48 Chapter 47: The True Labyrinth

I'm sorry I wasn't able to update recently. I was very busy with family matters and such, but now I'm back and expect more updates from now on.

Enjoy!

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"Hmm."

Hori groaned awake as she was assaulted by a pounding migraine.

'What happened to me?' she thought.

She also felt tired and sluggish as if she spent the entire day working out then chugging a massive amount of alcohol. Not like she ever drank any. As she slowly recovered her senses and the feeling of her body, she realized that she was lying on something soft and fluffy. Hori slowly opened her eyes when a bright light blinded her making her quickly shut them. She once again opened them with caution and blinked several times to get used to the light. Once adjusted, she looked around and noticed that she was in a completely white room.

'No, it's more like a dome.' she observed.

She shifted her body and noticed what she was lying on. It was a bed. Hori frowned as she looked at the bed. It seemed oddly familiar to her. She sat up and looked around. Hori was sitting on the bed and there was a chair right beside it, on her left, facing the bed.

Suddenly, her migraine began to throb as memories began to surface in her mind. She groaned and grabbed her head unable to alleviate the pain.

"Ugh! What is happening to me?!" she asked out loud as her head pounded inside her skull.

"You were brainwashed." a familiar voice said.

Hori's eyes widened when she heard the voice. She couldn't believe it since she hadn't heard that voice in more than four months. She missed it. She looked up and saw him walk towards her with a glass of water.

"Mi-Miyamura. W-What?" Hori stuttered hoarsely when she saw the boy arrive by her bed.

The boy smiled as he handed her the glass and shushed her calmly,

"Shhhhh. Drink first. You need it."

Still in shock, Hori took the glass with trembling hands and drank the water in one shot revealing how thirsty she was. She then lowered the glass once empty and looked back to the boy.

"Is-Is that y-you Miyamura? This is not a dream, right? Otherwise, it would be a really shitty dream." Hori asked as her lower lip trembled from fear and hope.

Izumi smiled and simply answered,

"Yeah, it's me Hori-san."

"Tell me something only I would know?" Hori asked.

Izumi shouldn't be here. He was supposed to be a normal boy going to Katagiri Senior Highschool in the same class as her. He was supposed to be the boy who would visit her house to play with her brother and bring cake. He was supposed to be the boy who would study and watch horror movies with her. What he was not supposed to be is here in whatever room she was in another world.

"You like to eat mikan until your nails turn orange and you love horror movies. We first met because I brought your brother home after chasing away a dog. And you never told anyone about your life outside of school just like how I never told my life outside school." Izumi replied as he stared at her hopeful expression.

Tears brimmed her eyes as she launched herself to him and buried her face into his chest. Her sobs echoed in the room. Izumi simply hugged her back and stayed quiet. They stood like that for a couple of minutes before Hori separated herself.

"H-How? When? Where?" Hori stuttered/asked as she looked Izumi up and down to confirm that it really was him and it was not simply a dream.

Suddenly, her migraine assaulted her again as more memories surfaced in her mind. She grabbed her head once more. Hori's eyes widened once more.

"Wait! What happened to the others?! Actually what happened to me? Why are my memories like this?" Hori started to hyperventilate when Izumi grabbed her shoulders and looked straight into her eyes.

"Breath Hori, breath. Take deep breaths. I will explain everything." he told her and she followed.

Her breaths slowed down and she calmed down a little.

"Are you okay now?" Izumi asked.

Hori gulped and nodded as she took one last deep breath,

"Yes. Thank you Miyamura-kun."

"No problem Hori."

"What happened and how are you here? Are we still in Tortus?"

"I came to save you."

"Save me?"

"Yeah, I came to this world after I saw you getting kidnapped."

"Wait, wait, wait. This doesn't make sense. What you are saying is that you came to this world on your own?" Hori asked getting increasingly confused.

"Yes"

"But that means you had knowledge of magic on Earth if what you are saying is true."

Izumi nodded.

"How is that possible? There is no magic on Earth." the girl stated convinced.

Izumi smiled wryly at Hori before sitting down on the chair.

"Well, that's because there is magic on Earth. You just didn't know."

"Wha..." Hori was about to ask more questions, but Izumi raised his hand.

"Just relax. I will tell you everything." Izumi said and began to tell him about Earth and its supernatural world.

After one hour of explanation, Izumi finally finished and Hori was sitting on the bed in a daze.

After that seemed like an eternity of silence as Hori assimilated information, she finally spoke.

"So let me get this straight. All the myths and legends on our Earth are real."

"Well, I don't know about all of them, but most of them are real." Izumi corrected.

"They are all divided into different groups and factions with the Hindou Faction being the most powerful and the Biblical being the most popular."

"That's right."

