When she saw the person standing behind her Eri tried to back away quickly, only to receive a quick chop to the neck before falling unconscious. Alex then took that opportunity to use magic to bind her hands and feet and apply his slave magic to the back of her hand, before throwing her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. It was at that point a voice demanded,
"What are you doing to our classmate?" Alex turned to see Kouki glaring at him with his holy sword already drawn and pointed directly at his chest. Alex sighed and said,
"I'm taking her under my custody until I can decide what to do with her, since I don't trust leaving her here to possibly escape or get revenge. As for what'll happen to her, I'm not sure yet; either I'd execute her and be done with it or maybe find some other way to punish her." Kouki's eyes widened in surprise before he spat out,
"Don't you dare! We'll take our classmate back to Japan and our legal system will take care of her!" Alex sighed once more as he didn't want to deal with Kouki's idiocy, so he decided to stop being nice.
"Considering how every decision of yours has turned out so far, you're the last person who's judgment I'd trust in this room. Firstly the kingdom will want to enact justice on the one who murdered their king as well as several knights and nobles, then how exactly do you plan to have her be tried for her crimes in Japan when no one there would believe the things you'd say happened here? Even if you told the truth everyone would just think you've all gone crazy and she'd get off without any form of punishment. Then you'd have an insane necromancer running around earth doing whatever she pleased while you'd all have to try and track her down. You may want to have everyone you supposedly cared about hurt or killed, but I won't risk such a thing." As Alex finished speaking everyone looked at him with shock and confusion at him mentioning Kouki trying to get everyone hurt or killed, while the person himself almost shouted,
"How dare you! Then again what else can expect from someone who brainwashes people and turns them against each other? I am the hero and I will save everyone!" After hearing Kouki's outburst Alex's expression darkened as a chilly atmosphere developed. Shizuku looked a bit fearful of the fight that was about to break out and was about to try and stop it, but she saw Alex shaking his head slightly while his eyes glanced at her. She decided that Alex should know what he was doing and hopefully things wouldn't get physical, and if they did then she'd step in no matter what. Seeing Shizuku step back Alex turned his attention back towards Kouki and asked,
"If you're the hero who intends to save everyone, then why is it every decision you've made has been guaranteed to get everyone killed if someone else didn't intervene?" There was dead silence at Alex's question as everyone tried to think on if what he said was true or not. Kouki noticed this and shouted with sudden realization,
"Don't listen to him, he's trying to brainwash us and then turn us against each other!" Alex sneered at Kouki and replied,
"Of course, anytime someone doesn't agree with you then they are brainwashed right? Then I should probably mention that the one who does the brainwashing is that God and his servants that these people worship, I mean everyone else should have noticed how everyone has been acting differently lately? And that's quite the way to divert the topic Kouki, taking attention from how you're the biggest threat to your classmates life by saying I'm trying to manipulate them. The thing I find funny is that you're so infatuated with your own idea of justice that you can't even realize this." At that moment Kouki's friend Ryutarou stepped forward and said,
"Kouki is the hero and he's led our class on earth and into battle here, we trust his judgment and leadership." Kouki looked at Ryutarou gratefully and the rest of their classmates similarly look at Kouki for reassurance, but they didn't expect what Alex said next as he held up three fingers.
"Three times he's nearly gotten everyone killed, all due to his own Inflated ego or for self satisfaction. The first was in Orcus when everyone got caught in that trap, when his comrades panicked and were on the verge of being wiped out by the skeletons. Instead of clearing the way and rallying his comrades, he chose to recklessly charge at the strongest available enemy which dragged the other powerhouses in the group away from the weaker opponents to cover his recklessness. It took the weakest person in the group slapping some sense into him before he realized he nearly doomed everyone, then when this person seemed to have died under suspicious circumstances he just brushed it under the rug and ignored it unless he could say something related to make himself look cool.
