Life Hunter

The King frowned, "Talk?"

"Yes. About you all, of course," Arima answered as if it was obvious and pulled out a snack in front of all these important figures.

"Oh, yeah, concerning your previous question, I killed those people because I wanted to and they deserved it. As for your son, well, he deserved it too…" Arima paused and smirked, "But he still isn't out of danger."

Fayla was shocked and looked toward the prince who just shook his head to her and his father. He signaled them to not do anything.

"…What's your goal? You do not appear like the type who does things without purpose."

Arima looked at the elf who questioned him and tilted his head in wonder, "You're the Elven Priestess, right? If I'm not wrong you are… Karia Teria. An elf said to be pure and perfect beyond words. But, why do I feel so much evil within you?"

Karia's expression stiffened, "I have no obligation to answer you."

"Hm," Arima stared at her for a few seconds then suddenly exclaimed in realization, "Oh, I think I understand now."

The calm priestess's expression finally changed but before she could say anything, Arima resumed, "Your question was spot on by the way. I'm the kind of guy who doesn't do things meaninglessly. But I'm also the kind which doesn't think much about the reasons. That's why; I'm simply looking for fun things."

The human King was slowly developing a headache. In fact, he had a tough time tolerating Arima's attitude. But he was aware that if a fight were to occur here, maybe he would win if the Elven Priestess and the Demon King's help, but the city and all of its citizens would get annihilated. The black lines on his forehead thickened, "What's your fun thing to do here?"

"Well, there are good fights, eliminating some trash (yes, it's fun), and finding 'things' that I'm interested about. That's basically what is fun for me," Arima replied in complete honesty.

"Now, why am I here? At first, I wanted to quickly kill my targets and then leave incognito. But some fascinating people joined so I thought I should talk to them."

"Is that us? Those interesting people?" The Demon King grinned and asked.

Arima glanced at him and returned the smile, "King of the Demons, Raal Zalda. Said to be the strongest man on this continent. How can you not be interesting?"

The situation froze in an instant. Raal and Arima stared at each other and engaged in a silent fight. A really discreet but suffocating aura came out of their bodies. In fact, it was more like intimidation and fighting intent. The chairs and tables cracked. Even the reinforced walls of the castle were being eroded although no one was moving and that the cause wasn't even true aura but a pure force of spirit.

The King and Karia observed quietly while Fayla and Drannoc had a harder time withstanding the pressure even as they helped each other.

"Please stop. Even if you were to only release your aura, this castle would get destroyed," The King interrupted them after a half minute.

Arima snickered and lowered his hostility, "I can make a dimensional rift, you know?"

"No. I won't accept to fight someone as he uses a massive amount of power to do something else. I'm sure your magic drains your mana massively," Raal instantly rebuffed the idea.

"Sure, no problem," Arima shrugged and didn't push him.

The King sighed in relief, "Is that all? This is what you wanted to do here?"

"More or less," Arima responded and looked at Karia with a smile, "Do you want me to get rid of it?"

The elf was stunned. Earlier, she only thought it was a coincidence but with that question, there was no doubt. She stared at Arima as if he was a monster. If she understood well, that man had discovered her secret at first glance.

Raal looked at the two alternatively in curiosity and shrugged. He turned around and walked to the door, "Arimane Blade, it seems you have something else to do for now. Come to the demon territory when you have time."

Arima smiled, "Sure." He turned toward the King when Raal left, "Can I ask you a favor?"

The King furrowed. This may be the day where his facial expression changed to most times in his entire life, "You're pushing it a little bit, don't you think?"

Arima laughed, "Well, I have to take advantage of this position of force."

The King groaned, "What do you want?"

"I heard that you need to be at the tenth level to be recognized as an SSS rank merc. I want that title," Arima stated. He thought that it would be useful to have his rank updated and an order from the Republic's King could easily promote him.

When the King heard his request, he considered it for a moment and pulled out a gold card from his storage which he threw at Arima. The latter caught it with two fingers and inspected it "…What is this?"

"The guild of the Republic is not the original one. I'm one of the five founders. The card you're holding is a privilege that can only be given by one of them. It's a Z rank card. The highest rank existing in the guild. Even if it's in the Main Land, you will be treated like a Super VIP. Try to merge that card with yours."

Arima did as he was told and pressed his own guild card against the golden one. The two shined brightly and merged together to create a gold and silver tag with his information on it. Arima flipped that card and played with it, "The Main Land, huh? It's true I thought of going there later. Thanks for that."

Arima then looked at Karia, "Shall we go? It was unexpected though. I thought that I would directly go to the demon territory after this," He muttered and then turned toward Night who had been silent from the very beginning.

"Hey, Night, can you tell Lilis to teleport with Lanya to the elven territory?"

Night nodded and closed his eyes. Arima looked back at Karia who was waiting awkwardly and beckoned her to stand in the circle he conjured.

"Wait," When they were about to transfer away, Night raised his voice, "Lilis said she can't."

"…why?"

"Because she doesn't know where the elf city is."

Arima blankly stared at Night, "Seriously?"

"Yes."

"And she calls herself a Goddess…" Arima grunted, "Go with Night. I'll go fetch someone. You can bring Night wherever you want. I'll teleport to him to come back," He said to Karia and disappeared just after.

Night and Karia looked at each other and nodded at the same time. They teleported at the same time and vanished from the meeting room.

