Jayr POV - Tortus, Orcus Great Labyrinth - 2013

  I see that Suzu is immediately blown backward as pensation for splendidly proteg her allies because she directly received the impact from the crushed barrier.

  Fortunately, Kaori is right behind her and she successfully catches Suzu, but the crisis has not ended yet, as the third monster immediately begins to move in pursuit to finish them off, and the other two, who attacked Shizuku and Nagayama, do the same and move to attack the others.

  Because of the suddenness of the situation, the rest of the cssmates 't react towards the three approag almost invisible enemies, no o Kaori, that while holding Suzu, she ts, "Give the grad divine prote of light to us! Heavenly Time, Heavenly Perimeter, Heaven Interruption!", and activates three light magic at the same time with almost no ting, something that surprise Eri as she clicks her tongue and mutter, "Tsk... She is now able to omit some of her ts... well, she still have a lot to work on".

  The first magic spell is a mid-rank recovery magic, which immediately heals Shizuku and Nagayama, who were wounded, blown away, and crashed on the ground, it is a magic spell capable of healing more than two people remotely away from her, and I see faint white lights pours owo people who somehow mao stand up while groaning because of the pain, and looking at them I nod and think, 'That is some good recovery... Truly what one should expect from magic... It is quickly repairing all the damage they received, but it only accelerates their natural healing capabilities using the light element...'.

  The sed spell allows Suzu and the others to see the three monsters as simir faint white light pours into them, the light buoyantly expands, and an area of light appears where they are, and Eri ents, "Heavenly Perimeter is a mid-ranked recovery magi gaming terms is the so-called auten. Although the duration of the spell is long, the amount recovered is very little at the time. It also has the feature of ing the surroundings with light made of magic power while the magic is activated... Kaori is using that feature to ily reveal the appearances of the invisible enemies while setting the recovered amount to the lowest possible... Smart of her...".

  pears ihe white light are strange monsters with a lion head, dragon-like limbs, sharp cws, snake as tails, and eagle-like wings on their backs, they are the Chimera that Freid made by using his Metamorphosis Magi the monsters of this Labyrinth, they have peculiar magic for camoufging, and it is a quite troublesome ability, si only are their appearances camoufged, but their presences as well, the only way to find them is to have really sharp senses, or being able to seheir magic, however, they also have the limit that they 't exhibit their full power in that state.

  The three Chimeras don't stop and ready their cws and fangs in pursuit, their targets are Shizuku, Nagayama, and Suzu, these three, however, their fangs and cws 't reach the three, sihree shields of light appear before each of them, defleg the attacks and making them miss by a hair breath, of course in the process the light shields are pletely crushed.

  This is the result of the third spell of Kaori, the mid-ranked defense spell, Heaven's Interruption, it is the higher ranking version of the beginner-ranked light defensive magic, Light's Interruption, where more than two shields are produced at the same time, of course, all of this are information that Eri told me, as I'm almost pletely ignorant of the magic of this world, as most of the spell I'm using are ohat I have e up with by copying what I have seen in other media.

  Looking at this I 't help but think impressed, 'At the moment Suzu's strong barrier was destroyed in a blow, Kaori realized her barrier would be useless, so she chose a method to avert the attack. To begin with, she didn't expect the ining attacks would be the same as before, so it was more like a sink-or-swim situation. She was lucky it went well...'.

  Meanwhile, the three Chimeras whose attacks were deflected became irritated and move to attack again, but Kaori was able to reach her objective, she brought enough time for Kouki and the others to finally react, Kouki rushes forward and yells, "Get away from Shizukuuuu!!", and he immediately reaches the Chimera near Shizuku.

  Kouki's movement speed is so fast that he left after images, and onear the Chimera then he prepare to swing his shining Holy Sword, that now shines even brighter, towards the Chimera's neck, in the same instant, I hear Eri snort as she ents, "So, is it okay to attaagayama?", then she ches some more pops.

  At the same time, Ryutarou takes on the Chimera that went to attaagayama and thrust his fist in a karate stah a war cry, and I sehat he iing his Mana into his gau, probably about to use his gauype artifact ability, and from the mana movement I think it is some kind of shockwave.

  Furthermore, the gloomy kid whose name I fot, thrust his hand out, and begin to t then it releases a mid-ranked magic called Sea of Fme, that just like the name, is a ranged magic that maniputes tidal waves of fme so that even agile enemy would not be able to easily avoid it.

