Well, this is a first. It's been less than a week since I last posted and I'm already started work on the next chapter but that could be because there was so much I had planned for the last one that I simply couldn't fit into the previous chapter without making it super long. Some of you might ask why I didn't do that as with my MHA story, chapters regularly go over 14K and that's the issue, once you start pumping out super long chapters, you don't stop and that is fine when you have a boatload of ideas for each one, not so much when you don't. Also, to fix some issues, I went back and started to refer to the currency of the empire by its actual name as though one could refer to it as Gold and Silver like with any other fantasy setting, I feel that it doing it un injustice. Anyway, I'm gonna stop rambling and let's get to the chapter, shall we?

Chapter 8: Into the Labyrinth

(Back in Akusho – The Secret Entrance)

"Are you ready?" Lelouch asked Chirona as the two stood in front of the opened entrance to the secret labyrinth that ran underneath the capital. It had only been a full day since there were last here but they decided that they didn't have the time to really think of a plan and as a result, they had mostly spent their day going over their weapons, tools, and supplies if not buying more. Lelouch also secured some transport for them seeing how he didn't expect most if not any of the bicorns to be in any shape to travel back home, though it did put a drain on his remaining funds as he now only had a handful of Denari left.

"Yes, I made sure to check everything before he came, I even brought along medical supplies," Chirona responded shortly as she pulled at the two large bags of healing herbs, lotions, and bandages she has either prepared or purchased throughout the day, but much like her partner, she had spent most of her money on them as she knew that she'll need to treat the worst wounds they may have so that her people had better chances of making it back home to a proper healer.

"I made sure to prepare more alchemic scrolls, and brought along my staff rather than leave it behind." Lelouch said as he wasn't very good at casting spells or charms without it, unlike Cato and Lelei. To increase their odds even more, the smaller satchel he was carrying was filled with scrolls he drew alchemic formulas and circles on. Though the two were talking, both of them could still feel the tension that was hanging over them from the previous night.

(Last night)

"You can make anyone that meets your gaze, even in reflections, do anything you command?" Chirona asked him after he had spent the past several minutes explaining his power from how it worked and how until recently, he had only ever used it on humans, the fact that he also worked on demi-humans was something he didn't expect.

"Yes, and through trial and error, I found out that I can place commands on a person that either stay inactive until certain conditions are met, or make them my permanent slave by simply telling them to obey." Lelouch confirmed as he has just told her of how he had figured that he could create sleeper agents by giving them instructions that allowed them free control over themselves until certain conditions were met. "Though I can only use it once per person, no exceptions."

"That sounds…incredible. You could use it for so much good, ending fights and resolving wars, claiming people down from drastic actions." Chirona told him, smiling at the fact that his power could be used to solve so many issues, she was in for a shock when Lelouch threw his head back and laughed out loud at that, though there was something…depressing about his voice.

"I suppose that it is all that, but it is also a curse. One that it seems will forever be mine to bear." Lelouch told her once he stopped laughing, though he still had a smile on his face, it didn't reach his eyes and his tone, it sounded more like an old and battered adventurer's that had seen many terrible things throughout their time.

"What do you mean a curse?" She asked him carefully, taking note of his tone in worry as it wasn't one someone so young should have.

"I can control anyone, with nothing more than looking into their eyes. I don't need to tap into magic, can use it even against mages, and can cast it on crowds in the hundreds." He told her, repeating just how easy and powerful his eyes were. "That kind of power, it frightens people. And where there is something that frightens them…they seek to destroy."

(Present)

'What could have happened for him to see his power like that?' Chirona asked herself as she looked at her partner as he lifted his staff and cast a simple light spell so that they could see down there. 'Who did he lose?'

"It's round 11 right now, if all goes as planned, we should be out of here in bout 3 hours." Lelouch spoke up as he looked out one of the holes in the ceiling and saw the moon in the night sky.

"And if they don't?" Chirona asked him as they started moving, entering the tunnels.

"Then don't expect us to leave before the sun rises, though going by this map, these labyrinths are massive, you could easily get lost down here." He replied as he looked at the map that his geassed servants had made and personally delivered to them and going by how expansive it appeared, the labyrinth easily covered a fourth of the capital in area covered alone.

"That might be the point, make it harder for trespassers to find their way around." Chirona suggested as like with defensive castles, the builders of this labyrinth could have very well purposely designed it to make it harder for attackers and easier for defenders to move around.

"Or in this case, make it hard for any prisoners to escape." Lelouch added in as from the layout, it would be extremely easy for a scared and starved prisoner to get lost and in some corner of his mind, he could see that if the guards were cruel, they could just let run off, get lost, and die from thirst, hunger or one of the many traps they had been careful to avoid as they went deeper in. "Still, I do find myself wondering, why were these ruins built in the first place? I ask around and no-one seems to even know about them." Though before he could get an answer, he paused as he picked up some noise up ahead.

"What is it?" Chirona asked him as she wondered why he stopped out of the blue.

"Don't you hear that?" Lelouch asked her as he picked up voices coming towards them as he started looking for somewhere they could hide and wait for them to pass.

"Hear wha-" She started to ask but before she could finish, she began to hear them as they echoed off the walls.

"We have company. We have to hide." He told her as he pointed towards a corner which they could rush down. The due quickly rushed towards it and Lelouch stopped using his staff for a light source so that whoever was coming wouldn't see them. It took around 30 or 40 seconds, but they began to see a small group coming towards them, it was a group made up of about 6 people and only two of them held torches as they walked on by. The two held their breath as the group of raiders or was it, kidnappers, walked on by them, discussing something.

"I'm telling you, keeping that damn thing here will kill us all." One of them told the others, sounding angry as if this was something they had been saying for a while now but no-one was willing to listen.

"Hey, the damned monster is chained up in the center of the place, no way it's going anywhere." Another said, revealing to their eavesdroppers that they were talking about some kind of monster and a dangerous one at that.

"Why do we even have that thing here anyway?" Another asked, sounding confused about said monster's presence there in the first place.

"Don't know, but it eats a lot, that's for sure. We may need to make another meat run." The first one shrugged their shoulders as they replied, at that same time, they walked right on by the corner the two were hiding in but due to the lack of torches, they didn't notice the two standing in the shadows, keeping quiet to ensure that they didn't notice them.

"That's the issue, why keep the damn thing? Couldn't we just kill it?" Another spoke up, voicing an opinion that seemed to be the norm going on how calm and relaxed she sounded.

"Because you idiot. The guy that paid us for this entire job was the one that supplied it. Do you want to say no to a huge payday? Or maybe you want to end up as its next meal like the last guy that thought he could kill it." The second one asked him, getting a grasp of fear from the group as it seemed that either the leader of this group or this unknown employer had a habit of feeding their members to this beast.

"No way in hell man, you all heard his screams. That monster doesn't hold back." She quickly responded as the group slowly moved away from where they were. The two waited a while to be sure that they were safe before Lelouch started up his illumination spell again so that they could see. The two didn't exchange words but when they made eye contact, it was clear as to what they just silently agreed on.

'Keep away from the innermost sections.'

Sometime later, the two of them had ventured even deeper into the caves and tunnels, making sure to avoid patrols and keeping to the route they had planned out beforehand. As they went along, Lelouch wondered how they'll get over such a group of potentially injured bicorns out of there seeing by his count, they had been underground for the last hour and a half. As he reached for his punch to check on something, he tripped on a cable, snapping it and triggering a trap. "Dammit!" He cursed as he almost fell over if not for Chirona grabbing into his arm to keep him on his feet.

"You okay?" She asked him as they heard what sounded like a series of doors opening, Lelouch turned his staff ahead of them and shot out a ball of light from the light source coming from his staff's head, that ball of light flew down the hallway they were traveling down, allowing them to see that 6 small doors, three on each side were opening up.

"I'm fine! But we need to run!" He replied but before they could make a break for it, from those now opened doors, large dogs came out and started to charge them. He said large as just one of them was easily half a German shepherd larger than the norm and though he never owned an animal nor was an expert on them, he knew that if even one of them got a hold of him, he'll have to spend quite a bit of time regenerating…that is if he could get away from them to begin with.

"Too late, looks like we have company coming, and fast!" Chirona said as she pulled out one of the two swords she had brought along, this one being shorter than the first and for her frame, looking more like an arming sword than anything else. Seeing that the trap might have very well alerted anyone neat by to their presence as these dogs were both charging and barking at them, Lelouch thought of a way to take them all out quickly.

"Cover your eyes!" He yelled as he held his staff forward and started to recite a spell as Chirona did as he said and both closed her eyes and covered them with her free hand.

