Chapter 46: Brainwashed?

"Give me one reason why I shouldn't kill you," Izumi demanded as Conqueror's Haki spilled out of him.

Conqueror's Haki is the rarest Haki out of all three types. It allows the user to exert their willpower over others. With enough mastery, the user may even affect the very environment around them.

Izumi had tried to train his Conqueror's Haki before, but couldn't unleash it. It seems that his boiling emotions were the key to unlocking them.

"What's going on? What did you do?" asked Hori as she looked around in confusion.

Hearing the question, Izumi felt another stab into his heart when she asked the question.

He calmed down and reigned in his Haki. Once the Conqueror's Haki was gone, everyone began to gasp as they took huge gulps of air. Right of the bat, Izumi rose his hand towards Hori, more specifically her cuffs. They immediately began to turn into sand and Hori was free from them.

Seeing that, Kouki stood up and barreled towards Izumi.

"You bastard! What are you doing!?" he shouted with his sword raised in the sky ready to slash the one in front of him.

*BAMM!*

Kouki was suddenly flung to the ground as if the very earth was pulling him. He felt his weight increase by a lot. Izumi had simply increased Kouki's weight as he didn't want him to fall unconscious for having a weaker will than Izumi.

"What am I doing? I'm asking you a fucking question!" Izumi glared at the downed hero.

He squats down to the ground and lifted Kouki's head by the hair,

"Give me one reason I shouldn't kill you?" he asked as he looked at Kouki directly in the eyes.

"Wait!" someone called out.

Izumi looked up and saw Kaori as she struggled to stand up.

"There must be some kind of misunderstanding. Please calm down."

"You are telling me to calm down?" Izumi growled.

Kaori realized that it was the wrong thing to say.

"Wait! Wait! We don't know why you are so angry!" she quickly said.

Izumi projected the cuffs and threw them at her feet.

"Do you know what those are?"

"Those are the cuffs that Hori-san wore," replied Shizuku.

"And do you know what they do?"

"They were supposed to suppress her powers." she stiffly answered.

"And you think it was right to do that to her?"

"Shut up! The Church said that it was because she was a Fallen Apostle that's why she needs those," interjected Ryutarou

"And you believe them like that? Are you an idiot or an idiot?"

"What do you mean? Why would the Church lie to us, "

"Can you please release Kouki first? We can talk about this." Kaori pleaded to Izumi.

Izumi looked at Kouki who was struggling against gravity. He then looked around. He saw that all the knights had fallen unconscious including Captain Meld who had finally succumbed to the Conqueror's Haki earlier. He also saw Hiyama unconscious with them. He saw Shizuku in front of Kaori and Eri while Ryutarou was in front of Suzu glaring at Izumi. But, what hit him was the expression on Hori's face.

She was frightened and confused and the one who put that expression was none other than himself. He saw her take a couple of steps back from him. Seeing that, his anger boiled again, but he managed to restrain it when he realized that they didn't know what the Church was up to, or, more specifically, what Ehit was up to.

'They're simply kids who think that they are some sort of heroes saving humanity when they are, in fact, pawns on that shitty god's gameboard. Speaking of shitty god, that son of a bitch crossed a line when he brainwashed Hori.' Izumi thought.

"Tch." He released Kouki and stepped back.

Once he felt the weight disappear, Kouki moved to attack Izumi, but Shizuku shouted at him,

"Stop Kouki!"

The hero stopped in his tracks when he heard the voice of his friend. He looked at her before glaring at Izumi. He then let a frustrated glare sigh and went by her side.

"Now do you know what is the use of those cuffs?" asked Izumi.

Kaori chose to answer,

"Just like we said before, they were meant to suppress her powers."

Izumi took a deep breath to calm himself,

"Those are its secondary function. Their main function is to brainwash the person into serving the Church or more specifically Ehit.'

" What do you mean?"

Izumi turned towards Hori who had asked the question.

"What do you mean by that? Ehit is a benevolent God. He wouldn't resort to brainwashing. How dare you slander him!?" she continue as anger began to show on her face.

Izumi was taken back at her reaction.

'What the hell? What kind of reaction was that?'

He was about to ask more questions when they heard a loud noise.

*BOOOMMM!*

Floor seventy shook as if an earthquake had hit the floor.

"WHAT THE HELL!?" shouted everyone as they regained their balance.

"Hm. What happened?" asked Meld once he regained consciousness.

Izumi saw the others who had fallen unconscious waking up. It seems like the tremors had affected the fallen people since they stirred awake from their unconsciousness.

"What's going on!?" shouted Suzu.

"I don't know, but we have to get out of here! To the stairs!" shouted Kouki.

Everyone was about to run when Izumi stopped them.

"Wait! You can go from the portal!" Izumi said.

Kouki gritted his teeth,

"Why should we believe you?"

Izumi glared at him,

"I'm giving you a faster exit so that no one dies! Do you really have time for questions?" he snapped.

Another boom was heard, but this time it felt much closer.

Shizuku suddenly asked,

"Can you get us out of here?"

"Yeah. Just give me a moment."

*BOOOOMM!*

Once more, another boom was heard. Debris began to fall from the ceiling.

"Shit!" cursed Izumi and began concentrating on the portal.

He held up his two hands in front of him and a magic circle emerged from it creating a portal. Izumi had poured more mana than usually needed for faster casting. The magic circle blurred before forming a blue ring. The inside of the circle blurred before forming the image of the forest just outside the kingdom.

