Jayr POV - Tortus, Tortus O - 2013

  We are inside Hajime's submarine, quietly moving toward the location of one of the seve Labyrinths, around 300 kilometers est from Erisen.

  During the uer voyage, I once again expins to everyone how to exactly reach the Sunken Ruins of Melusine, because as expected Hajime and his party were too annoyed by Miledi's antics to listen to her and so they were flushed out.

  So I tell them that even if we reach the destination, we have to wait for the moon to e out and thehe proof of quests of the Grue Volo to find the hidden Labyrinth.

  And so, we only advahrough the vast o in accordah the dire and distaold them.

  And as expected, we didn't find anything when we reached our destination and searched the pointed location at the bottom of the sea during the daytime.

  They did the search because Kouki thought that they'd be able to find some kind of trace because it was a bottom sea ruin, but they were too he Liberators pnned everything when they built the Seve Labyrinth, so it will be difficult to find an opening to exploit.

  And ihe location is rather shallow pared to the other pce with a circumference of 100 kilometers, clearly indig that something is hidden here, but even I 't sense anything, for sure they made it so that it is impossible to access without the right key using a bination of all Age of Gods Magics.

  Relutly, the party decide to stop the seard wait until night, when the full moon has e out, as I had told them.

  After waiting for a few hours, the su finally es, the sun is shining in red with half of itself hidden beyond the horizon, brightening the world for the st time today.

  The sky and sea are dyed in e while a straight road is produced by the refle of the sun on the sea from over the horizon, 'It is a beautiful spectacle of nature no matter whichever world it is!'.

  I'm enjoying this beautiful spectacle on the deck of the submarine while holding Eri's hand while she rests her head on my shoulder, then I hear Eri mutter, "This is one of the happiest moments in my life...", and she gs closer.

  I caress Eri's head with my free hand, and at the same time, I start to look around and see Freid on one side of the deck as he uses a rod to fish, while on another side, Kouki and Ryutarou are sparring, and the ohat sometimes even I fot exist, Endou Kosuke is resting on a b, while Hajime is standing on the deck looking at the su.

  Then Kaori es out from the inboard, with her hair still damp, and asks Hajime who is wearing a thoughtful expression, "Did something happen?", at the same time, Yue, Shea, Tio, Shizuku, and Suzu also e out of the interior of the submarih their hair still damp.

  That was the reason why all the meside on the deck, everyone had taken the shower ihe submarine built by Hajime who took great pride in it.

  Their flushed cheeks, the damp hair stu their cheeks, and their nape, made their figures truly captivating.

  And with the water from the shower room was set to rain right from the ceiling, so it wasn't a problem for the six of them to shower all at once.

  Hajime shakes his head, then he replies to Kaori, "I am just recalling a little about Japan. After all, the se here isn't that much different from there", and Kaori takes a seat o him, looks at the su, she nods and says, "… I see. Yeah, it really is. It is just like the evening sun I have seen in the sea before… somehow it makes me feel nostalgic. Though not even half a year had passed, eh...", and Hajime expins, "That's because every day here is too eventful".

  Maybe because she feels the loneliness from the versatioweewo, Yue trots her still-flushing body towards Hajime and sits on his p.

  She entrusts her back to Hajime's chest even though she must be feeling hot, then, she began to watch Hajime right under his face.

  Her eyes are obviously expressing she wants them to let her join their versation. Yue was feeling lonely, and at the same time, she wao hear about her hometown, and at this time, Shea draws closer to him from the opposite side of Kaori with sparkling eyes, she was obviously signaling she wao be cared for too.

  Looking at them, Eri asks, "Will we have something like that too? It doesn't look so bad...", and as I look at Hajime's party as they cuddle close to each other above the vast sea, I tio caress Eri's head and reply, "I hope to be something eveer, right now they are still fighting for his attention, while what I want is one big family that loves and support each other...", hearing that, Eri smiles brightly, theers an, "Un..." before she starts to kiss me, and in the background, I hear the ade by Suzu and the irls, at the same time, I seio sittio us.

