Chapter 72: The War Part 3

'It's Ehit! He's going to destroy the world!'

As soon as Izumi uttered those words, the communication line descended into chaos as everyone spoke over one another.

'What?'

'Eh?'

'EHHHHHHHH!?'

"Oi! What the hell are you saying!? Is that fucker sending more of these apostles?' Hajime asked.

'Yeah!' Izumi replied.

Izumi opened his sub-space and took out a vial containing red liquid which he soon downed. It was a mana-replenishing potion from the shop of the Chat Group. He felt the effects immediately as his mana reserves were filled up.

'We have to hurry up and stop the invasion before anything happens. I'll try to get there as soon as possible.'

'What!' Kaori suddenly shouted.

'What's wrong?" asked Izumi.

'The soldiers suddenly started attacking our classmates!'

'What!?' everyone shouted.

'Fuck!'

'I'm coming as soon as I can!' Kyouko said.

This whole situation was rapidly devolving into chaos. Izumi expected some changes in the storyline. Hell, he was prepared for it. But Ehit had to pull the rug from under the foot by destroying the world sooner than expected.

'Why am I even surprised?

Izumi let go of the telepathy bud and looked around. He could hear the demons quickly making their way to the castle.

"Better get out of here."

A portal formed in front of him and he jumped through it before anyone could see him leaving the demons stunned at the sight of the now-destroyed castle of their Demon Lord.

Izumi found himself back in the air where he had killed the Apostles. Looking at the sky, he saw what Hori was talking about. Right above the kingdom was a vast glowing silver circle several dozen meters in diameter. The area of the portal covered the whole kingdom. Due to how large it was, Izumi could feel the fluctuations in space.

The only good news was that a portal that size needed some time to open. He guessed they had twenty minutes maximum before Hell broke loose. He flew toward the castle where he could see the fight against the demons continuing. For some reason, The demons fought with more vigour than they had previously shown. For some reason, they thought the silver circle was a sign of Alva helping them or something. However, it was not enough, as their army was dwindling at a rapid pace.

Izumi figured he didn't need to intervene as there was a more pressing issue. Such as the fact that the soldiers of the kingdom were attacking their allies and the very obvious portal in the sky.

'It's most likely Eri showing her true colours.' he thought as he flew toward the castle.

***

A few moments after Izumi went to the Demon Country, Kyouko could be seen panting.

"Hah...Hah...Hah.."

The fight between the Apostle and her and Hajime ended with them destroying the Apostle's core by blasting her out of existence. Unfortunately, they couldn't capture her alive as Izumi asked them to. However, just before being killed, the Apostle looked at them with a sneer uncharacteristic of an Apostle and said,

'Lord Ehit will soon come. Divine Judgement is coming." she let out before the light in her eyes faded and she fell to the ground.

Kyouko looked at the white-haired boy also panting as he stood in the air on a foothold created using his (Aerodynamics) skill.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

The boy nodded,

"Yeah. I had the use (Limit Break) though so I'm most likely going to be exhausted due to the side effects.

Kyouko nodded,

"Here," she said as two vials of red liquid appeared in her hand, and handed one to Hajime.

"What's this?"

"It's a mana-replenishing potion. Izumi gave some to me."

Hajime nodded and they both drank. They felt their mana reserve refill completely.

Kyouko then extended her hand to Hajime,

"Transient Infinity"

Green light enveloped Hajime and Kyouko as their injuries and fatigue disappeared. Their clothes were also repaired.

"That's... Restoration Magic."

"Yup. We told you, we managed to complete all of the Labyrinths."

Hajime nodded and looked toward the now-destroyed HQ of the Holy Church. While Hajime and Kyouko were fighting the Apostle, they had been affected by a debuff spell cast by the priests of the Church. Ishtar the Pope even led the operation as he tried to help the Apostle kill the "heretics. However, their plans were thwarted as Aiko and Tio destroyed the spell, by simply blowing up the HQ killing every member of the church inside by fermenting gas inside the church and igniting it using Tio's breath attack.

"You have to go over there." Kyouko suddenly said.

Hajime turned toward her with a questioning look,

"Why?"

"Don't you know? That's where the Labyrinth of the Divine Mountain is."

Hajime widened his eyes.

"But we don't have time to raid the Labyrinth, right now."

However, Kyouko shook her head,

"You won't need to. Since you killed the Apostle, you will be guided to the magic."

"What?"

"Just go!" Kyouko replied.

Hajime nodded and shot toward the rubbles of the church.

'I wonder how Izumi's doing.'

