6 Who's Who and Where's the Real One? (2)

"Saying the title of the novel as the last words of the previous chapter felt good," exclaimed Apollo as he stretched his hands in the air for no reason, "Anyways, Ladies grab on to me, we're magically going to teleport to the next scene," said Apollo casually, gesturing the women to make contact with him in any way.

The three Lyras seemed hesitant at first, but they all wanted to do it. One by one they slowly clung to Apollo, with Lyra (14) and Lyra (69) grabbing onto each of his arms with Lyra (14) on the left and Lyra (69) on the right. Lyra (246) made a bold move and hugged Apollo instead, making the other two jealous.

Apollo noticed this and he sighed. He spread his senses all around the labyrinth and located all of the Lyras. He started counting how many he could sense and memorizing where they were located. Apollo's lips started moving but only silence was coming out.

"What's wrong, Apollo?" asked Lyra (246) worriedly.

"I mapped out the entire cavern Labyrinth and..." Apollo stopped for a moment and sighed, "I counted 148 human life signatures." said Apollo in a heavy tone.

The other two Lyra's heard this and the atmosphere around them became heavy and silent. 98 Lyras have disappeared and this only meant one thing. He was too late to save them when he was wandering around clueless about what was happening.

He couldn't spread his senses from the start for some reason. Something was messing with his powers. His suspicion deepened even further. No one had the ability to suppress his powers unless it was someone like Eros.

He shook his head. Eros couldn't be still alive after he was helplessly compressed into marble by him. An uneasy feeling loomed over Apollo's mind.

"Let's go," said Apollo as he channeled his unknown powers to instantly teleport to one of the near locations. He was determined to save the innocent 148 innocent lives that were turned into Lyras. 'What kind of sick game is this guy playing.' he thought inwardly.

A stray thought came across his mind and he stopped channeling his powers. He let out a sigh and placed his palm on his face.

"I'm literally the protagonist I could do anything I want," mumbled Apollo as he processed the thought he just had, "I could just teleport all of them here."

He removed himself from the Lyras that was clinging onto him and sat on the ground. He began to concentrate and slowly muster the power to teleport all Lyras in the current location they are in.

The three Lyras surrounding him could feel his power slowly rising. It was a terrifying yet comforting feeling for them. A man with such a vast amount of power is using it to save the lives of others. If he were a villain no one could stop him, it was impossible. Apollo was that strong.

'Hey, hey, don't go boosting my ego like that.' thought Apollo to himself as his concentration wavered for a second.

The air around Apollo was vibrating giving off a menacing feeling to those who bore hostile intent towards him. Throughout the Carvernous Labyrinth, enemies who were placed to threaten each Lyras were all trembling in fear. This was Apollo using a percentage of his full power, giving him nigh omnipresence.

The Lyras were surrounded by a warm blanket of light that protected them from harm, while those who tried to hurt them would see the light as their last view before they faded into nothingness.

Those who go against Apollo, shall kneel and tremble in fear. For he is akin to a God if he wills it. Every live being who bore hostile intent towards those he chose to protect will instantly perish by his sight.

"The hell..." mumbled Apollo as he finished concentrating, "Why are you making it sound like I'm the scariest person in my own novel," he added, raising his fist in the air whining like a child.

He looked around the spot they were in and he noticed it was a bit too cramped to fit more than a hundred people. He raised his hands forward and parted them. The cavern walls started to rip open and separate, following the movement of his hands.

"There was a guy who parted the sea like this once. He was the one who taught me how to do it." chuckled Apollo as he remembered his old friend, "You know what," Apollo stopped parting the cavern walls and relaxed his hands.

He lowered his hands to his waist and moved it in a sweeping manner, All the rubble was instantly swept away and the uneven surfaces were flattened quickly, "There that looks better. I actually aspired to be an interior designer once, but I died and somehow reincarnated in my own novel." Apollo flinched and looked up the ceiling, "Oops. That's a spoiler for the future chapters." He raised his index finger and gestured to the air to keep it a secret.

He raised two fingers and quickly lifted them up, Large pillars grew from the ground and connected themselves to the ceiling of the spacious room he had created to teleport the Lyras in.

"Alright, this should be fine," said Apollo patting his own back. He tapped his temples and suddenly the room was covered in bright light. The Lyras were slowly being teleported to the room one by one. Each of them looking dazed and confused about what just happened.

They all looked around them seeing, complete replicas of themselves assessing their surroundings. Each of them was thinking the same thing, "Where am I?"

CLAP! CLAP!

Apollo flew to the air and amplified the sound of his clap to gain the attention of the Lyras that had no idea what just happened.

"Greetings, my harem of a hundred people." joked Apollo as the Lyras looked at him with full attention.

The crowd of Lyras slowly turned red after hearing Apollo's words. They didn't deny that they loved him, they were flustered that he knew. The three Lyras he was with rolled their eyes and also paid attention to what Apollo was going to say.

"If you think you're the real Lyra please raise your hand," asked Apollo observing the crowd.

Each one of the Lyras raised their hands including the three he was with. He sighed and thought to himself, 'That was a dumb question.'

He cleared his throat and thought of a question only the real Lyra would know. He pieced together common information that he knew between the three Lyras, so he avoided those questions and instead thought of a better one that's related.

"Raise your hand, If you know I have two daggers," asked Apollo, the three Lyras that were with me didn't fully explain how I saved them, there must be something different in each of their memories.

Out of the hundreds of Lyras, only half of them raised their hands. Apollo was on to something.

"Please come forward, those who raised their hands," said Apollo, wanting to separate the half from those who didn't lift their hands. The half moved forward and formed a group below Apollo who was floating in the air.

"Raise your hand if a group of humans attacked you," asked Apollo, as he remembered that A group of dog-like monsters attacked Lyra (246) instead of humans.

Out of the 74 people, only 16 raised their hands. Apollo gestured to those who didn't raise their hands to go back to the crowd. He was getting close to the real one.

"The group of humans that attacked you, was their leader wearing white," asked Apollo. Only one raised their hand.

'Found you.' thought Apollo to himself. He glided downwards and gestured the Lyra to move towards him so he could check her number if she was a clone or not.

Before, Apollo could inspect her Lyra (14) called to him.

"My hand. It's also raised," said Lyra (14), the first Lyra Apollo met in the Labyrinth.

He also gestured her to join him in the inspection, "Can you please show me your nape?" asked Apollo in a low tone.

'This makes me sound like a pervert' thought Apollo to himself.

As the Lyra turned her back towards Apollo to expose her nape. Lyra (14) watched with him. Apollo brushed the hair off the Lyra's nape and there he saw another dilemma.

Lyra (14) couldn't see what Apollo was looking at right now, but she knew something was wrong because Apollo stood still instead of instantly babbling nonsense.

"Apollo, what do you see? What number is on her nape?" asked Lyra (14).

Apollo slowly turned towards Lyra (14) and covered his mouth behind the mask.

"14."