"The Biblical Faction is divided into three groups" The Christian Church, the Devils and the Fallen Angels."

Izumi hummed in affirmation.

"They're also humans that possess powerful artifacts given by the Biblical god to protect humanity called Sacred Gears."

"Good."

Hori massaged her temples and closed her eyes.

"This-This is a lot of information to swallow," she said before frowning.

Black wings sprouted from her back and she looked back to the boy.

"Then what am I? I thought I was a fallen Apostle of Ehit" she asked as she showed her wings.

Izumi twitched as anger seeped through him when she told him the story the Church had cooked up.

"That's the biggest load of bullshit I have ever heard!" he said.

"But it felt so real," Hori whispered.

Izumi grabbed her shoulders,

"Hori listen to me. You do not belong to this world and you never came from this world. The Church wanted to brainwash you so that you become loyal to the Church because of your heritage."

"Why did they do that and what am I?"

"I'll explain it to you some other time because we are focusing on you now. You are part Fallen Angel and part human."

"What do you mean part? Is Mom or Dad a Fallen Angel or something?"

Izumi simply nodded.

"How do you know?"

"Because I spoke to them before coming here. They help me come to this world after you were summoned."

"What? They must be so worried!" Hori exclaimed.

Izumi quickly reassured her.

"Don't worry! By the time, we return it's like no time has passed."

"How?"

"You don't need to worry about it now" Izumi replied.

He wasn't ready to tell her about the Multiverse Chat Group. He would tell her at a later date.

Hori simply nodded and dismissed it for later.

"Than does that mean Souta is like me?"

"Yeah."

"Than who are my parents?"

"I can tell you Kyousuke is a human and your mother, Yuriko, is a Fallen Angel. Her real name is Penemue. If you want to know more about them, you can ask them when we find a way to return." Izumi replied.

"Do you have any questions before we leave?" he added.

"I still have tons of them but I just want to ask one."

"Go on."

"Are you human, Miyamura Izumi?"

Izumi smirked,

"Yes, I am. I may be a human esper-mage, but I am still the same boy you know just like you are the same girl you grew up to be no matter what you are be it a Fallen Angel or a human or both. No matter what you are still Hori Kyouko to me just like I am Miyamura Izumi to you," he replied.

Hori smiled and hugged him once more just enjoying his presence.

"Thank you for coming to save me," Hori said and Izumi reciprocated.

"Anytime Hori."

They stood like that for a moment in silence simply enjoying each other's presence.

After a moment, Izumi separated himself from Hori and they both had a slight blush.

He coughed before saying,

"Let me check your mind for any side effects of the brainwashing. We can't be sure even if I erased the brainwashing okay?" Izumi said and Hori nodded.

Izumi raised his hand to her head and it began to glow.

A few hours before, Izumi was flying down the abyss. It was getting increasingly darker as sources of light diminished. What seemed like an eternity, he finally felt the ground approach. A familiar surrounding appeared in front of him.

'This is the first floor of the True Orcus Labyrinth!' he thought when he finally touched the ground.

As soon as his feet touched the ground, he felt a pack of Twin-tailed wolves running towards him from behind. Without even looking at them, he pierced the monsters with simple earth manipulation and the latter died without making a noise.

Sensing around, he felt multiple monsters around, but they were not too close. He created a dome of Dark Matter and changed the colour of the interior to white for light. He projected a bed that he copied from his home and placed Hori on it after taking her out of the cocoon. He projected a chair and place it beside the bed and sat on it. He sighed,

"Alright, let's get rid of that fucking pests influence," Izumi said before opening the system.

He went to the store and search for magic related to the mind.

[Illusion magic: 2800 points

Emotion magic: 2500 points

Mind control magic: 2500 points

...]

Izumi scrolled through the list until he finally found what he was looking for.

[Mind magic: 3500 points]

Izumi looked at his balance and saw he had exactly 3600 points. Without hesitation, he purchased it rendering his balance to 100. His brain throbbed as information of the magic appeared in his head. After five minutes, the throbbing finally stopped. With a groan, he raised his head to look at Hori.

'Let's get started,' he thought.

He raised his hand and placed it in front of her forehead before it began to glow with a light blue. He felt himself dive into Hori's mind. He opened his eyes and saw himself floating inside some sort of void.

'Is this her mindscape or is this because of the brainwashing?' he thought.

He slapped his cheeks and focused.

'Let's focus! I hope I'm not too late.'

Brainwashing usually consists of conditioning someone to adopt a completely different line of thinking than they previously had using forceful means. Usually, that didn't end in memory erasure. But those cuffs didn't erase those memories. They simply suppress them and slowly make the victim adopt the Church's line of thinking to make the transition easier and the brainwashing stronger. Izumi searched around Hori's mindscape when he finally saw Hori wrapped in chains and attached to something he couldn't make out.

