Battle Across The Omniverse

Jayr POV - Tortus, Orcus Great Labyrinth - 2013

I see that Suzu is immediately blown backward as compensation for splendidly protecting 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 classmates can't react towards the three approaching almost invisible enemies, no one but Kaori, that while holding Suzu, she chants, "Give the grace and divine protection of light to us! Heavenly Time, Heavenly Perimeter, Heaven Interruption!", and activates three light magic at the same time with almost no chanting, something that surprise Eri as she clicks her tongue and mutter, "Tsk... She is now able to omit some of her chants... 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 on the two people who somehow manage to 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 second spell allows Suzu and the others to see the three monsters as similar faint white light pours into them, the light buoyantly expands, and an area of light appears where they are, and Eri comments, "Heavenly Perimeter is a mid-ranked recovery magic, in gaming terms is the so-called auto-regen. Although the duration of the spell is long, the amount recovered is very little at the time. It also has the feature of wrapping the surroundings with light made of magic power while the magic is activated... Kaori is using that feature to indirectly reveal the appearances of the invisible enemies while setting the recovered amount to the lowest possible... Smart of her...".

What appears inside the white light are strange monsters with a lion head, dragon-like limbs, sharp claws, snake as tails, and eagle-like wings on their backs, they are the Chimera that Freid made by using his Metamorphosis Magic on the monsters of this Labyrinth, they have peculiar magic for camouflaging, and it is a quite troublesome ability, since not only are their appearances camouflaged, but their presences as well, the only way to find them is to have really sharp senses, or being able to sense their magic, however, they also have the limit that they can't exhibit their full power in that state.

The three Chimeras don't stop and ready their claws and fangs in pursuit, their targets are Shizuku, Nagayama, and Suzu, these three, however, their fangs and claws can't reach the three, since three shields of light appear before each of them, deflecting the attacks and making them miss by a hair breath, of course in the process the light shields are completely 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 completely ignorant of the magic of this world, as most of the spell I'm using are ones that I have come up with by copying what I have seen in other media.

Looking at this I can'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 incoming 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 once near 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 comments, "So, is it okay to attack Nagayama?", then she crunches some more popcorns.

At the same time, Ryutarou takes on the Chimera that went to attack Nagayama and thrust his fist in a karate stance with a war cry, and I sense that he injecting his Mana into his gauntlet, probably about to use his gauntlet-type artifact ability, and from the mana movement I think it is some kind of shockwave.

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

The result of these actions 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 and results in a violent shockwave that moves forward just like a cannonball, and the gloomy young man death bringer, crimson tidal wave surges to swallow its target, with the intent 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 shadows appear, 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 centrifugal force to twist his body, while Ryutarou raises his left hand towards the incoming mace instead of his outreaching right hand.

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

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

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

And in what appears to be an instant, the expansive flame gathers at a single point and disappears, the shadow inhaled all of the flames in only tens of seconds, and it finally reveals its form, it is the turtle-like monster that 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 flame that inhaled, looking at it I say, "It seems that Freid improved those turtles even more before they could only generate a barrier... Now, they can even absorb some weaker spells...".

In the next moment, the turtle with six feet finishes absorbing the flame, and once again opens its mouth wide, at the same time, the shell on its back shines intensely and a red light appears inside its 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 underestimate me! Come in succession o' light of protection 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 since the power of the beam is much stronger than the previous attacks and is a continuous one, Suzu grits her teeth and chants in succession to construct new shields one after another.

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

Only when the situation progressed this much did Hiyama's gang and Nagayama's party slip out of their confusion 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 comment, "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 can't blame them too much... Freid is strong, after all, he is someone who was able to conquer a Great Labyrinth on his own... Remember that since they were constructed the people that could do so can be counted on the fingers of one hand...".

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

She moves at super high speed, and not even her afterimage can be seen, her figure momentarily disappears with a sonic boom, and appears right behind the Chimera in the next moment, she uses the iai technique to unsheathe her swords that return to their sheaths before anyone noticed, the speed of the naked blades is even faster than what an ordinary living being would recognize as a swift flash, severing the Chimare's snake tail 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 compatible with her technique...'.

Raising a roar of anger, the Chimera turns around and swings its sharp claws, however, its attack only cuts through the air, as Shizuku has already moved to the other side, where she swings her two swords, and cuts the Chimera's flank.

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

Moreover, once the damage on the Chimera piled up, a shriek suddenly resounds around the room, "CAAAAAAAW!", and a dark red light warps 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 unconcerned spectator enjoying the show, while he has a double-headed white crow riding on his shoulder, with one head facing 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 comrades, at the other places, similarly 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 second 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 claps his hands with a composed 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 come 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 counter his opponent'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 chance to activate Limit Break, and is clad in an almost divine pure white light, at the same time, the Ahatod, whose mace attack was countered, attacks again, but it didn't notice the change in Kouki.

Kouki quickly chants, "O' blade-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 counters by slashing from below using the Holy Sword which is enveloped by a bright light extending the blade, and thanks to the enhancement of Limit Break, he is able to diagonally cut it in two, as though it is made of butter.

