Jayr POV - Tortus, Haltina Sea of Trees - 2013

  After we advance for 30 minutes using the Mana pass as a guide while I sehe ongoing battles and give some info from time to time, our party finally arrive at the Great Tree, and our first impression of it isn't the greatest as the sight of it catches our attention, especially Freid who says, "... the heck is this?" while being half-surprised and half-doubting.

  Oher hand, Eri also wears the slight expression of someone who has her expectations crumbling, while Tio seems the less surprised about the current state of the Great Tree, at the same time, I think, 'I'm sure that we all were expeg a really majestic tree, imposing and full life, but the tree in front of us is splendidly withered.'

  Ihe size is not that far off from our imagination, its diameter alone be estimated to be around 50 meters but the tree looks almost dead, there is also a bizarre difference from the surrounding trees, while the surrounding trees have the ever-expanding green leaves, only the Great Tree is withered.

  Then Tio starts to expin, "The Great Tree was already withered even before the founding of Verbergen. However, it never became rotten, from what my grandfather told me this Great Tree always remained in this kind of state, and in the end, this pce became a sacred pce for the Beastmen."

  At the same time, I look around the Great Tree's roots, and just as Miledi said, there is a lithograph built, and reizing the Liberator's engraving on it, I walk toward it without hesitation followed by Freid, Eri, and Tio.

  Once close to the lithograph, I start to search for the empty dents where we ihe proof of quest of the various Labyrinths we quered, and quickly I find them oher side of the lithograph, there are seven of them, eae belonging to one of the Seve Labyrinths.

  Without hesitation, I pull out the ring that represents the proof of quest of Miledy's Labyrinth and i it into the hole corresponding to Reisen's crest, and the instant, the lithograph begins to faintly shine.

  Thehe lights gradually fade away, I see a set of characters appear ohograph.

  Four proofs.

  Power eion.

  The Guide of those bound by Destiny.

  To those who have everything a rial will be opened.

  Seeing this, Tio ents, "Will it be fine? We didn't have ao guide us here...", but I calmly reply, "Well, teically it is impossible to reach this pce without the help of the Beastmen, so this requirement should be fulfilled as soon as we reach this pce, and the w "bound by destiny" is also quite vague... You say that Miledi, Oscar and Meiru also qualify as "bound by destiny"..."

  Then without hesitation, I put the other proof of quest, Gruen's pendant, Laus' , and Freid's proof of quering the Frost Caverns of See, Vandre's , as Oscar and Meiru's proofs of quest are in Hajime's custody.

  Each time one is set into the lithograph, its light strengthened up, and immediately after pg the final , the light is set free and scatters onto the front of the big tree, this time the big tree is the ohat shines brightly.

  Seeing this se Freid ents, "A crest has appeared on the Great Tree." followed by Tio that looks with great i at the pattern that appeared orunk, and says, "... is, the power eion...", and so, I walk toward the shining trunk of the Great Tree, and pce my hand on it, and soon after toug it, I start to use Restoration Magic.

  Immediately afterward, the Great Tree is ed up in a light inparable to before, a wave of light is tinuously rippling toward the top from the pce that I'm toug.

  The Great Tree that is shining brightly, gradually revives as the light spread out to every er as if it is abs water from its roots, and soon I notice that more and more leaves start to appear on it as the tree regains its vitality each passing moment, and soon the regains its bright green looks.

  And the moment, as a slightly strong wind blows by, the sound of the Great Tree's leaves rustling around be heard.

  Then, all of a sudden, the front of the tree trunk is split from the right a and a cave appears, it is a big cave that fit several tens of people inside.

  As soon as the cave appears, we look at each other, and without hesitatioep into the cave, but soon I notiething strange, I look at my surroundings, but there isn't anything particur in the cave, it is simply a huge space that extends out like a dome, and soon Freid asks, "Is it a dead end?"

  But before anyone could ahe entrao the cave begins to shut behind us like some kind of horror movie trope, and the light from the outside begins to gradually thin out, and wherance closes pletely, the inside of the cave is instantly ed in plete darkness.

  Then a huge magiation appears underh our feet and starts to emit a strong light, seeing that, Eri ents, "e on! This is getting old! How many times did something like this happened in a Labyrinth!? Whe out of here, I'll pin to Miledi and the others!" at the same time I agree with Eri and think, 'That is true, I lost the t of the times we found ourselves teleported somewhere by a magiation...'

  And while I was thinking that, I notice that Freid and Tio are also taking this "sudden" ge pretty well, as they prepare for anything that could happen oher side, then I'm blinded as the magiation activates and starts telep us, but at the st moment, I notice a familiar feeling ing from the magiation.

