Up in the Guild Master's office. Nagumo suddenly flinched and turned his head to the ground.
"Papa?" a cute voice was heard.
On his lap was a cute Dagon girl of around five years old with long wavy light blue hair and green eyes that shone with innocence. She also had fin-like ears as well as a long white dress.
"Master?" called Tio seeing the teen's expression.
"Hajime?" also called out Shea.
Yue silently observed the boy noting where he was looking at.
"Is something wrong, Nagumo-san?" the Guild Master asked and Endou, the assassin of the Hero party, anxiously looked at him.
Nagumo shook his head,
'I'll think about it later.'
"It's nothing. Continue."
The Guild Master nodded,
"*Ahem* As I was saying. You have done all these amazing achievements according to this letter. Even if you were the demon lord himself, I would believe you." the man said and Endou expressed shock upon hearing the words.
Nagumo, however, smirked,
"Don't be ridiculous. Even the demon lord is no match for me."
The man in front of him smiled,
"Looks like you are very confident. That's why I would like you to do a quest for the sake of Horaud."
Nagumo sighed as he rubbed Miyu's head.
"You want me to save the Hero Party."
Endou, hearing the request, jumped forward and begged his classmate,
"Yes, please! You can do it, right? You're strong and you can save them, right? They're also your comrades so let's go!" The assassin said and turned towards the door.
"Comrades?" Nagumo asked with cold eyes.
"Eh? Well yeah, they're comrades-"
"Don't just use that word lightly. Up until now, I've only ever thought of you guys as classmates and nothing more."
"W-What?"
***
Down in the guild's main room, Kyouko and Izumi we're sitting at a table while eating some snacks. They had decided to wait for the meeting to finish and then observe them. Although Izumi wanted to see the progress of the Heroes of Earth. He also wanted to see the demoness that would attack them and extract information from her. He remembered that she had monsters under her control. Did she have the Ancient Magic or is it simply lent to her? If she had the magic, then good for Izumi, he didn't have to make the trip to the demon's land. If not, then no problem.
He soon felt that the meeting had ended and turned to Kyouko who was savouring a sweet they had previously bought.
"Let's go, Kyouko."
The girl looked up from the treat.
"Is it done?"
"Yeah. Let's go" said Izumi.
As soon as the words left his mouth, He saw Hajime's party as well as Endou leave the guild and run to the Labyrinth. Izumi and Kyouko followed them from afar to not alert everyone one them. Although, he was pretty sure Nagumo sensed him and Kyouko.
*BOOOM!*
The couple soon heard a loud explosion.
"What was that!?" asked Kyouko.
"That was just Hajime creating a shortcut."
They soon arrived in front of a large freshly made hole.
"They made a shortcut through the walls?"
"I'm pretty sure we did the same," replies Izumi.
"Well, yeah. But we did not damage them. We teleported through the floors." Kyouko examined the hole,
"How much force do you need to create a hole through all the walls in one shot?" she asked in surprise and wonder.
"Pretty sure a lot. But you know Nagumo is a Synergist so he probably made a weapon just for that."
"Kyouko nodded,
" Shall we?" she asked while deploying her wings.
"Hn."
Both teens had deployed their wings and jumped down the hole.
Down on the 90th floor, Nagumo Hajime had started his massacre against the monsters that have attacked the Hero Party will the latter was looking at him in shock. Kaori had recognized him and tried to call him, but the teen was too busy destroying the monsters Yue was protecting the classmates with a barrier while Shea had brandished her weapon and waited for Hajime to finish.
*BANG!* *BANG!* *BANG!*
Loud gunshots were heard as Hajime rained down bullets on the creatures attacking. Looking at him now, one wouldn't think that he was just a thin and normal otaku who wasn't able to talk to girls and got bullied. Cattleya, the demoness, was getting increasingly angrier as each of her monsters was dying. After most of the monsters had died, He pointed a gun at the enemy in front of him,
"I'm giving you one chance. Run and don't come back, otherwise, the last thing you will see is a bullet for your head."
Cattleya scoffed,
"What was that?"
A loud bang and a bullet whizzed past her,
"You're not deaf, are you? Right now, I'm asking you politely to run away."
