Battle Across The Omniverse

Jayr POV - Reisen Great Labyrinth - 2013

After my Indiana Jones experience, I find myself in a large rectangular room, on both sides of the walls, there are sets of two-meter-tall knight armor equipped with large swords and shields.

Furthest from the room there is a staircase, and before that, there is an altar and a door that gives out a solemn aura, moreover on the altar, I notice a strange diamond-shaped yellow crystal.

Looking around, I mutter "This gives me the last boss room feel... Probable all those armors are Golems of some kind... I kinda remember about a similar scene in the novel...", at the same time, I advance toward the center of the room, and as I expected, the familiar clicking sound that precedes the activation of a trap resounded.

And I let out a sigh and pull out the Tactical Arms while looking around at my surroundings, and notice that the eye slits in the knight's helmets, lighting up as they shin in crimson light.

Then the sounds of metal rubbing each other are heard when those knights start to move from their spot, meanwhile, I raise my guard and start to count them, 'There are 50 Golems... I can't use large-scale spells, so I have to rely on the Body enhancement, my physical stats, and my weapon... Could be worse...'.

The knights complete the encirclement, raise their shields while wielding their large swords in a piercing stance with their waist slightly lowered, and I also take my fighting stance, by resting my sword on my shoulders and with a grin on my face I think, 'I always wanted to try Guts fighting style against a large number of enemies...', then without waiting any longer the Golem Knights start to attack me all at once.

I quickly notice that the Golem knights' movements are agile, despite their large build as they rapidly approach, they give off an intense oppressive feeling along with their glinting weapons, it is as if walls are closing in from all directions.

But despite that, I quickly dash toward the Golems in front of me and take a horizontal swing with my 2 meters long and 350 kilograms heavy sword, and look in satisfaction as I easily cut through 3 of them, severing them in half from their torso together with their shields, but I don't have the time to further admire my work as the next set of knights draws near from the back, and so I lightly jump over bypassing the encirclement while thinking, '47 left...'.

As I'm about to land, I notice that there are already five golems waiting for me nearby, while the others are still turning around to chase after me, and once I'm near they attack me with their swords with a thrust, and I use the flat side of my blade as a shield to block their attack.

The power behind their attack is strong enough to send me flying in the air with a screeching sound as my sword clashes against theirs, then I use the force of their attack to my advantage, and start to spin in mid-air, then as I fall, I bring down my sword on its flat side on one of the golem knights that attacked me, and with a tremendous impact sound the golem end up flattened, even thought the knight set up its shield beforehand, its defense was still crushed.

There are cracks and a dent on the ground caused by the sword and the impact is strong enough to push back a little the other golems, and as I look at the result of my attack I count, '46 left', but I do not have the time to rest, as the other 4 golems recover and take advantage of this moment to attack me from all sides, while also setting up their shields for defense. 

And after firmly confirming their position with a side glance, I hold firm on the handle and start to spin in place, delivering a blow carrying great centrifugal, and the knights that tried to bring down their large swords are hit on their flanks, and cut in half, while I let out a shout full of vigor "Rhaaa!!", at the same time, I continue my count, '42 left'.

Then I turn my head to look at the remaining golems that are chasing after me, but quickly notice that one of them is already close enough to be a treat, so I continue to spin my body, and twist the handle in my hands, and using the centrifugal force I gathered, I hit the golem knight with the flat side of my sword, so fast that it is unable to raise its shield to defend itself.

The knight that received the direct hit had its body bent as if it was run over by a speeding truck, it magnificently rolled to the back and hit the other approaching knights, the knight's body, because it was unable to stop itself, ends up squashed and did not give any sign of movement.

Then the sound of wind entered my ears, and searching for the origin with my eyes, I see the large sword of that golem knight had raised against me, as it rotating mid-air after having parted from the knight's hand, and so I jump and grab the large sword, and then with all my might, I throw it at one of the nearby golem knights.

The large sword flies with great velocity, and when it collides with the shield that the golem knight had set, the shield is flipped, not missing that chance, I swing my sword from below, bisecting the golem knight in half, then jump back to dodge the attack from the other knights, and mutter "40 left".

Then some of the golem knights in the front row did something unexpected, they throw their shields at me, and as expected of golems, they fly with extraordinary power, although it wouldn't be fatal against my strengthened body, they have enough power to make me stumble, but with a grin, I think, 'Well, if they hit me that is... I'm not a great batter, but with a bat, this big and such a big target is difficult to miss...'.

I take a classic batting stance and using the flat side of my blade, I take a swing, hitting all the shields at the same time and sending them back to the sender.

