Chapter 55: The Sunken Ruins of Melusine Part 2

Izumi and Kyouko followed the beam of light in their makeshift submarine.

"We can't see anything Izumi," Kyouko said as she tried to look outside.

"Ah, my bad. Let me fix that."

Izumi snapped his fingers and the materialized two Dark Matter headlights on the submarine. Usually, Izumi wouldn't need lights since he could simply use Observation Haki to navigate himself. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for Kyouko.

They soon arrived in a cavern where they searched around and saw five of Melusine's crest.

"Izumi, I think this is the entrance. What should we do now?"

As soon as Kyouko finished her question, the medallion glowed brighter and Izumi held it up. Right of the bat, the great began to absorb the moonlight.

"Ah, so that's how it works. No wonder, no one could find it."

"That's right," replied Izumi.

They soon filled up all five crests and the medallion stopped glowing once all the moonlight inside was all used up. At that moment, part of the rock moved and revealed another passage, Izumi guided his submarine inside, when suddenly some sort of force pushed them.

"Kyaaa!"

Kyouko yelped at the sudden movement and Izumi stabilized the submarine before slowly landing it. He soon dismissed it and they found themselves on a dome-like cavern.

"You okay?" Izumi asked.

Kyouko looked flustered as she answered him, "Huh? Hm. Yeah. No problem!"

'I can't believe I yelped like that!' she internally cringed.

Izumi smiled,

"Cute."

Kyouko's face flushed at Izumi's comment,

"Sh-Shut up!"

They looked up and saw that there was a barrier that stopped the water from coming in from where they came from.

"Who would've thought about making an underwater dungeon?" thought Kyouko.

As soon as the words left her mouth, massive jets of water shot out of nowhere and headed straight towards the couple. With her inhuman reflexes, Kyouko deployed a barrier that protected them.

"Well, that was fast," said Izumi.

He raised a hand and blanketed the walls of the cavern with fire.

(Flame Cover)

As soon as he stopped his spell, numerous creatures fell to the floor burnt to crisp. Kyouko shivered in disgust seeing them.

"What the hell are those!?"

"Pretty sure they were the one shooting the water jets."

He looked closer at the creatures,

"They kind of look like barnacles."

"Are you talking about those pests of the sea?" Kyouko asked.

Izumi nodded,

"Yeah."

They looked in front and saw a single corridor with water slowing going higher as he looked deeper. Izumi suddenly grinned,

"Hey, Kyouko?"

"Yeah."

"Let's clear this labyrinth as fast as possible."

"Like we did with the Orcus one?"

Izumi nodded.

Kyouko matched his expression.

"Alright. Are you going to open a portal?"

"Yeah, just give me a moment. In the meantime, just defend me."

Kyouko's hand crackled with dark purple arcane energy in answer.

"You got it."

Izumi closed his eyes and felt the dungeon. During the Orcus Labyrinth raid, he used his Observation Haki a lot to create the portals. This made him practice and improve his power a lot. His senses could now reach 3 kilometres with a clear image and 3.5 meters if he pushes it.

And so, his senses expanded outwards and he tried to find the room where the visions that Hajime and Kaori were shown. Usually, he would try to find his way directly to the magic circle, but he witnessed that the circles would check one's memories then give the rewards. It would see if the person cleared the Labyrinth properly. In this case, he assumed it was watching the visions and clearing them. He soon found it.

"Alright, Kyouko!"

The girl looked back at him,

"Did you find it?" she asked.

Izumi nodded.

"Yeah."

He looked at the space in front of him. Like pixels on a computer screen, the space in front of him digitalizes before opening revealing another view. The couple stepped through and they arrived through an alley.

"An alley? Where are we, Izumi?" Kyouko asked.

"Hm, I don't know. Let's check it out."

They walked out of the alley and saw a deplorable sight. They saw numerous houses and buildings either destroyed or burned down. The roads were all torn up.

"W-What happened here?

Izumi didn't answer as he looked around.

"Let's get a better view."

"Hn."

Both deployed their wings and flew in the sky to get a better view of the city

"Oh... my... God." let Hori the. she saw the state of the place.

Suddenly, the place started to shimmer which caught both of them by surprise. Soon the city started to distort and blur. After a few seconds, it stopped. They were now looking at a city in flames and explosions were heard everywhere. They also heard metals clashing and the sound of fighting along with war cries.

"KILL THEM ALL! SLAUGHTER THEM FOR OUR LORD ALVA!"

"PUSH THEM BACK! LORD EHIT WILL BRING DOWN JUSTICES UPON THESE DEMONS!"