"Then once more in Orcus you were attacked by the demon race woman and her group of monsters. Once more Kouki had the capability to end the fight and save everyone but hesitated to deliver the final blow, simply because he didn't want to take a life. Just for his own self satisfaction he doomed everyone to either death or enslavement at the hands of the demon race, and then tried to condemn those who actually managed to save everyone instead.
"And finally just now he would've doomed everyone to death once more if Hajime hadn't taken out Hiyama after everyone followed Kouki's lead and put away their weapons. Though Hiyama did threaten Kaori's life he still intended to take it no matter what, so you surrendering ultimately did nothing to help and instead just made things easier for him and Eri. If anything they were the ones on the ropes until that second since, if he had killed Kaori then nothing would have stopped any of you from attacking him, by taking a hostage like that they had themselves trapped just as much as each of you." There were many reactions towards Alex's rant as several people tried to argue on Kouki's behalf, others looked as if everything they thought was a lie, or some were even just silent as they tried to digest everything Alex just said. Kouki himself was struck speechless as he tried to come up with some way to refute Alex's words, but ultimately had nothing until Ryutarou spoke up once more,
"Even Kouki can't be perfect... Do you expect him to be completely flawless?" Those who tried to support Kouki also agreed with Ryutarou's words, but Alex simply retorted,
"But isn't he supposed to be the "hero"? Wasn't he the one who claimed that he'll "save everyone"? I understand the fact that everyone makes mistakes, but he has done so repeatedly without any indication that he'll learn from them, and has only continued endangering those he supposedly cares about unnecessarily. And furthermore what has he done to actually help anyone in this world since arriving?" This time even Ryutarou was silent as he tried to come up with a way to defend his best friend. With the silence stretching Alex stepped forward and poked the armor covering Kouki's chest as he continued,
"Tell me Kouki, when a horde of 60,000 monsters were about to eliminate an entire town as well as your teacher and several classmates, where were you? When several criminal organizations were kidnaping children to sell illegally as slaves in Furhen, where were you? When the oasis in Ankaji was poisoned and the entire city was going to die from the toxins, where were you? In the nearly six months that you've been in this world, what have you actually done to prove you deserve that title of hero?" Once more there was dead silence as everyone took in Alex's words, and Kouki's armor now had a very noticeable dent from Alex poking it with every question he threw at Kouki. It was at this point that Shizuku stepped forward and gently said to him,
"Alex, you can't possibly expect Kouki to handle situations like that, can you? After all before coming here he was just a normal person." Once more Alex shook his head and said,
"You're right I don't expect him to do so, but he himself has said multiple times that he's the "hero" and that he'll "save everyone". If he wants to be recognized as the hero then he needs to act like it, this isn't make believe where the hero always wins without effort and gets the girl, the lives of those he cares about are actually at stake. If he just wants to play pretend that he's a hero then he needs to lose the armor and sword and find a park to play in or something, however if he wants to be an actual hero then he needs to grow the fuck up." Shizuku was silent at Alex's words as she also recognized Kouki's need to "grow up", however with his tendency to interpret things at his own convenience it was hard to discuss such matters with him. They were spared from thinking too much about it however when a new voice spoke up,
"Interesting... Though we planned to use the hero against the irregular, we never expected that you'd fight on your own. Would this be ignorance of your own situation, or arrogance due to your so called strength?" Everyone turned towards the new speaker to see a beautiful silver haired woman who seemed to be the very image of the phrase 'cool beauty'. When they saw her Shizuku instantly got into a stance to fight while while Kaori prepared another barrier, and Aiko stood in front of her students with her arms spread as if to protect them. Alex was the only one who seemed relaxed as he turned to face the woman, but as he did so a strong compulsion washed over him and everyone, though they all just brushed it off.
