Freid held up the pendant hanging from his neck and glared coldly down at Hajime. Cracks started appearing all along the ceiling of the room. It opened up near the center, revealing a circular passage heading straight to the summit.
That pendant was probably what he got for clearing the labyrinth. And that’s the shortcut back out... Freid looked at Hajime one last time before turning his dragon around and flying through the opening.
The sea of magma had turned into a raging whirlpool, and magma pillars erupted from the center one after another. Magma started pouring down on the boulder they were standing on. It was as if they were watching the world end.
Hajime closed his eyes and considered his options. After a few seconds he came to a decision and struggled to his feet.
Though Freid had gone up, he’d left behind his Ash Dragons. They once again started bombarding Hajime and the others with aurora balls. He wasn’t taking any chances.
Yue cast Spatial Severance to keep the aurora balls at bay, while Tio prepared to fire another breath attack at them. Hajime grabbed his Treasure Trove and tapped Tio’s cheek to get her attention.
“Tio, listen to me. Take this and escape through that passage in the ceiling.” Her expression went from confused to hurt as she realized what Hajime was saying. She growled at Hajime in a voice full of rage. She would not abandon her comrades and escape alone.
“Master, are you saying I alone am not worthy to fight with you until the end? Are you truly asking me to abandon you all? I will not—”
“That’s not it, Tio. We don’t have much time, so I’m only gonna explain this once. I haven’t given up. We’re still gonna get the ancient magic from this labyrinth, and we’ll get back at that bastard soon enough. We still have to keep our promise to bring stillstone back to everyone, too. But I can’t do it all alone. I need your help. Only you can get back to Ankaji in time. Please, Tio. I need you to do this.”
Hajime stared into Tio’s eyes. This was the first time she’d seen him look at her so seriously. Hajime, who’d always been so confident in himself, was asking someone else for help. In order to fulfill all of his promises, in order to come out ahead, he needed her help. Without Tio, they’d fail.
Hajime had no intention of giving up here, and this wasn’t part of some noble self-sacrifice.
When Tio realized that, her face lit up with joy. The man she’d fallen for had entrusted her with an important mission at this critical point in time. If she couldn’t live up to his expectations, then she didn’t deserve to travel with him.
Filled with determination, Tio nodded.
“Leave it to me!” Hajime stuck the Treasure Trove into a gap between Tio’s scales. He positioned it so that when she transformed back into a human it’d already be in her hand.
After making sure it was secure, Tio nuzzled Hajime’s head. In this form, it was all she could do to show her affection. Hajime patted her gently one last time, and she took to the skies. Before she left, she glanced down at Yue and Shea. They nodded back at her resolutely. They hadn’t given up either.
“Tio, tell Kaori and Myu that we’ll see them soon. I’m counting on you.”
“Fufu. I shall.” She smiled at how casual Hajime’s message was. A second later, she wrapped herself in a gust of wind and shot up toward the ceiling. The Ash Dragons focused their fire on her, but she avoided the aurora balls with a barrel roll and slipped past them. Realizing how dangerous it would be to let her escape, the Ash Dragons turned to chase her.
Tio deflected the next barrage with her breath, but the continuous bombardment made it difficult to keep all the balls at bay. Before their attacks could overwhelm her though, a good chunk of them were wiped out by a beam of their own light.
Yue had sent a powered-up version of their attacks back at them by using the light she’d absorbed into Spatial Severance. Shea followed up by a wave of shotgun slugs. Their shockwaves blew apart quite a few of them as well.
The passage Freid and the white dragon had left through began to close. Realizing she didn’t have much time left, Tio shot forward, focusing only on speed. Now that she was no longer holding the Ash Dragons back, some of their aurora balls started hitting her.