  Jayr POV - Tortus, Haltina's Labyrinth - 2013

  As soon as the light from the magiation fades away I start to look around, and what is reflected in my sight is a lush forest, a sea of trees inside of a tree.

  While I'm cheg my surroundings I hear Freid's voice as he asks, "Is everyone alright?" followed by Tio who says, "This one is fine...", and I take a quick look at them, and they seem fine, but then I frown, as I notiething wrong and without hesitation, I pull out my on in its Sword Arm Form and with a swing of the twin bdes, I bisect, Freid, Tio and Eri without hesitation.

  Soon the severed half all fall on the ground, but instead of guts and blood, what es out of their bodies is a rust-colored slime that quickly stains the ground, then their body also turns into that strange slime, and soon after they bee absorbed into the ground and disappear.

  Seeing that, I let out a sigh and say, "As expected from a Labyrinth, a nasty surprise right at the start, as it transferred us to this pce the magiation also read our memories so that it could use these fakes to fool us. I admit that those copies could have fooled almost anyone else, but I know their bodies way too well, I lost t of how many times I healed them, so much that I reize their bodies and magic power instantly and those slimes felt way different from Tio, Eri, and Freid... Moreover, I already khat something like this would have happened, it is just that I was expeg to be the ohat would have been exged with an impostor, not the other way around...".

  Then I start to look at my surroundings ahat the pce I was transferred to is a vat circled lot where I'm pletely surrounded by trees at 360 degrees, there isn't a guidepost indig which way I should go either, moreover, exactly like the Sea of Tree above, the whole forest here is covered in thick fog.

  Seeing this, I break a small branch from one of the surrounding trees and say, "In such a situation, the best way to act is to follow the same old reliable method..."

  Then I once agaihe good old silly good luck ritual, I take a handful of salt and throw it behind me, spit three times on the ground in front of me, made the gesture of the horns with my hands using my index and little finger pointing at the ground while saying three times, "Tiè, tiè, tiè!", then I take the broken brand throw it in the air a watch it falls on the ground.

  Then, without hesitation I move in the dire it points while leaving behind a mark using Trag Magi a nearby tree, pointing at the dire I'm going to move in so that Freid, Tio, and Eri, follow it to find me.

  After doing all the preparation, with still my on, now in its Sword Form, on my shoulder, I step into the foggy sea of trees, ready for all kinds of annoying enters I will have with the monsters iing this forest.

  And it doesn't take too much time for the moo make their appearance, as after walking for just 5 minutes, I'm attacked by a swarm of toddler-sized bees, with a malicious yellow and bck hue, jaws that creaked as they open and close, their stihat have green liquid dripping from it, their limbs that wave around eerily, and their dark red pound eyes, plus that annoyiri-like buzzing sound that their fast translut wings produce.

  Overall, they are an annoying bunonsters, luckily an Omnipotens Dis and a volley of Sagitta Magica, Series Gcialis, is all it took to take care of them, but looking at all the monster corpses surroinding me, I mutter, "Luckily, I do not o eat their shit meat any loo grow stronger... The monsters in the Orcus Great Labyrinth are some of the stro in this whole world, so after eating their meat, there isn't a o do so anymore, as all the other monsters are small fry pared to them, and won't give me any advantage..." and once again shudder remembering the shitty fvor of that meat.

  After the light scuffle with the bees, I also enter other iype monsters, like 3 meters tall ants that I crushed using the Tactical Arms, or fast and deadly 2 meters tall mantis, that I sliced in half using Rupture, the intermediate water spell, but none of the monsters stop my advance, and so I tio walk further into the forest.

  After searg my rades in the sea of trees for approximately 30 minutes, I enter a ype of monster, and surprisingly they aren't iype.

  The monsters are moype that quickly attack me in crowds, the attacks fly from all angles freely as they use the trees as a foothold, moreover, they are equipped with swords and clubs and other ons that I have no idea where they got them in this forest, but even with their quient, I easily mow them down using the Gatling Form.

  It also seems that these monsters have some kind of intelligence as they realized that they are no matd try to withdraw and to distract me one of them uses an ability that is simir to that of those rust-colored slimes from before and takes the appearance of a half-naked and wounded Eri while two other monkeys drag her away from me as she requests my help while the other monkey run away in another dire, but without hesitation, I easily shot the fake and the remaining monkey down with a mix of normal and magic bullets.

  After that, as I look around and mark another nearby tree with Trag Magic, I sehe presence of a small monster quickly running toward my dire, and judging from what I se isn't a very strong one, and more important, it is alone, 'A small and weak monster ing at me alorange, especially since all the monster until now attacked me in swarm...' then I remember some details of this trial and mutter, "Could it be...?", then look back at the sea of trees, in the dire of the ing monster.

