Capítulo 367: Chapter 367: The Sea of Monsters
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I would like to thank my beta, Awdyr, for his help in this chapter.
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20 April 1995, Mount Olympus, Greece
Harry dodged the giant tentacle going at him, building a magic circle that acted like a platform, pushing him in the air. He cast another one, being sent to the side, before creating a giant magic circle that rained beams of ice at the roaring Kraken, before landing on the small island alongside Daphne.
The blonde followed his lead by conjuring vines from around the island, trying to bind the gigantic creature. It was relatively unsuccessful, but it gave Harry more than enough time to conjure dozens of magic circles that travelled like saws, cutting off the offending tentacles.
Seeing the giant monster regenerating in the midst of the sea that had turned red from its blood, Harry turned towards his girlfriend, "Keep it bound, I'm going to finish it off."
"I'm on it!" she yelled, and dozens of roots came from the island and attacked the wounded Kraken, not allowing it to retreat. Harry sent himself flying up and conjured a giant spike of ice, which he infused with the necrotic properties of his family crest and impaled through the creature's head.
The Kraken seemed confused for a second before its massive eyes dulled, and a shudder ran through its colossal body. With a final, haunting groan, the beast's tentacles went limp, crashing into the churning sea. Slowly, the monstrous creature sank beneath the blood-streaked waves, disappearing into the depths from which it had emerged.
Harry landed on the island and stretched, "Well, that's a bad way to start the morning!"
Daphne glared at him, "You're the one who decided not to camp out in the Labyrinth and take one of the exits."
"For good reason, we could easily be ambushed in the Labyrinth. That place can somehow warp the wards I put up and it seems to learn from the tricks I use to slow it down. If we got attacked in the middle of the night by something like that fire monster, we could seriously get hurt if we're taken by surprise, but here the wards held."
Daphne rolled her eyes but stayed silent. That did sort of happen when he mentioned the fire monster. Angelina's – presumed – death did weigh heavily on the blonde, and if he was being completely honest, even Harry himself. He hadn't been overly attached to the girl – hell he barely even knew her – but he had promised himself to protect the girl so that her soul wouldn't be trapped in the Labyrinth, and he had failed. Sure, she hadn't died in the damned place, but it was still a failure on his part, and Harry didn't handle failure well.
He had stopped holding back after Johnson's death. For one, the Labyrinth was far more dangerous than he expected any task to be, but there was also the fact that he didn't really need to. It was obvious that the outside world couldn't communicate with them in any way; they weren't even in the same realm, really. Now that he thought about it, they didn't really expect any students bar the ones from Olympus Academy, to even find the Labyrinth, and so, they were probably watching the other students trying to reach an unreachable goal outside the endless mountain. Just to be safe, Harry removed the spell they were using to watch them, in case it was recording, and decided that holding back was useless. There was no one watching and he wouldn't risk Daphne getting hurt, not like Johnson was. He had even stopped wearing Carmichael's body, not finding any use it in anymore.
It didn't help that he wasn't even able to find the realm he sent Johnson's body through during the attack. And wasn't that an issue and a half, Harry had assumed that the Labyrinth had one exit. He was proved to be mistaken when, after defeating that fire demon thing, he found himself in some kind of weird jungle, and had to fight his way through feral beasts, to find another entrance to the Labyrinth.
That was another kink in the Labyrinth. The entrances and exits were at separate locations. Sometimes, they were close to one another, sometimes, they were not. Harry was lucky enough to be able to detect space anomalies and could find them easily enough. This, coupled with his growing ability to control the Labyrinth, made their journeys a lot easier.
Every day, after waking up in some realm or another, they got up and entered the Labyrinth, trying to explore as many realms as possible, trying to find Hera's garden or at least a clue to find the damn place. So far, they were very unsuccessful, hence why they still continued their search.
Harry turned towards Daphne, "Alright, I'm going to locate the entrance to the Labyrinth. Can you make a wooden boat in the meantime?"
Daphne grumbled, "Things would go a lot quicker if you used your portals."
"I said it before, the laws of space and time are different in every realm. It'll take me hours to adapt my spells enough to make a portal here, which is longer than just going to find the Labyrinth entrances."