Kyouko tapped her earbud but refrained from contacting Izumi lest she disturbed him.

She turned toward the others and saw Yue fighting the army off alongside the golems her boyfriend created and Yue was fighting Freid and his dragon army. It seem their fight was going well.

She decided to contact Kaori.

'Kaori. Where are you? Did you find your classmates?'

'Hori-san?'

'Yeah.'

'Not yet, but I found the princess!'

'The princess?'

'Yes. And I found out something. Apparently, the king and his advisors were not themselves before the invasion even began. It was like the Church was controlling them.'

Kyouko sighed,

'Well, good thing it's destroyed now.'

'EH!?'

'The Church has been destroyed by Aiko-sensei and Tio.'

'Oh. Ok. Anyways, I was told by the Princess that our classmates are heading to the arena where they will be meeting Meld.'

'Okay. I'll join you soon.'

Kyouko was about to head toward the arena when she sensed a massive outburst of mana. It was so dense. However, there was also something else. Thanks to her Space magic, she could sense the very space being distorted as a huge silvery circle appeared out of thin air in the sky above the Kingdom.

"What the hell," Kyouko whispered.

'What is that!' shouted Shea in the comms.

'I don't know but I can feel the space fluctuating from it' replied Yue.

'It's most likely a portal.' added Kyouko. 'But what kind of thing needs a portal that big.'

'I don't know.' Yue said.

Kyouko decided to inform Izumi

'Izumi.'

However, she received no reply. Frowning, she called him again,

'Izumi?'

Still no reply.

Now she was getting worried.

'Izumi... Izumi!'

'Sorry. Sorry. I'm here, Kyouko. My earbud got destroyed What's up?'

She let out a sigh of relief when she heard his voice, before launching a barrage of questions at him,

'What? Where are you!? What happened to you? I tried calling you so many times, but you weren't answering! Something happened here!'

'What? Calm down, Kyouko. Breathe and explain it to me.' Izumi replied.

She took a deep breath and talked,

'I don't know how to explain this, Izumi. A large silver circle appeared in the sky above the Capital after we defeated the demon army and the Apostle.'

'What!? Can you repeat that?'

'I'm telling you. Out of nowhere, a large silver circle appeared above the capital. No one knows what's going on, but there was something that Apostle said before Hajime-san killed him.'

'What did she say?'

Kyouko then heard Hajime's voice in her mind. He must've been listening while getting the magic.

'She said the Divine Judgement is descending. You know what that means?' the older boy said.

Suddenly, Kyouko heard Izumi start to panic. She had never seen him panic like this before.

'Oh shit. Oh, shit Shitshitshitshitshitshit!'

'What's going on Izumi!' Shea's voice was then heard.

'It's Ehit! He's going to destroy the world!'

However, before Izumi could explain more, a large flash could be seen at the arena where the soldiers would train the students.

'What?' thought Kyouko when she saw that.

She started flying towards it, but it would take time as she needed a little time to recover. She didn't have Izumi's supernatural ability to recover. And she didn't want to waste mana just for recovery which would take a minute or two.

As she was recovering, she suddenly heard Kaori's shout.

'What!'

'What? What happened Kaori?' asked Kyouko.

'The soldiers! The soldiers suddenly started our classmates!'

'What's going on? Betrayal?' thought Kyouko.

She could hear the exclamations of her allies.

'What's going on, Kaori!?'

'I don't know! Most of our classmates are down! It's Eri-chan! She's controlling the soldiers!'

'Eri?' thought Kyouko.

'There's no time to recover! I have to go.' she thought as she started to send more power to her wings and flapped them as hard as she could.

'I'll try to do something.' Kaori suddenly said.

It looked like she was preparing a spell when,

'AAHGH!' she mentally shouted.

'Kaori!' everyone shouted.

'Kaori?' asked Nagumo.

'I've... been... stabbed.'

'Kaori. Kaori!' shouted Nagumo.

The Fallen Angel hybrid could hear them call out the girl's name, but the latter was barely responding.

'I'm coming Kaori. Just hang on! shouted Kyouko.

She soon arrived above the arena and saw a horrible sight. Most of the students she had met were on the floor injured. Kouki was in restraints. They were all surrounded by the soldiers as Eri was spewing her speech of insanity.

Kyouko felt rage like she had never experienced before.

Meanwhile, Kaori was barely chanting a spell with a sword protruding out of her chest from being stabbed behind the back. Blood could be seen spilling out of the wound. Kyouko saw that it was Daisuke Hiyama. The boy was close to the dying girl with a gleeful expression. All of the classmates looked at Kaori in anguish with Shizuku being the worst as she screamed out her name. However, Kaori completed the spell as a ring of white and affecting her classmates and healing them.