"Hear me, grant me your power, and bring forth a blinding light, Flash-Illumination!" He cast as from the little ball of light coming off his staff's head, a bright and far-reaching flash shot out, blinding all those who unlucky enough to have been looking right at it. As the dogs, who had almost on them, hadn't closed their eyes or backed off, they got the full brunt of it as their eyes felt like they were burning, which wasn't far from the truth as Lelouch had added almost double the amount of magic the spell needed.

"Do it!" He yelled as he opened up his to see the dogs whimpering and crying as they pawed at their eyes, trying to clear their vision. Chirona didn't waste any time since as soon as she opened her eyes, she charged the blind and vulnerable pack of attack dogs, cutting them out with quick and deadly thrusts and slashes, cutting off the heads of two of the dogs while she sliced right on through the spines and organs of others. Three of the dogs had been lucky enough to avoid her blade but where two of them were struck with spells Lelouch cast from his position further back, but she spotted the last one and kicked it with her hind legs with enough struck to break several bones and send it crashing into a wall. She then approached it and quickly finish it off to put it out of its misery.

"That was easier than I expected." Chirona voiced as she pulled her blade free from the skull of the last of the dogs, around her were the bodies of around 9 others with 4 others closer to Lelouch, those had been taken down with spells such as lighting and fire which left the place smelling of burnt fur and flesh.

"They were animals, anything else might have seen the spell for what it was and tried to close their eyes." Lelouch said as he walked right on over the carcasses of the dead animals as he approached her, still keeping his light spell up.

"I thought you didn't need to use the words for spells." She asked him as she took a rag out and cleaned the blood and other bodily fluids off her blade before she returned it to its sheath.

"Only some since I have to be familiar enough with them to be able to cast without a vocal spell." He replied as he was no-where his fellow student or his master as both could blow him out of the water in terms of the number of spells they knew. Like for instance, while Lelei was learning how to fly with had staff like the fairy tale witches he read about as a child, he didn't have the magic efficiency or level of control she had.

"It says a lot about you that the spells you know best have to do with fire." Chirona muttered as the two quickly made their getaway, trying to put as much distance between them and the sight of their battle as possible.

'Well to be fair, it's more about ignition and oxygen manipulation but let's leave it at that.' Lelouch thought to himself as he tried to practice the science behind fire-blasts, hence why he could create one with stuff others wouldn't have thought of.

(Later)

"Looks like they're still looking for us." Chirona noted as the two looked beyond the bend and they saw that there was a large gathering of their enemies, seemingly discussing where to look for them next.

"That just means we have to be more careful, a large group could be our undoing." Lelouch advised though he could make use of larger, more powerful spells, they had no way of knowing if these tunnels could take such a strain as say, a massive fireball exploding on impact with which poor sob he was trying to kill.

"Couldn't you just, you know?" Chirona asked him as she gestured towards her eye. As they spoke, the duo took a detour to avoid the search parties, though it will cost them about 20 minutes extra travel time.

"Remember, eye contact and in these caves with bad lighting, that might not be possible." Lelouch replied as there were barely any torches to speak of, leaving them to rely mostly on their light source. Their conversation was cut short when at a bend, 8 of the kidnappers appeared and spotted them neat instantly.

"There they are!" One of them called out as they charged, swords and axes drawn to take them down.

"Dammit, how many are there?" Lelouch asked as he fired off some spells, but these guys proved to be skilled fighters as out of the 6 he fired, only one hit its mark as the others dodged or otherwise avoided them.

'These guys are skilled.' He thought to himself as Chirona started to fight off the lion's share of them, leaving him with just the one but that didn't mean he had it easy as when he moved to block a strike with his staff, his opponent switched things up as he punched him right in the side, the blow being unexpected and painful, made Lelouch lower his guard which left him open for another attack aimed right for his face. Though he was quick enough to avoid the worse of it, he still got a nasty gash across the right side of his face as he was forced back into the wall.

"Lelouch!" Chirona called out as she struggled to take on the other 4, barely being able to keep them at bay lest one get a lucky blow in that would cripple her. Lelouch was able to move out of the way of his attacker's follow-up assault as he dived out of the way as he reached to his face and could feel his code healing his wound, still hurt though.

"Don't worry about me, just be careful!" He replied as he reached into his pouch and pulled out one of his scrolls, using the blood on his hand as a sort of makeshift glue, he was able to force the thing onto his attacker's face when he saw an opening, and before he could pull it off, it set off the transmutation circle, which caused the paper to not only catch fire but take in enough oxygen to cause an explosive effect to the spell, this left the man screaming as his face was subjected to flames hotter than most campfires as his eyes and nose were the first to burn.

"ARG! My face!" The raider/kidnapper screamed out in pain before Lelouch pulled out his dagger and finished off by stabbing him right through his heart, then using his body as a shield, he turned to face the larger crowd as one broke off from trying to kill Chirona to try and beat him, this gave him the perfect chance as he felt his geass activated as he made eye contact.

"You! Fight your allies till the death, don't stop till you or they are dead!" He ordered the guy who almost froze as he quickly came to a stop as the geass order rewrote his neurons and took control of his mind and body.

"Yes, your majesty." The raider replied without emotion as he turned back around and without pause, ran one of his allies clean through, surprising the rest of giving Chirona and chance to kill her second opponent in this scuffle.

"What are you doing?! Snap out of it!" One of the three left standing called out to his brainwashed alley as they locked blades with them, the raider being unnerved by the glowing red rings around the pupils of his comrade.

"Dammit, that skinny bastard placed an enchantment on him!" Another called out she and the last one found themselves having to fight against Chirona, who as the better warrior, was pushing them back now that they didn't have such a numbers advantage over her.

"But how? No way he used a spell that fast!" Lelouch moved in on the one fending off against his geassed puppet fired off a fireball right into his back and though it didn't get through his armor, the distraction proved fatal as the geassed one managed to slice his throat, leaving him gasping for breath as he fell to his reached for his throat before he fell forward, dead.

"We're not giving you the time to figure that out." Lelouch said as his puppet moved to take out the rest of them, with that aid, Chirona quickly took down the last two. Once that was done, she turned to the one which Lelouch turned as he came out of his command, having fulfilled its condition but before he could make heads or tails on what the hell just happened, Lelouch took care of him as he came up behind him and slit his throat as well, giving him a quick death.

"Lelouch, are you okay? I saw one cut you." She asked as she approached him but saw that the cut she had seen before was now gone, though there was still some blood on his face.

"I'm fine. It was nothing major." He responded as he faced her, seeing that she had also taken some cuts here and there but for the most part, she was fine. His response and proof that he wasn't hurt might have been good news for most, but for Chirona, she was more curious as she was sure she saw the wound, heard him hiss in pain.

'Did he already heal it with magic? I could have sworn that I saw a bigger cut than that.' She asked herself but as they were pressed for time as is, she didn't push it as the two started to move again, leaving behind more bodies for the others to find.

"Why did we go down this route? The map clearly said it was a dead-end." Chirona asked him as the two went down a tunnel which as she said, was a dead end. It had been just over 30 minutes since they fought off the last group and since then, they had done their best to stay on track while avoiding any more fights but now she was confused as to why Lelouch decided this route was best, did he read the map wrong.

"Because we need to avoid the patrols of the rest of them, we already killed a few of them, sooner or later they'll wise up and send larger search parties." Lelouch said as he knew that with the bodies they've left in their wake, the rest of those down here would be even more determined to find and kill them, most likely in larger groups.

"And how will having our backs to the wall help with that?" Chirona asked as if there were spotted in this position, they'll have no chance to escape and would surely be overwhelmed.

"Because this dead-end is the closest to where we want to go." Lelouch responded as he smirked as he looked down at the map and saw that this dead-end was very close to where they believed the bicorns and hopefully, the hellhounds were being kept. Though there was an estimated 54m worth of rock and stone in-between them.

"You plan on digging." She asked him as she felt the wall and found that it was solid, meaning that regular digging would take hours if not days.

"Why yes, yes I do. Hold this for me, will you?" Lelouch asked as he handed her the map as he used his one hand to reach into his satchel and pulled out some of his scrolls before he started to place them on the wall in front of them.

"Just to be sure, you have done this before, right?" Chirona asked him as she watched him work, nervous that he might unknowingly cause a cave-in, and at this depth, there wouldn't be any chance of rescue, if they survived the 'rocks falling on them' part.

"Well, last time I used it to cause a cave-in, but making a stable tunnel shouldn't be too hard." Lelouch replied honestly as he finished setting things up, using what knowledge he knew about these kinds of things from when he studied geology and probability before his assault on Narita, though he was being more careful then he was that day and only used three scrolls, one at the top, one dead center and one at the bottom.

