Battle Across The Omniverse

Jayr POV - Tortus, Haltina's Labyrinth - 2013

After a few minutes, we finally finished climbing the fifth branch aisle, and enter another cave-like room, where, soon after, another magic formation starts to glow under our feet, and as the intense light blinds my sight I feel my surroundings change as we are teleported somewhere once more.

After the light settled, I see that we are in a garden that spread out right in front of us, the sky feels alarmingly close, the air seems clean, and the ground spreads out to roughly the size of a high school gymnasium.

There are trees that are relatively small and a small chalky building that has various waterways spreading out from it, twines surround the largest tree, which sits on a small island circled by canals, with a central stone lithograph sitting at its base.

Tio walks into the garden, peeping over the edge, and asks, "What do you think, master? It looks to be the top of the tree here." after Tio's words, I and others move closer and also look at the bottom, and see that it's a vast sea of clouds and an unmistakable thick fog spreading out under our eyes.

Then Eri comments, "Hey, this is strange. When we flew over the sea of trees, we crossed the dense woodland and saw no tree this big. No tree could crest the thick fog, this height must be up over 200 meters at least. It's impossible to be seen from a tree this high..."

But then she notices her error and says, "… I see. It is some kind of concealing magic that hid it, isn't it?" impressed she continues to analyze it while muttering, "… It is, like some kind of shadow system form of Spirit Magic… or is it just shifting space done through Spatial Magic? It could also be a combination of both..."

At the same time, Freid looks around then his gaze rests on the central stone lithograph, and pointing at it, he mutters, "Is the goal there?" hearing that without hesitation we all directly walk toward the lithograph, crossing a pretty arch and entering a yen-like small island circled by a channel.

The lithograph begins to glow as we approach, with a bright green magic that flows into the channel, and seeing that I comment, "Another magic formation hidden by nature..."

At the same time, I sense that it starts to probe my memory as usual and then inscribe knowledge by force.

At this point, we are already quite familiar with this process so we easily let it happen silently enduring the slight discomfort of it.

And as the knowledge flows into our heads, the tree begins to entangle around the lithograph and swell, then the shape of the tree begins to change, tearing away branches as it formed.

Then all of a sudden, phosphorescence rises away from me, forming into the image of a person's face in the middle of the trunk, it takes on a female appearance from the shoulders up, she is a beautiful young elf woman in her mid-20s with long green hair, iconic long pointy ears, jade-green eyes, and light pink lips, of course, she is Lyutillis Haltina.

(Image Here - Lyutillis Haltina)

Once her form is complete, the Lyutillis'eyes open, and then, the mouth opens gently as she says, "First, allow me to congratulate you on making it this far. I am Lyutillis Haltina. You have done well to complete my trial, along with the trials of the other labyrinths. You have my respect for completing such a difficult gauntlet, and my apologies for forcing you through it. However, a trial of this nature was necessary."

At the same time, she said this, I hear Eri mutter, "It seems that she left an imprint of her soul in this tree as a medium to leave behind this recording... This should make it a lot easier to summon her soul..." and soon she starts chanting, preparing to use her Spirit Magic to summon, communicate, and stabilize, Lyutillis'soul.

Meanwhile, the recording continues, "Since you have completed various other labyrinths, you have likely learned about the tragedies of the past, of our relationship with the gods, and of the tyranny our world currently lives under. It is for that reason that I wanted you to know both the strength that can be derived from unbreakable bonds and the ways in which they can be tested. Moreover, having come this far, I felt it necessary to teach you both the strength of a person's heart and its fragility. I pray this knowledge will aid you in the trials to come."

Hearing that, I think, 'While I understand where she is coming from, I think some of her trials took things a little too far... Hell, the thing with the white slimes could easily end up with sexual assaults, if one isn't strong enough to resist the urge and temptation of the aphrodisiac...'

