Chapter 131: 131. “The Wicked One.”

At dawn, Jin went to visit Arima because he wanted to discuss Aurorae’s next investments but what welcomed him was the most excruciating sight he had ever seen in his life. He almost cried himself when he saw Tieria and Scatha lying on the floor.

He then spotted a puddle of blood in the other room through a hole in the wall and gasped. He rushed toward Arima and checked his pulse. He sighed in relief when he felt the weak pulsations. But he was also deeply disconcerted by everything.

Who could have possibly done this to Arima who was basically a superhuman? He was even more confused when he deducted that an Eion explosion had occurred right in front of his friend’s chest and sent him crashing through the walls.

Jin bit his lip when he looked again at Tieria and Scatha. The former had a bitter smile on her expression and she was clearly about to shed tears before dying. On the other hand, Scatha’s face was filled with regret and her eyes were still wide open.

Jin contacted the other members of the squad and Haze before sighing. He glanced at Scatha and carefully shut her eyes with his hand.

When everyone arrived a moment later, Jin had already given first cares to Arima by bandaging and disinfecting his wounds. Haze immediately called a hospital they partly owned and told them to prepare a room for them.

While everyone was carrying Arima to the car, Moria received a call. When he heard what the other side had to say, his eyes narrowed and his expression twisted. He crushed his phone in anger as he stared at Scatha's body.

"What the hell happened?!" He shouted and everyone was shocked as they rarely even saw Moria getting irritated.

The squad learned later on that the Walker orphanage had been attacked by a single person and that hundreds of children had been killed. Only a hundred more had survived. Most of them were the staff that managed to hide with the younger children inside the bunker.

When they got out, the old headmistress, Jane, hurriedly called Moria to inform him that the culprit was Scatha. Because the latter was deceased, Moria couldn't ask for an answer and had to wait for Arima to wake up. But he still prepared for her funeral along with Tieria and even Rocky.

***

At the local hospital, after Arima was brought there, a team of surgeons and nurses operated to save him. But what these doctors found in the process was nature-defying.

Arima's body was healing so quickly that it wasn't human. The surgeons also found a pair of Eion stones literally encrusted on Arima's heart. They scanned his body and found out that Arima's entire body was being filled with Eion energy.

That energy, although seemingly beneficial, couldn’t be contained by human tissues and was constantly being evacuated in the atmosphere. But, while doing so, Arima's body endured an unbelievable ‘upgrade’.

"Don't tell this to anyone else, understood?" Haze told the doctors who had conducted the diagnose when he learned what had happened with Arima's body. "But you would be welcome to our company. Call this number if you feel like it," he handed a card to the doctors with a 'friendly smile'. Since he had teamed up with Arima, he always dealt with this kind of interaction and he was getting awfully familiar with it.

The doctors also got the underlying message that they should join that company if they didn’t want to be a possible target of surveillance or assassination.

"Bring him back. I don't want him to wake up in a hospital," Haze ordered the soldiers who were waiting in the corridors of the hospital. The staff and patients heaved in relief when they left as it felt like the place had just been raided by the army.

***

Arima woke up two days later in the company's main quarters. The moment he opened his eyes, his expression suffered several changes until he barely managed to stabilize by covering his face with his hand.

He stayed like that for almost half an hour until someone finally entered his room. The nurse who was coming to check on Arima froze when she saw him covering his face. And when he shifted his eyes to look at her, she yelped and fell on the ground.

"What’s wrong?!" Haze barged into the room when he heard the nurse's voice and also stiffened when he noticed Arima. He had already sat up on his bed and his upper body was entirely wrapped in bandages. He was glaring at empty space with sharp and dull eyes that appeared to wish the death of anyone crossing them.

"…Come, get out," Haze huskily spoke to the nurse and helped her stand up. She looked at Arima one last time before hastily exiting the room. "Arima, I’ll come back," Haze added but the man in question didn't even react. Haze merely nodded and closed the door.

Arima only stood up after ten good minutes. He looked at his bandages and tore them. He stared at the huge and strange scar he had on his chest.

He gritted his teeth and shouted as he kicked his bed. The bedstead immediately snapped and was sent flying across the room before shattering the wall-wide glass. Arima gazed at the broken glass for a moment. This place was twenty meters high.

Arima visibly hesitated about something but shook his head and even got mad at himself for considering it. He scanned the room and sighed. Some of the killing intent in his eyes had faded but the anger didn't diminish at all.

He started getting dressed and stopped moving when he spotted his coat hung to a chair. He grabbed it and saw the hole in it, covered in dried blood.

He stared at it with calm eyes and then folded it. He carried it with him as he left the room. When he stepped out of the room, Jin, Haze, and Moria were here to see him. The three of them felt relieved when they perceived his relatively calm attitude. They thought that, at least, he hadn’t lost control of himself. But at the same time, they were terribly worried about what was going to happen from now on. Arima had power and there was nothing capable of shackling him anymore.