"Go!" Izumi ordered once the portal was complete.

They didn't hesitate and entered the portal. It's not like they had a choice. Some were confused about what's happening. One moment, they saw a newcomer arriving, the next moment, they were waking up and were told to run through a portal.

*BOOOOMMM!*

Another boom was heard. This time, it was as if it was right above them. Izumi looked up at the ceiling and saw cracks forming on it.

'Something's coming' Izumi realized.

He cast (Memory Partition) to form one room in his mind to focus on the portal and activated Observation Haki. What he felt angered him. Just on the other side of the ceiling was Noint in her Apostle form. Izumi gave out a bitter smirk.

'Seems like someone didn't want their secret to come out.'

At that moment, the ceiling gave out and out came Noint. Izumi looked back at the portal and saw Hori was right behind some people who were going in and was about to let out a sigh of relief.

'Let's just get her away before confronting this world's 'Angel'' Izumi thought.

Suddenly and without a word, Noint accelerated from her position and approached the group. It was at that moment Izumi noticed one thing. She was not aiming for him, she was aiming for Hori.

"What the fuck!" Izumi cursed out.

Even with his superhuman reflexes, Izumi was still human. He didn't have time to react when Noint snatched her up.

"HORIII!" Izumi shouted when he saw Hori disappear and immediately closed the portal leaving only him, Hori and Noint in the Labyrinth. The others couldn't see what transpired and Izumi closing the portal didn't help.

Izumi had a panicked expression when he saw Noint in the air holding Hori by the back of her neck. He saw that Hori wasn't struggling which means she was either knocked out or dead making him use Observation Haki to check her condition. He was relieved that she was indeed alive and simply unconscious. That didn't really solve the problem as she was in Noints grasp Seeing how fast she was, Izumi concluded that her physical parameters were higher than his.

"What do you want?" Izumi asked.

Noint looked down at the speaker with her cold eyes and emotionless expression.

"You are not supposed to be here. My lord has decreed has demanded your elimination," she said.

Izumi gave a wry smile towards her,

"So he finally noticed huh?"

"You are not meant to be here. My lord has ordered for your removal."

"Then he shouldn't have kidnapped Hori." Izumi retorted as he slowly worked his Dark Matter towards Noint without the latter noticing it.

"She was merely an object of curiosity in Lord's game. Just like toys, they will be discarded when they are no longer interesting," she said as an uneasy feeling settled in Izumi's heart.

"Therefore, she is no longer needed," Joint said before dropping Hori and the latter started to pummel towards her death in the abyss.

"SHIT!"

Izumi moved went to catch Hori when he was struck on his side.

"Gahh!" he let out.

'Shit! I let my guard down!' he thought.

Noint had brought out her swords and swung them at Izumi. Fortunately, it didn't cut his armour. Even if he was wearing his Dark Matter armour, he felt the blunt force of Noints sword in his stomach making him fly to the other side of the room and crash into a wall. Izumi hadn't trained in Haki enough to perceive her speed of attack.

Nonetheless, he didn't look at Noint and focused on Hori who was still falling as her velocity kept on increasing. He extended a hand towards her and a cocoon made of magic-infused Dark Matter wrapped around her. He then fused it with a wall so that she doesn't fall anymore. All that took less than two seconds to do. Izumi then turned back towards Noint,

"Alright, time to kill you."

In the meantime, Noint had been preparing another attack.

"I am Noint. An Apostle of God. My duty is to remove unwanted game pieces from my lord's game board. And you were never even meant to be a piece." Noint said.

"Yeah well, fuck your Lord! After you, I'm going for him next." Izumi said as he reinforced his armour and himself before taking flight and giving her the finger.

Hearing that, Noint spread her wings before unleashing a barrage of feathers towards Izumi who used blocked it using a shield of Dark Matter. He knew the apostles of Ehit had the skills to melt anything and didn't want to take the chance with mana. Since Dark Matter is an elementary particle, it can't be melted when it's in Izumi's control.

"You use a strange power that is not magic. It is unknown to Ehit and that is why you must die." Noint said once she saw her feathers were blocked.

Izumi lowered his shield and spoke,

"Let me tell you something, you should have gone for the head on that first strike," he said before snapping his fingers.

Noint tilted her head in confusion when. an explosion came from her side

*BOOM!*

"Argh!" Noint shouted as she clutched the right side of her stomach.

Wide eyes, she was confused about how that happened. Suddenly, another explosion and her arm left arm was gone. She didn't know what is going on. How did her arm explode suddenly She didn't feel anything on her body and she didn't see anything on her body. Finally, a third explosion took out her head leaving a headless body falling into the Abyss of the Labyrinth. She died without even unleashing her power or knowing the cause of her death.

'Looks like Ehit will try to get me killed from now on.' Izumi thought as he stared at the falling body.

He looked around and surprisingly that has not been a lot of damage in the surroundings. He looked at his hands and scolded himself.

'I couldn't even match up to her physically. The only thing that allowed me to beat her was the hax powers of Dark Matter and her arrogance. I also shouldn't let my guard down anytime or get overconfident.' he thought as he saw the corpse disappearing into the darkness.

He had stalled Noint long enough to be able to infuse explosive Dark Matter into Noint's body to kill her.

He healed himself and went towards Hori's cocoon. It opened itself to reveal Hori's sleeping face. He then looked at the abyss and had an idea.

Hori's cocoon detached itself from the wall floated beside Izumi. He then flew down towards the darkness and into the True Labyrinth.