Chapter 75: Pygmalion (7)
Deep underground, within the molten lava, Typhon coughed up blood.
“L–Lord Typhon!!”
— Do not make a fuss. This is only the backlash from the sacrificial ritual performed at Cyprus.
“W–What? But didn’t we already imprison Aphrodite?”
— Tsk. There was a great mage there. I never expected someone capable of using magic from the era of the Golden Race.
“E–Even so, no ancient magic could harm you, my lord!”
— It must have been magic handed down by a god. At least by someone at Circe’s level… a deity of witches or magic.
“Then…!”
— Enough. We have already acquired all knowledge regarding automatons. With this alone, we can restrain Hephaestus’s war-machines.
“Indeed… Even if we cannot defeat them, restraint should be possible.”
— Then preparations are nearly complete.
“At last…!”
***
Automaton Galatea was left alone.
Inside the same chamber where her master had just been murdered, she silently watched everything that had unfolded until now.
Perhaps this was the punishment given to an automaton who could not stop her master’s choices from the start.
“In the end, Master’s wish… seems to have been impossible to fulfill.”
“Ha! And you realize that only now? Did he truly believe the gods would allow artificial beings created by humans to take root in this world?”
Galatea did not react emotionally to Aphrodite mocking the deceased Pygmalion within the glass tank.
For Galatea herself had always questioned whether her master’s actions were right.
“Regardless… I must thank you. Because of you, at least Master died while still holding hope. Now I must carry out his dream.”
“What?”
Aphrodite watched Galatea speak cryptically and begin preparing herself.
She wore the spear and armor Pygmalion had crafted for her, and activated several defensive artifacts.
Seeing this, Aphrodite asked sharply:
“What do you intend to do?”
Galatea did not answer.
It was her small revenge against the goddess who had allowed her master’s suffering… and against herself for failing to stop him.
“H–Hey! Answer me!! Hey!!”
Galatea ignored all of it.
***
Though all humans and automatons on Cyprus were revived or healed, this only created greater chaos.
Humans saw the automatons who had killed them like serial murderers.
Automatons, in turn, could not trust humans who had treated them like property.
At that moment, they all saw fully armed Lady Galatea approaching from afar.
“Lady Galatea, look at these murder-machines!”
“Now they claim they deserve freedom like humans!”
“They must be chained!”
“No, Lady Galatea. We simply want to live as humans now, with rights of our own!”
“We have the right to live like humans!”
The most respected noblewoman of Cyprus, the island’s symbol of beauty and authority—everyone instinctively waited for her judgment.
So they came to her, pleading, arguing, expecting salvation…
STAB
Flesh was pierced. Arms flew into the air.
Human and automaton screams intertwined.
“L–Lady Galatea has gone mad!!!”
The moment the first scream erupted, Galatea rampaged.
Those who blocked her path were impaled.
Those who resisted had their limbs cut apart.
She looked like a berserk automaton… yet she fought with far greater precision and emotion.
The revived humans fled desperately.
And so did the newly awakened automatons—now capable of fear and guilt.
But the automatons would not abandon the humans who had been kind to them.
Whether it was because of newborn emotion, or desperate atonement, no one could tell.
“Emma! Climb on my back! We have to run!”
“B–But…”
“I know you’re scared. I hurt you before—terribly. But trust in the time we spent together! And you can’t escape Lady Galatea alone!”
“…Fine. If we’re going to die anyway, at least let’s die running.”
Across the city, humans and automatons began cooperating as they fled.
“We shall atone here, together.”
“True, we may be called shameless, but we still know basic decency.”
“For Lady Nox who sacrificed for us—FIGHT!”
“For Lady Nox, who sacrificed herself for us — we will fight!”
For Lady Nox!!!
The resurrected magicians were different from ordinary civilians.
They clearly understood who had saved both their bodies and their minds.
The lingering magic still flowing inside them was the same energy that had guided them moments before. It belonged to their teacher.
Thus, the magicians confronted Galatea with firm resolve—
But they could not stop her.
She wore artifacts known as [Anti-Magic].
These items unbound magic formulas, reverse-calculated them, and shattered them.
Pygmalion, revered as history’s greatest craftsman and alchemist, created them solely to protect his beloved.
The mages of Cyprus could only do one thing:
Lead her toward the strongest mages they knew.
“Ughhhh!”
“L-Lead her to Lady Katrin and Lord Njord!”
“All who know any combat magic, step forward!! Hurry!”
Galatea, who seemed to be massacring indiscriminately, walked straight toward Poseidon and Hecate, just as intended.
“Thank you. You clearly could have moved sooner… and yet you waited.”
“Who knows? I may have simply wanted to watch the end unfold.”
“No. My gratitude is for something else — for your mercy in trying to fulfill our master’s wish. O God Poseidon.”
“…So you knew.”
“Yes. I did.”
“When did you realize it?”
“Hmm… If one mingles among evil cultists, one becomes familiar with the aura of gods, no matter how well it’s hidden. My master was uncertain, but I was convinced. And now, I’m more certain than ever.”
Poseidon nodded.
Before him stood a masterpiece — the culmination of a genius who would be remembered in human history, created with everything he had. It wasn’t strange that she had recognized him.
“So your goal is to play the villain in front of all these people, prove yourself to the gods, and gain recognition for automatons? That’s too naïve.”
Galatea did not reply.
She simply raised her bloodstained spear and pointed it at Poseidon.
“I will fulfill my master’s final wish, in my own way.”
“Here I come!!!”
Spears collided.
