Nyar had come to kill Luminous and Linda first, but in the end, everyone had swarmed him like angry bees. He was certain he finished Betty off, but couldn’t understand why she was still alive and able to run away like that.

He knew she was the one to run away and warn everyone else, so he attacked her first. But his plan had failed. He didn’t know that he did everything that he could; it was just Betty who was too stubborn to accept her fate and die.

Yog was the biggest problem now in his face, and with her still around, Luminous and Linda won’t be that easy to kill. She had weakened him and empowered those two; she also formed a whole barrier around the battlefield and even threw a few attacks every now and then.

Then, they started coming, everyone and the first to arrive was Merlin. She had used her mana to link right back to Yog, find their location, and teleport immediately to the middle of the battlefield.

Luminous was in the middle of blasting Nyar. Linda was twisting time around him to prevent him from dodging, and Yog was bracing her barrier so Luminous’s light wouldn’t leak out and flash-burn everything on the continent.

Merlin had appeared right there and then, between them, engulfed in magic as her robe flapped, her hair danced, and her eyes burned with a radiant purple flash of magic. Everyone almost halted for a second, and even Nyar decided to ignore Luminous’s attack to kill Merlin first. Whatever she was there for, he knew it wasn’t going to be good for him.

Sadly for him, he couldn’t reach her in time thanks to Linda.

[Elemental Expansion: Labyrinth]

Golden light burst from Merlin’s body, and it was still fainter than Luminous’s brilliance. The weaves of magic raced to the sky, and they formed a massive net around Yog’s entire barrier. This time, Merlin understood they were facing a regular enemy, so she didn’t care about Yog’s boundaries.

As Nyar expected, this woman, Merlin, was no mere mortal or wizard; she was a chimera of twisted magic, over-reaching authority, and a world-bending will that many gods lack. The will to defy reality and establish her own domain.

She was the only mortal who managed to create her own world, heaven, and rule it as a divine being of her own creation. And he was now getting sucked into her realm.

"You even put gods to shame, woman." He growled as the light consumed him.

Stepping right through the mana, Merlin unleashed the full extent of her labyrinth magic and counted on Yog to both allow her to use more mana than allowed and to plug any holes in her design. Yog did feel a bit insulted. In those past several days, two people had shat on her authority, Gojo and Merlin, but she couldn’t be happier.

She, too, had seen the same potential in Merlin that Nyar just saw.

The limits Yog imposes on mana are for the common people, to make sure no random fool who doesn’t know the powers he is playing with could break reality. But when someone has a valid reason, a goal that Yog accepts, she is more willing to give them power and an exception.

Gojo, Merlin, and Alice were the only three people now whom she saw that potential in and gave privileges.

Merlin’s magic is already too powerful; it creates a full demi-plan, a miniature world that cuts a piece of reality for itself. Her Labyrinth is alive, and it is a tumor on the mortal world’s resources. If too many of them were built, or one was too big, the mortal world might crumble around it and die.

But now, Nyar was an even bigger threat; he was a parasite, a deadly invader that must be erased from existence first.

Merlin’s labyrinth flashed with divine light and grew around the entire battlefield, swallowing it whole into a whole other dimension. Everyone was sucked in, and the only thing left was a massive, radiant, golden gate.

Merlin landed inside the labyrinth’s highest floor, sitting on her golden throne and ready to control the entire place. She looked around for a second and then spoke. "You’re the better wizard, take the throne."

She could see Yog standing in front of her, and Merlin knew best that Yog would be able to utilize the labyrinth’s power better than her, so in this fight, she should give her control.

"No." Yog waved her hand and started floating. She crossed her legs, then closed her eyes. "You keep controlling this place, and I’ll support you. Two reasons: I might need to chase Nyar if he attempted to run away, and you might do worse than I could controlling the place, but it’s worth more if you do it if we count experience gain."

Yog then smiled and flicked her fingers, summoning Alice into the room with them. For a moment, she appeared in her titan size and almost crushed Merlin and her throne, but the moment Alice felt Yog’s presence, she shrank back to a humanoid size.

"Your divinity!" She gasped, and Yog looked at her with a grin. "Merlin managed to pinpoint me and teleport, yet you could only follow the rumble of mana and fly to here in your titan form? What were you spending those past days doing? Sucking Tyal’s toes?" She flew and smacked her on the head. "Take your seat beside Merlin and support everyone. I’ll focus on weakening Nyar and fortifying the labyrinth."

"I was working on storm magic!" Alice gasped, and Yog just looked at her with a smug face. "It doesn’t matter here. Next time, have Merlin teach you some tricks."

Yog flew into the air and then looked down. "I already informed Arad, and he is coming as fast as he can. Gojo as well, so you all better last until then." She looked back at them, "This won’t be easy."

At that moment, Merlin felt Nyar’s will trying to rip her labyrinth from the inside out, and it felt like someone was stabbing her from inside her stomach. Yog was helping, but it was still hard to endure.

Alice also found herself facing a painful reality. The people rushing into the labyrinth whom she had to support were nothing but crazy, harrowing, and no less horrific than Nyar himself. How is she even supposed to support someone like Tiamat? The first thing that bitch asked for was a thousand human sacrifices to summon an army from hell. Where is Alice supposed to find that?

Luckily for her, Eris came to the rescue as she could sense, link, and give Alice access to a thousand murders across the world.

And that was just the start, tens, and then hundreds of support requests flooded her mind, and none of them was easy to fulfill.