While he was trying to find a place to stay in, Arima happened to come across a gathering of people in the plaza. Since he was curious, he went there to see.

 

"Please, put your bid."

 

He heard a voice. It came from a pale man with fangs over his lips.

 

"Vampire, huh? If I'm not wrong, they are a kind of cousins to the incubus," Arima mumbled.

 

The vampire was standing on a platform with a beautiful girl at his side. She was around fourteen years old with silver hair and eyes. She was dressed in an extremely flashy way and she definitely didn’t seem to be the vampire’s companion with that glum look and the cuffs around her wrists.

 

"10 white silvers!" A wealthy incubus shouted from the crowd.

 

"11 white silvers!"

 

"15!"

 

It seemed that even monsters used human currency. As a matter of fact, a lot of slave dealing in the monster territory was done in connection with the human territory. People continued to raise the number like that until it stagnated around sixty white silvers.

 

"Is that an auction for that girl?" Arima wondered. That girl’s aura and presence wasn’t simple at all, but her appearance was totally human. "Well, not my problem…"

 

"{Wait,}" when Arima was about to leave, Night stopped him.

 

"What's wrong?"

 

"{That girl, can you buy her?}"

 

"…Night, I don't know if dragons have sort of puberty phase but-"

 

"{That's not it!}" Night interrupted him before he could say more. "{That girl, I feel a familiar connection with her.}”

 

"Familiar connection?"

 

"{Yes, similar to when we met the sky dragon back then.}"

 

Arima frowned. "Are you saying that she is a dragon?"

 

"No, I'd say she is half dragon. If you want an image, it would be something like when we resonate. Half human, half dragon."

 

"Hm," Arima mused. "Alright. But you will take care of her.”

 

"{…okay.}"

 

"You hesitated, didn’t you?"

 

"{…no.}"

 

Arima sighed and looked at the pedestal and the girl ‘displayed’ on it. She also looked at him with an indifferent expression for almost a minute.

 

"Tch," Arima and the girl both clicked their tongue at the same time.

 

"{Huh? Did I miss something?}" Night was confused.

 

"No, I think we just both realized that we were similar."

 

"{Oh my god… No. I don’t want a second you. I take back everything I said.}"

 

“Oh, shut up,” Arima retorted and raised his hand. "1 shining gold,” his voice wasn't loud but everyone clearly heard him and looked at him.

 

The vampire selling the girl grinned in delight. "If there isn't anyone to make a bigger bid, this product will go to this person," he announced and everyone stayed silent. "Good, then this gentleman here has won today's auction," the vampire declared and led the girl to Arima.

 

Arima took out a coin which seemed very precious from his storage and gave it to the vampire. The vampire observed it and instantly noticed it came a from a different continent. But it still had the same value here so he didn’t even comment about it, even though he knew for a fact this currency couldn’t possibly be owned by an incubus. He smiled and left, leaving the girl behind.

 

Arima and the girl looked blankly at each other for a moment. "Follow me, first I need to change that outfit of yours," he uttered and turned around. The girl looked at his back and followed him silently.

 

After that, he bought her a dress. When he told her to decide on the color, she glanced at him and chose black. After an hour or so, he finally booked a room in an Inn for him and the girl.

 

"For starters, what's your name?" Arima sat down and began to eat as usual.

 

"Lanya Leana," she replied with a calm and composed voice.

 

"Oh, cool name. How old are you?"

 

"Forty-six."

 

Arima almost choked on his chocolate when he heard the response.

 

‘Again?!’ Arima screamed in his head. He observed Lanya with a more serious look. Now that he looked closely, this girl seemed young at first sight, but she wasn't that small and her figure gave off a mature impression.

 

"Let's cut to the main point," he said and ended his resonance with Night. The black wolf appeared in the room. Lanya seemed slightly surprised. "He told me that you are half dragon, is that true?" Arima pointed at Night and asked.

 

Lanya stared at Night and nodded. "To be exact, it's an inheritance."

 

"Oh, like Jorga, huh? Just asking, from who is that inheritance?"

 

"Chronepsis."