Then she start to explain about her Age of God Magic, "I know not for what purpose you sought my magic, evolution magic, for. And now that it is yours, you are free to use it as you please. All I ask is that please, don't allow this power to rule your thoughts. If ever there comes a time you feel yourself drowning in the power you've obtained, cling to the bonds that saw you through these trials. The power of my ancient magic, evolution magic, allows you to enhance all other forms of power, no matter how weak. You should already have been granted the knowledge of how to use it. But that's not where the true worth of this magic lies. As its name suggests, evolution magic causes other power to evolve. Naturally, that includes other ancient magic. Creation Magic, Gravity Magic, Spirit Magic, Metamorphosis Magic, Spatial Magic, and Restoration Magic...These are all powerful branches of magic that manipulate the fundamental forces that govern this world. If you were to evolve them all and combine them, you would give birth to a magic that surpasses all others. Magic that could truly be considered godlike... Concept Magic."

Hearing that I smile, and think, 'Yeah, I already have some idea of the perfect Concept Magic for me... and now it is closer than ever as I only need to learn Metamorphosis Magic to be able to use it!' at the same time, I hear Freid gulp hearing about this type of magic as he images its power.

While all this happens, Lyutillis start her explanation of Concept Magic, "You'll need to acquire all the ancient magic the Liberators left behind in order to achieve your goal. Concept magic is exactly what it sounds like. It can bring forth any concept its user can imagine, granting them the powers of a god. However, even if you manage to collect all the ancient magic, mastering concept magic won't be easy. For Concept Magic operates not on theory, but on the force of will. You will need an unbelievably powerful will to bend this magic to your desires. Even with our powers combined, we Liberators were only able to create three concept magic spells. They served our needs well enough, but... Regardless, as a gift, I shall pass on one of those to you."

Just as Lyutillis said so, the lithograph's center slides, and something like a pocket watch comes out from the inside, it is the compass that Oscar talked about, and without hesitation, I take it, and I open it, and see that even its content is quite similar to the one I had built, then I notice on the backside there is engraved the pattern of the Haltina Labyrinth, as this also serves a proof of conquest.

After that, Lyutillis resumes her explanation, "That object is called the Compass of Eternal Paths. The Concept Magic spell is imbued with— If you wish for something, the compass will show you where that something may be found. Whether that something is a missing person, a hidden object... or even a different world. So long as you obtain all the ancient magic and possess an unbreakable will, you will be able to go wherever your heart desires. I pray that you can live freely, in a world where you may choose your own future. May the path you walk be filled with blessings."

With that Lyutillis' recording ends her speech, and her figure disappears from the tree, leaving behind only the tree entangled with lithograph, but at the same time, I notice Eri putting the translucent soul of Lyutillis into her shadow dimension, then with a strained smile, not sure if caused by the effort it took to bring back her soul or by the communication with is as she says, "...Successful... As soon as she heard that Meiru is alive again, she agreed to be revived while blushing and saying something about longing to be insulted, restrained, beaten, and humiliated once more... Overall, she feels like a more deranged version of Tio..."

While I was talking with Eri, I hear Freid say, "I think a shortcut formed for us to return to the entrance. So should we go now... I'm still worried about the fight between the Demon and the Beastmen..." and see that he is pointing at one of the corners of the garden where a magic formation suddenly appeared.

Hearing that, I, Freid, Eri, and Tio nod, and then we all walk toward the magic formation, and make sure that is the one leading outside and not another nasty surprise like Miledi's Toilet Flush and Meiru's Surprise Drowin with the monster attack.

At the same time, Tio tries to comfort Freid as she says, "This one is sure that everything is fine... With Miledi, Oscar, and Meiru's power the fight outside should be easy to quell without much needless bloodshed..."

Hearing that Freid nods before remembering something and shuddering a little as he says, "That is true... Only I'm afraid of the mental state of my countrymen after their encount with those three... I still feel the phantom pains of my last sparring with Meiru..." then he shudders once more this time more intensely as he holds his groins and says, "Especially when I think back at what she calls the Round of Instant Soprano, where she relentlessly attacks the groin area with every means possible, then she heals all the damage with her Restoration Magic... Only to attack that area once more... Multiple times at that as she enjoys our pained scream..."

I also wince remembering the sparring between Meiru and Freid, in that occasion her sadism fully showed, and at the end of the fight, Freid ended up unconscious with foam coming out of his mouth from the unbearable pain, and even a few days after that event he continues to unconsciously hold and protect his crotch each time he is near Meiru, and that was Meiru going easy on him.

