We come back to a scene of the four labyrinth walkers sleeping peacefully up against a wall, with Sargon, Shea, Yue, and Hajime huddling up to each other respectively. Hajime, however, remains awake, mentally reflecting on the progress so far within the labyrinth.
'It's been about a week since we've entered this labyrinth. This place was extremely annoying to get around, but thanks to me marking some of the places, I've got at least part of this place figured out.'
Hajime breathed in and sighed, 'Here's hoping we can actually get something more meaningful from today.'
Before he could think of anything else, he heard Shea talking in her sleep.
"Sargon….hehehe, you're so nice to me. Please give me a kiss," she said while puckering her lips.
Hajime smirked and snickered at this. But however amused he may be, they couldn't continue to stay here for long, so he called the rest of his group.
"Hey guys, rise and shine. Time to get moving."
As Yue was the closest to Hajime when he said that, she was the first to react to his wake-up call, though she did make her feelings of being woken up known, if the slow moan of slight annoyance didn't mean anything.
As Yue rubbed her eyes, she looked at Hajime with a smile to which Hajime returned. He then looked at Sargon, who seemingly didn't hear Hajime as he continued to sleep. Shea on the other hand was stirring.
"Hmm, wha? Ohhhh, is it time to get up," she asked grogily.
The voice and movement of Shea also ended up awakening Sargon, whose eyes twitched before opening slowly. He yawned slowly, stretched his arms, cracked his neck a little, before relaxing.
Hajime took this time to tease him a little smirking, "Not much of a morning person, are you?"
Sargon didn't even respond verbally and just shook his head. Whether this was an attempt to ignore Hajime's teasing or simply him being too tired to care wasn't clear.
"Is it time to move out," Sargon said, rubbing his eyes.
Hajime nodded while standing up and stretching, "Yeah. We should get going now so we can complete and get out of this place."
Sargon then looked at Shea, who slowly got off of him, stood up, stretched, and yawned. With her off his body, he was now able to stand up, which he did, though not before stretching one last time.
Afterward, he placed his left hand on his right wrist where a familiar bracelet was, which turned white, deformed, collected in his hand, and finally morphed into the cane he uses.
Hajime looked at this with a little astonishment, "Is there anything that cane can't morph into?"
Sargon smiled and shrugged, "I can't say myself right now. I have yet to test its full capabilities."
Hajime crossed his arms and looked at the cane in wonder, "I really want to see what all it can do."
Sargon moved to the side to partially obstruct the cane from Hajime's view while looking at him with a deadpan,
"I'm not giving you my cane, Hajime."
Hajime in question threw his arms up in defense, "Who said I wanted your cane? What I want is to see all of its abilities."
Sargon looked down at the cane, then looked back with a smirk.
"If things continue to go the way they have been in this labyrinth, you may as well bear witness to more of its capabilities. For now though, we must continue onward."
After the four stood up and started walking, trying to find the deepest part of the labyrinth, they happened upon a room full of armored statues standing still in rows on the side.
Hajime surveyed the room in wonder, "What is this room?"
"This is the first time we've been in this room, isn't it," Shea asked.
Yue then noticed a door at the end of the hall in front of them, "Everyone, look. That door."
The 3 individuals looked at where Yue was pointing, which triggered a lightbulb for both Hajime and Sargon.
"It's the same one that was before Orcus' hiding place," Hajime noted verbally.
"Then it seems we've finally made some progress," Sargon said approvingly.
Suddenly, the armors started to move on their own and gathered in front of the group of four, which worried and concerned Shea.
"These are way too many! I haven't fought like this before!"
The remaining 3 looked at Shea, who was gripping her warhammer tightly. Hajime then looked at Sargon, the latter of whom felt his gaze. When he turned around, he saw Hajime's small smirk which basically told Sargon all he needed to know about what Hajime wanted him to do. He rolled his eyes at the smirk, but did what Hajime, and by extension, he wanted to do.
