Chapter 265: Cheer at life. (1/2)

”What the…”

Baphomet gawked at the endless garden; full of pulsing green vines, trees, flowers, and even graceful-looking wild animals. The air was filled with energy and lights of different colors floated around.

The sky and the clouds were replaced by an immeasurably vast ocean that held within it what seemed to be hundreds of stars as well as a very large emerald sun.

From time to time, 'below' the water's surface, a humongous figure could be seen sticking its head out before diving in again. The gigantic beast was intimidating enough to make one imagine it could swallow a planet as a whole.

On top of that, Baphomet couldn't ignore the seemingly immeasurable serpent that was literally lying down on some weird looking clouds to sleep.

”Rak-Loyra, Jormungand; the Divine Beasts…” Baphomet whispered. He had lived long enough to hear about them; not to mention that his father was one of them.

As the goat demon was trying to recover his mind, he heard a sound of wagging wings and looked toward the source.

It came from a magnificent beast that resembled a sky dragon. The creature had two pairs of feathered white wings, another layer of feathers on the rest of its body, and a final layer of scales over its belly.

Baphomet frowned. ”This energy; I recognize you. Weren't you Origin?”

Deva let out a soft growl of approval and flew away. She then looked back for a second and hinted toward a certain direction with her blue eyes.

”Hm?” Baphomet exclaimed in confusion and turned around to see what he had his back turned to for all this time. ”…Seriously?”

Arima said 'mansion'. This certainly could be called a mansion if you were ready to not nit-pick about it. The whole building was bigger than any existing castle. The exterior looked like an intricate fusion between a very high-tech house with a predominant presence of stained glass and a very refined monumental edifice with granite pillars and statues.

The overall structure of the house was quite geometrical and it was interesting to note that one of the 'cut', separated flat roofs, was currently used by Deva to sleep. Her place on the house seemed so natural that it felt it was made for her. Which wasn't incorrect.

Baphomet stared at the front door which was large enough to welcome even him. The walls around it were made out of pearl-white granite that had been engraved with diverse patterns going from a simple one like a flower to a majestic dragon. All symmetrical.

Baphomet also didn't fail to notice that everything had been enchanted to the very limit. There were even some materials that he couldn't recognize. The wood used was definitely not normal, the granite even less, and the glass seemed to be tougher than mithril.

The demon even felt somewhat pressured by the 'aura' the mansion exuded.

”Oh? We have a guest?”

A raspy voice sounded as someone opened the door. Baphomet almost choked when he saw who it was. He couldn't believe his eyes.

”What the hell are you doing… dad?”

Sebasfiel, in his butler attire, opened his eyes wide. He blinked as he scrutinized Baphomet. He then started laughing. A laugh that caused Jorga to wake up and Apana to stick his head out of the ocean to look at him.

”So, he revived you in the end, huh? Son,” Sebasfiel uttered and laughed again.

Baphomet groaned and his father finally began to calm.

”Ahem, sorry. I got carried away. Glad to see you alive.”

”Is that the first thing you have to say to your son after six thousand years?” Baphomet scowled and Sebasfiel restrained himself from laughing again.

”Both of us know that we're not that intimate,” the butler said and smiled with a solemn expression for the first time in a long while. ”But, I truly am glad to see you alive.”

Baphomet appeared to be surprised by his father's tone and grunted in response.

”So? Can you tell me what's going on?”

”What? Isn't it obvious? Didn't Arima tell you we're building his house? We're currently assisting Lady Layla. You can come too to give a hand. Well, although it's pretty much done now,” the old man said and then realized something.

”Oh, but before that, perhaps you may want to take on another form. Let's say that you're quite 'intimidating' on top of being too big, you would risk messing things inside. And, believe me, you don't want to see Lady Layla angry.”

Baphomet frowned, evidently confused about how someone could be scary for someone like his old man. ”What do you mean?”

Sebasfiel shivered as he thought about it. ”A few days ago; she ordered us to go fetch some Uyzre, the Stone of Life's Origin. It took us around twenty hours to find some. When we came back, we were quite exhausted, to say the least. It was Sir Malum that was carrying the stone. You see; that thing is heavy. Very heavy. Perhaps heavier than several galaxies combined. Sir Malum was getting annoyed by the weight and was about to let it go at the cost of messing the soil around the house a bit.”

”Then, a light instantly burst out of nowhere and Lady Layla was already glaring at Malum before he could even do anything,” the butler shuddered again. ”After that, I was too horrified to watch so I averted my eyes to not look whilst Sir Malum cried in anguish. Believe me, son, that man is stronger than me by far. Just think about that.”

Baphomet was inevitably surprised to hear that and stared at his trembling father. ”Alright. But that was his fault for trying to drop the stone…”

Oddly, Sebasfiel started shaking his head. ”Wait, I'm not finished. Did you know? Since we started the construction, not a single mistake was made. Do you know why?”

”…why?”

”Because Lady Layla would predict the mistake before it could even be made and would severely punish the one who was about to make the mistake. Mark my words, was about. They were not punished for something they did, they were punished for something they were about to do. Imagine how scary that is.”