  Time passed swiftly as we ehe peaceful atmosphere, and the sun has pletely gone down to the other side of the horizon, and the full moon has finally begun to shine in its pce.

  Thinking it is about time, I take out the pendant which is the proof of having quered Grue Volo from my Soulbouory.

  The design of the pendant is of a woman hanging a ntern and there is a hole iern, making it hollow.

  I start to hold the pendant towards the moon, in such a way that the moon be seen from the hole of the ntern design, then wait for a while, but there is no immediate ge, Hajime, thinking that this method doesn't work, sigh and begin to try another method with his own proof.

  But right at that time, a ge appears in the pendant, the ntern part is abs the moonlight and light begins to accumute inside of it, and after a few mihe hollow part is filled with the light, before long, the ntern finish accumuting the light and the pendant is now light.

  At the same time, a light shot straight from the ntern, pointing to a certain location on the sea's surface, seeing this spectacle, Hajime, who is nearby says,"… What an exquisite produ. Truly different from Miledi's", and Kouki adds, "It is... It really is fantasy-like, even I'm rather impressed by it".

  This "Guided by the moonlight", is such a romance-like thing that makes not only Hajime, but also Yue and the rest raise voices of admiration, but since we don't really know for how long this phenomenon will tinue, I urge Hajime to drive the submarine and follow the pendant's ntern's leading light.

  The sea at night is dark, or maybe it would be better to say that everything is bck, and even though the surface of the water is still bright because of the moonlight, we are lead into the waters, and thus everything instantly turns dark, with the light released by the submarine and the pendant as the only thing cutting through the darkness of the sea.

  The light easily bypasses the gss of the submarine made from a type of sturdy and transparent ore, allowio tinue leading the way from the inside of the submarine, and right now the light is pointing at the bottom of the sea.

  The pointed location is the rock wall zone of the bottom of the sea, numerous distorted rock walls are joio form a mountain ra is a pce we had searched during the daytime but it resulted in nothing, but when the submarine approaches the rock pointed by the pendant's light, a light tremor be felt all throughout the submarine along with a strong rumbling sound.

  The sound and tremor are caused by the rock wall that begins to move, and soon, one of the rock's part is split in two, opening to the right a like a door, and seeing that Ryutarou says, "That dark road that leads inside is as though it is inviting oo the herworld...", but I quickly reassure him, "Don't worry, I know for experiehat this isn't how the entrao those kinds of pces looks like... This looks more like some kind of evil anization ir...", and Hajime smiles and adds, "Yeah, that is for sure...If I'm n you went to hell, right?", to which I simply nod without saying anything else.

  Then, Hajime drives the submarine and we finally ehe crack, at the same time, I notice that the pendant's ntern still has around half of its accumuted light, but it has stopped releasing the light, and now only the submarine's light is shining ihe dark sea now.

  All of a sudden, Tio asks, "Umm~, this one had thought this since hearing about the bottom sea ruin, but wouldn't it be impossible for ordinary people to ehis byrinth without this "submarihing?", to which Suzu replies, "… It's impossible unless one is using a strong barrier", but Eri adds, "It will also be impossible if they 't trol the air, light, and water current at the same time, eh", then Shizuku realizes "But, it is necessary to quer Grue Volo to e here, so I think people who are capable of quering the Great Labyrinth are able to enter", and Kaouki nods and says "Maybe we are supposed to use Spatial magic".

  Entering deeper on the uer road, our party start to sider other ways to quer this Labyrinth without a submarihey are impressed by the fantastitrance, but indeed, ohey thought about it normally, uhere are several top-css magic users, it is impossible to ehe Labyrinth, a troublesome point simir to the reat Labyrinth.

  While tinuing the discussion, with caution, our party watches the bottom of the sea through the front crystal, but all of the sudden, the side of the submarine suddenly receive an impad immediately, the submarine was thrown towards a certain dire, the submarine is turning around and around, but under my advice, Hajime already has a termeasure for such occasion, he uses the gravity stone installed at the bottom of the submario increase the weight and stabilize it.