"Right, why does that sound like every rookie miner before they head off and never return." Chirona replied, trying to use humor to mask her fear at the fact he had next to no clue on what he was doing here.

"They only had pickaxes and shovels," Lelouch started as he placed his hand on the center scroll he fixed to the wall and started to pump magical energy through it, keeping the flow calm and steady as the rock and stone that made up the wall in front of them started to shake, shift and move. Soon, the path in front of them had been extended and was now 6m longer. "I have magic and intelligence." He finished with a smirk as he wiped some sweat off his brow, that took more than he thought, but he still had enough juice to keep doing it.

"And you didn't think I could do it, come on. We need to move before someone sees us." He said as he walked forward, having complete faith in his work as Chirona followed his example and went in after him, once she did, he moved the rock and stone back into place behind them and though there were traces of it being affected by magic, the wall was the same as it always was.

"And for that, I apologize, your skills with this…alchemy, as you call it is quite impressing. If I didn't know any better, I wouldn't just see you as a student."

"Trust me, this is still an experimental form of magic, it's going to take me some time to make something of it. If you have seen what my master can do or heard about what he knew, you'll know why I'm still the student."

(Somewhere else in the labyrinth)

"What do you mean, you can't find them?" The leader of this group of criminals nearly growled at the people reporting back to him.

"Boss, we've been searching through the area where we found the bodies but haven't found anything." One of them replied as they had spent some time trying to find the intruders, but all they were able to find were the bodies they left in their wake and not much else. This wasn't something their boss wanted to hear as he looked close to drawing his blade and killing somebody. Lucky for them, they did have some news.

"We do know that one of them is a centaur or something like that based on the tracks they left behind." Another quickly pointed out to their boss, referring to the tracks that they had found and had been following, the ones next to the horse like ones were more faded and made by a humanoid creature, hence why they didn't leave much a trail themselves.

"And where pray tell, do those tracks lead?" The boss asked as he took some breaths to calm down as it seemed like they finally had a good lead, but sadly for him, that was all the good news they had.

"They lead to a dead-end, boss." One of them kidnappers reported as they had followed down all the way there with a group 20 strong to take care of the problem but instead of finding two intruders with their backs to the wall, they found nothing.

"Are you an idiot? How could tracks lead to a dead-end? Was there a secret entrance there or something?" The boss asked as he felt his annoyance grow as he hoped that they didn't find one of the many secret paths, he kept that on a need to know basis which is why he was furious that they seemingly found one, how else could they have even entered to begin with.

"None that we know about, we had our boys look it over for like 5 minutes, they didn't find a thing outside some weird looking marks on the wall." Sadly, they had only found some odd marks on the wall that looked too weird to be natural but they couldn't find a single trace of a secret entrance and when one of them showed off where this occurred to their boss, he shook his head at the fact there were no secret entrances.

"Well then, get back out there and find them! You hear me, bring me their heads!" He yelled at them, getting them to jump in fright as they all rushed out of the cavern they were in before the man fell back onto his chair, around him were tables covered with maps and schedules of transports, arrivals, and departures. They hadn't even been set up a full month and now this happens.

"Damn useless fools." He muttered to himself as he wondered how hard it could be to find some idiots in a labyrinth, it was designed to be confusing and as far as he knew, they didn't have a map or guide.

(At that very moment)

"You animals should be grateful, you're about to serve a higher power." Meanwhile, as this was going on, three of the kidnappers were standing guard over the remaining bicorn prisoners, all of which chained up with shackles which connected to large nails sticking out of the group and wall behind the group. The area was dimly lit by only a few torches, there was enough lit so that it could be seen that every bicorn was bruised, tired, and dirty from their ordeal. One of them, an older one who's black fur was fading to grey and white from both age and the stress of their situation, looked up at the guards with aged green eyes.

"What higher power could ask for such madness?" He asked them, sounding tired and broken as he looked at a spot where someone dear to him once was, but now was no longer with them.

"You'll find out soon enough, soon we'll be one step closer to getting closer to your master." One of the people watching over then sneered at them, their contempt there for all to see.

"And…" Another spoke up, someone younger then the first bicorn as they raised their head, looking fearful of the guards of the clubs they carried, he knew they weren't afraid to use them as some of the others can testify. "And how is our people serving this master of yours?" The guards didn't look like they were going to answer, so the area fell to silence once more but after some minutes, they started to hear something.

"What th-!" Before any of them could make heads or tails on the situation, the wall behind the tree men watching over their captives started to crack and shake before he exploded, the wave of rock, dirt, and stone heading for them.

"The wal-!" Was all one of them could say as they tried to flee but they were too slow was they, like the other two, were buried in the earth. Not dead, but either trapped by the rubble or knocked out by it. For the bicorns, they had no clue what to make of this, of this event as they knew it couldn't be a cave-in, they didn't work like that and they only occurred in actual caves, but this came from the wall they all thought to be as solid as the earth beneath them. One of them looked into the dust cloud and started to make out some noises, sounds. As the dust cleared, it revealed to them the dust-covered and coughing pair of Lelouch and Chirona as they waved their hands about their faces.

"That was," Chirona, who had not yet noticed the sight in front of them, started as she coughed into her and. "Dustier than I thought it would."

"We made it through, didn't we." Lelouch replied as he looked around and saw the main reason they were down there to begin, all of them looking at him like he grew a second head. "And it looks like we landed on the mark." He remarked as Chirona turned to look at them and when she saw them, her breath caught in her throat as she slowly started moving forward.

"Chirona." The older one from before spoke up, his tone filled with disbelief as he saw her. That proved to be the breaking point as Chirona started to cry as she rushed him, wrapping him in her arms as she cried tears of joy.

"Hmm, father!" She cried out as she hugged her father, who also started to cry as she hugged her back, happy to see his one of his daughter again. Chirona looked around at the group who all looked relieved and happy to see her, as that meant they hadn't been forgotten and they might have the chance to return home. "Everyone, we found you, we finally found you."

"And we took out these three before they could alert the others, let's see if you don't have keys on you." Lelouch, who up until this point had stayed back and let her have her moment, stated as he plunged his knife into the eye of the only awake guard, killing him before he moved to take care of the others.

"Is Cree here?" Chirona asked, looking around, trying to spot a familiar blonde head but las, she couldn't see one and to that, her father and some of the others looked away, not wanting to be the ones to tell her.

"I'm afraid that your too late, she and the rest of them have already been taken to heavens knows where." Her father told her, watching as she shook from the news, clearly distraught by it like he was as he had no clue where she was of even if she was still alive.

"She isn't here?" Chirona asked as she started to tear up before she slapped herself and wipe those tears away. 'No, I can't lose focus, I found some of them, I'll find all of them soon enough but I need to focus on the here and now.' She resolved to herself as she went to work getting the people out of their cuffs, using the keys that Lelouch passed along to her to unlock them from their chains.

"Any clue as to why you were taken in the first, she has been dogged in her search for you lot." Lelouch, who had taken care of the three men, asked as he came over to help Chirona in getting them free. His methods had him melting the chains connecting them which took time as he didn't wish to burn anyone.

"We don't know much, but they seem to be some kind of religious fanatics, the say that we're supposed to be put to work for their master or God." One of them replied as he was set free by the dark-haired young man.

"Religious? But I thought none of the deities preach hate or supremacy of one race over the other. I don't think I've even heard of an Apostle having that kind of mindset." He asked as even Chirona seemed disturbed by this. He had spent a long time researching every god and goddess and he found no clue or mention of anything close to religious persecution, he was happy about that as it meant something like the crusades of his world could never happen here, or so he thought.

"Well, they seem to believe that their God is stronger and a better one than all the others, but they said names or locations. That's all we have." Chirona's father stated as he was helped up by another one of them.

"We can talk more later, but I do have one more question. Have you heard anything about some hellhounds that might be here?" Lelouch asked them as he freed and last person before he picked up the chain, and deciding that it may come in handy, places the heavy piece of iron into his bag.

"One of the guards spoke about them, talking about how one of them was stubborn and had a violent attitude, but they never said where they were." Another spoke up as she recalled hearing them talk about it and how the younger one, the girl seemed to cause more trouble than she was worth. Of course, trying anything with a hellhound was risky as not only were they both faster and stronger than normal men, but their body temp much higher than the norm, and it increased with excitement or anger. Add in their animalistic instincts and you had something that was hard to fight and impossible to control.

"That's fine, at least we know that they are down here." Chirona replied as she was just trying to ensure that they could save as many people as they could. Afterward, they would need to make a break for it and leave the capital.

