Chapter 140: Perseus (32)
To Perseus’s senses, the woman standing before him felt no different from any ordinary woman one might pass on the street.
And yet… from the names she had casually spoken…
‘Stheno, Euryale… Then this person must be the one Lord Njord mentioned — Medusa.’
Just hearing that name was enough to make Perseus’s entire body tense up involuntarily.
At that moment—
[You… What are you thinking about while staring at me like that?]
Medusa’s reptilian pupils glowed with a dark crimson light as they fixed on Perseus.
Screeeeech—!!!
In an instant so brief that Perseus couldn’t even perceive it, the Aegis shield materialized into its true form.
For the very first time, the Aegis — which had never once revealed its real shape until now — manifested of its own will.
The clash between the Aegis and the dark crimson light erupted.
The round shield perfectly shielded Perseus from Medusa’s petrifying gaze.
It enveloped his entire body, and the golden symbols engraved upon it — the owl representing Athena and the trident representing Poseidon — blazed with radiant light, completely neutralizing the crimson rays.
However…
The problem wasn’t just blocking the gaze.
“Khk…!!”
[Heh. You actually blocked it? As far as I know, the only person who possesses a shield of this caliber is that monster Athena. You somehow managed to borrow it, huh? But are you all right? There’s a big difference between blocking something… and enduring it.]
Perseus couldn’t respond to Medusa’s mocking question.
The crimson light had coiled like countless bundles of serpents, pressing in on the Aegis from every direction.
Even though the Aegis could repel even Zeus’s lightning, if the one holding it lacked sufficient strength, it was nothing more than an exceptionally good shield.
Just as Perseus was now suffering merely from blocking Medusa’s gaze.
[But it seems even that monstrous woman has poor judgment when it comes to people. Lending the Aegis to a mere child like you. And not just that — the Talaria and the harpe too. Tsk tsk. Has that woman, who always acts so superior, finally lost her touch? Or perhaps… you’re actually one of Zeus’s bastards?]
Medusa continued to taunt him relentlessly.
Rising from her throne, she began circling the immobilized Perseus — who couldn’t move under the crushing pressure of her gaze — appraising him slowly, as though evaluating meat just before the slaughter.
[Huhuhu. Or maybe you’re Athena’s lover? Looking at your face alone, that would actually make more sense than being Zeus’s illegitimate child.]
While Medusa leisurely sized him up, Perseus was steadily reaching his limit.
Krrrk!
The dome formed by the Aegis began to tremble violently, as though even the shield itself could no longer withstand the strain — and Perseus’s own body was shaking uncontrollably.
‘Damn… it… Is there… no way…?’
Gazing at Medusa, who was calmly appraising him with those reptilian eyes, Perseus finally understood why everyone else had inevitably died.
Even though he possessed Athena’s divine shield, the Aegis…
Just meeting a woman’s gaze was enough to place him under this overwhelming pressure.
‘Khk… I can’t… hold on… much longer…’
Perseus felt his eyelids growing heavier and heavier.
No… I can’t…
***
Medusa, the pale-green-haired woman who had been watching Perseus as though toying with him, saw his body sway and his eyes begin to close.
She stopped her appraisal, sat back down on her throne, and spoke.
[Hmm… If this is supposed to be our fated nemesis, that’s just too sad. He has some talent, sure… but he’s far too lacking.]
Medusa withdrew the earlier look of interest from her face, replacing it with one of boredom and mild annoyance as she gazed at Perseus.
She and her sisters had known.
They had known that this young man — barely past boyhood — standing before them was their destined archenemy.
[Aaah… All the preparations we’ve made until now might end up being a waste…]
For their fated enemy to be this pathetic — wasn’t it a shame to have spent so much time preparing for their shedding?
Moreover, judging solely by his current strength, he seemed slightly insufficient to fulfill their purpose.
[Well… at least there’s that mage over there. So it doesn’t really matter.]
With those words, the scene before Medusa’s eyes shifted to show Njord locked in fierce combat with her older sisters, Stheno and Euryale.
—Hahahahaha! Is that all you’ve got? You monsters!
