Here comes chapter 3 and the conclusion of the Abyss arc. I've seen some concern about what Yue's place will be in the party. This chapter will take some time to address her feelings and intentions.

I hope you'll enjoy this chapter!

The Abyss Stares Back

Several Floors Later

After listening to the events that led Yue to be sealed in the Abyss, they understood that there was no way to escape, without traversing to the bottom of the Abyss. Apparently this labyrinth was created by one of the seven Mavericks, legendary figures who at the age of gods, decided to rebel against them. It was possible that [teleportation] magic, one of the age of gods magics could be found at the Abyss' lowest level and used to escape their current predicament.

By this point in time, the trio was practically unstoppable. Between Shizuku's highspeed blade work, Yue's devastatingly powerful magic, and Hajime's expert marksmanship, not even stray monster remained. Eating monster meat no longer gave power-ups to Hajime and Shizuku, hence they suspected that they were getting close to the bottom of the 'Abyss'.

Some highlights during their floor traversal included:

Shizuku, crushing the head of a large T-rex like monster, using a [lightning speed] enhanced [Helm Splitter]- which she now affectionately called [Yaegashi-style, Thor Derivative- Giant Crusher].

Hajime killing a monster that spread flower-like spores to control other monsters and Yue, by merciless singeing Yue's hair when she was caught in its trap.

In revenge, Yue burnt down the entire Forest level. This resulted in both Hajime and Shizuku being incapacitated for several hours after having their blood sucked out.

After some time they had reached another staircase. This particular staircase was not like the others and led to a large open room. This room was entirely empty save for elaborately designed pillars, that seemed to glow as the trio passed by them. At the end of the room, about 200 metres away from the staircase was a 10 metre high double door. This door was decorated with a an elaborate heptagonal shape.

The consensus was clear, this was the final floor. And there would never be a final floor without a final boss. As they passed by the last pillar, the entire room began to shine in a malignant red colour. A magic circle surrounded the trio.

"This is a teleportation circle! Get out of it!" Hajime commanded.

Using [Riftwalk] and [Instant Flash] Hajime (with Yue) and Shizuku avoided being caught in the teleportation circle. But this was the least of their problems. Out of the magic circle came out a six-headed hydra like creature. On each of its foreheads, was a different coloured pattern, which resembled the pattern that was located on the door.

With the Hydra monster blocking the path forward, the party had no choice but to fight the monster. As they prepared to make their stand, the head with the red pattern unleashed a torrent of fire at the party. Using this opportunity, Hajime fired a shot from Donnner at the red head. This shot instantly destroyed the red head.

There was no celebrations to be had as the white head instantly regrew the red head, but this time with an additional head. Fully regenerated, the red heads instant unleashed another, but a larger torrent of fire.

"[Leviathan's Torrent]!"

Yue's magic [Leviathan's Torrent – Rage of the Water Gods] counteracted the spell. Using Leviathan's Torrent would have been enough to stop the blazing hellfire, had it not been for the interference of the Greenhead, who instantly whipped up a windstorm, aiding the hellfire and threatened to overwhelm Yue.

In an instant, Shizuku, cut the green head clean using her massive [Mjolnir] blade. The head regrew instantly and with it the second companion in tow. But this was enough to stop the Hellfire from reaching Yue.

They attempted to flash away and retreat for the time being. However, the blackhead prevented their escape with a wave of black magic.

Suddenly Hajime was sent back to the realm of his nightmares. To the world of endless rejection. For just the briefest of seconds, this caused his heart to doubt. It was just enough for him to want to hit himself.

"This is your illusion? This is weak. My head comes up with worse nightmares on a regular basis. Honestly, you should get a better scriptwriter."

Walking to the ghostly figure of [Not-Shizuku], he declared with a resounding voice.

"You aren't her. Begone Spectre."

Shooting at the specter clean through the head the illusion dissolved. He awoke, just in time to activate [Riftwalk] to save both Yue and Shizuku from the blue head who was preparing to exterminate them under a hail of ice.