 

"Ah? The Dragon God of Eternal Law?" Arima blurted out. ‘Isn't that from an old game?’

 

"Yes," Lanya answered with a nonchalant nod.

 

"Then, how strong are you?"

 

Lanya shook her head this time. "I couldn’t completely master my inheritance so I'm only at the seventh level."

 

"I see. Night will train you later," Arima stated and laid down on his bed.

 

"Eh? Why me?" The wolf abruptly lifted his head at the mention of his name.

 

"You said you would take care of her, then you'll train her," Arima replied as if it was obvious.

 

"Aaah, right, I said that," Night suddenly felt like he had done something annoying for himself.

 

Arima stared at him with deadpan face. “Why did you even ask me to buy her seriously?”

 

Night could only stay silent when he heard that.

 

"I will be in your care, master," Lanya bowed to Night and actually showed some respect.

 

Arima's expression twitched. "Why are you so respectful to him?"

 

"Because it is thanks to him that you decided to bring me with you, right? I saw it. You were ready to go and you suddenly stopped. When you said it was master that told you, it's easy to understand what happened," she suddenly fired out her argument and Arima’s expression fell.

 

"You're not only annoying but you're also smart, that's a bad combination," he said and closed his eyes to sleep. Lanya watched him for a while before going to bed as well.

 

***

 

During the night, Arima and Night left the Inn without Lanya. Arima set a quick barrier around the room before leaving.

 

“Look, you’re so nice that you put a barrier to protect her,” Night jested and Arima glanced at him.

 

“I’ll remind you I that I bought her at an auction. If there’s a fellow out there who seriously wanted her, he’ll probably kidnap her even if he has to kill me,” Arima rebutted and Night blinked.

 

“…true.”

 

The two resonated and rushed to the center of the town. When they reached the tower, Arima didn't hold back and used a detection magic on the whole tower, he marked every person inside and released his aura and mana.

 

"[Altera Rationem Terram] (Next Dimension Territory),” before anyone in the building could react, he directly transferred everyone that he marked into another dimension.

 

When the Lilin people peeked through the windows of their tower, they didn't notice anything strange. But if they had observed carefully, they would realize that there was no one in town anymore. Not only in town, but also on the whole planet, which wasn’t a living being in this other dimension, obviously.

 

Arima didn't lose time. He teleported just in front of the tower's wall. Then his left hand began to produce a strange and ominous black mist. Afterward, a perturbing phenomenon occurred with his hand. The flesh melted and the bones took over. He then placed his skeletal hand on the wall of the tower.

 

"[Cadere in nihilum aeternum] (Fall to nothingness eternally)," he started chanting.

"[Mors non capit in aeternum] (Death will catch you eternally)."

 

The walls of the tower began to turn black.

 

"[Ossa aeternum grandem faciam pyram] (Bones will pile eternally)."

 

The whole tower was now engulfed in a black mist and the screams echoing from the inside added to the eerie scene.

 

"[Dispergat] (Scatter)," Arima intoned his last keyword and the tower turned into a cloud of dust that scattered away.

 

When the tower vanished, numerous skeletons fell on the ground and piled up to form a small mountain of bones. Only two people were left alive, glaring in fury and shock from the sky.

 

Arima turned his head toward the two survivors and smiled. ‘Death magic is really hard to control after all. I need too much time to activate it,’ he thought of his magic and shook his left hand to get rid of the mist. His hand then strangely regenerated.

 

Death magic could be compared to necromancy. It was the power to control the dead and shoulder death. It’s also the source of curses.

 

"You! Who are you?! Why did you kill my children!?" The Queen shouted with a loud voice.

 

Right now, Arima had his appearance fully revealed, black scales, dark wings, and the tail of a dragon. Of course, the Queen would be confused by that.

 

"Messor (The Reaper)," Arima smirked and responded in Latin.

 

The Queen gritted her teeth. "What is that supposed to mean!?" She released her aura. Her strength was equivalent to the ninth rank, but just the lower class. Meanwhile, the King also released his aura in a silent fury, which was around the pinnacle of the eighth level.