“Hmph, this is nothing! In fact, it feels good! Bring it oooooon!” Tio sped up even more, the aurora balls giving her a boost. She was using one of Draconfication’s derivative skills, Pain Conversion. It transformed the damage she took into a boost to her stats. She’d learned it back when she’d first met Hajime, and it was the first derivative skill she’d acquired in centuries. She really had opened the door to a world of new possibilities when Hajime had beaten her senseless.
Even the Ash Dragons were astonished by her speed. Tio broke through the storm of aurora balls and shot through the opening just before it closed. Above her, she could see a faint light. That was the surface. There were a number of doors she’d have to pass through first, and they were all closing.
Tio poured all of her remaining mana into the wind that was pushing her forward, leaving only enough to maintain her Draconification.
She flew faster than the raging wind, faster than she had ever before.
She blew past one door, then another, then another. There was just one door left between her and the summit. She blasted forward, surrounded by a storm of jet-black wind. A wall of rainbow-colored light rained down on her from overhead.
It seemed Freid had noticed she was trying to escape and had launched one last attack to slow her down. The door was already mostly closed. She had to decide now if she was going to dodge out of the way or take the hit and push through.
The white dragon had burned through most of its mana, so the aurora didn’t have as much strength as before. Tio guessed it was only half as powerful.
But even so, it was far more devastating than the aurora balls the Ash Dragons had been firing at her. If she tried to intercept it or dodge it, she’d lose speed. In turn, that meant she wouldn’t make it through the door in time.
“Let’s see what you’ve got!” Tio prepared herself to take the hit and convert the pain into speed.
But just before it reached her, a few small shadows flitted past her and interposed themselves between her and the light.
Tio recognized those shapes. They were Hajime’s Cross Bits. He’d sent them to follow after her.
Three of the Cross Bits glowed dark red and angled themselves to deflect the blast. The light quickly melted through them, but they held on long enough for Tio to push through. The remaining four stuck close to Tio, protecting her as she flew.
“What a surprise! Master, I truly love you!” Even when he was surrounding by a rising sea of magma, Hajime had managed to control his Cross Bits to protect Tio.
She’d never met anyone who’d been strong enough to protect her before. Even among her village, she’d been the strongest. Until now, she’d always been the one who’d protected others. She’d never known just how wonderful it was to have someone else protecting her.
“Graaaaaah!” The white dragon let out a mighty roar as Tio slipped through the final door. A swirling black gale shot up into the sunlight. Though the sandstorm raged all around Tio, the eye of the storm was calm.
“You managed to escape under those circumstances!? You truly are a pack of monsters. But even a black dragon of your caliber must be weak after sustaining all those injuries. I’ll have no problem—”
Freid hurriedly tried to prepare a follow-up attack, but stopped short. The remaining four Cross Bits had Freid and the dragon he was riding on surrounded.
He instantly ordered the turtle he’d brought with him to create a barrier. He’d learned earlier the Cross Bits couldn’t break through it. Had Hajime loaded his Cross Bits with the same exploding shells he’d put into Drucken, Donner, and Schlag it might have been different, but he hadn’t had time. His and Shea’s primary weapons had taken priority.
But what Freid didn’t know was that the Cross Bits had one other powerful attack available to
them. Freid was certain the Cross Bits couldn’t harm him, and therefore let his guard down. It was in that instant that Hajime chose to activate his Cross Bits’ trump card.
Freid had only a second to ponder why the Cross Bits were glowing even brighter instead of firing before they all exploded.
There was a huge bang.
Shockwaves assailed Freid from all four sides, followed by a hailstorm of bullets. The explosions had released all of the Cross Bits’ remaining ammo in a deadly barrage.
“Gaaaaaah!”
“Graaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”
Demon and dragon screamed as they were blasted into the distance. With the last of her mana, Tio added her own powerful tornado into the mix. She wanted to make doubly sure they got him. She’d wanted to use her breath to guarantee the kill, but she no longer had the mana left for it.
Tio observed the direction Freid had fallen in for a few seconds in case he miraculously got back up.
Once she was certain he wasn’t coming back, she looked back down at the oddly silent volcano.
