"I see, interesting things happened while I was asleep, huh?" Ifrit muttered and looked up to observe the effects of Arima's 'Live Harvest'. He then looked around, scanned everything happening on this battlefield, and then looked back at Michael.
"I won't act," he stated and the archangel sighed in relief. "For now." Michael's expression stiffened again. "I'm quite curious about that Life Hunter. He's the last of his kind after all. I'll come back when his trial is over," he declared and transformed into a huge flame before returning to his volcano.
When the beast left, Michael groaned and shook his head. "Seriously, this war is getting even more chaotic than I expected," he complained and glanced at Gabriel. "And you were not helping."
Gabriel looked away and snorted. "I couldn't let him order me around, okay? Question of pride"
"Yeah, sure. You've got great pride. I know that already."
"What do you mean by that!?"
"Hmm. Wait," Michael suddenly remembered something. "Where is Lucifer?" He was slightly panicked. Lucifer had definitely woken Ifrit up but Michael didn't believe a second that he was betting on that to get his payback.
Just as the archangel was thinking about that, he spotted Lucifer coming back with two more people at his side. One of them was a handsome demon with a really disturbing smile on his face and the other was a big, fat, and ugly monster with a large face.
"Oh, you gotta be kidding me. Asmodeus and Beelzebub? How the hell did he find them so quickly!?" Michael shouted and prepared his spear.
"Good luck," Gabriel uttered and teleported away.
"…thanks," Michael replied with a sunken mood and flapped his wings and engaged in a fight with the three Hell Princes. Fortunately for him, Satan had already been taken care of.
In another part of the battlefield, Utain peeked behind him to confirm that Ifrit had left.
"I suppose this is the best outcome," Chulainn remarked.
"Surely is," Utain said indifferently and effortlessly blocked Chulainn's giant body with his bare hands. He gritted his teeth and his muscles bulged. He landed on the ground and jumped afterward.
He reached Chulainn's middle head and punched it. Chulainn let out a short cry and his two other heads released a fire breath on Utain. But the latter resisted the fire with his body and even found an occasion to counter-attack one of the heads before Chulainn could knock him back with wind magic.
When Utain was about to charge again, his body suddenly became heavier and he clicked his tongue as he knew who was the cause. He looked in Lanya's direction and sent a wave aura and killing intent.
He would counter her like that each time since it was enough, but he had to admit that the magic she used kept bothering him. But he also couldn't do anything more than that as Chulainn would protect her every time.
"(A magic capable of messing around with the Owls… good thing it has limitations based on its user,)" the beast-man thought and was attacked by someone else.
"You better not forget about me. You’ll regret it," Lilis smiled and said. The magic she manipulated as the Goddess of Worldly Emotions was literally her title. She could affect emotions.
She could even make someone 'self-destruct' if she managed to poison their feelings. But against stronger foes, she could just forcefully activate certain emotions.
For example, when Utain would try to retaliate, he would unnaturally halt because he was feeling pity or guilt. Furthermore, his body would get constantly restrained by Lanya's Lawless Tome and Chulainn's control over Hell's environment.
"You're trying to upset me?" Even Utain couldn't stand this kind of treatment eternally. He was being tossed around by those three from the very beginning. But not once did they actually land a critical blow on him. They were stuck in a situation where neither of the two sides could get the victory.
"Don't blame me for being harsh," Utain warned them and made his mana flow through his entire body. The quantity of mana he employed was quite scary.
"[Impenetrable Will]," he chanted and his body underwent a peculiar change.
His skin turned slightly paler and his eyes clearer. He then jumped and stepped on thin-air to propel himself in Lilis's direction. She, of course, used her ability like before but no matter how she tried, she failed to penetrate his mind.
"Shit! He used Mind magic as a medium to enhance his body!" Chulainn shouted and the sigil on his tail glowed. The ground cracked open and a massive pillar of fire raised between Lilis and Utain. But the latter went through the flames as if they were nothing.
"(This guy's resistance to Hell's fire is too strong. He must have gotten used to the magic wave while he was in the purgatory,)" Chulainn inwardly thought.
In fact, if one gets harmed by the same magic for a long period, it's possible to become completely immune to it. Utain stayed in the purgatory for thousands of years. Although he didn't reach the level of immunity, it was basically impossible to threaten him with the kind of fire that he spent thousands of years with. And unfortunately for Chulainn, the Hellhound's flames were the flames of Hell.
Utain infused mana into his arm and used another elemental enhancing. His arm was slowly covered in stone and its size also increased by a huge margin.
Lilis realized she wasn't going to escape this one and decided to resist the blow the best she could. Her surroundings became bathed in a pinkish aura and a magic shield of the same color formed in front of her.
When Utain touched the shield, his fist was actually stopped for a second. But he merely frowned and effortlessly broke it. Although his attack was slowed down, it was definitely going to hit.
"Lilis!" Chulainn shouted and kicked the ground to the point his massive body cause the earth to quake but he knew he wasn't going to reach her in time.
