Alex led everyone down as they made their way down the stairs towards the magma lake, and the stone island footholds available down there.
"I wonder where the guardian is?" Shia said out loud, which led to Hajime immediately karate chopping her on top of her head. She swiftly ran over to Alex with tears in her eyes and said,
"Alex! Hajime is bullying me!" However Alex also flicked her in the forehead as well, causing Shia to squat down and start rubbing her head to sooth it. He then explained his and Hajime's actions towards the pouting Shia,
"Shia there are things called flags, you need to learn how not to trip them. When you say things like that it sets us up for something bad to happen." Shia gave Alex a look of blame for being flicked for such a weird reason, but at that exact moment twenty serpentine heads surged from the magma lake and turned towards the group that was still on the stairs before shooting several fire breaths at them.
"SCATTER!" Alex shouted as everyone took off into different directions to avoid the attack, with Hajime grabbing Kaori and Alex grabbing Shizuku again as he flew to one of the stone islands. After getting everyone out of the way of the initial attack Alex said out loud,
"That is why you don't trip flags Shia!" Though he wasn't sure, Alex thought he heard a small voice saying sorry after he spoke. After the initial attack everyone got their bearings as they turned towards the twenty serpent heads, their eyes gleaming before a flurry of sudden attacks was unleashed on them.
"Eat this and die!"
"'Wind Dragon'!"
"Allow this one to use mine dragons breath!"
"Sky dragons roar!"
"Disappear!"
As several cries of attack were shouted the entire cavern was filled with the sounds of explosives and such as the poor serpent heads were being bullied. Though a couple managed to survive the onslaught, it was enough for Hajime to cry out,
"They seem to be like the golems at Raisen, destroy the core within them and they'll die! It looks like we need to destroy about one hundred of them!" Armed with the new information everyone immediately started using their strongest area of effect attacks without restraint, before instantly taking out any new heads that seemed to pop up after the first ones were destroyed. Alex sat back a bit dumbfoundedly as he suddenly had nothing to do with everyone attacking so zealously, before he had a sudden idea. He ran his thoughts across Lauren, who seemed a bit skeptical but agreed that it would probably be beneficial to attempt while at Gruen. After hearing her opinion Alex immediately started stripping, which caused the still nearby Shizuku to swiftly turn Crimson as she stuttered,
"W-what are you doing right now?!" Alex chuckled at her reaction lightly before saying,
"I want to try something but my clothes will be destroyed anyways so I'm simply removing them right now." By this point there was nothing covering Alex's modesty(not that he was shy to begin with) and Shizuku had turned completely Crimson as she tried to get what she just saw dangling out of her head. Turning his back to her, Alex surprised everyone present when he took a drink of some of the gods water and dove directly into the magma after activating his 'Draconian Form' and placing a barrier around his head. Almost immediately after he dove into the magma Alex heard the notification,
[NOTICE! Fire Immunity has increased to level 3!]
Alex was satisfied with his plan to use his scales heightened defense to grind his 'Fire Immunity' skill levels as he recalled that the other system user had managed to catch him off guard with his magu magu no mi before, but he also had a hard time dealing with the environment around him with the magma. As it burned away at his draconian scales Alex swallowed a little of the gods water in his mouth to ease his pain a little, only for it to return with a vengeance a second later. He tried to ignore it and focused his senses on his surroundings for the magic cores of the serpents that hadn't made an appearance yet, as his intentions was to deal with some of the cores while he was under the surface of the magma. Before he could even find one he received yet another notice that his 'Fire Immunity' had gone up to level four, and had even eased some of the pain he was feeling a little.
Urged by his success Alex used his draconian wings to propel himself through the magma towards the closest energy signature around, before he used his clawed hands to crush it. He then continued to make his way around crushing magic cores while swallowing little amounts of the gods water when the pain started to become unbearable, while also receiving the occasional notification that his skill had gone up. Alex was starting to reach his limit however when his skill finally reached level 8, and he surged towards the surface before breaking it and flying upwards.
"Oh thank goodness!" Someone said as Alex reappeared and flew into the air, but soon everyone's brows started twitching as they all got an eyeful of the dragon dong dangling between his legs. Kaori was even switching her glances between Alex's and Hajime's crotches as if comparing them, before her beloved seemed to have noticed her line of sight. She then clung to him and said,
"Don't worry Hajime, no matter what size it is your cock is the only one for me!" To which Hajime could only retort,
"Even if you said it to cheer me up it still sounded like you were saying mine is small, and since when were you the kind of character that could casually say the word cock?" Ignoring her boyfriends quip, Kaori continued to gleefully cling to his side as Shizuku faced off with the last of the magma serpents, the rest having already been destroyed by everyone else on the surface or Alex himself below. after several minutes she finally managed to cut right where the core was, and the last of the magma serpents vanished, as well as the dome of magma surrounding the hideout. What appeared was a plain black building with the crest of the liberators on the side and some kind of floating platform above it. As they approached the door opened and everyone filed inside, with Kaori, Shizuku, and Tio looking around curiously as this was the first labyrinth finish they had seen. However all that seemed to be around was a magic circle carved in the floor and some words on the wall,
"I sincerely wish for the free will of the people in the future." – Naiz Guryuu-en.