“I believe in you, Master, Yue, Shea.”
Tio turned toward the sandstorm, her whisper carried away by the wind.
Her destination was Ankaji. She needed to deliver what had been entrusted to her.
She vanished into the sandstorm...
A few minutes later, the Grand Gruen Volcano shuddered.
The shaking was followed by a massive eruption. The force of it blew away the surrounding sandstorm for a short while. Black smoke rose from the volcano’s peak as it spat out gouts of magma and chunks of white hot rock. Forks of lightning flashed within the smoke released from the volcano.
This was the first eruption of the Grand Gruen Volcano in known history. The historic event faded from view as the sandstorm veil covered the volcano again a few minutes later.
Though the volcano itself was obscured, the plume of smoke rising from its peak could be seen as far away as Ankaji.
The two girls who were waiting for Hajime’s return watched it anxiously.
“There’s just something cool about going out in a blaze of glory.”
“Hajime?”
“Hajime-san?”
Hajime grinned, prompting Yue and Shea to stare at him in confusion. They were still being assailed by the Ash Dragons’ aurora balls. Hajime just shook his head and, with Shea and Yue’s help, managed to leap onto the central island.
In the few minutes since Tio had left, the magma had gotten even more violent. Only the central island was still above the writhing sea of death. In another five minutes, even the central island would be submerged.
Yue’s Spatial Severance was doing a perfect job of dealing with the aurora balls, and the Ash Dragons were starting to get desperate. They began diving down, trying to attack the party directly, but Shea swatted down any that got close. Another ten dragons fell.
The magma dome that had been covering the center of the island had vanished, revealing a jet-black building. Next to the building was a disk that was floating a few centimeters off the ground. It seemed that was what was normally used to transport people through the shortcut back to the surface.
There were so many magma pillars shooting out now that the remaining Ash Dragons had to cut their attacks short to keep out of their way. Hajime watched them out of the corner of his eye as he walked up to the building.
There didn’t seem to be any door, but one of the walls had the familiar Liberators’ crest on it.
The party stopped in front of it, and the wall fell away to reveal an opening.
They stepped inside just as the magma started flowing over the central island. The door closed behind them seconds before the magma reached them.
The party watched the door warily for a few seconds, but it didn’t seem like the magma was melting through it. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief. Hajime had guessed that if they’d built their house in a place like this, they’d have made it impervious to magma in case something happened to the volcano. It had still been just a guess though, so Hajime was relieved to discover the building really was magma-resistant.
“Looks like we can rest for a bit now. I can’t believe this room even dampens the shaking...”
“Mmm... Hajime, there.”
“It’s a magic circle.”
Hajime marveled at how well the building nullified the volcano’s shaking. His musings were interrupted by Yue pointing out the magic circle. It was more complex than most he’d seen. Stepping into it would likely grant them this labyrinth’s ancient magic. The three of them nodded to each other and walked into it.
Just like the circle in Oscar’s room, this one read their memories, tracing their path through the labyrinth. Once the circle had confirmed they’d defeated all the magma serpents, it imprinted the knowledge needed to use this magic onto them.
“So this labyrinth was spatial magic.” As Yue had said, the Grand Gruen Volcano’s magic was spatial magic. Looks like this magic’s pretty crazy stuff too. Hajime wasn’t even surprised anymore at how ridiculously powerful it was.
“We can teleport with this.”
“Yeah, that’s what he used to get behind us, isn’t it?”
Yue thought back to their earlier fight. Shea nodded, remembering his sudden appearance.
He’d probably used that magic to launch the first surprise attack, too. Hajime would need to test it some more before he could be certain whether it actually allowed teleportation or just the warping of space. Either way, it was still unbelievably powerful. Had it not been for Shea’s Future Sight, that first attack would have likely killed Hajime. He really got me good.
As the magic circle’s glow faded, there was a dull clunk and a section of the wall fell away, revealing a small alcove. Glowing letters appeared inside it.
