Chapter 53: Grand Gruen Volcano Part 2

As soon as they stepped out of the portal, they could see the entrance of the Gruen Volcano Labyrinth on the summit of the volcano. They could see the lava flowing down the side and the heat was intense. Izumi then turned to Hori,

"Kyouko, we should wear our armour from now on since we will be entering the labyrinth," he said.

The girl nodded before activating her necklace. The liquid Dark Matter started to flow out of the necklace before covering her whole body in less than three seconds. As soon as she did, information about the armour flooded into her mind teaching how the armour and its magic worked. It looked a lot like Izumi's however it was slicker and more feminine. As soon as they wore their armour, it automatically cooled their body down using a combination of mind magic and Dark matter by reading their mind for temperature preference and then the armour would produce cold or hot matter depending on the situation.

"I'm ready, Izumi! Let's go!" said Hori.

"Alright!"

The couple then began walking through the gateway. As they entered, they could feel the heat slap their armour, but the latter was doing a great job at keeping them cool. However, the humidity was ridiculously high.

'Damn, I kinda underestimated this volcano. But, it's only a minor inconvenience.

"Hey, Izumi. Let me try to fight if any monsters are coming," Kyouko said.

Ever since her fight against the army, she had resolved to improve after computing many mistakes during battle. And that was just against monsters. What would she against Ehit? She wants to improve herself not just to fight Ehit, but she didn't want to be a burden to Izumi although the boy was already strong. She didn't want to stand behind. She wanted to stand beside him.

Izumi looked at her and saw the determination in her eyes before nodding,

"Alright, I'll let you. But don't push yourself too much, alright?"

"Yeah,"

At that moment, they heard a stomping noise. They looked at the source and saw a bull-like with magma all over him like a coat barreling towards with the intent to destroy the couple.

Izumi smirked towards Kyouko,

"It's all yours, Kyouko."

The girl smiled before raising her hand towards the bull-like beast. Dark purple arcane energy crackled at her palm before forming a barrier two meters in front of her.

*BANG!*

The beast crashed into the barrier at full speed but didn't breakthrough. In fact, there wasn't a single crack and Kyouko didn't feel any strain. The beast bounced back and the girl pulled her hand back and swiped it forward.

"Severing Wind!" she called out.

A long and thin crescent blade of wind appeared and bisected the monster in half killing it instantly. Kyouko put her hands on her hips and didn't look winded.

The boy smiled and they continued on their journey. The air was getting harder to breathe as the humidity increased as they continued going down. As they walked, Hori spotted glowing minerals shining in the walls that they were embedded into.

"Izumi?"

"Yeah."

"Do you know what are those?" she asked while pointing at the shining rocks.

Looking at the rocks, Izumi realized what they were.

"Those are Stillstones. It's a mineral that neutralizes nearby mana."

"Oh! Do you think we should mine it?"

Izumi shook his head,

"We don't have to."

"Eh? Why?"

"Did you forget? My (Dark Matter) can imitate any material. Since I know how Stillstones work, I can produce Dark Matter that imitates The mineral."

"Ah, right. I forget." the girl chuckled.

"It's okay. Now, let's move on."

They continued going down the floors, they encountered many monsters that Kyouko quickly took down, however, she was running low on mana after defeating so many monsters.

"Izumi, I think I'm out of mana," she said looking exhausted.

Izumi nodded before hugging her,

"Good job, Kyouko. Now let's rest and then I'll take charge of the raid."

"Ok, but where?"

Izumi took her to a nearby rock wall and placed a hand on it.

"Here"

The wall parted as Izumi dug a room using (Transmutation). Once the room was created, he projected a bed and led the girl to it where she laid down. They both took their armour off and Izumi produced a giant floating ball of cold emitting Dark Matter that would keep the room cool.

Both teens sighed in relief as the cool air touched their skin. Izumi could see the sweat on her body and projected a towel.

"Here, wipe your sweat off. You don't want to get a cold."

