It took a few days, but the dense fog obscuring the base of the great tree in the center of the Sea of Trees cleared up enough to make our venture into the next labyrinth possible.
Flanked by my lovers, I stopped right before the upright stone tablet, noting the engravings of the liberators' crests carved into it, four of them to be precise.
Each of them had a hollow socket resting beneath it, their shapes a match for the ornaments we received from their respective labyrinths. I did a quick count in my head, confirming that indeed, the number of said items matched with what I was seeing.
The path to our desire laid bare, I clenched my fist and then held out my palm below the cyan portal, catching Oscar and Miledi's rings, the pendant from the volcano, and the coin from Melusine's altar.
To satisfy some inane urge or to keep things a buck, I inserted the items in the order in which we cleared the labyrinths. Oscar's ring went in first and lit up his crest on the stone slab, extra writings coming to life on it.
My language ability made understanding it easy and I read it outloud. "Four proofs. The power of restoration. Mark of woven bonds. The path to a new trial will be revealed to those who have everything."
These liberators sure didn't make things easy.
I had forgone coming to this place straightaway because despite my terrible memory regarding the intricacies of the labyrinths, I could at least, distinctly remember Hajime and his party coming here and leaving empty handed.
They had to clear some of the other labyrinths first before they were able to even attempt this one. Us finding that the ones we cleared happened to be exact ones needed to unlock this was a genuine stroke of luck.
However, it seemed that our luck had run out. What was this "mark of woven bonds" and how were we supposed to produce it? What did it even mean? Our interpersonal relationships? Our teamwork?
The other three proofs danced between my fingers in the short time I went over these thoughts and shrugged in resignation. We had come this far, dealing with hordes of monsters, a literal volcano and the deep sea. We'd figure out a way.
Sensing the reassurances and confidence being sent my way, I smiled and looked left and right between the resolute expressions of my lovers, giving them subtle nods before getting my head in the game.
Miledi's ring, Naiz Gruen's pendant, and Meiru Melusine's coin followed in the footsteps of Oscar's ring and fit snugly inside of their holes, lighting up more and more of the stone slab.
Instantly bringing to mind the "mark of woven bonds" conditions, the illuminated crests were connected to one another by interconnecting lines of the same light before lifting off the slab and shooting for the great tree.
The mass of light hit the tree's sickly looking bark and formed the same interconnected pattern, doing nothing other than that, just sitting there and waiting for—Oh.
Yue beat me to it, her booted feet already bringing her closer to the tree.
Being this close to the great tree was no different than standing in front of a wall. It was that wide, and a quick glance upward saw a majority of the crown disappear into the fog and above even that, the clouds.
How such a tree could end up in such a state—in a magical world of all places—when all the tiny ones around it seemed hale and hearty was beyond me. But hey, it's not like I was truly interested in finding out why. That was just my curiosity acting up again.
Besides, Yue was about to use regeneration magic on it.
Hands hidden inside my pockets, I stood beside Siv as we both watched Yue place a hand on the light crest and presumably channel the magic we all gained most recently.
Whatever she did took effect instantly, the light of the pattern surging up the length and breadth of the tree in rippling waves, seemingly amplifying and spreading Yue's magic throughout its entire body.
The first and most obvious change was the color of the bark.
That vomit looking, brownish yellow gave way to a fresh and verdant green without much pushback, the lively color filling every inch of our vision and more as the tree seemed to expand.
Insane.
Long, healthy and large leaves grew from practically every visible branch and rustled with the faint breeze this restorative effect seemed to generate, the sheer number of them and the cacophony reminding me of celebrating children for some reason.
Snapping out of my musings, I strode forward to reach Yue and gained an extra pep in my step when a section of the tree near where she stood opened wide to reveal a cave large enough to fit the entire Haulia tribe.
Without further ado and making sure to give Yue the praise she deserved, our group walked through the opening, stepping into the cage fully and looking around for where to go next.
Behind us, the opening closed shut and encased us in darkness, a situation Yue quickly rectified by conjuring a light above head.
That was immediately proven to be unnecessary when a formation that skirted the edges of the cave lit up below us and engulfed us in its light.
