Chapter 20: 20. “Next.”

After leaving the smithy, Arima visited Niria to tell her that he had finished and would leave.

 

"Please remember what I asked," she reminded him.

 

"Don’t worry, I'll bring the Pope to you. I want to talk to him anyway, so I won't kill him on the spot."

 

Afterward, he headed to the elven town and quickly informed Elia that he would commence his plan and then left for the capital of Terses. The elven King was one more time frustrated because he couldn’t meet him.

 

He unhesitatingly cast Atlantis and was already looking at the capital of the Kingdom merely twenty minutes after he left the smithy.

 

"That was fast," Night commented.

 

"Well, we have a job to do," Arima uttered and walked toward the capital. After entering the city, he went straight to the castle. The guards knew about him already and were told to unconditionally let him pass.

 

Of course, the King immediately arranged a meeting, not in the throne room, but a private one with only the royal family and him.

 

When he entered the room, he was greeted by the Queen and her daughter along with the King who was now back on his feet.

 

"You're Arimane, right? I'm Raol Terses, thank you for saving me."

 

"Don’t mind it too much, I did it for a reason," Arima waved his hand and replied to the King.

 

"I see, then what do you want?" Raol instantly cut to the point.

 

"Well, for now, I want you to cooperate with the Alliance and help their integration inside the human territory,” he said as he sat down.

 

The King furrowed his eyebrows. "How do you want me to do that?"

 

"Simple, just open the gates of your country and let them live here with the same rights as your normal subjects."

 

"That would be troublesome. You know as well as I do that some nobles won't accept and the slave dealers are quite influential as well."

 

"That’s not a problem. In two days from now, you won’t hear about them anymore," Arima declared as if he was just stating an obvious fact.

 

The King wore a difficult expression and the Queen paled. "That would pose a problem as well…"

 

"No, it won't. I will just make them ‘disappear’. I will not do anything with their possessions. You can prepare someone to take over their place. That should minimize the damages. Of course, no one will ever know what happened to those people. It’s not like I’m going to eliminate every noble in the country. But, be sure that I will completely destroy the slave trade system."

 

The King began to ponder. Arima saved his life so it's a given that he would accept one of his demands but getting rid of the nobles was too risky and some of them were not even in the capital at the moment. Also, the war was still going on.

 

Arima smirked. "You might want to know something else; the Emperor and the Pope will also disappear during this bloody week."

 

The King shuddered and gazed at Arima. "…Do as you see fit. In the first place, I’m against slavery and the chase of other races, that was just my father…" He paused. "I will give you the information that I possess about them as well."

 

"I will gladly accept. That will save me a lot of time."

 

Following their agreement, the King gave Arima a list of names and the place they were supposed to be. Arima thanked the King and promptly left. He also had coincidentally learned that the person who put that cursed powder in his meal was the prime minister who had already been executed.

 

Whilst walking away from the castle, Arima looked at the list and memorized every bit of data on it. There were fourteen nobles and slave dealers who were on this 'to be eliminated' list. Seven of them were still in the capital.

 

He waited for the night to fall. For the first noble, he chose the most influential one. Arima arrived in front of a mansion and halted.

 

"[Vitae Index] (Life Index)," he used a detection magic and spotted each resident. There were around twenty guards and ten servants. He saw that the master of this place was having some fun with a woman upstairs.

 

"[Ira]," Arima called and pointed his gun at the mansion.

 

"What are you doing?" Night asked with a puzzled look.

 

"Cleaning effectively," he then fired exactly 21 times in four seconds. He had to reload while doing it but it was so fast, thanks to the soul binding, that no one would realize even if they were to look closely. Of course, he had made a soundproof barrier around the gun before firing to avoid waking up anyone.

 

The bullets he fired pierced through the walls of the mansion and hit their targets, destroying heads and hearts. Right after, he conjured exactly twenty-one range circles that absorbed the bodies and blood and sent them into his storage.

 

The ones he had killed were only the guards and the noble, as for the servants he just sent a wisp of concentrated aura to knock them out.

 

Then, Arima burned the bodies lying in his storage and spread the ashes in front of the mansion.

 

"Next," he whispered and faded in the dark together with Night.

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***

 

After an hour or so, he purged every noble in the capital and the last target was a slave dealer.

 

While wandering in the streets under the night sky, Arima juggled with Ira.

 

"You seem to be having fun," Night casually commented.

 

Arima smiled. "Of course, it's fun for me to use this kind of gun. It’s a new experience which is also filled with nostalgy. Furthermore…" He smirked and looked at Night.

 

"How many can really say that they don't enjoy killing? Especially someone like me. No matter who it is, even the most innocent looking guy you can find has some violent urges. After a few kills, most will either fall into it or get used to it. I’m not saying you should appreciate robbing lives, but it’s just how humans are. They can be warm and cold, compassionate and cruel, clean and bloody. Killing is a primal instinct. And when that instinct is supported by our ideals, it is, undoubtedly, fun."

 

Night didn't respond.

 

Arima glanced at him and put Ira back in his soul. "Well, there’s only one left in the capital. But for this one, I will take a different approach."

 

A few minutes later, he arrived in front of another residence. This time he brazenly used the front door. The guard in front of it tried to stop him but before he could say anything his heart had been pierced and burned to crisp by a bolt of lightning.

 

Arima took Ira and fired in a random-looking way from an outsider’s perspective. But each of his shots were hitting a target and killed every single time. He leisurely walked through the corridors while shooting until there wasn't any guard left.

 

He stopped in front of a big door and kicked it open. The room behind looked like an office. There was a middle-aged man shivering in fear in the corner of the room. Arima walked to him, grabbed his collar and lifted him before slamming him against the wall.

 

"Look at me in the eyes," Arima uttered. His voice sounded almost metallic and could barely be considered human as it was closer to a growl.

 

Then, a blue flame ignited in his pupils. "[Penitentia Conspiciunt] (Penance Stare)."

 

He chanted and the slave dealer wailed in agony before turning limp and dropping on the ground. After his death, his eyes had literally been turned into stone.

 

Arima actually had taken the memories of this man and killed him in the process. What he wanted to by doing so was information about the groups that helped him set up his slave market. He figured that he might as well take care of those too.

 

He took care of the bodies and rejoined with Night who was waiting for him in the basement of the building. When he reached the bottom of the stairs, Arima spotted numerous men and women who were barely wearing any clothes.

 

Night was melting the cuffs and taking care of them. Most of them were beaten and full of bruises. Some women were even pregnant and they definitely weren’t so before being captured.

 

When Arima arrived, he separated humans and other races in two groups, he teleported the group of demi-humans to the elven town. He had already discussed a set-point of transfer with Elia. As for the humans, he healed them a bit and let them go wherever they wanted.

 

And just like that, Arima destroyed seven of his targets in one night without any sound or trace.

 

"Night, you go take care of the different bandits working for the slave market while I kill the rest. We should be done by tomorrow night if we clean the other cities and towns as well."

 

Night nodded and returned to his dragon form. He flapped his wings and turned into a red light that flew off. Arima moved afterward and teleported to the nearest town.

 

***

 

The next night, Arima and Night reunited at the capital. The two of them alone had gotten rid of forty-two slave dealers and racist nobles, along almost a hundred different bandit groups, in just two nights. Both of them had also encountered at least two A rank level opponents.

 

Another thing all of this resulted in was Arima's mastery of space. If he needed three seconds to transfer before, now he only needed one second.

 

"Going to sleep," he said the moment they were relieved of the first part of the plan.

 

"What are you going on about? If you wanted, you could stay awake for a month," Night retorted after turning back into a wolf.

 

"No, I need sleep. That's on the same level as my sugar intake. And even if I can sustain my body with mana, I'm still human and I have a brain. So, sleep is still important and advised," Arima said and rented a room at an Inn.

 

He didn't go to the Wing's Nest because he already knew that Aria had accepted to fight on the front lines.

 

"Anyway, we fight a country tomorrow," he uttered and laid on the bed.

 

"Yeah, sure. You'll most likely finish it in one day," Night quipped and Arima snickered.

 

"Maybe," he didn't deny but his voice contained a certain incertitude. "But if that Pope can do what I think, then it might be a bit problematic."

 

Night’s ears perked up when he heard him say that. Although he knew that there was always someone above, he was sure that there was no one on this continent that could match Arima. Even more if he accompanied him.

 

Arima grinned. "I hope it will be a bit fun at least.”

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