Kyouko saw the sword being enveloped by the white aura and was being extracted when Hiyama looked at her in rage.

"No, you don't"

However, before the latter could touch the sword and kill the girl, Hiyama suddenly heard a shout.

"GET AWAY FROM HER YOU SON OF A BITCH!' before feeling a tremendous blow in his side.

He was then blown away toward a wall of the arena and made a huge crater into it.

"BLARGH!" Hiyama tried to shout, but should only spew out a mouthful of blood.

Kyouko quickly caught Kaori before she fell to the floor as the spell continued to work on the sword. Unfortunately, it wasn't proving effective as the white aura started flickering. Her breathing became shallow as energy seem to leave her.

"Just hold on, Kaori. I'll heal you." Kyouko said before casting her spell, "Transient Infinity."

Green light enveloped Kaori and, as if time had been reversed, her wounds were disappearing. However, due to the severity of the situation, it would take time as this spell regenerate everything to the state one second ago every second it is used. Due to it being an Ancient Magic spell, it also took a lot of mana at the time.

Eri, who saw Kaori being saved by Kyouko, grew enraged.

"Always. You always have it your way! KILL HER!"

The soldiers with blank eyes attacked Kyouko without hesitation.

"STOP!" Shizuku

*OOOOOH" Kouki struggled against his restraints as they cracked under his strength.

But it was not enough, the soldiers would soon reach the two girls. Kyouko saw the soldiers approaching her, but they looked off. It was like they were zombies with no conscious. She wanted to fight back, but she was preoccupied with Kaori since Hiyama had stabbed her heart.

However, before the first soldier could touch Kyouko and Kaori, they heard a gunshot.

*BANG*

All of a sudden, the soldier, closest to the duo, was thrown back as a rubber bullet impacted his head.

*BANG* *BANG* * BANG*

More bullets rained down on the incoming soldiers.

"W-What?" Eri let out as she took a few hesitant steps back.

Everyone looked to where the bullets came from and saw Hajime come out of the entrance along with Aiko-sensei and Tio. The boy was glowering at Eri especially.

Suddenly, they heard a scream as Hiyama extracted himself from the wall and shot toward Hajime.

"YOUUUUU! BECAUSE OF YOUUUU KAORI WON'T LOOK AT MEEEEEE!"

However, Hajime didn't even look at him as he grabbed Hiyama by the throat and spoke,

"This was your last chance and you blew it."

Hiyama looked at the enraged boy with fear. He struggled under Hajime's strong grip. Hajime looked at him before throwing him over the arena and into the horde of monsters.

"No. nononoNONONONONONONONO!" the boy shouted in the air before being caught by the monsters who ripped him apart.

Hajime's eyes turned to Eri who was backing away.

"Kill. Kill him! Kill him now!" she shouted as she tried to hide behind one of the soldiers.

As the soldiers attacked Hajime, he finally got a good look at their complexion and found out the truth,

"Soo they're dead, huh?

Before he could put them out of their misery, All of the soldiers suddenly fell to the ground as if they were pressed by something. Hajime didn't even detect a hint of magic from the phenomena and only one person can do something like that. He suddenly felt some land beside him,

"You're late," Hajime said.

"Sorry, I had to deal with a magical nuke," Izumi replied with a neutral expression.

Hajime didn't comment on it and looked at the soldiers struggling against the invisible weight on them,

"You know they're dead, huh?"

Izumi nodded,

"I know. Let me put them to rest and you deal with Eri."

"Hmm."

Izumi glanced at Kyouko who finished healing Kaori and let out a small smile before turning to the soldiers. It was then his expression changed to disgust.

Magic can do a lot of things. It was almost a reality-warping power. However, just like a coin, there are two sides to Magic: Good and Bad. It depended on how you wield magic. And playing with the dead like this? it crossed the line in Izumi's book. Using (Spirit Vision), he could see the shackles on the soul of the deceased and shook his head,

"Rest in peace. You deserve it." Izumi said with a raised hand.

White spikes filled with Spirit Magic appeared above each soldier. When Izumi lowered his hand, the spike droved themselves into their bodies touching and shattering the shackles and freeing their souls for whatever afterlife waiting for them.

Eri fell to her knees as she looked at her plans being destroyed. She only wanted Kouki for herself. She was the one who was supposed to receive Kouki's love. She was supposed to be with Kouki. Not Kaori or Shizuku. Just Her, Eri! Why didn't anything go the way she wants? Why? Why? WHY!?

