章 217: Offer

A couple days after leaving Furhen Alex was relaxing at their campsite with Anne's head resting in his lap after a full day of driving. Though he had received the larger vehicle from the Grigori before leaving the city, Alex would still offer to let her stay in Asora while they traveled due to her motion sickness but she denied him every time. Alex was starting to think she just wanted him to spoil her like this every night, and the looks she was getting from the other girls only seemed to prove his suspicions. He was alternating between rubbing her head and her belly since she was laying face up, so Alex decided to tease her a bit as his hand moved up from her stomach to her breast.

"Don't do that!" Anne cried out as she pushed Alex's hand away, then when she saw Hajime glance at her from across the campfire she turned to hide her face. The funny thing about this was that she turned towards Alex and essentially buried her face in his crotch, making the situation look even funnier. The rest of the girls started laughing at Anne's expense, joined surprisingly by Hajime. Alex smiled as he had noticed a drastic improvement in Hajime's attitude over the past few days as they moved closer and closer to Horlad.

He then almost frowned as he recalled the circumstances in which Hajime and Kaori reunited in the original series. Alex had debated hurrying them because of that, but didn't want to raise suspicion in the group; he just hoped Hajime's protagonist power would ensure they weren't too late.

***

"O light cutting through all creation, wind bring forth destruction, scatters and dances around like a whirlpool, and become the storm of light that cut my enemies! Soaring Severation!"

A shout sounded out within the crowded tunnels deep underground in the labyrinth, accompanied by the sounds of battle as the bat-like monster in front of Kouki and his comrades was cut into pieces. Soon a swarm of more bats, several ant-like monsters and giant anemones with tentacles surged from the branching tunnels. Kouki shouted to his comrades,

"Keep going! Just a bit more and we'll be through!" Those behind him gave a great cheer, as they started coordinating their attacks the way they had long since learned to as they fought tooth and nail through each floor of the labyrinth. Kouki led the way with Shizuku, Ryutarou, Nagayama, Hiyama, and Kondo, while those who specialized in magic and support stayed behind to launch their ranged attacks. With this formation they made short work of the monsters as they moved uniformly.

"Whew, that was a hard battle!" A girl with twin tails said as she collapsed against one of the tunnel walls, before being joined a second later by another girl with glasses. Suzu and Eri then looked up as another woman rushed around,

"Who needs healing, Hiyama and Kondo? You were both part of vanguard." Both guys looked up as Kaori called out to them, as they confirmed their minor injuries with happy expressions. If one looked at Hiyama's eyes however one could see a dark possessiveness when he looked at Kaori; no one noticed this however except for "that person", who kept quiet about it in order to achieve their own ambitions.

After making her rounds Kaori turned silent as her thoughts turned darker and she once more contemplated just how futile her goal was. Those around her had followed Kouki into the labyrinth to train for the future battles against the demon race, while her only intention had been to find the one she loved. Kaori had never realized it before but after Hajime fell she soon learned that the thing that always drew her to him was indeed love, and currently her greatest regret besides failing to fulfill her promise to protect him was that she only realized it too late. She then joined Kouki in exploring the labyrinth determined to find him somewhere within, but as time went on her hopes continued dwindling; and now not only had it been four months since Hajime fell, but they were on the 89th floor and there had still been no sign of him. With only ten floors left(presumably) she was growing increasingly worried that they wouldn't find him. Suddenly someone grabbed her hand, and Kaori turned to see her best friend Shizuku.

"Don't worry, I'm sure that he's still alive." Kaori smiled before pulling her friend into a hug, grateful for her words.

"Thank you." As they separated Kaori looked at her friend and Shizuku looked back at her, creating a perfect image of prospective female lovers that made it hard for the others to look at them. The moment was ruined however when a pair of hands reached around and started fondling Kaori's breasts.

"KAORIN, SUZU NEEDS HEALING TOO! You should heal Suzu with these impressive breasts!" The boys faces turned red, and several of them entered a crouching position while refusing to stand up.

