Chapter 139: Perseus (31)
After the Basilisk left, Perseus and Poseidon quickly slipped into the cave.
The interior of the cave was pitch black—so dark that it was impossible to see even a few steps ahead. It seemed designed with the assumption that only non-human creatures would live here.
For example, the deeper they went, the more clearly they could see traces of the walls being continuously gouged and burrowed through by something snake-like.
Drip. Drip. Drip.
Listening to the echoing sound of water droplets inside the cave, Perseus and Poseidon advanced while suppressing their presence as much as possible.
After carefully passing through the serpent’s passageway, what came into view was a multitude of various statues.
The interesting thing was that, with the exception of a single one, all the statues depicted humans and demihumans. And most of them bore expressions of pure agony, shock, rage, sorrow, and other intense emotions frozen perfectly on their faces.
Sniff sniff sniff.
“Ugh! The smell… Most of these statues were living people at the time they were turned to stone.”
Perseus pinched his nose. With his keen senses, he could clearly feel that the statues around them had once been living beings petrified while still alive.
After passing between the statues scattered everywhere, Perseus and Poseidon finally stopped in front of a massive whale statue.
Among all the human and demihuman statues surrounding it, this one giant statue stood out as obviously different to anyone who looked.
Moreover, unlike the area guarded by the Basilisk, there were no traces of any living presence here at all.
“Hmm… Usually in books, something like this turns out to be a trap.”
Even as he said that, Perseus took one step closer to the whale statue.
The thick scent of divine power emanating from this whale statue felt somehow incredibly familiar… yet at the same time, distinctly different.
It resembled the scent of the sea he had once smelled in the temple of Poseidon that Dictys had built, yet it wasn’t quite the same.
“Why does it smell so similar to Lord Poseidon here? Is it because the Gorgon sisters are children of the sea god?”
Ever since his encounter with Athena, Perseus had become highly sensitive to the scent of gods — and his senses were accurate.
This statue was a warning, and also advice, personally erected by Ceto.
It was insurance prepared in case other gods or monsters ever learned of the Gorgon sisters’ shedding.
It was also a signpost telling any lost wanderer to turn back immediately.
“…Now that I smell it more carefully, I understand. I know who put this here, and for what purpose.”
Perseus’s expression hardened. Normally, he wouldn’t dare touch such a warning.
“So what are you going to do? From what I can tell, the moment you touch this thing, there’s no turning back. You’ve already done more than enough. When the situation spirals so far out of expectations like this, retreating for a while is also a valid solution. Anyway, driving out King Polydectes is something I can help with too.”
Poseidon had noticed the fear in Perseus.
After all, Perseus was still far too young to be undertaking something like this.
The Fates may have chosen him, but normally a teenager in their late teens didn’t go out hunting monsters.
That’s why Poseidon thought it would be fine even if Perseus gave up at this point.
Even from his perspective, the situation had become far too tangled and complicated.
‘At this point, I should be allowed to help Danaë and Dictys in Poseidon’s name. This child has already done more than enough. No one could have predicted that Ceto would prepare such thorough defenses.’
“……”
After a long silence, Perseus seemed to reach some kind of decision.
He placed his hand on the whale statue and looked at Njord.
“You’re right, Lord Njord. If I rely on the connections I’ve made during this journey so far, I might actually be able to drive out that vile human Polydectes from my home island of Seriphos.”
Indeed, among the powerful people he had formed bonds with—Eurytos, High Priestess Teleiotes of Athena, and even Njord himself standing right beside him—there were more than enough to turn the tables on Seriphos whenever he wished.
“But… as the prospective priest of Poseidon, and as the son of Danaë and Dictys, I don’t want to make excuses.”
As Perseus spoke, his hand began to be dyed with a watery blue light.
“Once, Dictys told me something. He said that running away isn’t shameful. What’s truly shameful is being too weak to even attempt the challenge.”
The hand that had been tinged with watery light gradually deepened into a thick, inky black.
Like gazing into the deepest abyss of the ocean.
Then Perseus glanced at Njord, gave a mischievous grin like a naughty child, and said,
“Besides, didn’t you once tell me, Lord Njord?
‘Trust only yourself whenever you want.’
So! If things go wrong… please take me and run away safely, okay?”