It was a common complaint of hers and Harry had to admit that he wished he could use portals so easily. Unfortunately, while each realm had the same fundamental properties of space-time, meaning that he could stretch and contract them, they had different base constants. That made crafting a portal spell be unique endeavour for each realm and a pretty time-consuming one at that.
Even the quality of the stretching and contraction of space and time depended on those constants, even if the effects were universal. The only place he even bothered to study properly was the Labyrinth itself, and that was an emergency more than anything. It was a good way to escape if they were under threat, even if he wouldn't be able to use it too many times. A very disturbing fact about the Labyrinth was that it learned.
Harry found that out the hard way when a pack of hellhounds somehow had the property to phase through the exact wards, he put in place in their first night there. The Labyrinth was definitely an entity capable of thought, and it obviously wanted to kill them. Sometimes it even resisted being controlled, even if Harry overpowered it often. It was like a game. It figured out new ways to resist being forcefully controlled and Harry tried to keep up with every visit.
Unfortunately, they still had to go back there, for Daphne's sake more than anything. They had to find that golden apple for her to be completely free of her hangups, to finally save her sister from her curse. And so, Harry used his Arcane Hearing to sense the familiar disturbance in space of a Labyrinth entrance.
Five minutes later, Harry and Daphne were riding a pretty big boat, going very quickly considering how he was stretching the space in front of the water. They should arrive in a few minutes at this pace.
Of course, that was when Harry heard something big approaching them with his Arcane Hearing and created a magic circle that banished them to the side. Immediately, a giant head came from the water. It wasn't just any sea creature; this beast's gaping maw seemed to swallow the very ocean around it. The waters began to churn violently, spiralling into a massive whirlpool that threatened to drag their boat into the depths. The roar of the swirling vortex drowned out all other sounds as the creature's endless hunger pulled everything toward it.
Harry's eyes widened at the sight. "Hold on tight!" he shouted to Daphne, his voice barely audible over the tumultuous waves. He conjured a magic circle beneath them, sending the boat flying into the air. He then conjured a bolt of lightning, sending it into the maw of the beast beneath them.
The monster seemed to thrash in pain as the very sea was electrocuted. Harry followed by altering gravity slightly to hold the beast in place and conjuring an ice ball with runes carved all over it, and he channelled his crest through it. With a flick of his wand, he banished it through the monster's mouth, who swallowed it, probably without even noticing.
Five seconds later, an explosion shook the very seas, creating very large waves, which Harry used to propel the boat even faster. They were sent towards the location of the entrance, with a dead giant sea monster whose body was already starting to rot, and Daphne turned towards him and burst into laughter.
Harry gave her a confused look, "What's this for?"
"Sometimes I forget just how bullshit you are. This thing was massive."
"Everything has a weakness, Daph. Size doesn't always mean that it's invincible."
The blonde shook her head, as they finally landed on another island, which probably held where the Labyrinth entrance was, considering that it was the only other piece of land that seemed to be an endless ocean, filled with sea monsters.
As Harry and Daphne stepped onto the island, they took a moment to survey their surroundings. The island was unexpectedly lush, with vibrant flora and the distant sound of cascading water. It was a stark contrast to the treacherous seas they'd just navigated.
"Well, this is different," Daphne remarked, her eyes scanning the verdant landscape.
Harry nodded, "Keep your eyes out. There's some kind of weird effect surrounding the entire island."
He wasn't joking, the magic on the island was extremely thick, and even to his Arcane Hearing, its sound drowned out most of the fainter magics that he could still tell was there, but only just that.
She nodded and they walked forward. Other than the plants, the island seemed to be barren of any form of life. It obviously hadn't been the case before, considering the hundreds of bones that were littered all over the place. Still wary of any attack, they walked towards the source of the space anomaly, where the Labyrinth entrance was.
Harry just wanted to get it over with since this place was giving him the creeps. And eventually, as they got closer to their objective, the dense foliage gave way to a clearing, with the familiar delta symbol being carved into the ground, ready to be activated.