"Shea, listen to me," he said seriously, which caused the girl to look at him. "You've come way too far to be scared of mere golems. We believe that you are more than capable of handling this without much difficulty. Even if things do get dangerous, I'll be watching over you, so you need not worry."
Shea, hearing this, uttered his name incredulously, "Sargon," before shaking her head and steeling her resolve.
"Right! You can count on me!"
Sargon smiled at her renewed resolve, though he couldn't help but sweatdrop internally 'Didn't she say those same words last time and something happened?'
"Since the magic composition is stronger here, we'll leave the vanguard to you," Hajime said.
Shea responded enthusiastically, "Got it!"
Shea then proceeded to swing her hammer wildly, smashing any and all golems that reached her. Meanwhile, in her mind, Shea was ecstatic.
'I'm fighting! I'm fighting with Sargon and the group! This is amazing!'
In Shea's excitement, she failed to notice an incoming golem from her blindside. Though before she could get hit, the golem was sliced in half. Shea looked surprised and confused about what happened, but then Yue's voice was heard.
"I thought I told you not to think about unnecessary things in battle. Doing something so careless will get you killed," Yue admonished Shea.
Shea felt ashamed for a little bit before perking up and asking Yue, "Wait, how did you do that, Yue-san? I thought magic was decomposed here?"
Yue smiled smugly and held up a cylindrical container, "It's because of these. When I activate {Break}, the water inside here gets compressed and released, and since the water inside isn't magical, it doesn't decompose. You honestly think Hajime wouldn't give me a weapon after he gave you one, even though Sargon helped?"
Shea sweatdropped at the comment and gave a wry smile, "I guess that's true."
While Shea and Yue were talking, Hajime and Sargon assisted each other in defense and attack with Hajime shooting his dual revolvers and Sargon using his sword cane, both blade and sheathe. It was then that Hajime noticed something,
"Hey Sargon, the golems that Shea destroyed from the beginning are gone. They probably regenerated," he said as he fired another shot in front of him.
"Regenerated," Sargon questioned as he bisected the golem in front of him while extending his cane sheathe to pierce another one diagonally to his side. "I admit to wondering why there doesn't seem to be a decrease in golems despite how many we've destroyed."
Hajime dodged a golem swing and countered with a head shot from his right revolver.
"Which brings me to the point I want to make," he said before leaping up and doing a kick flip to destroy an incoming golem's head. "Golems are normally dealt with once their core is destroyed, but I'm not sensing any cores from these ones. My guess is that they're being controlled remotely."
Both boys backed up to each other until their backs touched. "Ah, I see. A golem's core is what makes its independence possible, but if you're controlling them remotely, it's not necessary."
Hajime looked around with narrowed eyes, 'Since there's going to be no end to them anyway, we might as well force our way through.'
Hajime then yelled to his companions, "Everyone! We're going to force our way through this crap!"
Shea, after destroying another golem with her hammer, turned back to Hajime.
"But the door's closed! How're we supposed to do that?"
In response, Hajime smirked, "With a little something like this! Cover your ears everyone!"
Yue and Sargon did as instructed, but Shea was a little worried, "Eh? What is he about to–"
Before she could finish her question, Hajime had summoned his rocket launcher Orkan and fired a couple of rockets towards the door, which made a huge explosion and sound.
Yue marveled at the amount of power shown, Sargon smiled wryly while shaking his head, and Shea….
"My ears! My ears," covered her bunny ears in pain due to the loud noise made from the explosion.
Hajime looked at the direction where he launched his attack and thought to himself, 'Since magic with high destructive power is off limits here, that should mean,' as he thought this, the smoke cleared, and he saw that there was a huge hole where the door was.
'I knew it,' Hajime exclaimed inwardly.
He then turned to his companions, "Everyone through here! There's no counter to overwhelming firepower since magic can't be used, but it still could regenerate, so hurry!"