"What... was that?" Suzu muttered as she looked to see if anyone could offer an explanation. Before Alex could say anything though the woman spoke again,
"I already expected those blessed by my master to be unaffected by my hypnosis, but to think even the irregular wasn't susceptible to it." Though they didn't know what was going on, the fact that the woman mentioned hypnotizing them cause everyone to put their guard up while Alex explained,
"She's a servant of this worlds God, Ehito. You can say she's an existence like that of an angel though she's closer to a mindless puppet, they serve their God by carrying out his will in Tortus and using mental manipulation like hypnosis to ensure that the wars that entertain him continue. Until Eri made them her puppets, I'd say she was behind everyone in the castle acting strange recently while she tried to alternately manipulate all of you to fight against me since I'm trying to end Ehito's "games"." With Alex's explanation everyone became even more alert while Suzu also starred trying to prepare a barrier for protection. The woman turned to look at Alex curiously and said,
"You know a lot more than you should, since the data I have is that you're challenging the labyrinths I would assume that you learned this from one of the traitors?" Alex simply shrugged while he still had Eri over his shoulder and replied,
"I guess you could say that, though I'm not obliged to answer you. Let me get rid of this baggage first and we can do our fight Noint. NYX!" If the silver haired beauty was surprised that Alex knew her name she didn't show it, but she did show a shocked look when the black haired maid showed up out of nowhere and she got a look at her.
"What now?" She asked more in exasperation at being summoned than irritation. Alex tossed the unconscious girl at her and said,
"This girl needs to be locked up, but first take her to the Grigori so they make sure there isn't any lingering spells on her or something." Alex's main concern with letting Eri into Asora was that she might lead Ehito or his followers there, either consciously or unconsciously. Though Nyx looked slightly annoyed she didn't say anything and was about to head back into Asora when a voice suddenly called out,
"What are you?!" Everyone turned to see the "cool beauty" Noint looking unexpectedly agitated while staring directly at Nyx, due to the fact that she could sense the fact that she definitely contained at the very least a divine spark inside her. This was because that even if Alex drained most of her divine powers Nyx was still undeniably a goddess, and to Noint a perfect vessel for her master to inhabit. Everyone else also looked at Alex and Nyx in confusion until she turned towards Noint and did a clumsy curtsy due to the person she was still holding, and introduced herself.
"I am Nyx, the goddess of night and darkness of the Greek pantheon, though currently I'm this bastards maid." Though she insulted him there was none of Nyx's usual venom in her voice, a fact that Alex alone noticed. He also noticed the thoughtful look on Noint's face as he suddenly realized what she was most likely thinking, and laughed before saying,
"Don't even think about it, Ehito wouldn't be able to actually take over her body. He's just a human who attained divinity and is now simply playing make believe, she's a genuine goddess that's existed as such for millennia and was born one. I doubt his will could contend with hers even after I took her powers away." Noint looked surprised at Alex's declaration while no one noticed a slight red coloring Nyx's cheeks before it quickly vanished. Though she didn't feel threatened from the current situation, Nyx still felt it was best to return to Asora before something unexpected happened and so she disappeared into a veil of mist while taking their prisoner with her. Noint looked at the location Nyx disappeared from with fascination and said as if she hadn't even registered Alex's earlier claims,
"After I defeat you I'll have to find a way to follow her and acquire such an excellent host for my master." Then as if a switch had been flipped she turned to attack Alex, and moved at speeds that only Alex and Shizuku could keep up with towards him. Alex didn't even flinch at the sudden attack and simply opened a portal with Spatial magic and sent her outside above the city. Alex was about to follow her through, but stopped before doing so and turned towards Shizuku before saying,
"By the way, you were amazing before, you've really come along way Shizuku." He then pulled her close in what seemed to be an intimate gesture before planting a quick kiss upon her brow. Before Shizuku was able to process what happened Alex was already vanishing onto the portal to fight Noint. Though everyone else was either rushing outside or trying to figure out what was going on between Shizuku and Alex, a single figure stood statuesque still in the throne room as he tried to sort through the accusations thrown at him.