Chapter 150: The Birth of the Mycenaean Empire (8)
The abode of the Horai—Zeus’s daughters and goddesses of the seasons.
In that place, one goddess was watching the battle unfolding on the mortal world with rapt attention.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The fight was fierce. Once again, Perseus was enduring an incredibly difficult battle.
He was somehow managing to hold his own against an opponent far stronger than himself.
And watching him… was the goddess Dike.
Originally, as one of the Horai, she had guarded the world’s rules and order while standing watch at the gates of Olympus.
But with the arrival of the one worthy to be called the first true hero, a great change had begun to stir within her heart.
“Eunomia, Eirene.”
“Hm?”
“What is it?”
“I’ve made up my mind.”
““Really?!””
Until now, Dike had hesitated.
She had buried her identity as one of the Horai—the goddesses of the seasons—and resisted letting the sprout of a new divine name take root.
Zeus, her father, and the other gods had subtly hoped she would, but Dike had kept shaking her head, feeling it wasn’t right.
Yes, Perseus was righteous. That much was true.
But she had thought that was all.
Above all, the mage called Njord who stood beside him was far too perfect.
That was why she had continued to harbor suspicion: perhaps Perseus was under his influence and control.
“You… more than anyone, you’ve always disliked humans. Are you sure about this?”
“Yeah. You don’t have to follow Father or the other gods so blindly. If it really gets bad, you can just run to Mother’s place.”
Dike gave her sisters Eunomia and Eirene a wry smile at their words.
Indeed, she had disliked humans.
And until now, she had felt little desire to let a new divine title sprout within her.
But Dike understood.
If things continued like this, Perseus wouldn’t die… but he would forever be dragged along by that mage.
Even now, as he fought Aethiops, wounds were slowly accumulating on his body…
“Ugh…!”
“That human… I don’t know what he’s aiming for, but he’s been like this ever since Athens. If this keeps up, Perseus might be the one who breaks first.”
“What? That doesn’t make sense. He’s the child the gods personally designated.”
“Right. No one in their right mind would toy with him like that.”
“No. That human is exactly the type who would. From what I’ve closely observed, he always acts purely out of curiosity. So if he gets bored of Perseus… who knows what he’ll do.”
“…That seems a bit extreme, doesn’t it?”
“But? Have you been observing that mage that closely? You’ve mostly been with us.”
Dike did not answer her sisters’ doubts.
Her innocent sisters might not understand yet.
But as the one destined to become the goddess of justice, she prided herself on her keen insight.
Above all, she was certain: the eyes that mage wore right now were the same eyes she so despised in her own kind.
‘Those who show not even a speck of justice, slavers who sell their own kin, spell-crazed experimenters, muscle-brained honor-chasers—those vermin have the exact same eyes.’
As Dike’s expression hardened with conviction and resolve…
Eunomia and Eirene couldn’t hide their uneasy looks.
They were sisters, but Dike sometimes fell into stubborn, headstrong certainty with no regard for consequences.
(—Will she be okay? Looks like she’s got one of her weird convictions again.)
(Sigh. Just leave her be. If that stubborn girl doesn’t do it this way, she’ll never accept becoming the goddess of justice. She even ignores Father’s words.)
(Yeah… she’s the kind of kid who’d reject sprouting a new divine name just because she doesn’t like it.)
(Exactly. And that mage clearly isn’t ordinary. Maybe it’s time Dike got a real wake-up call.)
(Okay, agreed. Then let’s just shut up and smile.)
“Hm? What are you two whispering about?”
“Ah—nothing. Just thinking… shouldn’t you hurry down to the mortal world already?”
“Yeah. Anyway, the new name and seed have practically sprouted already, right? So we were just discussing when you should descend.”
Dike nodded once more, her face filled with renewed determination at her sisters’ words.
As if she had sworn to herself:
‘She would definitely rescue that child Perseus from the mage’s control.’
***
Meanwhile, the “vermin” Dike had judged so harshly—Njord—was currently concentrating with greater focus than ever before.
He was supporting Perseus with paper-thin precision.
In gaps so fine Perseus couldn’t even perceive them, he intercepted attacks with zero margin of error.
Aethiops’s tail that missed Perseus’s body by mere sheets of paper.
Flames that failed to burn him.
A shield that turned what should have been fatal wounds into grazes.
The only reason Perseus was somehow enduring this life-or-death struggle against an incomparably stronger foe was entirely thanks to the mage Njord.
Of course, because of that, there was one small problem: someone had fallen into a serious misunderstanding after witnessing Njord’s unprecedentedly cold, calculating demeanor as a mage.
—Tch… this is tough. Really tough. It’d be easier if you just stepped in yourself…
“That’s impossible. The moment I do, rumors will spread that the great hero Perseus’s fame was all manufactured by the grand mage.”
In truth, there were already some who lumped Perseus and Njord together in criticism.
There would always be people who tried to tear down anyone more talented or superior than themselves.
Perseus receiving help from the grand mage gave exactly the kind of ammunition those people wanted.
Of course, such voices weren’t widespread.
The problem was that those who held power were especially prone to saying such things.
“Besides, Dike still hasn’t fully convinced herself. Normally she should have already descended to bless Perseus and silence the controversy.”
—Pathetic. If that girl had accepted her new divine name earlier, we wouldn’t have to handle things this complicatedly.
“Well… can’t be helped. She hates the idea. More importantly—keep supporting him as much as possible. In the end, we’ll have to create the final decisive blow.”
—Ugh… Normally the Fates aren’t supposed to interfere in matters like this… but we can’t let a properly flowing fate get twisted again.
Atropos and Poseidon did their utmost to assist Perseus.
