Chapter 151: You sure are an immortal. (1/2)

The gods were watching Arima's fight with trembling eyes. They were simply baffled by his power.

”What is going on?” Gabriel mumbled.

”I have no idea…” Michael responded dumbfounded.

”There's something wrong,” Azes suddenly remarked. ”He shouldn't be so strong just after the Life Judgement. On top of that, I'm not sure, but I think his life force level is barely at the early stage of the Third Divine.”

”Then how do you explain this?” Zeus retorted.

Azes shook his head. ”At first, I only thought that it was because he had become the 'Kind Demon'; a powerhouse in the same category as a god. But it seems I was wrong. It's not only that. From what I'm seeing right now, Arima has a lot of experience. A tremendous amount of it. Even more than me or any of us,” he said and Zeus frowned.

”Life Hunters become stronger by absorbing the lives of the ones sharing their identities across the Planes. We can assume Arima did the same. And that's the problem. I don't know how he did it but…” Azes paused. ”He somehow assimilated the knowledge and experience of his other versions.”

”What?” Michael and Zeus exclaimed at the same time.

”What do you mean? Isn't that the same for every Life Hunter?” Aphrodite was perplexed though.

”Are you crazy?” Zeus snapped at her. ”If all Life Hunters were like this, they would have never gone extinct. If this is true, he must have assimilated billions of years of lifetime. Not only his experience, his techniques, knowledge, magic theory... they all went up by several levels,” he said and Aphrodite closed her mouth.

Gabriel looked around and most of the devils had been apprehended or killed. Mostly thanks to Arima's zombies which could even create undead by killing people. Truthfully a terrifying magic.

It was also due to Vastra's death that they could finally suppress the devil side, since the people she controlled lost their strength all of sudden. Now, the only people remaining to defeat were the four Arima was fighting and Hades.

”…This is quite infuriating,” Baphomet uttered as he straightened his fuming body.

”Indeed…” Lucifer replied whilst holding his arm in pain.

Beelzebub just snorted as he regenerated. Asmodeus joined them in a really bad state. He had suffered a full-powered lightning bolt to the face after all.

Although these four were not really friends or allies in any way, they realized one thing. Arima wasn't an opponent that they could defeat alone. Their only chance was to cooperate.

Baphomet growled and kicked the ground with his sword over his shoulder. His muscles bulged and his speed and strength raised to another level.

His dark aura gathered around his weapon and he swung it at Arima. Lucifer also boosted Baphomet with his own magic and prepared to attack Arima directly. Meanwhile, Beelzebub and Asmodeus were surprisingly waiting.

To counter Baphomet's attack, Arima did something that not only shocked his opponents but also the gods watching.

He simply bent his body. Not only once or twice. His body bent in different ways as Baphomet kept swinging his sword at him. Arima had closed his eyes and was dodging the strikes with perfect accuracy.

The Evil God was frowning heavily. He slowed his movements down and focused on performing timed and unpredictable strikes. But even then, no matter how good his timing was, how fast he was, how accurate he could be, his attack always missed as if the time slowed each time to help Arima.

”Is that time magic?” Gabriel questioned with a solemn tone. For her, sometimes, it looked like there were two Arimas dodging at the same time.

”No,” Azes answered. He was the one with the most understating of time among them. ”In fact, he's not using magic at all. All of this is…”

”Martial arts,” Michael finished for him. ”What he's doing right now is pure body control. Every move he makes is devoid of any useless motion but nonetheless produce feigns that are almost illusion-like. His proficiency reached a mind-blowing level. It's likely that he could even fend off Baphomet with a single hand.”

As if to prove his words, Arima suddenly grabbed Baphomet's sword barehanded.

”[Terminus Confractus, CC] (Limit Break, 200),” he intoned and Baphomet immediately tried to pull back his sword. But it wouldn't even budge. His expression twitched but he took a decision in the blink of a second. He released the handle of his sword and placed his palms on the ground.

The earth cracked and a black fog escaped from the fissures. The next instant, it exploded into a large pillar of dark energy. Inside of it, Arima's eyes widened a little. He kicked Baphomet out of the pillar and lightning burst out of his body before breaking Baphomet's magic.

He then was struck by the dark-light that Lucifer had been preparing. Black and white spheres formed around him to form a circle.

Arima was about to swing Karma to destroy them, but he was a tad late. They all fell on the ground and burst in a devastating way.

The ground quaked and the sound it produced made the entirety of Hell shake. Arima was struck by the magic and a whistling noise entered his ears. He crossed his arms and then tried to get out by flapping his wings. But he then saw Asmodeus and Beelzebub among this chaos of magic, totally unaffected, rushing toward him.

”(Dark-light is 'unbalance'. Though, as much as it is unstable, it also knows how to make a difference. That's why its wielder can accurately choose who gets harmed or not…)” Arima browsed through his newly acquired knowledge and blocked Beelzebub's punch with Karma; causing the energy around to recede a little before it came back.

Arima scowled and outside of this discharge of dark-light, the skies lightened up and lightning started falling on Lucifer's magic. Normally, Arima shouldn't have been able to use magic within that formation of dark-light. But his control over 'Ragnarök' was absolute and cognitive.

He deviated Beelzebub's huge fist and cut his head off before kicking him away. He then parried Asmodeus's sword with his tail again. He drew Superore and aimed over his shoulder. The muzzles flashed with a black and purple light. Asmodeus was carried by the plasma out of the dark-light explosion.

Arima proceeded to unleash his aura to obtain some leeway. It felt like Lucifer's magic would never stop.

”[Abscondere tu in obumbratio] (You hide in the shadows),” he started chanting. A pitch-black mist, which absorbed the source of every light it touched, emerged from Arima's shadow.

”[Vos carnes edere, et privavit illas vitae suae] (You eat their flesh and rob them of their life).”

”[Est tempus ad crescere fortius et devoret] (It's time for you to grow stronger and consume).”

The mist suddenly expanded and pierced through the dark-light until it became a sort of fountain on top of it. Lucifer stared at it with narrowed eyes. The mist increased in volume and soon covered the entirety of Lucifer's magic. Not a single millimeter of black or white energy could be seen anymore.