KUUUUM!
With that, the enormous whale statue began to collapse inward as though crushed by overwhelming pressure.
“What??? Weren’t you just steeling your resolve a second ago?!!”
***
Kukukukung.
Along with Poseidon’s dumbfounded shout, the entire cave shook violently.
Dodging the falling boulders this way and that, Poseidon cried out to Perseus with a mix of lament and disbelief.
“Perseus, you definitely thought this through before doing it, right?!”
“Hahaha, I have no idea! It’ll work out somehow!!”
“You… you really need to start making actual plans!!!”
Poseidon shouted while individually smashing away the massive stalactites falling from the ceiling due to the enormous impact of the collapsing statue.
“Hahaha, I learned it all from you, Lord Njord!”
“Perseus!!!”
But Perseus just yelled back as if he couldn’t hear anything.
“Ahhh! I can’t hear you! I don’t know! It’s all Lord Njord’s fault!”
“……”
Poseidon was rendered speechless by Perseus’s bizarre logic, but for now he focused on steadily deflecting and dodging the collapsing boulders.
He mentally noted that once this commotion was over, he was going to give the boy a serious scolding.
—Heh, now you finally understand how I feel. Thanks to you, you get to experience just how much heartburn I usually have to endure.
“……”
Of course, there was also a certain goddess who saw this as the perfect opportunity to tease him.
Kuuung.
Finally, the last stalactite fell from the cave ceiling, and the noise and vibrations gradually subsided.
Pushing through the thick cloud of dust that made it impossible to see ahead, Poseidon searched for Perseus.
“Perseus, a person has a brain and—!”
Clang!
The words Poseidon had begun in order to lecture and scold Perseus were cut off midway.
A sharp serpent fang had shot through the dust cloud straight toward him.
“Hm… Interrupting someone while they’re speaking? Where did you learn such rude manners?”
Despite his calm tone, the fang, blocked by a rising wave of water, didn’t lose its momentum. It continued to vibrate and push forward with unrelenting force.
Moreover, the yellow venom dripping from the fang was contaminating and weakening the water little by little, slowly eating its way through.
Poseidon frowned at the sight of his own water being polluted by the poison.
Normally, poison and water were poor matches — yet this venom was breaking that incompatibility through sheer corruption.
“Corrupting it to seize control… Whoever came up with this has some real creativity.”
—Tch. It’s also a bad matchup against Perseus. Is this originally the Gorgon sisters’ technique, or did they grow into it? That’s the real question.
Atropos couldn’t help but comment as she watched Poseidon block the fang.
For something that was supposed to be nothing more than a shed skin protecting the molting Gorgon sisters, it was proving far stronger than expected.
Above all, the monster visible through the dust was clearly something that had surpassed the realm of humanity.
—It’s not protecting a god for nothing.
“Probably. Above all, I can feel Ceto’s trace in it too.”
Of course, that didn’t mean the fang was capable of piercing through Poseidon’s wave.
It was simply stronger than anticipated — nothing more.
As the fang finally exhausted its strength and fell away from the contest of power with the wave, Poseidon sensed the eldest of the Gorgon sisters, Stheno, positioned in his diagonal blind spot.
BOOM!
At the same instant, enormous, razor-sharp bone fragments erupted from the ground beneath his feet.
“Ugh! Stheno can do attacks like this too?”
—Perhaps she’s being influenced by her molting sisters.
Poseidon casually created a foothold and evaded the attack with ease.
But the assault didn’t end — bone spikes continued to burst up from every spot he stood.
BOOM! Whoa. BOOM! Haaah. BOOM! Wah! BOOM! Whoop.
And yet, with bizarre exclamations, he dodged every single one by the narrowest of margins in a display of almost miraculous agility and efficiency. Anyone watching would have burst into admiration at the sheer precision.
“Hmm… Stheno’s shed skin is right here, but where are Euryale and Medusa…?”
While effortlessly avoiding all of Stheno’s attacks, Poseidon calmly scanned the surroundings.
That leisurely attitude only further enraged the shed skin of Stheno.
She normally had little emotional fluctuation, but that infuriatingly weird exclamation, combined with his completely relaxed expression and movements, caused an inexplicable fury to boil up inside her.
