Life Hunter 155 ''We Are Getting Weaker''

Karaskan's eyes narrowed and looked up. Chulainn's was already up there, with his three mouths ready to use their magic. The first head was ready to blow an unstoppable fire, the second one had dense lava flowing up its throat and the middle head surprisingly carried light energy.

Karaskan moved in slow motion and chanted too "[Resurrection]" His Manifestation was extremely fast compared to Chulainn. Absolute darkness surrounded him to form something like a spherical s.h.i.+eld as Chulainn howled and spat out his three-colored magic.

The white, crimson, and deep red fused to become a gorgeous, sparkling red fire. That wave of fire clashed with a suddenly erupting ma.s.s of darkness.

At the same moment, the s.p.a.ce in the sky cracked strangely and a blue fire joined the fray. Lilis and Lanya looked up in surprise and the two powerhouses using their Manifestations panicked a little.

When the First Art made contact with the two Manifestations, a m.u.f.fled explosion occurred. The darkness from Karaskan and the fire from Chulainn exploded together and spread for hundreds of miles. But all of it was covered by the blue flames, like a dome.

That's why the explosion didn't make any sound and the shockwave was never produced. At some point, the flames in the sky stopped spreading further and instead came back from the horizon to gather above Pandora's temple.

The sky was slowly uncovered and only the thick dome made of blue flames was left. At some point, the flames burned stronger. And completely disregarding Chulainn and Karaskan's attempts to control their magic, it started pulling the two Manifestations upwards.

It only took a minute for the first art to lock both the darkness and fire together inside of a sphere hovering above the ground level. Karaskan and Chulainn both jumped back as they dazedly witnessed their magic being pulled in the air by the blue sphere.

They were even more shocked when they saw it getting smaller before basically compressing and crus.h.i.+ng their magic to nothingness. When the Manifestations had been stopped, the azure fire took the form of a spiral and weakly spun before being thrown back in the sky as if it was siphoned.

The first art one more time covered the sky but now the overall quant.i.ty of flames was a lot less. Now, it only covered the sky for a few miles instead of thousands like before.

The Mad G.o.d and the h.e.l.lhound stared dumbfounded. They were both astounded and greatly aggravated because their Manifestations had been stopped by a single magic that even wasn't over yet. Heck, it was still growing stronger as they were staring at it.

"Is that the First Blue Art?" Chulainn muttered through his teeth "(It seems to be continuously gathering power and storing it... Is that the hidden effect?)" He thought and then looked at another direction now that the barrier around them had disappeared.

His eyes swept over the giant crater that had just been created by their earlier clash and then fell on all the G.o.ds and Ifrit who were flying in their direction.

"It seems that your plan is not going to end up well for you after all" Chulainn snickered and said to Karaskan.

The Mad G.o.d sneered and looked behind him, at the temple who was totally unscathed by the explosion of which it was the center. Karaskan smirked and turned into a shadow that crawled inside.

Chulainn glared at him but didn't dare to follow him in. He was sure that if he tried to step inside that temple, he wouldn't be able to get out.

When all the G.o.ds arrived with Ifrit, they all stopped beside Chulainn and didn't enter too "What do we do now. I don't think we can do anything to that" Aphrodite pointed at the s.h.i.+ning temple which was radiating with a really scary aura.

"I don't know. This temple is where Pandora takes refuge when it's ready to open" Azes said "But right now, I don't think it's 'ready' anymore. It's already 'opening'"

"Tell us exactly what will happen then. You still didn't give us a clear answer" Poseidon asked but a huge shadow suddenly broke through the roof of the temple and landed right in front of the G.o.ds.

The figure was ten meters tall and was holding a huge hammer with one hand. The appearance of the newcomer shocked many. A skin that looked like cracked charcoal. His hair was literally fire. He had a cross-shaped scar on his forehead and his face was expressionless and hollow. His red and unfocused eyes swept over the place and scanned the individuals in front of him.

He then ignored them and turned around as he shouldered his hammer. Pandora immediately flew out of the temple too and expanded to become even bigger than Chulainn. The runes were even more visible now, giving off a mysterious feeling.

The box then started diffusing a lot of different sounds. Keys unlocking, gears turning, metallic noises, hammering sounds, and even some weak detonations. Pandora was opening.

Chulainn jumped back with Lilis and Lanya on his heads and joined the G.o.ds. In the end, Chulainn, Lilis, Lanya, Poseidon, Hades, Azes, Gabriel, Michael, Aphrodite, and Ifrit, were all standing together, staring at the big guy who had just made his entrance.

All of them together were the peak of this plane. But at the same time, all of them were hesitating. Even Ifrit felt threatened when he looked at that ten meters tall demon.

Only Aphrodite had a really conflicted expression on her face in contrast with everyone else "…Hephaestus" She muttered.

"What?!" Zeus exclaimed in shock when he heard that "That Hephaestus?" He observed the demon with extreme attention and his eyes widened. Although his appearance was nothing like before, it definitely was Hephaestus.

"I knew it…" Azes said "So it's really because he went to find the lost Pandora that he left Heaven after all" He uttered and both Zeus and Aphrodite grunted "It seems like he finished by being corrupted by it…he's now its guardian" When Azes finished talking, Hephaestus suddenly turned his head to look at him.

