The Villain of Ancient Greece

”Tsk tsk, two demigods and a bunch of Golds, and they even know how to coordinate? Is this the official army of Serifos or what?”

Lorne, who had been paddling lazily along the edge, sensed the wildly surging tides of aether on the island as he slowed his rowing pace, and glanced sidelong at Xuster with a half-smile.

”Looks like His Majesty the King really spent a fortune on this.”

Realizing there was no getting off this pirate ship anymore, Xuster wore a long face and nodded helplessly, spilling all the information he knew about the expedition.

Turns out, as his adopted son Perseus grew stronger and revealed extraordinary talent, while he himself aged, the ruler of Serifos began to feel intense pressure and danger...well that was a perfect reaction.

After all, Greece was famous for its fine tradition of patricide and succession.

So, he gradually issued bounties and sent people to search for the legendary blood of the Gorgon.

But most of the civilian forces never returned.

Eventually, no longer able to wait, the king of Serifos gathered all his remaining military strength, paid a hefty sum to hire a follower of Hermes as a guide, and went all-in on this expedition.

Only… the result might disappoint him.

The landing party scoured the entire abandoned temple but found no trace of the legendary Gorgon monster.

”Boom!”

Another violent explosion shook the island, cutting off Xuster’s account. Blinding flames shot into the sky, and severed limbs and shattered pieces of bodies flew in all directions.

Seeing the tragic battle and the terrifying destructive power of both sides, Xuster swallowed his saliva and his face turned pale.

”Those people chasing you… who are they exactly?”

”The Atlantis Royal Guard…”

”Hiss—!”

Hearing that casual reply, the demigod descendant of Hermes broke out in a cold sweat, cursing inwardly.

Great.

This time, not only had he screwed over his employer, the Serifos king, now he’d also provoked the sea-dominating Atlanteans.

If he wanted to stay alive, he’d probably have to say goodbye to making a living at sea in the future, right?

At that moment, powerful tremors rolled through in waves, causing massive ripples across the entire sea surface. Even the small boat the two were in rocked violently side to side, while the concentration of aether particles in the air surged higher and higher.

Lorne furrowed his brow, the smile slowly fading from his face.

Something’s not right.

Those Atlanteans were already beaten and crippled by him, so, there’s no way they should be this strong now…

And the source of the shaking doesn’t seem to be from aboveground, but from… underground?!

After a brief pause, as if realizing something, he suddenly looked up at the trembling island.

BOOM—!

At the same time, a roar of heaven and earth exploded, and the hideous cracks in the ground tore the entire island apart, like a direct portal to the abyss of the Underworld.

The slithering of snakes and their hissing tongues came from the darkness, like steel needles stabbing into everyone’s hearts and eardrums.

Panic, despair and waves of negative emotion spread uncontrollably.

Then, two massive, grotesque shadows began to emerge in the thick night.

One was a beast with a purple serpent tail for its lower half and a human female upper body.

The other was a goddess, breathtakingly beautiful with a cold, fierce face, golden wings on her back.

—The snake-haired monster, Gorgon!

”Bang!”

Clawed hands covered in serpentine scales reached over the edge of the abyss, climbing up onto the shattered temple plaza, as the two towering figures, each as massive as a small mountain, rose even higher.

The aether magic particles frantically converging on the invisible island grew hyperactive in the air, friction igniting a purple-red glow that illuminated most of the pitch-black sky.

In that instant, the overwhelming surge of magical energy made Lorne’s eyelids twitch uncontrollably, and a wave of goosebumps exploded across his back.

God-tier! Two of them!

He couldn’t help but turn to Xuster beside him and asked in a dry voice,

”You guys are sure you came here to hunt them?”

”I don’t know either! Higher-ups said they were just escaped monsters from the Arima Cavern, at most demigods!”

The demigod-blooded descendant of Hermes was also gulping like mad, his teeth chattering uncontrollably, his face full of terror.

Two demigods, plus a group of Golds, with even a Hermes-blooded demigod as outside support, that kind of lineup should’ve been more than enough to deal with three monsters that, at most, were demigod-level.

Unless…

By now, the two Gorgon monsters who had fully transformed into their complete divine forms were already unleashing a bloody massacre on the intruders.

”Zzzzzzzzzzhhh!”

Dense beams of violet-red light slashed through the air, crashing down like a meteor storm. The entire temple plaza was razed again and again in an instant.

Charred, black-and-red earth littered with flesh and severed limbs splattered everywhere. Dozens-of-meters-deep conical craters smoked with curling blue mist.

With just this one strike, seven or eight elite fighters from both Serifos and Atlantis were instantly reduced to dust and bone.

These weren’t just any soldiers, these were true, top-tier Gold-ranked elites!

”That old coffin-dodger from Serifos dared to screw me over!”

At this moment, after witnessing the tragic situation on the island and experiencing a flash of lightning in his mind, Xuster, who felt a chill on his back, couldn’t help but start cursing.

”Not necessarily…”

However, a deep voice beside him pulled him out of his panic as Lorne murmured softly,

”It’s possible… when they first set foot on this island, they really were just demigods. But to survive the relentless pursuit, to stay alive… right before you all arrived, they might have broken through their limits—

and ascended to true godhood…”

As for the specific reason, Lorne vaguely pieced it together from a few items he’d swiped earlier on the Serifos warship.

He opened a magic array and took out several stone slabs inscribed with wave-like secret runes.

