Life Hunter 117 ''The Purgatory''

The finalists were then the two cla.s.ses from the Main Land and the strongest from Yeron Land. For the main part of the tournament, each cla.s.s was a.s.signed a letter to identify themselves with. Arima's group was now cla.s.s A, Velvet's was B and Olien's, the teacher of Yeron's cla.s.s, was C.

As he told them before, Cekrad called the remaining teachers to explain them the details for the last tests.

The three that were used during the first part were still the same and were not changed at all. And as Arima explained before to his cla.s.s, the two new tests for the second part were magic control and mana core manifestation.

The evaluation for the mana core is pretty easy and nothing ever changes from a year to another. The manifestation of the core is evaluated on the core's size, purity, and its effective area. For example, how far Arima's 'garden' can spread when he releases his mana cores is what we call the affected area, or the influenced area.

Of course, for Arima, it always was expected to be crazy so his effect area could span for hundreds of miles, but it isn't the case for students like the ones partic.i.p.ating in this contest.

The special test that could be a bit tricky was magic control. It was different from aura's control or even magic theory. It was simply the ability to hold your magic and control it with your will.

The usual way of evaluating this aspect is to make the students conjure a moderately strong magic and make them hold it for a certain amount of time while distracting them with something else. The points are given depending on how long you last.

The thing that changes every year is the magic the students are asked to use and the way used to distract them. Things can be easier or harder depending on both of these variables.

"This year, the students will be asked to use a simple gathering of neutral magic with a set amount of mana. I'm sure you know that it's an easy task" Cekrad said and the teachers nodded.

"The true difficulty of this year will be the distraction imposed on them. They will be in the constant influence of my disciples' aura" Cekrad then declared and the teachers' reactions were quite varied. But they were mainly reacting badly. Even Arima frowned a little. Using magic under the aura of an individual at a really higher realm is really tough even if they restrain themselves.

"That's all. It's time for the second round. Please lead your cla.s.ses, immediately, toward the main stage" The old man then said and the teachers left the room.

It didn't take long for them to bring their cla.s.ses to the biggest closed s.p.a.ce of the island. Which had a giant stone arena with a six-branched cross on it.

At this point, all of the teachers told to their students what was going to be in the magic control test. They were of course quite shocked and anxious about it. But Arima was calm anyway.

"Hey, listen" He said with a voice that could be heard by his entire cla.s.s "That test is nothing else than a compet.i.tion with other students. You're not fighting against those disciples; you're competing against those kids that are under the same pressure as you. If you let yourself down by the fact that you will be facing someone stronger, your concentration will go down with you"

The students looked up to Arima with renewed determination and Chulainn snickered "In the end, this whole test can be summarized into one theme. Willpower. You have to toughen your will and always keep it strong" He said and his students nodded strongly.

"Now it's time to begin. You won't lose in life force level, nor magic theory. I can a.s.sure you that. After that though, it's your own talent and mental that will determine if you'll take the win or not. For the mana cores, magic control and combat evaluations, it's entirely up to you" Arima said and sat down with everyone on the benches while the students stepped on the arena along with the two others.

This part of the tournament is a fight between the three cla.s.ses with a rotation but for the life force test, they will all pa.s.s at the same time.

"Arima" Chulainn called as he opened his eyes. His expression didn't look that good "It's bad"

Arima closed his eyes and nodded "I don't know why, but I can feel a huge threat weighting around me" He said "What's going on?"

"Karez, that guy…" Chulainn stuttered a bit "I didn't know that he could do that but, he opened h.e.l.l's purgatory"

"The purgatory?" Arima raised an eyebrow. So did the whole group who was listening "What is that?"

"Its name itself is enough of an explanation. The purgatory is an eternal prison where the G.o.ds and devils locked up some really dangerous and cruel criminals" Chulainn explained "The purgatory should be unopenable so I didn't think of it before but now I realize that there was that possibility since he had a part of the core's power"

"What does that mean in the end? Since it opened, the prisoners are free, right? What are they going to do?" Lanya suddenly asked.

Chulainn shook his head "It's a fair question since no one really knows or remember of those locked up inside of the purgatory. Still, I'm sure that they won't be amicable. But the main point isn't that, it's what is Karez's goal by doing this"

"And what is that?" Night inquired with a heavy voice.

"A war. He wants a war. Just that. He just wishes for a war" Chulainn responded and Arima sighed.

"I want to ask because I want to be sure" He declared and put a lollipop in his mouth "A war between who?"

"G.o.ds and devils. It's a simple thing. The latter live in h.e.l.l and the former in Heaven. It's a war between them" Chulainn answered.

"So, what is this? Karez wants a war so he opens the purgatory. Why would the devils follow his wish for battle if he wants to destroy h.e.l.l's core?" Arima asked.

"A compromise most likely" Chulainn immediately responded and Arima rubbed his eyes.

"I understand now" He just said and looked at the three cla.s.ses releasing their auras on the judges, including Raal and Karia.

"What do you understand?" Arister could only ask.

"If we summarize. Karez wants a war but he tried to destroy the h.e.l.l's core before. Why would he want a war if his motive was to destroy h.e.l.l? That's just useless. It would mean that his motive doesn't have anything to do with h.e.l.l, nor with Heaven since he aimed at h.e.l.l's core first. I think that his aim is to destroy this plane" Arima said.