Galatea’s spear and Poseidon’s trident clashed, and the world twisted.
Their movements were slow yet fast, fast yet slow — a contradiction.
Every strike warped the world slightly.
If Galatea carved a precise mechanical path into reality,
Poseidon twisted freedom and chaos into it.
Spectators felt like reality itself was flickering frame by frame.
“Are they… twisting the world with SPEARS? Just a human and a doll?”
Even if Galatea wasn’t fully human, she still wielded an art that shattered the understanding of Hecate, goddess of magic.
Using pure martial skill alone to distort the world —
That was madness.
In Hecate’s understanding, martial arts existed only to maximize efficiency in attack, not to deceive and twist the world like magic.
“Amazing, isn’t it? My foolish master… I never imagined he could inspire such things.”
“You… can look at that and talk like that…?”
Hecate couldn’t believe Catherine’s reaction, but she no longer had time to care.
She had to begin the magic Poseidon requested.
“Honestly… warriors are supposed to have pride. A one-on-one duel, at least. What on earth is he thinking…”
She sighed, but she prepared the spell anyway.
Because Poseidon had insisted.
Now inhabiting a human body, she was vastly limited.
To use a great magic, preparation and concentration were essential.
The spell she was preparing was called [The Flower Field of the Styx].
It was not Hades’ realm, but a separate hell within Nyx’s domain.
Such a spell required immense preparation — even if cast by Hecate in her true divine form.
“Ten red spider lilies that grow only in the Hell of the 88 Infernos in Nyx’s realm.”
Venom from the nameless dragon coiled in Tartarus.
A God-Slaying Black Blossom nurtured by Gaia in her deepest chamber.
— Manifestation of Hell. Tears of the Gods. Permission of the Kings of the 88 Infernos of Hells…
Soon, with the final incantation, the ten red spider lilies (pianhua) began to self-replicate.
When these ten fully propagated into hundreds, the Flower Field of the Styx would be fully manifested on the surface.
A grand spell descended upon the land.
Naturally, Galatea sensed it, and instead of fear, she laughed with delight, growing even more frenzied.
She looked like someone who wants to do everything they’ve ever longed to do before the end.
Her behavior was so strikingly human that Poseidon could only admire her.
“Truly… Pygmalion created a new race.”
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Their battle grew even more violent.
Shockingly, Galatea began to overpower Poseidon.
“Njörd! The preparations are complete!!”
“Begin!!!”
Kiiiiing—
A sweet scent and strange music spread over the island.
Finally, the Flower Field of the Styx manifested on the earth.
Flowers that could never exist in the mortal world bloomed, exuding beauty and horror.
Galatea felt that unsettling beauty envelop the island — and she smiled.
If it was to this extent, then at least her master’s legacy would remain, and the gods might acknowledge automatons as a race.
“I haven’t given up. Humans say that hope fights to the end. We automatons carry hope in our hearts as well — for hope is what my master placed into these hearts!”
Tick… tick… tick… tick…
With the sound of a clock, a gigantic clockwork structure appeared behind her.
“This is my master’s world.”
[Pavane of the Lonely Clockwork Craftsman — Pavane, der einsame Handwerker, der das Uhrwerk dreht]
The Styx Flower Field clashed with a solitary genius artisan’s world.
The two realms—similar yet different—created no sound, no light.
It was as if they were simply merging.
Like pigments blending on a canvas, the comforting flower field—made to console the lonely—did not resist, but rather embraced the genius’s world as though acknowledging it.
Sshhh—
Galatea exhaled deeply, watching her master’s world transform.
“Ah… it has finally been comforted…”
What was an eternity for humans and a mere instant for gods passed, and all the magic that molded the world vanished.
There was no damage, no wounds, no destruction.
Then Galatea, as though finally freed of every burden, collapsed peacefully.
As she closed her eyes, she saw a distant vision of Pygmalion running toward her.
“If I may share my last moments with my master, then I suppose this is what humans call… a good death.”
Once everything ended, Cyprus bustled just as it had when Poseidon first visited.
But now both humans and automatons worked hard together.
— Hey, doll, don’t slack off!
— Malcolm, I think he’s working harder than you do in bed.
— WHAT?!
— Isabel complains nonstop, you know. Try harder, Malcolm.
— ………
— Hahahahaha! Malcolm, do as Hassan says!
— Ahahahaha!
High above, Poseidon, Hecate (no longer hiding as Katrin), and the freed Aphrodite watched the scene unfold.
“So that’s why you called Lady Nyx, isn’t it?”
“What are you talking about?”
“You requested the Flower Field spell for this outcome, didn’t you?”
“Come on, that was all coincidence. And as if Nyx comes just because I call her.”
“Well… if I’m here, the odds are higher.”
Poseidon fell silent.
Aphrodite sighed.
Considering what she had suffered, she could have drowned the island in the sea without remorse… but after seeing these moments and Galatea’s struggle—
‘How could a god punish them now?’
Perhaps she too had been charmed by the sea god.
Otherwise, how could she have witnessed, even while imprisoned, Galatea’s every moment live before her eyes?
A human striving beyond their limits…
A glimpse into one of the paths gods seek.
“Maybe… that god orchestrated everything. Don’t you think so, Galatea?”
At Aphrodite’s words, Galatea appeared at last—fully free of every restriction—holding Catherine’s hand.
“Perhaps so. No one truly knows what’s inside a master’s heart.”
Smiling—having cast away all regrets and found her own path—Galatea shone with a radiance that even the Goddess of Beauty had to acknowledge.
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