The shields, just like the previous golem knight, are blown away like a cannonball and fly at the nearby golem knights, crushing them and some of the golems behind them, 'Homerun! And 35 left...'.

Then once more, I point my sword at the approaching golem knights holding the sword in a thrusting stance, then I press the trigger, and the next moment the blade splits open to reveal the Gatling gun inside, that roar to life as it shoots countless 30mm bullets that mows down dozen of golem knights, '23 left...'.

Then I again rush toward the golem knights, this time transforming the Tactical Arms into its Sword Arm Form and using the two smaller blades I start to rampage among the golems, cutting anything around me, while at the same time, defending against the golem knights' attacks who tried to take advantage of my blind spots, and one by one they were destroyed as if being played with.

I ward off a descending large sword of a knight with one blade and split in half its helmet with the other in my right hand then I kick it away, and without looking at that knight flew backwards, I block an attack from behind with the sword on my left, and spin around to slice in half the knight behind me, then I squat down while rotating to dodge large swords that are swung horizontally, and while I continue to spin, I slice off its legs and kick it helm away with a high kick.

Then like a Beyblade, I continue to spin and throw a low kick at another golem knight that approached from behind hitting it at the knight's knee joint, destroying its balance, and slitting it in half with the blade on my right hand, while still counting '22... 21... 20... 19!'.

And then I jump up and look at the situation around me and see that all the Golem are now gathered around me, I join the two blades back together and land on a nearby Golem, impaling it with the huge sword, then I pull out the sword and with a wide horizontal swing I destroy two other nearby knights, '18... 17... 16...!!'.

But then I notice that even if I have destroyed a lot of Golems, there is no change in the density of the approaching enemies, and realize what is going on, and yell "Shit there is some kind of replication going on? ...No matter how many knights I destroy, more knights with the same body are reproduced in no time and rejoin the ranks...".

Then while still destroying the golems around me I mutter "These things are golems then there must be a core... However, these guys don't have a core at all... I have ripped many of them apart and they don't have anything that looks like a core... But I was able to find some suspicious magic power from the golems… Maybe they are remote controlled, I remember that there is a main Golem controlled by Miladi... It seems that I can't do this alone after all..."

I also notice that these golem knights are actually rearranged by manipulating their pieces, they only needed to add to the insufficient parts, it's actually more like reconstructing rather than replicating, in fact, the floor seems to also be made using the same material as the golems, as parts that appear to be cut away can be seen, 'Those were probably used to replenish the parts of the golems... Without defeating the controller, it'd be truly endless... The key is that altar and the door... Shit, why I can't remember every detail of a novel I read more than 20 years ago...'.

So I quickly get jump away from the golems, slam down the Tactical Arms to raise a cloud of dust, and enter my S.T. to ask for Eri's help, and quickly find her sitting on the Athena's Bidoof's deck reading a book, I quickly get close and explain to her what is going on, and of course, she quickly agrees, and so I come out of the S.T. and rush toward the altar while Eri, that is hanging on my back, summons her puppets to delay the Golem even further.

We quickly reach our target, and Eri quickly steps on the floor and starts to study the door, and says "Un... As you said, It is sealed... But I think I can unlock it...", and while she moves to release the seal on the door, I move toward the golem and say "I'll leave the seal to Eri... I trust you!", Eri nods and says with a bright smile on her face "Un... leave it to me!".

Eri POV - Reisen Great Labyrinth - 2013

I look at Jayr's wide back, and with a smile, I think 'I will finally be truly useful to him... Until now in this Labyrinth I was only a burden to him, he had to always protect me even in the previous Labyrinth I wasn't of much help... That is why I choose to wait in his personal dimension while studying how to improve my magic even more so that I can truly be beside him... But now I can finally help him!'.

After thinking that, I immediately take the yellow crystal from the altar, and start to study it, the crystal is in a square made of pyramids shape, and when I look at it carefully I notice that it is made from combinations of solid blocks, 'It is like a Rubik cube...', then I look back at the door behind me and see that there are three indentations there.

I think about this for a few seconds, then start to disassemble the square of pyramids, and reassemble those blocks to make new cubes that fit the indentations, but while assembling those, I observe the indentations in the door to further check that I assemble everything right,  then, only by carefully observing it I notice the small characters that are carved there.

They say, "I wonder if can you solve it~, I wonder~", "You'll die if you don't do it fast, you know~", "Well, it can't be helped if you can't solve it! You're just an ordinary human unlike me after all!", "Don't worry! Even if your head is bad you can liv-… … you can't live! How regre~ttable! Pugyaa—!",  and with a smile, I think, 'I still like her style...', then I concentrate to solve the puzzle.