Atropos read the threads of fate; Poseidon executed them.
A simple yet incredibly difficult task.
The necklace Poseidon wore began to glow with a soft, gentle light.
Just as the moment arrived to strike through the gap in fate—
BOOM!
A colossal sword fell from the sky.
Aethiops, caught completely off guard by the sudden attack, took the blow and plummeted back into the sea.
At the same instant, a woman appeared behind Perseus’s back—one hand holding scales, the other a sword, her eyes blindfolded with bandages.
“Now is the time. Use Medusa’s head.”
At the abrupt situation, not only Perseus—who had been locked in combat—but everyone around him forgot the battle entirely and tilted their heads in confusion.
““???””
Aethiops, too, was equally bewildered.
Another divine being intervening in Lady Eurynome’s trial?
It defied even his common sense.
Yet, seasoned as he was, he quickly refocused on his original purpose.
Using the momentum from being blasted deep underwater, he surged upward with full force—his jaws now filled with flames far beyond anything he had shown before.
He didn’t know who she was.
But since a god had intervened, unleashing his full power was only proper.
As if the earlier fight had been mere play, the mere presence of flames in Aethiops’s maw caused the surrounding sea to boil into steam, while the land beneath began melting and flowing like lava.
Even Perseus could feel his skin blistering and cracking from the sheer heat alone.
The intensity of that flame was unmistakable.
“Th-this…!”
Perseus, overwhelmed by the monster’s unimaginable power, had no mental capacity to even identify the woman gripping his shoulder from behind while floating in midair.
“Don’t worry, child. You are the human I have chosen—and a true hero.”
With those incomprehensible words from the woman, pure white flames erupted from Aethiops.
Instinctively, Perseus raised the most powerful weapon he possessed: Medusa’s face.
KABOOM!
A deafening explosion rang out as Medusa’s petrifying gaze clashed against Aethiops’s white flames, shaking the very air.
Perhaps because two near-illusory beings had collided—the city that had served as the trial site was half melted and half destroyed, rendered completely uninhabitable.
“Hm… stronger than I expected from that mere shell, isn’t it?”
—Even so, there is clearly a limit. It’s already starting to be pushed back.
“Yeah… you’re right.”
Even amid the aftermath, Poseidon and Atropos continued their calm conversation.
Behind them, the onlookers huddled together, mouths agape as they stared at the mythic scene unfolding before them.
“Tsk tsk tsk. Those idiots ended up being completely useless. Guess I’ll just have to protect them myself.”
Poseidon clicked his tongue and shook his head, turning his gaze back to the distant sight of Perseus—with the woman at his back—and Eurynome’s cherished Cetus unleashing its final attack.
Contrary to Poseidon’s disdainful reaction…
Everyone present felt overwhelming awe toward Perseus after witnessing this legendary spectacle.
No one had ever truly seen the power of a named monster of the illusory class before.
These people were the only ones alive to bear witness.
And in later years, they would become infamous as a fanatical force—mad devotees willing to do anything in Perseus’s name.
***
Unlike the reverence felt by those who had not evacuated, Medusa’s petrifying gaze was steadily being overwhelmed by the white flames.
It was inevitable.
Unlike the head in the original myth, this was merely a shell.
Moreover, Perseus had severed it before the shell’s power had fully matured—its limits were clear.
“Ugh! I don’t know who you are, but please run! We’re losing!!”
Perseus, sensing his own retreat, urged the person behind him to flee—without even the luxury of turning to identify her.
She was clearly someone as extraordinary as Lord Njord.
Yet the white flames he now faced felt impossible to withstand.
“Hehe… even in this situation, you think of others first. Don’t worry, child. As long as you hold Medusa’s head properly, I will create the turning point.”
At Perseus’s words, Dike smiled with genuine delight.
‘If I had known he was like this, I would have excluded that insolent mage from the beginning and intervened from start to finish myself.’
‘But… well. He isn’t complete yet. From now on, I can nurture him properly.’
The first step was to demonstrate reliability—by dealing with the Cetus before them.
Normally, that monster’s flames—chosen by Lady Eurynome herself—would have been too much for her, who had only just awakened her divine name of justice.
If she had remained merely one of the Horai, blocking it alone would have been impossible.
Her power reached its extreme only when united with her sisters.
‘But right now… with this child, it’s enough.’
To the eyes of the newly blossomed goddess of justice, everything Perseus had accomplished so far was clearly visible.
“But… how did that mage accumulate deeds so similar to this child’s?”
“Hm?”
“No—no, it’s nothing. Prepare yourself. The white flames will vanish soon.”
For a moment, Dike wondered if she had misunderstood.
But when she saw the mage down below grinning slyly up at her, she shook her head.
With that brazen, sinister expression—there was no way.
At the same time, orbs of light began to form in Dike’s hands.
They were the accumulated deeds Perseus had built throughout his life.
Deeds visible and usable only to Nemesis—daughter of the Protogenos Nyx, embodiment of retribution, karma, vengeance, and inevitable punishment.
Of course, Dike could not touch every single inevitable deed a living being must accumulate the way Nemesis could.
But at the very least, she could draw upon righteous deeds aligned with her own sense of justice to grant immense power.
“Now, Perseus. Everything you have done until this moment will become your strength.”
_____________________________________________
TL Note: Want to read ahead? Join My Patreon for early access:
- Plus Tier: 7 chapters per week (~60 chapters ahead)
- Premium tier: 9 chapters per week (~116+ chapters ahead) + access to all my other ongoing series
[For this novel specifically, check the collection under “Poseidon's Chronicle”]
Link: https://www.patreon.com/cw/Vritratls
_____________________________________________