  Soon the approag monster reveals itself, it is a creature that resembles a goblin, it has dark skin with an ugly and distorted face, wears a rag, and is about 140 timeters tall, and as soon as it sees me, it cries out in a strange aed voice, "Guaah!!", but soon its movement stops as if startled by its own voice, and looks at me.

  We look at each other in the eyes for a few seds in total silehen I say, "As expected... You are the first to find me, Eri...", to which she joyfully replies, "Gugya!", then she asks, "Gyu?", and even if I 't uand her words, the meaning behind them is still easy to uand, so I repeat, "How did I figure out it was you?" to which the small goblin-like monster, repeatedly nods, and I expin, "Simple, I spent so much time with you that your every posture and subsovement is imprinted in my mind... You didn't realize this but every time you are particurly happy or excited, you unsciously fix the position of ysses, and you just did the same movement even in your current state...".

  Hearing what I just said, Eri in her goblin state lets out a happy cry and with a bou hugs me tightly, and I unsciously hug her back, then I say, "Let's find the others and pass this trial, this way you will have your body back..." Eri in her goblin form nods, then we tio advahrough this forest while holding hands so that I use the Telepathy Magimunicate with her.

  And while walkiells me that when the light faded away, she found herself, alone in that body without her equipment and uo use her magid as soon as she realized her state, she started to move to search for one of us, and luckily she found one of my marks and following them, and the traces of bat that I had left behind, she was finally able to find me, she also told me that she was very happy that I was able tnize her even in her current state, and that she will reward me once we have quered this Labyrinth.

  After walking for another 30 minutes, we e across an incredible se, and as I stand rooted in pce by the surprise, Eri that is still holding my hand says through our telepathik in a deadpan voice, "... That is Tio isn't...", and look at the small goblin with aatic smile on its ugly face, as it keeps hitting itself with a long and thick club, but even with that kind of beating it seems that it isn't receiving any damage.

  Seeing that se, I let out a sigh, and reply, "Aahh... It is iio..." uo e out with a way to expin her particur and unique behavior.

  At the same time, the goblin Tio notices our presence, and raises her voice, "Guya!? Gyaaaa!!", and throws away the club and starts running toward us with her eyes wide open, and once she is close enough she jumps toward me aiming at my chest with a very peculiar pose yelling "Gugyyaga!", that for sure means something like Master~ This one loo see you!".

  Her pose so much that I excim out loud, "A Lupin Dive!?" while thinking, 'How many years has been since I have seen one of these... The iic perv jump of Aresene Lupin III... I remember using it as a kid to dive in the pool bae...', at the same time, just as she is about to reach me, Eri moves forward, and hits Tio in the jaw with a powerful uppercut, yelling, "Gyugiya!", that probably be transted as, "Don't get close to Jayr, you Eron!".

  As a result, the goblin Tio makes an artistic backflip with four and a half turns, then she crashed into a nearby bush, but soon the goblin Tio es out of the bush and hugs goblin Eri while looking at me with feverish eyes, at the same time, I get closer and toug their head I once again activate Telepathy aio say, "Uh-huh, Telepathy Magic….. Do thou hear me, Master? This one finally met the beloved Master! Thou and Eri abuse me together as much as you like..."

  At the same time, I hear Eri pin, "Damn it. Even if the body ges, the toughness does not. It should just die already", and I quickly cut off the e before hearing some more disturbing ents, and so we tinue our sear silence as only Freid remains to be found.

  Along the way, we meet many different kinds of monsters, ogres-like, goril-like, rabbit-like, then we also meet the same groups as before, like the goblins and the is, but none of them stue as Freid, 'That is strah his attitude and focused aura, it should be easy to distinguish him among all these monsters...".

  Then after walking for another 10 minutes, I finally notiething stra is a swarm of monster bee that is fighting against a group of ogres, but different from the ones I have met until now, this swarm looked a lot more anized and united, in fact, it is also using what I only reize as military tactics, moreover, their movement is quite simir to does of a particur group of mohat I'm quite familiar with.

  Soon, I notice the presence of a particur bee in the swarm, it is a lot bigger thahers, but it has shorter wings and a more pointed abdomen, it is a queen bee, moreover, from it, I 't help but feel a quite familiar aura, and realizing that I start to ugh out loud, "Ha, ha, ha! Freid became a queen bee!! Should I address him as her highness from now on?" but at the same time, I move without hesitation and start to help the bees in fighting the ogres, and as expected, at first they wao attack me, but under "Queen" Freid and, they ignored my presend focus on dealing with the ogres, quickly c me, and soon all the ogres are sughtered.