After remembering that, I put a hand on his shoulder and say, "Do not think about it, let's just hurry and get out of here..." then all together we step into the magic formation, that begins to shine as it activates ready to transfer us out of this Labyrinth.

Jayr POV - Tortus, Beastman Country of Verbergen - 2013

Once outside, I used my Mana Compass to find the position of Miledi, Oscar, and Meiru, and so following its direction, we quickly move once more into the foggy Sea of Trees.

On our way to our destination, we can clearly see some of the signs of the battles that took place, but they are very minimal, in fact, the only sign that an invasion took place is the countless corpse of the monsters used by the demons, meanwhile, the trees and the surroundings are in a pristine state, but that doesn't fool us into thinking that the Demon Invasion didn't cause any damage, in fact, I hear Tio beside me as she mutters, "It seems that everything is already under control... Miss Meiru even had the time to use Restoration Magic to undo all the damage caused by their fight..."

Indeed, I can clearly feel the remaining traces of Meiru's magic power all over the place, the trees, the ground, the grass, and even some of the hiding animals, everything was "repaired" by her, and most importantly, the area that went through such treatment is very extensive, and by the lingering burnt smell in the air it is also clear that to reach their objective the Demon resorted to burning down the whole forest.

After a while, we finally reach our destination and realize that standing in front of us is Beastman Country of Verbergen, a truly spectacular city, it is surrounded by a barrier of living trees, each one at least thirty meters tall.

Its entrance is a massive gate with thick trunks interlocked together to form an arch, and the double doors enshrined within were also made of wood, they clearly serve as the final defense against invaders and are outfitted with various traps and bulwarks.

There are bunches of tree trunks that could be set loose with the snap of a rope, and archery platforms for defenders to rain arrows down from built into the upper branches of the larger trees, I also notice numerous Beastmen standing on guard atop them, in fact, they are all pointing their bows at us ready to unleash a downpour of arrows at a moment notice.

Then one of them moves forward, he seems to be a huge bear Beastman and also the commander of these troops, who looks at us and yells, "Halt! Identify yourself! Or face your death!", and I see that his gaze is specially trained on Freid and is full of resentment and hate.

But even so, I move forward without hesitation and pulling out the proof of conquest of the various Labyrinth I conquered I yell, "My name is Jayr, an Adventurer that conquered six of the seven Great Labyrinths, a friend of my fellow conqueror Hajime that visited your country before, and of Miledi, Meiru, and Oscar, that I'm sure have helped you guys in fighting the Demon's Invasion." and see the commander visibly relax, but he is still full of tension, with his gaze still trained on Freid.

Then without waiting for him to ask, I point at Freid and say, "And this is Freid Bagwa, Supreme Commander of the Demon Army and my trusted companion, who realized the truth behind this war and is now fighting together with me to stop it, moreover he is also a fellow Great Labyrinth conqueror", after a few moments of silence, the commander yells, "Very well! You may enter!".

Once inside the walls, the sight becomes even more endearing, numerous massive trees dotted the landscape, a dwelling carved into each one, warm lamplight pours out of the windows that had been cut into the trunks, thick branches, wide enough for dozens of people to walk across abreast, link the treetops together into one big aerial highway that reminds me of the ones in the Labyrinth.

Vines serve as pulleys, allowing for huge elevators big enough to pull up carts, there are even wooden aqueducts, carrying water from tree to tree, overall, it is truly a spectacular city immersed in nature, the only downside, is that the atmosphere of the resident of this beautiful city is still tense because of the recent invasion and attack on the surrounding villages.

Then, the commander Bear Beastman comes down, and with some troops surrounding us, he introduces himself as Jin Vanton an elder of the beastman nation Verbergen, he is very tall, 2.5 meters in fact, with a very thick build, and like all members of his race, he has a pair of bear ears, then he escorts us toward the center of the city where the other elders, the leaders of this nation, plus our companion are discussing what to do with the prisoners.