"Chirona," Lelouch called out to her as he moved towards the entrance into the cavern, which didn't even have a door. "Do what you can for them, we need to get moving soon."

"Right, alright everyone, I brought as much medical supplies as I could but I don't have enough for everyone so please, could the worst of the group step forward?" CHirona asked of them as she pated the large brown satchel that she had brought with her. It took a while but eventually, the bicorns formed a line with the worst off in the front of it, getting treatment from Chirona as Lelouch stood back and let her work.

"I'll stand watch and make sure no-one comes by." He stated as he took position by the door, keeping his light out so that anyone that came by wouldn't know he was there and he could take them out as quickly as possible.

(Later)

"How much further?" One of the bicorns, a younger who looked no older than 12, asked as the group slowly made their way through the network of tunnels. Once Chirona had done what she could for those she had the supplies to treat, they had set off to get as far away from there as possible. It had been almost two hours since then and it was starting to show as the group started to lag behind schedule.

"Not too far, once we reach that bend, we can take a short break." Chirona told the boy as she came closer to him and gave him a pat on the back, she could have carried him like the other children with them but bicorn simply weren't built for such. Though she was smiling, her heart was breaking at the fact that children, children for goodness sake were involved in this mess. She could only pray that their parents weren't among the deceased and that they could reunite with them.

"Why can't you just let us have a map or something so we can head for the exit? You still need to find these hellhounds you're looking for." One of the other bicorns, an older one in their mid-20s asked.

"None of you are in any condition to fight if you're spotted or ran away. We need to stay together so we can better protect you." Chirona shot that idea down as in the state they were in, they wouldn't be able to both ran away or put up a proper fight and she'll be damned if she let anything more open to then, not when she had them under her aegis.

(With the leader of the cultists)

'I see things are not going as you said they would.' A voice spoke out, surprising the 'boss' so much that he fell out of his chair as he looked around before he realized that it was coming from inside his head, which only meant one thing.

'M-master! Forgive me, things have hit a rough snag, but we'll handle it shortly!' He tried to explain to his boss, an individual that he had every reason to fear.

'Some 'rough sang' intercepted that dog from getting my ore, I sent someone to find out why and they found his charred remains in the woods.' The voice started, the tone and pitch being genderless and ageless, leaving no clue as to who was speaking thanks to the spell's effect to wipe such things from it before it was sent out. For all he knew, he could be talking to a frail old woman or a little boy. 'Another 'rough snag' took out those paid bandits that were supposed to be mining the ore.'

'M-master?' He started, having not been aware that their operations had seemingly been targeted, and that he wasn't the only one but rather than receive any form of mercy or patience, he got something else.

'You make sure that those bicorns arrive where they're supposed to, on time.' The voice told him, ending the discussion with a simple order. 'I need not tell you of the consequences if you fail to do so.' The voice said before he cut the line, severing the mental link between the two and leaving the man in panic mode as it had been a while since they found any trace to follow, they searched the entire section of tunnels where they found those tracks and came up empty.

'Shit, shit! I can't fail here, I can't!' He thought to himself as he pulled at his hair, he knew the prince of failure, he had seen what their leader could do and he refused to end up one of them. 'But how, how do I stop these damn intruders?' He thought to himself before he an idea, a crazy idea but an idea nonetheless. He got up from his place on the floor and went for the exit, as he walked out, his second in command was coming in to speak with him, and seeing him leave, he moved to follow.

"Boss?" His second asked him as the two walked but he didn't answer. Instead, they just moved towards the center of the place, a large cavern which was sealed off by hulking iron doors, and on the other side, they could make our growls which only meant one thing.

"Unleash it." He ordered the guys guarding it, surprising everyone at his insane order to open the doors and let loose a beast none of them could take on.

"What?" One of them asked, caught off guard by this request but it seemed like the boss wasn't willing to wait or listen to them.

"You heard me! Unleash that damned beast." He yelled as he stepped closer into the man's personal space and using his taller height, yelled down at the man, getting him to yelp from fright a she nearly fell over.

"But boss, we have no way of controlling it. It can just as easily turn on us." His second tried to speak reason to him, to get him to stop them before he did something he'll regret and the rest of them would most likely pay for but he wasn't listening as he brushed past the guards and went for the lever that opened and closed the door and against their pleas, reached for it.

"I don't care, it won't compare to what will happen to us should we fail here." He shot back at them as he started to open the door, as the cold, iron began to move, if you were in front of it, you would have been able to make out the ominous red glowing eyes staring back at you as the beast inside let out a hug of breath which came out as a rather big cloud of steam.

'With this, these damned interlopers will finally be dealt with.' The boss thought to himself as he smirked, missing how the beast turned its attention to their group with bad intention as it made its way out of the darkness into the well-lit cavern before it let loose a deafening, frightening roar before it charged them.

They never stood a chance.

(With the group)

"Hold here." Lelouch, who stood at the head of the group, called out as he started to hear voices up ahead.

"You hear something?" Chirona, who at this point, had just learned to trust his rather strong sense of hearing, asked him as he had helped them avoid a few patrols and act as look-out whenever they needed to rest which by this point, was happening more and more frequently as by now, the sun must have rose which meant they had spent a lot more time underground than the originally predicted.

"Yeah, up ahead. I'll deal with it." Lelouch said to her as he turned to face them, also catching the looks of many of the bicorns which showed how tired they were. He only hoped that they finish this soon and got back up to the surface.

"You sure?" Chirona asked him as every time he moved away, it meant he'll have to deal with whatever came his way alone and she already saw he wasn't much of a fighter. He was a quick thinker and ad good reaction time but that's it.

"Yeah, I don't plan on fighting them all, but it will be a good way to gather some information." Lelouch told her as he did the normal thing for this situation which was ceasing the feed of magic energy to his light spell and started making his way towards where the noise was coming from, it was a corner and he was sure to be as quiet as he could. As he looked around the corner, he saw a group that was quite large, made up of at least 11 people, and was making their way towards him. He waited for the group to largely walk past him, not realizing he was here. As the last person was walking by, he got in as close as he dared and whispered so that they would hear him but not the rest of them.

"Hey." He called out to her, getting her attention from the fact a person she no doubt didn't know was speaking to her from behind.

"Hmm?" His voice drew the attention of the blonde woman who turned to face him, confused for a moment as to how was calling her but before she could alert the others or react, he had made his move.

"Could you help me with some things?" He asked her, keeping his voice soft as he cast his geass on her, taking control of her before she ever knew what hit her.

"Sure, what do you need?" She asked him, any semblance of resistance gone as her shoulders dropped and she relaxed.

"Can you tell me where you're keeping the hellhounds you kidnapped?" He asked her, wanting to get the information now as they had no time to search around for them.

"Sure, head down this tunnel and take the first left then the second right. They're near the center of the place." She told him, making him feel lucky that she even knew at all so he quickly looked down at the map he had on hand and marked out the route and noted as she said, it took him dangerously close to the center.

'Of course, it had to be near where we wanted to avoid.' He thought to himself as he put the map away, he could display his displeasure later, right now he had a jo to do.

"Could you tell me everything you know about your so-called God?" He asked her wanting information and wanting it fast but he was in for a surprise due to her answer.

"I can't." She told him, not once showing any signs of resistance which surprised him as he already knew that if a target didn't know, they wouldn't answer as they had nothing to say, the fact that broke the norm was troubling to him.

'This is new.' He thought to himself before he pressed further. "Why is that?" He asked her, wanting to find out why but then another unexpected thing happened, she began to twitch as her eyes started to blink randomly, he didn't know what was going on until he picked up on the fact blood was starting to leak out of her nose.

"Only…our members….can…speak if it…" She managed to get out through what he was sure was a painful experience.

'Wait a moment, you mean to tell me something is blocking here from telling me? It looks like a self-destruct function.' Lelouch observed as he didn't think he would encounter such and quite frankly, he didn't think it was possible. This was something he'll have to research but for now, it might that there were people out there he couldn't question for information, not without the attempt most likely killing them. "Never mind then, I do have one last thing to ask." Lelouch switched things up as he had no desire for her to drop dead, no, he had another use for her.

"…What…is it…?" She asked him, slowly recovering what must have been her mind shutting down.

"I need you to rejoin your group, make up some believable excuse as to why you fell behind but make no mention of me or what we talked about. Once 10 minutes have gone back, could you run off towards the outer areas and start raising hell, triggering traps, attacking anything and everything, and doing your best to avoid capture, if that is impossible, you can take your own life to avoid being taken." He 'asked' of her, setting her up as a distraction to any who must still be looking for him.