Darkness came along with the light, though just like the latter, it didn't stay long and soon retreated to where it came from, allowing me to put eyes and ears to wherever we'd been displaced.
Wait… we. I couldn't sense the girls. I couldn't sense anything in fact.
The pool of negativity that seemed to hover… somewhere, always waiting and ready to be used was gone. So were the rings I always wore on all my ten fingers.
Speaking of fingers, why were mine red? And when did they get so big? The eyes trained squarely on my thickened and meaty digits and limbs travelled lower and saw that my legs and feet were the same.
My prized boots were gone and I stood barefoot, two pillars of corded muscle sheathed in blood red skin keeping me upright. "What the fuck!" I shouted, the curse coming out in unintelligible garbles.
"What the fucking fuck is going on?!"
Getting even more annoyed at the sounds I was making, I clenched my fists in anger and took a few seconds to center myself. These liberators sure knew how to tick people off.
It was all coming back to me now. I think this is where Yue and Tio became goblins as part of the concept of this labyrinth; being able to recognise your allies no matter what they'd become.
There were also some monkeys Hajime angrily drove to extinction, but I couldn't recall exactly what they did to drive him to such lengths. That wasn't important though. I needed to find my girls.
Did they get transformed too? Or did they stay the same. No matter, I wouldn't find them by standing here and twidli—
BAM!
—what the hell?
Splinters of wood flew past the sides of my face, the heaviness on the back of my head slipping off as I turned around to see who struck me.
It was another red giant. A red, musclebound monster with tusks jutting out of its hideous face, two on the sides of its forehead and the other two on the sides of its chin.
"Oni," I thought out loud in garbles and reached for my own face, finding a familiar tusk configuration while I gazed at the broken club in the monster's grip. It seems my physical abilities were carried over in this form.
In that case then—I ignored everything else and pushed off the ground as hard as I could, soaring past the treeline and taking in as much of the labyrinth as my monster eyes could see.
It was practically a copy of the Sea of Trees, which was supposed to be outside the great tree. Spatial shenanigans had to be at play. That was the only way a whole nother world could be crammed into such a small space.
Unconsciously reaching inward for my cursed energy so I could kick off the air in the manner I'd rapidly grown used to, my attempt was met without success and I cursed audibly as gravity did its work and dragged me down.
My meteor landing cratered the ground in a small radius around me and shook the trees in the vicinity, their leaves falling like tears. The other oni that were closing in on me had all but ran away now.
If they didn't do so when I ignored that attack and jumped, the rest did with my loud and earthshaking descent. Their fleeing forms didn't register for more than a second in my mind before I took to the skies again.
Back above everything, I made sure to take in as much of the sights, hoping that I'd pick on anything, something that would lead me to Yue and Siv.
What I found was the crowns of more and more trees, huddled together and obscuring anything below their umbrellas. Frustrated but unwilling to give up, I jumped a few more times and managed to scan every direction, settling on one afterwards.
Infusing all the strength borne from the blend of my old and new forms, I leapt across the sea of green, moving further and further away from this forest's version of the great tree.
While it didn't match the real one in size and wasn't even located in the center, its position put it at a short distance from one edge of the forest and leagues away from the opposite end.
Unlike Miledi's labyrinth, the others we'd conquered so far were somewhat straightforward, though saying that was being generous. Still, in all of them, the path was clear. Keep moving forward and overcome the challenges in your way.
Based on those prior experiences, I had enough reason to believe Yue and Siv were making their way towards the parody of the massive tree.
If that was indeed the case, meeting up with them could be done in two ways; going to the tree to wait for them to arrive, or actively searching for them or any traces they'd left behind.
The answer was obvious. I may have been a passive person at some point in my life, but that was long ago. I wanted to see the girls and I would work towards making that goal a reality.
So I kept jumping, leaving craters and a few trampled trees and monsters in my way. For the latter, I took some care to avoid repeating the monster mash if I could help it.
For one, I was barefoot, and while a few rowdy goblins did not and would not tug at my heartstrings, stomping them to death was pointless. As a result, I made sure to try and adjust my fall whenever gravity yanked me down.