Azes froze instantly and cold sweat formed on his back. Hephaestus who had become Pandora's Demon smirked. He lifted his hammer a little and when the G.o.ds laid their eyes on it for less than a fraction of a second, Hephaestus had already disappeared.

Before they knew it, the G.o.ds were already sent flying away because of a single swing from that hammer. Zeus, Hades, Michael, and Aphrodite immediately coughed blood. Gabriel managed to evade since she was the farther from Hephaestus.

Chulainn also retreated in time thanks to Lanya's prediction. The only one who defended against the blow and stopped the hammer was Ifrit. His arm had gained blade like scales which he used to stop the Demon's weapon.

Ifrit growled. He released his aura and the boulders and rocks around started hovering in the air before imploding.

Ifrit roared and his fire clashed with the Demon's hammer. Hephaestus also used his own ability to infuse fire magic into his weapon and then started to exchange blows with Ifrit.

The two kept flying around, provoking shockwaves and explosions everywhere they went. In just a few seconds, their fight caused enough to damage to destroy a big city if there was one here.

The two seemed to be conducting a pretty balanced fight but shockingly, Ifrit wasn't able to take one of Hephaestus's strikes and the 'blades' he created earlier broke as went straight to the ground.

By the time Ifrit had been overpowered, the other G.o.ds had already recovered thanks to Gabriel and immediately launched themselves at Hephaestus. They didn't really know why they did it. They could retreat. Maybe it was because their pride was hurt by that strike, or maybe they felt that it would be too dangerous to let him live, but they all decided to attack him.

Chulainn also joined the fight. He cooperated with Lanya and Lilis who had one more time made their souls resonate. And with the vision of the Unblinking Draconic Eyes, their teamwork was flawless. The three at the second divine, worked together to raise their fighting ability to the next level.

But even like that, Hephaestus was strangely on the winning side. It was strange, he didn't look that strong but the G.o.ds easily fell under his might.

"It's not him who's stronger" Hades muttered as he stood up from the hole he had just created with his body.

"I know that already!" Poseidon shouted when he heard him. He reached the Demon's flank and waved his trident which he spent a great part of his remaining mana for. His weapon glowed and a colossal amount of water erupted from underground to create a tide on land which swept over Hephaestus.

The Demon stared with his emotionless eyes and swung his hammer. It struck thin air and caused red cracks to appear with a gla.s.s-breaking sound. Those cracks spread although they were not on any physical surface and the tsunami that was coming at Hephaestus split in two and made h.e.l.l shake. Poseidon was also struck by an unforeseeable shockwave and shed more blood in the process.

"We are getting weaker" Azes completed Hades's declaration and everyone nodded in agreement. Ifrit snorted and jumped at Hephaestus again.

"Will you stop charging individually like that, you all?!" Gabriel shouted at him and everyone else but before Ifrit could even get the idea of answering back, he was pushed back again by the hammer. Gabriel sighed and healed him anyway.

After Ifrit, it was Lanya and Lilis who flapped their wings and attacked in tandem. Lilis was the one at the front, her magic actually worked really well on the Demon and it was enough to freeze his movements for a second.

It was enough for Lanya to stab her rapier in Hephaestus's chest. She gritted her teeth as she pulled her weapon back and then pressed the trigger. With a dry sound, the pellets flew out of the small cannon and pierced the surface of the Demon's skin.

Her sword was immediately pulled out and was then faced with Hephaestus's sword. But before she was. .h.i.t, a big snake suddenly pa.s.sed by and carried her away while Chulainn jumped behind the Demon and blew out fire with his three heads.

Hephaestus blankly took on the magic and just waved his sword to disperse the fire and kicked Lilis away while his flames went through Chulainn's defenses.

"So how do we stop Pandora from taking our strength?!" Michael shouted as he swung his white spear at Hephaestus along with Hades. The three of them exchanged a few blows before Michael's pear was grabbed by the huge hands an thrown away with the angel still grabbing it.

Hephaestus then infused his mana into his hammer and red lines appeared on it as he swung it down. Hades's eyes narrowed as he recalled what happened earlier with Poseidon's tsunami. He barely raised his s.h.i.+eld in time to protect himself, but even if it was his manifestation, the red cracks and shock it produced pa.s.sed through the s.h.i.+eld squeezed his organs and even broke some of his bones.

When Aphrodite caught Hades with her wind and brought him back to a safe spot, all the G.o.ds stopped moving and chose to look at Hephaestus from afar. At the same time though, a shadow suddenly emerged from inside the temple and rushed toward Lilis who was separated from everyone.

Chulainn couldn't react in time and Lanya was ready to move at first but stopped as she looked confused and curious at Lilis. Her draconic eyes were telling her what would happen.

When the shadow was about to reach Lilis, a transparent wall formed to protect Lilis and the shadow was paralyzed the moment it touched the barrier. Its appearance was then revealed and it was indeed Karaskan.

The latter sneered and looked up to see an old man walking with a cane on thin air "Is it now that you show up?" Karaskan raised his voice and all of the G.o.ds present smiled. The old man calmly landed on the ground and stood there with his cane touching the ground.

"Chronos" Karaskan called him in the next second.