"Sure, sounds like fun." In response to this, she nodded her head before she turned around and jogged to re-join her group. He didn't stick around after that as he made his way back towards his party, finding Chirona waiting for him with her sword drawn just in case.

"And?" She asked him, lowering her weapon when she saw it was just him.

"I found out where the hellhounds are being taken, but you might not like where." Lelouch told her before he explained everything to her. With that out of the way, the group began to move again and not even 10 minutes later, they started to hear the yelling and increased foot traffic.

"Where is that?" One of them asked as they took cover and watched as a group of them ran right on past, yelling about stopping the crazed idiot before she did some serious damage.

"I…convinced one of them to be my agent of discord, right now they'll making as much as a ruckus as they can could." Lelouch explained with a smirk none of them saw as he kept leading them on. They had no clue as to how he did that, all but Chirona who had a pretty good guess.

"But wouldn't that mean more patrols?" She asked him as they kept moving, thankfully there were more torches on the walls now so Lelouch stopped using his magic to guide them.

"Not in this area, she's making a mess of things near one of the entrances into the labyrinth, not the one we used but one quite the distance from both here and there." Lelouch shook his head as that was the main point that he geassed that woman to go on the rampage, to begin with.

"So that means they'll be fewer people looking for us here, smart move." Chirona nodded her head to that.

"Our thanks, I have only seen magic a few times in my life but it's always a treat to see a mage at work." Chirona's father, who had largely been silent and mainly dealing with the others, spoke up, impressed by the boy's intelligence, though he could stand to gain a couple extra kilos of weight. Honestly, what was up with magic casters and not working out, from what he was seeing, even he as an old horse, could pick up the land and break him with his own two hands. After that, they regressed to silence as they kept on moving, following the direction near uncontested as most of the remaining kidnappers/cultists were busy elsewhere. They soon knew they reached their destination when Lelouch started picking up voices, though they were soft.

"They should be here." He said as he turned the corner but what happened next was something he nor the rest of them expected. He got jumped by a pissed off hellhound and instantly went on the offensive.

"Got you, you bastard. Not so tough now that I can move and fight!" She yelled at him in fury, her brown hair as wild and untamed as her near glowing red eyes. As a hellhound, she was a being with dark grey, near-black skin along with fur-covered, larger than normal hands and feet-both of which had sharp, red nails that could cut through flesh with ease. The odd thing being that rather than black fur, she processed brown hair much like her wild, untamed hair reaching down her back. She did, however, as said before, have burning red eyes but not they were glowing from fury and not excitement. Hellhounds were both fierce and durable bodies that made them both powerful hunters and dangerous fighters. She most likely knew they were coming as hellhounds had a powerful sense of smell and most have tracked their approach by their odor.

Hellhounds were also a special kind of monster because of one crucial detail, their unbreakable spirit, they take the expression on how you can't get a monkey to do something unless they want to a whole new level. Despite the fact the empire practiced slavery and treated demi-humans as second class citizens, there has never been a recorded class of someone successfully 'taming' a hellhound. They see problems and obstacles as challenges, challenges meant to be overcome and defeated. Sadly, for him, that meant that the hellhound girl attacking wouldn't go down without a fierce fight, one he may not be able to give as she grabbed him in a grabble and pressed him to her body. The extreme heat she was giving off not only burning through his clothes but burning him as well and it hurt.

"Get…off…me!" he got out as he managed to reach for his knife and stab her in the thigh, it was only a flesh wound but it proved enough for her to let go of him, releasing him as he held back cries of pain from the burns covering both his chest and arms.

"Trust me, you kidnapping, cultist bastard, there's more where that comes from." She told him with a smirk that said she was going to enjoy ripping him apart, not even noticing or caring for the wound in her thigh as she got down and low, gearing up to charge him again.

"Lelouch, be careful!" Chirona called out to him as she spotted the other hellhound, this one male and even larger than his assumed daughter, and like her, he was wearing what seemed to be the robes and gear that a blacksmith would wear as the two even still had their heat resistant aprons on showing that they were taken from their homes pretty quickly. As he charged her, forcing her to have to defend herself. 'How they get out in the first place' She wondered as she knew there was no way they could have been allowed to roam free.

"Please stop, we're here to help!" Chirona called out to him as she visibly put her sword away, the hellhound she was fighting at first didn't seem to buy it but with a whiff of the air, he seemed to understand that she was being truthful, though she had no clue as to why.

"Hmm. Well, I'll be damned. Kali, stop! They're not with them." He called out to her daughter, who paused in her relentless assault on Lelouch and jumped back, leaving the guy to fell to his knees from the pain of the claw marks on his arms from when he defended himself and the burns.

"Wait, seriously?" Hearing this, she looked at her father like he was crazy but seeing the look in his eyes, she took a whiff of the air as well and came to the same conclusion he did, that she was attacking the wrong person. That also came with the realization that she had just clawed and burned the wrong person! "Oh Duncan, I am so sorry about that! I thought you were-" She tried to apologize for her rash actions, her attitude going from battle-hungry wolverine to apologetic puppy on a dime.

"Yeah, yeah. I got that." Lelouch cut off her, in too much pain to care that she looked like he struck her as he felt his code working to fix the damage with the mystical power focusing on the burns first. "Damn, looks like I'm going to need new robes." He added as he looked down at himself and picked on the fact his top half was nearly completely bare, with some burn marks on his mark.

"New robes? Lelouch, you're covered with burns! Hold on, I might have some spare ointments for that." Chirona moved to assist him, wondering how in the hell he could write off serious burns like the ones he had when they must be causing him no small amount of distress.

"No need" He got up as he got back up, holding his staff and showing off to the amazement of the group, that every wound on him was gone, healed as if they were never there. "I heal quickly."

"Wha-how?" Chirona tried to ask as she took a closer look, she couldn't even see scar tissue. It was because of that shock that she didn't pick on the fact she was eyeing his chest and slowly developing the muscle tone he was building up. Lelouch, being himself, also didn't see an issue with that as she was looking out of concern.

"That isn't something you see every day." Chirona's father muttered to himself as he had never seen anything like that, but one of the others who used to travel around a lot as an adventurer did.

"He must be an apostle! Oh thank the Gods, an apostle stands with us!" That bicorn called out, nearly falling to her knees in reverence to the divine messenger of a God, one of the few select beings chosen to be their patron God's hand on their mortal planet. At her cry, everyone came to that conclusion as well as many others fell to their knees or held up their hands as if to pray, thanking whichever god they followed for what they assumed was divine intervention to save them from their cruel fate.

"Lelouch…is that true? Are you an Apostle?" Chirona asked him, not being able to believe that for the past two days, she had been hanging around an apostle…Oh my, she couldn't believe she thought an Apostle would try to have his way with her! Seeing the reaction of those around you as the hellhound girl looked like she was about to have a mental breakdown as she just realized who she attacked, he signed in slight annoyance as there was a reason he kept this to himself. Not even Lelei and Cato knew but it seemed like the cat was out of the bag.

"Yes, but I've only had this title for a short time, around 7 months now. I wasn't lying when I said I'm still a novice to magic, even if I can heal from wounds as fast as I do." He explained to them, keeping to the truth but not saying anymore.

"As great as this is, we need to move. Duncan knows that I hate being down here." The elder hellhound suggested to the group, bringing them all back to the present, something Lelouch was thankful for as despite how he acted as Zero, he didn't like being near worshipped, it was just odd.

"Agreed, let's move." Lelouch said as he started moving out of the place, leading them away as the group, though the two hellhounds made up the rear of the group out of the younger embarrassment about attacking an Apostle unprovoked.

"Where the hell are we?" The elder hellhound asked as the group entered what was the largest cavern they had come across. All around them, there was some rubble but for the most part, it was just fine.

"According to the map, we're on track to getting out of here." Lelouch said as he looked over the map at where they are and he saw that if they could get through here, they'll have a straight path right towards the entrance they used.

"This place is huge." One of the kids with them said in awe as they looked around the place, looking at how expansive it seemed to be. Another thing that stood out to them was the fact the cavern was built oddly, in that there were rings around what appeared to be a center stage. Those rings were ruined but still recognize stone seats.

"The map says there are a lot of chambers this large in this area, though I'm not sure why, this place looks like it's meant to be a theatre building." Lelouch noted as he wondered the purpose of this place, and why the builders thought it important enough to build. Heck, their voices seem to bounce off the walls like most concert buildings meaning that it was built to allow a single speaker the ability to be heard.

"Like an amphitheater?" Chirona's father spoke up, using the only reference that he knew of to compare this place to as the group had spread out now that they were no longer in a tunnel.