This led to me spending a slightly longer amount of time looking down instead of straight or up. This is how I caught a flash of white in the corner of my vision, the color standing out like a beacon in the almost painful college of brown and green.
How quickly I changed directions and how fast I ran in said new direction didn't need to be explained. One moment I was tossing a few goblins away, the next, I was barrelling through trees and dense vegetation.
The sudden burst of speed brought me to a stop a few meters away from Yue and Siv, both unaware of me and both looking disheveled as they fought off a relentless assault of laughing, chittering, and howling monkeys.
Eyes narrowed, I whipped an arm out and seized a monkey by the tail, yanking it off the thick vine it formerly swung on.
Holding it upside down, I felt more gaps in my memory cease to exist, the picture of this labyrinth's trials become more legible.
After finding no hint of what I was looking for on it though, I shrugged as well as my current form could allow me and spun the monkey by its tail, its formerly enraged cries turning into ones of a more fearful variety.
Now in the form of a brown blur, the monkey became a bludgeoning tool, sending more of its brothers or sisters flying, all of them dead or either close to it with souvenirs formed from its very flesh.
Ultimately, there wasn't enough monkey to go around, so I was soon left with nothing but a tail. I threw the appendage aside and swatted a few more of the primates aside before mimicking the girls in shortening the distance between us.
"Rick!" "Sir!"
Their voices, expressions and demeanor matched the ones burned in my memory, and that should've led me to embrace them with open arms. However everything I'd observed so far didn't mesh with the Yue and Siv I knew.
How they were struggling against these tiny monkeys was very suspect, and I didn't want to even start trying to unravel the mental gymnastics that went into putting up this ruse.
I just put up a single arm and told Yue to connect our minds, only for me to turn the arm on myself and facepalm when nonsensical garbles were all I heard.
The girls were still smiling despite me holding them at arms length, eager to hug me all the same. I grew angry at the sight, and then at myself, for not even asking how they recognized me in this form.
Tired of this labyrinth and my precious time being wasted, I leapt again and resumed the search for the real Yue and Siv.
It took a couple of more jumps, but I stumbled on a possible trace. I had crushed another monster, but in this case it was already a corpse.
Bending down and letting the loincloth around my waist touch the ground, uses a stick to poke and prod the unholy mix of a bee and hornet, pushing the two halves of its cleanly bisected body together.
Being one of many dotting the clearing and leaking putrid green into the grass below, it was the size of an infant, with a stinger as long as a stake protruding from it butt end.
There were innumerable copies of the pointed black things scattered around, some lying in pieces and more than a few others sticking out of the ground and the trees nearby with more than half their lengths buried.
A mean but ultimately one sided battle has taken place here, and as much as I wish I was present, I was better off dedicating my brain power to deducing the direction the victors took.
That wasn't easy by any means, but I managed to figure something out by using the position of the great tree in conjunction with the placement of bee-hornet hybrid corpses and their stingers.
Changing my default mode of long distance travel from leaping to running, I broke into a sprint in the determined direction. Along the way, I picked up more corpses and signs of battle, the traces boosting my confidence and speed.
I heard them before I saw them.
Siv with her feline senses also picked up on my presence and spun around to face me as soon as I made visual contact.
Her sword and shield were held at the ready, her back to Yue's as the vampire controlled her gold dragon to decimate a group of the monkeys I encountered earlier.
Aware of my current appearance, I didn't take a step further and instead gestured at my head before pointing at her and Yue.
Her thick brows scrunched in confusion, but she didn't take her eyes off me. Probably due to her prompting, Yue left her dragon to rampage on its own and turned around with anger on her usually inexpressive features.
More pressing issues at hand, I stowed my curiosity and waved both arms animatedly, gesturing to my head and theirs. Her frown abated a bit and an inquiring look worked its way into her features. "...Rick?"
"Yes! Yes! It's me," I screamed, letting the wild and unintelligible grunts flow freely.
Almost immediately, I felt a familiar connection bloom within, a single question instead of the usual unfiltered thoughts and emotions. "...Rick, is that you?"
"Babe…" was all I could say before a blur of white slammed into me, a pair of arms failing to wrap around me fully.
I tried and failed to smile—my ogre facial muscles not built for that—and returned the hug, looking up at Siv who looked unsure of whether to join.
