Life Hunter

Karma giggled and jumped toward Arima. The latter casually took a step to the side and she ended up landing behind him.

"Why did you dodge?" Karma looked back at Arima and pouted.

"Why would I let you hug me?"

Karma sulked and glared at him. "I've been with you for a centenary now. Why can't I hug my master?"

"In case you forgot, you've just been reborn as a woman. A hug is uncalled for."

"Hm, I wasn't just going to hug, I planned to give a kiss."

Arima stared at her with a deadpan face. "That's uncalled for."

Karma groaned and glanced at Lanya who shuddered. The former katana leaped once again, so fast that Lanya couldn't escape, and hugged her whilst grinning. "As I thought, the contact with a physical individual is a very fresh sensation," She whispered and slowly let Lanya go.

Arima sighed. "So that was your motive?"

"Yes, of course," Karma smiled as she looked around. "Where is Night? I want to see him too."

"Night, huh? He must be training with Arister right now."

Karma chuckled and kicked the ground. The sound of air's uplift was deafening. Her speed was maybe equivalent to the tenth level.

Arima shrugged and walked to follow her. He had used a lot of his mana and was too lazy to use more power than necessary.

"Hum, Arima?" Lanya came up to him from behind and raised her voice.

"Hm? What's wrong?"

"She is Karma, right?" Lanya asked while tilting her head. Arima smiled and nodded, which peaked Lanya's perplexity. "How did it happen? Why did she take the appearance of a woman?"

"Well," Arima mused for a moment. "First of all, the main reason Karma has acquired a body is that she's my soul weapon and a transcendental one at that. The connection with my soul was probably enough to give her a human body when I made her sentient. As to why she appeared as a woman, it's because of you."

"Me?" Lanya was confused. "Why?"

"The reason I called you earlier was for the 'programming' process. I'll be honest with you, I'm not confident of creating a 'sane' personality with my own. So, I chose to let you do the main tweaks so that your spirit would be left there. In the end, our personalities mixed together and mutated into that," Arima explained and shrugged. "Well, I still don't know exactly what kind of personality she ended up with though," He added and sighed. "I'll teleport us after all."

When Arima and Lanya reappeared after the transfer, what they saw first was Karma playing around with Night in his pup form.

"Karma, stop. Please, seriously. Can you stop already?" The pup kept saying that but he seemed to not have the strength of brushing the other party off. He had been tricked into taking his wolf form and now he couldn't run away.

"Ah, you're so cute in this form." Even though Karma was petting him and sticking her face to him, the only reaction Night showed was a frown.

Since those two were respectively a soul weapon and a soul beast, they naturally got along very well, almost like family. Perhaps calling them a couple wouldn't be too far-fetched. And in front of Karma, Night seemed to be somewhat powerless. In fact, technically, Karma was considerably older than him. Although she had become a human barely a few minutes ago, she had existed for a hundred years already.

"Hm," Arima observed with squinted eyes. "So it's that kind of personality, huh?" He commented and Lanya laughed lightly. She then spotted Arister who was sitting not far, silently looking at the Karma-Night pair with a slightly heavy expression.

"What's wrong?" Lanya asked to him.

Arister glanced at her. "…That girl, who is it?"

Lanya looked at Karma and Night as they spoke with Arima through telepathy.

"That's Karma," She smiled and simply answered.

"Karma? You mean that guy's sword?"

Lanya nodded, "He used the manufacturing method of the dungeons to give sentience to her."

Arister frowned. "So that's the reason…"

"What do you mean?"

"I feel like that girl is not human… but at the same time, she seems to be filled with life. It's kinda weird." He scratched his hair and bitterly smiled. "At first, I thought she was a homunculus and almost believed Arima had experimented on human lives. I guess I went a tad too far…"

Lanya gazed at Arister with an amused look. "You were worried, weren't you? Do you consider Arima as your friend?"

"Why the heck do you ask so suddenly?" Arister scowled at her. "…He practically forced me, but, yeah. I consider him a friend. At least, I know that he is someone you better make a friend of if you have the chance."

Lanya chuckled and looked at the trio 'playing' over there. "You're right about that. Although I'm quite weak compared to them, just being their companion feels like the best thing that ever happened to me."

Meanwhile, Night pleaded while being held by Karma, "{Arima…can't you just help me?}"

"{You don't need to, master, he's fine,}" Karma intruded the telepathic link between the two and replied in Arima's place.

Night's eyes narrowed. "{How did you hear that?!}"

"{Come on Night, I'm bound to master's soul, so yours too. The real question is why I wouldn't be able to do it?}"

Arima nodded whilst inspecting Karma. He had been observing her behavior to see if there was something strange but everything was perfect. She really was worthy of being described as a human.

Karma laughed wryly. "Master, it feels quite distressing to be examined like some kind of lab rat. Although I know it's necessary, it's still a bit too much…"

"Don't worry. I'm finished," Arima reassured her and ignored Night's cries of help. "Now, what you need to do is to get used to your new form, and also the transforming process between the two."

"Yes, master."

"By the way, stop calling me 'master'. It's awkward. 'Arima' is fine."

"Sure, Arima," Karma smiled. "I was waiting for you to say it."

Night fell silent and blankly looked up at the sky, accepting his fate. "(Wait…why am I not resisting to this crazy girl?)" He inwardly exclaimed and his expression darkened. "(Why!? I can't seem to be able to do anything to her!)"