"You could say that." Lelouch responded with a chuckle as he thought about how they would finally be able to get this done and he could go to sleep as if his sense of time was accurate, he had been awake for close to 24 hours now. Granted he had pulled these kinds of hours before but he was out of practice. However, as he walked towards their exit, he heard something up ahead.

"Hold." He called out as he strained his ears to make out what he was hearing as whatever it was, it didn't sound normal. "What the hell…is that?"

"Is another group heading for us?" Chirona asked him as she reached for her blade, only for him to shake his head as it didn't sound like the normal a group of average-sized people, it didn't even sound like a human, period.

"No, it's just the one." He replied as he aimed his staff down, waiting for whatever he was hearing to make its move as it made out grunts that sounded far too…beast-like for his liking.

"Why does that not make me feel better?" Chirona asked him as she drew her blade, at the same time, the group they had been escorting all ran for cover to hide.

"Because whatever is coming…is big…very big." Lelouch started but came to an end as the creature he was hearing begun to appear down the tunnel, it is close enough for the rest of them to rear while the two hellhounds had smelt it coming before he had heard it, with the beast being closer, it' fowl stretch started getting to them with the younger covering her nose to try and block it out.

GRRRH

The beast growled as it made itself known, stepping into the large cavern with each footfall sounding to be harsh and heavy. The monster was a large one, easily being over 23ft(7m) tall, the creature possessed and giant and very muscular humanoid body with the lover half more akin to a bull, with bovine hooves for feet and a head similar to that of bull with full, black horns. Its pale skin was heavily contrasted by its dirty, brown fur. Its hands were covered in red, same as its face as from its mouth, the leg of some poor soul hang, the owner long since killed and eaten by this minotaur. As soon as the minotaur entered the cavern, it's eyes focused on the ones still visible as its nose picked up the scents of not just males that it'll kill and devour, but females as well and while not human, they'll do for now. In response to all this, it reared its head back and gave out a mighty roar, the half-eaten human leg falling to the ground from its mouth as it beat its chest with fists so large and powerful, Lelouch was sure a single strike could easily smash his ribcage and kill him, even if for a short time.

"Oh shit." Lelouch cursed out of character as he took a step back out of fear and surprise as never had he imagine he'll see one this close, came face to face with one of the most dangerous creatures this world on the offer. A Minotaur.

"Oh, you got to be kidding me." The young hellhound cried out so as to be heard over the roar.

"Is that a-" Chirona asked as her sword arm shook from the fear running through her, she may have never seen one, but she had read about them or heard of them like everyone else there. She knew what this beast was capable of, and she knew what it would do to any girls that it got those large hands on.

"A Minotaur." Her father whispered out, having only ever seen two in his own life but this was years ago when he was younger, stronger, and not starved and injured. Seemingly having proven its point, the minotaur charged at them, it's fists ready to crash and who got in its way.

"Scatter!" Chirona yelled at them as they ran in different directions, staying in groups of two as they went as the rest of the bicorns retreated further and further into cover and hidey holes to wait out the upcoming battle.

"How in the heck did a Minotaur get down here?!" Lelouch, who was with the elder hellhound yelled out in fright in anger as he and the older male took cover behind some broken stone chairs. His question was a valid one as though rare, accounts on minotaurs were easily accessible to those who could read, and in every text, he'd seen, none of them seemed as large as this one. Heck, the monster trying to kill them all was easily a full 3ft(1m) taller than normal.

"How should we know? We didn't even know there was one, to begin with!" The elder hellhound shot back to him as the creature turned its gaze to them again, forcing them to ran away as it brought down its fist on where they just were, crashing the stone like it was nothing and making it clear that if they hadn't moved, they'll be red paste right about now.

"Any clues?" Chirona, who was with her father asked him as they ran while observing the thing, the girl wishing she had brought a bow and a lot of arrows as at least then they could engage it from a safe distance.

"Not much, all I know is that these…things aren't native to the central provinces of the empire, meaning someone went through a lot of trouble to get it here." Her father replied as they scooped up a child that had tripped and helped them along to relative safety.

"And gave it some exercise tips, look at that thing! I knew that they got big but that is something else!" The younger hellhound asked as she came up and took the child off their hands so they could focus on the issue at hand as the damn thing seemed hell-bent on taking out her father and the Apostle first.

"No choice, Chirona, keep them safe! I'll hold it off as long as I can!" Lelouch, also realizing that this thing seemed oddly interesting in trying to kill him, called out to his companion as they needed a way to keep it busy long enough to get the others to safety.

"What?! Are you crazy?!" She called back to him as he used his staff to fire off a magic missile spell, the red streak forming from his staff and flying towards the beast where it struck it in the arm but all that did it make it angrier as it increased its ferocity in trying to grab and/or crash him, leaving him to double his efforts to not be caught and brutally killed.

"Maybe!" He yelled back at the same time the elder hellhound had picked up a piece of rubble and tossed it hard enough for it to fly and hit the minotaur in the back, the beast roared as it turned to face whatever just did that to see the hellhound egging him on.

"Hey, you oversized cow! You want to eat something?" He started as he picked up another, even larger boulder onto his shoulders and squared off to throw it. "Try me on for size." He taunted the beast as Lelouch used the chance to jump back and create more distance between him and the beast.

'Let's hope that I know what I'm doing. That thing is the size of a knightmare, heck, it makes the Gawain look small!' He thought to himself as he watched the hellhound man toss another boulder but this time, the minotaur caught it and with more force and greater speed, threw t back, nearly hitting the man if he didn't dodge. He felt his fear rise at this new threat as sure, he's taken down armies before but that was all due to planning and foresight, as well as having some fighting chance in the way of numbers or equipment. But now he didn't have the Black Knights, he didn't have his Britannia forces, nor Kallen or Suzaku. He was on his own with only a newbie adventurer and a blacksmith as back-up against a beast that would make even the largest knightmares he knew look small.

"No matter, I made a promise, and I'll see it through to the end!" He said aloud to get himself ready as he pulled out one of his scrolls and held out staff as he channeled his magical energy through the both of them, this caused not only the crown of his staff to glow purple, but for the scroll he was holding in his other hand to start to burn from the edges while the paper stiffened up due to his magic forcing that, leaving a small fire which though warm, did not grow any further.

"Let's see if we can't turn this oversized farm animal into a pile of burnt steak." He called out to the beast as it turned to face him, only to get a fiery paper thrown into its face which then exploded.

.

.

.

(On another world – at the same time)

'I still need to finalize those new health-care proposals before I can bring them before the Senate tomorrow.' Nunnally thought to herself as she sat in her temporary New York palace, handling paperwork. She signed to herself as she opened her eyes and looked out to the gardens, wondering if she'll get time to go out and enjoy them. 'And there is that charity benefit coming up in two days. Lord, I'm swamped.' She felt like she had overstretched herself but she resolved to get her work done. She had always wished for a gentler world and as the 99th Empress of Britannia and 1st empress of the world, she would get that done. At that moment, she heard a knock on her door, if this was normal, she would have been alerted to anyone coming towards her office but she knew only one person who wouldn't be announced. That person turned out to be her oldest friend, Suzaku, who along with someone else, entered the room, dressed in his attire as the knight of one. The white cloak fitting him perfectly, though he often said he wished it had more blue to it.

"Nunnally, you called?" The 19-year-old, Japanese born, Knight of One asked as he entered the room and bowed to her, though she had insisted that he didn't need to do such things, she had given up as it could be both stubborn and a sticker for the rules. However, along with him was another person, the Knight of Two and arguably, the best knightmare duellist in the world, Dame Kallen Stadtfeld. She was a woman that earned both the respect of her allies and fear of her enemies as the pilot of the Lancelot, having been made its pilot at the ripe age of 16, from that point she under Princess Cornelia, had decimated the entire enemy armies. All that earned her the nickname of the White Witch.

"Yes, there is some terrorist cells in Germany that have been causing some issues, local police have failed to put them down." Nunnally told the two as she had heard reports from their branches in Berlin that there had been increased activities from rebel groups who wished for Germany to secede from the empire and become an independent state once more, but they had chosen to show this by kidnapping and killing imperial officials and blowing up an imperial office building in Hamburg.

"Would you like us to head over and sort things out?" Kallen, someone that though close to Nunnally, was more loyal to her due to the fact Cornelia was loyal to her, asked as it had been some time since she as a pilot had seen some action. Something she was happy about.

"No, Just you Kallen. I want you to take command of their local police and military search, Suzaku. I need you to review some of the new arms deals that the committee is going to discuss next week." Nunnally told them as she handed them their two different assignment files. Suzaku took some time to read over them and saw that this wasn't a new deal for weapons but a government mandate to take out of service over 60% of the remaining knightmares from both the UFN and the Britannian armed forces.