  The result of these as happens almost at the same time, with sublime power and speed, Kouki swings the Holy Sword down from an upper stance, while Ryutarou's trusted fist draws out a form that couldn't even be more standard as in a violent shockwave that moves forward just like a onball, and the gloomy young mah bringer, crimson tidal wave surges to swallow its target, with the i of turning it into ashes and specks of dust.

  However, unbeknownst to them, those three Chimeras aren't the only familiar that Freid took with him, and right before their attacks are about to hit their targets, three shadoear, roar, and attack Kouki's party.

  Two of the shadow rush towards Kouki and Ryutarou with tremendous power, swinging the metal maces in their hands with great speed.

  Kouki immediately uses the sword's trifugal force to twist his body, while Ryutarou raises his left hand towards the ining mastead of his outreag right hand.

  And the moment, with his bance broken, Kouki rolls on the ground, and Ryutarou is blown away by the enemy's sed attack, a punch after he defended against the mace.

  What attacked Kouki and Ryutarou are the mohat Freid calls Ahatod, with a height of over 2.5 meters, four arms, and horse-like faces whose bodies are strengtheo their limits.

  Oher side, the gloomy young man's attack is stopped by the third shadow, which suddenly appears in front of the tidal waves of fmes, opens its mouth and begins to ihe surging tidal waves all at once.

  And in pears to be an instant, the expansive fme gathers at a single point and disappears, the shadow inhaled all of the fmes in only tens of seds, and it finally reveals its form, it is the turtle-like mohat Freid likes to use to defend against magical and physical attacks, it has six feet and the shell on its back is dyed in crimson, just like the rampaging fme that inhaled, looking at it I say, "It seems that Freid improved those turtles even more before they could only gee a barrier... Now, they even absorb some weaker spells...".

  In the moment, the turtle with six feet finishes abs the fme, and once again opens its mouth wide, at the same time, the shell on its back shines intensely and a red light appears is open mouth aiming at the young man, whose name is Shimizu, clearly about to shoot a beam with the magic it just absorbed.

  However, I see that Suzu, that was in Kaori's arms, recovered, and standing up again she says, "Don't uimate me! e in succession o' light of prote and be revived as long as I have the will, Heaven's Interruption!", and in a moment, ten light shields appear in succession before Suzu, all set up diagonally at a 45-degree angle.

  At the same time the shields appeared, the six-legged turtle shoots the super-high temperature beam, that crashes against the shields and as the shields are crushed, the beam is deflected upward, and sihe power of the beam is much strohan the previous attacks and is a tinuous one, Suzu grits her teeth and ts in succession to struew shields oer another.

  Seeing this Eri nods with a smile and ents, "It could be said it was as expected of a Barrier-user, the shield's stru speed rivals the speed of the shield's destru and succeeded in parrying the six-legged turtle's beam, barely...", meanwhile, the parried beam hits the byrinth's ceiling with a great force, making the whole floor shake, pulverizing its surroundings, and the scattering scorg minerals that fall down like rain.

  Only wheuatiressed this much did Hiyama's gang and Nagayama's party slip out of their fusion and prepared to fight while yelling, "Damn it! What's just happened!?", "Just what are those monsters!?", "Shit, let's defeat them now!", and I drink some water and hear Eri ent, "Damn they are slow to react... If it wasn't for Shizuku, Nagayama, Kaori, and Suzu they would have already been knocked out and maimed by Freid's monsters...", and I add, "Well, you 't bme them too much... Freid is strong, after all, he is someone who was able to quer a Great Labyrinth on his own... Remember that sihey were structed the people that could do so be ted on the fingers of one hand...".

  And while we were chatting, I notice that the wounded Shizuku and Nagayama are also healed pletely, and now once again join the fight, and attack the Chimeras, so I decide to focus on Shizuku, as her fight seems the most iing currently.

  She moves at super high speed, and not even her afterimage be seen, her figure momentarily disappears with a soni, and appears right behind the Chimera in the moment, she uses the iai teique to uhe her swords that return to their sheaths before aiced, the speed of the naked bdes is even faster than what an ordinary living being would reize as a swift fsh, severing the Chimare's sail into two, and think, 'Not bad... Almost as fast as Aldebaran when we sparred as kids... But her sword is holding her back, it isn't patible with her teique...'.

  Raising a roar of ahe Chimera turns around and swings its sharp cws, however, its attaly cuts through the air, as Shizuku has already moved to the other side, where she swings her two swords, and cuts the Chimera's fnk.

