Chapter 517: Chapter 548-549: Negotiation

The temple was just as flourishing on the inside as it was on the outside. The interior was cool and dim, the only light coming from the faint glow of candles placed at intervals along the walls. The ancient walls were covered in vines and moss, flowers blooming everywhere. Sunlight filtered through the thick canopy of leaves overhead, casting dappled shadows across the ground.

The air was heavy with the refreshing scent of flowers.

Shiori couldn’t help but grasp Asahi’s hand, interlacing their fingers. “I feel like we’re on a high school tour. I love it.”

Saeko nuzzled Loki out of the way and hold on to his other hand. “It feels like one.”

Asahi wholeheartedly agreed with their feelings. The twins rarely vied with others for his attention. When they did, there was no stopping them.

Loki made a sour face. “Do ya sisters know about One-Eyed Black Dragon?”

Euryale cocked her head. “Yes, we do. He is our sister’s strongest child as a pure monster. He wreaked the most havoc on the surface, even though he was the smallest Behemoth.”

“He still got defeated.” Asahi reminded them of reality. “And he took a spirit hostage. Her name is Aria. What happened to her?”

The twins’ answer would dictate Ais’s future. The thought of breaking the bad news to Ais made his chest tighten. He felt a constant buzz of anxiety in the back of his mind. It made him realize how much Ais’s happiness meant to him.

(My love, take a deep breath. Try to be positive!)

Saeko and Shiori also squeezed his hands, transmitting their warmth.

‘I can’t help it, geez.’

Taking a deep breath, he resolved to reunite Ais with her mother, even if it meant resurrecting her or snatching her from a different world.

The goth twins continued walking and gazing at each other, nodding and making small brow gestures as if communicating without words.

“What happened to the spirit?” Loki repeated his question to the sisters.

The sisters maintained their silence until they reached a stone slab of a door. They pushed the door open, revealing narrow stairs leading to a lower floor, with torches illuminating the way at intervals. The lair of Medusa was ahead.

Euryale turned around and smiled at Asahi. “Aria is the reason we brought you here. I’ll explain the rest later.”

Stheno shifted her glare to Asahi’s hands, which were interlaced with the Busujima sisters. “You go alone with Euryale. The rest will stay here.”

Asahi didn’t move. “Answer my question first.”

“Why is everyone so crazy about that blonde bitch?” Stheno scowled. “She is living on the previous floor. You got your answer, right? Go, follow Euryale.”

Asahi couldn’t believe the weight that had been lifted off his shoulders. He felt like he could finally breathe again. He let out a deep sigh and separated his fingers from Shiori and Saeko.

Loki showed a relieved smile. “Ais’ struggle ain’t for nothin’.”

Ruby silently committed Ais and Aria’s names in her memory after seeing the importance Asahi and Loki attached to them.

Asahi stepped forward and gestured to Euryale to take the lead. Euryale nodded and descended the stairs. Turning to Stheno, he smirked and flicked her forehead.

Stheno covered her forehead with her hands and glared at him, eyes brimming with unshed tears. “Arghhh! Kariólis, why would you hit me?!”

Asahi raised a brow at her Greek curse. “For keeping me on edge. Couldn’t you have said that Aria was safe?”

“He is a petty man.” Loki snickered, finding Stheno’s reaction hilarious. “Aren’t ya immortal?”

“Immortality has nothing to do with pain! We still feel all emotions like normal humans.”

“All emotions? Does that include love? If it does… ya crossed the wrong man.”

Stheno followed Loki’s gaze to Asahi’s back. “We would never fall in love with a man.”

Asahi shook his head. “I barely know a thing about them outside of their tragic tale. It’s too early to be predicting my actions, Loki.”

Loki shrugged. “I speak facts. Ignore them if ya want.”

“You’re supposed to follow.” Euryale’s voice reached them in echoes. She looked over her shoulder. “Outlander?”

“Have a little patience, jeez.”

Asahi hurried down the stairs and arrived by Euryale’s side. He could see another prison cell-like door at the end of the stairs. With Euryale’s pace, they’d need at least five minutes to reach the door. Instead of picking her up and dashing, he took the chance to coax some answers out of her.

He had a genuine interest in Medusa’s story in this world.

“Why don’t you give me a summary of your sister’s story? I’d like to learn more about her before meeting her.”

