Life Hunter 76 ''Did It Work?''

"Why did you avoid?" Karma looked back at Arima and pouted.

"Why would I let you hug me?" The latter smiled and answered.

Karma sulked and stared at him "I've been with you for a centenary, why can't I hug my master?" She asked.

"In case you forgot, you just became a woman, a hug is uncalled for" Arima retorted.

"I wasn't just going to hug, I wanted to give a kiss" Karma responded.

Arima looked at her blankly "…That's uncalled for"

Karma groaned and glanced at Lanya, the latter trembled. The former katana jumped one more time, so fast that Lanya couldn't avoid. In the end, she was hugged by Karma. The latter smirked "As I thought, the contact with a physical individual is a very new sensation" She said and let Lanya go.

Arima sighed "So that was your motive?"

"Yes, of course" Karma smiled and declared as she looked around "Where is Night? I want to see him too" She asked.

"Night, huh?" Arima exclaimed "He must be training Arister right now"

Karma chuckled and kicked the ground; her speed was maybe equivalent to the tenth level. She directly headed toward Night's location.

Arima shrugged and casually started walking. He used a lot of his mana, he was lazy to use more power than necessary. Lanya followed him.

"Hum, Arima?" The latter raised her voice.

Arima looked beside him "What is it?"

"She is Karma, right?" Lanya asked. Arima smiled and nodded "How did it happen? Why did she take the appearance of a woman?" She inquired.

"Well" Arima mused for a moment "First of all, the main reason Karma has this appearance is that she's my soul weapon, and a transcendental at that, from Lilis's and the Seed's words. That connection with my soul was maybe enough to give her a body when I made her sentient. Then, as to why she appeared as a woman, well, it's because of you" He said.

"Me?" Lanya was confused "Why?"

"The reason I called you earlier was for the 'programming' process. I'll be honest with you, I'm not confident of creating a sane 'personality' with my own. So, I chose to let you do the main parts. In the end, our personalities mixed and mutated into that" Arima said with a wry smile and then shrugged "Well, I still don't know exactly what kind of personality Karma ended up with" He said and sighed "I'll teleport after all" He declared and took Lanya with him.

When he looked around the place he transferred at, he saw Karma playing around with Night in his pup form.

"Karma, stop. Please, seriously, can you stop already" The latter kept saying that but he seemed to not have the strength of brus.h.i.+ng the other party off.

"Ah, you're so cute in this form" While Karma kept petting him and sticking her face to him. But the only reaction Night showed was a frown.

Since those two were respectively a soul weapon and a soul beast, they seemed to get along very well, almost like two siblings. And it seemed like Night acted in front of Karma like a little brother, and technically, Karma was older.

"Mm" Arima observed with squinted eyes "So it's that kind of personality, huh?" He commented and Lanya laughed lightly. She walked toward Arister who was sitting not far, silently looking at the KarmNight pair.

"What's wrong?" Lanya asked to him.

Arister glanced at her, a bit surprised. He didn't expect her to launch a conversation "That girl, who is it?" In the end, he asked about what was confusing him for a moment now.

Lanya sat down and looked at Karma and Night. Arima was speaking with telepathy to the latter.

"That's Karma" She smiled and simply answered.

"Karma? That guy's sword?" Arister was shocked.

Lanya nodded "He used the manufacturing method of the dungeons to give sentience to her" She explained.

Arister frowned and looked at her "You're much more talkative today" He commented.

Lanya wryly smiled "I'm just not really comfortable to talk beside Arima or Night"

"Why?"

"Because I don't feel like I'm in their group. Whether it's you or Lilis, I can't integrate with them as you do. I feel like a simple human in the G.o.ds' territory" She said.

"Mm" Arister just hummed in response and stood up "I don't think you need to think that hard. That guy doesn't care about groups and looks like the solitaire kind, but he's also the type to take care of his friends. And for that, you just have to stand confidently with him"

Lanya looked at him "Do you consider him as your friend?"

Arister smiled bitterly "He almost forced me, but, yeah. I consider him as a friend" He answered "At least, I know that he is someone you better make a friend of, if you have the chance" He added.

Lanya blinked and looked at the trio 'playing' there.

"{Arima…can you just help me?}" Night pleaded while being held by Karma.

"{You don't need to, master, he's okay}" Karma intruded in the telepathic link.

Night's eyes narrowed "{How!? How did you hear that?!}"

"{Come on Night, I'm bound to Arima's soul, so yours too. The real question is why I wouldn't be able to do it?}" Karma responded.

Arima nodded and smiled. He had been checking Karma's behavior for a moment to see if there was something strange "It's good" He commented.

Karma laughed wryly "Master, it feels strange to be checked like I'm some experiment"

"Don't worry, it's finished anyway" Arima said and ignored Night's pleas to help him "Now, what we need is to help you get used to your new form, and also the change between the two"

"Yes, master" Karma answered cheerfully.

"By the way, stop calling me 'master', it's awkward. 'Arima' is fine"

"Sure, Arima" Karma smiled "I was waiting for you to say it"

Night fell silent and looked blankly at the sky, accepting his fate "(Wait…why am I not resisting to this crazy girl?)" He said in his mind and then his expression darkened "(Why!? I can't seem to be able to do anything to her!)"