"Get in here," I ordered through the connection, the beastman beaming and throwing her own armored arms around me. My new form was big enough for both girls.
We enjoyed the hug for a while before pulling away with much shared reluctance.
"What happened on your end? I woke up like this," I said while gesturing to myself. I had an inkling of what happened since I experienced it myself but I wanted to hear it from them.
They told me of trying and failing to connect their minds with mine once they came to, leading to Yue using her mana sight to determine that the "me" with them was an impostor.
Needless to say, they destroyed it and started a search for the real me while advancing through the labyrinth, a search they thought they'd completed when they encountered a group of infuriating monkeys.
Apparently, they presented the girls with a bruised and battered mimic of my real self, a ruse that was obviously seen through immediately by both of them.
Needless to say, they started slaughtering the annoying monkeys, Yue ramping up her attacks before finally telling Siv to stand back so she could raze the section of the forest the primates called home.
"...Thanks," I sent to both of them with glances, making sure to let them know how I felt.
Letting me know they appreciated my thanks without words, the tigress was the first to break the silence. "Sir, can mistress return you to normal?" she asked, her gaze looking between the both of us.
"It won't work." I shook my head. "This is part of the trial. I'll return to normal in the next one."
"Ahh, okay then. What do we do next?"
I turned my neck to face her. "We finish this trial. I found the end earlier, but I could be wrong," I said, sending over images of the great tree's inferior copy.
"Mmm… " Yue gave her assent immediately. The question of Siv's compliance was moot.
Breaking away from the carnage its master wrought through it, the construct dragon bounded over and pressed its body flat against the ground.
Already familiar with this mode of travel, we all climbed it and soon we were off, shooting past the trees and rushing toward the towering one growing larger in our sight.
Our journey to it went uninterrupted and we finally arrived at its base, alighting and walking up to the face on the trunk.
The whole thing—the expressive visage and the animatedly moving branches—reminded me of the treants in the Orcus labyrinth, just eclipsing the former in scale.
"Defeat me if you want to go further!" the face shouted, all the branches and vines that hung from it coming alive and whipping towards us.
Dodging the innumerable attacks was not difficult. We evaded or destroyed the thick, log-sized branches and danced between the roots coiling and rising from the brown earth like snakes.
However, this only sent us further back, away from the treant but into the waiting vines and branches of the trees in the vicinity.
Though they didn't wear faces of their own, the trees crowded and attacked with a ferocity and congruence that suggested sapient minds guided their actions.
Bending down and seizing the girls by their waists, I shot up to the sky and escaped the green encirclement, Yue generating one of her discs for us to stand on.
"Babe… only you can do this."
"Mmm…" she nodded subtly and held both arms up, generating a familiar blue sphere of flames that spun about a meter above us.
With the application of gravity magic, I assumed, the massive sphere shrunk to the size of a ping pong before growing to its former size again.
Yue repeated this three times before directing her gaze and arm towards the raging treant, the sphere of hyper compressed flame leaving warped trails in the air as it streaked towards its target.
A vine struck the blue ball before and bright blue light filled out vision, a pillar of flame shooting to what counted as a sky in this place before expanding, wrapping the treant and the surrounding trees in its wrathful embrace, the oppressive heat and shockwaves blowing our clothes and hair back.
After delivering its enhanced payload, Yue's Azure Blaze shrunk, the pillar of bright flame collapsing in on itself before winking out of existence, nothing except ashes and blackened earth left behind.
Slowly, Yue brought us lower and forward in the direction of where the treant used to be, the rain of flaky ash falling on us as well.
Steam arose from the ground in many visible streams, the scalding temperature kept away from us by Yue's promptly raised barrier.
Just as we took advantage of the close proximity to admire more of her handiwork, the patch of carbonized ground where the treant used to be wobbled before a flash of green tore through it, extending and widening till the talking tree was before us once more.
We obviously went on high alert, but when the monster said nothing and the portion of its trunk closest to the ground tore open to reveal a familiar sight, we relaxed.
With the three of us in agreement, Yue brought us right before the opened entrance and lowered us. We went in and this time looked downwards, finding a copy of the teleportation circle that transported us into this place.