Casting one last deep glance at the ruined temple on the island, his lips moved in silent whisper.

Old sea god Pontus—who would’ve thought this had once been His temple.

But thinking it over, it actually wasn’t that surprising.

After all, ever since this ancient god’s fall, he had practically been a model worker of Greece.

Not only had he showered gold everywhere, he had also greatly enriched the ecology of the primordial oceans, leaving behind boundless blessings.

It was probably thanks to licking some of Pontus’s leftover boons that the three Gorgon sisters, who were originally on the run and hunted across the lands, inherited part of the grace of the ocean and managed to ascend right here, on this invisible island with nothing but waves and rocks.

That’s also likely why, in Greek mythology, there are two theories about the Gorgons’ origins:

That they are either daughters of Typhon the Ancestors of the Demons and Echidna the Mother of Monsters,

—or daughters of Phorcys the Father of Monsters and Ceto the Sea Monster Queen.

By the way: while technically Phorcys, the father of all monsters and Ceto,

the mother of all monsters, were the children of old sea god Pontus, and are in name the Gorgons’ parents, making their bloodline and divinity seem ”purer”—

Even so, in the future, the demigod hero Perseus would use Medusa’s head alone to turn Ceto, the so-called Mother of Sea Monsters… into stone.

Clearly, the three Gorgon sisters were the true inheritors of Pontus’s legacy.

At this moment, looking at the two Gorgons on the island now radiating divine might and violently clearing the battlefield, Lorne couldn’t help but break into a cold sweat.

The unending hunts and harassment from the outside world had already filled the three sisters with deep suspicion and hostility toward any intruders.

Not long ago, after getting the legacy of the old sea god Pontos in some way, they did not disappear, but just sneaked into the underground of the temple to slumber, awaiting ascension.

Those outsiders who’d barged into their territory? Unlucky enough to wake them up prematurely.

Good thing, thank you everyone, he hadn’t rushed in to try and cozy up to them, or he’d probably have died without even knowing how.

Once again, Lorne felt grateful for his wisdom and caution and at the same time, he quickly grabbed his oar, ready to leave this dangerous area as fast as possible.

Even if he did want to build some rapport with the Gorgon sisters, now was definitely not the time.

First things first—survive. Worry about the rest later.

With that in mind, Lorne picked up speed as he rowed.

But as the sound of waves spread out toward the island, a sharp, stabbing sense of crisis suddenly seized his chest and his heart clenched violently.

A deadly chill spread through his whole body, as if he were a frog being stared down by a viper in the dark.

”Down—NOW!”

With a low roar that burst out on instinct, Lorne’s expression changed and he dove without hesitation.

Almost at the same time, a pair of serpentine slit pupils, burning with rage and madness, locked coldly onto the sea.

As their gazes met, Xuster, who was completely unprepared, felt a crushing weight descend on him as his consciousness spiraled into darkness.

”Ssshh!”

In the next moment, a beam of magic, condensed to its limit, shot out from the violet-red magic eye, scything across the sea, raising mountains of water, plunging the surface into chaos and shadow.

Finally…

Night gave way to dawn.

The deep sea’s turmoil and disorder were washed away by the first light of morning.

Splash!

With a crisp splash of water, a tall figure, completely soaked, rolled from beneath the water and onto the deck of a small boat floating quietly on the surface.

Cough cough…

Lorne lay flat on the deck, coughing lightly, then glanced at the now calm surroundings and collapsed again, gasping for air.

So this was the difference between a demigod and a full god? That’s too insane…

After a short rest, he grumbled internally as he sat up.

His eyes wandered to the half-shattered humanoid statue lying on the deck and he shook his head with a sigh.

”I told you to get down, but nooo… Now look. Not even Zeus himself could save you now.”

After a few seconds of silence for a certain unlucky descendant of Hermes, Lorne casually tossed the half-statue into the deep sea.

Then, sitting alone on the deck and staring out into the unfamiliar sea, he felt a little lost.

With no guide, no bearings… where the hell was he supposed to go now?

As that frustration crept up, Lorne couldn’t help mentally grumbling again about the ones who started this whole mess.

’Come on, ladies—I was just passing by. Did you really have to hit me with a full-map nuke?’

”Crack!”

Just as the unfortunate victim was silently venting, a strange cracking sound came from the boat’s lower deck.

Along with it… a familiar aura surged up, one that made his blood pressure spike.

Gorgon!

Lorne stiffly turned his neck, forcing out a dry smile as he looked toward the open cabin.

His expression shifted from fake flattery… to confusion… and finally froze into stunned, complicated bewilderment.

At the very bottom of the cabin, among a pile of rune stones and bronze ritual vessels, a half-human-tall violet-red cocoon was revealed.

It rose and fell slightly with a slow rhythm, like a heartbeat.

And within that cocoon, a petite humanoid figure curled up, hugging herself tight within the womb-like membrane.

As the sun rose, a ray of light pierced into the dim cabin.

Inside the violet-red cocoon, a pair of eyes slowly opened as if sensing something—

Rectangular pupils, pure and unique, stared softly and curiously at the figure standing outside.

Lorne’s mouth twitched slightly as his thoughts surged in chaotic waves.

Now he finally understood why only two Gorgon sisters had appeared last night.

Why they went berserk and wiped out everyone on the island.

Why he got caught in their crossfire.

Looks like… things just got a whole lot more complicated.