"Umm, Hajime? I don't think a threat is a polite thing." Shea said from her position.
Hajime ignored her. Suddenly he snapped his head towards the hole he had created and an oppressive pressure settled upon everyone and stopped their fight.
"W-What?" shouted Hiyama as he was on his knees.
Most of them were on their knees trying to resist the pressure. The only one standing was Nagumo, Shea and Yue.
"Hm?" let out the vampire.
"Eh? What's going on?" asked Shea.
Nagumo looked at the hole he had made.
"So he's here, huh?"
"I-isn't this..." Kaori asked as was on her knees, the pressure upon her willpower being very strong.
Some had an expression of fear at the unknown phenomenon.
'What? What is this pressure!? What kind of monster came here?' thought the demoness as she was flat on the ground as well as some of her monsters.
Some had disintegrated due to the pressure being too strong on them.
Suddenly, a familiar voice was heard,
"Oi, oi, oi! Isn't this quite interesting?"
They all looked up at the hole and saw Izumi and Kyouko exciting the hole and hovering above them.
"H-Hori-san!" shouted Shizuku in shock.
The Fallen Angel was looking at the Hero Party with a neutral expression, but she didn't answer them.
"Oh! It's Izumi and Kyouko!" said Shea in delight.
"Hn," Yue added.
"You!" suddenly shouted Kouki when he saw the esper-magician.
Izumi smirked,
"Me."
Nagumo still had a gun on the woman and turned to look at the new arrival.
"Why are you here?" he asked.
Izumi pointed at Cattleya,
"I have business with her," he said and lifted his Haki.
Even though the pressure was not there anymore, nobody made any moves.
The white-haired teen narrowed his eyes,
"Are you stopping me?" he asked while gripping his other pistol.
"Oh no. I just said I had business with her. You can continue after I'm done."
"What are you going to do?"
"Extract information out of her," Izumi replied with a grin.
Suddenly, Cattleya shouted,
"You better forget about it, because of won't speak. Kill him!" she said before shouting her order.
The monsters that survived moved, but before they could make a single step, black spikes suddenly burst out of their bodies instantly killing them. The woman now had a frightened expression,
"W-What kind of monster are you?"
Izumi chuckled,
"Monster? I'm pretty sure that I'm human. Anyway, Why don't you stay still while I get my information from you?"
Cattleya took a step back,
"I told you I won't tell you anything!"
Suddenly, Izumi blurred from his spot and appeared a few centimetres in front of her. He leaned down and looked directly into her eyes,
"Who said that you needed to talk?"
"Wha-"
Before she could even finish her question, Izumi placed two fingers on her forehead and dived into her mind. Soon visions about her life appeared in his mind. He skipped all of the useless stuff and tried to find anything related to the Ancient Magic. Izumi rapidly checked all the memories related to the Magic, but, unfortunately, she didn't possess the knowledge. These monsters were only lent to her and the one who knows was Freid Bagwa.
"Tch! It was useless." let out Izumi as he removed his fingers.
What felt like minutes was only a few seconds on the outside. Cattleya fell on her butt as she looked at Izumi with a horrified expression.
"W-What did you do!? What did you do to me!?" she shouted.
Nagumo ignored her questions and turned to Izumi,
"What did you find?"
"She's not the one who has the Ancient Magic. It was her commander Freid Bagwa."
Cattleya finally realized what happened.
"You know about the magic of the Age of God?"
Izumi grinned,
"Why, yes. After all, we did clear some of the Labyrinths." Izumi said, shocking Cattleya since the only person she had completed a Labyrinth was her commander.
"Well, you better finish her off. We don't want any loose ends, after all."
Nagumo nodded
and pointed his gun at the woman who sneered,
"Then get over with, but just wait. Some day my lover will kill you."
"He may as well try," Nagumo replied.
Suddenly, Kouki's voice was heard.
"Wait, Nagumo! She can't fight anymore! You don't have to kill her!"
Nagumo and Izumi turned to Kouki dumbfounded.
'Damn. Even after reading, it's really surprising how naive and stupid he is.'
