After spending several hours rushing through the maze of ice, slaughtering various creatures like the yetis or more ice golems and random hands that tried to grab them from the walls; Alex finally let out a sigh of relief when he saw the passage widen into a large room with a pair of massive doors made from, you guessed it, ice. After eliminating the horde of monsters waiting for them, Alex said while examining the doors,
"We'll rest here for a while, Hajime while we're doing that can you send out some of your crossbits to find whatever fits in these keyholes?" Hajime snorted in response, and without saying anything sent out a small swarm of crossbits while simultaneously pulling out his custom made giant tent to rest in. Everyone immediately filed into Hajime's tent, which was expanded with spatial magic, heated, and even had carpet and a kotatsu table.
"Is this really the inside of a tent?" Ryutarou muttered dumbfoundedly as they started collapsing and relaxing in the heated and comfortable area. Alex smirked and replied,
"This is why I've never once regretted scouting Hajime, his quality is better than any other craftsman I've seen." While the girls couldn't help but nod in agreement, Hajime himself adopted a proud and confident look from the praise he was receiving for his creations. After shrugging off the extra layers that weren't needed in the warm space, Grayfia, Rias, and Shia conjured several items for cooking like pots and pans, before starting to work on preparing a nice warm meal and hot chocolate for everyone. Soon the only one that was unable to properly relax was of course Ryutarou, as he looked to one side and saw Hajime being pampered by Kaori while also receiving a lap pillow, and on the other was of course Alex who was currently laying face down in Anne's lap while she played with his hair, and Yue and Shizuku were massaging his back and legs. Of course the calm and relaxed atmosphere was ruined as Tio stated,
"Master, this ones lap is also readily available for thous use, or perhaps thee will prefer to use mine body as chair or- AHHHHNNN!" Without finishing what she was saying, Tio suddenly collapsed and started twitching after Alex casually pressed a button he had on himself, and a muffled buzzing sound filled the silent room for a few seconds until he pressed it once more to turn off whatever he had activated. Everyone then ignored the panting Tio on the floor as Shia started passing around the cups of hot chocolate, that they drank while eagerly awaiting their warm lunch.
***
"Found them." Hajime suddenly said while everyone was in the middle of eating, drawing all of their attention away from their delicious and warm stew. Seeing he had their attention he explained,
"I found four gems that look like they'll fit into this door, and are all guarded by yetis far larger than the ones we dealt with before." Alex nodded and said,
"Then we'll deal with them real quick and get back to finishing our lunch before moving on." There were a few groans in response as no one really wanted to leave the warm place they were in, but no one fought it as started sorting out groups to make sure everyone was involved in the defeating of the yetis. Then things took a somewhat different turn than they were expecting as, instead of leaving their lunch for later and going to find the yetis themselves, Hajime just opened a gate directly into the yetis lair where each group would go out and start bullying the yetis while the others watched. Unexpectedly, everyone's sadistic sides made an appearance as it somehow turned into a competition to see who could bully their yeti the worst, during which Alex won hands down with a standing ovation while Tio panted disgustingly in the background, though Hajime came in solidly at second. With all of the keys collected, everyone reluctantly got up and exited the tent to move on. As they inserted the gems into each matching slot, the massive doors started to slowly inch open to allow everyone a look at what lay beyond, yet another maze of ice.
"I'm glad we saved this labyrinth for last, otherwise I shudder at the thought of trying to attempt it without the magic compass." Rias muttered while everyone nodded in agreement. Considering how well they were able to ward off the cold though, Alex couldn't help but think it would've been better to have the compass when they were in the Gruen and Raisen labyrinths instead. He kept his opinion silent though, and then swiftly led the party forward using the magic compass, though he wasn't moving at the same speed as before so that Ryutarou and Suzu wouldn't need to reapply their 'knight' promotion after resting, instead saving it for any troublesome battles ahead. There was another reason Alex didn't want to move too fast in this section, as he was worried that a certain aspect of this part of the labyrinth would unnecessarily increase the risk when they were currently doing fine.
As they moved onward the hours slowly started ticking up, all the while Alex could tell there was a noticeable shift in the mood of the group as the trial of this labyrinth came into play. Every person was becoming increasingly agitated as they made their way forward but, not wanting to be considered crazy, they kept silent about what was bugging them until finally Alex heard what they were all experiencing.
'You are truly scum.'