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"[Third Destruction Art, Full Release, Pars Impios] (Lawless Tome)," Lanya intoned and the Lawless Tome fulfilled its caster's simple and yet strong wish; ‘Save Lilis’.
The book vanished from Lanya's hands and reappeared in the way of Utain's fist. Before the beast-man could react, his punch landed on an invisible barrier. His expression rapidly sunk and he pulled his arm back.
He gritted his teeth and looked at his arm after the stone enhancement faded away. He was slightly bleeding. That invisible wall wasn't only tough, he felt like if he hadn't given up, his arm would have been crushed by his own power.
Utain glared at the book which was still hovering there and scowled when the pages started flipping in front of him.
"(It's not over?)" He wondered but that thought was soon replaced with ire. What he saw on the pages of the book was the drawing of a big grin. The image moved and it looked like the drawing was laughing at him.
After that display, the book closed and finally dissipated. Utain's expression was twitching quite violently, even more, when he realized that Lilis was out of sight.
He wasn't able to calm down before Chulainn arrived and trapped him in his mouth. Of course, the Hellhound didn't swallow him but immediately used his strongest magic and bathed his throat with magma.
He then howled with his two other heads before spatting out Utain. The beast-man had suffered some burns but anger was most likely the worst thing he had been inflicted with. Chulainn didn't stop there and controlled the ground to lock Utain inside a prison of stone.
"You may be able to resist my flames, but what about this?" Chulainn uttered and his sigil glowed.
"[Sub finibus tuis positi] (Under your territory)."
"[Quod interitus cadunt] (Destruction will fall)."
"[Crescere pulchra flores sanguinis] (Grow beautiful flowers of blood)."
"[Fifth Destruction Art, Spatium Horti] (Space Garden)," Chulainn chanted and huge dark blue sphere encapsulated the stone prison. Red flower patterns were then slowly drawn on its surface and glowed all together. But that wasn't the end.
"Arima taught me the hidden effect of this one," Chulainn grinned.
"[Spatio Solute] (Space Burst)," he added to his incantation and the flowers started losing their petals. A red color flowed down the sphere-like drops of blood. The sphere then started spinning and acting strangely. Its shape was suffering extremely confusing alterations. It would shrink or become bigger, turn into odd polygons, it would swell or contract… It happened many times until it exploded.
An explosion without flames or detonation. Just a dark blue light and some flickering particles that filled the air. At the same moment, a small tornado formed because of the resulting vacuum before disappearing shortly after.
When Utain resurfaced from that, he had actually lost his left arm and his whole body was covered in injuries. His face was also incredibly distorted and he also was gritting his teeth to not scream in pain.
"…The fuck was that!?" He shouted instead. "Since when did you learn space magic?!"
Chulainn smirked. "I had the chance to learn under a very unique teacher," he quipped and Utain's wrath reached another level. He had not even realized himself that Lilis’ magic had managed to infiltrate his rationality.
He grunted and forced his body to relocate the bones, recreate his arm, and heal the countless cuts on his body. Chulainn was shocked at the sight. Utain then reinforced his body even more than earlier. He rushed toward Chulainn by stepping on thin air and made sure to avoid any attack from Chulainn that could make him unable to move.
Chulainn was surprisingly calm as Utain was getting near him. "You finished?" He suddenly asked.
"Yes," Lanya's and Lilis’ voices responded and both carried a strong aura with it. Even Utain who was ready to attack because of his rage stopped on his tracks. His eyes narrowed and he apprehensively looked behind the huge body of Chulainn.
The sight offered to him made him speechless. Lanya and Lilis had now both silver scales on their bodies along with a pair of silver wings on their back. Their eyes were also identic and looked like the two's eyes colors had been mixed together. But the most shocking thing was that both of their auras had reached the Second Divine.
"I wasn't sure it would work because of our difference in life force. But it worked in the end," Lanya said and Lilis nodded.
"I'm still shocked that Arima created such a thing, to be honest."
"(What is going on?)" Utain's mind was in turmoil and it didn't seem to improve with time. "(Do I really need to use it now?)" He thought and then shook his head. "(I have to use it,)" he made up his mind and took some distance from them.
"[Resurrection]," he intoned and started releasing a suffocating aura that spread around the entire battlefield. Everyone reacted to it and snorted.
"Someone's finally using it, huh?" Baphomet commented.
"It's the Destroyer," Gabriel muttered. "So, he's the first one to use the Soul Manifestation?"
Utain's body grew white fur as his body expanded. After a moment, his entire figure was now one of an actual beast. To be exact, he had turned into a werewolf. "Let's continue," he said and his aura alone was scaring his opponents.
Chulainn bitterly laughed and prepared himself. It was the same for Lilis and Lanya, they both moved at the same time and wagged their wings before landing on top of Chulainn's heads.
As all of this was happening, no one noticed the small fluctuation of the life force in the sky.