"You two, snap out of it!"

"Hajime, I…. I thought you two had abandoned me… I was left alone again, left to defeat the Hydra by myself…. You two ran away."

Yue openly sobbed, for a girl who had been given the hope of escaping her hell, the isolation and emptiness that plagued her for thousands of years, being betrayed once again and having that hope stripped from her was the worse torture.

Shizuku instantly awoke, gripping her [Raikiri II]. She cursed loudly.

"Ughh. I'm gonna kill that Hydra! What a shitty nightmare! As if Hajime would ever do anything like that!"

In response, Shizuku lashed out towards the white head, but the yellow head blocked her with the [Diamond Skin] skill, producing a hardening effect several times harder than the scorpion that they faced earlier. Any further attempts to attack the white head was met with expert blocks from the yellow head.

"We need to kill that white-head! We also need to blow off that yellow head somehow!"

As Shizuku shouted, Hajime responded.

"You two! Get the yellow head to be right in front of the white head. When I give the signal, evade! I'm going to use [Schlagen]'s Railgun mode!"

Hajime never needed to use Schlagen before, using Schlagen before would have been a complete waste of time and bullets. Now more than ever he thanked his overly cautious side.

Once Shizuku had lined up the heads perfectly, Hajime took his shot. The shot could only be described as a laser like shot, like the kind one normally sees in typical sci-fi mech anime. Even the yellow head's harden skin yielded to the shot. The shot still had enough force to obliterate the white head.

"Yes! Now we can just pick the rest of them off!"

The rest of the heads paused briefly for a second to consider their situation. They looked at the party, no fear to be had in their faces. With absolute resolve, the extra heads of the green and red heads activated their inbuilt support function. By sacrificing their heads, they could instantly restore the white head back to life. In turn, the white head restored the yellow head back to life. The Hydra party was back.

"We need a way to kill all of them in one go! An attack in a single instant that will destroy all heads! Shizuku, you need to [that]! We'll cover for you so do it!"

Shizuku's [Instant Flash] made her as fast as the speed of thought. However at the beginning, her thoughts simply could not keep up with the speed that her body was moving at, hence she was unable to use the skill continuously.

Hence, she trained her mind, her instincts, and her body until everything down to her skill usage became instantaneous and reflective. She trained every reaction until at last, she reached a state where her brain played no real part in any decision making she did. As an added bonus, the limiter that her brain used to keep her power in check to protect her momentarily lapsed.

[Shizuku Yaegashi-style, Secret Technique – In the Moments of Instant]

For only a few moments, Shizuku's movements required no active thought on her part. But a few moments was enough. No enemy could withstand anything in her way.

Red lightning raced throughout Shizuku's body. She raised her sword to be in front of her. And in a instant she was gone.

In another instant all the heads of the Hydra's rolled at their body's feet. On their faces was the look of glee that the heads produced when they thought that they had the party bested. The blood from their necks erupted and sprayed across the room, in an almost beautiful pattern of blood and death.

[Shizuku Yaegashi Style, Secret Technique, Susanno Derivative – Heaven Sent Blood Bloom].

Satisfied, she sheathed her blade. The after-effects of [In the Moments of Instant] were great on her body. She wouldn't be able to pull that off for a while if she didn't have ambrosia. She tried grabbing a vial to drink.

With her guard momentarily down, she failed to notice that [Sense Presence] still detected a monster. In one final attempt to spite the party, the Hydra unleashed its final trap. A single silver head emerged from the decapitated monster's body. It shot a silvery-white light at Shizuku.

Sensing the immense danger in the presence of silver head, Hajime used [Riftwalk] to dash to Shizuku's side. He made it in time to take the blow from Shizuku.

Hajime let out a blood-curdling scream.

The "substance" was corrosive. Had he not used the [Diamond Skin] skill and [Schlagen] to block the attack, he might have already died. The 'poison' tore through the right side of Hajime's body.