  After the fight with the ogres, we tio explore this forest, now followed by "Queen" Freid and his swarm, and after an hour of randomly walking around, we reach a clearing with a gigantic tree which is obviously of a different size pared with the surrounding ones.

  As soon as we step into the clearing, the gigantic tree decres, "Defeat me if you want to go further!" and soon after it begins its relentless attack.

  Huge branch bends and attacks irregurly like a whip leaves dance like a bde and scatter around, tree nuts are shot like onballs, and a sudden spear-like root dashes out from the ground like the sharp point of a sword, each of these attacks is fatal.

  But I'm able to easily dodge all of them, even with Eri and Tio holding on my shoulders, meanwhile, Freid's swarm is getting decimated by these attacks, but even so, these bees do not hesitate to stand in front of Freid and protect him with their lives.

  Seeing that, I choose to quickly deal with this huge treant, and so I rush toward it to get as close as possible, at the same time, a branch with the thiess of a log approaches me while cutting through the wind, but using my on I easily cut it in half and tinue moving toward the trunk of the huge tree.

  But soon I'm surrounded from all angles by the ever-present shuriken-like leaves, which fly like throwing knives and seeing no way out of this attack, I mutter, "How annoying..." and t, "Omnipotens Dis!! (Almighty Push!!)" and use my magic power to create a repulsive force, which pushes away everything in the viity, blowing away and dispersing all shuriken-like leaves.

  Then taking advantage of the opening created, I use Body Enha Magid with a powerful step, I close into my target, the huge treant's trunk, and without hesitation, I unleash one of my most deadly magic spells, "Spēion Mikron Bary Men!" and create a medium-sized bck swirling sphere, basically a small bck hole, shoots toward the tree soundlessly obliterating everything as soon as it es in tact with it, even part of the ground isn't spared by it as it gets gouged out.

  Seeing it gone, and that all its attacks ceased, I let out a sigh, at the same time, I hear the telepathic message of Eri, "You are as dashing as ever when you unleash hell on your enemies!" followed by Tio who says, "This one agrees, Eri. Merciless Master… This os wet only thinking on being on his receiving end..." and that sparks another war of word between Eri and Tio, but before it could truly explode, the ground rumbles and from the gouged out earth a big tree groidly returning back to its previous size.

  It looks exactly like Restoration Magic was used on it and its surrounding, as every damage caused by the fight, disappears in a matter of seds, and everythiurns back to its pristiate.

  The only difference is that the trunk tears open, the left and right side cracks and an open spa the middle is created, a cave exactly like the o the entrance, and without hesitatioep inside, and as soon as everyone is ihe cave.

  The cave shuts us in and the ground below our feet begins to shi the same time, seeing this, on instinct I pull Eri and Tio closer and mutter, "As expected, aeleportation...", then I hear a moved Eri mutter, "...Jayr." followed by an embarrassed Tio, "Ma-Master… Uu, this one is troubled by yentleness." therong light of the magiation momentarily blinds me, and I feel my surroundings ge, then I bnk out.

  Jayr POV - ??? - ???

  I wake up with a start and try to get up, but quickly feel the weight of several bodies restraining me, so I hold my urge to get up and start to look around and quickly notice the familiar enviro, It looks like I'm in my room in the retly build vil inside my Soulbouory, moreover, surroundihere are the naked bodies of Seika, Saori, Eri, and Tio.

  I have to admit that the sight itself is heavenly and immediately causes my little brother to stand in attention, something that the firl notid so they quickly move to take care of it sh it in kisses and licks.

  But at the same time, I let out a sigh and mutter, "So it is that kind of trial... Showing me my ideal world... but the funny thing is that my ideal world is ohat I'm already building with my hands... what is basically showing me is my life after I'm doh this Universe, I'm already living my ideal life why should I be happy with a mere illusion?".

  And deg that I start to unleash all my magic power, and the girls around me wake up oer angio remain, some of them even told me that they were pregnant, but I ighem and focus on unleashing my magic power into my surroundings, and soon the space around me being to crack, and without hesitation, I also use Limit Break to unleash as much poossible, and the whole illusory world is dyed in the crimson red light of my magic power.

  Then I hear a loud crag and know that I successfully broke this illusory world as fragments of the world are now fluttering like gss in the air, and shine like the familiar diamond dust of Camus, Hyoga, and Isaak.

  At the end of its life, like sparking, the imitation Saori lets out a smile in the broken world, and as my sciousness begins to fade rapidly I hear her speak in an unfamiliar voice, "…You passed. With only being nice you don't stand a ce. There is no sense in only giving. Even if it's hard or painful, only what is piled up iy make you happy. Don't fet that".

  Odyin