Life Hunter

Chapter 235: ''Weak.''

Malum cracked open the earth. The stone and soil composing the ground started falling off the island as it quaked. The Zerista all raised their voice and started panicking as an ominous rumble entered their ears.

"{This is the voice of the Sacred God! What did you do?!}" Kureina had fallen on the ground.

Malum glanced at her. "Scram," he scoffed and waved his hand. Everyone on the flying island instantly disappeared. Even the fields and houses were all gone and had been replaced by an untouched terrain. It was as if this island had never welcomed any civilization.

Shakti jumped and stopped in midair. Malum joined her afterward. She looked at him and smiled.

"You're kind," she said and Malum snorted. "You even teleported the buildings and fields so that they would not suffer making it again. Even though it asked more effort from you Don't you think it's a nice thing to do?"

"I just did it on a whim. That guy influenced me too much. Focus on that for now," Malum replied and Shakti smiled meaningfully as she watched the island being freed of its soil. A huge head then abruptly emerged and pushed the remaining trees and earth off the edge.

Shakti looked at the boulders and plants falling down this endless world. "Do you think there is a bottom to this Reality?"

"No idea. But even if there is one," Malum paused and snapped his fingers. The rubbles were burned down to nothing. "They would just crash on other islands before they reach it."

Shakti smiled again and nodded. "True."

Malum stared at the former island and squinted. The long neck of the creature stretched and the head at the end faced him. It opened its mouth and howled. The air pressure made Malum's clothes flutter and maybe even some distant islands got affected too. But he just blankly observed the creature.

"This thing looks like a giant turtle," after a minute, that's what he ended up saying. "Just that his carapace is flatter."

Shakti wryly smiled and scanned that 'turtle'. Her eyes widened slightly. "Around the Third Sky of the Earthen Realm. That's a great leap compared to the people we met."

"Well, that's obvious," Malum glowered at the creature which was slowly waking up and reigniting its aura.

"So, this thing really"

"Yeah. It must have drained the life force of the people living on his back to develop. That's a freaky ability. I'd call them the Life Hunters' cousins."

"I don't think Arimane would be happy to hear that though."

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"Oh, I'm sure of that," Malum grinned and grew a pair of ashen wings. "Let's get to work," he muttered and disappeared on the spot.

He flew toward the turtle at an incredible speed and crashed on its back. The carapace cracked all over and the creature cried in pain. It turned his head to glare at Malum before growing a tail out of nowhere and swipe it across his shell.

Malum stood up on the flat carapace and cracked his neck. He indifferently took a glimpse of the tail approaching him and completely ignored it. He turned his back to it and walked toward the head of the turtle. The tail struck him but it wasn't him who got hurt.

The thin, flexible bones inside that tail were forcefully bent and broke because of the rebound. The shock wave produced a powerful sound and the creature cried again. It gazed at Malum and gradually retracted its neck. It realized that it was against an existence far beyond its level.

Malum sneered. "Give me your memories," he kicked the ground and left an afterimage. He appeared right in front of the gigantic monster's head. He transformed into a dragon to match his victim's sight.

"[Look at Me in the Eyes,]" he intoned and the turtle's eyes trembled as they were confronted to the crimson pupils of a dragon. "[Fifth Black Art, Penitentia Conspiciunt] (Penance Stare)."

The creature wailed during its last moments and turned limp. Shakti transferred beside Malum and mused. "The body is still floating although it's dead. Maybe it really has a physiological ability to hover in the air"

"Looks like it," Malum nodded and grasped the turtle's neck with his claw. The entire corpse immediately got sucked into his spatial storage. "I'll take it. I know someone who might be interested," he said and looked up. A blue mist gathered and formed a thick cloud above him.

A giant serpent head emerged from inside and gazed at Malum with his azure eyes.

"I found them. Lucky for you, there's only fourteen of them and they are currently fighting against each other. You should hurry up if you don't want to miss the opportunity," Jorga declared and sent the information directly into Shakti and Malum's minds.

"I don't know anything about them individually. I may have ears and eyes everywhere but I can't learn everything in a period so short. For now, I gave you what I got on the surface."

Malum analyzed the information he received and his expression twitched. Shakti didn't even try to hide her astonishment. They both were amazed by the amount of knowledge Jorga had gathered in just a short hour. There were even several languages that had already been studied and had been straight up applied to their brain.

"That's the ability of the World Serpent that's truly God-like," Shakti muttered.

"I have to go now. I still have to help Night's and Layla's teams," Jorga told and returned inside his mist. The cloud then condensed and went through the portal back to the other reality.

Malum sighed and quickly summoned a magic formation. Shakti took place on his shoulder and watched as he cast the magic.

"[Second White Art, Porta Calces] (Gear Gate)," he chanted and the familiar silver gateway appeared. Before going in, Malum inscribed a few more runes on the disc and waited.

The silver gear became shiny and began to reflect an image. Malum had visually connected the destination and his location. He looked closely at the image and raised an eyebrow. The images were extremely fast, most likely because of the different time flow of the other Planes. But Malum still managed to make out certain figures.

