Chapitre 368: Chapter 368: Berserker’s Rage
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I tend to upload drafts of early chapters on there to get people's opinions of them so you can read up to 20 chapters ahead as a bonus.
I would like to thank my beta, Awdyr, for his help in this chapter.
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20 April 1995, Mount Olympus, Greece
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?
Having become strangely experienced in this regard, Harry analysed his weapon strength and weaknesses of the man in front of him, well, a shadow of a man would have been more consistent. In pure brute force, Heracles won rather easily. He probably surpassed any magical creatures Harry had ever heard of, in sheer physical might, probably a dozen times over. The strength was worrying, so he couldn't risk being hit, but he could deal with that. In any magical conflict, a single hit was often enough to end the fight, other than holders of some kind of insane regeneration. No, what was most worrying was the speed and the obvious magical resistance.
Breaking through Harry's slowed time through pure strength was impossible without some kind of negating magic. Hmm, perhaps it was some kind of strength to magical negation conversion. That was the most probable conclusion, and definitely a most worrying skill. He could breach the gap in speed with his time manipulation, but other than killing him instantly, it was very unlikely that any magical effect could hold him for long. That's not to mention that any sort of healing or regeneration capability was unknown.
Now, Harry's main advantage was Heracles' rage. He was a Berserker through and through, and while he had the remnants of a tactical mind, it was obviously overtaken by the obvious rage he radiated. He barely had any time to think of a proper strategy to take advantage as he saw Heracles' form come at him. Alright, first things first, he needed to close the gap in physical speed. He accelerated his personal flow of time, grabbing Daphne behind him as he very closely dodged his opponent's strike, which actually sent the trees behind them flying back from the air pressure alone.
He threw Daphne to safety, making her personal flow of time match his own, before dodging a kick from the Greek Hero and creating a ball of concentrated space that banished him away. Heracles somehow understood what was happening and somehow threw himself forward, to match the space he was sent back, making him land without any problem just a few feet back at most.
What a fucking monster. The berserker tried to attack Harry once more, but the young wizard conjured a magic circle underneath him, making him fly up, before transmuting the ground behind him into steel spikes that he cursed with the necrotic properties of his family crest.
Daphne followed by making giant roots rise from the ground, binding the Greek hero's legs, and that gave Harry enough time to conjure a giant magic circle that fired hundreds of cursed spikes at his enemy.
The entire island was covered with dust and debris, blinding him. But Harry used his Arcane Hearing to figure out where Heracles was and followed conjuring some mist beneath him, which channelled his ice age spell.
An entire portion of the island had frozen over from the spell, which sucked the very heat from anything it touched. He conjured a space slicer, which manipulated space enough to cut anything, and sent it towards where he could hear Heracles' fading song, hopefully killing the monster.
Harry was about to check what happened to his opponent when he heard Daphne cough rather heavily. He could see blood running from her mouth. Had Heracles hit her? Was she hurt by one of his own spells?
He went to check on her, panicked more than anything, and fretted at her, "Are you alright?"
She held her hand slightly, having done coughing, and spoke up, "Yes, I'm fine! I got hit by the shockwave at the start, but it's nothing I can't heal."
Any reply he had was interrupted by a savage roar that caused a shockwave strong enough to send them both flying back. Harry was able to right himself in the air and telekinetically controlled Daphne's trajectory to get them to land safely.
In the middle of the clearing stood a haggard Heracles with icicles slowly falling from his body as well as golden blood flowing down to the ground. His wounds visibly closed, and he roared in rage, running towards them with a tremendous pace.
However, this time, Harry saw him coming and warped space in front of the monster to appear behind them, specifically, in the middle of the sea. It was about as far away as he could manage in the fraction of a second, he had to think things through.
Again, somehow, his opponent realized what he was about to do and turned in mid-air, jumping towards them with a speed that somehow neutralized the space warp, and he ran towards Harry, only to pass through an illusion that he crafted. The real Harry had ducked, having sent Daphne to the other side of the clearing by warping space the other way, and conjured an ice blade that he imbued with the power of the resurrection stone. The Greek hero ran into the blade, which went through his gut as if his physical and magical protection didn't exist.
This time, the wound did not heal. Heracles froze for a second, not believing what he was experiencing before roaring in anger and pain, and trying to crush Harry into a paste, only to go through him as the young wizard activated his invisibility cloak. He slowed down time around him and jumped while warping space making him reach the Greek Hero's head and conjure another ice sword imbued with the power of the soul stone. With a single sweep, he decapitated his opponent, from the back, landing roughly in the sand.
He waited for the hero's body to do some kind of bullshit thing like regenerating from his head or something, but the giant man remained just dead.
Harry released a sigh of relief. That was far more intense than he was expecting. He was immediately accosted by Daphne who fussed over him, "Are you alright?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. You're the one who was bleeding."
"Don't worry, I just healed myself," she reassured him before turning towards the decapitated head, "Is he dead?"
"I sure hope so," he muttered, "if he can heal after me doing that, then I don't know if I could do anything to keep him down."
She nodded, "Why didn't you just open the gate to the Labyrinth?"
"It wasn't working for some reason. I didn't have the time to examine why it wasn't. Let me have a quick look to see why it wasn't working."
They walked towards the destroyed clearing, and Harry knelt down at the entrance, deciding to focus on the magic surrounding the space-time anomaly. Without being in a hurry, Harry finally understood why it wasn't activating. It was very simple; it was already activated. Someone had manipulated the gate to be opened permanently, but only a very minuscule, almost imperceptible gate.
