Chapter 205: 205. ”Appreciate.”

"Hm," Arima hummed as the last fragment of the original force was assimilated. "Interesting," he muttered and Raylein turned around.

"Did you get the answers to your questions?"

"Not exactly. I didn't have that many questions in the first place. I just understand things a lot better now," Arima replied as he analyzed everything he had just collected. While he was doing so, he abruptly stopped and raised an eyebrow.

"What's wrong?" Layla went to his side and tilted her head.

"Well…" Arima mused. "Raylein, I suppose the Pillars are gathering people to fight, right?"

"Of course."

"I happen to know some of them now," Arima stated and Raylein made a confused expression before opening his mouth wide.

"Oh hell, I didn't think about that! Who are they?!" He was quite agitated.

"Well, there’s a lot actually. But the biggest names are Odin, Anubis, Loki, Thanatos, Kronos, Apep, Ishtar…" Arima was listing them calmly but then frowned in the middle. "Those were only the helpers. For the Pillars of Elysium, there’s Baba Yaga, Harion, Ambor, and Afriose… they’re the only ones I could get from Yeion. He had apparently no idea about the rest."

"Among the Pillars, only Baba Yaga comes from a folklore I know. The rest is unknown for me," he added and Raylein groaned.

"It's just a bunch of evil gods and monsters."

"What about Odin? He's not an evil god from what I know."

"Odin is more of a mad god than an evil one. He just does absolutely anything in his power to impose his authority and ideals on others. I'm sure it wouldn't be hard for the Original Devil to corrupt him," Raylein replied and froze. "Wait… Did you say Afriose? Are you sure about that?"

"Yes, I am. That's I got from him at least."

"He's alive…" Raylein muttered and his eyes narrowed.

"Shit! We have to hurry!" He shouted and kicked the ground. He started running toward the exit of the tunnel. Arima's group followed him afterward.

"Hey, what's wrong?"

"Afriose is bad news! Really bad news! I thought that guy was dead eons ago."

"Who is it?" Layla inquired.

"That guy is a living curse! No, to be exact, he has been cursed so many times that he is the most hazardous being that has ever existed. He has been cursed by multiple divinities, he has cast curses on himself, used every kind of poison there is, mastered every dark art you could find and killed so many people you wouldn’t even be able to count them."

"Every time he moves, billions die. Heck, he could make an entire planet die by just stepping on it. That's why the Guardians took care of him back then. I don't know how he survived but if he's back, it's a huge problem."

"Why so? Are you all that vulnerable against his spells?" Night raised his voice and Raylein gritted his teeth.

"There is an ancient curse called 'Stavrós Astéri' which means 'Crossing Star' in Greek. This curse only appeared once in history. And as you may have guessed it, Afriose made it happen."

"Stavrós Astéri is a curse that activates when a certain phenomenon occurs; when all of the planes are aligned together around the center of their reality," Raylein paused to breathe in. "That curse is not particularly dangerous for us. But during that period, Afriose will be at least a hundred times stronger."

"Fine, when is the next Stavrós Astéri then?"

"In one week on the universal clock! Why do you think I'm speeding up!? The only ones who can stop that from happening are Shakti and Shiva! They are respectively the Third and Second Guardian. They should already be at Melumnia."

The universal clock was a common time measure for all of the planes. Each plane has a different time-flow and usually, you assign to each one of them a certain factor with which you can determine the speed at which time flows compared to the universal clock.

For example, Arima's world had a factor of 0.8. Which meant that time flowed 20% slower there. On the other hand, the factor for Melumnia was 1.8; 80% faster. Ultimately, the moment they arrive at Melumnia, they will have twelve days and a half before the Stavrós Astéri occurs.

"Can those two Guardians stop the curse in time?" Karma asked and Raylein nodded.

"Yeah. You can prevent the Stavrós Astéri from happening as long as a single plane is not aligned. Shakti and Shiva are the only ones who can shift a plane's position without destroying it, or killing everyone in it. Their powers complement each other perfectly for that."

"I see. In that case, they're indeed the only ones who can do it," Arima commented. "If I had to find a way to stop it, I would have no choice but to destroy a Plane with the First Destruction Art."

Raylein smiled wryly. "I'll just ignore that, okay? Don't ever do it. Because the Original God will then have a real reason to mobilize us to kill you. Don't forget our job is to protect the planes' integrity," he said and Night snickered.

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Arima casually smiled. "Don't worry, I won't do it if it's not necessary," he uttered and Raylein sighed.

