Chapter 141: Perseus (33)
Perseus had reached the point where his strength was completely drained, teetering on the edge of unconsciousness.
He even instinctively knew that this place might become his grave.
If not for the golden sword, that would indeed have been the case.
Among the items given to him by Athena, it was the one he had paid the least attention to — the one he had considered the most useless.
He had always thought of it as nothing more than a sword that nullified magical power.
For Perseus, who as a prospective priest of Poseidon already possessed immense resistance to most magical and physical attacks, the sword had seemed to have no real use.
That was why everyone — except Poseidon — had completely forgotten about it until this very moment.
And now, in this instant, the golden sword shone with its true power.
It contained a single-use ability: by destroying itself, it could instantly restore the wielder’s body and completely nullify all physical, magical, and even divine damage once.
The moment Medusa’s husk let her guard down and began her full transformation, the golden sword emerged from Hera’s kibisis on its own and shattered itself.
Flash!
In that instant, the oppressive effect of Medusa’s petrifying gaze that had been crushing Perseus vanished completely.
The broken fragments of the golden sword turned to glittering dust and enveloped Perseus’s body, healing him in the blink of an eye.
‘This is it! Hup! I mustn’t move yet. This is my last chance.’
Perseus felt his body and mind instantly restored to perfect condition, but he continued holding his breath and feigning collapse.
He needed to wait for the one fleeting moment when she would be completely off guard.
Thanks to the golden sword, he had regained the ability to move — but the difference in level between himself and that monster was still overwhelming.
In terms of warrior ranks, it was the insurmountable gap between a second-stage Polites (citizen) class and a fourth-stage Heros (hero) class.
Therefore, his only path to victory was a single, perfectly timed ambush.
The one advantage Perseus held over Medusa lay in the divine weapons he possessed.
During the fight, he had also witnessed Njord enjoying his own battle, and in the end, he had learned the shocking truth behind the current Gorgon sisters.
‘Hup! To think… such a secret existed.’
He had nearly let out an involuntary groan at the revelation of the Gorgon sisters’ secret — but at the same time, he felt a wave of relief.
At the very least, he no longer had to worry about antagonizing the goddess who had erected that massive statue.
Moreover, Medusa — perhaps because her long-awaited goal was finally within reach — was now exposing openings that even Perseus could clearly sense.
‘Well… I’d probably be the same in her position. Anyway, there’s no way I could escape her senses with my own speed.’
But he had the weapons of the gods.
And among them was one capable of slipping past that monster’s perception for a single, decisive instant.
He was wearing the Talaria.
Kieeeaaaaaaa!!!
***
The silver blade plunged precisely into the nape of Medusa’s neck — but unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to sever her head completely.
Even in a state of carelessness, she was still a monster who had consumed dozens, perhaps hundreds of humans.
[KyaAAAAAAHHH!!!]
Having been caught completely off guard, Medusa went berserk with rage as her neck was nearly torn apart.
Her thick serpentine tail lashed wildly in every direction, and anything caught in the gaze of her petrifying eyes turned instantly to stone.
Perseus watched the frenzied, mindless Medusa and used the Talaria to instantly retreat backward.
There was no reason for a wise hunter to stay beside a rampaging beast.
The intelligent thing to do was wait for the creature to exhaust itself.
[Kieeeaaaaaaa!!!]
After thrashing about in fury and agony for a while, Medusa finally began to slow down, her strength visibly waning.
Then she locked her gaze directly on the spot where Perseus was crouched.
Once again, the Aegis shield clashed against her crimson petrifying gaze.
The difference this time?
Perseus could endure it.
“Haha, looks like you’re running out of steam, monster.”
Grind.
Medusa gnashed her boar-like tusks.
She could clearly feel that, because of this single moment of carelessness, her power had drastically diminished.
Worse still, she estimated that she had lost power equivalent to hundreds of humans in that one lapse.
[So even if I chew and swallow every last piece of your flesh, it still won’t be enough to recover!]
KUUUUNG.
The clash between Medusa’s gaze and the Aegis shield grew even more violent, producing thunderous roars — but that was all.
Even when her power had been at its peak, she hadn’t been able to penetrate the Aegis; she could only inflict indirect pressure on Perseus’s body.
Now that her strength had been severely depleted, how could she possibly affect him?
Her gaze no longer had any effect on Perseus whatsoever.
For Medusa, it was enough to drive her insane — but what could she do?
The mistake had been hers.
“At this level… I think I can manage. Is it because you’re just a husk and not a real god?”
[You filthy insect!!!]
***
Before the battle between Perseus and Medusa — now finally fought on more equal footing — could conclude, another fight had already ended.
It was the battle between Poseidon and Stheno and Euryale.
The aftermath was visible all throughout the cave.
Huge, razor-sharp bone fragments were embedded everywhere in the walls.
Vile, nauseating poison still dripped and hissed, slowly melting one entire side of the cavern.
But more striking than anything else were the severed heads of Stheno and Euryale — their long tongues lolling out, eyes wide in death.
And sitting casually atop a boulder in the midst of that ruined cave was a blue-haired mage with a ponytail, idly sucking on a bundle of medicinal herbs like a cigarette.
Huuu…
“Man… In a way, you could say these girls had pretty pitiful fates.”
As he spoke, two faintly glowing orbs hovered behind Poseidon, shimmering softly as he gazed at the severed heads.