[Damn you! I swear I’ll strip that skin off you and chew you to pieces!!]
“Oh? You can talk. Hey, then where are the rest of your shells? I don’t see them anywhere.”
[Right here, you bastard!!]
In response to Poseidon’s taunt, a bone serpent formed from Stheno’s remains opened its jaws wide and surged up from the ground.
At the same moment, Euryale — who had been hidden until now — revealed herself, hurtling down from the air with a gigantic cone-shaped tree root clutched in her hands, swinging it toward him.
[[Die!! You obnoxious bastard!!!]]
***
KUUUUNG!
With a deafening roar, the whale statue collapsed completely.
At that moment, Perseus’s senses caught a sweet, alluring fragrance.
And at the same instant—
“Wha—!”
Something shot forward like a bolt and seized Perseus’s face, hurling him away.
Though he managed to protect his face at the last second, he couldn’t stop himself from being violently torn away from his original position by the sheer force of the unknown attacker.
BOOM!
He flew through the air for what felt like four or five seconds before crashing hard somewhere.
Thanks to instinctively cushioning the impact right before collision, he was able to regain his senses quickly — but the unknown enemy gave him no time to breathe.
In the blink of an eye, a sharp spike stabbed straight toward the spot just one inch in front of Perseus.
“Ugh!”
On pure instinct, Perseus jerked his head to the side. A long gash opened along his cheek where the spike had grazed past.
Even a fraction of a second slower, and that spike would have pierced straight through his skull.
‘This time— from the side!’
Immediately afterward, a massive pointed rock erupted from his flank.
But no matter how sharp Perseus’s instincts were, this time the speed was so overwhelming that his body couldn’t even begin to react.
‘Too fa—’
In the mere 0.1 seconds it took Perseus to register the danger, the spike was already on the verge of piercing through his side.
At that exact moment, the winged sandals — the Talaria — that he had received from Athena moved of their own accord.
Vrrrrrrrrrm.
The Talaria forcibly seized control of Perseus’s legs and propelled him forward in a sudden burst.
“Uwaaaah!!”
His upper body flailed wildly like a paper doll caught in the wind while his legs shot forward in an absurd, disjointed motion.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The first spike, then the second, third, and fourth that rose in rapid succession — the Talaria evaded every single one.
Of course, for Perseus himself — forced to endure movements far beyond what his body could consciously handle — the experience was pure agony.
Zzzzzzt.
Having finally escaped the full range of the attacks, the Talaria came to a halt at a point just beyond the danger zone.
Whether it had truly exceeded the attack’s reach or not, at least no further spikes erupted from where it had stopped.
“Ugh… I feel like I’m gonna die…”
Having been flung around helplessly, Perseus was in such distress that he couldn’t even collect himself properly.
Like most humans who experience something their bodies simply cannot withstand, his face was deathly pale and his condition was wretched.
[Hmm. I thought you were just some little brat, but it seems I was wrong.]
At that moment, a voice filled with amused interest reached the suffering Perseus.
Soon after, a massive rock rose up directly in front of him.
The difference this time was that, at a slight distance from Perseus, the rock had formed itself into a throne made of stone.
[You look like some pampered young master, and yet you put on quite the decent clown show. Even if you had to borrow a god’s tool to do it.]
Seated upon the throne was a woman with glossy pale-green hair, delicate and refined features, and reptilian pupils that somehow both suited and clashed with the rest of her appearance.
Cold sweat ran down Perseus’s back at the sudden appearance of a woman who had completely evaded all his senses.
If she could slip past senses far more sensitive than most people’s, it meant she was an existence capable of killing him at any moment she pleased.
“……”
[Don’t be so tense, child. I’m not going to just swallow a little thing like you in one bite.]
“……”
Perseus remained silent, gripping the harpe he had received from Athena with white-knuckled force.
Seeing his reaction, the woman with pale-green hair let out an expression of boredom.
[Sigh… You’re just the same as all the others, aren’t you? So predictable. So boring. Ahh, if I’d known it would be like this, I should’ve switched opponents with Stheno and Euryale unni.]
Trying to sharpen his senses even further in response to the woman’s demeanor, Perseus strained every nerve.
But…
‘I can’t feel anything…!’
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