"We can just capture her. T-There is no need to kill her. Heroes don't do that. And since you're one of my comrades and I'm the leader of the Heroes, shouldn't you be obeying my commands?"
Kyoko resisted the urge to facepalm at the question. Nagumo couldn't believe the bullshit that Kouki was spewing. So he did only one thing. He pulled the trigger.
*BANG!*
The bullet pierced the woman's head and the latter crumbled to the floor.
"NOOOO!" shouted the leader of the Hero party and some of the comrades turned their heads when they witnessed the kill.
"Why, Nagumo!? Why do you kill her!?" shouted Kouki as he ran right up to him.
While Nagumo was confronting Kouki, Izumi returned to Kyouko's side who was trending toward Captain Meld. Some of the teens flinched when they saw Izumi walk toward them, but they made no move.
"So how is he?" he asked his girlfriend.
"Shea has already given him Ambrosia when we arrived," she answered before whispering, "Although I wanted to try out my new magic on him."
Izumi chuckled,
"I'm sure we'll have plenty of opportunities to try out."
Izumi then turned his head when he heard, footsteps coming toward him and Kyoko. It was Shizuku.
"Hori-san? Is that you?"
The girl in question kept her neutral gaze towards the incoming girl and nodded. Shizuka let out a huge sigh of relief,
"Oh, thank God! We thought we lost you when the portal closed and we didn't see you anywhere."
Hori kept her eyes on the girl as they later felt disturbed by the glare. Izumi couldn't blame Kyouko. Even if they tried to protest the Kingdom from placing the cuffs does not mean that she would immediately be friendly with them. Shizuku looked down,
"For what it's worth, I just wanted to say I'm sorry."
Kyouko tilted her head,
"Sorry?"
Shizuka nodded,
"Yes. We knew that they had placed those cuffs on you to control your powers. We didn't know that they had a brainwashing aspect. I should have noticed it sooner and done something about it. So I'm sorry that you have gone through that."
Kyouko looked at her before giving her a small smile,
"Thank you," she said before turning back.
Shizuku turned to Izumi,
"And thank you for saving her."
Izumi nodded,
"So what are you going to do about it?" he asked.
"I'm sorry?" Shizuku replied.
"What are you going to do about the fact that the Church and the King attempted to brainwash one of the students?"
The girl looked down with a frustrated look,
"Even if I did anything, nothing would happen. In fact, some don't even believe your claim that the cuffs could brainwash someone. When we asked the Church, they spun the tale by saying that it was not brainwashing and then purifying her of her sins."
"Then why do you believe us?"
"Because thinking back, Hori-san's behaviour would gradually change throughout the months. It was not noticeable at first, but now I could see it."
Izumi let out a humourless chuckle,
"You know it's going to take a long time for Kyouko to trust you guys, huh?"
Shixyku nodded,
"Yes."
Izumi nodded back before turning to Kyouko,
"Shall we go?"
Kyouko quietly nodded. Izumi could see her discreetly rubbing her wrists and couldn't help but wince as he felt his heart shatter.
"Let's get out of here." he gently told her.
He opened a portal. Some noticed the spell activate and saw the other side showing the outside of the Orcus Labyrinth. The couple walked through it. The boy saw that Kouki was arguing with Nagumo who was getting increasingly irritated.
Before they could call out the couple, Izumi had closed the portal.
'I shouldn't have brought Kyouko with me. It was a mistake.'
The boy didn't want to see that kind of expression on his girlfriend. He opened another portal to their room. He didn't want to stay any longer here. As they stepped into the room, Kyouko had gone to bed.
"Izumi?"
"Yeah?"
"Can... Can you leave me alone for a moment?" she asked.
"Are you sure?" Izumi asked concerned.
Kyouko nodded.
Izumi dipped his head,
"Alright," he said and closed the bedroom door.
He leaned back on the door and held his forehead,
*Sigh*
'I messed up. I should've asked her if she was comfortable coming with me. Heck, I should've noticed it myself. If I hadn't become so self-absorbed...'
*Sigh*
'There's no use crying over spilled milk. Now I have to make up to her.'
He stood there for a moment, before coming up with an idea.
"Why don't I make her food Miyamura-style?"
He smiled as he went forth with the idea.