He was about to approach her when suddenly something glowing white appeared and flashed towards him.

'What the...?!' he thought. he quickly dodged to the left and the glow passed him.

He turned around and saw the glow fading and replaced by a person. his eyebrows rose in shock when he saw Hori. But this Hori looked different. She had the same black wings and hair colour, but she had a cold face and blank eyes. She also dressed like Noint in her Apostle form.

"So you are the personality that was supposed to replace Hori once the brainwashing took further effect. It's a good thing I arrived on time."

The apparition didn't say anything but attacked.

"But you do not belong here. Begone!" Izumi said before using his magic to destroy the apparition.

Since Hori wasn't wearing the cuffs, the apparition was weak and Izumi was easily able to destroy it. He then turned towards Hori and destroyed the chains using (Mind Magic). Once the chains were destroyed, Hori began to dissolve into particles before flying away in her mindscape. The place rumbled and Izumi saw that it began to repair itself. Izumi saw memories of Hori's time with her family, her time with her friends, etc. Nodding to himself, he exited Hori's mind and found himself back into his body looking at the sleeping girl.

"Now she just needs rest. How long was I in there?"

He checked the time in the system. The system had a clock for his homeworld and a clock for whatever world he goes to. He saw that one hour had passed when he was erasing the brainwashing.

'Damn! That took longer than I thought.'

He looked at Hori.

'Looks like she will be asleep for a while. Might as well go down the floors while we're at it.'

He stood up and the chair disappeared. He wrapped Hori in a cocoon of Dark Matter and made her float. The bed was dismissed and the dome disappeared with its light. The darkness had returned. Izumi used Reinforcement in his eyes to enhance their ability to perceive light particles. He also created a fireball and made it float above them to give more light. Once everything was ready, he closed his eyes and extended his Observation Haki. He felt it pass through the floor and onto the next floor. Unfortunately, he couldn't reach the next floor as it was too far away. He then extended his hand in front and formed a portal before walking through it.

He continued doing so until his life force was low. Once it filled itself up, he would continue making portals towards the lower floors and repeat the process. Unfortunately, even with his large reserves, he needed to take multiple rests as creating portals took time and the floors were too far apart. In between floors, he would observe monsters and analyze how they used their abilities using Structural Analysis. He would then mimic them with the help of his Reality Marble. Four hours later, he reached floor seventy-eight and noticed Hori shift in her cocoon and saw that she was about to wake up. He created the same setup he had made on floor one of the True Labyrinth and laid Hori on the bed once more. After a few minutes, Hori finally began to wake up. He projected a glass and poured in the water he created magically before walking towards her.

Back to the present, he checked her mind for the side effects of her brainwashing extermination and was happy that she didn't have any.

Izumi smiled and told her,

"You're good."

Hori stared at the glowing palm,

"So you really can do magic."

Izumi smirked before standing up,

"Can you move or do you still need rest?"

"Huh, I can move now," Hori answered before getting off the bed.

Izumi nodded before creating another fireball and making it float in the air.

"Why are you making a fireball?" Hori asked confused.

"You'll see."

Suddenly, Everything disappeared surprising Hori.

"Wha... What happened? Where are we?"

"I just dismissed everything and we are still in the Orcus Labyrinth."

"What?! What are we doing here alone? It's dangerous!" she looked around, "And I don't recognize this place.

"That's normal since we are in the True Orcus Labyrinth." The boy explained once everything was dismissed.

"What do you mean?"

"This Labyrinth is composed of two levels containing each hundred floor each. The ones you and the others were completing were the equivalent of the tutorial for the second level. Right now, we are in the second level." Izumi said.

"Are you serious?" Hori asked incredulously.

She was never informed of another level in the Labyrinth so this information shocked her very much. At this moment, she thought about the others,

"What about the others where are they?"

"I sent them away after we were attacked by that Apostle." Izumi frowned as he was reminded of Noint.

"Why did she attack us. Aren't they supposed to help humanity?"

"Let's get going and I will explain on the way," Izumi said.

"Where?"

Izumi opened a postal showing another dark area,

"To complete the dungeon!" Izumi said as he pointed at the portal showing floor seventy-nine.

Hori nodded and walked into the portal with Izumi following behind. As they descended the floors, Izumi told her the truth of this world and the true face of Ehit. Once Izumi finally finished his explanations, Hori went into a fit of rage and she began radiating her corrupted Holy Energy uncontrollably. She was also cursing and swearing at Ehit for a good amount of time before finally calming down.

"I want to punch that god in the face for trying to brainwash me." she panted after finally calming down.

"You will," Izumi replied smiling.

"What do you mean?"