"Kya! Suzu stop the boys are watching!" Kaori cried out as an expression like that of a perverted old man formed on Suzu's face. The hands only disappeared from Kaori's chest when a chop dropped onto Suzu's head, causing the smaller girl to hold the top of her head while tears formed in her eyes.

"Shizu-Shizu, that wasn't very nice!" Shizuku snorted and said,

"Next time don't act in such a way in front of the guys." Suzu still pouted, but there was a small smile at the corner of her mouth as the atmosphere around the group improved after her prank. Kouki smiled as well and said,

"After this we'll be at the 90th level, and ten more floors before our combat training is complete." Everyone gave a nod as they anticipated finishing their training, as the sooner they finished the sooner they'd enter combat and hopefully they would be able to go home once the war was over. They quickly ended their break, and descended to the next floor. Though they were full of spirit to start with, this quickly became scarce as everyone became aware of something peculiar about the 90th floor.

"Where are all the monsters?" Kouki asked what was on everyone's minds out loud. Ever since they entered the next floor they had not entered a single battle, nor had they seen even a single sign that anything lived on this floor. Though this would sometimes be taken as a good sign, the lack of any life besides themselves was noticeably eerie and they were all on edge from the unusual situation. Then one of the members of Nagayama's group, Endou Kousuke, went and examined one of the walls. Though they usually had a hard time noticing his actions, they had no problem hearing his words through the eerie silence,

"The walls are covered in blood!" His words sent serious alarms through most of the groups heads as Shizuku said,

"Kouki somethings not right, we should return to where Meld is waiting for us and confirm the situation with him, he might know what's going on." Kouki however shook his head and replied,

"If all the monsters are dead then that just means there must be a strong one ahead, and besides we probably can't move forward unless we defeat it to begin with anyways." Ryutarou agreed with Kouki while most of the group shook their heads in exasperation. Nagayama then explained to Kouki,

"Up until now there hasn't been any traces throughout the entire level until we reached this room, which means something must have killed the monsters ahead of us and covered up the evidence. This means that whatever killed them might be intelligent as well as strong and could even be setting up a trap, we should leave." At his explanation even Kouki realized there was more wrong with the current situation than he originally thought, and was about to agree before someone said,

"It's too late for that I'm afraid." As a female voice none of them heard before sounded throughout the cavern everyone turned towards the area it came from and found themselves looking straight at a woman with darker skin color and dark red hair. Everyone immediately got into a battle ready stance however as her pointed ears identified who their opponent was, a member of the demon race. Seeing the enemy of humanity Kouki demanded,

"What are you doing here demon race?!" The woman however ignored Kouki's question and instead,

"You're dressed in that ridiculously shiny armor, so would I be correct in guessing that you're the hero that the human race has summoned?" Kouki angrily responded to the woman's question,

"I won't be called ridiculous by an enemy of humanity!" Hearing Kouki's reply the woman groaned in annoyance and said reluctantly,

"I guess I have to, as a member of the demon race I'm extending an invitation to you to join us, what do you say?" Everyone's minds blanked as they tried to process the woman's question, before Kouki angrily shouted,

"Are you asking me to betray the humans?! As I thought the demon race is purely evil!" The woman shrugged as if his answer didn't surprise her, and she stated,

"As a sweetener we'll even allow all your little friends to come as well, there was already one defector from your group. So what do you say now?" There was an even longer pause than before as everyone tried to process what the woman just said, not only did they want to recruit all of them, but there was already someone what had joined them? Before they could think too hard on it however Kouki answered angrily once more,

"To use such obvious lies, like I thought your race's very existence is evil! I'll never join your side and betray humans!" Hearing Kouki state the woman's words were a lie everyone started rationalizing that that was the case, and glared at her angrily, even though she only stated the truth. The woman sighed at their answer and said,

"Well I figured it would be like this anyways, but now I can say I tried before killing you." Everyone took a battle ready stance as they prepared to move against the solitary opponent, but then both Shizuku and Nagayama were suddenly blown backward by seemingly nothing, and the hardest battle any of them had fought until this moment began.