Yeion anxiously flew through the air to leave the atmosphere. He now knew that he couldn't beat Arima alone. And it was unnecessary to even mention Raylein.
Guardians were on a totally different level compared to Transcendentals. A Transcendental was someone who had successfully reached the stage above the Heavenly Realm.
Generally, you're considered a mortal as long as you're in the Mortal Realm or the Earthen Realm. Once you reach the heavenly level and go through the refining of your soul, you become a divinity. This was what happened during Arima's Life Judgment.
Next comes the Transcendentals. To become one, you have to shed your flesh and blood and become something transcending every limit of your body.
For example, Yeion became a literal shadow when he became a Transcendental. The process for transcendence is quite simple actually. The basic method is to convert your entire life force into what we call original force. That name implies that you're getting closer to the power of the Creators.
This was the reason why Yeion was so shocked about Arima's strength. He was not a Transcendental; just a human. Humans are the weakest intellectual species. They are far from being famous for their innate physical or magic ability.
Even if Arima had become an Eternal Dragon recently, his core genetic factor never changed.
At the moment, Yeion was merely trying to flee. He planned to leave the time array first. Thanks to the time shift, he should be able to gain a few hours and vanish without any trace.
But Arima wasn't going to let him go so easily. In the first place, this array had been created from Ragnarök's hidden aspect. This only meant one thing.
Arima's eyes glowed and the giant clock projected in the sky slightly changed.
A new dial formed behind it. It was smaller and the needles were moving extremely fast. Before he knew, Yeion had been forced to stop and both Arima and Raylein were in front of him.
‘This entire planet is under his control… even time and space are his…’ Yeion silently lamented.
Now he was desperately trying to find a way to get out of this situation. He peeked below and got an idea. He waved his hand and summoned a small black knife. He stared at Arima and threw it at a mountain on the planet's surface. The whole mountain was immediately reduced to nothing after an explosion resembling a black hole.
Arima frowned and glanced at it for a second. Yeion conjured another knife and pointed it at the city of Aurorae.
"If you want your people to live, let me go. Free me from this time zone and they'll be spared."
Arima snorted when he heard the threat. "Go ahead," he said and Yeion furrowed his brows.
‘Something’s wrong.’
He looked down again. He didn't even need to squint his eyes even if he was almost out of the stratosphere. He scanned the planet with his sight and noticed that there was no one on it. Not even animals or insects. Everything was empty as if it had been deserted.
"We are in another dimension," Arima enlightened him. "Anything that you destroy here won’t affect the outside world."
Yeion clicked his tongue and glared at him. He didn't have a choice. He summoned two carved scimitars from his soul and prepared to fight. If he was only against Arima, he might have a chance to get away. But the moment Raylein decides to join in, he's definitely dead.
‘That's also why I can still make it. The Traveler hasn't moved yet. Perhaps he doesn't want to intervene for now.’
"Well, now that things are set, let's start," Arima declared and his eyes flashed for a second. Yeion abruptly felt a presence behind him and urgently evaded.
He hastily took a glance over his shoulder while keeping Arima and Raylein in sight. He thought that a third party had sneaked behind him but he saw absolutely nothing. He was baffled. He alleged that he would become crazy if he stayed on this planet for too long.
"[Veluta aeim, quifa quifa]."
"[Samda maa kaav]."
He then heard a chant but before he could react, as if time had trapped him again, a green circle was formed right above him. He only had the time to blink.
"[Fourth Cryptic Art, Tertio Apparatum, Magna Blast] (Third Armament)."
A large pillar of green energy shrouded Yeion's figure and descended toward Earth. It easily went through the surface and disappeared inside. In the next instant, the entire planet fissured until it exploded and propelled all kinds of asteroids into outer space.
Arima and Raylein were not even shaken by the explosion and just stood still until everything regained its calm. Then, some weird black dots floating around gathered together to form Yeion's silhouette.
The latter didn't seem to care about the obliterated planet and gawked at Arima's doppelganger who had just shot him with Superore.
"…What is wrong with your magic? How did you make a clone with the exact same strength as you? How did you bring me into this dimension? Why is the time array also present here? How do you keep up with the mana consumption?" He threw a barrage of questions that really needed to be answered.
He perfectly understood his situation now. He was trapped; practically a prisoner. He was in another dimension and couldn't threaten Earth in consequence. Heck, Arima had destroyed it.
Ragnarök’s array was still here even though the planet had disappeared. That meant he would not be able to escape and Arima could confront him with it. There was also a spatial lock stopping him from teleporting.
"You don't need to know, do you?" Arima responded and tilted his head. Lightning escaped his body every time he moved by even a single millimeter. He unsheathed Karma and disappeared on the spot. He displaced right in front of Yeion and hacked with his sword.
Yeion reacted correctly this time and parried Arima's blade with his scimitars. That first blow reduced every asteroid around to cinders. A few clashes after that, Arima's doppelganger acted.