Shizuku had already administered a vial of ambrosia, but the blood wouldn't stop. If the blackhead had actually tried to get its facts straight this would be exactly the kind of nightmare that would have been effective against Shizuku.

"It's not stopping! Why isn't the Ambrosia not working?!

In fact, the blood's flow had slowed and it was slowly healing him. The nature of the corrosive poison was simply that powerful. The worst of the wounds were being healed, but it would not restore his right eye which was instantly destroyed in the attack.

Hajime spat out blood and struggled to speak.

"Shizuku, I'm glad you're safe…"

"You idiot! Stop talking! You're losing more blood!"

"I'm healing, slowly. I'll probably recover after a while. In the meantime, we need to find a way to deal with that piece of crap. That silver head's threat level is much higher than the others."

But the silver-head would not leave them time to formulate a plan. In order to crush its, enemy, by any means necessary, the silver head released a poisonous aura, covering the entire room. This weakened the party considerably, slowly poisoning them. Even the ambrosia was no match for the poison double team and Hajime began to slowly die once more.

Spitting out blood once more Hajime struggled to speak.

"Can… You….. Use….. It… Again!?"

"No, I can't. I can't use it when something is continuously attacking and poisoning me."

"Then….. We need to… Trap….. Him…. Yue….needs to unleash… everything at it!"

Yue rushed to their side immediately.

"Shizuku, distract the monster. Yue, help me up!"

I've spent enough time on the ground. Grit my teeth, clench my muscles! I need to help them! Anything that stands in my way! Kill! Anything that hurts her! Kill! Rise and destroy!

Bend those legs.

Grip your weapon.

Aim!

Use everything your power to end this!

Five shots rung out into the distance. The Hydra with it foresight evaded all the shots. It was faster than any of the heads, it could outpace any bullet, even a railgun shot. But Hajime counted on that. The bullets shot at the rock, directly above the hydra.

Large pieces of rock fell on top of the monster momentarily pinning the monster down. Using her immense strength, Shizuku carried both Hajime and Yue closer to the monster. As he was let go, he instantly used his transmutation powers to form a prison from the earth. His transmutation powers converted the earth into [Shtar ore], an ore that grew stronger the more mana was poured into it.

As the monster tried breaking out, Hajime poured more mana, focusing intently on keeping the monster trapped. While this happened Yue prepared to bite into Shizuku

"This is going to hurt. Sorry" She apologized in advance.

Having her fill and restoring her to full power took much of Shizuku's remaining blood.

[Twin Cast- [Muspelheim] & [Niflheim] ]

The Niflheim spell, the strongest ice spell her arsenal weakened the monster's protections, made its skin hard and brittle. The intense heat of the fire spell [Muspelhiem] instantly melted the ice into water and then superheated the water into gas. This caused an immediate steam explosion. The prison was destroyed, alongside the weakened hydra.

In the instant that Yue finished casting her spell, Shizuku used the last of her remaining strength to pull off one last [Instant Flash] to carry them as far away as possible. Shizuku couldn't stick the landing perfectly and crashed onto the floor. Yue instantly uncorked several bottles of ambrosia to heal Shizuku and Hajime. Slowly but surely the ambrosia did its magic and healed them.

[Sense Presence] had indicated that the monster was finally dead. This fight was over. With their work done Hajime and Shizuku collapsed.

Unknown Time Later – Beyond the Maverick's Door

Hajime awoke to the sound of soft breath. As he opened his eyes sunlight flooded into eyes. He closed them for a brief second. He had not seen the sun in a long time.

The sun?

As he awoke he saw the most beautiful sight. Bathed in radiant sunlight, lay the sleeping figure of the beautiful white-haired princess. She was wrapped around Hajime's good arm. Something else was also wrapped around his arm. Judging by what he was feeling, she was straight-up naked, covered only by the blanket that lay upon the both of them.