The girl looked at the towel before letting out a small smirk.

"You do it," she said.

"What?" Izumi asked confused.

"I want you to do it." repeated before proceeding to take her shirt off.

"W-Wait!?" Izumi who was flustered tried to stop her, but he was too late.

The crazy girl had already taken her shirt off leaving her upper body bare except for her bra. Izumi is a healthy teenage boy and if a girl is stripping in front of him, he would look at her. Especially if she's his girlfriend.

"You know you're going to give me a heart attack if you start stripping like that."

The girl deadpanned,

"Izumi, you can't get heart attacks."

"Oh. Right."

Besides, don't you like the view?" she said puffing her chest forward.

Izumi's eye's remained glued to her breast. Kyouko smirked at the small victory at teasing her boyfriend. Ever since she unlocked her Fallen heritage, her body grew in all the right places and she had gotten more confident in herself and her body.

She then turned around and laid on her stomach,

"Come on, Izumi."

The boy took the towel and started wiping the sweat off.

Izumi heard her sigh and spoke,

"You know Kyouko? For the past few days, i"'ve noticed that your mood was down. Is there something wrong?"

The girl flinched,

"Was I that obvious?"

"Well, it was to me."

"I-I just miss home. I haven't seen my family in a long time."

Izumi listened as she spoke.

"I miss playing with Souta. I miss Mom's cooking. I miss my friends," she then added with a chuckle, "I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm also missing Dad."

Izumi noticed how the girl referred to her father as Dad instead of his name.

"I wonder what they are doing right now?"

Izumi smiled,

"It wouldn't matter."

"Why?"

"Because the moment we return, it's going to be like no time has passed on Earth."

"Really?"

"Yeah, so you don't need to worry about them since they will be fine. Besides, I will always be with you."

"Okay."

She then turned around and looked at her boyfriend's face. She placed her hands on his cheeks and put her forehead on his.

"Thank you, Miyamura Izumi, for coming to my life."

"I should thank you, Kyouko," Izumi said before giving her a small kiss.

They stayed like that for a moment, before Kyouko shivered.

Izumi giggled,

"I think it's time to go."

The girl also giggled and nodded

"Yeah, you're right"

She put on her shirt and armour and they left their small little cave and back to the Labyrinth. As they advanced, they met with many monsters that they both would dispatch quite easily.

At some point, they were walking when Kyouko spoke,

"Hey, Izumi?"

"Yeah?"

"Have you noticed how the lava is flowing weirdly?"

"Yeah. It's because of the stillstone."

"But they are all flowing in one direction while avoiding many."

"So?"

"What if we followed it?"

Izumi smiled before a small rowing boat appeared in front of them.

"So let's follow it."

He put the boat in the lava river before they both sat on it. Kyouko then place a barrier so that splashes of lava wouldn't fall on them and they let the boat go with the flow.

"You know when I think of a date, I never thought about going boat riding inside of a volcano searching for the magic to kill a god," joked Izumi.

"You're right. When we return to Earth, you're going to have to take me on a better date than this." Kyouko smiled.

"You bet!"

The boat sped up as Izumi made sure that they didn't hit anything.

They soon shot of a tunnel and onto a lake of Lava. However, Izumi made the boat float so that it stood in the air. They looked down and saw a huge lake of lava that was bigger than the arena in the Great Reisen Labyrinth. That's when the couple sorted it, a small island in the center of it all. On the outer wall were hundred stillstones crystals that faintly glowed due to the magma's light.

"Is that where we are supposed to go?" asked Kyouko looking at the island.

"Yeah, but we have to wait."

"Why?"

"Because of that," Izumi pointed at a spot in the lava lake.

"I don't see anything except lava. What am I supposed to be looking for?"

"You'll see."