"We're finally doing it, cycling out those outdated Sunderland and Gekkas?" Suzaku asked her as even during their last great conflict against Schneizel, units like Sunderlands, Gloucesters, and Gekkas were obsolete and in showed seeing how most of the casualties were from pilots on those frames. Still, some did make him work to destroy them as he flew the Guren into battle.

"Yes, most would be stripped of their weapons and repurposed for construction, the rest will be broken down doe scarp or spare parts." Nunnally replied with a smile as she was happy that so many weapons for war and destruction were being taken out of service and are being used to build and repair.

"That's good, after everything that's happened, there are still millions without homes. No offense Nunnally, but I hope that Schneizel is burning in hell." Kallen told her as even when she first met the prince back before their campaign to take the Middle Eastern Federation and establish Area 18, she always felt dirty around the guy. Her feelings for him got even worse when news got to her and Guilford that he had her shot and she barely survived, though sadly the warrior woman who she would follow to hell itself was now confirmed to a wheelchair, the bullet had damaged her spinal cord and even their best surgeons couldn't repair the damage.

"(Sigh)None taken, what my…brother did, what he tried to do, it is simply inexcusable. He couldn't have escaped the death penalty." Nunnally replied as though she didn't hate her brother for what he had done and what he wished, the sibling love and connection between them as long dead. She even felt disgust for him when at his trial, he cried and begged for her to save him once the judge handed him the death penalty for his crimes both against Britannia, and humanity. It seemed that God complex couldn't take the fact he was judged as a man and died like a criminal, hung by the neck in front of a crowd of thousands.

"It was justice, he wanted to be a God and rule over the present," Suzaku started as he looked towards the wall, where a painting close to Nunnally's heart hung, it was a recreation of the one she once had in the Aries Villa as a little girl that sadly had been destroyed along with Pendragon when Schneizel had fired a F.L.E.I.J.A. which had destroyed the city and killed everyone there.

"But instead he was judged by humanity and cast to the past, as a symbol of everything we fight against. Cornelia sure did appreciate it, couldn't stop talking about how she always figured there was something off about him, even when they were kids." Kallen said as she recalled how happy her princess was at the news, she hadn't attended the trial, saying that they were in the same room together, she would have tried to kill him, but she did keep herself up to date on it. She hadn't seen her that happy in a while as the news anchor reported that the former PM would be put to death by being hung from the neck until head.

"Are you sure that wasn't her disgust at the fact she once had a crush on him rearing its head or was it the fact she could never defeat him in a game of wits?" Nunnally laughed softly to herself as she looked at the picture that hung on her wall, one that showed her a little girl with Cornelia, Euphemia, her mother, and her uncle, Victor. She missed those times but she found out her mother, who never really died, wasn't who she believed her to be and both Euphemia and Victor, or V.V. as he liked to be called in public, were both dead. One having been killed in a terrorist attack, the other by assassination.

"Don't know, but I kept my mouth shut." Kallen replied as she had been happy about it, but she didn't say anything about it. "By the way, has Milly finished that press release yet?" She asked, referring to the (perverted) woman that Nunnally had placed in charge of their public relations department, the successor to the ministry of propaganda that had existed since the 1920s.

"Not yet, they want to be sure that it's perfect so they asked to wait for the first anniversary." Nunnally said with a sigh as they all recalled that the first anniversary would mark in their history.

"Odd, I kinda forget that so much time has passed since…you know." Suzaku said as he looked down, ashamed that he couldn't do more to save more lives, now all they had to show for that terrible time was graveyards filled to the brim with tombstones and empty coffins, the blasts from the F.L.E.I.J.A.s having left no bodies or remains to bury.

"I don't think anyone can forget. Especially the people of Pendragon, Tokyo, Constantinople or Luoyang." Kallen whispered as they call remembered Schneizel's madness, his attempt to force the world to submit to him and him alone. He first destroyed his capital, his place of birth as a show of force. He then destroyed most of the Tokyo settlement in an attempt to wipe out the core elements of the UFN's fighting strength. The Vermillion forbidden city, in the city of Luoyang, had been strike to try and wipe out the leadership of the UFN. Lastly, Constantinople had been an accident, believe it or not, the missile was on route to Paris and they had intercepted it, but because Suzaku missed the shot, rather than destroy it, it only damaged its guidance system, leaving it to crash and detonate where it did.

Suzaku still hasn't forgiven himself for the fact his mistake cost the lives of over 6 million people, and lead to the rising unrest in the middle east as the regions shining city, it's symbolic capital, was for all intents and purposes, wiped off the face of the earth. Still, he had been in fighting spirit when they had launched their last ditch effort together with the Britannians to take down the mad prince and destroy Damocles.

"The survivors you mean?" Suzaku said, bitter over all the senseless death and chaos that one man brought onto the world, one man he had the chance to kill, but let him live out of a sense of right and wrong. Nunnally, seeing that the current topic was doing nothing for their mood, decided to change the subject.

"Let us leave such dreary talks for some other time, why don't you tell me how you two have been getting on? Kallen, I hear you finally said yes to Gino's requests for a date." Nunnally asked her, asking her on her response to the continuous attempts from the former knight of three, now her minister of finance. Who knew he had such a talent for numbers?

"Oh for the love of fuckin Christ! I only did that to get him to stop!" Kallen shot back as ever since she met him when she was 17, the ass hadn't taken no for an answer, no matter how many frequently and harshly she told him no. All he'll do is leave for a couple of days and he'll back at it the next time they saw one another. It was made even worse when she made Knight of Seven and they were deployed together a lot. As this was going on, unknown to anyone on the planet or even I C's world, two beings far older, stronger, and more capable of anything man was, observed them.

"Everything is going along quite smoothly," Janaysia smiled as she observed this on a tear in reality that acted like the TV for her. As she observed, she gave herself a pat on the back as she watched how her handiwork seems to be going on without issue. "This might have been some of her best work in recent years."

"I would agree with that, it's not every day that we use our powers to rewrite the memories of an entire planet." Hardy, the Queen, and Goddess of the Underworld, spoke up from her seat next to the elder God. As she had just said, Janaysia had used her powers to not only rewrite this world's history but to erase any mention of Lelouch vi Britannia. "Still, pretty odd for you to do so, why not destroy the planet and be done with it?" She asked her out of curiosity.

"Come now, why would I do such a thing?" Janaysia answered her question with a question.

"Either way, I do love how you rewrote everything to make that crippled, frail little girl the most powerful person on that planet. Are you finally coming over to my side of thinking?" Hardy saw that she wasn't getting anything out of that and decided to ask something else as in this new reality. Several major things had been changed, the first being that Nunnally was the only child of Marianne, and though crippled-she was never blinded, Kallen joined the Britannian army using her noble status, which got her to the Lancelot a full year before Suzaku would have received it, Victor or V.V was a loving uncle who took in Nunnally and cared for her up until his death in a terrorist attack, Euphemia was assassinated by one of her siblings, Suzaku and Nunnally remained close throughout the years and founded a rebel group together. And lastly, the Lancelot and Guren switched pilots.

"No, granted it would have been easier to make that Schneizel fellow the leader of this united planet, but he and I don't share the same views and he would have tried his best to keep things as they are and I resent that." Janaysia replied as she didn't care all that much for male or female, she was a being that was genderless and could change to whichever one she wanted. She understood its importance to the survival of a species but that was it, she saw each as equal as one couldn't exist without the other, it was like hating the darkness but loving the light. "And yes, her elder sister, Cornelia I believe was the better choice but really, I chose this route on a whim."

"But why do anything? The last time you got involved with any of the universes of the infinite cosmos was well over 20,000 years ago. When you ended that long going ice-age on that one planet." Hardy said as though she wasn't a God at that point, having only taken the mantle around 7,000 years ago, but she had heard from the others about it seeing how the planet in question had been locked in an ice-age for around 32,000 years.

"Because he got my interest, and I thought it would keep his mind at peace and more importantly, keep him focused on the role I wish for him to play if he could think that his world is stable…at least for the moment," Janaysia responded with a smirk as though the odds of even wanting to return after his big last act were lower than the odds of him returning to this world, she still did him a little something-something to make sure the peace would last at least two, maybe three decades and yes, she could just get rid of him at any time she so chose to, she preferred not to as he had been quite the entertaining little mortal.

"You mean that weak human you brought back to life and sent him to our garden?" Hardy's mood dropped at the mention of that man. Honestly, she couldn't see why Janaysia went out of her way to even bring him back to begin with.

"He has a lovely penchant for change and destruction." Janaysia responded with a smirk as she could already see it, the change that boy would bring to the world, even if he'll have to drag it kicking and screaming with both arms broken.