"You should let him go, he'll become crazy at this rate" Arima said when he realized Night's state.

Karma mused and then put Night on her shoulder as a last resort. The latter's expression twitched, he sneered but ultimately laid his head on her shoulder.

Arima smiled at his reaction then saw Arister and Lanya approaching "By the way, did you finish mastering the arts?" He asked them.

Lanya shook her head first "I still have problems with the destruction art" She said

"It's the white art in my case, never really used life or light magic" Arister said and shrugged.

"Then, I'll teach you from now on" Arima said and then looked at Night "You'll train with Karma. She has to master her new state. I think she can manage to go up to the first sky if she gets used to her human body" He said to him.

"Mm?" Night blinked and tilted his head "I feel like you just said something really unreasonable. For some reason, can you repeat?"

"You'll train with Karma" Arima paused and smiled "Alone" Karma started laughing and Night's expression greatly changed.

"…Why don't you train her? Why me?" The latter asked with worn out voice.

"What? It's fun to see you two together, get used to each other" Arima said and brought Lanya and Arister somewhere else.

Night slowly looked at Karma and saw the latter smiling at him. He sighed and jumped out of her shoulder.

"Okay, I'll accompany you. But don't be fooled, I won't go easy on you" He said and started turning into a dragon.

Karma observed Night's body slowly expanding and then smiled "I hope you won't" She declared.

Night let out a chuckle in his dragon form and some flames escaped his mouth "We really should pay attention as to not be contaminated by Arima"

"I think it's a bit late for that, don't you think?" Karma said and summoned a copy of herself as a weapon.

"True" Night smirked and deployed his wings. The two of them began to spar.

***************************************

"Let's begin with you, try to summon the s.p.a.ce Garden" Arima instructed.

"Okay" Lanya nodded and breathed in. She conjured a circle that appeared in front of her. It was ten meters in radius, far from small.

"[Sub finibus tuis positi] (Under your territory)" She started chanting.

"[Quod interitus cadunt] (Destruction will fall)" The circle became recovered by a dark blue dome. Nothing could be seen under it.

"[Crescere pulchra flores sanguinis] (Grow beautiful flowers of blood)" On the dark blue dome, some red marks appeared, representing flowers being tainted by blood.

"[Fifth Destruction Art, Spatium Horti]" Lanya finished her incantation and the dome glowed, but just after, she clicked her tongue and the dome broke into pieces. When it totally disappeared, she just saw that the earth was only a bit dug out.

She sighed and looked at Arima "I see, it's true that I still didn't make any lessons about s.p.a.ce magic, so it's natural" The latter said "You must be thinking of s.p.a.ce as something that distorts the environment, or maybe something that that can cut through anything. It isn't quite right, you should consider 's.p.a.ce' in general as something that composes every matter. s.p.a.ce magic consists into interacting with the s.p.a.ce in that matter"

Arima crouched and picked a simple rock from the ground "Look at this" He said and raised the rock, a second after, it was cut in two "I didn't cut it, to be more exact, I made it self-break in two" He explained and looked back at Lanya "Do you understand. Don't think of s.p.a.ce magic as a weapon that attacks something, it's a magic that directly interacts with an object and distorts it"

Lanya's eyes widened and she instantly started the chant again. When she said her keyword, this time, the dome didn't break but instead became fully decorated in red flowers. Only when Lanya waved her hand and intentionally broke the dome, did she see what was under. The earth was completely cut everywhere like someone planted an incalculable number of weapons in the ground. At the same time, when the dome disappeared, a wind instantly blew toward it.

Meaning that there was a depression. The s.p.a.ce Garden had even cut and destroyed the air, reducing the atmospheric pressure. If someone was in there, he would have been transformed into some slices of meat.

Lanya's expression brightened "Thank you, Arima" She said excitedly, it was fun for her to learn new magic and theories like this one.

Arima smiled "No problem" He said "What about you Arister?"

Arister shrugged "I can't control the fifth white art. That's all" He answered.

Arima pondered for a moment "Well" He took out a knife that he had in his coat "It's been a while since I used these, now that I think about it" He commented. It was also true that he didn't use them much, although they were bound to his soul, and extremely powerful even as simple throwing knives.

Arima span the knife in his hand and planted it in a single motion on his arm "Hey!" Lanya yelped and Arister raised his voice. But Arima didn't even frown.

He just smiled "Try to heal this with it" And he said.

Arister sighed and pointed his palm at Arima "[Illic 'uno modo tantum] (There's only one way)" He started chanting too and a white light shrouded Arima's arm.

"[Ad nocendum, non mutabo] (To injure, you alter)"

"[Ut sana, vos credibile] (To heal, you reverse)"

"[Fifth White Art, Sana Intrinsecus] (Intrinsic Heal)" He finished chanting and the light vanished.

Surprisingly, Arima stopped bleeding and the injury closed. The latter touched his arm with his right hand for a bit.

Arister blinked "Did it work?"

Arima's expression twitched when he heard that. He looked at Arister and 'gently' smiled.

"Eh?" Arister couldn't understand the meaning, as he was kicked by Arima.