Chapter 124: Perseus (16)
The reason Diogenes had survived this overwhelming power was nothing special.
It was thanks to the sheer number of artifacts he possessed, the strength of those protecting him,
And the power of a certain being he had contracted with.
However, facing this unprecedented force, Diogenes himself was plunged into a dual emotion of terror and rage.
It was the first time in his life he had confronted the intense sensation of death.
“This… this… this makes no sense!”
“Arrrgh!!”
“Those damned bastards were toying with me, weren’t they? To have this much power yet act that way!!!”
From Diogenes’s perspective, there was no other way to see it than Perseus having played him for a fool.
What kind of place was his mansion?
Everyone who saw it confidently declared the same thing.
—No one could breach it unless a god descended!!
It was the most magically and physically fortified place in all of Athens, blessed by countless priests—an impregnable fortress.
Even the paranoid Diogenes treated its defenses as a constant in his plans.
That mansion had been his pride, his symbol of absolute safety.
Until Perseus froze it over with [Extreme Cold].
***
The moment an impregnable fortress—built with a budget that could sustain an entire city-state—was neutralized in one blow, every plan Diogenes had laid was effectively scrapped.
“Grr! Even if I moved the assets and expensive equipment, this is my mansion!! The mansion of Diogenes!!!”
Diogenes’s original plan had been this:
1. Perseus storms in.
2. Buy time relying on the mansion’s defenses.
3. Internal strife erupts in Athens.
4. Amid the chaos, Diogenes sets up a decoy and escapes Athens.
How concise and perfect a plan! At least in Diogenes’s mind…
But all of it collapsed—literally frozen solid—by a single strike of Perseus’s authority.
Only a handful of mages at the kome level (village-scale) and mercenaries or knights at the polites level (citizen-scale) barely survived inside the mansion.
If even those at that realm—second tier among the five human-classified stages for mages, knights, and warriors—had only survived thanks to artifacts,
Then until now, that cunning brat had been leisurely toying with Diogenes while watching his every move.
The kome and polites tiers were, in modern terms, capable of ruling a single city. Of course, there were finer hierarchies within, but generally speaking.
“Even groups of them would have died without artifacts!!! If it’s just overwhelming force, then everything’s solved by force…! He was playing with me!! That damned bastard!!!”
Unaware that all this stemmed from Poseidon’s miscalculation, Diogenes felt despair mixed with fear, rage, and self-loathing.
And naturally, when a human faces something unacceptable, madness follows.
“That cursed priest brat. He must have laughed and enjoyed watching me struggle. In the end, everything was in the palm of his hand.”
“Lord Diogenes…”
“Ha! You think I’ll die like this? Never. If I’m to die, everyone else in this city dies with me!!”
With that, Diogenes pulled out a large parchment.
The parchment was covered in all sorts of magical inscriptions, with numerous names written inside.
“If I flee now, I’ll be caught anyway. Even if I escape capture, as the enemy of that monster, no place will take me in.”
Diogenes’s prediction was accurate.
In fact, rumors that his mansion had turned into a giant block of ice spread like wildfire.
With it, both inside and outside Athens surged like waves in a storm.
The news had long reached Salamis, Eleusis, Kifisia, Pallini, Koropi, and beyond.
And with that, all of Athens plunged into civil war. Above all, whispers of “Now’s the chance to plunder Diogenes’s territory” were openly circulating among the opportunists.
“It won’t happen immediately, but soon those looking to loot me will increase. Ha! You think I’ll fall to those bloodsucking leeches!! Chief attendant!!!”
“Yes, Lord Diogenes.”
“Send the signal that it’s time to repay debts to the priests, mercenaries, mages, and knights I contracted with. Since it’s come to this, even if I have to turn Athens into utter chaos, I won’t let that brat priest have his way. He wants to protect the weak? Then I’ll kill them all—the ones he’s trying to save!”
Diogenes’s eyes as he spoke were stained with madness deeper than even Dionysus’s followers.
Anyone seeing those ferocious eyes might have shouted,
‘Those are the eyes of a mad beast!!!’
***
Red, yellow, and green smoke rose from the frozen mansion of Diogenes.
“Huh? What’s that smoke for, Njord?”
Walking straight toward where he sensed Diogenes inside the vast mansion, Perseus felt both curiosity and foreboding at the sudden smoke.
His intuition told him this smoke would cause massive upheaval.
“Hmm… Probably some kind of signal. At this point, it’s likely a call for help…”
Support arriving after seeing the state of the mansion was improbable. Both they and Diogenes knew that.
“Or it could be an attempt to artificially stir up trouble. Euryte did say it was a powder keg on the verge of exploding.”
Flinch!
Perseus shuddered at Njord’s words.
His gut told him Njord was right.
“Oh no! You’re probably correct, Njord. Diogenes has power rivaling a king in Athens. If he gathers his final strength, it’s possible?!”