The King, Drannoc, and Fayla exhaled.

"What just happened…"

It happened too fast. They didn't get enough time to recover from the situation, from the moment Arima appeared to the moment he left.

****************************************

In the outskirts of the spirit territory, Lanya was saying goodbye to Vinia. Arima arrived a minute ago and he was idly watching with Lilis.

"Take care," Vinia said to Lanya before glaring at Arima, "I hope you will make her happy."

"Huh? What?" Arima had already disconnected when he realized that those two were saying goodbye to each other for a minute straight now. He was surprised to be suddenly talked to.

"Ah, yeah, sure…" He answered without even knowing the question.

Lanya slightly blushed and smacked Vinia's head, "You didn't need to say that."

Vinia laughed, "I just wanted to make sure one last time. Also, you as well, be sure to not be reckless as you were decades ago," She retorted and the two girls resumed their dialogue.

Arima's expression darkened, "(Why do you need to take that much time to say goodbye to someone?)"

"It's maybe a feeling unknown to you, but that's how it's like to bid farewell to a friend," Lilis casually remarked.

"I perfectly know how it is. Thanks. But I keep it simple. I don't talk for ten minutes and say 'take care' while staying to talk afterward."

Five minutes later, Arima finally transferred with Lanya and Lilis and they reappeared around two thousand kilometers away.

They found themselves in a decorated room with Night lying on a couch as always. He seemed to have inherited Arima's laziness when he doesn't have anything to do. Some maids were serving a table where Karia was seated at.

The instant Arima's group appeared, the maids suddenly jumped back and circled Karia while facing Arima. They seemed to be trained to protect their master. Karia waved her hand to calm them down and ordered them to leave.

Arima's group sat at the table with her and began to serve themselves with what was on it.

"Arima," Night called and a large mountain of candies appeared in the room, "I found these while visiting the city. I guessed you would want some."

Karia was startled, "Hum… did you steal that?"

"Don't worry. When I took it from the shops, I left money at the same place," Night replied. "Most likely more than necessary on top of that."

Arima observed the mountain of sweets and his eyes sparkled, "Ooh, lollipops. That's my favorite. I didn't know they had it in this world." He immediately put one in his mouth before storing the rest in his storage.

At the same time, Lilis glanced at Karia and flashed a smile, "So that's why we're here, huh? It's not a bad idea." She commented and Karia trembled and gawked at Lilis. Not one, but two people saw right through her secret in a single day.

Lanya sampled a lollipop after asking Arima for one and tilted her head when she heard Lilis.

Arima chuckled, "Right, Lilis, I wanted to ask you. To be honest, I noticed it but I don't any idea of what it is."

Lilis smiled and gazed at Karia, "What she has inside her can be called a benediction, and equally, a curse. As you sensed it, it's the power of a Heavenly God. To be exact, this is a special 'gift' a god gave her."

"What kind of gift?"

"The Seed of Chaos. That's how they call it in Heaven at least. This Seed is something that was created by a wicked god. That god spread his 'gift' around the different worlds. It's not exaggerated to say that there's at least one Seed in every single world."

"What are its effects?" Arima asked as he enjoyed his lollipop.

"Gain of strength and intelligence. But more importantly, corruption. That's the effects. Someone hosting the Seed can acquire great power but with time, the darkness will engulf his mind and transform him.

Lilis looked at Karia in the eyes, "You should have some sudden violence rushes from time to time. Even against your own people, there are some times where your thirst for blood almost makes you go crazy. Am I correct?"

The elf slowly nodded with a rigid expression. Lanya was quietly listening and heard some really disturbing things from Lilis's mouth, but decided to not ask about it.

Arima mused, "Is there a way to destroy it?"

"Yes. I assume you want to absorb it to increase your strength, right? It's a good idea. It should be very easy. You just have to enter her soul and beat the Seed, then absorb it as if it was typical life force."

Arima hummed and laid back on his chair, "Still, that's something. Why would a Heavenly God do something like that?"

Lilis shrugged, "There's always someone like that everywhere. Gods are not perfect and do not escape that rule."

"By curiosity, what's the name of that God?"

"Oh, yeah. His name is well known in Heaven. He is called Karaskan, the-" Lilis was interrupted by a strong noise. She slowly faced Arima with an alarmed expression.

Arima had bitten so hard on the lollipop that it broke in pieces in his mouth. Or to be exact, the pressure of his magic and aura literally disintegrated it.

"What did you just say?" He grumbled with a threatening tone. His aura was dangerously rising and destroyed most of the objects in the room. The chairs, tables, sofas, and even the floor, everything was crushed to nothingness. A net of electricity came out of Arima's body and connected to the matter around him. Lightning covered the sky above the elven castle and thunder roared.

Lanya, Lilis, Night, and Karia backed away. They all stared at Arima standing in the middle of the room with disbelief written all over their faces. The aura he was releasing at the moment wasn't like the usual at all. Normally, his aura was calm and peaceful but it had turned into a chaotic stream of energy.

"Karaskan?" Arima muttered that name once and his face twisted in a way never seen from him before. Night was suddenly overwhelmed by a certain emotion. One that he never expected to feel coming from Arima.

Anger. For the first time since he came to this world, genuine anger appeared on Arima's face. No, maybe it was more accurate to call it rage.

"Karaskan…You were a god!?" He shouted in frenzy and his slaughter intent resurfaced in spite of himself.