"We arrived," he declared just after. Everyone looked ahead and except Arima, they all saw the end of the tunnel as well as the bright light coming from it. "Jump," Raylein said and he accelerated even more before jumping out of the tunnel through the exit. Arima went after him then was followed by his companions.

They closed their eyes for a second and when they opened them again, they were already free falling. Below them was a vast land covered by buildings of all sorts. Some houses were flying, others were straight-up modern buildings like skyscrapers, others were simple old designs of wooden huts and mansions, and there were even some churches and temples here and there.

But you also couldn't miss the vegetation that grew in the middle of them too. Some trees were planted on the roofs, flowers decorated every wall, and the two suns of different colors were producing a beautiful illumination.

Layla admired the landscape and looked around as much as she could. She was sure they were on a planet but she couldn't even see the beginning of an arc on the horizon even with her visual abilities.

She then remembered something and looked toward Arima. He wasn't looking below as she and the others were. She was about to something to say something when he silenced them with a wave his hand.

He slowly lifted his hand and snapped his fingers. A sonic boom resounded and startled everyone around him.

"Fuck!" Even Raylein had been shaken. It was too sudden and the sound was so loud that it got stuck inside his head like an echo.

The sound waves traveled for a very long distance and almost anyone could hear it in a five hundred thousand miles' radius. Arima closed his eyes and listened attentively. He had imbued his magic to the sound and was now using it as an echo radar.

In the end, for a second, he was able to see the endless city and its variety of cultures. He couldn't see the colors or even the clear shape of objects but that was enough for him.

"Incredible place," he praised and Raylein snorted.

"Obviously. But you should have warned me before doing that," he said and looked down. "You just spread your mana signature throughout this entire district. People might already have their sights on you. No one appreciates a large-scale radar sweeping over them."

Arima mused and nodded toward his companions while Raylein wasn't paying attention. "Can I ask you something?"

"What?"

"Are there any Guardians who would refuse my presence at their side?" He asked and Raylein trembled.

"Yes…"

"I see," Arima smirked and Raylein suddenly got a bad feeling.

"Hey, what are you going to do?"

"Just say ‘hi’. It won't harm anyone. It's supposed to be a place for strong people here, right?" Arima retorted. He deployed his wings and halted his fall. Night grinned and immediately resonated with him. The 'Kind Demon' appeared and Raylein's eyes narrowed.

"Don't worry Raylein. I planned to do this from the beginning. This is just a preventive measure. It's not like I trust you all just because you're a little nice," Arima said and Raylein immediately tried to teleport next to him to stop whatever he was about to do.

"Too late." It was indeed. Raylein saw himself trapped inside a strange barrier. Not only was time flowing extremely slowly, he felt like he couldn't even move anymore. He looked behind him from the corner of his eyes and saw that Layla was holding a black and white book.

‘When? No, more importantly, he lied to me. He actually had a magic that could control Laws without any sacrifice!’ He shouted inwardly.

"The Lawless Tome is an Art I spent a lot of time and effort to conceive. He is limited on the number of Laws he can use and how strong they are, but he is able to invoke them without me having to suffer any payment," Arima told.

"I just can't use it when I need a fastidious kind of wish. I can't control the Tome; he just does what he wants based on the demand I give him. That's why I let Layla use it. I never know when he is going to do something stupid but she can. So, we can decide if we should use it or not."

"Karma," Arima called and a black scythe appeared in his hand. "Watch," he said and wielded the scythe like a whirlwind. Raylein winced. He was deeply anxious about what was going to happen but he knew that he would need a least a few minutes to break this restraint since it was powered by an OWL.

As Arima continued to make his weapon spin, a black and red miasma emerged from the blade and spread around in the sky. Arima's sigil glowed and spun madly. The ominous miasma started covering the sky, casting a shadow on the ground.

Arima estimated that this planet had a diameter of around 4900 ± 200 R☉ (2450 times bigger than the sun; with a 100 margin of error). "Five minutes," he mumbled. That's the amount of time he needed to cover the entire planet. It was obvious that someone would try to stop him before he could finish.

He breathed in and used all of his mana at once. The Eion system integrated inside his body kicked in and barely managed to keep Arima conscious. A time array was formed around him and the miasma he was producing.

When it happened, everything became unreal. The dark miasma spread out at an unbelievable speed, unfitting of a gaseous type of matter, while Arima's movements seemed to be on accelerated mode.

When Melumnia had been put under a complete blackout, Arima dispelled the time array and gasped before coughing violently. He let go of Karma and the latter recovered her human form to support him.

"I'm good," Arima said and gently pushed Karma away. "Okay," he took a deep breath and pointed his hand at the sky. "This is the last Black Art. Appreciate."

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