Chapter 43: Chapter 42: Welcome To Tortus Part 3
Hori opened her eyes and realized that she was in a bed. she felt exhausted. She was about to get up when she felt something wrong. She looked down and saw something that made her heart seize.
*Cling* *Cling*
Chains rattled as they were hitting each other. They were connected to some cuffs on her wrist.
"What the hell? Why am I in chains?" she said out loud?
She tried to move around but the wings on her back were stopping her from moving properly.
"Stupid wings. Wait, why do I even have wings?" she stopped struggling when she asked herself the question.
She also felt a little weakened. She couldn't even feel her mana as she felt them being drained. Looking at the cuffs, she saw magic circles engraved on them.
Suddenly, the door to the room she was in opened. It seems someone heard her inside because two knight's entered the room.
"Hey, what's going on?" asked Hori getting irritated. "Why am I bound in chains?"
"Silence, heretic!" one of the knights snapped at her.
"The fuck did you just call me?" Hori asked back as her temper flared.
"Shut up! You have been summoned. Now get moving." the second knight ordered.
Hori glared at the two before complying as she couldn't do anything. She was powerless, right now. The whole time they were walking, the group was silent. A few minutes later, they arrived in front of huge doors. Once the door opened, the group passed through the doorway and arrived inside the throne room of the castle.
On the throne was the king with the Pope on his right. The Queen was on his left and the princess and the prince were on the left of their mother.
"We have arrived, your Highness!" One of the knights announced.
The King nodded.
Hori looked around and saw all the heroes in the room. All of them had an uncomfortable look in their eyes. Some of them had a look of shock as they looked at the black wings behind your back.
"What is the meaning of this! Why is Hori-chan in chains! Release her, she didn't do anything." shouted Aiko when she saw the girl.
"That's right. She saved us back in the labyrinth!" also shouted Kaori with Shizuku and some students agreed with her.
The pope raised his hand and everyone calmed down.
'We can see who's the real ruler of this kingdom' sarcastically thought Hori when she saw the Pope silence the room instead of the king.
"Our great lord Ehit has always been a benevolent god. In a vision, he has shown me his messengers that would sometimes come down to Tortus to do Lord Ehit's work. They were called the apostles of God." the Pope said before showing a mural of Ehit surrounded by his "angels".
Everyone looked at it and saw the similarities between the angel's wings and Hori's. The only difference was the colour of the wings.
" W-Wait what are you saying?" stuttered Aiko-sensei.
"What I'm saying is that she was once such an angel." the Pope dropped the bomb.
"What the hell are you saying? I'm a human born to human parents. What kind of fucked up story are you making up!?" shouted Hori.
The others were stunned by the development.
"What do you mean by "was"?" calmly asked Kouki.
"It is as I say. She was once an Apostle of God, but she's no more."
"What happened?" Ryutaro asked.
"Wait, you guys believe him?" Hori asked stupefied.
"Let's listen to his explanation first then we will see," answered Kouki.
Hori simply looked at him in shock.
"Two days ago, a day after your first expedition into the labyrinth, I received a vision from our lord Ehit about her whilst praying to him," he said as he pointed at Hori, but Hori could see the restrained disgust in his eyes.
"In this vision, Ehit showed me that this angel had committed a great sin. So great, that he had to banish her from his Heaven." Ishtar explained as the other gasped at his explanation.
"I don't have any memory of that stuff. I am human. My name is Hori Kyouko. My parents are Kyousuke Hori and Yuriko Hori. I have a little brother and his name is Souta. They are all human." Hori snapped at them.
"That's true. She is even from Earth. I was talking to her right before being summoned here." added Aiko-sensei.
"Please let me finish as I have not explained everything yet." and the others stayed silent as they waited for further explanation.
"Just like how Ehit could summon people from another world he can also send them to another world. When she was banished, he stripped her of her power and her memory of this world and sent her to another world that was yours. He had also regressed her into a baby and left her in the care of a human family. Lord Ehit did this to make her live as a human and to experience human life as punishment for her sin."
"W-What? T-That's not t-true." stammered Hori before suddenly turning her face to look at the Pope.
"Proof! I need proof! Where's your proof that I was this angel once and why did I come back if I was banished?"
"That's your proof," the pope simply said as he pointed at her wings and Hori remained speechless.
"As for why you came here, Lord Ehit has deemed to give another chance. When he summoned the heroes, he saw you with them and granted you another chance for your redemption. Rejoice for He was kind enough to forgive you." Ishtar said as he spread his arms.