  While the others are trying tain their bearings, I observe the outside through the front crystal, the Green Light stone's light is cirg around the dark cave, letting me see the surroundings, 'From what I see, we seem to have bee by the current into a huge round cave... but maybe that is where we are meant to go...', and so we tio advance following the current, and after a while, the "Farsight stone" installed iern catches innumerable objects shining in reddish bck, which makes Hajime mutters, "They seem to be approag us… Well, they are most likely monsters reddish bck magic power, huh", and Yue, who is sitting by his side, is already gathering magic power in her hand, and says in gangster-like tone, "… Shall we?".

  But Hajime stops her, and with a smile, he replies, "No, let's use on here. I also want to firm their effectiveness", and starts operating the gimmi the back of the submarine.

  Then, numerous pet-bottle-sized torpedoes that had dyed Ancadi's Oasis in red, are unched, Hajime thhly paihem so they looked like mischievously smiling sharks, but because they are ihe swift current, the torpedoes' propulsion only move them to a small degree, and it results with them scattering like sea mines.

  The submarine tio advance ahead, and before long, the numerous monsters reddish bck magic power with the appearance of flying fish ehe cluster of torpedoes.

  And a set of grand explosions appears in succession from behind the submarine and a rge amount of bubbles s the group of flying fish-lookalike, afterwards, the bodies of flying fish-lookalike are torn apart by the impad the flesh and blood are scattered from ihe appearing bubbles, looking like seaweed thrown into a swift current.

  Seeing the result of his attack Hajime smiles evilly and says, "Yup, it has more power than before. The improvement is a success.", then Shea pointing somewhere outside excims, "Uwaah~, Hajime-san. Just now, there was something with eyes of a fish being swept outside", but Tio calms her, "Shea, those art actually dead fishes", and Kouki ents a little upset, "Once again it makes me think that the artifacts Hajime-kun made are a foul py...", while we are calmly chatting, our party advance as we easily repel the flying fish-lookalike attack that happens quite frequently.

  We tio advahout knowing how long it would take to reach the destination, when all of the sudden, I begin to have a sense of inpatibility with the current unging sery.

  And when we arrive at a pce where the surrounding walls had been randomly destroyed, this ses stronger so I start to carefully look around, I also notice that I'm not the only ohat feels that something is off, then I notice the torn heads of flying fish-lookalike that are pced between the rock walls with their hollow eyes looking at the sea, and I realize what is going on, and so does Eri as she asks to seek firmation, "… Hmm, isn't this the pce we passed before?", to which I nod and reply, "… Seems so. We are going in a circle, this".

  Realizing that, we now don't advance acc to the id road, and carefully search the surrounding for any clues, and as a result, "Ah, Hajime-kun. There's ohere too!" screams aed Suzu while she points at some pce where some engraving be seen, seeing that Hajime nods and says, "With this, it is the fifth pce…".

  We discovered several pces ihe cave that were carved with fifty timeters long crest of Melusihe carved crest of Melusine is a pentagram with lines ected to every five points and the ter is carved with a crest moon-like design, it seems simir to the other five pces in this circur cave.

  For a thh examination, roach the crest we first discovered, and because we are exposed to the swift currents, Hajime takes care in trolling the submari the same time, I move closer and say, "Well, there are five pces with a pentagram, so if the remaining light ihe pendant is used…", and take out the pendant and hold it before the front crystal, and the instant, the pendas and light is released straight from the ntern.

  Following that, the light touches the crest and the crest shines, at the same time, Kaori says, "It will be disastrous for people who e here using magic… if they didn't notice this immediately, their magic power would be depleted", and Shizuku adds "Just as Kaori said, this RPG-like method would be too cruel for people who somehow survived only by maintaining their magic...", but Eri snorts and says, "All the Great Labyrinths grants immense power to those that quer them, it is natural for them to have the hardest challenge possible...".

