The moment Arima used his Red Art, the fight took another turn. With just a thought from him, the ground crumbled under Kerberos and the earth tried to trap him underground.
At the same time, the rain water condensed and became small deadly projectiles. While Kerberos was sucked in by the soil, stone spikes would continuously emerge and try to stab him. The wind was also doing its part of the job and formed a tornado that attacked the Hellhound as lightning relentlessly fell on him.
The world was literally turning against him and Kerberos was stunned. Arima was doing all of this by just thinking. As he was being buried even more underground whilst being attacked by all elements, the Hellhound’s sigil glowed and he started chanting for the first time.
"[I am the Guardian of the Gate]."
"[I have been Bestowed this Title]."
"[I will Bear its Law and Bidding]."
"[And Return Death to the Purgatory]."
Kerberos roared and the crimson flames around him burned stronger before generating a massive explosion. It repelled every attack coming at him.
Arima observed as the flames overthrew the earth and formed a mushroom cloud. When Kerberos jumped out of the deep ravine, one could see that he had undergone some changes. His fur was no longer black, the color turned out to be the same as his flames. The blood-colored fire was now stronger and each time Kerberos took a step, the ground would melt within milliseconds.
Arima felt the temperature increasing. The earth started shaking even more and fissures started opening everywhere around the continent. A downpour even stronger than the previous began. Liters of water kept falling from the sky; causing a massive flood.
Meanwhile, the seawater that had been pushed away before returned as gigantic tides. Those tides invaded the continent and drowned everything. It looked like they weren't going to stop at all. They almost seemed to be driven by an external force.
When the water arrived, Kerberos scowled and everything near him naturally evaporated. On the other hand, Arima casually flew up and didn’t do anything at all as the water was avoiding him as if it was scared of him.
Kerberos leaned forward and started running as steam appeared around him. He traveled miles in just a second before conjuring multiple fireballs that began to fall like meteors. Arima simply stared at them and the water under him produced tentacle-like streams that directly hit the fire.
Kerberos was shocked by that. His fire should be in another realm of existence compared to some seawater. The moment the two touched, the water should have been instantly vaporized.
‘That magic… it's not only made to ‘maneuver the world’. Every element that fall under his control will also be enhanced to his affinity level. This guy is now casting grand scale magics by just thinking.’
The three heads snarled and Kerberos jumped. His mouths were leaking flames as if they had replaced his saliva. He roared and a massive wave of fire, a lot bigger than the ones before, invaded everything in front of him in a thousand miles radius, including Arima.
That fire was out of this world, but there was one place where it was being interrupted. When the blaze calmed down, Arima reappeared surrounded by ice, water, earth, wind, lightning, all at the same time. At first glance, it seemed like he couldn't use fire because of Kerberos. But the latter was seeing things from another perspective.
‘His magic made it harder for me to control my flames…’ Kerberos gritted his teeth. His muscles contracted and tensed, he kicked the ground and disappeared, leaving an afterimage. He found himself behind Arima and swung his paw at him, coated with crimson fire.
But before he could touch him, thunder rumbled, and all across the sky, an incalculable number of purple lightning bolts surfaced and struck him. The magnitude surpassed everything that Arima had ever cast until now.
Kerberos roared in pain for the first time and glared at Arima, his tail moved and the snake tried to bit him.
"Too late..." Arima muttered and the ground was elevated to form a gigantic wall between him and the Hellhound. It was at that moment that the ground throughout the entire continent started tumbling down. The whole continent was now sinking. As the shaking continued, most of the continent was already underwater and the mountains were slowly plummeting as well.
The wall Arima had created collapsed and the two opponents silently observed each other while standing on water.
The sea was carrying Arima as if he was its master, there was no need for him to use any kind of magic. On the other hand, the massive Hellhound had steam around his feet. He was simply standing thanks to the pressure.
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The two stared at each other, under the heavy rain and the sound of thunder. They stayed like that until the last mountains on the horizon disappeared and the earthquake stopped. Now, the only sounds came from thunder and the raging sea.
Then, steam suddenly wrapped Kerberos' figure as he started running toward Arima. The rain was still continuously assaulting him and lightning was striking him from time to time. But he ignored the incalculable number of small injuries and charged without stop.
"[The Chains of the Guardian]," Kerberos chanted and ten small gates, miniature versions of the Hell Gate, materialized in the sky. They all opened at the same time and a glass-like chain exited each of them.
They wriggled in midair and surrounded Arima before closing in and coiling around him, binding him. Arima didn't even attempt to escape and closed his eyes.
Kerberos witnessed his load of strange things during this fight so he decided to ignore Arima’s behavior for the time being. It wasn’t like he would win if he continued to muse about what’s going on in Arima's head every minute.
While he was rushing at the still chained Arima, the sea started moving and became numerous dense streams of water that targeted him.
Kerberos expected that and candidly produced even more fire to counter it. A screen of vapor filled the area and then lightning fell again. The Hellhound’s body tensed for a second because of the electrocution but his sigil then glowed and rotated. He inhaled with all of his mouths and roared while augmenting his voice.
The soundwaves dispersed the steam and created a void on the water’s surface. Arima was too close and couldn't cover his ears in time. He was also concentrating on something else. In the end, his eardrums ruptured and blood flowed down from his ears. But even then, he didn't move nor tried to free himself from the chains.
Kerberos started worrying about what he was preparing. He once again gathered flames in his throats and spat out three jets of fire. But that fire didn't go toward Arima but flew past him and formed a pentagram in the sky.
That pentagram conjured a whirlpool of fire that encircled Arima. It seemed to be too powerful to be hindered by the raging elements. Arima finally frowned but didn't open his eyes.