As if waiting for Perseus to finish, the sound of buildings collapsing came from outside the frozen mansion.
Normally, it would sound like an accident, but
Given the current circumstances, that was unlikely.
“Njord!!!”
Perseus’s face hardened as he looked at Njord.
At Perseus’s reaction, Njord nodded as if he understood.
“Yes, if I go catch Diogenes, I can clean up the—”
“Go evacuate the citizens. I’ll handle the rest.”
“What?!”
Poseidon stared at Perseus in surprise. The original plan had been for him to quickly subdue Diogenes if things got urgent.
“That’s true. But you—a mage—protecting the citizens would save more lives than I could. And… even if we miss Diogenes, saving people is more important, right?”
Seeing Perseus shrug with a smile, Poseidon suddenly recalled a hero he had seen in some medium from his human days.
“Good grief. So this is what a hero is…”
Muttering that, Poseidon assessed Perseus’s current strength. One thing was certain: without him, Perseus would almost certainly die to Diogenes.
Though Diogenes had tried to hide it, Poseidon could sense it—he had contracted with a fantastic creature.
In this situation, no matter how much Perseus had glimpsed a realm beyond through Poseidon’s help, he still lacked the skill to overcome Diogenes and all his high-level subordinates alone.
“Perseus, you’ll die. This is a mage’s foresight of the future.”
Poseidon’s words carried a dual emotion: half as a god wanting to see Perseus’s challenge and adventure, half as Mage Njord—who had accepted the Moirai’s request—feeling he should stop him immediately.
Whether aware of this duality in the god Poseidon and the mage Njord or not,
Perseus turned to the worried Njord and smiled brightly instead.
“Don’t worry. I’ll do what I can. Priest Dictys would probably say something like this to me: ‘Save them first and think later! We’ll just go to Lord Poseidon’s side if we die—what’s there to fear!!’”
Kukuku.
Poseidon acknowledged it while watching Perseus imitate Priest Dictys and laugh.
That kid truly was the first hero of Greek myth.
“I respect your choice. Then I’ll protect the powerless citizens. You do your part.”
“Yes!”
With a vigorous reply, Perseus ran off, leaving Njord behind.
Watching him go, Poseidon—and Atropos, observing everything through the necklace—couldn’t hide her worried voice.
—Will he be all right? Him getting entangled in Athens’s affairs wasn’t woven into the thread of fate. It’s a destiny even we couldn’t foresee.
“Who knows. From now on, everything is Perseus’s choice. I’m just watching.”
—…No choice then. Since the seed has sprouted, we have to trust it.
***
Boom! Rumble!! Bang!!!
Athens was currently suffering from explosions and collapses caused by clashes of power.
Along with it, cries of the powerless echoed throughout the city.
—Waaah! Mommy!
—Please save me. I’ve done nothing wrong.
—Die! I’ve hated you for ages.
—That’s rich coming from you!!
As factions within the powerful city-state vied for hegemony, the fallout was naturally immense.
Troops stationed in places under Athens’s influence—Salamis, Eleusis, Kifisia, Pallini, Koropi—began moving.
Rulers dominating strong administrative districts like Piraeus, Eleusis, Brauron, Marathon, Thorikos, Acarnania, and Phaleron also stirred.
In short, the entire region of Attica was being swept into a massive vortex of war.
“Protagonists usually cause incidents wherever they go, but this is excessive.”
Even Poseidon could say that—the state of Athens was anything but normal. The only thing holding the center was the people at Athena’s temple…
But that wasn’t enough to control all the forces stirring across Attica.
“First off. Hup.”
“Argh!”
“As Perseus requested, let’s start by saving ordinary citizens. Hyah.”
Kueeek!
Guh!
Kwak!
Ack!
Gak!
Leaving Diogenes’s mansion, Poseidon began knocking out anyone wielding weapons he encountered and imprisoning them in water spheres.
Most of those armed right now were simply opportunists causing chaos.
In short, useless scum who had been lying low because they lacked power.
“I’ve no obligation to protect trash like this. Let’s join Euryte first. By plan, she should have gathered as many citizens as possible by now.”
***
After wandering for a while, rescuing Athenian citizens on the way to Euryte,
Eventually only silence remained around Poseidon.
Just looking at the group cautiously following behind him and the ones floating unconscious in round water spheres—most were notorious thugs in Athens,
And now even the famously strong ones were being knocked out with one hit and dragged along.
Those fighting with bloodshot eyes were gradually starting to avoid Njord’s gaze.
“Still, it’s strange. Normally, even in this situation, mindless attacks are the average here, right? Or not?”
Poseidon asked the ones trapped in balloon-like spheres—who had just woken from unconsciousness and were floating—but
They all busily averted their eyes.
The ones following behind Njord did the same.
“Hmm… With only weaklings like this, how do they plan to survive the Age of Barbarism?”
Hearing the mage’s lament, everyone present had one clear thought flash through their minds.
‘That’s because of YOU!!!’
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