Chapter 161: 161. “I’m extremely selfish.”

Chronos's manifestation was the most terrifying among the gods. His power allowed him to stop time at will until he runs out of mana. Anyone faced with that ability would be scared. But the truth was that Chronos needed time to activate it and the quantity of mana it used was not small in the slightest.

Once the world gained a shade of gray, Chronos stood up and slowly walked toward Ifrit. He placed his hand on his shoulder and the Djinn regained ‘colors’.

He looked around and saw Chronos from the corner of his eyes. He tried to say something but no sound left his mouth. He groaned internally and could only charge at his target.

In a world where everything is stationary, no sound could be produced since there aren't any waves that can spread in the air. Even the vibrations of the earth each time Ifrit took a step would stop. Theoretically, one shouldn’t even be able to breathe or move since they would have to literally push the weight of the world to advance.

Chronos’ Manifestation was precisely made to ignore those downsides. Additionally, Ifrit could still produce fire as long as he fueled it with enough energy.

"{Well, you'll consume ten times more mana though,}" Chronos told Ifrit through telepathy.

The Djinn arrived in front of the gray tornado and unhesitatingly stepped through the 'frozen' wind. The ground-level shifted just after and he fell down in the middle of a crater. Right in front of him stood the huge body of Hephaestus who was trying to block the wind.

Chronos squinted his eyes. Karaskan had done nothing to help the giant. He already knew it since he had foreseen it. But he had also seen another possible future where Karaskan fought back and completely overwhelmed the gods' side. So, he was still wondering how it happened. Then, he thought of the only thing that he didn’t predict, the magic Layla cast.

"(That was a strange spell. Capable of distorting the world…)" He thought and nodded at Ifrit. The latter smirked and his body became surrounded by his flames. A mark glowed on his back and all of his fire gathered into his fists.

He inhaled and stomped the ground. Without hesitation, he punched Hephaestus's chest with all of his strength. The flames left his fist and stuck to the Demon like glue. The mark of his fist was incredibly distinct. And as expected, the duplication of damage made a dozen of others appear around it. It was a strange sight but Ifrit didn't stop there. He continued his onslaught and pounded Hephaestus.

Soon enough, the Demon had been covered in fist marks and odd wisps of flames. Meanwhile, Ifrit was exhausted and couldn’t maintain his Manifestation anymore.

"{Quick, I won't hold much longer,}" Chronos said.

"{I know,}" Ifrit responded and grabbed the Time God and flew away with him. His speed was a lot lower than before but it didn't pose a problem. He flew around the battlefield and caught everyone before taking his distance from the tornado as much as possible.

Then, as he was leaving, he saw something that shocked him. Chronos was astounded beyond words as well. In the distance, a black lightning serpent was making its way toward them. And what amazed them was that it was still moving.

It was evidently displacing in this world where Time was stopped. Chronos gasped. He couldn't delay it anymore and dismissed his Manifestation just before his remaining drop of mana was drained.

The flow of time returned an everyone retrieved their consciousness to see they were being carried by Ifrit, far away from the fight zone.

They couldn't think much about how the plan was a success before a tremendous noise drowned everything else. The giant white tornado was suddenly ripped apart and replaced by a dreadful explosion.

A mushroom even bigger than the one created by the First Blue Art was formed and the ground shook. The temperature rose considerably and a shockwave seemed to spread indefinitely. Both occurrences reached the gods' group.

Layla was the one with the most mana left and protected everyone from the aftermaths. Then her pupils suddenly contracted and Chronos displayed the same kind of reaction.

Barely a second after that, a black light flew by without even causing a small breeze. Its speed was something that even someone at their level would have trouble discerning. Layla smiled brightly and Chronos sighed in relief.

When the black lightning serpent reached the mushroom of the explosion, its form was released and Arima appeared with his wings fully deployed. The black serpent form he had just used was his best displacing-magic after reaching the Heavenly Realm. A full body conversion from atoms to electrons.

“Shit, this fucking box hindered my teleportation and the dimensional tear for some reason decided to fling me thousands of miles away. I’m not liking this day at all,” Arima complained as he summoned Karma.

“{That’s an understatement,}” Night quipped.

"[Evanescet] (Disappear)," Arima chanted and something happened that made Ifrit feel quite awkward. His flames quickly lost their strength as the oxygen was isolated. Then it started to rain, a chilling wind picked up, and the soil emerged from the ground to drown the flames.

A single chant had combined all of those magics and every last flame was extinguished in less than a minute. Arima’s eyes skimmed the place and locked in their target. He breathed in and flew toward it.