Baphomet blankly stared at the old man and sighed. ”I got it,” he uttered and casually cast a magic on him. His body shrunk and adopted a more humane look. His legs were still goat-like and he still possessed horns, but the rest of his body was the one of a regular human. He had rectangular pupils and his black hair was so long it reached his knees.

”Enough?”

”Plenty,” Sebasfiel nodded and proceeded to look at something behind Baphomet. ”You were quick,” he said.

Baphomet's eyes widened as he turned around to see Arima followed by Baba Yaga and Loren. Apana who was swimming in the ocean emitted a cry of happiness when he saw him and Jorga similarly acknowledged his presence before going back to sleep with a yawn.

”Yes, it was a small trip anyway,” Arima replied to Sebasfiel as Loren next to him started inspecting the plants of the soul realm.

”…This is incredible,” the newly appointed gardener remarked as he brushed the leaf of a plant with his fingers. ”These plants are filled with life, energy, and even Laws. This is the first time I've seen so many gathered in one place.”

Loren appeared to be more fascinated by one single leaf than by the rest of the landscape. Baba Yaga was severely affected though. The moment she stepped inside the soul realm her expression froze.

Arima glanced at the two and shrugged. He left Loren and Baba Yaga to their antics before walking toward the entrance.

”Follow me, Baphomet,” he said and the goat demon raised an eyebrow before complying.

Sebasfiel smiled and opened the door for the two to come in. When he entered, Baphomet's expression twitched as his eyes slowly rolled upward. He could only see the roof after fully tilting his head backward.

The roof was at least thirty meters high and on top of that, it was also made out of glass, carved glass, that seemed to be impermeable to the heat generated by the light coming from the stars and the emerald sun outside.

The hall of the 'mansion' appeared to be the living room, which was, incidentally, gargantuan. To give a comparison, the room had more surface than any sports field on Earth.

Within it, there were many, many kinds of decorations and furniture. Fancy sofas, chairs, tables, gorgeous looking pottery, paintings, ornamental weapons; modern technology such as TVs, electric chandeliers…

But that definitely wasn't the most striking thing. In fact, there were actually some very big objects 'placed' in this living room. To be exact, they were hanging from the glass roof.

Those objects numbered a total of twelve. They were all things that you would not expect to see in a house. First of all, there was a full reconstruction of Tyrannosaurus Rex's skeleton. Then there was an old model airplane from Earth, an embellished Eion system, and other valuable pieces of history.

There was even a small crystal-like tree in the center of the room. Arima had personally gone to the Spirit Realm to take a seed from the Spiritual Tree to plant it. The one he had now in his home didn't have any kind of power compared to the original, but it was the most beautiful 'piece of art' you could ever find.

”…Hey,” Baphomet's mouth twitched as he spoke. ”This is going too far… I didn't see you as a pompous wealthy man who liked grand decorations. This place is a freaking museum already and we're still in the living room.”

Arima laughed lightly and nonchalantly made his way toward one of the couches and sat down. He laid his back and looked up whilst putting a lollipop in his mouth. He grinned.

”To be fair, none of this was my idea. Perhaps it was my fault though. I shouldn't have said 'I kinda want to build a house here' while I was next to Layla.”

Sebasfiel snickered. ”Indeed, Lady Layla was quite thrilled about this whole affair from the beginning until the end. Baphomet, you seriously can't even imagine how far this went. The house's size you can estimate from the outside is merely about one-thousandth of its real one. And it was just because of us doing our best to hold her back.”

”Apart from this main room, there's a massive training ground, a library containing already more books than I could ever read in my life, a tremendously big pool, a legendary-class kitchen, hundreds of rooms, an underground full of fixed spatial gates to anywhere in Existence… and I could go on like this for hours. And I will not forget to mention that this entire house has the functionality to shrink, from an external perceptive of course, and teleport itself anywhere the owner wishes.”

The old butler laughed and Baphomet sighed as he sat down on a couch in front of Arima.

”I'm lost…” He grumbled and stared at Arima. ”What the hell happened after that war? You're certainly not human anymore, or even something remotely close to a mortal.”

Arima snorted. ”Well, a lot.”

”Oh, Sir, I will tell everyone you're back,” Sebasfiel stated and disappeared.

Baphomet glanced at where his father was a second ago and turned back toward Arima. ”I honestly wonder how you got my old man to work so diligently as a butler for you.”

Arima chortled. ”He offered it himself. He said something like 'since you are Miss Ahura's brother, you are effectively as much as a master than she is to me' then became my butler.”

”What? You have a sister? Wait, more importantly, you said Ahura? Ahura Mazda?”

Arima laughed once again at Baphomet's bemused reaction and waved his hand. ”Let's keep the story for another day.”

”Yaay! Arima is back!”

”He is.”

Two voices then resounded as two children entered the living room whilst holding hands. One was a blond girl and the other was a black-haired boy. The two were evidently twins and seemed to be around twelve years old.

The one who first exclaimed Arima's name was the very energetic sounding girl. She wore a gold and silver dress and her complementing golden eyes were very cute. She was smiling brightly as she approached Arima.