Hajime was honestly at a loss as to what to do. Any man would enjoy this. Even more so when that person was the person who is your declared lover. But he knew the tropes, this wasn't going to end well.

Shizuku Yaegashi also began to stir. After briefly considering her situation she simply glanced at Hajime and blushed.

Hajime briefly considered apologizing. But Shizuku shut him up, all the while still blushing.

"This was on purpose…. I thought that it would make you happy….."

More silently she continued.

"I was convinced that this was a good reward…."

Hajime was a man, that much was obvious. He simply didn't have the willpower to act cool, calm, and collected. The woman that he loved was naked! He responded in the only way any self-respecting man would.

"Thank you, Shizuku….. That was pretty nice reward…."

Assessing the situation, Shizuku rose from the bed and kissed Hajime in the lips. As she began to part, not knowing whether Hajime enjoyed the kiss, Hajime grabbed her back and encouraged her to stay. So she did, lingering for another second or two, enough for both of them to feel slightly breathless.

"If that was the reward, then maybe I should put myself into danger more often."

"Don't joke around, you slept for nearly three days."

"Days?... How did you know?"

The entire 'lair' was comprised of one large building, a manor of sorts built on a raised terrace. It seemed that the Maverick who completed this 'villa' also managed to sustain a natural garden, with no monsters in sight. The circle of life in this lair was powered by an artificial sun, which would turn into a moon in correspondence with Tortus days.

"The manor is comprised of several different rooms. We haven't explored them yet. We thought it would be best to wait until you woke up."

"Yue's outside guarding this room. Nothing has happened in the last three days but we can't be too careful."

After hearing that Hajime had woken up, Yue burst into the room. She had tears in her eyes.

"I'm glad… Really glad. I thought we lost you."

Hajime gave her a reassuring smile. He was fine. As good as new.

Glancing at the naked Shizuku Yue grinned and gave a single laugh.

"Enjoying your reward? It took a long time to persuade her to do that. The girl is basically a blank slate when it comes to the arts of seduction."

Licking her lips, Yue gave Hajime gave her a seductive look.

"There is tons of knowledge in my head. Would you like a 'hands-on experience,' Hajime?"

Shizuku immediately got off Hajime. She glared at Yue, looking rather unamused. The air grew thick. Hajime could of swore that some lightning god had descended into the room

"You may try."

It was short and simple. A declaration of trust in Hajime. An acceptance of the challenge, should the challenger wish to go through hell. She wasn't about to give up her man, even if the challenger was a thousand-year-old vampire princess.

Yue didn't seem to back down.

Hajime sighed.

"Being a harem protagonist is overrated crap."

Several Hours Later

Eating the Hydra meat granted Shizuku and Hajime several new skills. Among them where important skills like; [Intimidation] which allowed the user to create an aura of fear, the more mana used the more fear produced, [Poison Nullity] poisons have no effect on the skill holder and [Limit Break], allows the user to temporarily triple their skills at a high cost to the user's body when the skill's effect lapses. Due to the level of the monster, their stats also increased to ridiculous levels.

Their stats where as follows:

Hajime Nagumo – Level?

Strength: 10950

Vitality: 13190

Defence: 10670

Agility: 13450

Magic: 14780

Magic Defence: 14780

Shizuku Yaegashi – Level ?

Strength: 10950

Vitality: 12500

Defence: 10000

Agility: 18000

Magic: 14780

Magic Defence: 14780

Later – Central Room

Behind the largest doors in the villa was an audience hall-like room. In the centre of the room was a simple stone chair. There sat a robed skeleton. By the looks of it, the man was already dead for a long time.`

"Was this one of the so-called "Mavericks"?"

They had no way of knowing but it seemed as if the figure was waiting for someone to arrive.

Why was this man sitting on this stone chair? Did he not see his end coming? If he did, why choose the stone chair as his final resting place?

Leaving nothing to chance, the party prepared their weapons as they approached the skeleton. When they got around 2 metres from the skeleton, a magic circle activated. They jumped away as quickly as they could.