It was now dead night and they could see two armies killing each other. Blood splattered at each slice from the swords. Soldiers were being burned alive from the magic fireballs or froze to death from ice magic. Kyouko trembled at the sight so much that she had to land at a nearby roof and puke. Izumi followed her and rubbed her back as she committed to the horrors of the war happening in front of her.

"YOU FUCKING DEMONS! You killed them all!" a soldier shouted as he sliced his enemy.

Izumi could hear the despair from his voice.

"I-Izumi."

The boy looked at his girlfriend who continued to tremble with a pale face. It was her first time seeing something of such scale.

"It's okay. I'm here." he hugged her and tried to calm her down.

"What's... happening?"

"Well from what I can see. The demon army and the human army are fighting against each other. It seems like the demons invaded this city and slaughtered the humans before they could defend themselves."

"But how? A few seconds ago there was nothing."

"It's more like an illusion. This event most likely happened in the past. Remember that we are raiding a Labyrinth that was meant to nurture people against Ehit."

As soon as the words left his mouth, a stray ice spike flew towards them.

"Watch out!" shouted Kyouko and Izumi deployed a mana shield that blocked the stray ice spike.

"Then how do you explain that!?"

Before Izumi could explain, they suddenly heard the sounds of footsteps, They looked down from the roof and some of the human soldiers and demon soldiers were looking at them with a weird expression.

"Huh, Izumi? Why are they looking at us like that?" Kyouko asked.

"I don't know?"

Suddenly, their eyes became bloodshot as they started looking like they were infected with rabies and they began to attack the couple.

"GLORY TO EHIT!"

"MAY LORD ALVAN BLESS THIS MASSACRE!"

"You shall pay for our Lord in blood!"

"Get up, Kyouko!"

"What!?"

"We have to kill them!"

"W-What do you mean!?" Kyouko looked at the approaching enemies.

"This is the test! We have to kill them all."

"But-"

Izumi looked at her in the eyes,

"It's okay, Kyouko. this is simply an illusion that can be interacted with mana. This event already happened in the past. You won't be killing them."

Kyouko looked at him before slapping her cheeks.

*SMACK!*

The girl opened her eyes and Izumi could still see the fear in her eyes, but they were overshadowed by her determination.

"Hn!"

Izumi grinned,

"Alright. Let's go!"

Kyouko took the sky and Izumi jumped towards the group. The Fallen then began to launch barrages of light spears towards the soldiers. As soon as the spears touched, they would dissolve into motes of light. Izumi began to use his higher-tier spells to deal AOE damages. The goal here was to kill every soldier and end this fight.

'Does mana infused Dark Matter work?' he thought.

He quickly produced one spike and launched at a nearby soldier. Unfortunately, although it had mana, the spike simply went through the soldier.

'Oh well. It was worth the try."

He then continued to kill the soldiers. It was almost like an endless horde. He looked up and saw that Kyouko was starting to get tired.

"Damn heretics!"

A tick mark appeared on Izumi's temple as irritation started reaching its boiling point.

"Die for Ehit's sake!"

At that moment, Izumi couldn't take it anymore.

"Just SHUT THE FUCK UP! YOU'RE PISSING ME OFF"

At that moment, a massive shockwave of spiritual power emerged from him and travelled throughout the whole city decimating all of the soldiers at once.

*Pant* Pant*

Izumi caught his breath,

"Dammit. I don't get angry so easily. Them repeating that shitty guy's name really pissed me off. Repeating the same thing over and over. It was like listening to a broken record.

He then saw that all the illusions disappeared.

"Huh? It seems like Conqueror's Haki works on them."

Suddenly, he remembered Kyouko. He whipped his head around and searched for Kyouko.

"Kyouko!"

'I hope I didn't hit her.'

"Izumi!"

He turned towards the voice and saw his girlfriend running towards him.

"Oh, thank God." he sighed in relief.

'Oh wait... he's dead.'

Kyouko ran up to him,

"Are you okay? What was that!? You destroyed them all in one shot! It was so cool"

Izumi smiled,

"That was a spiritual attack. I don't use it often though."

"Woah. Is it possible to learn?"

"Sorry, Kyouko. You have to be born with this ability," he said.

'Or be given by a system.'

"How are you feeling?" he asked.

Kyouko frowned,

"I just got a free show of people killing each other in the name of their so-called god. Not to mention the fact that shitty bastard simply sees them as toys. I'm not used to seeing stuff like this.