Everyone nodded in the direction of the words respectfully before stepping onto the magic circle. As t searched their memories to ensure they had passed the final trial Kaori was sweating the most as she hadn't done more than healing and putting up a barrier to block some of the incoming attacks while everyone else fought. However as she did participate it seemed to judge her as also passing, and she as well received the age of gods magic, Spacial Magic. After confirming what the magic was Kuroka started chuckling somewhat evilly as she muttered,
"Nyahahaha, I can't wait to apply this to my barriers and see what happens!" As she was already a specialist in space related magic in her barriers to completely isolate the space within it almost seemed as if this particular magic was made for her, while Hajime was also planning his new projects with this type of magic. After being granted the magic everyone turned towards the wall as another panel seemed to open up and reveal a cubby inside. Anne went towards it and pulled out the item that was within, and held it out to Alex.
"This is the proof of passing, right?" Alex nodded as he accepted the pendant from her, and wrapped it around his wrist to use when they left. With no other reason to stick around he said,
"Let's get out here." To which everyone very enthusiastically agreed. After leaving the building everyone turned towards the platform floating above them and hurriedly flew up to get on it. Shizuku didn't even react when Alex carried her up this time, but she was glad he had already gotten dressed again. Once they gathered on it Alex held out the pendant on his wrist, and the ceiling above them opened up until they could see the sky beyond it and the platform started moving up. The moment it started moving Anne's face turned green and Rias commented,
"It's like an elevator." Which got looks of interest from those not from earth. While Rias explained what she was referring to Alex suddenly felt something and looked towards the entrance to the room before saying,
"You guys go on ahead, there's something I want to check out. Just wait for me outside and I'll catch up." Before anyone could ask what he was up to Alex simply stepped off of the platform and disappeared from view as they entered the opening. Alex then flew downs towards the entrance to the chamber, only to see a small army of ash colored dragons come out of it along with a large white one. He then said to the figure on the back of the white dragon,
"So, how was it relying on your enemy to get more power?" The man with Crimson colored hair turned towards the sound of the voice addressing him and frowned before saying,
"Your arrogance will lead to your downfall. I will admit you made my trip here easier, and now I will acquire a new ability after we all eliminate you. Know that that one before you is called Freed Baghuar, apostle of the god of the demon race!" With that seeming to be the cue every single dragon accompanying him opened their mouths as energy gathered to fire at him, while several barriers from the turtles on their backs formed to keep Alex from counter attacking. Alex smirked at Freed's words as it seemed to him that Freed was the only one being arrogant here, and flashed forward as the dragons release their breaths and dodged them all. Then using his bare hands he smashed apart the barriers separating them and flashed forward to grab onto Freed's throat before the demon could even react.
Sensing that it's master was in trouble, the white dragon turned and roared in fury at Alex's actions before rushing at him with its mouth wide open as if to eat him. Contrary to the expectations of everything there, Alex grabbed the throat of the dragon as well and squeezed his grip while effortlessly lifting the large beast in the air. He then turned back towards the gasping Freed and said clearly,
"Talk and preach all you want, I don't give a damn. I will remove your God and you will see how pathetic you were to follow such a being so blindly, or maybe not. I'm keeping you alive simply because I promised a certain idiot that I'll let him fight strong people from other worlds and you're the closest that'll fit the bill, so struggle and climb up to obtain power, and you'll see just how worthless your faith was in the end." His villain-like speech done, Alex tossed Freed and the dragon and turned to fly away. Though all of Freed's dragons that accompanied him started attacking Alex once he released their master, none of their attacks managed to hit him as they all seemed to barely miss him. Alex simply ignored all of them and flew to the opening that was already starting to close and escaped from the fiery hell hole. Once he exited the tunnel that opened up right next to the stairs that led into the volcano, Alex saw everyone waiting for him just like he told them to. Grayfia then asked,
"So what was that about my lord?" Alex simply shrugged and replied,
"I thought I noticed something interesting but it was just a waste of time." Though they knew he wasn't telling the full truth no one pushed him to explain himself as they all turned to leave. After a quick trip through the sandstorm in the SUV once more, Alex summoned Zenith once again and they all finally started heading back Ankaji, while the girls all piled into the bathroom to take the coldest bath possible with Yue even summoning blocks of ice to put in the water.