"Once we have enough power, we will destroy that mad god. Besides, don't you want to become stronger?"

"Yes, but what about the other students."

"What about them?"

"I mean aren't they pawns too if what you said is true?" Hori said as she entered another portal.

Izumi simply shook his face,

"They'll be fine for now. Do you want to go back to them?"

Hori stayed silent a moment before shaking her head,

"No, I think it's better this way. They most likely think I'm dead and to be honest, I didn't feel comfortable with them."

Izumi rose an eyebrow,

"Why?" he asked.

Hori explained her observation during the first time they were against the Behemoth and how one spell was specifically aimed at Hajime instead of the monster causing him the fall and die.

'Ah, she's talking about Hiyama.'

"And that's why I don't want to go back to them. Besides, they wouldn't believe me if I told them the truth." she finished.

Izumi simply nodded before speaking,

"You got one thing wrong."

"Hm?"

"Nagumo is alive."

"Really?!" Hori shouted.

"Yeah, I saw him before coming to you."

"Is he okay?"

"Yeah, he's fine. He's doing great actually."

"Than I'm glad. He didn't deserve what happened to him. But how did he survive?"

"By completing this dungeon," Izumi said before opening another portal and the duo walk through it.

As they descended the floors, Izumi trained in magic. Since she unlocked her Fallen Angel heritage, she had unlocked the skill (Mana manipulation) which enabled her to simply control her mana without incantation like Izumi. She trained in her light manipulation. Izumi was seating down and recovering his magic while Hori was practicing forming lances with her Corrupted Holy Power, which was dark purple, on a boulder. Izumi had already destroyed the surrounding monsters so that they wouldn't be disturbed.

'Did she inherit something from her mother like Akeno who inherited her holy lightning from Barakiel' Izumi thought as he looked At Hori shooting Holy Lances at the boulder.

Izumi also noticed that she was getting increasingly stronger as they descended the floor. He would weaken the monsters and let Hori practice her skills on the monsters. At one point, she took out her status plate and tried to check her stats, but she was surprised

[Name: Kyouko Hori

Age: 16

Female

Level: ???

Job: Sage

Strength: 700

Vitality: ???

Defence: 700

Agility: 600

Magic: 6000

Magic defence: 6000

Skills: Language Comprehension, Advance Sorcery, Elemental affinity, Elemental Resistance, High-speed casting, Increased Mana Recovery, Detect Magic, Image Composition, Mana Manipulation]

"This doesn't make sense. Why is there a question mark on my level and why is there a huge gap between my magic stats and my strength stats? I also got a new skill," Hori said when she saw the stats.

Izumi who saw her stats,

"Yeah, your stats won't make much sense anymore since you unlocked your Fallen heritage. Since it doesn't come from this world, it wouldn't be able to compute properly."

"Then how am I supposed to know how strong I am?"

"You don't," Izumi shrugged and Hori pouted.

They continued to descend the floors and they finally arrived on the hundredth floor.

"We're almost there. Now we just need to kill the boss then we will finally complete the dungeon." Izumi said before turning towards Hori,

"Are you ready?"

"Yes. Let's kill the boss." Hori replied with a grin.

" They soon arrived in front of a pair of doors that would lead to the boss room. Izumi pushed them open and the duo entered the room. At that moment, a magic circle appeared and a giant hydra with different coloured heads appeared.

"ROOOOOOAAAAAARRRR!" its nine heads roared.

"Stay back Hori, I'll kill it quicker than we can get out of here," Izumi said

"Can I help?"

Izumi looked back at her,

"Well, it's only going to take a minute. Do you want to stay longer in this dark place?" Izumi asked.

Hori looked at the hydra before shaking her head,

"You're right! I don't want to stay here. Please kill it fast."

"No problem!" Izumi turned back towards the Hydra who started to attack them.

The red snake-head shot a fireball at them which Izumi swiftly block before sending massive amounts of Dark Matter particles towards it. He then infused them into the hydra right below the heads in their neck. Izumi then stretched his fingers. At that moment, nine black disks appeared right below their heads decapitating the hydra and killing it.

Hori was watching the beatdown and whistled,

"Well, that was fast. What was that? I didn't sense any magic in it." she asked,

"That's my esper ability: Dark Matter. I'm able to create a matter outside the laws of science."

Hori rose an eyebrow, after a whole day of surprise, she had expected to hear more shocking news therefore she wasn't as surprised as she was supposed to be.

"Is that ability as good as I think it is?"

"Yeah" Izumi smirked.

"Wow."

She then turned towards the Hydra,

"It never had a chance did it?"

"Nope. Let's go!" Izumi answered before walking towards the other pair of doors with Hori following after.

They soon opened the doors and finally completed the Labyrinth.