  Shizuku tio use her speed to steadily damage the Chimera, however, Shizuku's expression didn't clear up, because, while the Chimera 't keep up with Shizuku's speed, it isn't like it 't react to it.

  The Chimera is barely able to respond to Shizuku's extreme speed using its reflex speed, making sure to receive the least damage possible, like when it sacrificed the tail to block a deadly attack, or when it jerked back its body to lessen the damage, and receive only shallows wounds, in addition, it seems that the Chimera begins to bee aced to Shizuku's speed.

  Moreover, ohe damage on the Chimera piled up, a shriek suddenly resounds around the room, "CAAAAAAAW!", and a dark red light s around the Chimera's body healing all the wounds it received from Shizuku in an instant.

  Seeing that, Shizuku opens her eyes wide in surprise and looks at the source of the shriek, while still being careful of the healed Chimera, and sees Freid calmly standing with his arm crossed and a grin on his face, like an uned spectator enjoying the show, while he has a double-headed white crow riding on his shoulder, with one head fag the Chimera before her and she screams as she realizes what is going on "There's even a healer!?".

  Not only Shizuku is stunned by what happened, her rades, at the other pces, simirly raise bitter screams going through their battles with Freid's monsters.

  Kouki, who is fighting one of the Ahatod while receiving support, was sure of his victory after he deeply cut the Ahatod's body from shoulder to the waist, but the crow's other head looks at the wound, and shrieks, causing the wound to heal as if time rewinds itself.

  The sed Ahatod that is fighting Ryutarou has its abdomen hollowed out as though it had exploded, and one of its arms was broken, however, it is immediately healed when the head that was looking at the Chimera Shizuku was fighting against, turns its gaze towards it and shrieks, and even the Chimera Nagayama is battling against that has parts of its body caved in is immediately healed.

  Seeing Kouki's party having a hard fight, Freid cps his hands with a posed attitude and once again speaks to taunt them while his expression is still calm so that they will push themselves even more, "Looks like you have quite the hard time. What will you do? Will you e to our side now? If it is now, I will let you think for a while, you know?".

  And it seems that it works as Kouki makes an expression full of indignation, uses the Holy Sword to ter his oppo's mace, and yells, "Don't joke around! We won't yield to your threat! We won't be defeated! And I will give you the proof! Here I go, Limit Break!", and uses this ce to activate Limit Break, and is an almost divine pure white light, at the same time, the Ahatod, whose mace attack was tered, attacks again, but it didn't notice the ge in Kouki.

  Kouki quickly ts, "O' bde-like will, bear the light and tear my enemy, Light Sword!", then he bends his body forward to dodge the Ahatod's mace, and immediately ters by sshing from below using the Holy Sword which is enveloped by a bright light extending the bde, and thanks to the enha of Limit Break, he is able to diagonally cut it in two, as though it is made of butter.

  One moment ter, Ahatod's body shifts diagonally and crumbles with a raw sound, then Kouki puts strength into his legs and immediately accelerates fiercely toward Freid.

  Nothing obstructed the space between Kouki and Freid, and it seems like Kouki finally got the upper hand, but right at that moment, with a loud roar, six blurred space, indig the presence of other Chimeras appearing around Kouki, that start to attack him from all the sides simultaneously, which surprise him so much that he only utter, "Wha—!?", as his eyes open wide, then he immediately stops and dodges the frontal attack, and uses the Holy Sword to ssh the Chimera attag from his right, while choosing to ehe atta his back believing in the performance of the Holy Armor

  However, those are the only things he could do, the cws of the Chimera on his left hit his shoulder, and he flies outside of the encirclement, the Chimera suddenly jumps, digging its fs cws on Kouki's shoulders, and pins him to the ground.

  And with a stifled cry, he is barely able to stop the Chimera that is about to pierce its fangs in the scruff of his neck with Holy Sword.

  With cws digging into his shoulders, the power to block the jaws was reduced, Kouki who had already used Limit Break is gradually ered, and he 't bring forth enough power to fight back.

  But once again Kaori, who notices his pinch, ts, "O' light of grace, bring your healing and warning to this pce, Heavenly Burn! Binding Seal!", casting a recovery spell, to heal his wounds, then to help him break free so that he heal and terattack, she also cast a mid-ranked restraining magic of the light element, Binding Seal, at the same time she activated the healing magic.