The pentagram glowed and the whirlpool narrowed and slowly closed in on Arima. The chains of Hell binding the latter also tightened and Arima grunted. His bones were strained under the pressure and his organs were squeezed.
"[Final Judgment]."
"[Fall into Hell's Purgatory]."
Kerberos chanted and the blazing whirlpool closed on itself and transformed into a sphere. The pentagram slowly descended and ‘crowned’ it. Kerberos stamped and looked up at the sky with his three heads.
He took a deep breath and howled. The pentagram merged with the sphere and the two expanded until an explosion occurred and covered the earth and the sky.
Kerberos's howling became saturated by the sound of the explosion and his figure was shrouded by the flames. The crimson fire swallowed thousands of square kilometers worth of area. If the continent hadn't already sunk, it would have been incinerated.
The explosion dispersed the clouds and transformed most of the water into steam. The rain was stopped and the thunder faded away as well.
When the flames died down, the water flowed back into the parts which had been vaporized by Kerberos's magic. When the sea finally turned calm, the sun illuminated the water and made it scintillate.
The Hellhound stood hunched on the water. This time around, his fire magic had been terminated and his three heads were panting. He was now using neutral magic to stand on water, and his fur had returned to its black color.
When the sun illuminated him, all of the injuries he suffered from Ragnarök were now clearly visible. He had injuries all over his body and blood kept flowing even now. His fur was actually reddish-black at the moment.
Kerberos felt like collapsing and sleep right there but he couldn’t as he gazed at something in front of him. It was a silver cocoon made of ice surrounded by silver lightning.
‘Don't tell me…’ Kerberos was stunned but when the cocoon shattered, and Arima got out, he dismissed his worries. Now, he was just utterly confused.
Arima was in a really sorry state. His whole body was still fuming and some parts of his clothes were burned to crisp. The whole area around his left eye was burned and the eye itself was destroyed. Arima glanced at his left with his remaining eye. His left arm wasn't just burnt, it simply wasn't there anymore.
He looked at Kerberos and smirked. "You really went all out on that final blow, huh?"
Kerberos looked at him with strange eyes. ‘What is going on?’ He suddenly got an ominous feeling crawling over his mind. An unknown sensation invaded his body and he then lost control over his magic as he fell in the water before starting to float.
Arima grinned. "Done," he said and the temperature plummeted. The water at Arima's feet instantly froze and the ice then spread at an unimaginable speed. Kerberos couldn't escape as his legs and a part of his chest and belly were trapped.
At that moment, maybe everything in a twenty thousand miles radius was completely frozen, possibly even until the bottom of the sea.
Arima raised his hand toward the sky and waved it down. A red dot flickered in the sky and fell on the Hellhound at extreme speed. That object was Karma under the form of a harpoon. She pierced Kerberos in the middle of his back and then came out of his body around his chest area before piercing the ice below.
The Hellhound roared in pain as he lost every ounce of strength in his body. He tried to ignite his flames again but failed no matter how many times he tried.
"It took me some time, but it was worth it," Arima declared and summoned Superbia before shouldering it. "I first prepared to freeze the water to a point where you wouldn't be able to move. Then I had to get Karma above you. But the most important thing; I had to get rid of your flames.”
“When you used that last attack, you relaxed a bit and reduced your dominance over it. I took your last magic head-on and ordered every fire spirit to leave this place. I forcefully extinguished the flames on your body then extracted the oxygen. I'm sure you didn't realize it because you don't need it to breathe anyway.”
Arima explained and Kerberos struggled to get out of the ice and pull Karma out of his body. Arima then took a step forward and a massive gravity field pinned him down and the ice cracked. He was dumbfounded. He couldn’t use any magic whatsoever.
“What… did you do?”
"I cut off your connection with the magic circuits. Normally, it’s supposed to just prevent you from recovering your mana. But if you mess around a bit with the internal connections in one’s soul, it’s possible to disable the use of magic. But, it’s an AoE kind of thing, so it’s the same for me. Well, to be fair, it also depends on the person if the magic works or not. It’s risky since I might end up in a situation where the enemy can use magic and I can’t.”
“But unfortunately for you, Ragnarök is not a continuous magic requiring my mana or my command to stay active. It's an infinite lasting-magic. Right now, for a hundred thousand miles radius around me, everything will eternally be under my control," Arima said and took another step; drops of his blood fell on the ice.
"Well, this is just a remote dimension anyway. I won't be able to come back here anymore if I cut the current link," Arima added and pointed Superbia at Kerberos' heart. "This rifle is loaded with an anti-matter bullet. I don't even need to use lightning to kill you with it."
Kerberos listened to everything and then, the three heads burst out laughing. "You're certainly a frightening fellow. But you failed to notice something. I made sure to take my precautions against you.”
The three heads grinned. The Hellhound showed his tail and Arima's eye narrowed. The head of the snake was gone.
Then, Arima felt a sharp pain on his neck. He looked behind him from the corner of his eye. He saw the huge maw of the snake opened behind him, with its fangs ready to pierce his neck.
Arima smiled and stared at Kerberos. "I didn't think that you could control your tail like this. It doesn't have a tangible presence and can even conceal itself... So, what do we do now? Should we make a duel of speed? Or wait who dies first? I see that your snake already put some of his venom inside my body. As for you, with Karma piercing your spine and vital organs, you will die soon. Your healing asset won't save you from my sword."
Arima stated and the two of them stared at each other for a long time. Even if Arima pressed the trigger faster, the snake would bite him. And the opposite case was also possible. But, if they chose to wait, the two of them would undeniably die together.