'Is what he's saying the truth. It's not true, right? Right?'
"If what you say is true, then who am I and what sin did I commit. And What do I have to do to atone for myself?"
"I am sorry, but I cannot give you any information for you must find them yourself. If Lord Ehit deems so, then he will give you your memories and powers back. And for your atonement, you must help these heroes in saving humanity. Our God has already gifted you back a portion of your power and he will do so if you complete your task and atonement." Ishtar finally said.
Hori looked around and saw that there was a myriad of expressions among the people of her world. She could identify fear, amazement, apprehension and much more.
"What if she's like those demi-humans we heard of?" asked Shizuku.
"I understand your confusion, but there is no record of demi-human like her."
"Then why does she need to be bound? You say that she is here for atonement, then why do you need to bind her?" asked Aiko
"It is a must because she is still a Fallen Apostle and we don't know what she will do with her powers." the king suddenly said.
"Then release her chains at least. I won't stand for if my student is treated like this! If you don't then I won't farm for you! Also, you won't force the others to fight if they want to. They just lost their classmates and I don't want them to fight if they don't want to." The petite woman declared and Hori looked at her in awe.
The King and Aiko-sensei had a stand-off as they looked at each other. Ishtar suddenly sighed.
"Very well, We will release the chains from her, but she will keep the cuffs on her wrists. They will only be released with our permission. Those cuffs are a rare artifact used to seal one's magic therefore she won't be able to use magic without permission. The heroes will also have an option to fight or not."
It seems like the king knew the importance of Aiko-sensei. Without food from her, he wouldn't be able to feed his kingdom properly. Aiko's skills would help tremendously in the agriculture department.
Aiko smiled when the king accepted her request. The King snapped his finger and the knight that escorted Hori appeared in front of her and released the chains, but left the cuffs. Hori glared at the knight, but she was grateful for Aiko-sensei as she defended her.
The teacher ran to her and grabbed her hand.
"Are you okay Hori-chan?" she asked worried.
"I'm fine Sensei. I'm not hurt."
"Then, is what the Pope said is true?"
"I don't know sensei. I don't even know what I am? I only knew that I was a human sensei. Now I don't know. Is my name even Kyouko Hori?" the girl answered as she had an existential crisis.
"It doesn't matter if you were someone else. To me and the others, you are Hori Kyouko. A sixteen years old girl with a bright future." Aiko comforted her.
"That's right! You are also our kouhai so it's our responsibility to take care of you. Right, Shizuku?" added Kaori when she joined Aiko with her best friend.
"That's right."
Hori smiled when she heard them as tears brimmed her eyes.
"Thank you."
"Now that we have finished, you may all be dismissed." said the king before turning towards Hori.
"You will be escorted by a knight to your chambers."
Hori simply nodded.
'So I'm a prisoner now huh? she thought as she was escorted to her room.
Far above the land of Tortus, in the realm of Sanctuary, was a garden. In a seat stood a humanoid figure being made entirely of light. It was as if it didn't have a body. The being was sitting on a white bench and looking in the distance. It also had no feature on what is supposed to be its face as it looked at the horizon of his realm.
Beside it stood another being made of light, but its colour was a crimson red. The being had approached it and kneeled in front of the other being of light.
"My lord Ehit, may I ask a question?" it asked.
Ehit looked in the horizon for a moment before turning his gaze on its servant.
"You may, Alva."
"May I ask your reasoning for your actions about that creature," Alpha asked when the air in front of them shimmered before revealing a live view of Hori Kyouko talking to Aiko-sensei.
Ehit was silent for a moment before speaking,
"Did you know, for my new chessboard of life, I needed new pieces?"
"Yes my lord," Alva answered.
"Therefore, when I was searching, I stumbled upon their world by chance and found something interesting. Do you know what it is?
"No my lord. What is it that you found?"
"Mana. Lots and lots of mana. I have never seen so much in one world. But there was a problem."
"What is it, sir?"
"For some reason, I couldn't find much information about the world because my powers couldn't reach it properly. But, that much mana has piqued my curiosity. Since I was searching for chess pieces, why not get them from this world. Therefore, I punched a hole through the shield and grabbed some pawns and that's when I stumbled upon her." Ehit showed Hori's picture.
"As expected of my lord, but why is she special?"
"Because she didn't seem human and she didn't feel like those demi-humans. She felt more like my Apostles."
"Truly?"
"Yes, Alva. I couldn't let it go so I also grabbed it when I brought those pieces onto my game."