Hajime walked up to her with his gun. Everyone could see the rage simmering in him.

"G-Get away from me. Kaori's not dead so there is nothing for you to do here." the girl shouted with fear paralyzing her.

Hajime didn't say anything and caught up to her before kneeling down. Before Eri could move back, he pointed a gun at her head,

"So?"

The words chilled the dark magician to the core,

"The very fact you tried is enough for me. Not to mention, all of the soldiers you killed for your own desire. So what if you have your own goal or motivation? Does it look like I care?"

Eri couldn't answer him as she felt the muzzle of the gun on her head,

"If that's all you got-" Hajime said with a finger on the trigger, "Then you can just die."

Seeing what he was about to do, Taniguchi Suzu, who was Eri's supposed best friend back on Earth, snapped out of her shock and screamed,

"W-Wait!"

Unfortunately, she was too late as Hajime had already pulled the trigger. Eri's head blew up in consequence.

"NOOOOOOOO!" Suzu shouted at Eri's death.

The rest of the classmates looked at Hajime in shock after he killed two of their classmates even after what they have done. Izumi simply looked at the murder without a hint of emotion before turning to Kyouko who stood up with the help of Tio. Meanwhile, Aiko helped Kaori up to her feet.

"You okay?" Izumi asked Kyouko.

The girl nodded,

"Yeah, I just need to refill my mana."

Izumi nodded and gave her a potion.

"Here."

Kyouko took it and drank it.

At that moment, a portal opened up in the sky, and Freid along with some of his dragons came out of it.

The commander of the demon army had a smug look for some reason.

"Surrender. If you value the life of your- AACK"

Before he could finish his words, a familiar portal opened right behind him and a hand shot out of it before grabbing the demon's neck. It then pulled it inside.

"I was wondering where you went, but you saved me a lot of time. Unfortunately, we don't have time to deal with you since we have bigger things to deal with."

Everyone turned to Izumi who had Freid by the neck after pulling him through the portal.

"Yo...you."

Izumi grinned,

"Me."

And before Freid could say another word, a spike of Dark Matter materialized where his heart is supposed to be. Freid was gone before he could comprehend what happened. Afterward, disks of Dark Matter appeared right in the neck of the dragons decapitating them.

"Are you done?" Izumi asked after disintegrating Freid's body using the Apostle's Magic.

Hajime nodded,

"Yeah."

"Good, now we have to deal with the huge portal."

"Wait!"

Both boys turned to Kouki,

"Wh... Why did you kill Eri and Hiyama? You didn't have to do that."

Izumi looked at the boy incredulously,

"What the actual fuck?" he couldn't help but ask.

Hajime raised an eyebrow,

"Didn't we already have a conversation like this? Besides, we don't have time to deal with you."

"What do you mean?"

Kyouko joined in and replied,

"Do you not see that huge portal up in the sky."

Everyone looked at the silvery portal and gasped.

"Long story short, Ehit is trying to destroy the world."

"What!?"

At that moment, Yue and Shea arrived,

"Where is that bastard!?" Shea asked,

"I killed him," Izumi replied

"Ehhhhh!" Shea whined.

Izumi turned to his crowd,

"I don't have time to explain, but that huge portal is really bad news therefore everyone needs to be on guard. We are probably going to fight multiple Apostles and the god himself."

"Wait! What are you talking about?" Kouki asked.

Izumi's eyebrow twitched in irritation,

"I just told you I don't have time to explain!"

"But-"

Before Kouki could protest, Shizuku placed a hand on his shoulder stopping him.

Izumi silently thanked her,

"Anyways, we're going to have to push back the invasion until I kill the god himself."

"You're going to kill Ehit? But he's a god, how are you going to do that." Shizuku asked.

"Let's just say I have a trump card," Izumi replied with a small grin before adopting a serious expression once more and turning to Yue.

"How is that situation outside?"

"Most of the monsters are dead,"

"Good good."

Izumi turned to Kaori,

"Are you able to restore everyone here, Kaori?"

"Yes!"

Kaori brandished her staff and cast the spell once more,"

"Divine Mother, smiling down from heaven, encompass all in thy heavenly embrace. Aetherflow!"

A white ring of magic expanded and healed everyone in the area. Seeing that they were healed, everyone grabbed their weapons.

Suddenly, Izumi and Kyouko along with Hajime, Yue, and Tio snapped their heads toward the sky as the fluctuations in space increased and became more erratic. The ripples on the portal became more intense and everyone tensed and became on guard.

Izumi frowned and his mana began to thrum underneath his skin,

"Time's up."