Arima scanned his surroundings with his purple eyes. With a never-changing expression, he lifted his palm and observed it.
A silver light formed above it then became fire, lightning, water, wind, earth, light, and darkness all at the same time. Arima clenched his hand and shattered the ‘light’. Then his body started generating silver lightning on its own.
"Silver, huh? So that's the final form?" He muttered and Lanya shuddered, Night wasn't an exception. Arima's voice sounded like it came from somewhere far and close at the same time, it was an extremely uncanny feeling.
He sighed and snapped his fingers. The sigil in his eyes spun once and shot out a blinding light. Under the bemused looks of Night and Lanya, the rocks and dust that were hovering around them vanished. Then, they suddenly felt the gravity coming back. They dumbfoundedly looked below. The planet was slowly being reconstructed as if time was being reversed.
When it was fully restored, Arima slightly moved and silently reappeared on the planet’s surface. Even Night who was staring at him wasn’t able to see through his movements.
Lanya and Night looked at each other and landed on the planet as well.
Arima glanced at them with a cold expression. "Night, prepare yourself. Once I release this, we'll both suffer an instant increase in life force. You better not lose control. Lanya, please shelter yourself."
With his words, Lanya was promptly teleported away. There was no obvious chant and his sigil didn't even activate. Just his will to move her was enough.
Arima exhaled and a silver aura cloaked him. His silver hair slowly crumbled away and his eyes also returned to their usual silver color, quite ironically.
When his appearance returned to normal and the silver aura faded away, both his and Night's aura dangerously erupted.
The wolf’s howl turned into the roar of a dragon as a sudden wave of energy entered his body and soul; one that tremendously surpassed what he had prepared himself for. Even Arima groaned and almost collapsed right there.
The place they were in started to be bombarded by lightning and fire. Lanya, who was sent hundreds of miles away, still felt the repercussions.
It lasted for a good hour before the two auras calmed down. Lanya hastily deployed her wings and flew toward Arima and Night.
When she arrived, the landscape hadn’t been destroyed or burned. To be exact, it was gradually dematerializing itself. Everything was transforming itself into particles. It was as if the matter had suffered damage over what was normally possible.
This phenomenon was occurring in a fifty-mile radius, and that was when Arima and Night did their best to restrain their power. If they had let it go wild the whole continent would have transformed in these particles and disappeared from the map.
When Lanya spotted them, she instantly perceived some changes. Night had become a bit smaller; he was now around ten meters tall. His horns grew longer, the mane that he had grown from his head to his tail was now even longer and denser and fluttered with the wind.
Meanwhile, Arima's changes were more minimalist but there was something that really struck Lanya. His height didn't change at all nor did his appearance. But something new appeared. A silver mark was shining on his back and exuded a really pressuring aura. The mark looked like a crown surrounded by eight elements, encompassed by a magic circle.
Arima scowled and took out both his coat and shirt. On his back, the same mark was glowing. But it only lasted for a few seconds before the light died down and left a sort of white tattoo.
While Lanya was doing her best to not stare at Arima’s bare body, the latter casually wore his clothes again. His coat was not shining anymore, but the mark was still on it.
Arima clicked his tongue. "[Restitutio] (Restoration)," he chanted and the coat’s fabric temporarily deformed to erase the mark.
"So? Can you explain what the hell just happened?" When Lanya finally landed near the two of them, Night asked. "What could possibly make you reach the Fourth Sky and me the Second?"
Arima scratched his head with a tired expression. "…When I fused the two spheres earlier, I tried to restrain the explosion that resulted as much as I could but then it backfired on me. Then, I somehow assimilated it and I became like what you saw. I assume that form is something that happens when you utilize that energy… let's just call it Omni Magic for now. Also, that mark on my back, I’d say it’s some kind of proof."
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Night frowned. "Can you return to that form?"
“I can. But in my current state, I can only hold that form for around two hours," Arima then smirked and stared at Night.
"…What?"
"Did you think about it?"
"About what?"
"Imagine if we resonate then use the Omni Form, death force, the One Thousand Parade, and finally, the limit-break."
Night and Lanya's eyes widened. The former rubbed his eyes and the sound of his claws scratching his scales resounded.
"Don't say such scary things, seriously… But that's some idea you got there; I admit that. The One Thousand Parade was impracticable before, but we certainly can do it now."
Lanya listened to them incredulously. She already knew that these two were in a completely different ‘world’ compared to her. But their conversation was still making her dumbstruck. And at the same time, she felt hat she didn't really pertain to this group.
Arima snickered and patted her shoulder. "Don't worry about that. When you win against Velvet, I'll make you break through to the Earthen Realm," he declared and brought her out of the dimension. The trio reappeared inside the Inn. Night had obviously shapeshifted beforehand.
"Well, I'll go to sleep now," Arima yawned and said. "That thing was exhausting," he complained and went to his room.
Lanya faintly smiled as she watched him.
***
Heaven has no outer space. Everything composing the sky is actually closer to an illusion. But on special occasions, the sky of Heaven would welcome stars. Those stars represented individuals or marked events. The birth of a Silver Emperor was one of them and by looking at it closely, you could see underlying secrets such as the identity of the one behind it.