Izumi saw her nails digging into her palm. He gently took her hands,

"Hey."

The girl looked up at his face.

"You don't have to worry about anything right now. I will be here to help you. Besides no one is supposed to get used to this."

"What about you?"

"What about me?"

"Your expression didn't change at the sight. Are you used to this?"

Kyouko looked at the boy her lips trembling.

Izumi shook his head.

"It's not that I'm used to it. It's just stuff like this that does not faze me."

Kyouko wanted to ask more but held herself back. She nodded and took deep breaths.

"Okay."

She looked around.

"Where should we go now? I don't see an exit."

Izumi looked at the castle at the centre of the village.

"Let's go to the castle."

"Why?" Kyouko looked at him confused.

Izumi shrugged,

"I have a hunch."

They flew over to the castle. Since they defeated the enemies, the illusion was removed and the castle returned to its deplorable state. They entered the gates and searched around. Soon they arrived on the throne room. The room was large with a single elevated and destroyed throne at the end of the room

At that moment, the familiar distortion occurred once more and an illusion. Izumi and Kyouko tensed as they prepared for a battle, but this time it was different. They now found themselves in the same throne room, but this time it was occupied. There were numerous people in the room arguing with each other. The King observed them before shouting,

"Silence!"

The arguing then stopped and everyone looked at the king.

"That's enough. We don't have time to argue when the demons are over cornering us. We have lost many people against these creatures! We must do something! The plan to eradicate them has backfired and we are the ones losing!" the king said.

Izumi and Kyouko listened as the king talked. However, Izumi could see the king had a slightly crazed look in his eyes. They were shocked to find out that it was them that orchestrated the attack on the city. Using the attack as an excuse. The humans would then declare war on the demons and proceed to kill them all. However, it seems like the demons were too strong and the humans are being cornered. Kyouko looked sick at the twisted play the humans were doing. She saw the consequences of their actions in the illusion before.

Suddenly, a priest came forward.

"My King, if I may?"

The King looked at the priest.

"What does the Church of Light propose. After all, you were the one who pushed the most."

"I have received a message from my lord Ehit."

the room exploded as everyone began talking amongst themselves at the revelation.

The King also looked intrigued.

"I see. Can you share our Lord's words?"

"We must offer something of great value to our Lord so that he may come to our aid. Are willing to sacrifice anything."

"Anything?"

"Yes, O King. Anything."

"I..."

The King looked hesitant when he narrowed his eyes and answered.

"Yes, I'm willing."

"Very well. We must sacrifice a hundred young girls to summon a fraction of our Lord's power.

The room exploded once more at the sheer ridiculousness of his words.

"That's ridiculous!" said one.

"You can't possibly allow this, My King."

The King looked at the priest.

"Is this the only way?"

The priest bowed and replied,

"Yes, my King. Those were the words of Lord Ehit."

The King closed his eyes before sharply opening them,

"Very well. Do it!"

"WHAT THE FUCK! WHAT KIND OF TWISTED REASONING IS THIS!" shouted Kyouko horrified by the leaders.

She was about to attack when a hand was placed on her shoulders,

"Don't stop me, Izumi!"

"What are you going to do once you get there? This is just an illusion."

Kyouko looked at Izumi and saw the rage boiling in him. He too was angry.

It took a lot to anger Izumi. However, this went way past the line.

The vision suddenly warped. They were now in another large room, but this time it looked like it was a cathedral. Izumi and Kyouko suddenly heard the cries of children. As they heard the sound they became horrified at the sight of all hundred small girls of about six to ten years old all chained up individually in the middle of the room.

They were all surrounded by soldiers in armour. with the priest behind an altar.

The man spread his arms and faced them to the sky,

"Oh Lord Ehit. We offer you this sacrifice. May you be appeased and bless us in this war against these wretched demons."

The priest then lowered his hands and looked at the soldiers with a wicked grin.

"Begin the sacrifices!"

"NOOO!" shouted Kyouko as the soldiers started grabbing the girls and one by one slicing their wrists.

To horrified, Kyouko turned around and hugged Izumi as she pressed her face against his chest. The latter covered her ears as he watched with a blank expression as the cries and screams of the girls reverberated in the room. Some would call for their parents, some would try to run away, but they were all caught by the men and their wrist was slit without any mercy. They soon died of blood loss as their blood pooled into a magic circle in between the children.

"WITNESS THIS LORD EHIT! THIS IS OUR SACRIFICE SO THAT YOU MAY GRANT US THE POWER TO DEFEAT THOSE DEMONS INTO EXTINCTION!" the priest maniacally shouted as the blood of the girls collected in the magic circle.