"Then why not control it. Would it not be easier to ensure its loyalty?" Alva asked as he looked at his sire.
"You may be right, but," Ehit turned to Alva before its featureless face suddenly revealed a cruel smile, "Where would the fun be in that? It's much more fun to make them submit by breaking their mind whilst doing nothing than brainwashing them by myself."
Alva nodded,
"I see. Thank you for answering my question, your Highness."
"No problem Alva. It's always fun to talk about my game."
Ehit returned his gaze to the horizon as he kept his smirk. Little did he know that catastrophe he would bring upon himself due to his actions.
***
Four months later, in the vast canyon of Reisen Gorge, was a small empty cave with a small stone tablet at the very center of it. One could see a small puddle just a few meters away.
Suddenly, a large part of one of the walls of the cave divided itself into two, from behind, spilled out three people before closing itself leaving no traces of its opening. One had the appearance of a small girl of about thirteen years old She had long blond hair decorated with a bow and a porcelain-like complexion that accentuated her red eyes. She also wore a black mini-skirt with frills and a white frilly shirt. Over them, she wore a long overcoat. She also wore boots over her high-knee socks. Her name was Yue
The second person was a girl is a rabbitman with light blue hair and white bunny ears on top of her head. She also wore a white bikini armour that looked more like a swimsuit than armour and left her midriff and a portion of her chest exposed. She also wore a white mini-skirt and large white boots. By her side was a huge war hammer. Her name was Shea Haulia.
The final person was a teen boy. He had white hair and a red eye whilst the other eye socket was covered in an eye patch indicating the lack of an eye behind He also had a faint red vein-like tattoo on his neck that went down below his shirt. His most marking feature was the wicked-looking metallic left arm. He wore a black coat with crimson linings over a gray blazer with he wore over a white undershirt. He also wore a black tie. The boy had black pants with a belt that feature gun holsters that were currently occupied and black boots. His name was Nagumo Hajime.
As they got up from the floor, they noticed the walls had closed shut.
"The door closed," Yue said.
"Leave it, I don't want to touch it. Now, let's see what's the next trap... eh?" Hajime replied as he looked around the room and noticed a stone tablet that felt only familiar.
Suddenly, words flashed on it.
[Hey, how do you feel? :)]
"Eh?" let out Shea when noticed the words on the stone.
"Shit!" cursed Hajime once he finally recognized the tablet.
[It's as you have guessed. You have returned to the starting point! After all the effort you put, how does it feel to come back to the start. Is it fun, exciting, annoying, depressing? Come on tell me! ;D]
Multiple tick marks appeared on all three foreheads as they became increasingly annoyed by its words.
[By the way, you can't go back towards the way you came in as the Labyrinth shifts all the time. Come on tell me, tell me? How do you fee-"
*CRACK*
The stone tablet was destroyed as Shea started stomping on it in her rage.
"Rrraaaaaahhhhh!" she shouted as the sound of her stomping echoed in the cavern
"Miledi Reisen, leaving the Liberators aside, is more like the enemy of humanity." wrily said Hajime as he looked at Shea destroying the stone.
"I agree," replied Yue as she also observed the same thing.
Suddenly, Hajime tensed and, with lightning-quick speed, drew his guns and pointed at a direction in the corner of the cave.
"Who's there?" he shouted in the direction.
"Well, isn't this interesting." a voice suddenly appeared out of nowhere.
Shea had grabbed her hammer and went into combat mode whilst Yue was beside Hajime looking in the same direction as him.
From the corner of the cave where Hajime pointed his guns, the air shimmered as the figure of a person appeared out of thin air. The figure was completely black as an armour covered his entire body even it's head.
"Who are you? Answer me or I won't hesitate to shoot you dead." the white-haired boy growled.
"Damn, you need to chill a little," the figure said as the armour started to shift. Hajime tensed and gripped his guns harder as the armour continued to shift.
The black armour them dematerialized leaving a boy of about sixteen years old with long black hair and blue eyes. Hajime could see a tattoo on the upper part of the teen's shoulder where it disappeared under its T-shirt. He suddenly widened his eyes when he saw the clothes the boy wore. A simple black T-shirt with black pants and some normal-looking shoes. What surprised him was that he recognized the clothes from Earth. He narrowed his eyes and asked again,
"Who are you?"
The boy grinned mischievously and replied,
"Who am I? Well, my name is Miyamura Izumi and you could say I'm your kouhai, Nagumo-senpai."
Weekly Power Status
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Ranking 
-- Power
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