143 What Is Going On? (1/2)

”You can start the Life Judgement now, Triens”

Arima's reflection reluctantly accepted his new name and started speaking ”It's quite simple actually. You two already are aware that it's a process where the Life Hunter absorbs his parallel versions from other planes. So, the real question is, how will this unfold?” He said and snapped his fingers.

Around them, in the thick darkness, small lights lit up and circled the three of them. Then, more lights appeared behind these. And it continued indefinitely until everything around the three Arima was completely lightened by those lights.

Triens waved his hand and two of the lights flew to his hands. He caught them and showed them to Arima and Malum. As they were looking at it, the small lights slowly turned into fine spheres and emanated certain aura ”Those spheres are your other versions” Triens declared and Arima frowned.

”As I said, the Life Judgment is quite simple” Triens smiled ”On the surface at least. Try it” He added and threw one sphere to both Arima and Malum.

The two looked at each other with the small b.a.l.l.s in their hands and glared at Triens ”What? You just have to absorb it as if you were you gathering mana in your pool. Try it” The latter smiled and said once more.

Arima clicked his tongue and closed his eyes, the sphere dissolved into some strange liquid that penetrated his skin and poured into his entire body. It was the same for Malum as the liquid entered his bones.

Just a second after consuming the thing, Arima's heart pumped harder and he fell on his knees. Memories, varied emotions, and knowledge were invading his mind along with great pain. Meanwhile, Malum's bones made a strange sound and he gritted his teeth as he suffered the same kind of experience.

When it finally ended, both of them were quite tired mentally but Arima was in a worse condition than his counterpart ”That's how you will fuse with your different versions” Triens stated ”There are exactly 174,685,928 'lives' to absorb in this place” He casually said.

”What?” Arima's eyes widened and Malum grunted. The former stood up and rubbed his temples ”Then this guy has an advantage” He uttered while pointing at Malum ”His entire being is something created from my darkness, his mind is a lot more suited than mine to withstand all of this”

”It's not my problem” Triens shrugged and retorted ”I'm just a copy of you created by an Owl. I will fade away after the Life Judgement. Whoever will take over the other is not my problem. My only job is to give you guidance for this ritual” He explained.

Arima clicked his tongue ”Of course” He muttered and Malum snickered.

”Looks like I may win this after all” The skeleton smirked and cracked his fingers. Arima glanced at him and scowled.

”You shouldn't drop your guard” Triens chuckled and commented ”Anyway, you have some work to do. I wish you good luck” He clapped his hands and his figure disappeared. Just after, all of the small light that had appeared earlier became neat spheres.

Malum sneered and glanced at Arima before rus.h.i.+ng inside the sea of 'lives' ”{What will you do? I'm sure you noticed that I can't connect my soul or spirit to yours since we entered his place. I can't help you}” Night suddenly asked and Arima didn't even respond as he also dashed in the opposite direction of Malum and started ama.s.sing the spheres.

”{What can we do?}” Karma solicited Night.

”{I don't know. We can only wait for him and talk to him if he needs company}” Night solemnly answered.

”{Company?}” Karma was intrigued by his word choice.

”{I think you'll understand soon enough}” Night responded and fell silent.

Each time Arima grabbed one sphere, he would immediately absorb it and everything that was inside. Completely ignoring the pain and, sometimes, the hard to take memories, he would force himself to continue. And even for him, after the tenth sphere, he was already exhausted.

His mind had been invaded by some many things already. Those things were everything contained in the lives of his parallel versions. Each one possessing a unique past with families, friends, lovers and their own abilities, experience, and knowledge.

All of this was too much for a single individual to bear. And even if the number could be halved thanks to Malum, when Arima thought about all of the spheres remaining, he couldn't help but wonder how long.

How long would it take to a.s.similate with every timeline?

**********************************************

Back in h.e.l.l, Michael blocked Lucifer's wave of energy with only one hand and blocked Satan's sword with his spear at the same time ”Well, your teamwork is improving” The archangel commented and pushed Satan away with a kick before thrusting his spear at him.

But Lucifer came and parried the spear with his own. The fallen angel then gathered his magic and made it explode in a powerful combination of light and darkness magic.

Michael's wings glowed with a bright light and folded to form something like a coc.o.o.n protecting him from the explosion. He went away from the range of explosion and raised his spear toward the sky.

”[Heaven's Volley]” A hole appeared in the dense a.s.sembly of clouds and a bright light illuminated a small part of h.e.l.l through it.

In the illuminated area, anything touched by the light started producing the same s.h.i.+ne on its own. And, as if it was a portal, arrows made of light emerged from the affected materials.