“I never imagined the husks would develop their own egos and accumulate this much power.”
—Indeed… That’s true. We only ever considered the egos and power that the original Gorgon goddesses had implanted.
Who could have predicted that the husks would gain self-awareness and even come to fully understand the prophecy?
The orbs — Atropos and one of her sisters — spoke quietly.
Their voices carried a hint of genuine surprise.
“Sigh… Well, the rest is up to that kid now. Even in this human body, I think this is about my limit.”
Huuu.
Exhaling a plume of smoke, Poseidon looked down at the necklace around his neck and spoke.
—I suppose I should thank you. If that boy had been forced to face those two husks as well, he definitely would have died.
At Atropos’s words, Poseidon — who was feeling the rare sensation of physical exhaustion in his human form — glanced toward the severed husks.
“Ugh… I swear I’m never taking another commission from you goddesses again.”
Looking at these husks reminded him of the time he had fought Typhon’s clone long ago.
***
At first, Poseidon had been completely at ease.
Even when Stheno and Euryale unleashed their strongest possible attacks, they still couldn’t reach him.
“This much is nothing!”
As a massive bone hammer descended from above and twisted, poisonous wood vines shot up from below, Poseidon swung his staff.
With a low hum, torrents of water exploded outward from the vibrating staff in every direction like a waterfall.
In just a few seconds, the entire cave was completely flooded.
[Ugh! What is this?!]
[How can a mere human display this level of power?!]
Stheno and Euryale couldn’t hide their shock.
It was as if the fish they thought they had already caught had suddenly evolved and torn through their net.
Because they faltered for that brief instant,
A certain trident — long absent from the outside world — began to resonate with ferocious power.
Wooooooong!!!
In the next moment, Poseidon slammed the staff — now fully transformed into a trident — into the ground.
[Πηγ των Νηρηίδων — Spring of the Nereids]
This spell summoned a fragment of the spring-world ruled by the Nereids — fairy-like deities — onto the mortal plane.
It granted absolute dominion over space itself.
Originally a fairy authority, Poseidon had imitated it as magic with Hecate’s help.
The entire cave where they stood was now filled to the brim with water.
Stheno and Euryale instantly realized that this place had become the domain of a grand mage.
The water filling the cavern was actively hostile toward them.
[That mage… could he actually be someone who has reached the pinnacle…?]
[It seems so. None of the ones we’ve devoured before ever reached this level. Then…]
[[A delicious tonic has crawled right into our grasp!!!]]
For most living beings, having an entire world overwritten and dominated by the will of a grand mage would inspire sheer terror.
But for them, it only brought an even more delighted grin.
Their bodies and faces began to twist and change.
Soon, they transformed into grotesque forms identical to Medusa.
“Huh?! What the—?!”
Naturally, the sight startled Poseidon.
This was completely different from what he had observed when Ceto had asked him to investigate long ago.
Only then did Poseidon finally sense that something was deeply wrong.
“This… feels off somehow…”
***
Even though suspicion gnawed at him, Poseidon had no choice but to confront Stheno and Euryale as they charged.
He gently deflected their attacks with the trident, and the water-world shifted in response to its movements, assisting him.
The bones erupting from Stheno’s body and the venom blooming from Euryale’s hands were smoothly diverted, unable to touch Poseidon.
Yet their tails continued swinging relentlessly.
Even against the crushing water pressure of the Nereid realm, their tails still shot toward him.
Poseidon released the trident and seized the water itself, twisting it clockwise.
The moment he did, the entire created world within the cave shook violently.
The tails that had been aimed at him veered wildly off course.
BOOM!!
But they had anticipated even that.
Through the course of battle, they had already realized that the mage before them was no ordinary being.
The tail strike had been a feint — meant to create a single instant in which they could seize control of Poseidon’s space with poison.
In the momentary gap that opened, Stheno’s rib bone and Euryale’s Umdrevi branch shot straight toward him with deadly precision.
In that split second, Poseidon slipped on a pair of thin gloves.
The moment the razor-sharp rib and branch collided with the gloves, an enormous explosion erupted, blasting all the surrounding water away.
“Crazy… This level of difficulty is worse than most monsters. Just how the hell did they accumulate this much power?”
[That’s our line! How can a human wield magic of this caliber?!]
[Tch… Could he be a mage connected to that monster Athena?!]
Even as they clashed with him in power, Stheno and Euryale couldn’t hide their bewilderment.
The gale blowing behind the mage, the intense distortion of mana around them caused by the collision of their powers — it was exactly the same as one of Athena’s signature magics they had once secretly witnessed.
[To think we’d see that Athena’s magic again after sneaking a look back then…]
[Euryale, we have to kill him no matter what. He’s seen our true forms.]
“Hey, calm down. But…? How are you two even possessing this level of self-awareness? Weren’t you supposed to be created things?”
At Poseidon’s suspicious question, the already stiff expressions of Stheno and Euryale began to twist into something truly hideous.
Since no word had yet come from Medusa saying she had devoured the blond brat, they could not allow even a single variable.
Especially not a mage who seemed strangely knowledgeable about them — and who was clearly connected to Athena!
Poseidon’s words became the final trigger.
The thin gloves on his hands flashed with a cold metallic sheen.
Stheno and Euryale responded by erupting in milky-white and dark-green light respectively.
BOOOOOOM!!!
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