The second, slightly monotonous voice originated from the boy. His dark red daunting eyes and deadpan expression looked a bit like Malum but in contrast, the boy was a lot more innocent looking and his eyes weren't really sharp, just uninterested and tired. Opposite to his apparent sister, he wore black and red attire.

The two children ran toward Arima and jumped on him without any warning. Arima sighed and shook his head. He grabbed them from the arms and made them sit next to him, one on each side.

”What were you doing, Azizos, Arsu?”

”We were helping Layla finish the amusement park!” The little girl, named Azizos, replied and Baphomet almost choked when he heard 'amusement park'.

”Hm, we were. She said we could take a break and that there would be a surprise in the living room,” Arsu complemented with his mildly indifferent tone.

”Yeah, she must have seen my arrival. Well, I was gone for only a few days. I had to go check something in the Spiritual Realm and I paid a visit to The Slanderer before fetching Baphomet and those two.”

Arima pointed at the entrance with his thumb when he said the last part. Azizos and Arsu tilted their heads and spotted the dumbfounded Baba Yaga, and the mystified Loren as he gazed at the miniature Spiritual Tree.

Baphomet mused as he stared at the twins in front of him. ”Arima, are they your kids?” He asked and Arima contemplated.

”Well, in a sense, they're my kids. But not in the way you're thinking,” he responded as he patted both the children on their heads. ”They are my 'creations' to be exact.”

”Don't tell me…”

”Yes, they're the sentient version of my twin guns.”

”I don't even know if I should make a comeback on that…”

”There's no point; so, don't. Anyway, these two are actually both stronger than you individually you know? And since they stayed even longer than Karma bound to my soul, they're very powerful at the moment. Arsu's bullets will track you to the end of time if necessary until you're hit while Azizos' bullets would literally pierce space-time as they attack you. Together, they form a scary combination.”

Baphomet quivered as he realized the threat of those two young-looking siblings.

”Oh, so you brought the goat guy already?”

Someone else arrived through one of the doors located at some sort of intermediary second floor. His casual tone and low-pitched voice pointed to one person. Malum walked toward the small group and took a seat.

”Malum…” Baba Yaga muttered. If she wasn't wrong, it was the name of the man who was about to be the father of Shakti's child. She curiously took a look at his features. A tall and muscular body, white hair and purple eyes. His facial features were very close to Arima's but at the same time, they looked completely different simply because of their respective personalities.

”Hm?” Malum felt the look and finally noticed the old witch's presence. ”Hey, Arima, why is she here?”

”Well, she will be our head maid from now on.”

”Head maid? Why do we need something like that now? That old man is already doing his job as a butler to perfection.”

”Take a guess,” Arima chuckled. ”I thought it was a good idea to recruit someone else to assist Shakti in raising your child, don't you think so?”

Malum clicked his tongue and looked away. ”So, you noticed.”

”Of course. Though Layla most likely learned about it before it even happened.”

”Yeah, I got enough occasions to taste her future-sight. You don't know how many times she got angry at me for something I didn't do.”

”'Yet',” Arima added and Malum groaned.

”Oh? Are we having a group chat?” Night joined the conversation as he and Karma entered from the front door.

”It looks like it,” Karma commented and waved her hand at one of the tables in the room. It was moved by an invisible force before stopping between the two couches everyone was sitting on. She then took out many different kinds of aperitives and snacks and put them on the table.

”Night and I are returning from a trip to Fiarosezten. Layla asked us to go buy as many ingredients as we could. Going from the most basic meat to the essence of a phantasma. Enjoy this.”

Baba Yaga and Loren finally made their way to sit with everyone. ”Fiarosezten?” The old woman inquired puzzled.

”It's a galaxy,” Arima answered whilst slicing a cake after he had finished his lollipop. ”It is the largest, most influential and powerful trading center of this Reality,” he explained as he tasted the sweet cake.

Baba Yaga's eyes widened in astonishment and before she could say anything else, Karma abruptly exclaimed, ”Ah! Right! Arima, you'll never believe what we found on the way.”

Arima tilted his head in confusion and Karma grinned as she pointed at Night next to her. He directed his eyes toward his soul beast and finally noticed something.

There was a small creature perched on Night's shoulder. It had small and almost cute claws. His tiny pair of wings wagged from time to time, and his golden scales shined with the light coming from the chandeliers and the emerald sun.

It was undoubtedly a baby dragon. But for some reason, the dragon had a very arrogant and aggravated look on his face that Arima didn't fail to recognize.

The corners of his mouth gradually crept upward. ”Hey, been a while,” he greeted the dragon as he did his best to restrain his laughter.

Night and Karma weren't an exception and were clearly amused by the situation much to everyone else's confusion except Malum who snickered.

The golden dragon snarled. ”Don't laugh. You better not laugh, you hear me?!”

His warning only seemed to fuel Arima's urge to laugh but he managed to calm himself down and forced a cough. ”I'm not laughing,” he uttered but then couldn't hold it back anymore and let out a snort afterward.