  Binding Seal is a magic spell that produces a cage of light tering on the fined object, Kouki in this case, and once cast, the cage of light instantaneously expands around Kouki and pushes the Chimera away.

  With the cws ing out of his shoulders, Heavenly Burn demonstrates its effect, and Kouki's wounds are instantly healed.

  At the same time, some people from the rear, such as Suzu and the rear guard group who are fighting against the Chimera and the six-legged turtle, release magic attacks towards the Chimeras attag Kouki so that they buy some more time for him tain his bance.

  And the moment, he starts his terattack, he readies his Holy Sword, and ts, "S Four Wing Bdes!", he swings the Holy Sword which draws a curve in the air, and four sshes of light appear from the space where he swung at.

  The targeted Chimeras sehe crisis, and immediately jump away to dodge, however, with a tless-like short t, Kaori activates mid-ranked restraining magic of the light element, "Capture them, Restrain!", numerous s of light jump out from below the evading Chimeras' feet and twirls around their ned feet, stopping them enough to allow Kouki's attack to reach them, and as a result, the four Chimeras are directly hit by Kouki's S Bde and die as their blood sptters around.

  Then Kouki gres and points his Holy Sword towards Freid and says, "Hrettable, your st resort was iive against us. Now there's nothing else to protect you!", but upon hearing Kouki's words, Freid just looks at him while slowly blinking as if fused by what he is doing, at the same time Eri ents, "e on! Why was it necessary for him to decre that now? Wouldn't it be better for him to immediately ssh Freid?", to which I simply shrug my shoulders adn tig everything while making sure that no act happens.

  Meanwhile, Freid's posed attitude irritates Kouki who tio shout, "You only used surprise attacks and didn't fight fairly. Moreover, you're just spectating. What a coward!", but still calm, Freid replies, "… Well, that's not my st resort", to which, Kouki who doesn't believe in what Freid said, retort with, "What a bluff!".

  And even more annoyed by Kouki's attitude, Fredi finally snaps his finger and says, "Anyway, fet about whether or not it's a bluff, but what will you do after you repel those? I have firmed your power as the Heretic Apostles, so I have no more business with you", and just as Koiki is about to question him, "What ar-", a loud scream is heard, "KYAAA!"

  Kouki reflexively looks back, and what greets his eyes are five more Ahatod and Chimeras, furthermore, there is a bck, four-eyed wolf who is ridden by a 60 timeters long bck cat with four tentacles.

  They simultaneously attack his rades, the bck cat's tentacles pierce through the fnk of one of his friends in Nagayama's party, Nomura Kentarou while the one who screamed is Yoshino Mao, also from Nagayama's party.

  The someohat is even capable of esg my current senses if I don't focus on him, screams as he sshes at the tentacle that pieromura, and gres at the bck cat with eyes bzing in anger, "Kentarou! Damn you, don't you get carried away!", and while watg this se Eri ents, "Oh... That is Endo Kosuke... His presence is so weak and insignifit that I even fot he exists for time to time...".

  Meanwhile, the other healer Tsuji Ayako scolds her cssmate, "Mao, calm down! I will heal him!", and start to heal Nomura with her magic.

  Kouki looks at all this and says, "Wh—, there are still more—!", and Freid starts to expin, "The effect of Chimera's special magic, Camoufge, activates on whoever it touched. Or have you not thought of such a thing happening? Looks, there's more of them", then a rge amount of monsters suddenly appears, and Kouki and his rades were now the ones who were inferior in terms of numbers.

  Seeing this situation I tihe entary while enjoying some more pop, "And so Freid pulls out the stro card from that friendship/family wreaking game, the reverse card...", meanwhile Kouki turns back to look at his enemy and notices that behind him now there are ten four-eyed wolves and bck cats, that quickly roars and rush toward him.

  The bck cats' tentacles extend at extraordinary speed and attack Kouki from all dires, but he makes a pinwheel rotation and cuts the iniacles using the Holy Sword, and one of the bck cats gets close to his side and tries to hit him, aiming at Kouki's face, so it is irajectory of his sword making Kouki sure that he 't avoid this blow as he decres, "One down!".

  However, his vi is easily overturned in the moment, somehow, the bck cat somersault in mid-air and avoids Kouki's attack, a, its sharp cws targets Kouki's neck.

  Kouki is barely able to move his head and avoid the attack, but he is uo respond to a four-eyed wolf's attack that es from behind him, due to the colpse of his bance sending him tumbling back to his rades.