The remaining three bolted towards the hole made by Hajime while he continued to shoot the golems that ran after them.
"We can see the scaffolding on the other side, Hajime-san," yelled Shea.
Hajime backed up while he took the last shot, "Alright, everyone jump!"
The group of 4 then ran towards the platform and jumped towards it, crossing a very clear and sizable gap. Once they landed, Shea breathed a sigh of relief,
"We actually managed to get through. That was crazy, Hajime-san."
After they recovered their breath, they looked around to see lots of floating platforms. Shea asked in bewilderment,
"What is this place, and floating platforms?"
Yue also remarked on the strangeness of the current area, "What a peculiar place."
'How can these platforms be floating when magic isn't available? Especially this deep within the labyrinth? Unless—'
"MOVE!"
At the sound of Shea's scream, everyone instinctually jumped away from the platform and towards the closest platform in front of them, but due to the sudden shout, no one had time to really think, and so the group had split, with Hajime and Sargon having their own platform while Shea and Yue shared one.
When they landed, they also heard a loud crash from behind them. When they looked, what they saw, or more accurately didn't see, shocked them. The platform wasn't there anymore, and what was seen instead was bits and pieces of said platform falling into the abyss.
Yue breathlessly asked Shea, "How did you know that would happen?"
Shea responded with a smile, "My future sight warned me of something falling on us, so I reacted quickly."
Sargon looked at the empty space with a frown, 'It's good Shea was able to warn us in time. Otherwise….'
Suddenly, 2 flashes of light appeared, which alerted everyone. They turned to the source and found a massive set of armor floating in front of them.
"Looks like we found the final boss," Hajime said with a sweatdrop.
Shea stared wide-eyed, Yue was visibly concerned, and Sargon narrowed his eyes. When the silent tension built to a sizable degree, it was broken by a cheerful voice coming from the giant armor.
"Yahoo! Nice to meet you! I'm the one beloved by all, Miledi Reisen!"
After her grandiose and over the top introduction, what followed was stunned silence from the group. This didn't sit well with Miledi as she proceeded to chide them.
"Hmph! You know it's basic manners to reply when someone speaks to you, right? What has the younger generation come to these days?"
Hajime, already annoyed by her way of speaking, spoke, "Oi. Isn't Miledi supposed to be dead? Oscar Orcus said that she was supposed to be a human girl."
At the mention of the name Oscar, the armor lit up excitedly, "Oooh, so you've already been through his labyrinth, huh? Come on, tell me what he said about me!"
Hajime ticked off, responded snappily, "I don't have time to answer your stupid question, you answer mine. Talk before I turn you into scrap."
The straightened itself and let out a sigh, "Aiyaa, so bossy. Well, whatever. I am indeed the one and only Miledi Reisen! How you see me now is the result of Ancient Magic! But that's all I'm going to tell you for now!"
Hajime's face scrunched into a frown, "What do you mean—" before he could finish, the voice cut him off with a tone that contrasted its previously cheerful and bubbly feel to it.
"Time for me to question you now. What's your goal and why do you seek Ancient Magic?"
Hajime stared resolutely at the giant armor, "I was forcibly brought into this world. My goal is to return home at all costs, which means whatever goal you had in mind for those who came and conquered the labyrinths, maybe defeating this crazy god who toys with lives, isn't my concern. I'll kill any who stand in my way of returning home."
There was a moment of silence, with Sargon looking at Hajime with conflicting feelings.
"I see. Brought from another world, huh? Yeah, that's pretty bad."
Hajime then pointed one of his guns at the armor, "Alright, I've answered your question, my turn. What's your Ancient Magic?"
The giant armor moved their gauntlet hand up to their chin in a pondering gesture before putting it back down and leaning towards Hajime.
"I'm not telling you!"
After those words were said, everyone got into their fighting positions, with Hajime practically signaling the start of the major battle with 2 words.
"Then die!!!"