One moment later, 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, indicating 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 can only utter, "Wha—!?", as his eyes open wide, then he immediately stops and dodges the frontal attack, and uses the Holy Sword to slash the Chimera attacking from his right, while choosing to endure the attack on his back believing in the performance of the Holy Armor

However, those are the only things he could do, the claws of the Chimera on his left hit his shoulder, and he flies outside of the encirclement, then the last Chimera suddenly jumps, digging its forelegs claws 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 claws digging into his shoulders, the power to block the jaws was reduced, Kouki who had already used Limit Break is gradually cornered, and he can't bring forth enough power to fight back.

But once again Kaori, who notices his pinch, chants, "O' light of grace, bring your healing and warning to this place, Heavenly Burn! Binding Seal!", casting a recovery spell, to heal his wounds, then to help him break free so that he can heal and counterattack, 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 centering on the confined object, Kouki in this case, and once cast, the cage of light instantaneously expands around Kouki and pushes the Chimera away.

With the claws coming 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 attacking Kouki so that they can buy some more time for him to regain his balance.

And the next moment, he starts his counterattack, he readies his Holy Sword, and chants, "Soaring Four Wing Blades!", he swings the Holy Sword which draws a curve in the air, and four slashes of light appear from the space where he swung at.

The targeted Chimeras sense the crisis, and immediately jump away to dodge, however, with a chantless-like short chant, Kaori activates mid-ranked restraining magic of the light element, "Capture them, Restrain!", numerous chains of light jump out from below the evading Chimeras' feet and twirls around their neck and 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 Soaring Blade and die as their blood splatters around.

Then Kouki glares and points his Holy Sword towards Freid and says, "How regrettable, your last resort was ineffective 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 confused by what he is doing, at the same time Eri comments, "Come on! Why was it necessary for him to declare that now? Wouldn't it be better for him to immediately slash Freid?", to which I simply shrug my shoulders adn continue watching everything while making sure that no accident happens.

Meanwhile, Freid's composed attitude irritates Kouki who continues to 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 last 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, forget about whether or not it's a bluff, but what will you do after you repel those? I have confirmed 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 black, four-eyed wolf who is ridden by a 60 centimeters long black cat with four tentacles.

They simultaneously attack his comrades, the black cat's tentacles pierce through the flank 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 someone, that is even capable of escaping my current senses if I don't focus on him, screams as he slashes at the tentacle that pierced Nomura, and glares at the black cat with eyes blazing in anger, "Kentarou! Damn you, don't you get carried away!", and while watching this scene Eri comments, "Oh... That is Endo Kosuke... His presence is so weak and insignificant that I even forgot he exists for time to time...".

Meanwhile, the other healer Tsuji Ayako scolds her classmate, "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 explain, "The effect of Chimera's special magic, Camouflage, activates on whoever it touched. Or have you not thought of such a thing happening? Looks, there's more of them", then a large amount of monsters suddenly appears, and Kouki and his comrades were now the ones who were inferior in terms of numbers.

Seeing this situation I continue the commentary while enjoying some more popcorn, "And so Freid pulls out the strongest 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 black cats, that quickly roars and rush toward him.

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

However, his conviction is easily overturned in the next moment, somehow, the black cat somersault in mid-air and avoids Kouki's attack, and next, its sharp claws targets Kouki's neck.

Kouki is barely able to move his head and avoid the attack, but he is unable to respond to a four-eyed wolf's attack that comes from behind him, due to the collapse of his balance sending him tumbling back to his comrades.

With that, the obviously abnormally strong monsters surround Kouki's party, and the fight starts again, everyone tries 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 in one hit.

Although the frontline somehow managed to avoid collapsing, thanks to the continuous healing of Kaori and the other Healer, Tsuji Ayako, they still can't do anything to break the situation.

Kouki deals damage to the enemies using the power he gained from Limit Break, but it has become 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 grows larger thanks to Freid that finally decided to make his move as he chants a magic spell he recently learned while at the same time, all the monsters start to retreat, "I desire the end and walk the heaven and earth. My hands reach nothing 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— Cosmic Rift!".

Immediately after the chant is finished, a rift in the space  appears in front of Freid's outstretched hand, that rip in space is a gate that connects two separate points in space, and on the other 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 seconds before shooting the bright beam of white light toward Kouki's party

And since no one can evade it, Nomura Kentarou, who is already pale-faced because of the blood loss, becomes paler and shouts in panic, "Kh!? Fuck! Taniguchi—!! Stop that thing! Use your barrier!", and Suzu quickly acts and chants, "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 contact, and to not let it breakthrough, Suzu grits her teeth and desperately endure the feeling of her magic power being consumed, and so the whole floor is shaking from this clash.

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 backlash from the barrier's destruction.

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 collapsed in agony on the ground, and as they realize this they scream, "That can't be, Suzu!", "Nomura-kun", "Saitou! Kondou!", and Kouki seeing this glares 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 comrades getting hurt, Kouki glared and objected to Shizuku's plan of retreating "Wh—!? After what had happened, how can 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 late if we are too slow to treat them. So it is necessary to withdraw now and recover! Besides, we lack three people now, so if you rush out, everyone won't be able to endure the next attack! We'll truly be annihilated!".

Kouki is still unsure as he mutters, "Ugh, but…", but Shizuku doesn't stop and continues, "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 when he notices the bleeding at the edge of Shizuku's lips, and it seems to calm down and say, "Okay! Everyone, time to retreat! Shizuku, Ryutarou! Please endure it for a little longer!", but before this could continue, I decide to finally stop this, as it seems enough to me, and the fact that I and Eri have finished the popcorns has nothing to do with this decision.

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