We reached for one other without uttering a word, the thought "not again" flashing through all our minds. As soon our fingers firmly interlocked, a burst of white light swallowed us and it was darkness again.
.
.
.
.
"Mmmnnn…"
Letting out a pleasant but muffled groan, I stretched a bit on the softness supporting my weight and brought my hand to my head.
My eyes were still closed, but I found the smooth hand cradling my face and palmed it, grabbing it and rubbing my thumb over it. A name popped into my head and I said it out loud amidst a pleased exhale. "Miledi, honey…"
That was the first sense of wrongness I felt in my chest, but the words that were spoken next dragged my attention away.
In a way that suggested she was holding back a laugh, Miledi rubbed her own thumb over my cheek and said, "Dear, it's time to wake up."
Forcing my eyes open, I came face to face with my… wife, yes, she was my wife. We got married… when?
"Dear? Rick?" her worried voice brought me back down to reality. I blinked and met her sea blue eyes, the head of shiny blonde hair scattered around her oval face putting me in a different kind of trance.
"Sorry. Got distracted a bit," I smiled and scooted forward before she could react, stealing her lips and savoring how utterly unique and different she felt from Yue and Siv.
They each possessed distinct tastes and manners in which they kissed, and all of it was enjoyable. Truly, I was a lucky man. Scooting my torso and lower body forward with more nefarious intentions, I felt something and broke the kiss immediately.
Miledi's rounded belly came into sight, her smooth bare skin stretched taut by the absolute unit of a baby in there. Blinking, I felt my mind work overtime to remind me of past events.
A smile took over my features and I palmed her swollen womb gently, heartbeat picking slightly as I grew enamored by the sight.
"What's gotten into you this morning?" I heard my wife say in amusement. Looking up, I caught her delight and my smile went even wider. "Nothing… I'm just happy."
"Well, you'll be even more happy when you help me into the shower. Come on." Ending it with a quick peck on the lips, she turned and lay on her back, pushing away the numerous white, fluffy pillows that helped her sleep.
On my feet faster than she could even blink, I went over to her side of the bed and helped her. She pouted as she slipped her feet into a pair of slippers, my mind digging up an explanation immediately.
"If you guys just let me use my gravity magic, all this would be unnecessary."
Since we'd already had this discussion with Yue and others and she'd come out the loser, I didn't even heed the urge to roll my eyes.
"No using magic to move in the late stages. Not when we're here to help you."
"Hmph…" she said while dragging her feet on the carpet and moving toward the glass window. "Come and do that thing before I go."
Eyebrows rising at the image of the thing and said thing not being sex, I stepped behind her, pressing my chest flat against her smaller back before placing both hands right beneath her bump.
With utmost gentleness and little to no strength, I hefted the baby and supported a good amount of its weight, Miledi releasing a long moan of relief and satisfaction as she relaxed her full weight into me.
Her eyes remained closed and mine were fixed on our reflection, on my face in particular. My hair was black and my eyes were brown, and the sight made me uncomfortable for some reason.
That sense of wrongness again. First it was Miledi and now me. What else—
"—Rick?" Miledi's worried voice cut in again.
"Yeah," I hastily replied. "Are you good now?"
"Uh huh. I'm gonna jump in the shower now. You can let go."
Gently and carefully bringing my arms lower I pulled my hands away and watched her amble over to an opaque glass door, the latter sliding open on its own to allow her entry.
While the door slid shut on its own again, I looked at my hands, a lightened sense of wrongness filling my chest.
Giving my black hair another glance, I slipped into a pair of comfortable slippers and left the gigantic bedroom, going to where my memories dictated the others would be at this time.
I found a very tall, very blonde, and very very pregnant Yue in the kitchen, the vampire hard at work working on multiple things, two of which I recognized; a cake, chocolate if I was right, and some kind of sauce.
Wait… why does it bother me that she's tall and blonde? My mind went off on another tangent, spiralling off into a loop that seemed to bring me closer to… something.
This "something" drew closer and became clearer with every questioning daydream, but as always, someone always yanked me back to reality.
"Sir?"
I blinked and shook my head, finding Siv before me, the beastman in a long flower dress, an apron draped over it while she held a baby on her hip, bobbing it up and down gently.