"You should let him go, he will become crazy at this rate," Arima remarked when he noticed Night's state.

Karma mused and then put Night on her shoulder as the last resort. The wolf's expression twitched, but he ultimately laid his head on her shoulder with a sneer.

Arima snickered at his reaction then saw Arister and Lanya approaching. "By the way, you two, did you finish mastering the arts?"

Lanya shook her head. "I still have problems with the destruction art."

"It's the white art in my case. I never really used life or light magic before," Arister uttered and shrugged.

"Then, I'll be the one teaching you from now on," Arima stated and waved his hand at Night. "Instead, you will train with Karma. She has to master her new form. I think she can manage to go up to the first sky if she gets used to her human body."

"What?" Night blinked. "I feel like you just said something really unreasonable for some reason. Can you repeat?"

"You'll train with Karma," Arima didn't change his tone and affirmed. Night's expression greatly suffered though.

"…Why don't you train her? Why me?"

"Why not? It's fun to see you two together, get used to it," Arima retorted and brought Lanya and Arister somewhere else.

Night slowly looked at Karma and couldn't say anything in front of that playful smile. He groaned and jumped off her shoulder.

"Fine, I'll accompany you. But be careful, I won't go easy on you," He declared and turned into a dragon.

Karma calmly watched Night as his body slowly expanded and then smiled. "Of course. I hope you won't."

Night let out a chuckle flames escaped his mouth. "We really should pay attention as to not be contaminated by Arima's junkiness."

"I think it's a bit late for that, don't you think?" Karma replied and summoned a copy of herself as a weapon.

"True." Night smirked and deployed his wings.

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

"Let's start with you. Try to cast the Space Garden," Arima instructed.

Lanya nodded and inhaled. She invoked a ten-meter radius magic circle then started completing the magic formation.

"[Sub finibus tuis positi] (Under your territory)"

"[Quod interitus cadunt] (Destruction will fall)"

At that point of the chant, the circle became covered by a dark blue dome. Nothing could be seen through it.

"[Crescere pulchra flores sanguinis] (Grow beautiful flowers of blood)," On the surface of the dome, several red marks appeared, representing flowers being tainted by blood.

"[Fifth Destruction Art, Spatium Horti] (Space Garden)," Lanya finished her incantation and the dome shined beautifully. But a second later, she clicked her tongue and the dome broke apart. When it had totally disappeared, the ground was hardly damaged.

Lanya sighed and faced Arima with a helpless expression. He, on the other hand, immediately understood what was wrong.

"I see… It's true that I still didn't give any lessons about space magic, so it's natural. You must be seeing space as something that distorts the environment, or perhaps something that can cut through anything. It isn't quite right. You should consider 'space' in general as something that composes every matter. Space magic consists of interacting with the space contained in the matter."

Arima crouched and picked up a simple rock from the ground. "Look at this," He said and exhibited the rock. In the next instant, it split into out of nowhere. "I didn't cut it per se. To be exact, I made it self-break in two. Don't think of space magic as a weapon. It's a magic that directly interacts with an object and warps it."

Lanya's eyes widened and restarted the magic formation excitingly. In her head, she was reading the magic formation of the magic as she tried to apply what Arima said. This time, when she intoned her keyword, the dome didn't break and became fully decorated in dazzling red flowers.

Only when Lanya waved her hand and intentionally dispelled the magic did the dome vanish. What was left at its location was a ravaged terrain. It looked like someone had planted an incalculable number of weapons in the ground. On top of that, when the dome dematerialized, a whirlwind was formed.

It meant that there was an atmospheric depression. The Space Garden had actually even cut and destroyed the air itself. If someone was in there, he would have been turned into minced meat.

Lanya's expression brightened. "Thank you, Arima," She said happily. It was exceptionally fun for her to learn new magics and theories.

Arima smiled gently. "No problem. What about you Arister?"

"I can't control the fifth white art's final result no matter what I try."

Arima crossed his arms and pondered. "It shouldn't be possible though…" He muttered then pulled out a knife from one of his inner pockets. "It's been a while since I used these now that I think about it," He commented. It was also true that he didn't use those throwing knives much. They were even bound to his soul and extremely powerful. If he were to give one of those knives to a normal human, he could become a small tyrant.

Arima spun the knife around his finer and stabbed his arm. "Hey!" Arister raised his voice and Lanya yelped but Arima didn't even frown.

He leisurely smiled as he extended his bloodied arm. "Try to heal this with the white art."

Arister stared at him as if he was crazy and sighed. He pointed his palm at Arima and channeled his magic.

"[Illic 'uno modo tantum] (There's only one way)."

"[Ad nocendum, non mutabo] (To injure, you alter)."

"[Ut sana, vos credibile] (To heal, you reverse)."

"[Fifth White Art, Sana Intrinsecus] (Intrinsic Heal)," He finished chanting and the white light that had gathered around Arima's arm scattered.

Surprisingly, the injury had stopped bleeding and was even closed. Arima touched his arm with his right hand for a bit and his eyes brows were lifted.

Arister blinked and believed it was a good sign. "Did it work?"

Arima's expression twitched when he heard that. He turned toward Arister and 'gently' smiled.

"Huh?" Arister couldn't react in time as he was kicked in the stomach.