Life Hunter

Chapter 212: ''We don't have time for this!''

Aergia's eyes widened in shock and Raylein couldn't believe what he was seeing. Evangeline covered her mouth and Gilgamesh gasped. Flavio solemnly watched and Ganesha had stopped laughing, but his smile was strangely cheerful.

"Arima!" Layla shouted as she felt her resonance with him weakening. She flew toward him and supported him before he crashed on the ground. The two of them returned to their human form when their resonance ended.

Malum glanced at the place he saw Ambrogio being consumed then followed Layla.

"Hey, what the hell did you do?"

Arima slightly opened his eyes and that was the only thing he could do at the moment.

"I'm lucky I didn't die," he uttered. At the same time, Night reappeared next to him.

"You sure are," he crossed his arms and affirmed.

"Don't tell me you used another Law?" Layla grimaced and questioned.

Arima chuckled. "I did. I broke the continuity to kill Ambrogio before he could kill you," he said and Layla clenched her fist and seemed to be seriously holding back something.

"I honestly want to slap you right now."

"Haha, that would be fun. I support that," Malum laughingly approved.

Arima snickered and closed his eyes again. "A few minutesThat's how long I need to recover and absorb Ambrogio's power They're coming. Hold on until then" He faintly said then fell silent as if he had fallen asleep.

Karma changed back into her human form and crouched down next to him. She nodded at Layla and the latter stood up. Night sighed and started healing Arima the best he could.

"Let's go," Layla commanded and dragonized herself.

"Hey, I'm sorry to break it to you like this, but you are extremely weak right now. Without your resonance with Arima, you're a simple human at best, if not an insect."

"Shut up, will you?" Layla replied with an eye roll and jumped on Malum's back. "Just go already. That other guy will soon come out from my Soul Manifestation."

The skeletal dragon snorted and flapped his ashen wings. He rushed toward the place Shiva and Shakti had been downed. When he reached the place, a strong aura pressured him.

"[Resurrection]," he heard two voices chanting the same thing. Layla opened her eyes wide. Her pupils narrowed to a slit, surrounded by silver and green pigments. She immediately linked her mind with Malum.

The temperature in the area dropped considerably. They had already gone past the absolute zero. The undead dragon's 'eyes' burned stronger. A thin layer of ice was already covering his bones.

Layla exhaled a white mist. She looked around carefully then a light flashed past her eyes. Malum immediately moved and dodged the strike of the ice giant that had suddenly appeared without any sound or fluctuation.

Malum turned around and congregated his flames inside his ribcage. He roared and spat out a powerful wave of dark fire. The flames consumed the ice giant but another one arose and swung a sword at him, which he escaped thanks to Layla. Then a third one appeared, and another, until there was a whole army enclosing him.

"[Niflheim]," Shiva chanted from below them as he stood up among the ruins. His body had still two blatant holes and blood was still dripping. But he glared at Malum and Layla with unshakable determination.

Malum's body was also getting extremely heavy and the ice kept sticking to him. Layla who was on his shoulder was barely resisting the cold. Malum glanced at her and used his flames to help her.

"What do we do?" He asked.

"Get rid of the source," Layla responded and Malum grinned. He waved his hand and hundreds of large fireballs were formed.

"[Fifth Blue Art, Inferno]," he chanted and each fireball obtained a large mouth. "[Manducare] (Eat)."

The little fire monsters flew away and attacked the giants by eating them. Each time they took a bite, the fireballs would become bigger.

Malum then charged at Shiva without any care of what was going on around him. Shiva's eyes glowed and countless ice spikes emerged from the ground and pierced each fireball, destroying them. But they also exploded at the same time and engulfed a large number of ice giants.

Malum was about to hit Shiva with a weapon made of his own scales when he bumped against an invisible wall that dispersed his momentum. Shakti had produced a barrier to defend her ally.

"[A Mother's Gift]," she channeled the power of her Soul Manifestation and behind Malum, the ice giants that had been destroyed by the Fifth Blue Art were reconstructed and attacked again.

"{They don't want us to get close.}"

"{I can see that!}" Malum responded to Layla while fending off the giants' swords with his own. Each time he clashed with one of them, he would get even more frozen and pressured by the cold that was supposed to be ineffective on a body like his.

Layla inhaled and jumped off Malum's shoulder. She plunged toward Shiva and Shakti.

"Hey!" Malum exclaimed and turned around but he was then crushed by a giant hammer.

"Goddammit!" He cursed out loud whilst pushing the blunt weapon away. "If only the First Blue Art was still active"

Layla reached Shakti's barrier and placed her hand on it. Shakti furrowed her eyebrows and Shiva immediately cast his magic. Another giant was created and instantly cleaved Layla in two with its sword.

But both Shiva and Shakti froze in shock instead of being relieved. Layla's figure blurred and turned into a small white and black book. They shuddered when they saw that book, thinking that it'll explode once more.

