Chapter 110: Plane Guardian. (1/2)
Arima snapped his fingers and his soul gate that remained within the real world as a bridge between the realms opened again. An inversed vortex was revealed behind the doors. Then, like when they were pulled inside the soul land, everyone felt the same force trying to get them out.
Soon, they all disappeared from the soul manifestation. When Arima returned to the academy's arena, he looked up at the gate which was slowly closing. But just before the doors were entirely shut, a pair of red eyes peeked out from the vortex and a sinister laugh resounded.
Everyone shivered right then. They felt as if the devil had just whispered in their ears. They rubbed their neck because of the goosebumps.
In contrast to their reaction, Night and Karma stiffened and looked away. Arima clicked his tongue and turned around from the gate. He directly went to the portal to leave. The soul gate then disintegrated into white particles without any additional incident.
”We will head to Cross Island in two days. Rest well until then,” Arima said whilst waving his hand.
Chulainn stared at Arima with an odd look as he exited the arena. Arister and Lanya both looked at his back too, obviously noticing his strange behavior. Lanya was greatly bemused. It was the second time she didn't recognize Arima in his actions.
The first time was when she saw him emitting genuine hatred and this time, the emotions she recognized were worry and annoyance. That thought made her falter. She directed her sight toward the now-vanished gate and squinted her eyes. Why would Arima be worried about something originating from his own soul?
”Lanya, come here,” She then heard Arima's voice calling her. She trembled and rolled her eyes toward the source. She noticed afterward that Arima had already 'reset' his expression and was completely calm. As always, his composure was astounding. Lanya smiled wryly and hurried to follow him through the gate.
Velvet silently watched until Arima's group left. She also sighed in relief when the miniature dragon on her neck jumped off. The small beast also strangely stared at her, it smirked and snorted before turning into silver particles. A vein popped out on Velvet's forehead and even Natsu's expression twitched. Was that the ego of Arima's magic?
The Lawless Tome was actually very demeaning toward her because Arima said that he was craftier than a fox.
Velvet sighed and also left the place soon after.
”This signs the end of the local competition. The winning teams are Sir Blade's and Miss Venu's classes,” The announcer declared.
The images displayed by the recording crystals were cut and the entire academy immediately started chatting and gossiping.
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”Okay, let's begin,” Arima said after bringing Lanya into another dimension.
Raal and Karia had tagged along because they were curious about what was going to happen. The students had been left to go wherever they wanted though and Arister followed them as well.
”The reason I made you battle Velvet was that I wanted time to analyze your soul during your fight. I could have let you fight Karma or Night, but in those conditions, you'd never really 'open' your soul to the fight,” Arima explained and shrugged.
”But, well, when the principal asked me if I could do something about the stage, I thought of my soul realm. I then realized that I may have been able to inspect your soul as long as you were in it, no matter the opponent.”
Lanya could only smile bitterly. Night sighed and shook his head. Karma just chuckled. The rest simply thought that it was like Arima, relaxed and laid back. Lazy at times but beyond serious at others.
”So, what do I do?” Lanya finally asked.
Arima smiled and summoned Ira. He ejected the magazine and loaded a new one. He then took a transparent bullet and forcefully put it in the chamber by pulling the slide. Lanya observed perplexed.
”Don't worry. You don't need to anything,” Arima declared and pointed Ira at Lanya. He then shot without any warning. Lanya's eyes narrowed but she didn't feel any threat from that bullet. Its speed was also relatively slow for her level.
She didn't move and the bullet landed on her chest and went through her heart. There wasn't any resulting blood or even a scratch on her. But Lanya couldn't reflect on it before she suddenly lost consciousness. Behind her, a huge figure started forming.
Gradually, the body of a hundred-meter-tall silver noble dragon appeared. Night reacted quite strongly at the presence that had just emerged from Lanya's soul. He abruptly felt the urge to kneel down and pay his respects.
The silver dragon opened his dull eyes that reflected wisdom and awareness. His huge pupils locked on Arima. The dragon sighed as it slowly lied down on the ground.
”You again… So, you noticed after all,” The dragon spoke with a sluggish voice but it was strong enough for Raal and Karia to fall on their knees. To their surprise, they couldn't even control their bodies anymore. Karma and Night could barely withstand it.
Meanwhile, Chulainn frowned as he stared at the dragon.
”You are Chronepsis…right?” He asked hesitatingly. He sounded odd as if he was trying to convince himself.
Arima smiled when he heard Chulainn say that. His guesses had been proven.
”You are Kanryin's son, huh?” Chronepsis muttered when he spotted Chulainn.
The Hellhound was now completely lost. He knew about Chronepsis because, as the Guardian of Hell, he memorized almost all of the Earthen Gods that ever existed. He also knew that Chronepsis was supposed to be a typical Dragon God. But right now, he was under the pressure of an aura even stronger than his own.
”I thought that it was strange,” Arima's voice resounded and Chronepsis turned toward him. ”I asked Lilis about it before. To be an Earthen God, you need more than simply breakthrough to the Earthen Realm.”