  Afterward, three more crests in our location were poured with light from the ntern, and the party arrive before the st crest, the light collected ihe ntern decreased when it was released to light up the crest, and the remaining light is enough for only one more usage.

  I hold up the pendant and pour the st crest with the light, finally, a way to advance from this circur cave opens, and with a rumbling sound, the wall of the cave splits in two.

  Not much happens as we advao the interior, but the water is desding below, then, all of the sudden, the submarine is ed in a weightless feeling as it is falling down, and all I hear are the surprised scream of everyone, but even so the first thing I do is hold oo make sure that she will be safe while enduring the floating feeliween my groin.

  Then, the submari the hard ground with a r sound, the severe impact is transmitted into the interior, and those whose body isn't strong enough, Kaori, Suzu, Kosuke, Shizuku, Kouki, and Ryutaro raise a groan, while they are strong even for this world standard their bodies are still human, meanwhile, Eri used my body as a cushion, so she is fine, soon, we all start getting up and I hear Hajime asks, "Kh… Kaori, are you okay?", to which she replies, "Uhh, I-I'm okay. More importantly, here is?", and she frows as she looks outside through the front crystal, and unlike a while ago, the outside is not sea water but a cavity, and because there is no sign of monsters, we go outside.

  Outside the submarine is a huge hemispherical space, when I look above, I notice that there is a rge hole where I see water swaying to and fro, but not even a drop falls from it, looking at that hole I say, "That should be where we came from...", then Hajime says, "Looks like here is the real thing. Rather than a bottom sea ruin, it is a cave though", and Ryutarou adds "… It's good that there isn't water everywhere", then Haime returns the submario the Treasure Box, and I urge the others to advao the passage that could be seen ihe cave, but before the party could move, I and Hajime call out at the same time, "Suzu! Barrier!", "Yue!".

  The moment, I immediately notice the differen trust and battle experieween Yue and Suzu, on one side, Yue trusts Hajime blindly and is easily able to uand him, so she quickly acts and without hesitatioter "Nn", and creates a barrier around us, and the moment, ser-like water current attacks us like meteors from above, very simir to the spell Rupture that I'm so fond of, so that If os hit by it, a hole would be easily created in their body, however, Yue's barrier is extremely strong even if it was cast in a hurry, as a proof, it easily able to block the ining attack from above.

  Meanwhile, oher side, Suzu looks at me with a fused expression for a few moments, then whes, she realizes what I'm telling her and starts to make her move, "E-eh? Ah! Undying holy light, be my shield forevermore, Sacred Shields!", and forms multiple Holy Shields at once all around us and reinforces Yue's barrier even more.

  I also notice that only Shea, Tio, Eri, and Freid had already guessed that our shout was a warning of an attad because of this are undisturbed by it, however, Kaori and the others didn't react the same way as them, "Kyaa!?", "Whoa!?", What the hell!?", "Careful!!", "Help!", the too sudden and inteacks made them instinctively raise a scream and jolt up nervously, Kaori even immediately g to Hajime who is beside her, but soon she realize what she has done a go while saying, "I-I am sorry", to which he calmly replies with, "No, don't mind it", then Kaori appears to be ihought w over something, and Hajime who notices this asks, "Are you alright?", Kaori immediately tries to deceive him by making a forced smile and replies, "Eh? Ah, nothing. There's nothing wrong", Hajime doesn't buy it and slightly narrows his eye towards her a, but then he says, "… I see".

  At the same time, Tio fires her spiraling magic fmes to burn the ceiling, and with that, the culprit of the attack falls on the ground in a tatter, it is a barnacle-like monster, and a lot of them are stig to the ceiling, shooting "Rupture" from the hole above, a physiological disgust-inviting spectacle.

  Maybe because it is still an uer creature, it is weak to fmes and is immediately burnt by Tio's fme magic, Spiral Fme.