 

The Queen's pupils glowed with a pink light and stared at Arima in the eyes.

 

He became dazed for half a second before recovering his mind. "As expected from the Queen, you got me for half a second," he mocked her.

 

The succubus already had lost every ounce of reason. Now she only wanted to torture this despicable man and kill him. She flapped her wings and dashed toward Arima at the speed of the sound and sent a kick that blew off the skeletons on the ground and shook the houses around.

 

Arima dodged by shifting his body backward. At that exact moment, the King took the chance to strike and conjured a magic circle behind him.

 

Arima drew Karma out of nowhere and literally slashed the magic circle before calling Ira and shooting at the Queen.

 

During the second where the Queen and the King weren't attacking, Arima pointed his sword at the sky. Karma glowed with a silver light and the sky became covered in dark clouds, ready to discharge lightning.

 

The succubus glanced at the sky as thunder roared. "[End of Dreams, Final Wish, Eternal Hope, Endless Despair]," she chanted and the area in a mile’ radius was distorted. Her figure, along with the King, became blurred and Arima suddenly received a kick to his side. His eyes widened in surprise when he spotted the Queen grinning at him from the corner of his eyes.

 

Before he was sent flying though, Arima grabbed her leg with his tail and used the momentum to throw her away while in mid-air. He crashed on several houses and made them collapse. The same thing happened with the Queen.

 

Arima flapped his wings to regain his balance. ‘She set a massive illusion array.’

 

"[Lux ab oculis meis] (Eyes of Light)," Arima buffed his eyes with Light magic and instantly spotted huge rocks falling from the sky at an extreme speed. ‘Earth magic, huh?’

 

Arima swung Karma and conjured Aeterna, destroying all the rocks to smithereens. Just after that, he called Superbia and fired at a silhouette in the distance. The black pillar of plasma and electricity soared but before it reached its goal, the target had already disappeared.

 

‘Missed,’ Arima recognized that his Light magic only allowed him to see the truth in a limited area.

 

Just after he shot with Superbia, the Queen charged at him and tried to kick him in the neck. He swiftly swapped to Karma a blocked the strike with the blade. He then engaged in a close combat with the succubus.

 

They gave back each blow, one after another. Just after twenty seconds, the place they were standing was already a small crater. At that point, they were both injured. Even Arima couldn't avoid injuries but he was still better off because his clothes were healing him continuously.

 

All of a sudden, the Queen pushed her illusion magic to the maximum and disappeared from Arima's sight. She pulled out a dagger and tried to stab him in the heart. At the same time, the King restrained Arima with earth magic.

 

Arima managed to move his body when he felt the danger but was still stabbed in the abdomen because of the King’s restrain. But before the couple could do anything else to him, he teleported away.

 

He couldn't go anywhere farther than a few hundred of meters because both the incubus and succubus were restraining space with their aura. Additionally, teleporting in a fight usually wasted a lot of mana but Arima had a lot to spare.

 

When he teleported, he glanced at his healing abdomen and smirked. His eyes flashed with a blackish light and the clouds outside of the illusion began to rumble. Lightning fell everywhere in town and forced the Queen and King to fall back. Each one of those bolts of lightning were strong enough to destroy a small hill.

 

"This farce is over," Arima said and his aura exploded and disturbed the illusion around him.

 

"[Conteret eum, Rakshasa] (Destroy it, Rakshasa)," he chanted and a figure began to slowly emerge behind him. The figure was a strange monster with six arms and fangs protruding from his mouth. He was covered in blood as he growled. He held a large scimitar in one of his hands and slashed the air with it.

 

The illusion instantly broke apart and Arima recovered a normal vision of the world. He looked around and saw the Queen standing a mile away from him, chanting her magic. The King was doing the same, in the opposite direction. One was in front, the other behind.

 

"[Earth entrails]!" The two finished at the same time and the ground in a mile’ radius cracked and transformed into countless spikes and shrapnel that attacked Arima from all directions.

 

His eyes lighted up and his surroundings exploded.

 

"[Agnitio Vultus Unum Centum] (One Hundred Parade)."