He was about to enter, only for Daphne to jab his shoulder slightly. He turned towards her, ready to ask her why she stopped him only to freeze at the sight around him. All around the clearings were large boulders, with carvings all over them. They were definitely old, very old, even, and it also had the disturbing connotation that a living human being had once lived on this island.
"Look at these," Daphne whispered, tracing her fingers gently over the first carving. It depicted a mighty hero clad in a lion's skin, wielding a club against a fearsome beast. The artistry was exquisite, every detail rendered with care.
"That's Heracles," Harry observed. "This must illustrate his twelve labours."
They moved to the next boulder, which showed Heracles battling the Hydra, its multiple heads snapping fiercely. The subsequent panels continued to chronicle his exploits: capturing the Golden Hind, cleaning the Augean stables, and obtaining the girdle of Hippolyta.
But as they progressed along the wall, the quality of the artwork began to deteriorate. The lines grew less precise, the details were lost as if the quality of the tools used to carve Heracles' story got worse over time. By the end, all the carvings became were clumsy carvings of in Ancient Greek of the word 'Remember'.
"This is odd," Harry muttered. "It's like the artist was losing interest or... perhaps something else was happening."
He was leaning towards the latter, and from the looks of it, all around the Labyrinth entrance, the ground was extremely uneven, unnaturally so. He had a bad feeling about this.
He was about to voice his concerns, only to see Daphne staring at one of the boulders. It depicted a lush garden with trees bearing gleaming golden apples. Guarding the garden was a dragon coiled around a tree, its scales suggested by mere rough etchings.
"This must be Hera's garden," Daphne said, her voice filled with awe and pure hope.
Harry walked towards her and gave her a comforting look, "We'll get there, Daph."
However, Daphne didn't respond to him. Instead, her eyes widened, "Wait, there's something here." She pointed to a barely visible symbol etched near the base of the tree—a familiar delta of the Labyrinth entrances.
So, that was proof that Harry's theory was right, that the gardens of Hera were in fact one of the realms of the Labyrinth. Harry was about to say something, only to notice a faint piece of something glowing gold underneath the boulder.
He was about to examine it further, only for his Arcane Hearing to warn him that something very powerful coming very quickly at them. Harry stretched space, grabbing Daphne with him, and the entire boulder that they were looking at became nothing more than rubble.
The last Potter couldn't even see what was attacking him – it was just that fast – but he warped the earth to destabilize it. Whatever the creature was jumped in the air and was quickly coming down on them. Harry, in response, created a giant shockwave of green light. However, instead of a physical effect, what it did was slow time drastically at them.
It was then that Harry saw him, and it was a man. Well, it was hard to even call him a man, he stood at least ten feet tall, his muscular frame rippling with raw power. His skin had a bronzed hue, etched with scars that told tales of countless battles. Wild, unkempt hair framed a face contorted in a perpetual snarl, and his eyes glowed with a feral intensity that spoke of madness unleashed.
In his massive hands, he gripped an enormous stone weapon—a hybrid between an axe and a sword—that was nearly as large as Harry himself. The blade was jagged and primitive, yet Harry could tell that it was very powerful. Even falling through slowed time, the young wizard could see the way the very air was shuddering from his every movement.
"Heracles," Harry whispered, realization dawning on him.
He quickly grabbed Daphne and ran to the entrance of the Labyrinth, trying to activate it, only for it to not work. That had never happened before. He was sure that the puzzle was solved correctly, and there was a space-time anomaly that was consistent with all other Labyrinth entrances, and yet it just wasn't activating. Harry was so taken aback at his failure, that he felt his control over his slowed time be overtaken. As if it was cracking like glass, the green hue signifying Harry's frozen time shattered into nothing, and the Greek hero landed, destroying the ground around him, before releasing a primal and animalistic roar.
He could feel Daphne, next to him, shudder at the sound. He couldn't really blame her, they were trapped on an island with what was effectively a mad demigod, unable to return to the Labyrinth. Why couldn't things just go smoothly for once?
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AN: I don't know how to feel about this chapter. I rewrote it like twice, but I feel like I can do it better somehow, or that something is missing. I didn't have time to re-read the final correction, so there might be a few mistakes. So, as usual, please let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions.
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Thank you guys for your support in these hard times.
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