He gripped his katana's handle in mid-air while he was approaching the fuming Hephaestus who had at least half of his body obliterated and a melted hole in his chest. He wasn't moving at all and his eyes were lifeless.

But Arima didn't stop his charge. Although his mastery over Time magic wasn't sufficient to see in the future like Chronos and Layla, he could still faintly detect important 'turning points'. And this one was so big that even he, who didn't see most of them, could feel it.

He drew Karma out by a few centimeters and black lightning flowed out. But this time, in contrast with before, it was in an orderly way and as smoothly and calmly as a stream of water.

Arima exhaled and his silver hair fluttered before he disappeared and reappeared on the giant god’s shoulder.

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"[Saecularia Aeterna Noctem]," he unsheathed his sword and swung it in the same motion. His blade couldn't even be seen as it was already returned to its scabbard before anyone could understand anything.

Nothing else happened, no explosion, no detonation or lightning.

Arima casually jumped off the Demon's shoulder and landed lightly on the ground. Then, a weird sound was produced; a bit like wood being crushed. The head of the giant behind Arima slowly slid off and fell on the ground.

The mud-like creatures that were about to make of Hephaestus an even more distressing creature slowly crawled out of his head like parasites and died by Arima's lightning.

The Blacksmith God's lifeless body fell on its knees first then collapsed afterward, raising a big dust cloud. At the same time, Layla landed near Arima along with everyone else.

Arima returned back Karma to his soul and turned toward Layla. Even he was surprised at her appearance, not only he had to admit that she was beautiful but her entire presence was actually giving him some pressure.

"{That worked incredibly well,}" Night remarked.

"{Almost too much…}" Karma added and Arima's expression darkened.

He was about to say something but then stopped before asking something.

"…Should I apologize?" His word choice made Layla smile.

She shook her head. "No. You should not even feel guilty in the slightest. Both Lanya and Lilis didn't regret it. I know it," she replied and Arima rubbed his neck with an uneasy expression.

"Even so, this wasn’t supposed to happen."

"It's okay," Layla retorted. "Even if you had arrived earlier, you would have been weakened like the others and there’s no way to say for sure that you would have been able to save Lanya. It was Chronos's fault in the first place. Similarly, if you had triggered the First Art’s self-destruction earlier, Hephaestus wouldn't have been without Lanya's final magic."

Arima closed his mouth and stared at Layla silently with a strange look "You learned a lot…" He uttered and Layla chuckled.

"Yes," she nodded happily and Arima snickered. "Arima, I'm Layla from now on. I hope I can stay with you as such."

Arima smiled. "Of course," he then glanced at Chronos who was staring at him. "Something to say?"

The Time God shuddered at the cold stare he was inflicted with and looked directly at Arima. "I wish to apologize. I’m sincerely sorry for what I did," he bowed. "But even if I know what I did was despicable, I still think that it was the right thing to do."

"It was," Arima responded and Chronos's eyes widened as he looked up. But, Arima's eyes hadn’t lost any of their coldness, rather, they were even colder.

"Sacrificing one to save many is a correct policy… I used it myself many times too," he said and Layla turned solemn. "But you chose the wrong person to sacrifice. You see; I'm an extremely selfish person.” A portion of Arima’s killing intent leaked. “I’d kill millions to save someone dear to me."

Chronos's expression sunk and all of the other gods also stepped back. Only Layla had a smile on her face. It wasn’t bad at all to see the one you loved being angry for your sake.

"But, for now, there's someone who requires more attention than you," Arima stated and approached the beheaded Hephaestus. He crouched down and touched the ground where the shadow was. His arm got through as if it was a lake.

His eyes narrowed and lightning burst around him. He pulled back his hand in one strong motion and threw away the figure he had caught.

Karaskan grunted as he rolled on the floor and stabilized before regaining his footing. He grasped his bleeding chest pierced by the lightning and ignored the headache caused by the Lawless Tome.

"So, the Tome silenced you, huh?" Arima uttered with an emotionless voice and Karaskan looked back at him with a smirk. "A really smart book, isn't it?" Arima continued to talk as he neared Karaskan with steady steps.

The Mad God snickered and stood up. "Indeed. A cunning one. Are you going to kill me now, Kind Demon? Just like that?"

Arima sneered. "You will definitely die. But ‘just like that’ sounds way too easy, you’re right. You know, because of my agglomerated lives, my hate for you isn't as strong as it should be," Arima stopped right in front of Karaskan. His stature cast a shadow over Karaskan. "And it’s pissing me off."

"[Fifth Black Art, Penitentia Conspiciunt, Finalis Gratia]."

Arima glared at Karaskan in the eyes and his sigil glowed. Then, both of their minds were ejected out of their bodies and regained consciousness in a completely different place.

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