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Yeion tried to parry him with one of his swords but the time array activated once again and the doppelganger moved behind him. In the meantime, Arima kicked him and conjured Aeterna immediately. Doppel pressed Superore's trigger just after and both attacks struck Yeion simultaneously.
His body was like a real shadow and couldn't be harmed by physical attacks but magic assaults like Aeterna and Superore's bullets could injure him. Even so, Yeion was also trying to avoid Karma's blade. He noticed earlier that it somehow could hurt him.
In the end, Yeion was completely being dominated. Arima had a tremendous advantage and Yeion wasn't built for close combat. He was called 'Shadow' because of his skills in assassination, spying, infiltrating, and reconnaissance. Not fighting abilities.
That's why, even though if he was a Transcendental, he couldn't match Arima. It was also true that Yeion had to sacrifice a lot of raw power to have this kind of ethereal body. At best, his overall strength would be equal to Fafnir or a bit lower.
Raylein was watching and although he expected Arima to win, he was still astounded. When Arima opened the dimension, he didn't even notice it. That was the first thing.
The second thing was how he was using this ‘time prison’ to his own ends. Even he had to admit it would be pretty hard and annoying to defeat someone if he was to be trapped in this kind of array.
"Truly fearsome… but…"
"{Hey! We're dangerously low right now!}" Night shouted and Arima's expression twitched. Night was talking about his mana reserves. Even for him, keeping the connection with this dimension active, while also fueling the two time-arrays in both the real world and the dimension, was a little bit excessive. His mana quantity was dangerously going down since he had started fighting.
"{This guy is on the defensive right now. We'll run out of mana before we can get him,}" Karma added. Yeion was using darkness magic to cancel Arima's attacks as much as he could.
"I know," Arima replied to his partners out loud and retreated. Yeion had already become skeptical after all of this. He didn’t dare to believe Arima had given up. As a matter of fact, the doppelganger was still fighting him.
"He'll soon be injured. Can you catch him for me when it happens?" Arima asked and Raylein shrugged.
"Sure, it’s not a problem."
Arima nodded and looked at Doppel. His sigil glowed. "[Gaudete]," he intoned and his copy snorted before charging at Yeion. The latter panicked and cast a large-scale spell. The entire area became filled with darkness. It was like a physical substance and restrained Doppel like a swamp.
Yeion finally could catch his breath. He didn't know why the doppelganger had approached him so recklessly but it had given him an occasion to contain him.
As he was being absorbed by the darkness, Doppel chanted something.
"[Third Red Art, Semita Vitisque Repertor] (Path Finder)," he discarded all of his defenses and the darkness instantly lost grasp on him. He then activated the time array one last time and went straight toward Yeion.
When the doppelganger finally reached him, Arima snapped his fingers and his clone's skin turned red before expanding and crackling. Just after that, Doppel imploded and a surprisingly small and powerful explosion consumed Yeion.
Then, the time array disappeared and the dimension started collapsing. Arima sighed and waited quietly. The explosion was exceptionally bright. It almost looked like a white fireball.
It took a minute for a strange shadow to fly away from it. It was heading toward one of the space cracks of the collapsing dimension. Yeion was incredibly fast and seemed to have put everything on that escape.
But as he was about to leave, Raylein teleported right in front of him and stopped his movements with his aura. Yeion couldn't resist it; the pressure alone was too high for him.
Raylein smiled and teleported back beside Arima.
"Is that why you're called 'The Traveler'?" Arima enquired when the dimension had collapsed and they were back on Earth.
Raylein laughed. "Correct. My teleportation is ‘perfect’. I can transfer to anywhere and anytime I want. Traveling through planes is as easy as breathing for me. That's why they called me like that."
"I see…" Arima said and sheathed Karma. Thunder roared and he took an Iai stance while staring at Yeion. Raylein frowned and looked at the sky. Although it was daytime, stars were lighting up and forming a constellation.
"[Fifth Cryptic Art, Sextus Stella, Cancer] (Sixth Star, Cancer)," Arima chanted and swung his sword at an exceptional speed. Even Raylein had to focus to see it and what he saw was unexpected. The blade of the katana went through Yeion as if he wasn’t there. It wasn't because Karma couldn't cut him. It simply looked like the blade itself had turned ethereal. It didn’t even affect the surrounding air.
While he was contemplating about what happened, Raylein found out that the constellation had already disappeared and that Yeion was dead. His body transformed into particles that were dispersed by the wind.
Raylein looked back at Arima for answers and saw that there was a small white sphere sitting on the tip of Karma's blade. His eyes widened when he noticed what it was.
"That's…"
"His original force and memories," Arima answered. "As expected, I can take it out with life hunt but I can't absorb it without being a Transcendental myself..."
"…Do you want me to teach you how to convert your mana?"
"No," Arima shook his head. "The reason I fought that guy was for this anyway. I experienced his internal force first hand, I already know how to do it."
"...Why didn't you just ask me?"