A holographic figure stood in front of them. The man had long black hair that reached his shoulder and thin wire glasses. He wore the same robe as the skeleton.

"To you who have traversed and completed my dungeon, Congratulations."

"I am Oscar Orcus, creator of this 'Great Orcus Labyrinth' and one of the last liberators. If you are watching this, I am long since dead."

"As someone who has reached this far I offer you my power and ask to listen to my story."

Oscar explained that he was a member of the Liberators, a group of humans who intended to rebel against this world's god Ehit. He himself had the ability to use one of the ancient magics; creation magic."

Their rebellion ended in failure, when the people they sought to protect turned against them and slowly their allies where killed. Therefore the seven wielders of the ancient magics decided to retreat to their personal labyrinths and await those who could take on their dearest wish.

"To you who have overcome my trial, I wonder what sort of person you are? Whilst it is my dearest wish Ehit be destroyed but I have no intention of pushing my beliefs on to you. As thanks for hearing me out, I offer you my power. Whoever you are I pray for your good fortune and may you never encounter the blessings of god."

As the projection ended, a strange sensation entered into Hajime's mind. It was quite painful, but realizing that this sensation was the 'power' offered by Oscar he stopped resisting the spell.

Information began flooding his mind, concepts which he would have found difficult to understand was made understood at an instant. Hajime let out a short grasp.

"Ku ku ku…. Oh, my mind is flowing with ideas…. If I can do this… Haha!"

Grinning madly, Hajime began muttering and murmuring to himself. Shizuku bought out her sheath and 'lightly' tapped him on the head with it.

"Focus, Hajime."

"Sorry. Got distracted there. It just this power is fucking amazing…. It gives me the power to imbue magic into inorganic materials."

Yue's mouth hung open.

"So you can make artifacts?"

Artifacts where items that had magical effects imbued into them. Finding one in this age was considered extremely rare, as they often contained long lost magic. With the creation magic that Hajime possessed, it was possible to imbue the magics that Hajime knew into his creations.

Hajime simply nodded.

Shizuku looked concerned. The truths that Oscar had revealed were shocking but inline with their suspicions. The question was what they were going to do about it.

"Hajime, what do you intend to do now?"

Shizuku did not feel she needed to save this world or defeat their evil god. But on the other hand it was this 'Ehit' who summoned them and it would be unlikely that such a god would let them leave freely.

"My primary concern is leaving this world. I want to bring us back to Earth. I have no intention of fighting anyone if they let us go back home. But if they try to stop us, then I'll consider them an enemy, whether its monsters, our classmates or that god."

Shizuku nodded, as far as she was concerned, Hajime, Kaori, and Yue were the only ones she cared about protecting. However, preparing to fight anything in their way was simply good preparation.

"You guys should try and get the magic as well."

Seeing no harm in this Shizuku and Yue, stood in front of Oscar.

"It's no use, I can seem to make sense of creation magic." Remarked Shizuku.

Yue also couldn't figure out how to use the magic.

After considering the skeleton in their midst, they decided to bury poor Oscar. But not before stripping him of anything useful. Of particular note was the ring that was engraved with an odd design. They placed a simple headstone, with the words 'Oscar Orcus" engraved on it.

Afterwards Shizuku and Hajime paid respects to the body. Whether or not they would take up Oscar's will was dubious at best, but he did provide them with a helpful tool for challenging the world ahead.

Exploring further they encountered a library. They rummaged around the books hoping to find a way to get out of this labyrinth.

They eventually encountered a blueprint of the villa, in which they noted that on the third floor of the villa was a teleportation magic circle, which could only be activated by Oscar's ring. It seemed that their graverobbing had some merit to it after all.

Furthermore, they also found a diary which noted the daily lives of the Liberators. In it they noted that 6 other Liberators did what Oscar had done.

"So, if we find the other labyrinths, then we could receive more ancient magics. One of them might be key to finding our way home." Shizuku noted.

It was as good as a lead as anything they would find. They decided that this would be their goal after Kaori had been safely extracted.

Other books mentioned that there where labyrinths in the Great Haltina Woods and in the Grand Guren Volcano. Other possible locations where at the Reisen Gorge and the Schnee Snowfields.

Other locked rooms could be opened with Oscar's ring. In them there were tonnes of ores and other materials. This was a synergist dream. He was going to use this to its full potential. However, time was an issue, the longer they waited, the longer the risk to Kaori.

There was no telling what they would encounter on the surface and it was not impossible to believe that their classmates may have received some boost from 'Ehit', after all this was god that played with people for fun. Preparations would be needed.

Shizuku noted his look of concern. Realising his fears she suggested a compromise.

" One week should be sufficient. Make any preparations that you can do in one week. Then we absolutely need rescue Kaori."

Hajime nodded. It was as good as anything given the time pressure.

Hajime immediately got to work with his preparations.

Several Hours Later

Several hours ago they encountered a bathroom reminiscent of the Roman baths of old. It seemed that it could comfortably fit at least ten people. A good bath was something that the trio had not had in a very long time.

Hajime had spent much of the day exploring and rummaging through Oscar's storerooms. He encountered plenty of helpful materials and a few rare artifacts. At the end of the day, he needed the baths to calm down.

Hajime instantly felt all the aches and pains go away. Hajime could not confirm it but it seemed that the bathwater had some kind of rejuvenating effect. Perhaps it was magic.

"I believe that has been quite a few years since I've been to a communal bath. The Yaegashi family house has quite a large bath itself. "

Shizuku was wearing nothing but her birthday suit, Shizuku was glistening with sweat and had her hair tied by a bath towel. Shizuku gracefully slipped right next to Hajime. Hajime couldn't help but stare. Hajime's blush grew redder. Shizuku carefully kept her composure and calmed herself.

How was she able to keep calm in this situation?

Reading his blush, she responded.

"Someone has to keep their composure. Years of sword training will do that for you."

Sensing an opportunity to tease him, she bought her face right next to Hajime's ear.

"Hajime-kun, Hajime-kun. This is the legendary 'mixed bath – hot springs' event. No need to scale any walls, you can stare as much as you like."

Hajime grinned. He would not take this provocation lying down.

"Shizuku-chan, Shizuku-chan. I know about another mythical event that happens in a mixed bath hot spring… You care to try it?"

At this suggestion, Shizuku blushed a deep shade of scarlet. But as a veteran of a thousand real-life battles, her composure had yet to break.

"Perhaps, when the timing is better." She responded.

As she did so Yue entered into the bath.

"No need for an audience right? my dearest."

Hajime stunned, watched as Shizuku left the bath a half-hour later the same way as she entered, with grace and without breaking.

[Yaegashi Shizuku ga shori]

Six Days Later.

Under the light of the artificial sun and moon, Hajime toiled endlessly. Whatever changes happened to his body reduced his need for sleep, therefore he used much of his day to prepare and train.

In Oscar's workshop, he found a magic ring imbued with a type of spatial magic that allowed him to store items in a separate pocket dimension. This solved his problems of storing the materials that they encountered. Even if he could not complete everything in one week he could continue his work later.

However, the progress he made in one week was incredible. Armed with the knowledge of creation magic and the pressure he placed on himself he created a number of important artifacts.

Among them was the creation of a prosthetic arm from himself. The arm was created from the toughest metal that he could find and imbued with magic nerves, that connected to his own nerves. The result was a fully functional arm that could feel just like his old one. Since he was weapons junky, he loaded his arm with plenty of weapons as well.

His artificial eye replacement was created from the remains of the divinity stone that Hajime had encountered. It could no longer produce any ambrosia, however, given its capacity to contain high levels of magic, he imbued it with [magic detection] and [foresight]. The result that he was able to detect magic usage, the mana levels used, the core of the magic, and the element of the spell.