"Haze, can you get this repaired?" Arima threw the coat to Haze and requested with a voice dreadfully colder than before. Haze nodded as he caught the clothing.

"Sir…Moria, was a funeral prepared? I’d believe you would do it," Arima inquired.

"I did. It's ready. We had planned to begin when you wake up," Moria answered and threw him a card with the emplacement of the funeral.

"Let's start now then," Arima declared and walked to the elevator without any other comment.

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The three soldiers looked at each other and followed him.

"Wait," when Arima was about to press the button of the elevator, Moria raised his voice. "Please, tell me. What happened?" He asked and Arima trembled but didn’t answer.

"You can't stay silent now! Tell me. Scatha slaughtered innocent children at Walker. I need an explanation no matter what!" Moria shouted with unmasked anger. But when Arima looked back at him, he suddenly felt as if his own fury was nothing.

"I don't fucking know what happened. Here's your answer," Arima frostily replied and pressed the button of the elevator. The doors closed and he descended to the underground parking alone.

He picked a bike among many and mounted it before turning it on with his digital imprint. At the same time, the gate of the parking opened and Arima drove out.

A few seconds after, Moria, Jin, and Haze came out of another elevator and watched as the gate closed. Haze sighed and chose the closest car. “Get in. We have to follow him.”

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

When Arima reached the funeral hall, all the people visiting it because they had been notified fell silent. In there, there were people from both the squad and Scatha's family which Arima met a few times in the past.

Arima didn't even address them and sat at the front. With a panoramic view of the two coffins, and even a small one for Rocky. Arima silently closed his eyes and waited. No one took the initiative to talk to him and Moria, Jin, and Haze arrived shortly after.

Moria talked to everyone present and announced that the funeral would begin. He then proceeded to call a priest to officially conduct the funeral.

A few minutes, a rather large group of people entered the hall. They were from the orphanage; mainly to honor Tieria. Jane was at the front of the group when and one of her workers went past her. She tried to stop her but failed to do so as the woman approached Arima.

"You! How dare you conduct the funeral of a criminal like her!?" She shouted with tears flowing down her cheeks and Arima's entire body tensed.

"Stop, Helia!" Jane grabbed her shoulder. "It wasn't Arimane who set up this funeral…" The old woman attempted to calm her but quieted down when Arima stood up.

He opened his eyes and coldly stared at Helia. "I don't care about what you think. I do not want to listen to your opinion. I’m here to honor my mother and that’s all you need to know!” Many people winced at how loud Arima’s voice got. His close friends were astounded as well. They never heard him speak so loudly. “What do you want from me anyway!? Do you want to act like a savage and mutilate her body!? Try to get near her coffin and I’ll snap your neck myself! Leave now!"

Helia quivered in fear and Jane had to drag her away. "…I’m sorry,” Jane whispered and went out together with her group.

After that incident, the funeral went on normally. Scatha's relatives made a speech in her memory and Arima barely listened as he silently sat whilst shutting off all of his senses.

Later, the bodies were not buried but cremated as wished by the deceased and Arima remained until the end, even lingering for more than an hour afterward. When he left the hall, carrying three jars of ashes in a carved wooden case, everyone had already left.

"Hey," as Arima was leaving in the night, Haze called out to him from behind. When Arima turned around, he used his free hand to catch something that had been thrown at him. He inspected the object and saw it was Tieria's dog tag.

"Look behind," Haze said and Arima flipped over the tag. On the other side, Scatha’s information had been added.

Arima clenched it in his hand and hung it on his chain along with his own tag. "Thanks," he muttered to Haze and walked away. "Let's go, we have work. First of all, I want you to use as many resources as you possibly can to investigate a name; Karaskan."

Haze quietly followed Arima and didn't question him as he immediately noted down the name. He assumed it had something to do with what happened the day before.

Arima's eyes flashed coldly. "I'm finished being low-key. It's time to change things," he declared and Haze gazed at his back. He sighed and raised his head to admire the stars. He wondered what would happen from now on.

Ironically enough, the moment he lowered his sight, a shooting star raced across the sky.

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

In the Time Garden, tears were falling in the pond's water. Lilis tried to hold back but even then, she couldn't help but cry. She was the Goddess of Worldly Emotions. Typically, things like that shouldn't affect her so much but at the same time, she could understand and empathize with humans better than any god could.

She was close to Arima, she considered him as a friend and maybe even more. She wholly felt the emotions he experienced that day as if they were her own.

His mother had annihilated everything that was precious to him before killing herself in front of him as if it was a performance. How wicked could this be?

What destroyed Arima mentally was that he loved both Tieria and the one who murdered her. When he witnessed Scatha end her life, he couldn't bear the shock anymore and changed forever.

As Lilis was slowly recovering her calm, the Time Garden began to act strangely.

"Hahahaha," the dark laughter resounded once again but this time the voice started talking. "It's the birth of The Wicked One," it stated and burst out laughing again.

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