"Hmph." Alex snorted in response to the voice, knowing fully well that it was referring to what he experienced in his "ideal world" back in Haltina. He had long since accepted that he was a horrible person for "stealing" the members of Issei and Hajime's harems, but he had gotten over it since he endeavored to treat the girls right and had never actually "stolen" them because he made sure to meet them before they fell for the original protagonists. Feeling the gaze of everyone as they wondered what he snorted at, Alex didn't worry about their looks and decided to instead alleviate the misgivings his loved ones were experiencing. He started with the nearest woman, Yue, and smoothly swooped her petite body into his arms before suddenly saying,
"I will never betray or abandon you Yue, like it or not you're stuck with me until the end of time, and even after that." Yue was surprised at Alex's sudden declaration, but realized he must've known what the voices were saying to her and smiled before saying bewitchingly,
"... Indeed, even if Alex tried to abandon me, I would not let you..." Alex smiled as well to her response, and the two shared a brief yet passionate kiss that made the onlookers who didn't hear what they were saying even more irritated. Though she wanted to stay within his arms, Yue knew Alex was trying to cheer them all up and reluctantly freed herself before resuming her original position. After making sure they were still going the right way with the compass, Alex then swooped the second nearest girl into his arms, Shia, and whispered to her,
"Trip all the traps and flags you want you Flag Rabbit, you'll never lose me and the others. Or do you think we're that weak?" Shia was surprised at what Alex said to her, before a smile blossomed on her face as well. The voices had been reminding her that it was her fault her family was nearly killed or captured, and that she would cause the same thing to happen once more with Alex and everyone else. Hearing him tell her that they'll be alright, and criticizing her for thinking so little of them, she was incredibly happy and snuggled up to his chest while saying,
"Since you say that then I'll believe you, that just means that no matter what you'll always have to come back to me!" The two then shared an intimate kiss as well before Shia reluctantly also left his arms to make room for the next person he was going to comfort. One by one Alex worked his way through the girls as he addressed their various concerns, Rias who was feeling guilty for abandoning her parents and heritage to follow him, Tio who had originally gotten to know them in order to use Alex to kill Ehito in order to avenge the death of her parents, Kuroka who still felt guilty over the suffering she had caused Koneko in the past, Anne who still felt somewhat bitter that she wasn't the only one one in Alex's life, Shizuku who was wondering if she was truly allowed to act as she wanted instead of hiding her feelings all the time, and Suzu who felt guilty about knowing Eri's true personality and blamed herself for not stopping her before. One by one the smiles started returning to their group as the girls concerns were alleviated while they were being comforted, until finally the only one left was Grayfia who wasn't at all surprised when she suddenly found herself being teleported into Alex's arms. Just as he was about to say something though, she quickly rolled out his arms and returned to her position while staying cooly,
"I'm fine, I don't need your comfort." Alex was admittedly more than a little stupefied at her response, as well as the rest of the girls who directed looks of incredulity at her. Grayfia ignored them however, even as the increasingly familiar feminine voice whispered,
'You worthless whore.'
She frowned slightly as she was once more forced to recall betraying her husband and becoming Alex's lover. Shaking her head slightly to try and get rid of the thoughts, she instead tried to focus on finishing the labyrinth and leaving as quickly as possible. Though he had an idea what the voices were whispering to her, Alex decided to let Grayfia handle it herself like she wanted since the main source of her guilt was centered around himself to begin with; instead he surprised everyone by summoning the only person who was still looking depressed as even Hajime and Kaori were supporting each other, Ryutarou. As the big guy fell into his arms like the girls had, there was series of snickers as the image of Alex holding him in a princess carry, but before Ryutarou could say anything Alex whispered to him,
"You know I truly respect your restraint and self control, just remember that if it ever waivers, I'll throw you on magical girl island before dowsing it in aphrodisiac from the Haltina Labyrinth." While ignoring Ryutarou's reaction as he turned completely white from fear, Alex then used spatial magic to send him back to his original position as they resumed their journey.
After spending a few more hours speeding through the giant maze, dealing with traps and monsters while the voices were whispering in their heads, everyone let out cries of relief when they finally entered a room that had another set of massive doors in it. The only problem was, that compared to the doors from before that had a small horde of monsters guarding it, this was practically screaming 'trap' from how empty it was.
"Might as well get this over with..." Hajime muttered as he casually started walking towards the doors, while everyone slowly followed. Sure enough, when they reached the center of the room a series of tiny ice shards started raining down on them, before a beam of light appeared and started reflecting off of them in order to attack the group from nearly impossible to predict angles.
"Well this is fun." Alex said nonchalantly as he casually continued walking across the room, his Haki giving him plenty of warning when the beam of light was about to strike. However at that moment thirteen large chunks of ice started falling from the ceiling as well, before standing up to become more yeti-like ice golems that were wielding shields and glaives. And finally in order to add to the fun, when Yue and Rias unleashed their magic attacks they curved away from their yetis that were their targets, and instead honed in on the other.
"WATCH IT MIDGET!"
"... You too busty bimbo..."