He fell silent for some reason and Shakti tilted her head. "What's wrong?"

"I just saw King Kong and Godzilla engaged in a fistfight," he said.

"Eh?"

***

The giant minotaur along with nine other titanic beings were studying Night carefully. Apparently, they were the Plane Guardians of this Reality. Among them, apart from the minotaur, there were seven humanoid individuals, as well as bear-like animal and a weird organism with blue skin that perfectly matched the stereotypical alien appearance.

One terrific man spoke and made the earth shake from the perspective of Night's group. But his language was unknown and none of them understood his words.

Night scowled. "{I don't know what you said but I'll assume that you asked us who we were. I also have no idea how you found out about us and came here so quickly but that doesn't matter,}" he established a telepathic link and every Guardian frowned.

"{In any case, you don't need to know our identity. You only need to understand that we come from another Reality and that we're here to take over. I don't care if you believe me or not, that's not a problematic variable,}" he lifted Karma and pointed the tip of the blade at them.

"{Just choose; will you quietly surrender, or die?}" He coldly asserted and the reactions he got were not friendly at all.

"{How can you even imagine winning against us? You're just small insect and we have the blessing of God on our side,}" the minotaur rebuffed and Ganesha and Raylein, silently watching from below, coughed awkwardly.

Night snorted. "{Let me ask you; how can you be sure that you can stop me?}" He said and Karma glowed. "{You, who didn't even notice his own flesh being cut?}"

The minotaur's eyes narrowed and he unconsciously looked at himself. When he saw that he had not suffered any injury whatsoever, he sighed in relief and gritted his teeth for having been fooled.

"Junto! Stop daydreaming!" A giant woman shouted at the minotaur in their language.

The latter hurriedly looked down again but only saw Ganesha and Raylein sighing. Before he could react, blood splashed on his face and he froze. He looked at his right arm from the corner of his eyes and watched it fall on the ground.

"You-!" He was about to go on a rampage but then coughed blood and fell on his knees. He dazedly placed his hand on his chest and his mind stopped working. There was a blatant hole there and electricity was still sparking around it.

The last thing he heard before dying was thunder while the last thing he saw was his decapitated body from beneath.

Night shouldered Karma and lightning burst around him. "Weak," he said and the other Guardians shuddered.

Ganesha shook his head and loosened his collar.

"Are you going to do it?" Raylein inquired and he nodded.

"Of course. If in this reality our smaller bodies have a stronger 'tension', then my power is perfect for this. You just need to see how that Bahamut cut that minotaur's flesh so easily," Ganesha said and his skin color slowly started changing to gray. His body expanded quickly too.

"Seriously now I'm starting to believe that these teams weren't random at all. And that we didn't actually have the choice when we came here," he muttered as his voice kept getting deeper.

His body was already a hundred times bigger and the ground was not tough enough for his weight as it crumbled under the pressure.

"[Resurrection, Ganapati]," he liberated his soul manifestation and grew a long trunk. He fell on all four and trumpeted. He literally had become a one-kilometer tall elephant.

He wasn't as big as the natives of this Reality, but at least he didn't look like a small insect anymore. Raylein teleported on his head and Night flew above them. He released his aura and dark flames mixed with his lightning.

The Guardians paled because of the dreadful might while Night nonchalantly conjured the First Red Art.

"{Night, don't forget we use a thousand times more than the usual here,}" Karma spoke up. "{We have to finish this before we spend all of our mana. Don't be reckless.}"

Ganesha laughed in his elephant appearance. "You heard the Lady," he grinned and pointed his trunk at Raylein on his back. "Also, you better not slack, Raylein."

The man in question groaned. "I'm not good at fighting upfront."

"Who told you to do that?" Ganesha retorted. "Do what you always do."

"He's right," Night raised his voice. "I reinforced the entire planet with Ragnark. You can go wild if you want."

"In that case," Raylein placed both of his hands on the elephant's back. "Ready?"

"Of course," Ganesha cackled.

Raylein breathed in and channeled his mana carefully. He activated a formation inside his body and transmitted it to Ganesha while wasting the less mana possible.

"Go!" He shouted and both him and the elephant suddenly vanished.

"What?" The Plane Guardians were confused at first but then noticed a large shadow being cast on the ground. They looked up and held their breath. They could only grief as one of them got smashed by a giant elephant falling from the sky.

"Shit, this takes way too much mana. You're too fat."

"...Don't say fat."

Raylein wiped the sweat off his forehead and spread his arms open. He used another magic and this time, mountains started falling from the sky as if they were meteorites.

Night smirked and flapped his wings to join the chaos unfolding in front of him. At the same time, a bit farther away, a blue mist came out of the silver gear and paused when it sensed the repercussions of the fight.

'What the I see that they found the Guardians without me and is it just I or this tree is a bit too big?' Jorga said internally then dematerialized to explore the Planes. 'Well, I guess I just have to find the Pillars now.'