Chapter 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. 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 appeared behind those. It repeated itself until everything around them was completely covered by those tiny 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 spheres.

”These spheres are your other versions,” Triens declared and Arima frowned.

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

The two looked at each other with the small orbs in their hands.

”You just have to absorb it as if you were you gathering mana inside your pool. Go ahead,” Triens smiled.

Arima closed his eyes and the sphere dissolved into some strange liquid that penetrated his skin and flowed inside his entire body. It was the same for Malum, but the liquid entered his bones.

Just a second after consuming it, Arima's heart pumped harder and he fell on his knees. Memories, emotions, and knowledge were invading his mind along with great pain. Meanwhile, Malum's bones made a creaking 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' for you to absorb.”

”What?” Arima's eyes widened and Malum groaned. The former stood up and rubbed his temples in aggravation. ”Then this guy has an advantage,” he uttered while pointing at Malum. ”His entire being is something created from my unstable side of the spectrum, 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 lights that had appeared earlier became neat spheres.

Malum sneered and glanced at Arima before rushing inside the sea of 'lives'. Arima didn't even say anything to him as he dashed in the opposite direction and started amassing the spheres.

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

”{We have no way to help him absorbing all of those lives. The only thing we can do is what Lilis warned us about. We absolutely need to keep him company,}” Night solemnly answered and Karma fell silent.

Each time Arima grabbed a sphere, he would immediately absorb it along with everything that was inside. 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 so many things already. They were everything contained in the lives of his parallel versions. Each one possessing unique histories 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 considering that the number could possibly be halved thanks to Malum, Arima couldn't help but wonder how long.

How long would it take to assimilate every timeline?

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

Back in Hell, Michael opposed Lucifer's magic with one hand and parried Satan's sword with his spear at the same time.

”Well, your teamwork is improving at least,” 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 mana 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 cocoon protecting him from the explosion. He escaped the range of explosion and raised his spear toward the sky.

”[Heaven's Volley].”

A hole appeared in the dense assembly of clouds and a bright light illuminated a small part of Hell through it. Within the illuminated area, anything touched by the light started producing the same shine on its own. Arrows made of light then emerged from the affected materials.