That catches Freid's attention as he quickly asks, "About the prisoners... How many of them did you catch, and how about the overall casualties?" in response to Freid's question, Jin lets out a low growl before answering, "The Liberators came just in time, and thanks to their intervention, no one but the monsters were killed... on both sides..." then with a slight grin, he adds, "But thanks to lady Melusine, I'm sure that no one of the demons that attacked the Sea of Trees will be able to gather the courage to do so again... Never thought that someone so beautiful could be so vicious and cruel, I almost pitied our enemies, especially when she transformed her sword into a water whip and started to relentlessly attack below the belt..."

At this point, the elder Jin shudders remembering the scene of carnage and stops talking, and unconsciously starts to cover his crotch with his hands, and I notice that Freid did the same thing, while showing a relieved expression as he learned about the lack of casualties.

After a while, I see Miledi, Meiru, and Oscar, walking toward us with another two people beside them, both are elves, one is a man, with long blond hair and blue eyes, he has a frail appearance with some wrinkles here and there and even if he looks young enough to be around 40 years old, what I sense from his body is that he is much older than he looks, he is Ulfric Heipyst, the chief elder of Beastman Country of Verbergen.

And by his side, there is a much younger-looking girl, she is a beautiful young woman with jade-green eyes and long blonde hair, she is Ulfric's granddaughter, Altina Heipyst, who is throwing glances at Meiru from time to time.

Once we are close enough, Miledi waves her hand, and with a smile, she says, "Ohiii~ Welcome back~ On this side everything went well thanks to your incredibly awesome Miledi-chan and her somewhat useful sidekicks!" but soon, Meiru adds, "Sure, sure, the awesome Miledi-chan that did absolutely nothing but order me and Oscar around..." but before their friendly banter could escalate any further, I say, "Good job, everyone! I'm sure that you guys are the only ones in this world that could resolve such a delicate situation in such a short time and without useless bloodshed..."

Hearing that, Miledi puffs her modest chest with a face that says, praise me more, while Oscar has a small smile on his face and Meiru starts to laugh out loudly, while I think, 'It is indeed true, they are the only ones that could have done so... If Hajime, Yue and the rest of his group were in their place I'm sure that he would have easily slaughtered everyone without any hesitation because other solutions are too bothersome...'

Then Miledi says, "Good job, you guys on conquering the Labyrinth too! I'm sure that Lyutillis' Labyrinth was quite the trial..."

At the same time, Oscar nods and says, "Right, her Labyrinth is full of nasty ideas and trials that we all rejected for our own Labyrinths, as we thought it was pushing things too far..."

Even Meiru nods and adds, "Yeah, in the end, that pervert chose to put all those devious ideas into her own Labyrinth, that is also why we put so many restrictions before one could challenge her Labyrinth, in fact, hers is the second hardest Great Labyrinth".

After that, Ulfric Stroamcl... Heipyst introduces himself and his granddaughter Altina, then he once more thanks Miledi and the others for their help against the demon invasion, he also tells us that he already knows the truth about Ehit as Hajime already told him and the other elders about it, and after that, he says that we are free to roam and explore the city as we like and that we will be his guests before walking away to deal with the aftermath of the invasion.

But before he could move, Freid requested to be allowed to see the prisoner Demons and talk to them, something that Ulfric allows after thinking about it for a few seconds and after Miledi once more guarantees for him, and while Freid is escorted by Jin toward the prisoners, I decide that is better to quickly start to revive Lyutillis, so I open the portal to my Soulbound Territory, and without hesitation, I walk through it with Eri, Tio, Miledi, Oscar and a reluctant Meiru.

Freid POV - Tortus, Beastman Country of Verbergen - 2013

While walking toward the prison escorted by the elder bear Beastman Jin Vanton, I can't help but feel a little nervous about meeting my fellow countrymen after disappearing for so long, moreover, I'm not even sure how would I be received by them, but one thing is clear, what I've been through until now in the various Labyrinth and in my journey with Jayr, Eri, and Tio, already prepared me for what could happen.

And realizing this, I slow down my pace and think, 'For sure what I could meet is something similar to what happened to the Liberators... Be treated as the treacherous betrayer, that turned his back on his people for his personal gain... Or even a heretic that rejected his God, and now works against him and everything he stands for... Something that is actually true now that I think about it... I did reject Alva and Ehit because I understood that in the end, we are only plaything for them and that they are the main cause for the suffering of my people!'