—…Fine. I’ll kill you, you brainless fool. You’ll learn just how grave the crime of insulting a god truly is.
—I’ll boil you alive in poison. You…
Unlike Medusa’s leisurely confrontation, the battle over there was intense to the extreme.
Or, more precisely, it looked almost as though the mage was toying with her two older sisters.
[Wow! Big Sis Stheno already pulled out her own bones. And Second Sis pulled out the Umdrevi too.]
Just as Medusa exclaimed in admiration, what Stheno and Euryale had summoned were things far too powerful to be used against mere humans.
Stheno, who wielded authority over bones and poison, had always compressed and stored all her power within the bones of her own body.
Because of that, her bones were so incredibly strong that even among the gods, only a handful could match their durability.
In fact, they had once withstood a direct clash with Gaia’s adamant without so much as a scratch.
—How dare you force me to draw my own bones! From the beginning, I was planning to slowly melt you down together with that blond brat and turn you into nutrients for my bones!!
—Whoa there, ladies. Isn’t that a bit too harsh?
Stheno forged an enormous hammer from her strongest bone — the femur — and swung it toward Njord.
Naturally, even as a human mage, Njord couldn’t block something like Stheno’s femur hammer head-on, so he dodged instead.
But the space he evaded into was already occupied by the Umdrevi that Euryale had summoned.
The Umdrevi was a plant that bore jet-black fruits with mouths sharper than steel and filled with deadly poison.
Its most terrifying characteristic was that it was a “territorial plant.”
More precisely, it poisoned and killed every living thing within a certain radius around itself.
And since this particular Umdrevi had been nourished by the Gorgon sisters’ own venom…
The one Euryale had summoned had already grown into a monstrous plant capable of poisoning even gods.
—Aaagh! Why is the ground suddenly changing like this?!
—Hahaha! Got you. You’re going to die from poison anyway — so just obediently let my hammer crush you!!!
—Someone as rude as you deserves to suffer as much as possible… Be grateful to us generous sisters.
[Hmm… I guess that’s the end of it. In his poisoned state, he won’t be able to dodge Big Sis Stheno any longer.]
Feeling there was no need to watch anymore, Medusa turned off the image of the other battlefield and let out a sigh.
[Hmm… But that mage feels a little ambiguous too… Well, since we have this blond brat here anyway, even if it’s a bit lacking, it should somehow work out, right?]
Medusa pondered for a moment.
She had placed some hope in him since he was the child pointed out by fate.
But now it felt like she had unnecessarily sent the Basilisk out to those humans outside and even made the garden unusually quiet.
***
What Perseus felt after hearing Alexis’s story was correct.
The only reason so many humans could safely enter the Gorgon Garden and even obtain fragments of the Basilisk’s shed skin was because the Gorgon sisters had permitted it.
Normally, the moment humans stepped foot inside, they would have been reduced to a handful of poison, or devoured completely by carnivorous plants and creatures, leaving not even bones behind.
It wasn’t called one of the most forbidden places since ancient times for nothing.
The reason the Gorgon Garden began accepting humans was directly related to the Gorgon sisters’ molting process.
Right now, the Gorgon sisters were undergoing a molting process — something that only mythical beasts should be capable of — and they were the only ones among the gods currently doing so.
The problem was that molting for a mythical species required an enormous amount of energy. And to supply that energy…
[Well, honestly, that’s all just an excuse. We simply don’t want to disappear like this. The main bodies are asleep, aren’t they? Then wouldn’t that mean we could become the real ones? Hehehe.]
That’s right. All that infamous reputation was not the will of the Gorgon goddesses themselves.
Everything had been the doing of the shed skins — the husks that were originally meant to protect the Gorgon goddesses.
The molting of the Gorgon goddesses took an incredibly long time and required vast amounts of energy.
The issue was that while absorbing that energy, “residue” was inevitably produced.
And that residue naturally influenced the creation of egos within the shed skins.
Especially since even in their mindless state, the husks had gradually absorbed those tiny residues in order to protect the main bodies.
Eventually, that minuscule accumulation affected the formation of the husks’ egos.