Shizuku's weapons were also given an upgrade. Both [Raikiri] and [Mjolnir] were upgraded into [Raikiri Mark III] and the [Kusanagi] (the name change was instituted in order to bring her swords back to a Japanese theme). Both were created from the world's strongest metallic alloy; Azanthium and imbued with helpful magics. Shizuku was able to use many of the spells that Hajime had, however the addition of these functions aided in mana efficiency and the rate of fire, especially with [Gale Glaw].

He also created helpful stealth items like the [Presence Severing Stone] which was imbued with [Hide Presence] and [Sign Interception]. Hence they prevented the user from being detected.

Shizuku herself did not let up in this week, she began training with Yue in order to practice fighting opponents who used magic. She figured that she could fight Yue, then any other surface-dwelling magic user would have no chance against her. Yue herself was carefully refining her magic after encountering her first real challenge in hundreds of years.

Final Night.

With preparations as completed as far as they could, Hajime rested. Letting the darkness take him he drifted in and out of consciousness. In his dreams, he encountered his only true terror. Hajime felt that he was slowly losing himself. Shizuku was by his side and would be by his side no matter but he still feared the changes he was going through. Every time he stowed his fears away, all he did was avert his eyes until another day.

Hajime screamed once more.

"Hajime?!"

Shizuku rushed inside. Hajime gasped and slowed his breathing down.

"Another one?" Shizuku asked concerned.

"They're not getting any better. When I'm not focusing on something else, my fears come back to me….. It makes me feel like the useless brat that I was back in earth."

Shizuku had no words, she simply hugged him, all she could do was provide relief in his waking moments. Provide love that was one of the links that stopped him from breaking. As seconds passed his hug grew tighter. She had no intention of letting him go.

Growing slightly uncomfortable, he motioned to Shizuku, in order for her to let go. Activating his treasure trove he reached out until he produced a single pendant. It was set with a red gemstone. Engraved on the metallic edge were the words [To my beloved Shizuku, May we never be separated].

"I wanted to imbue it with magic of some kind, but my magic options were limited. So I thought it would make a nice gift. I don't know how long we've been in here but your birthday was coming up soon before we fell into here."

Shizuku took the pendant and clasped it, taking note of the workmanship. She placed it on her neck.

"Thank you it's beautiful."

" I guess you should get a gift of your own…. Maybe its time to cash in on that promise I gave you." Shizuku reminded.

Hajime recalled their earlier incident in the bath. He instantly flushed red once more. Was she really referring to that….

"Are you sure Shizuku? What happens if I…"

Shizuku shut him up.

"It's fine. As long as you take responsibility for what happens next, I'll allow it."

Hajime sat upright, like a soldier accepting an order he replied.

"I'll take responsibility Shizuku! I'd marry on the spot if I could!"

"Alright, I'll swear on this pendant that you gave me, to renew my promise to be by your side forever. May it serve as an everlasting reminder of my promise."

That night Hajime did not dream again. He did not sleep for that night for an earthly paradise had descended, one of many nights to come. His goddess would lay with him until the morning came, making good on her promise to her husband.

The Next Day.

They awoke to an irritated Yue, who claimed that she was kept up all night by their 'yelping' and 'moaning'. Groggily they picked themselves from their state of undress and began preparations to leave the labyrinth.

Reaching the teleportation circle in an hour, they made final checks.

"Are you two ready?" Hajime asked.

"No problems here. Ready when you are." Yue affirmed.

"I'm ready," Shizuku noted curtly.

Hajime nodded and activated the teleportation circle.

At that time they had no idea what lay ahead of them. But in time the world of Tortus would acclaim these three as demons who crawled from the depths of the Abyss and saviours to whom they would owe a great debt.

End of Chapter.

So this is the end of the Abyss arc. Hopefully, I stay motivated enough to keep continuing for a long time to come.

Hopefully, I made some of you guys happy reading my work. Thanks again to everyone who has alerted and favourited my work. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

AsheriteAbyss13 signing out!