Euryale looked at him skeptically, expecting mockery on his face for her sister. There was none. Only genuine interest and curiosity. “You’re unquestionably a god from outside this world. An outlander god.”

“How do you know I’m from another world?”

“Medusa sniffed out your origins from your strange divinity.” Euryale showed a nostalgic smile, fondly remembering memories of the old. “She has always been the keenest one.”

“Heh.”

“Medusa was different from us. While we catered to our father and mother, she left home for the Altena Kingdom. She pursued her heart and became a priestess at Athena’s temple… she tended to her garden and served Athena with all of her heart. She meant no harm to anyone…”

“A good chunk of people live to abuse others’ kindness.”

Euryale clenched her fist and punched the torch on the wall. Her face twisted in the darkness. The skin on her knuckles was burned before regenerating. “Not everyone appreciated her kindness. That maláka Poseidon.”

Her hatred for Poseidon was clear in her fierce voice and her vicious gaze.

“He forced himself on Medusa?”

“He did. He called her his possession… calling our parents his slaves. Athena, the goddess Medusa worshiped, punished her for tainting the temple. Their injustice still blows my mind!”

“Athena was jealous of Medusa for being more beautiful than a goddess, wasn’t she?”

“She most certainly was seething with jealousy. Medusa didn’t notice it until it was too late. Athena cursed Medusa with her Arcanum and made her a half-snake monstrosity with a petrifying gaze…”

Asahi nodded in his thoughts. The story until now was the same as he remembered. He expected it to change soon.

Euryale leaned against the wall and hyperventilated, anger consuming her. “Medusa cowered outside the temple, refusing to believe anything. Her friends saw her and called the guards. Spears were ready to slay her… Medusa snapped and turned everyone into stones.”

Euryale’s anger lessened as she continued her story. After killing her friends, Medusa fled Altena and returned home. Even their parents refused to accept her and shunned her. Stheno and Euryale brought Medusa to take refuge in ancient ruins near a volcanic zone.

Asahi sighed. “That must have been a hard choice.”

To protect their sister, they gave up on their normal lives without a second thought.

Euryale shook her head. “Not at all. Life in solitude was more pleasant than you can imagine. Medusa returned to tending gardens while we sewed dresses and sold them for food… We were happy and content, but gods didn’t let us rest there. Poseidon disturbed Kraken who was sleeping in the depths of Okeanos.”

This is where the story deviated massively from mythology.

Athena, who was on a trial for misusing her Arcanum, made several divinations. Fixing the Kraken problem would get her in Ouranos and Zeus’s good grace and save her from being banished to Heaven. The solutions she found were in the sacrifice of a princess or using the monstrosity created by her own hands.

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To save his lover Princess Andromeda, Perseus began his odyssey for Medusa’s head and easily succeeded. How could he not when the goddess of wisdom guided him at every turn?

Euryale suddenly paused and took a shuddering breath. “Medusa was writhing on the ground helplessly. It was horrible… We tried to help but he cut us down over and over. We could do nothing to avenge Medusa.”

They were born immortal but Medusa lost hers when she became a monster.

“Then?”

Overwhelmed with emotions, Euryale shook her head from left to right. She took his hand and hurried down the stairs. Kicking the door open, she led him into the pitch-black darkness created by an energy similar to the darkness element. The black tendrils were so dense that it encompassed this entire space.

Asahi felt like his senses couldn’t measure the depth of this prison. But he could feel the endless life force flowing through the structure. It was beyond his own.

“She would have died if a Primordial Evil God didn’t take pity on her,” Euryale said and looked up at her sister. “Right, Medusa?”

“Hmm….” A deep hum reverberated through the darkness. “Enemy?”

Asahi slowly raised his gaze and froze, not because of some petrification ability. The reason for his shock was a pair of big gray eyes looking down at him. Medusa wasn’t a monster; she was one with this place.

“I don’t get it. Who is this Evil God now?”

“Tartarus,” echoed the voice of the dungeon. “Death to the gods.”

He revealed a confused look. “Wait a second. Medusa and Tartarus are one entity? Did you fuse them to keep Medusa alive?”

“Tartarus’s consciousness, Medusa’s heart, her Arcanum, and her divinity.” Euryale revealed a self-deprecating smile. “Medusa’s emotions survived, but her memories didn’t. Her head was taken off, remember?”

Euryale went into more details about Medusa and Tartarus.