It was near impossible to realize it without being a very skilled mage, who understood how the gates behaved generally. It was obviously made on purpose and considering the location of the island and the countless monsters around, it was very easy to make a conclusion. This was a prison, specifically made to hold Heracles.
No, it was more than that, whoever had done it was beyond cruel. It specifically allowed the compulsion from the Labyrinth to seep through, slowly warping the Greek hero's mind into the Berserker that they had to fight. What a horrible fate to have. Assuming that Heracles knew very little of delicate and complex magics, he would have had to stay on this island for thousands of years, slowly becoming a monster in human skin.
The carvings on the boulders had a different meaning now. He was obviously trying to make himself remember, by carving his life out into the boulders, trying to use them as a way to stay human. It had obviously not worked.
Before he decided to modify the gate, Harry saw from the corner of his eye, the gold-glowing thing that had caught his eye before the fight. He walked towards it and saw that it was a piece of golden string. At least it appeared that way, but he couldn't help but gasp when he used his Arcane Hearing to realize what it was.
It was so beautiful, a piece of divination whose magic seemed to match the Labyrinth. Whoever had created this place was probably the one who made the string.
Daphne was staring at the string from behind him, "What is it?"
"A way to navigate through the Labyrinth. There were legends of an enchanted thread – I think it was called Ariadne's thread – which was used to guide people in the Labyrinth. I think it was Theseus who used it to slay the Minotaur, but if the legends had some nuggets of truth to them, then it's entirely possible that it existed beforehand. I'm not exactly sure about the details, but I can sense that it's a very strong and very unique form of divination, that guided people to their desired destination in the Labyrinth."
To be completely honest, he was downplaying just how impressive the artefact was. It was optimized in a way that made it connected to every single part of the Labyrinth and found the shortest path to the destination, adapting as the Labyrinth shifted. Of course, there was nothing about the path being safe, which was something he could see the Greek Gods from the myths do. After all, it wouldn't do to make their champions' lives easy, would it?
Even then, what he was seeing was just a piece of the thread. The enchantments, while impressive and original enough to give Harry ideas on how to adapt them in the real world, were also incomplete. However, it was obviously not done on purpose. It wasn't challenging to fill in the gaps if one understood it, and even then, it would have probably worked partially well in the Labyrinth.
If Harry had to guess, it would be that Heracles had probably ripped up a small part as a safety net, if he ever managed to escape and open the entrance to the Labyrinth, which he was unfortunately unable to do. A part of Harry couldn't help but pity the Greek hero; he could think of no worse fate than being forced into madness, alone on an island, slowly becoming a monster. Death was probably a mercy to such a tortured soul.
All in all, Daphne's eyes lit up as she realized what they held in their hands, "We can use it to find the Golden Apple. Oh, this has been so worth it. We're so close now."
Harry nodded before kneeling down to the gate and slowly coaxing it to open up. It took a bit longer than he expected, around thirty minutes, but he managed to do it eventually. It was definitely altered on purpose to stop people from affecting it. If he had any doubts that Heracles was imprisoned, they would definitely have been gone by then.
Finally, in a flash of light, they found themselves greeted by the familiar darkness of the Labyrinth. Deciding to finally activate Ariadne's thread, Harry did a rush job of patching in the enchantments on the piece of string, before instinctively throwing it in the air, mentally asking it to guide them to the Golden Apple, and muttered, "Ariadne Apórrito Ádis"
A bright golden light appeared from the string and projected forward like an illusion. The golden light formed a shimmering pathway that wound its way through the darkness ahead. Harry exchanged a glance with Daphne, who nodded, her eyes reflecting the luminous trail. "Looks like it's working," he murmured.
They stepped forward, the ethereal glow casting long shadows on the ancient stone walls, leading them through twisting corridors and steep inclines, always adjusting, always one step ahead of the shifting Labyrinth.
It was too quiet, and Harry knew for sure that something was about to happen, that the Labyrinth would try to trap them inside, to take them by surprise.
They arrived at a dead end, only for the Labyrinth to shift once more, a passageway appearing right where the glowing light showed it should be. Damn, could it even predict the Labyrinth's shifts? Harry wished he could just figure out where exactly they wanted to go, and he would shift the Labyrinth himself to get there quickly. Alas, Ariadne's Thread didn't work like that, and he had to take the long and slow way.
Right as they were about to step forward, the wall on his right shifted and a torrent of water came towards them at a speed fast enough to crush them. Harry telekinetically cut the water in half, making it go around them, and prepared to attack whoever was on the other side.
However, he was taken aback when a familiar voice spoke up, "Potter?"
Daphne gasped as she saw the scarred but still alive form of Angelina Johnson, "Thank Merlin you're still alive!"
Harry stayed there, wary of another trick, and saw that the Greek water elemental that he saw on the platform was behind her, just as ready for an attack as Harry was himself.
The man relaxed when he saw Johnson recognizing them, only to freeze, his expression turning into awe when he saw the golden light following them, "Is that Ariadne's Thread?"
Yeah, things just got a lot more complicated.
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AN: Again, I'm not really sure about this one. I don't know if I gave the fight with Heracles justice. It was oddly hard to write it, and it didn't feel as natural as I expected, at least on my end as a writer. Still, I kinda wrote that in a hurry since some errand I had to go on ended up taking too long. As usual please let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions.
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If you want to support me check out my patréon at https://www.patréon.com/athassprkr
I tend to upload drafts of early chapters on there to get people's opinions of them so you can read up to 20 chapters ahead as a bonus.
Thank you guys for your support in these hard times.
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone