Chapter 229: 229. ”Did it work?”

“…Hm, we might want to escape right now," Arima suddenly commented and everyone turned toward him. The cloud-like runes resonated with each other and the stars made the entire ocean vibrate. The molecules were being agitated and the water's temperature was rising exponentially.

 

Arima didn't think twice about it and drifted away. Lightning sparked around him and he grabbed his companions before rushing toward the surface of his soul realm. Night, Karma, and Layla all exclaimed in reaction to his speed and even had to hold their breath while on the move. 

 

Arima deployed his wings and used them to gain more speed. The water was getting hotter every millisecond. It already went beyond what a normal person could endure. The water was starting to get hotter than the star themselves.

 

"{What the hell is going on?!}" Night shouted inside Arima's head and resonated with him to become the Kind Demon. Their combined appearance had not changed from before. Only the wings and maybe the slightly thinner scales were new. 

 

"They're oscillating," Arima casually answered and carried Layla in his arms after he holstered Karma in her weapon form. His body was starting to fume because of the heat and the runes on his robe started glowing to protect him.

 

"{How can this be so hot?}" Layla asked as she covered her eyes because of the permeating heat. Only Arima was able to calmly open his eyes.

 

"{The stars are linked and are now triggering the formation. In consequence, all of them are oscillating and creating friction with the water. The vapor produced around them is special since it is used to draw the runes,}" Arima answered as his face was slowly being seared. He showed no sign of pain but his eyes twitched a little.

 

"{Normally, the water should've evaporated. Or to be exact, it's normal to expect that it would evaporate. But the problem is that even I don’t know how vast this ocean is. Maybe it's immeasurably big or even infinite. The energy required to evaporate something like this is consequently enormous. And as long as the star formation has not produced enough energy to evaporate everything, it will continue to boil the center indefinitely.}"

 

"{It shouldn't be able to happen because the stars would have been extinguished by the water. But those stars are the core of my magic so they are protected,}" Arima groaned and healed himself while moving. "{Enough chit chat,}" he uttered and triggered the Final Resonance. He promptly turned into the large beast from earlier. 

 

"{This form…}" Night was stunned and Layla dazed as she looked at the giant being holding her.

 

Arima looked at himself. ‘There's no change even when I'm resonating with Night… I'm just a little bigger maybe. So, it means that the Eternal Spirit Dragon takes precedence, huh?’ He thought and looked behind him. ‘It's soon going to be finalized.’

 

His scales were being scorched at that point. To describe how hot the water was at that moment; if someone with the same power as Odin and the likes were to plunge in it, they’d probably melt and die. 

 

This ocean was mystifying. In the first place, normal water would not be able to become this hot. It was so bad that Arima had to shield both Karma and Layla from the heat.

 

After a few minutes, a strange phenomenon occurred. The main star in the center of the formation started shrinking and also to cool down. Its color gradually changed and slowly turned into a small white star.

 

"It’s time," Arima suddenly halted and turned around to face the white star. He deployed his wings to the maximum and wrapped himself around them like a cocoon. 

 

"[Fourth Destruction Art, Vashta Nerada] (The Shadows that Melt the Flesh)," he chanted and a mass of darkness enveloped him.

 

Inside the cocoon he had made, he siphoned out the boiling water and Layla felt like she was inside an impenetrable cave of some sort.

 

"{What’s that star that just formed?}" Night inquired and Arima snickered.

 

"{Well, you could call it a neutron star. It’s the name given to the collapsed core of a titan star that was compressed until the protons and electrons leave the place to only neutrons and neutrinos. I'm going to skip over the details but, in that case, the pressure inside the core would be sufficient to produce 'quark matter' and 'strange quarks'. It is a substance so strong and stable that it is theorized to be the most dangerous stuff that could exist. It’s supposedly capable of turning everything it touches into strange matter.}"

 

Night blanked. "{…Can you remind me why we’re making something so hazardous?}"

 

"{To travel through Realities, of course,}" Arima replied and groaned because of the increasing heat. 

 

"{No, there's no ‘of course’ here. How is that thing even remotely related to going into another Reality?}"

 

"{Strange matter is also hypothesized to be what fills the void and holds basic matter together,}" Arima responded. "{And, Night, we aren’t making an experiment here, it's a formation. There's only one reason why I would do that; magic theory.}"

 

"{If I can replace strange matter with dimensional and spatial proprieties, I might be able to open a hole that could at least lead me out of this Reality. That's also why I made this thing in my soul realm. I plan to bind it so I can naturally travel through Realities and make a path whenever I want,}" Arima explained and Layla glared at him with dubious eyes. 

 

"{And?}"

 

Arima fell silent. "…at the risk of breaking my soul apart and miserably dying," he admitted and Layla sighed. 

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At the same time, the neutron star released a blinding light and every other star started closing in at a speed far exceeding light-speed. Then, one after another, the burning stars collided with the neutron star.

 

The ocean shook again and the defense Arima had set up finally displayed its purpose. He steeled himself as he was struck by the heat and shock waves. He was instantly ejected out of the ocean and crashed on the surface of his soul realm.

 

The earth crumbled and the ground quaked. Boulders the size of a mountain were flung toward the sky before falling on the ground again. In the middle of that, a sphere of darkness demolished every chunk of stone or soil touching it. When it dispersed, a hundred-meter-tall figure stood up. A pair of wings were wagged and retracted.

 

A humanoid silhouette with the head of a dragon growled. The runic robe over his lower body was glowing and healing the smalls injuries and cracks on his scales. Arima exhaled and some flames escaped his mouth. He waved his hand to get rid of the remnants of darkness around him and looked up. Layla and Karma jumped on his shoulders just after.

 

The ocean in the sky was now clouded by a thick white mist. But you could still see the waves behind, as well as a giant emerald sun of which the light passed through the water and mist to illuminate the surface. 

 

Arima's eyes widened as he admired the scene of the green hue mixing with the Eion energy filling the air. The green light also interacted with the small 'stars', which were the result of Arima placing the bomb in his soul realm, and formed a magnificent starry sky behind the wall of vapor.

 

"{…This place is seriously turning into some sort of piece of art,}" Night quipped and Arima couldn’t help but agree. He breathed in as the plants and soil around him were steadily being restored. Countless flowers also bloomed under the illumination of the green light and the blue fireflies.

 

When Arima was sure that there wouldn't be any more damages because of the formation, he dispelled the resonance with Night and reverted to his human form. He put his glasses on and looked around. 

 

"Well," he raised his voice while massaging his shoulders. "Maybe I'll make this place my actual home one day."

 

Layla smiled. "I'm sure that it would be the best residence in the world," she said and gazed at the green sun shining in the sky. "So, did it work?"

 

"Impeccably," Arima seemed to be quite pleased. "If you were to dive into that ocean and reach that green star you see up there, you would get transported randomly to any place in existence. Perhaps, you would arrive on another Plane, or another Reality, or even somewhere unknown to us."

 

"In any case, now my soul has acquired the ability to move across any dimension, spatial layer, or even time lock," Arima activated Natus and the pentagrams spun in his pupils before expanding. He looked up and squinted. "In addition, I may have gotten myself the power to control space at will as well as a new mana core."

 

He observed his hand and a small crack in space opened above his palm. He mused then clenched his hand to close the crack. Night scowled though. "Isn't that a little bit too overpowered?"

 

Arima laughed. "Definitely," he replied and created a path to the outside world. "Let's go. I just have to assimilate this attribute to the Second White Art and we are set," he declared and left his soul realm.

 

When he reappeared in the room he had rented to talk with the Guardians, he witnessed something that startled him. The only people in the room were Aergia and Chulainn. The former was sleeping, as expected, and the tiny Hellhound was being squeezed by her in her sleep as if he was a plush. 

 

"...Hel…p….me…ee…eeeee," Chulainn was suffocating and he desperately called for help when he saw Arima. Night, Karma and Layla arrived at the same moment and stared at him perplexed. 

 

"…How did you even end up like that?" Night uttered and Chulainn couldn't answer as the foam was leaving his mouth.

 

Arima blinked and looked away. "Anyway," he lifted his head. "Jorga, call them, please."

 

"{Right away,}" the azure clouds in the sky moved and the snake cloaked behind sent a telepathic message to everyone. In just a few seconds, the Guardians had been gathered again. Malum also returned along with them and approached Arima with an exasperated expression.

 

"What the heck were you doing? I got hurt, scared, and physically disturbed all in one day. I never even thought that could be possible," he complained and Arima brushed it off with a shrug.

 

He clapped his hands and caught everyone's attention. Aergia woke up right then and finally released Chulainn. The small dog inhaled strongly and rolled on the floor. He was far from being strong enough to resist Aergia in this form.

 

"Hm? Why were you here, Kerberos?" Aergia yawned and rubbed her eyes.

 

"Because some damn sleepwalker grabbed me to use me like a freaking teddy bear!"

 

"Oh… sorry," Aergia apologized so easily that Chulainn felt like his anger couldn't be pointed at her anymore. He directed his glare toward Arima instead but the piercing gaze he got in return made him purse his lips. With no one to get angry at, he dropped on the floor and sighed.

 

"Good. Now that everyone is listening; I will soon open several paths toward other Realities. We will separate and take care of the resistance there. The army waiting inside of Gilga's Babylon will take care of the lower worlds while we will get rid of the Guardians and the Pillars," Arima said and grinned. “Shouldn’t be too hard. I hope you're ready to get to work."

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