The dungeon’s true origin was Tartarus, the giant chaos that gave birth to Heaven and Earth. Tartarus wanted to return the world to its primal state. Its goal resonated with Medusa, who wanted to wipe every life from the face of the earth.

Tartarus embodied Medusa’s heart, and awakened her dormant divinity as the goddess of fertility.

The monsters that emerged from Tartarus before were unruly and driven by their instincts. The monsters Medusa created were connected to her, obeying her like obedient children.

Asahi couldn’t help but shake his head at Medusa’s current state. She had an immature ego, no memories, only her instinctive hatred for gods and love for her sisters. Even in her broken state, Medusa recognized her sisters and showed compassion for them.

Even he’d find it hard to fix Medusa with his current status as a God of Life.

“This is fucked up.”

“We’ll bestow a worse fate on the gods. For our revenge to succeed, we need you to stay out of our business until Medusa and Tartarus reach their pinnacle.”

“You are severely mistaken if you think I’d just watch while you destroy Orario.”

He had little passion for the people in Orario, but it was the home to many of his lovers. As much as he empathized with Medusa’s quest for vengeance, he wouldn’t let the sisters kill anyone in Orario.

Euryale grinned. “You have seen how Medusa can manipulate Tartarus’s structure. If you don’t want to see Aria buried on the 199th floor, you will agree to stay out of this conflict between Medusa and the gods.”

Asahi flashed a thin smile, his gaze as cold as ice. “Are you threatening me?”

Euryale felt her throat tighten, her leg freezing. His aura was too much for a weak woman like her. Sucking in a deep breath, she shook her head. “You leave us no choice, Outlander. Gods cannot freely use Arcanum but you can use your divine powers with no restrictions. We don’t need a factor like you in this war. We merely want you to leave us alone.”

She was the one who agreed to Medusa’s proposal to open up a path into their residence. Aimi was close to reaching the 199th floor, while Aria’s wind barrier was nowhere close to breaking. They needed to buy time, otherwise, their centuries of effort would be for nothing.

She was desperate, hoping that Asahi prioritized Aria’s life over killing Medusa, the biggest threat to this world. It was a gamble that could go either way.

Her heart continuously beat against her ribs, its sound threatening to break her eardrums.

The tense stalemate ended when Asahi sighed and showed a smile. “What makes you think I can’t rescue Aria before the floor collapses?”

His instincts denied him. He couldn’t outpace Medusa, who could control the dungeon as easily as moving an arm.

‘What about wind elemental?’

The response was… positive. He could destroy Euryale’s plan, rescue Aria, and kill the three sisters.

“You cannot. The 199th floor is special. The Black Dragon is protecting the heart of the dungeon. Aria has a wind barrier cast on the floor. No one can enter or exit the floor without breaking her barrier.”

“She is keeping the dragon sealed with her? What an admirable woman.”

Euryale nodded. “You must protect her.”

“Won’t the barrier protect her, though?”

Euryale stared at him with wide eyes as if her mind blanked out. “…The barrier isn’t that strong.”

“It seems to me that you don’t know the exact defensive power of her barrier.”

“I didn’t,” she admitted.

Asahi looked at her again. She struggled to stand on her feet. Yet her voice remained unyieldingly firm, showing her resolve to avenge her sister.

His gaze softened as his weakness reared its head. “Fine, I’ll give you my word. I won’t meddle with the dungeon. You’ll get a fair shot at revenge.”

After the wedding, he was going to invest more time in cultivating Astraea’s organization. Without his protection, Riveria and the rest of adventurers would be under pressure to keep achieving new heights.

“But,” Asahi added. “Aria’s daughter will stand in your way. The adventurers will become heroes when you threaten their lives. You’ll never succeed.”

“We will,” Euryale retorted vehemently. “Medusa will make a world without gods. No one will have the power to dictate others’ fate.”

“Can I see Aria now?”

“Will you honor your words?”

“Asking a villain to honor his words? Geez, you suck at negotiating.”

“You will,” Medusa cut in. “I… believe.”

The monster of pure instinct believed him to keep his words. After all, Medusa had had an eye on him since the day he entered the dungeon. She understood him more than Euryale and Stheno.

Euryale looked up. “Medusa, open a path to Dragon’s Lair.”

A meter wide hole opened in the ceiling. Asahi could see the sky and a few branches of the tree outside through it. The hole that would lead to Ais’s mother.

(A new milf?)

‘Depends.’

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