After turning their attention away from their opponents to snap at each other, Alex suddenly appeared at each of their sides before delivering a swift chop to the top of their heads. As they rubbed their heads while slightly teary eyed, Alex stated,
"Both of you knock it off, it's most likely this labyrinths fault that happened. Everyone, try not to use ranged attacks except at point blank if it's going to make us direct them at each other!" After everyone confirmed they heard his orders, they each squared off against their opponents as there was a yeti golem for each person present. Before they could square off however the labyrinth added one more fun rule, and kicked up a snowstorm around them so fierce that no one was able to see or hear anything around them, adding to the deadliness of the laser beam as they wouldn't see it until it was nearly too late. Cut off from everyone and occasionally dodging the deadly laser of light, Alex faced the menacing looking yeti as it glared down at him.
"Sorry, but you're in the way of the fight I really want to get to." Alex muttered as the yeti charged him, yet when it swung its glaive at him it passed through him as if through air, before the after image disappeared. Before the yeti could even ponder where its prey went, the entire cavern shook with several concussive blasts while the yeti golem exploded into a very fine icy powder. Alex didn't even look back as he made his way down the newly formed tunnel through the icy storm around him. Though it obviously formed as a result of defeating his opponent, anyone who was watching would say it seemed more like the labyrinth was intentionally trying to inconvenience him as much as possible after the display of power.
"Now I just have to wait for them." Alex muttered as he exited the tunnel and saw the giant gate right in front of him. Instead of just aimlessly waiting though, he decided to take this time to prepare for the next trial. Using his ki, Alex started floating and crossed his legs like he was meditating before entering a state of focus to ready himself. The next person to finish their challenge was of course Hajime, who wasn't surprised to find Alex already waiting for him after the way the cavern shook before, but after seeing the meditative state he was in he decided not to disturb him. One by one everyone managed to win their fights and joined them in various degrees of disarray due in part to the laser beam around them and, similar to Hajime, when they met up everyone kept relatively silent as to not disturb Alex's concentration, who was now having lightning spark around his body from the raw concentration of energy. Soon all that was left to pass the trial was surprisingly Rias and Yue who, when they finally did finish at roughly the same time, appeared as the storm settled while of course bickering.
"IF YOU HADN'T BEEN USING MAGIC SO CARELESSLY, THEN I MIGHT'VE FINISHED SOONER!"
"... Says the pot!..."
The bickering continued until Grayfia smacked them both on the top of their heads and grabbed their ears. As both girls winced Grayfia stated in a whisper,
"Quiet you two, look!" As they turned to look at what Grayfia wanted them to see, they saw Alex hovering there in a deep state of concentration as sparks of lightning occasionally danced across his body. Though the gate had opened once they all passed, no one rushed through as they all silently watched Alex while also recovering from the last fight. After only a couple minutes however, he finally opened his eyes and stood there before simply saying,
"Let's go." Though everyone wanted to know what was making him act this way, it was obvious Alex expected to face an unimaginably strong opponent in the next trial, and so they themselves started trying to psych themselves up. He then led them towards the opened gate, which revealed a magic transfer circle much to everyone annoyance. Expecting something similar happening like in Haltina, they all quickly stood on the magic circle and were teleported in a flash of light.
***
When Alex opened his eyes he was in yet another ice corridor, except this one was relatively small and led in only one direction. Ignoring his reflection in the ice around him, Alex walked along the passage while maintaining his concentration, his heart starting to pound loudly in his chest in anticipation.
Boom boom boom
After a few minutes of walking Alex finally entered a large room with a giant pillar of ice in the center that also perfectly reflected him. Instead of immediately approaching it however, Alex said out loud,
"Lauren, I want to enjoy this thoroughly, so I need help with some spells to make sure I don't destroy the surroundings." As she had mellowed out from whatever caused her irritable mood swing over the last few days, her tone was the usual as she replied,
'Of course, first you need to-' She then spent the next several minutes walking Alex through constructing the proper spatial magic spells he wanted, before he finally activated them. Soon a reddish membrane formed around the room only an inch away from the icy walls that surrounded him, before the room suddenly also started growing in size until it was ten times larger than before. The first spell was to help isolate the space the room was in, to ensure Alex didn't cause too much damage to the surrounding labyrinth during his fight, while the second spell was obviously to expand the area like Hajime's tent so that there was plenty of room in the upcoming battle. His preparations complete, Alex didn't hesitate in walking towards the giant pillar in the center of the room. As he approached his reflection grew larger until it was the same size as him, and became a perfect image of Alex's appearance. Looking himself up and down, Alex removed his coats and other winter apparel before donning his orange fighting gi while his reflection matched him. He then looked back at his reflection, and the grin of a maniac started spreading across his face while his reflections expression was unchanged.
"I've been waiting for this, you better not disappoint me!" After hearing his words, his reflection chuckled by itself before a maniacs grin to match his own spread across its face as well.
"Be careful what you wish for." His reflection replied, before turning completely white, from it's hair to it's clothes, and stepping out of the ice pillar to face him.