As soon as the words left his mouth, a huge serpent made of lava burst out of the lake to attack them. Kyouko let out a cute scream and stumbled back on the boat in surprise. Izumi raised a finger gun at it before shooting a mana bullet. It exploded its face and a sphere fell from it. It was the mana cost of the monster. He then shot once more at the sphere and destroyed it resulting in one of the stillstone of the island being destroyed too.

Izumi stifled a laugh and turned to Kyouko,

"Are you okay?"

Kyouko's eyebrow twitched as a tick mark appeared on her temple,

"Shut up! You should've had warned me."

"But I did," the boy innocently said.

"No, you didn't! You just said something was coming. Not a godamn leviathan!"

Izumi laughed and Kyouko gritted her teeth before slapping his arm.

"Sorry! Sorry! I won't do it again!"

"You promise?"

"Promise."

Kyouko's anger subsided and she turned to the lake.

"Do you know how many monsters are inside?" she asked.

"A hundred. And we have to kill all of them to enter the island."

"Eh? How do you know?"

"When I destroyed that monster's magic core, a stillstone embedded on the wall of the island self-destructed."

"And since there are ninety-nine left, we have ninety-nine more monsters to kill. Am I right?"

"Good job!" the boy said as he patted the girl's head.

Another tick mark appeared on her temple.

"Oi!"

At that moment, another lava serpent appeared and Kyouko destroyed it.

And so, the couple destroyed the monsters one by one. After forty-five minutes, they finally destroyed all the monsters and all the stillstone crystals on the island.

Kyouko was huffing and puffing while Izumi had some sweat rolling down his forehead. He tried to use the least amount of Dark Matter as possible to train his magic.

"Are we done yet?" Kyouko asked after regaining her breath.

Izumi observed the wall and saw that all the crystals were gone and nodded,

"Yeah."

"Finally! Now, let's go get the reward!" she said.

Izumi moved the boat and they stopped in front of the island. They got off of it and walked up to the wall.

"I don't see an opening or a door. How are we supposed to enter it?" the girl asked as she looked around.

Izumi placed a hand on the wall and cast a spell,

'Structural Grasp.'

Circuit-like lines appeared all over the wall and its information appeared in his mind. He then looked at Kyouko,

"Kyouko, do you see the Liberator's crest, over there?" he asked while pointing at a particular sport on Kyouko's right.

The girl looked at the spot where Izumi was pointing at and found it.

"I found it!"

"Good, let's stand it in front of it."

As soon as they did, the wall opened revealing a passage inside. The duo looked at each other before walking in. Once inside, the wall closed once more leaving them inside an empty-looking room.

"Izumi, look!" Kyouko said pointing at a lone magic circle.

"Yeah, let's stand on it."

He copied the circle and they both stepped on it. As soon as he did, the circle glowed. Just like the other Labyrinths, the magic circle wanted to probe his mind for the memories of the Labyrinth's completion. Izumi let it and after a second, the magic glowed once more and information of the ancient magic appeared. This time, the magic that was imparted to them was Space magic.

'I see. So this is Space magic that allows the user to manipulate the space around themselves, allowing them to either bend or expand the space near them or move themselves to another space or location. The true power of this magic is the ability to 'interfere with the boundary'.' he thought.

"Woah, this is space magic!" Kyouko said in delight.

Izumi smiled,

"That's right. Are you compatible?"

The girl nodded,

"Yeah, I can't wait to try it!"

At that moment, a section of the wall opened revealing an alcove with words written.

[I pray the day comes where people can be free. —Naiz Gruen]

"He feels like a pretty quiet guy," Kyouko said.

"Yeah."

Izumi placed his hand in the alcove and felt around until he touched a pendant. He pulled it out.

"Alright, let's get out of here," he said.

He opened a portal and was pleasantly surprised at the drastic drop in mana cost. The portal shimmered before revealing a view of the outside of the summit of the volcano.

"Let's find a place to get some rest. I saw that the closest city from here is Ankaji." Kyouko said.

"Sure, you did great work Kyouko," Izumi said before they both stepped through the portal.