"Siv," I responded and reached for the boy, Dean.
He was not just my first, but Yue's as well. Careful not to use too much strength, I hooked him by the armpits and resisted the urge to throw him and make faces.
I didn't want to go on another mental tangent with him in my arms. Instead, I flicked his pacifier, his tiny fingers clutching the offending appendage while his wide eyes looked around.
Shifting away from him to glance at the busy Yue and then at Siv, my eyes going down to the bump outlined by her apron. "How's everything?"
"Perfectly fine sir. You know how the mistress is."
"That I do. But I was asking about you," I said, the last part a near whisper as I leaned forward and stole her lips, an act she reciprocated with matching fervor. Down low, I reached forward with my hand and gently palmed her bump.
The kiss was slow, gentle, and long enough to convey the wealth of words and emotion we wanted to let each other know. Pulling away from her reddened, swollen lips with much reluctance, I stopped touching her bump and licked my own lips.
"Doesn't your mistress need you?"
"Y-yes sir," she said and scampered off.
I followed her and looked down at mister grabby hands yanking my hair into different directions. "You want to see mommy, hmm…"
Stopping by Yue, I quietly bobbed up and down and just smiled, holding back the urge to shake my head.
Ever since we defeated Ehit and settled down, she'd been feeling lost.
I had the company. Siv had the joy of being my secretary, and Miledi had her school. Yue… had nothing. On the days she didn't accompany any of us, she sat at home all day doing nothing.
So after fear of losing her sanity to the boredom and speaking to us and other married women, she decided to become a full-time housewife.
She regained her drive almost immediately, the former queen showing the same prodigious determination for learning and mastering new spells toward becoming the ultimate stay at home wife.
She did all the cleaning, dusting, laundry and everything else in the house, guarding her role jealously and attacking anyone who dared to encroach on her "territory."
However, mere "doing" wasn't enough for her.
She wanted to become perfect at everything. Simple chores were mastered easily enough. Cooking though, which I'd come to learn was more of an art than a science (her words not mine) didn't come easily to her like the others.
This is what led to the current sight, her movements about the kitchen right this moment a mere drop in the hours that had gone into becoming a cooking master.
Not even bothering to tell her to slow down, I snuck my way behind her and peppered her neck with hickeys. She turned around and quickly stole my lips, sucking my face aggressively before shooing me away.
Laughing, I heeded my queen's commands and went to the living room, lowering myself into the most comfortable couch ever. On the baby proofed center table, I saw a simple black band and grabbed it, rolling the cool metal between my fingers before slipping it on.
A simple swipe on it brought a holographic screen to life, a list of unread messages displayed on the disembodied screen. Leaning back, I reclined Dean against my chest and flicked my index finger up, the screen scrolling upwards with the repeated gesture.
I held back the excited baby, its hands reaching for the screen and passing through it harmlessly.
"Hmm… these are weekly updates from the company. Don't tell me— wait. The company."
I wanted to start a company after, after…
It all came rushing back like a torrent, waking up on the cold ground, fighting the wolves, meeting Yue, Miledi, Siv, the labyrinths, becoming a red ogre, burning the trees, and then, here.
"I can't believe I fell for this…" My gaze went down to the fake baby, his tiny, determined hands trying and failing to get a hold of the screen. "Though I can see why. Why would anyone wanna leave this behind?"
Suppressing the host of negative emotions that bubbled up in my chest and ignoring the disembodied voice telling me I'd passed, I looked down at Dean and pressed my face into his side, blowing noisy air bubbles.
He looked at me and laughed, his little arms hitting together in terrible clapping form as his pacifier fell from his wet lips.
"Yeah," I said to whoever was listening. "I'm gonna stay a little while."
***********
A/N: For those confused at how he passed so easily, remember that Rick has some perks that work against mind changes and control. And since all perks are fiat backed in jumpchain, they are above even the all powerful labyrinths.
On another note, I've figured out the complete details of the technique Rick will awaken upon clearing all labyrinths, but the domain expansion is eluding me. I'll figure it out though. Just need time.
As always, let me know what you guys think.
Thanks for reading.