"So," Arima paused and looked at Chulainn "The compromise Karez made is to destroy Heaven's core instead of h.e.l.l's. Like that, the plane will still be destroyed and he won't have to face the entirety of h.e.l.l's forces.

"Additionally, that war is between devils and G.o.ds and in both sides, there will be two different groups. People say G.o.ds are good and devils are evil but everyone is the same in the end. I'm sure there will be G.o.ds trying to destroy Heaven and devils trying to save it" Arima concluded and bit on the candy.

"That guy just want destruction through chaos. He will take cover in the war and will just destroy Heaven's core without any interference" He smirked and said. When he finished, his group had to spend some time to process everything until Chulainn nodded and gave his approval.

"You're right. Sorry, but we can't wait a lot more. I don't want the whole plane to be destroyed, I'm directly connected to the dead after all" He declared.

Arima smiled "It's okay. I'm already on it" His mana discretely escaped his body and the time inside this closed s.p.a.ce slowed down without anyone noticing. Only Cekrad glanced at Arima in confusion.

"[Accelerate]" Arima sent telepathically and everyone on the planet started to feel a strange vibration under their feet and the atmospheric pressure increased. The sun also started to move faster.

"I want to get that Earthen G.o.d's life force before going there" Arima glanced at Chulainn and said.

"I'm okay with that. With the double time gap you set up, barely a second is pa.s.sing in h.e.l.l with each hour here" The latter nodded and responded.

Everyone around tensed a bit. Although Arima was pretty chill about it, Lanya, Arister, and even his two closest partners obviously understood that the war coming was something that would decide the fate of an entire plane and their lives with it.

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"The purgatory…" Azes muttered "Of all things, I did not expect that" He said and teleported away to reappear in front of a huge white gate in the middle of the G.o.ds' city "Seriously, what is going on these days?" He mumbled and multiple G.o.ds arrived at the same place as him just after.

There was one of them who looked particularly strong and important. Even Zeus who also arrived looked at him warily. He looked like he was in his thirties and had blue eyes and hair. He was the G.o.d known by mortals as Poseidon. The famous G.o.d of the seas.

It wasn't just him, a lot of strong G.o.ds appeared all at the same time in front of this gate. Their names could all be found in ancient mythology.

"(Almost all of the high G.o.ds are gathered here)" Azes thought and looked at Zeus as he approached the giant gate.

"Since you're here, you perfectly know that the purgatory has been opened. We suppose it's Ojure Karez. I'll open the gate of Heaven to go there now, we have to stop them as fast as possible before they come at us" He announced with a loud voice and put his hand on the gate. A perfectly white lightning escaped his hand and spread across the surface of the gate as it slowly opened.

Already at that time, some of the G.o.ds present there had a strange light in their eyes.

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Karaskan was observing Pandora when he suddenly felt the purgatory's energy. He grinned and started laughing.

"It's like everything is telling me to open this box. Chaos, h.e.l.l, Heaven, war. What a sweet combination of words" He chuckled "Even better when we add Pandora, Life Hunter and Silver Emperor"

"Is that the work of your fate, Death Hunter?" He smirked and said.

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"What should we do? The Heaven gate is opening; I can feel it. The purgatory's prisoners started moving too" A young looking man in black clothing calmly asked to a man sitting on a huge throne.

His appearance was humanoid but his body reached a height of five meters. His eyes were closed as if he was sleeping. He wore a red and black attire with a cape.

He opened his crimson eyes and started speaking with an unfocused gaze "I'm just here to govern h.e.l.l. I don't care about the higher worlds or Heaven. As long as they don't destroy our core, I won't move and you should do the same Belphegor" He said with a really calm voice and Belphegor nodded. Just before he left, a voice resounded.

"Wait, Hades" It was a man's voice and a new figure appeared inside the throne room. He had a beautiful appearance and the obvious features everyone would notice first were his pitch black feather wings.

Hades glanced at him and sighed "What do you want, Lucifer?"

Lucifer smiled courteously "I think you should reconsider. This war is something that should've happened before and something that you should lead" He proposed and Hades stared at him.

"Why would I listen to you?" He asked slowly.

Lucifer smile became wider "I didn't say that you should listen to me. I just wanted to share my opinion. But if you want a reason to enter this war;" He paused "I'm sure you will be able to get your revenge with him"

The fallen angel's words finally brought a reaction on the overlord's expression. Hades stared at Lucifer for a moment before straightening his back. He then slowly stood up. As he was leaving his seat, one could see a big amount of dust moving with him which showed how long he could have stayed still on his throne.

When he was completely standing up, the walls of the castle they were in started to tremble and multiple flames lit up to lighten the dark room. Lucifer and Belphegor both kneeled at the same time.

"Fine Lucifer. I will ignore the affront you made to me for now" Hades said and looked through the stained gla.s.s of his castle, at the endless desert "That human, Karez. So he came back, huh? He's quite bold to start a war by himself" He paused and stepped down from the pedestal surrounding the throne.

He sighed strongly "Maybe it's really the time for a final fight" He muttered with an emotionless voice.