After some time, with a little proud look of having done a great achievement I put the pieces of the puzzle in the indentation and as the door opens, I declare "It's open!", and hear Jayr yell "How fast, just as expected of Eri!", which makes my heart flutter, making me feel a kind of sweet happiness that I didn't feel for a long time.

Jayr POV - Reisen Great Labyrinth - 2013

Hearing from Eri that she opened the door, I take a peak behind me and see that on the other side of the once-sealed door, there is an apparently simple room, so I quickly withdraw, and retreat toward the room, as the golem knights wouldn't be able to chase after us if we close the sealed door.

Eri is the first to retreat, and I quickly follow after her and then together, we close the door, keeping outside the chasing golem knights.

Then I quickly check our surroundings, but I see that it is only an apparently empty room, and Eri that is also cautiously looking around says "This, isn't it that? Even though there was a conspicuous seal, there is actually nothing inside, is it that kind of punchline?", but as expected soon after, we suddenly heard the familiar unpleasant sound.

And next the sound of mechanisms beginning to operate is heard, and the room starts to tremble, and I, on instinct, stab the Tactical Arms into the floor and yell to Eri "Eri, quick! Hold on me!", and she quickly clings on my body, then, I feel a strong G force coming from my side, and surprised Eri yells "Ahh! What is happening!?".

At the same time, Eri said that this time I feel the G force coming from above, and because of the radical change, Eri may have bit her tongue as she cover her mouth with teary eyes while trembling.

The room continues to change its direction several more times, but it suddenly stops after approximately 40 seconds of ignoring the law of inertia, but thanks to fixing my location by driving my sword into the ground, I was able to endure the impact of a sudden stop, then I say "Finally stopped... Eri, are you okay?", she nods a little shaken and says "...Un, no major problem".

I pull out the sword and start to look around, but there is no change at all, 'Considering the movement, the door we entered from should connect to a different place now...', and so we quickly move toward the door, and Eri asks "Well then, what shall we do? Is Miledi waiting on the other side?", I nod and say "There is that possibility. Miledi's soul is the one in control of the whole Labyrinth...".

Then looking at the door I think 'On the other side of the door, will it be Miledi's dwelling, with the boss golem Miledi-chan, or just another trap... Well whatever it is, I'll overcome it!', and open the door with a confident smile on my face.

But then the smile on my face freezes when I open the door and see the other side, ahead of the opened door there is another familiar room, and there is a lithograph and passage on the left side of the room.

Seeing that, I remain stuck in silence for a few seconds, and Eri who looks over from behind me says a little uncertainly "It looks like... the first room, right?"

Certainly, just as Eri said there is the lithograph with the same sentences carved, just like the first room, but there is a difference from that room, the proof is, after a few seconds from the door opening, the characters float up from the original room's floor and makes up new sentences, "Nee, right now, how do you feel? Even though you had advanced after many hardships, only to arrive at the starting point, how do you feel?", "Nee, nee, how do you feel? What kind of feeling do you have? Nee, nee"

My eyebrow twitches a little while I regret my past decision 'Why did I skim over the Labyrinth passage of the novel? I should have read it over carefully, I could have avoided this if I remembered the story as well as Saint Seiya...', then, additional characters start to appear, "Ah, there is something I forgot to say, this dungeon will be altered at regular intervals", "As usual, it was Miledi-chan's thoughtfulness to make you enjoy the dungeon with a fresh feeling.", "Are you happy? You are happy, right? There is no need to reward me! I only do it because I like it after all!", "By the way, because it always changes, mapping it was useless", "Don't tell me, did you make it? With so much hardship? But, sorry! Pugyaa—".

Reading that Eri start to laugh a says "Hahaha... She is a troll... I hope she left behind a book with all her traps... I could use some of them on some particular people, with my own spin for sure...", then I let out a sigh, and start to once again move toward the passage expecting totally different traps to appears, and a totally new layout.

And indeed, after getting through the first passage, it is just as Miledi said, the stairs are greatly altered along with the differing position of the corridor ahead.

And so we once again try to conquer the Labyrinth, this time the trap we triggered were more of the annoying type than the lethal ones, gold basin, bird lime, shots of liquids with a strange smell, etc., while going through these traps, I can't help but let out a sigh and say "Ahh... This is going to take awhile...".

