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Last Embryo Volume 2 Chapter 8 Part 4

Translator: DarkHeartedAlchemist

He tried to speak, but every time he attempted to formulate words, the only thing to leave his mouth were beastly screams. What he just heard Saigo Homura say, it was simply too much for him. He wanted to hear more about it, and he wanted to ask him even more, but his mind was unable to process that much information all at once, to the point where he was afraid that his psyche might shut itself down in order to protect him from the backlash of the knowledge that was just revealed to him. But the pain of not being able to properly voice his thoughts was nothing compared to the mental anguish he was going through right now. But even so, he was dying to know the true meaning behind the words that Saigo Homura spoke to him.

You are not the Minotaur.

If he is not the Minotaur, then who in the hell is he supposed to be?! Was the Minotaur not the man-eating cannibal monster shut inside the Labyrinth? Was he not the prince of Crete turned into a monster simply because his father dared to anger the God of the Sea, Poseidon? Were his memories of the waves of the Mediterranean Sea and the cloudless sky above it just fabricated fakes? Just who was the boy who bore the name that signified his relation to stars and lightning… who was Asterios who existed here and now?

Trapped in the agony of having so many questions and the answer to none of it, all he could do was to lie on the ground in fetal position and stop moving.

Ayato had no idea what was going on in here, but she had her sword ready just in case things were about to suddenly go south. She might have grown dull over the peaceful years she spent in the Outer World, but now her newly-awakened battle senses were telling her that this battle was not yet finished.

As the silence befell the Labyrinth grounds, the gust of wind silently blew past them. And then, in that moment, the ground gradually begun to be shaken by the tremors which seemed to be growing stronger with each passing moment. Some of those tremors must have been the after-effects of all the battles which took place there roughly at the same time, but the strongest, most violent part of them was coming from deep beneath the ground.

Immediately understanding what was going on, Homura yelled towards Suzuka:

「Suzuka, take that guy and the remains of his battle axe and go take cover in side of the train!」

「Eh?! So we’re taking this kid along with us?! But why?!」

「There’s no time! I’ll explain everyrthing later, so just trust me for now and do it!」

Suzuka looked like she still had her doubts about this entire matter, but she quickly understood that Homura wouldn’t ask her to do it if he didn’t have a perfectly valid reason for it. Also, it probably had something to do with the giant shadow that suddenly loomed over them. Everyone raised their heads to see what that was about, but their reactions seemed to be just a tad bit too late. Because above their heads, the mass of chalk stone coming straight from the Labyrinth ground was hanging down just like an arm.

「Homura-senpai, Suzuka, fall back! NOW!」

Switching her linked sword for a bow, Ayato shot three arrows towards it in one go. Even though she was firing them in rapid fire mode, each one of them had more than enough destructive power in them to stop most of the normal enemies dead in their tracks, but that was not a living being but a sentient mass of stones, so of course it looked like it was unaffected by them, meaning that if she wanted to stop it from moving for good, she would probably have to destroy more than half of its massive body in one go. But fortunately for them, looks like it won’t be necessary just yet, because just about when everybody prepared themselves for being crushed into a bloody paste, the giant stone arm passed by their heads as if it didn’t notice their presence at all.

Quickly adding two and two together, Suzuka understood that this mass of rocks must have been aiming for Asterios and his weapon, and so she pulled both of them towards herself. He might have been their enemy who was showing them open hostility now a few minutes ago, but even so, she felt that leaving a boy who was practically the same age as them to be taken by whatever that thing was would be just wrong.

And so, Homura carried Asterios on his shoulder while Ayato procured the remains of the 『Proto Keraunos』. Unfortunately, because of that, the mass of rocks has immediately identified them as hostile entities.

「Suzuka, hurry up!」

「I know, geez!」

Behind them, the mass of chalk-colored rocks merged back with the rest of the Labyrinth, causing the tremors to reverberate throughout the entire structure again. They couldn’t see it clearly because they were too busy running away from it, but the Labyrinth was slowly absorbing all of its destroyed wall and even pieced of broken and shattered earth and started to from an even bigger mass of rock out of all of them, all the while pulsating just like a living organism. Or maybe it didn’t quite look like it as much as it really was a living organism, and whatever happened to Asterios when he heard the truth about himself triggered some kind of reaction which caused it to awaken from a long period of slumber.

Little by little, the rocky mass took a more humanoid shape, growing a pair of arms, a skull and a pair of horns protruding out of it.

Now that it has become like this, it was easy for everyone, not just Homura, to understand exactly what that thing was.

『Minoa Labrys Labyrinth』 ­– 『Bull-headed Man-eating Labyrinth』.

Seeking its sacrifice, the demonic construct clad in chalk-white rocky armor raised its enormous head and howled towards Homura’s group.

「G E E E E E E E E E E E E Y A A A A A A A A A A A A A A. . . . . . . . . . . . . !!!!!!!」

It raised its giant arm and attacked them with a sideways sweep. Since he was slowed down by carrying Asterios on his shoulder, Homura would most definitely end up getting crushed by it, so he quickly decided to throw him towards Suzuka like a hot potato while screaming:

「Suzuka, take that guy and go on ahead without us!」

「B-But what about you and Aya?! You can’t expect me to just leave you behind!」

「Don’t worry about us and go, Suzuka! Rest assured, I will do everything in my power to protect senpai. If that boy… if Asterios really is the target of that monstrosity, then by hiding in the Giant Spirit Train with him you’d do us a huge favor since that should buy us more time do actually do something about it! To that end, Scathach-sensei, can I ask you to protect Suzuka and the Giant Spirit Train?」