"Exactly, that boy is a danger to our carefully cultivated garden, he is a danger that needs to be dealt with." Hardy told her as someone like that, he didn't belong in their garden, he was an unwanted bug that would chew away at their flowers and ruined things if left unchecked. She was left shocked when Janaysia threw back her head at this and laughed, she laughed so hard that while her skin tone changed green and her hair faded out, leaving her bald with red eyes, she didn't even stop as she let it all out like she just heard a very funny joke for the first time.

"Of course he is, why else would I have bothered to send him there to begin with?" She asked her fellow God as if she was speaking to a dumb child, aggravating the queen of the underworld at the sheer disrespect. "Need I remind you that I never agreed with this pact that you and the others seem to follow? Besides, such a thing goes against my nature and I despise a stagnant world, realities that lack change and evolution are deserving of destruction as far as I'm concerned."

"If you don't move to deal with this, then we will." Hardy tried to threaten her with action from the other Gods but quick as lighting, no quicker than light, Hardy found herself grabbed by the neck in a far stronger hand then it looked and slammed into the platform they had been standing on, though it was made out of a material trice as dense as gold and four times tougher than titanium, it still cracked and broke on the impact, leaving the queen of the underworld held down by an irritated goddess of evolution.

"Little girl, NEVER forget who is the oldest of the Gods, who is the stronger of the two of us, who is the strongest of all the Gods. I was there from the beginning, and I'll still be here in the end." She told her, her voice seemingly coming from everywhere and no-where as she hadn't even opened her mouth or moved her lips, tough her grip got even stronger on Hardy's neck as she came in closer, staring her down as her eyes changed to two suns, only not burning her as she held back the power of the two suns she had brought about.

"I'll leave my interference in our garden to a minimum, but unless he does something drastic, you are NOT to touch him. If you do, then you or any other God that tries will draw my ire, is that understood?" She ordered the girl, though she still framed it as a question to Hardy who quickly nodded her head before she let go, once she released her grip on the bruised neck, the Goddess of the Underworld made a speedy retreat, teleporting away from here back to her domain.

"Foolish girl." Janaysia muttered to herself as she changed to back to 'normal' as she turned her attention back to the world she had been watching. "Still, I can already tell she and the others will not listen, not for long. Still…" She observed how people moved about and interacted with one another, but they were some that acted differently to all the rest. Those being people like Cornelia, who would get a vision of a mysterious dark figured man. Or C.C who in her dreams, would see this young, arrogant but charming dark-haired boy with purple eyes she had never met before. Nunnally would remember a sadness for the death of someone she loved but couldn't recall who that person even was. Kallen held out against Gino for so long because, in her heart, she felt as if she loved someone else, but couldn't recall if that person was real or not. All of this, was by design as while she told Hardy she wiped all traces of her Apostle, she had been lying as she had left hints here and there in the minds and hearts of those closest to him.

'It seems that it is starting, I wonder. What will you do with this knowledge, will you dismiss it, wallow in the past, or use it to grow and change?' She wondered to herself with a smile as she knew that sooner or later, they'll figure this out as she had left enough clues for it to be possible. 'For our own sake's, I hope you don't take that last choice.' It would be a shame if they tried to do something foolish, she would hate to have to destroy this world.

And done! Another chapter, even longer than the last one has finally been completed. How was it? Did you all like that little bit at the end there? As I said, the first chapter was inspired by another story and in that one, once he as exiled from his old world, C's World corrected for this by wiping out any mention of him from the minds of the world, though I have no clue how things like video, text, and pictures would have been taken out as well, here, I just had Janaysia rewrite the whole damn script. If you want details on this new world, then ask for them in your review as it's not important but I can send you summaries of it if you want.

With the Minotaur, thoughts? As I haven't gotten that far with the manga yet so I have no real clue on how large one of them can get but I did try to make this one especially large, as to why's it's that big, which will be revealed in the next chapter. With his immortality, let's face it, there was no way he would have been able to hide it forever as someone would notice that his wounds don't stay long, nor does e seem to age as he looks to be a guy in his late teens, wait like tree years and someone would notice that he hasn't aged. So I decided to get it out and done with here and now just to get rid of it.

Also, it was a fun way to reveal to the cast that he is an Apostle since as far as the residents of this world know, the only ones who can heal like he can are those who have been chosen by their Gods or Goddesses to be their heralds. No-one would assume something else so no, it made it easier for him to explain his powers as technically, he isn't lying, he's just leaving out some information. The reactions from the Bicorns and the Hellhounds is based on how Rory was treated by regular folk in the anime as though some of that is no doubt due to the fact she's well over 900 years old and has made a legend of herself over all those years, I amusing that just being an Apostle is enough to warrant some brownie points with the locals unless you show yourself to be bad.

With the fights, how were they? I wanted to portray that through Lelouch has improved over these last seven months, he's still far from a fighter as up until this point, e had surprise and fear on his side, in a straight-up fight, he's still lacking. Don't worry though, that will be a problem that he fixes…eventually. Speaking of which, have any of you guessed what is happening with him? If you have, please don't put them in your reviews but rather, PM me instead so you don't just repeat what someone else said.

Now, Reviews:

Abyss Trinity: Thanks for that, though I wish that the news didn't remind us about all the bad stuff like 2020 dropped some bonus tracks on us.

Vein Bloodborne: That was more to show the contrast between him and Suzaku as we all recall that Arthur the cat took just about every chance it got to bite him, Lulu, on the other hand, is great with animals, even ones you would think would try and attack him. With the Hellhound girl, I'll let the story tell itself.

M2R: Well, yeah he's matured a bit, he did have to go through a lot of shit in the timespan if just two years, though that newfound maturity also made him realize that he's the C.C now, but instead of a craving for all things pizza, he as an appetite for meat, doesn't matter what kind so long as it's meat. Chirona isn't going to be a Shirley clone, just like Shirley in that she's inherently kind and relatively forgiving.

OBSERVER01: Well, that's more him trying to find warmth from a fellow person seeing how despite how he chose to live his life, people are still social beings, and subconsciously, they'll carve for that friendly touch. Even detach C.C seems to do that with her Cheese-kun as she was regularly seen hugging that thing like it was her child.

FateBurn: Thanks.

Dontus -not Donut- Powerus: I write using Microsoft word, though I'm borrowing someone else laptop since mine broke down. I also make use of Grammarly to make sure that chapters have as few errors as possible.

Zathol: Thanks for that and even though they've found some of them, there is still much more to be done with this seeing how I wanted to give him an antagonist to have to deal with, to force him to not only mature even more but to also grow smarter and wiser as this is a whole new world with a completely different set of rules, so his old way, while effective, wouldn't be the best solution. With his abilities, he isn't that far yet but he's certainly on his way. In terms of her design, the face I had in mind wasn't even a CG character when I thought about her but rather it was Centorea from Daily Life with Monster Girls. His relationship will her will grow over time and experience, though I wouldn't say he charmed Shirley purposely as all he was act like himself, same here only now he's got more emotional baggage but more freedom, pros and cons.

With both the bunnies and the princesses knight order, his own experiences, as well as way of thinking, will surely bleed into encounters as he's in a world where modern laws and concepts don't exist, case in point, the fact that the prince could take a personal sex slave and imprison his sister without actual proof or permission from both senate or his father, who was laid now at the time. He's studied history and would know for a fact that though in the modern era, women don't have a fair shake just yet, it would be even worse in a world that never got past the age of the Romans, the same society which we know to male-centric in the purest sense. We know that with the Rose Knights, most of those noble families just saw it as the emperor letting his daughter have their fun, even Pina seems to know that as she hated the fact that they were kept on 'stand-by' and are treated as 'honored guards' despite the fact they are better trained than the standard imperial unit. Though someone like him could appreciate the young lady's drive and spirit seeing how two of the deadliest opponents he ever had were women, those being Kallen and Cornelia.

Blaze1992: He has to earn those large fireballs, this is more like Rising of the Shield Hero where he may have some advantages over others, but he needs to put in the work, not unlike some issekai which just have the MC start off OP or take one episode to show us why he got so damn OP so quickly.

Xerox: Thanks but I have no watched Re: Zero, so I can't write anything about it.

Guest: Guy, I already said this is ten whole years before that, and it's only been 7 months since he got here.

ArticHaze: Really? I'll check it out then, sounds interesting.

arga101: Hey, if it ain't broke, don't break it. Though to be real, he needs a goal to strive towards as he's still a lazy person, and with all his goals having been completed before he came to this world, he needed something that would not only get him out of bed but force him to actively keep growing.