Izumi could feel tears brimming his eyes he looked at the horrific vision.

The vision suddenly warped and they were back into the desolate throne room. It seems like the visions were finished for now. The couple continued to hug each other as Izumi let out a shuddering breath. He could feel his shirt becoming wet as the girl in his arms sobbed at the traumatizing vision. Izumi closed his eyes and simply hugged the girl tighter and let her release everything out. Five months ago, Kyouko was a normal girl who went to school daily with her friends. She was not meant to see this kind of stuff.

A few minutes later, Kyouko finally stopped crying and simply hugged Izumi in silence.

"How are you feeling?" he softly asked.

"Horrible," she answered in his shirt.

"That's fair."

"I want him to die."

Izumi didn't need to think about who she was talking about.

"I know."

"More than ever."

"I know."

"For everything that son of a bitch has done, he has to die."

"I know."

"The Church should also be gone. They are the ones who messed up this world."

"I know."

"When I saw those girls, I couldn't help but think about Shouta being in their place."

"Hm."

They stayed like that some more before Kyouko finally calmed down and separated herself from the boy. Izumi saw her red and puffy eyes as she wiped the tears from them. The girl then saw the wet shirt.

"Sorry. I didn't mean to." she apologized.

"Kyouko. Don't apologize. You can always come to me if you want to cry." the boy smiled at the girl.

The latter looked at him before smashing her lips against his. This one was not one of the usual kisses they have. This one was filled with raw emotions. A moment later, they were panting as they caught their breath.

"Come on, I don't want to stay here one second longer." the girl said.

"Yeah."

They crossed the room and found a magic circle behind the throne.

"Is this it?" the Fallen asked.

Izumi shook his head,

"No, this is a transportation spell. It is supposed to lead us somewhere else."

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go."

As soon as they stepped on the circle, it started to flash and the teleportation spell activated.

Not a second later, they arrived in another room. This time it was a large room with a transparent ceiling which gave the duo a clear view of the ocean on the other side of the ceiling. They were four platforms surrounded by water that all led to a shrine. At the center of the shrine was an altar with a complex magic circle.

"Is that the end?" the girl asked.

"I'm pretty sure."

The duo approached the altar and stepped on the magic circle. the circle started to glow with a cyan blue and the familiar feeling of his mind being pried was felt. He let it observe its memories of the labyrinth. Once it was done, information about the Ancient Magic was transmitted into his mind.

This time, the Ancient Magic of the Sunken Ruins of Melusine was Restoration Magic. This magic allows the user to restore the state of anything to either its previous or original condition. The true power of this magic is the ability to 'interfere with time', meaning it has the ability to manipulate the time of anything, anyplace or anyone to a point the user desires to.

It is quite the overpowered magic.

"Damn. I didn't know this kind of magic existed. Now, I can heal almost any injury." Kyouko said in awe.

Izumi nodded. One thing he noticed was that the people who received the magic don't know the true power of it. Only he would receive the knowledge of its true power. He doesn't know if the Liberators themselves know about it.

'Maybe it has something to do with my Reality Marble? In any case, I'm not complaining.'

Suddenly, the circle glowed once more and a rectangular object similar to the altar they were standing on emerged from the ground as light from the circle coalesced into a woman with long turquoise hair and fin-like ear.

"That's Melusine," Izumi said

"Really?"

"Yeah, have you not noticed that every Labyrinth is named after their creator."

"Huh, I never noticed," Kyouko said.

She then looked at the woman's ears.

"She's a Dagon."

Izumi nodded,

"Yeah, just like Shea. It seems she also can manipulate mana like her."

The woman then began to speak her recorded message,

"Please, don't cling to the gods. Don't rely on them. Don't grow accustomed to what's given to you. Struggle on, and grasp what you desire with your own two hands. Decide your own path in life, and walk down it with your own two feet. Remember, no matter how bleak things look, you'll be able to find the answers inside of you. Only you have those answers. Don't be deceived by the gods' honeyed words. Only when you live by your own free will can you find true happiness. I pray the path you walk will be forever showered in fortune."

The recording ended and the light disappeared from the mini-altar leaving a coin on it.

The boy took it and put it in his inventory.

Izumi turned towards Kyouko,

"Shall we head out.?"

"Yeah,"

"Then where do you want to go this time?"

"Let's go to Horaud."

"Sure."

Izumi opened a portal and they both stepped through finally ending their raid of the Sunken Ruins of Melusine with success.