When Zeus saw the silver star appear in the sky, he promptly noticed the lingering traces of death behind it. It was undoubtedly a Death Hunter. He looked back at Karaskan with a really thorny expression once the star had stopped shining.
The Mad God laughed. "What's wrong Zeus? Scared?"
Zeus grunted and waved his hand. At his command, every god behind him surrounded Karaskan. Only Azes remained immobile.
Karaskan sneered and pulled out a peculiar gemstone from his storage. "I just wanted to greet you. I have no intention of being captured here."
Black lines formed on Zeus’ forehead when he saw the strange stone. He actually had no idea of what it was.
Karaskan grinned. "It's something I found in the depths of Heaven. An Original Relic. Too bad for you. I found it first old geezer," he uttered and crushed the stone with his hand. The fragments entered his body and merged with his flesh and bones. He then disappeared just like that. Without any magic or space fluctuation to speak of whatsoever. He just vanished.
Zeus gritted his teeth. "Form groups and search everywhere! Find Karaskan!" He bellowed and the weaker gods complied.
"Shouldn't we also find out about that Death Hunter?" One of them asked Zeus.
The God of Lightning shook his head. "It's not the time to get involved with a Death Hunter. He is the fourth one to appear but all of his predecessors were crazily powerful and vicious. Furthermore, only one of them managed to become a Silver Emperor. Someone bearing that title has transcended magic theory. It’s not someone we should trifle with.”
“Even if he’s considerably weaker than us at the moment, getting rid of a Life Hunter in the first place is tricky because of the Life Judgment. We need to prepare for it in advance," Zeus stated and Azes inwardly sighed in relief.
***
In an outlandish garden, where no wind was blowing and life stood still, Lilis was sitting down cross-legged in the middle of a small pond. She placed her palm above the water, parallel to the surface, and quietly chanted.
The water started to become agitated and the color gradually changed to red. At the same time, a deep and chilling laugh echoed in the whole garden. When Lilis witnessed that, she almost yelled in shock.
"T-this is…" She stuttered and was doing her best to not get away from the pond in fear.
"This phenomenon… is only supposed to occur when the Garden is investigating a criminal's past."
Then, an image slowly arose on the red liquid’s mirroring surface and Lilis concentrated on it. When the blurry image became clear, she realized it was depicting a crying baby lying in a Moses basket.
Lilis noticed the eyes of the baby that were identical to Arima's. This would mean that the Garden was indeed looking at the correct person, and Arima was really a criminal in its eyes if the water’s color remained unchanged.
Lilis took a deep breath and touched the water again, commencing the rewind.
***
The next day, Arima naturally returned to the PA. He didn't care nor knew about what was happening in Heaven after all. He just continued his side job.
This time, there was a new promising student that Arima found the day before. It was an elven boy, his name was Balan. He was around 17 years old. Surprisingly, he wasn't very strong with Spirit magic nor did he have good affinities with other elements. But he had shockingly mastered Life and Space magic. So, Arima obviously added him to his ‘special’ class.
Like every time, he sat down on the desk and Night laid down beside him, while Lanya sat down on the side, ready to listen. When everyone was on their seats, Arima actually pondered about something before opening his mouth.
"Well, you should all know that I will begin to talk about magic today. What I will mainly teach is how to use all of the different affinities existing. As you all know, there’s no definite magic. Most mages have their own magics. You can, of course, create magics for others to use but few actually do that. It is also quite complicated to do since you need to have a thorough understanding of magic circles, formations, and runes. So, if you want to learn that, you’ll need to ask for extra courses from me.”
Arima disclosed and his students nodded earnestly.
“Good. Now, I have eight different elements to go through, then seven others. So, the order doesn't really matter," he said and looked at Lena who was at the front row. "I’ll let you decide. Tell me, what do you want to begin with? You can also be a bit selfish and chose your own specialty if you want."
"Eh?" Lena was a bit flustered to be suddenly called. When she heard the question she started thinking, then her eyes shyly fell on her sister. "…I choose light," she whispered and Ofia smiled.
Arima smiled. "Fine, we'll go with light first then," he said and conjured a small sphere of light and made it float in mid-air.
"First, I need to remind you that there are two different ways to use magic. The first one is first-degree application. You directly use the property of the element you're using. In light's case, you can irradiate things but also burn things if you concentrate it enough.”
“Then, there is the second-degree application, which we also call magic theory. The magic theory is something that is usually abstract. Once again, if you take light as an example, the simplest magic theory you can make are things such as purification and revelation."
"Magic theory isn’t always set and determined by the interaction with the world as some may think. The incantations, for instance, are very crucial for powerful magics to be used. But what is really important is how you build the spell and imagine its result. Also, I won’t omit to say that creating a custom magic formation can indeed boost the magic’s overall power."
"Now, starting off with light magic, I’ll teach you the different applications of the first-degree, then the second-degree application. It’s important and relatively complex. You can take as many notes as you want.”