroyed in your maternal Plane, but you could have gone to another easily."
"The reason is simple; because it wasn't at my level. The moment I'd try to enter them, they would come tumbling down in front of me. So, I thought that the Sanctuaries of this Reality might be a lot tougher and capable of welcoming me."
"What do you want to do with them exactly?" Chulainn inquired while observing the swarm of angels.
"I'll use the Time Garden to find the Pillars and the Guardians, then I'll go to the Chamber to collect the Sage's wisdom. There isn't really anything else that I can do. The Garden contains all past and future combined while the Chamber detains all of the knowledge in the universe. Who wouldn't want to use them?"
"I see… by the way," Flavio grimaced whilst sweating. "Can you tell me what the freak you are doing?" He questioned. The green mist around Arima had reached a stupid level of heat. The air was twisted and blurred while the ground was already pure lava. Flavio presumed that he would be fried to death if he were to touch Arima.
"I'm just trying to push this engine to the maximum output," Arima grinned and stepped forward. "Wait here," he said and kicked the ground. He then flapped his wings and reached the angel army in no time.
He deployed his wings to slow down and stayed stationary as he wagged them. The angels also stopped their advance when they saw him. His body was still fuming with a scorching vapor.
"Who are you? How could a mere beast with no magic power such as you infiltrate this sacred place?" One handsome archangel approached Arima with his haughty attitude. "Tell who your master is!" He ordered but then trembled and flapped his wings to retreat.
His subordinates behind him looked at him puzzled.
"W-what? How can your body be so scalding? This heat could kill…" He mumbled and Arima snorted.
"I see that you have your own 'God Tongue', that will help, I guess. I will leave you a chance," Arima spoke and slowly raised his hand. He extended his arm and pointed his palm at the archangel. "Give me access to the Sanctuaries and no one will have to die."
"What? The Sanctuaries? Ridiculous! Someone like you will not even get near them!"
"I thought so," Arima laughed and closed his hand partially as if he was grasping an invisible entity.
At that exact moment, every angel abruptly paled and shivered. The seven hundred of them stopped moving their wings all of a sudden.
"Fall," Arima stated and clenched his hand.
The emerald sun in his soul realm was getting bigger and smaller with each pulsation. He became covered by vapor as if he was a true fire devil. The temperature of his body was now higher than any star in existence.
He sneered and pulled on the invisible object he was holding. That casual action caused a tremendous result. Screams and cries resounded everywhere as white feathers fell from the sky along with countless blood-tainted wings. Afterward, the angels themselves followed and fell on the ground. Most of them because they had fainted.
Only a few tens were still hovering in the air with magic while gritting their teeth to resist the pain assaulting them. The archangel who was talking to Arima looked over his shoulder and bit his lip when he saw the gruesome view instead of his two pairs of pure white wings.
Arima exhaled more vapor and the beating inside his soul realm calmed down too as the temperature fell. He then locked his eyes on the archangel. When they noticed, the other angels advanced to protect their leader. For an archangel, losing four wings was something completely different compared to them.
Arima squinted and flapped his wings. The angels summoned their spears and conjured many destructive spells. They combined their force and formed a giant sphere of light. They launched it with great force toward the forthcoming demon.
That magic attack could have very well annihilated many planets if detonated. But Arima threw a punch and stopped its momentum. The angels couldn't believe their eyes and even saw their light become purple before being absorbed into the demon's body.
Arima's eyes glowed. "Thanks for the boost. Sadly, I can't throw it back. But I still can use it for myself."
Before the angels knew it, they had lost all of their strength and their entire upper body had been crushed and burned by a giant claw.
"You'll be nice enough to give me the location of the Sanctuaries," Arima stared at the archangel and grabbed the spear of one of the angels he had just killed. It was a magical weapon and it immediately changed its size to fit him. "After you're dead of course," he swung it and beheaded the archangel before taking his life force.
He folded his wings and landed on the ground. He gazed at the field covered by the unconscious angels and kicked the ground. He left afterimages as he cut the throat of each one of them.
When he finished, he collected the whole life force and condensed it into a physical orb which he handed to Chulainn. The latter grabbed it with his tail and groaned. He glanced at the terrain full of dead and mutilated angels and gulped.
"…Did you really have to kill them?"
"Don't worry about that. It's not your sin, it's mine. We're aiming for the subjugation of a Reality; we can't be lenient. Maybe after all of this is over, I'll resurrect them the best I can."
The Hellhound looked at the life force and sighed. "I hope I won't be haunted for this."
"You will never be guilt-free though. You can be sure of that," Flavio quipped and turned toward Arima while Chulainn was assimilating the life force. "What you used to tear off their wings…"
"Yes, you guessed correctly. It was space manipulation. Angels' power mainly comes from their wings. They also have a lot of nerves circulating in them. Enough force to tear them apart was the max I could do with this technique so I aimed for it," he explained and shouldered the spear he just had taken from the deceased archangel.
"Let's go this way. We'll go for the Garden first," he added and dashed toward somewhere else.
Chulainn finished his assimilation and kicked the ground the moment Flavio leaped on his head; leaving the verbatim depiction of Hell in Heaven behind him.