But it was only a diversion. "[Fourth White Art, Ultima Forma, Magister Labor est Scriptor] (Final Form, Master's Work)."

They heard the chant but it was too late. Layla conjured her spell and intricate magic circles were revealed all over Shakti's barrier.

The latter panicked when she saw that. "This can't be! A magic capable of unraveling any kind of formation It's absurd," she stammered and her barrier was instantly broken as the magic circles composing it were all disengaged.

Malum cackled and pushed the ice giant away. He flapped his four wings and flew toward the two Guardians.

"[Berserker's Art, Inflammatio]," he uttered and cracks appeared all over his bones. Bright orange flames then erupted from them and made Malum look like a propelled rocket.

Shiva's expression darkened and a trickle of blood flowed down his lips. Shakti braced herself and clasped her hands together before waving them at Malum.

The skeletal dragon suddenly slowed down and appeared to be struggling to advance. Meanwhile, the ice giants were approaching and even the sky was getting covered in clouds that would soon make ice blocks rain on him.

'Telekinesis?' Malum was actually awed. 'This woman is pinning me down with just some telekinesis I can see that battle is not her strong point, and still, this is quite impressive,' he praised her internally and smirked.

"Not enough though."

The flames coming out of his body became even stronger and made a detonation sound.

Malum easily broke free and reached his targets in no time. He clenched his fists and struck both Guardians. Shiva and Shakti were sent flying for hundreds of thousands of miles before crashing and remodeling the landscape.

Malum wryly laughed. He had unconsciously held back for Shakti.

Layla gave him a weird look.

"That bastard is getting to me, I guess," he retorted and shrugged.

She faintly smiled and landed back on his shoulder, ready to resume the fight. At the same time, her canvas was suddenly torn apart and an intense light illuminated the battlefield. After it faded away, Victor's figure became visible. He was panting and quite obviously injured.

He rotated his line of sight then ruthlessly charged toward Arima. Layla tensed up but sighed in relief when her eyes caught the new future.

Night stood up and released his aura. He rapidly transformed into an Eternal Dragon and Karma transformed into a great sword for him. He gripped the handle and a constellation lighted up in the sky.

"[Fifth Cryptic Art, Aeterna, Stella Primum, Draco] (Eternal Night, First Star)," he chanted and swung the sword. A large wave of lightning-fire was thrown at Victor. Halfway, the wave transformed into a giant sky dragon.

Victor hurriedly turned into a shadow and tried to contain the attack with darkness magic but it was for naught as the dragon bit through it and exploded on him. Night then used every single bit of mana he had left to cast every reinforcing magic he could think of. He neared the Berserker's Path and his body started breaking down before reforming with his transcendence. His wings had already become nothing but fire and everywhere on his body, flames were coming out from the gaps between his scales.

He roared and used the Third Red Art to discard his defense. He attained an incredibly high speed and promptly made his way in Victor's direction. The latter was still recovering and couldn't react properly when Night grabbed him.

The Eternal Dragon panted and inhaled to cast one last magic. A blue glow spread out from his heart and his flames turned cyan.

"[Fifth Destruction Art, Spatium Horti]."

The dark blue sphere formed around Night's hand. The red roses bloomed and when Night pulled his hand out, and the magic had ended, Victor was nothing more than minced meat. The soul beast sighed in relief and fell on the ground before sitting down. Karma landed next to him and gently held his back.

"Shouldn't we stop them? Victor and Ambrogio already died I think that's enough. There's no point in letting them continue this pointless conflict," Evangeline raised her voice and everyone looked at her. She was obviously concerned and quite distressed.

"You might be right" Aergia spoke with a very composed demeanor. She was staring at the fainted Arima and so was the rest. "But I feel like we should let it end. If Shiva and Shakti die, it'll be their own fault."

"I rather believe that we should worry about how much damage and noise this whole affair has made," Flavio stated and put on a pair of glasses. He looked around and a number appeared on the lenses.

"Fortunately, this planet is tougher than an original land and most of the dwellers were strong enough to escape in time. But there are nonetheless exactly 35 billion 565 million 671 thousand and 308 casualties. Some remote planets were annihilated because of stray magic and aura. Adding a few tens of billion to the count."

Ganesha laughed. "That's some serious damage. But what do you mean by noise? Do you expect that someone will come now that we are weaker? Especially when we just lost our main way of getting an army, the First Vampire?"

Flavio pushed his glasses back and nodded. "Precisely. But before that, we have another guest," he declared and looked up at the sky. A sky-blue mist came out of nowhere and formed a spiral. A giant pair of reptilian eyes shimmered from inside of it.

"We don't have time for this!" A really deep voice resounded across the entire planet and Arima's eyes opened at the same time. His aura was abruptly released and it was at least several times stronger than before.