  With that, the obviously abnormally strong monsters surround Kouki's party, and the fight starts again, everyories to fight back desperately, but what is even more troublesome is that the enemies have suddenly increased in numbers and are cooperating, in addition, the white crow will immediately heal the demonic beasts if they didn't die i.

  Although the frontline somehow mao avoid colpsing, thanks to the tinuous healing of Kaori and the other Healer, Tsuji Ayako, they still 't do anything to break the situation.

  Kouki deals damage to the enemies using the power he gained from Limit Break, but it has bee impossible for him to attack the monsters with hit and run tactic while cooperating with the others.

  They desperately fight back, but shadows of despair gradually begin to loom over the expression of everyone, and that feeling grer thanks to Freid that finally decided to make his move as he ts a magic spell he retly learned while at the same time, all the monsters start to retreat, "I desire the end and walk the heaven ah. My hands reaothing and drift beyond dreams. Then I shall seek a fissure, a break in the seamless world. I break a hole in the boundaries and create a corridor into the divine realm— ic Rift!".

  Immediately after the t is finished, a rift in the spabsp; appears in front of Freid's outstretched hand, that rip in space is a gate that ects two separate points in space, and oher side of the gate, there is the wide open mouth of a big white dragon, Uranos, as it charges it Dragon's Breath, for a few seds before shooting the bright beam of white light toward Kouki's party

  And sino one evade it, Nomura Kentarou, who is already pale-faced because of the blood loss, bees paler and shouts in panic, "Kh!? Fuck! Taniguchi—!! Stop that thing! Use your barrier!", and Suzu quickly acts and ts, "Eh!? R-Roger! Bring a sanctuary that won't let the God's enemy pass here! Holy Interruption!", and creates a dome-like shining barrier, that surrounds the whole party.

  The white-colored beam immediately collides with the barrier right after Suzu expands the Holy Interruption, the beam has tremendous pressure and strength so much that it seems to break through the barrier almost on tact, and to not let it breakthrough, Suzu grits her teeth and desperately ehe feeling of her magic power being ed, and so the whole floor is shaking from this csh.

  Suddenly, just as it seems like the barrier is able to withstand this attack, the bright beam explodes with a loud rumbling sound, the force of the explosion breaks apart the barrier, making all the members of Kouki's party scream in pain as it blinds them, but the loudest scream is that of Suzu, who just received the backsh from the barrier's destru.

  After the light and dust clear, what greets my sight is most of Kouki's party groaning and moaning a little disoriented but mostly fine, while Suzu and those closest to her are colpsed in agony on the ground, and as they realize this they scream, "That 't be, Suzu!", "Nomura-kun", "Saitou! Kondou!", and Kouki seeing this gres at Freid with an enraged expression and yells "Bastard! How dare you!", as the shining light due to the effect of Limit Break, begins to shine in a brighter dazzling light.

  However, Shizuku acts as a stopper to Kouki when she yells with an admonishing voice, "Stop! Kouki! Let's withdraw! The path of retreat is clear now!", however, with his fury from seeing his rades getting hurt, Kouki gred and objected to Shizuku's pn of retreating "Wh—!? After what had happened, how I run away?!"

  The pressure Kouki released rushes towards Shizuku, but she receives it as though it is nothing, and pressured him instead with a stern expression, "Listen! Kaori will surely cure them. However, it'll take time. There's also the possibility of it being too te if we are too slow to treat them. So it is necessary to withdraw now and recover! Besides, we ck three people now, so if you rush out, everyone won't be able to ehe attack! We'll truly be annihited!".

  Kouki is still unsure as he mutters, "Ugh, but…", but Shizuku doesn't stop and tinues, "In addition, isn't it about time your Limit Break reached dangerous time? In this situation, it'll be truly the end if you are weakened! Please calm down! Everyone also feels the same as you!"

  Hearing the logical words of his childhood friend, Kouki hesitates as he bit his lip, that is wheices the bleeding at the edge of Shizuku's lips, and it seems to calm down and say, "Okay! Everyoime to retreat! Shizuku, Ryutarou! Please e for a little longer!", but before this could tinue, I decide to finally stop this, as it seems enough to me, and the fact that I and Eri have fihe pops has nothing to do with this decision.

  So before they could act, I stop using Spatial Magic to hide our presend say "Okay! That is enough! Everyoop! Freid call back your familiars!", meanwhile, Eri o me mutters, "Umpf... just as it was getting iing... Especially Kouki and the cathullu's tentacles...".

  Odyin