But even knowing this, I can't help but clench my fist thinking that now my people, the ones I fought for most of my life to protect them, will probably see me as nothing but a mere traitor, someone to be scorned, hunted down and killed.

But then I think back once more at everything I learned in this journey, especially the scenes in the Melusine Labyrinth, seeing how even after all the races of this world attained a hard-won peace, in the end, everything went back to the state of war and chaos thanks to the intervention of one of Ehit's Apostles that spared no effort into manipulating the people so that they could cause all sort of atrocities in the name of gods, and all that death and suffering is only so that Ehit can fight his boredom, 'How can I after knowing all this, allow all this suffering to continue to spread! Especially since Jayr told me that Ehit's final plan consists of killing everyone in this world so that he can move to another one and once more rule as a God of that new world!'.

And so, with newfound conviction, I once more pick up my pace and finally reach the prison where the invading Demons are held.

Lead by Jin, I step inside the prison, and soon, I'm standing in front of the cells holding my fellow countrymen, I see that there are around a thousand of them, and letting out a sigh, I notice that at least a quarter of them are curled up, shaking in fear while holding their crotch and asses as they shake in fear, clearly the handiwork of that malicious Dagon, but I also see that some of them have a dreamy and perverted expression on their face, I also hear them mutter disturbing things like, "Onee-sama humiliate me...", or, "Step on me more...", or, "Whip me..."

Then in some of the cells, I also see some familiar faces, people that fought under my command before, and more importantly, I see a familiar pair standing in a cell further inside.

One is a young demon woman with fiery red hair, crimson eyes, and a curvaceous figure, with swarthy red skin and pointed ears, she is Cattleya, one of my most trusted subordinates, and beside her, there is her fiance, Mikhail, a handsome man with long blond hair, blue eyes, with swarthy red skin and pointed ears, a characteristic of all the Demon Race, but what surprised me the most is that he is fine, his limbs are now perfectly healed, and soon I realize why, Meiru healed them all.

(Image Here - Cattleya, Mikhail)

Without hesitation, I walk toward their cell, and soon they notice my presence, but they express different reactions.

At the same time, Cattleya shows a relieved and happy expression, as she says, "Commander!", Mikhail, instead shows anger on his face as he yells, "You Heretic Traitor how dare you show your face!".

Just this show how different they are, Cattleya is one of the smartest Demon in the whole nation of Garland, she is a ruthless, calm, and collected woman, but she is also kind, wise, and loyal to a fault, she is always trying to have a clear view of everything that happens, and because of this her faith is almost nonexistent, she only fight to protect our country nothing more nothing less.

Mikhail on the other hand, is a brave, fierce, devoted warrior, but like me before meeting Jayr, he is also a fervent believer in demon supremacy, as well as their god Alva, he is a simple and somewhat rash man, quite a hot head that is easily swayed by his emotions, overall, he is the perfect target for the Gods' manipulation.

Just as Mikhail is about to spew more insults, Cattleya quickly kicks him on his ass and yells, "Quit it, you doofus! Do you really believe that our commander, Freid Bagwa, of all people would betray the Demon Race!? How many years did we fight and bleed together on the battlefield!? Don't you already know how he is!? Also didn't you notice the strange events that happened since he left!? Something is seriously wrong in Garland everyone in a position of power is acting strange they seem almost obsessed with something... You truly didn't notice it? Even after Maoshi!!?"

Hearing his fiancè's words, Mikhail calms a little and starts to seriously think over what she just said, and seeing this I can't help but smile, 'Yes, Mikhail is a rash and hot-headed guy, but one thing is sure, he loves Cattleya more than he worships Alva, for Alva he will fight to death, for Cattleya he will burn down the world and fight even the gods!' then as they both look at me, I say, "It's good to see that you both are fine... First of all, I want to tell you guys the whole truth... Yes, I decided to betray Alva!".

Hearing that, both open their eyes wide in surprise, but before they could say anything, I continue, "And I decided to do it because I found out an unbelievable truth! I know that you won't easily believe me... So let me show it to you!", and after saying this, I use the only Spirit Magic I was able to use, and that is thanks to Eri that helped me, Memory Transfer.