I pray the day comes where people can be free. —Naiz Gruen
“Short and sweet, I see.” Hajime gave his honest impressions. Looking around, they noticed Gruen’s hidden hideout was rather Spartan. Unlike Orcus’ place, there wasn’t even any furniture or household appliances. There was just the magic circle.
“I guess he put his affairs in order before coming here.”
“Yeah, it looks like the only thing Naiz-san left for us here was the magic circle.”
“Come to think of it, Oscar’s diary mentioned Naiz. It said he was a pretty quiet guy.”
Yue left Shea to support Hajime and walked over to the alcove. She groped inside it and pulled out a pendant. It was slightly different than the things they’d received so far as proof of clearing a labyrinth. The pendant was circular, inlaid with an ornate pattern. Yue walked back and put it around Hajime’s neck.
“Alright, we’ve got the magic and we’ve got our crest. Now we just have to figure out how to get out of here.”
“Any ideas?”
“You have a plan, right? The whole place must be filled with magma by now.”
Both Yue and Shea were confident Hajime could get them out of this mess. Happy that they trusted him so much, he began to outline his plan.
“We’re going to swim through the magma.”
“Hm?”
“Come again?”
Has the blood loss finally gotten to him? the two girls thought at the same time. His suggestion definitely didn’t seem sane.
“Hold on, I’m not crazy, I swear. I’ll explain it all, so don’t give me that look. Okay, so the truth is, I left a submarine outside. I figured it made sense to make one since Melusine comes next. I wasn’t sure if it’d survive the magma, but since our strengthened boat could, I’m sure it’ll work. Glad I tried that out.”
“When exactly did you have time to...” Shea stared at Hajime in shock. Even Yue widened her eyes a little in surprise.
When Freid announced that he’d destroyed the keystone, Hajime had instantly pulled his submarine out and dropped it into the magma. If it had melted, Hajime would have told everyone to ride Tio out and forced his way through. He tracked its movements with the spirit
stone he’d put in it and saw that it was perfectly fine.
However, with how chaotic things were getting there was a possibility they wouldn’t make it back in time to save Ankaji. They would’ve had to take risks to make it back in time, and Hajime wanted to avoid that. And so, he’d sent Tio on ahead just in case. He knew she’d be able to make it back with time to spare.
“As for the route we’re going to take, we have the shortcut Freid took. Yue, I’m going to need you to make a barrier to hold back the magma until we’re in the sub. Can you handle that?”
“Yeah... No problem.” Yue nodded and deployed a tri-layered Hallowed Ground. The shimmering dome surrounded the three of them. They nodded to each and other and walked up to the door. Hajime clutched the handle and slid it open.
Burning hot magma rushed into the room. Yue’s barrier protected them from it, but they couldn’t even see two inches in front of their faces because of how much of it there was. Though he’d planned for the situation, Hajime was still amazed. They were seeing what a volcano looked like from inside. Chances were, the three of them were the only people in the whole world to have experienced something so strange.
“It’s not far. Let’s go!”
“Okay.”
“R-Roger!”
At Hajime’s command, the three of them slowly walked forward. Though they couldn’t see anything, the submarine really was only a few feet from the room’s entrance. Yue extended her Hallowed Ground to make them a path.
The three of them ran over to the entrance hatch and hopped inside. Once they were safely inside, they all relaxed.
Just then, a massive quake ripped through the volcano. And, at the same time, the magma began rushing violently toward something. The submarine was carried by the flow, and Hajime and the others rolled around inside it like bowling balls.
“Gwaaah!?”
“Hwaaa!?”
“Hawawa!? Owww!”
They cried out in pain as they slammed into the sub’s walls, floor, and ceiling. Yue deployed a miniature version of her Spatial Severance to keep everyone from flying around. The contained gravity field stabilized them enough that they could regain their balance.
Arifureta: From Commonplace to World's Strongest Vol. 5 Page 10