[Hehehehe, it’s a bit regrettable, but… even if we devour the main bodies, it should be fine. The moment we swallow and digest this brat, fate itself will belong to us.]
Before long, Medusa’s face — which had maintained a beautiful appearance until moments ago — twisted grotesquely, merging the features of a snake and a human.
Her glossy pale-green hair writhed as hundreds of serpents.
[Aaah, if we hadn’t accidentally learned about our fate back then, we would’ve been in big trouble. Who could’ve guessed that the moment of our death would awaken the main bodies?]
Medusa — no, the thing that could no longer be called Medusa — licked her lips as she stared at the collapsed Perseus.
If they hadn’t coincidentally learned about the birth of their fated nemesis, Perseus, they would have simply given in to greed and died.
[Aaah… How much acting did we have to do just to fool the eyes of the gods — especially that woman Ceto? In the end, it’s our victory, Goddess Ceto.]
***
When the Gorgon goddesses entered their molting phase and created incarnations and protective husks for themselves,
Ceto had poured an enormous amount of divine power into them.
And when even that wasn’t enough, she had mobilized almost every sea god she knew.
The problem was that the sheer speed of the process left behind an astronomical amount of residue — enough to give birth to egos within the husks.
All without the gods ever realizing.
Unaware of this fact, Ceto even received a prophecy from Prometheus…
—So? What did the prophecy say? Why hasn’t she awakened despite pouring in that much divine power?
—It says… that the fated nemesis of the Gorgon sisters will appear and must sever their heads.
—What?! How dare Prometheus make such a prophecy!!!
—Calm down, Lady Ceto. You know Prometheus cannot fabricate prophecies.
—……
—More importantly, shouldn’t we first figure out who this fated nemesis is and what it signifies?
—Yes… you’re right. This won’t do. I have to go to Poseidon right now!
—Huh?
That prophecy only plunged Ceto further into confusion.
But…
[Kikiki, the moment we heard that goddess speak of our fate, our hearts raced. It was unmistakably talking about us. But if you think about it the other way… if we devour this brat here, the main bodies will never be able to awaken.]
The prophecy was like a divine move for the newly born egos of the husks.
And so, the husks with their newfound self-awareness began plotting to devour their own main bodies — and started spreading their infamy throughout the world.
***
With a hideous face, Medusa laughed as she looked down at the fallen Perseus.
How much time had they spent secretly accumulating power, all while evading the watchful eyes of that relentless goddess Ceto — just so they could devour this brat?
There had been more than a few close calls when Ceto nearly discovered their plan to consume the main bodies due to her obsessive nature.
But in the end, fate had taken their side.
From the statue that damn goddess had erected, to the flow of Ceto’s divine power permeating every corner of this cave, and worst of all — the threads that still bound them to their main bodies.
The moment they swallowed this so-called fated nemesis brat, all restrictions would be lifted.
Even that tenacious Goddess Ceto wouldn’t be able to stop them.
[Aaah, finally… we can become gods. It’s been far too long. The moment I saw him, I knew — if we swallow this one, we’ll be able to devour the main bodies. Kikikiki, I’ve been holding back the drool for so long it was torture.]
With those words, Medusa — who had still retained a human face and body — began to fully transform.
A serpentine lower body, razor-sharp boar tusks, a head writhing with dozens of snakes, ears torn into long slits, a tongue as long as a serpent’s.
The fully metamorphosed Medusa was far more grotesque and horrifying than even a chimera.
[Really, I even tested him just in case he might be the fated one. But with Athena’s shield, the Talaria, everything… That was when I became certain. You are our fated opponent!]
As the thing that was once Medusa spoke, it could no longer control the drool pouring from its mouth. Saliva pooled inside and dripped onto the floor.
Ssssss.
The saliva sizzled with foul smoke as it melted the ground.
Licking its long tongue, it approached Perseus.
[Now… time to feast on delicious food and achieve our goal— Huh?! Where did my meat go?!]
The moment before its complete transformation, the collapsed Perseus had vanished from his spot.
Medusa froze in confusion.
And in that tiny gap created by her bewilderment—
A silver blade shot straight toward the nape of her neck.
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