  After defeating those barnacle-lookalikes, we walk into the passage, and we find ourselves at a lower height than the previous room, making the seawater reach our thighs, and quickly Hajime picks up Yue and raises her on his shoulder sih her height she would be soaked faster than everyone else with her 1,4 meters of height, well, I do the same for Eri since she isn't that much taller than Yue, and Suzu who has the same height as Eri is riding on Ryutarou's shoulder, as he himself offered.

  After we advahrough these seawaters with a spshing sound for a while, Hajime starts pining, "Ah~, it's hard to walk…", and Yue, who is sitting on his shoulder, asks, "… Should I get off?", but Hajime return a gaze that says that there's no problem while he ignores Kaori's and Shea's envying gaze, the his hand ohigh so she would not fall, firmly fixing her in pce, Yue also s her hand around Hajime's neck, meanwhile, I notice that Ryutarou is silently enduring the disfort, but I also notice a heavy blush on his and Suzu's face, then I feel Eri moves her head closer to mihen she whispers, "It seems that spring has finally e for my friend...", I nod and whisper back, "Yeah, while he is a muscle head, he is a good and loyal person".

  Meanwhile, Kaori and Shea are sending a more and more envying gaze, but they are then forced to focus on another problem, an attack from monsters.

  The appearing monsters look like shurikens, they move in a straight liowards their target while rotating at high-speed, but sometimes they also curve on the fly.

  Hajime smoothly pulls out his gun and without hesitation, he fires, at the same time, I pull out my Tactical Arms in its Gatling Form and do the same, and together we shoot dowhing in the air, then I hear Shea yell in surprise, "What!? The same kind of artifact that Hajime uses!?", even Yue and the other seem surprised by it, but the most surprised of all of them is Hajime, that as he looks at my on, his eye widen and he excims in wonder uo tain himself, "That is a replica of the Tactical Arms II of the MBF-Pundam Astray Blue Frame 2nd Revise! How cool!", and I feel a sudden untrolble urge to do something, I look at Hajime in the eyes, then ine and say, "Ah, I see you're a Man of Culture as well...".

  Then something strange happens, a solemn silence falls on our surroundings, and even the moop their attacks, as if afraid of interrupting a sacred moment, at the same time, I hear the familiar voice of Culture as he decres, "gratution! Hidden Effect of the Blessing of Culture Archived! If the Champios another Man or Woman of Culture, and they reize each other as such, then the Universe of the fellow Man/Woman of Culture will fall uhe prote and jurisdi of the Champion... What does this mean? Simple first a Seed of Culture representing this Universe will be created in the Champion Soulbouory so that even if this Universe is destroyed or even erased, it will be possible to restore it, moreover, ohis your S.T. grows big enough you also trahis Universe to it so that it will be safe from the attacks from the other Champion, and speaking of other Champion ohey ihis Universe if their blessing is weaker than yours, you will know of their presend they will be severely weakened and oppressed, in fact, you eve their entry in it if you so desire...".

  Hearing that I 't help but think, 'This is nice... Basically, this universe ow bee some kind of trap where I farm potentially weaker Champions...', then Culture tinues, "... And of course that isn't the only advahere are many others, but the most important is that now that this Universe is under your jurisdi, you easily access it using the Seed of Culture in your S.T. without using the Unigate or your ability to teleport, quite a useful cost-free method of travel... Once again, good job Jayr! Remember, Culture is what ects every se being, there be different types of cultures, and some even csh with some others, but in the end, the most beautiful thing is that Culture is something that be made, be learned, adapt, and evolve, it even be lost, but in the end, I hope that one day there will be one big all-enpassing Culture able to happily and peacefully bring together everyone! tinue your journey and have fun, Ciao!".

  This time different from the others, Culture left behind a quite deep fio his message instead of the usual silly ones, a message whose meaning I slightly grasp but I also feel that some parts of it are still eludi I know that this is important, so I will remember his words ahem close to my heart so that one day I finally fully uand them.

  Odyin