Jayr POV - Reisen Great Labyrinth - 2013

Inside the Athena's Bidoof's cabin in my S.T., I'm laying on the bed with Eri embracing one of my arms and sleeping using my shoulder as a substitute for a pillow, at the same time, I think about everything we have gone through in this Labyrinth, 'Today marks one week since we entered this Labyrinth... We met a lot of traps and taunting sentences that tried to exhaust our bodies and minds... We had been returned to the starting point seven times, attacked by lethal traps 69 times, and other meaningless traps over 169 times!'

I gently stroke Eri's hair while continuing my musings, 'But it wasn't meaningless, we understood the pattern of the structure alteration, using the "mark" and were able to confirm where these blocks were repositioned...', looking at her I notice the slight smile on her face, at the same time, she muttered in her sleep "Munya... Au... Jayr, how bold~, to do it inside~, … Mark me so that everyone will be able to see it~, ... Knock me up~".

Looking at the faux sky outside, I notice that Is morning, so I gently shake Eri to wake her up, she lets out a lovely yawn while slowly opening her eyes, then, with a blank expression she looks upward and confirms that I'm here, she kisses me on my cheek and greets me "Good morning, Jayr...", then as she gets up, I peck her on her lips and go to prepare the breakfast. 

After breakfast, we get out of the S.T., ready to once again face the Labyrinth, while hoping that this time,  we won't be returned to the starting point, and so we resume our Labyrinth conquest, facing once again a lot of unpleasant traps and sentences.

Then, we reach the room that we had only visited once before and were never able to reach this whole week, it is the room with golem knights, however, this time the sealed door is already open, and inside there isn't a room but a passage, seeing this, I say "This is it… It'll be troublesome if they encircle us again, climb on my back! We will rush to the open door at once!".

And next, we rush into the golem knights' room, and as we approach the center of the room, as expected, the sound of golem knights rushing out from the recesses on both sides of the walls resounds, but we mostly ignore them and only deal with those that get close enough to be a problem, of course, Eri's puppets are the ones doing most of the job in delaying and obstructing the golems.

In the end, even if the golem knights rushes after us, they were unable to catch up to us as we have already escaped past the door, but soon I notice that the golem also pass through the door, chasing after us and also they, as if ignoring gravity, are running on the walls and ceiling, giving off sounds of moving heavy armor, and realize 'Miledi is using her Ancient Magic...'.

Then without turning my head, I feel one of the golem knights that is running on the ceiling, jump, and like a cannonball, it, advances with tremendous momentum toward us, but I simply wait for the right moment, and once I feel it is close enough, I turn around and swinging my Tactical Arms Sword Form, It hit it with the flat side of the blade and blow it back toward the other golems.

And so we continue to run as more golem knights continue to "fall" toward us, some of them approach while spinning their large swords as if they were pinwheels but I'm able to easily dodge most of them, while the others are taken care by Eri and her puppets and so we advance without stopping.

But, after a while, I feel a different presence from the knights behind us, I feel another group of golems approach in front of us, these knights are approaching with shields raised and moving gallantly as if they have become a wall, the golem knights created a two-row formation, where the knight in the back supported the defending knight in front.

But just as I'm about to make my move, I hear Eri says "Jayr, leave it to me... I have the right puppet for this occasion", and from her ring she summons a big seven-headed skeleton Hydra, who quickly moves toward the platoon of golem knights and wreck through them thanks to its sheer size and power, destroying them to the point that they didn't even resemble their original forms.

Then Eri retrieved the puppet with a sigh and I jump over the wreckage and continue to run through the passage for the next five minutes.

Finally, we see the end of the passage, in front of us is a huge and broad room, but the road itself is broken, and the only thing I can see is a square scaffold 10 meters ahead.

And so without any hesitation, I jump to reach the square in front of me, but as expected by this Labyrinth, something happened before we could reach it, somehow, the square block in front of us starts drawing a parabolic arc, and begin to move.

But this is something I already expected, and so I simply use the good old combo of rope and Tactical Arms to bring me on out of the square block, at the same time, I look back and see the golem knights come in flying approaching us, and using the Tactical Arms Gatling Form, I quickly mow them down, then I hear Eri exclaims "Everything is floating...".

And looking around, I notice that it is just as Eri said, everything in our vicinity is floating, the place we have entered is a gigantic spherical room, the diameter itself is more than two kilometers.

Inside the room, blocks of all kinds of shapes and sizes are floating and moving irregularly, 'It is a space that completely ignored gravity... However, for some reason, we still feel gravity... For sure it is Gravity Magic at its finest... Enough to be a treat, but not enough to instantly kill a challenger... Miledi Reisen sure thought it well!'.