บท 54: Chapter 28.1 - The Garden and The Sun [1]
You know, I'm beginning to wonder if my 232 Luck actually does anything.
I mean, I know I've been missing from the action for a while; delayed my arrival even further when I gave Saber a speed boost to get here to Shirou first, but I ain't looking to just drop into a high-octane battle the moment I stepped into the Singularity!
"Uh." I can't help but laugh slightly as I stood before a very large, and very angry Gorgon, her red eyes glaring holes into my face. "Hello there! Sorry about just barging in. Wasn't really planning to. Can we talk?"
Gorgon continues to glare.
Oof. Apology not accepted.
You see, my travel through the [Dimensional Gap] was successful, and together with an unconscious Gilgamesh, we dropped out of the sky and onto a large hill. The thing is, the hill was where Gorgon's lair is, and the speed of our drop held enough force for us to puncture right through the rocks, landing us inside this grotesque, almost alien-like space.
Thankfully, I'm not hurt from the drop. [Reinforcement] and my [Vitality] made sure of that. Gilgamesh is unharmed as well, her unconscious form comfily resting atop a golden...bed…
Wait, did the woman summon a bed from her treasury, while unconscious?
Damn.
It seems Gorgon's noticed Gilgamesh as well, her furious glare increasing tenfold in intensity. But her accursed eyes still do nothing, the powerful curse she'd emitting nullified. "Why!?" She screams, scowling. "Why won't you vermin turn to stone!?"
"Probably our armor, or [Magic Resistance], or both." I say casually. Gorgon glowered.
'So this is a breeding place.' I frown slightly, my mystic eyes activating as I notice the many malformed human corpses placed deep inside the lair, their skin slowly shifting as demonic energy flowed into their lifeless veins.
It's...a somewhat harrowing sight.
I turn my eyes towards the furious Gorgon, my eyes a bright shifting blue, and-
"F-Forgive me, master! Please, I-!"
A vision appears in my mind, of a battered and bruised Gorgon, her form much smaller than the one that stands before me now, her purple eyes staring fearfully at something.
'What?'
Finally snapping, Gorgon roars as her hair forms into snakes, their eyes a bright glaring red as demonic energy pools within their fangs. A second passes, and the snakes fire their beams of energy, their heat enough to turn even stone to lava.
I don't move. Don't need to, as a giant wall of dark brimstone rises between me and the incoming beams, blocking the attack entirely. From behind me, the [Brimstone Elemental] appears, pulsing a deep red as a cage of brimstone slowly grows around me, ready to protect against any further incoming attacks.
"YOU…!" Gorgon roars again, raining down beams of condensed energy upon me, but her attacks are halted, stopped by the [Brimstone Elemental].
Seeing that, I take a breath, and activate my mystic eyes once again, staring deep into Gorgon and her history.
"I'll do better! I-I'll do better!"
And again, deep within her core, I see an old memory. Gorgon is laying on the ground, tears running down her face as she begs for mercy, her body torn and covered in blood. Dead vegetation surrounds her, rotting and wilting.
Then,
"Very well."
I hear a terrifyingly familiar voice, and the vision breaks, pain flaring through my body as my mystic eyes are forcibly shut down.
'What the hell was that?'
Something had forcefully interrupted me, injecting energy and tearing away the connection. I can still feel the sting in my eyes, of some foreign entity boring into me.
Well, I can worry about that later. Right now, Gorgon's doing her everything to kill me, and the Brimstone Elemental can only hold out for so long on her own.
So [Voltaic Charge] activates and I infuse the Brimstone Elemental with a burst of lightning energy. The elemental freezes for a moment before she begins to shine, the two energies assimilating as red lightning begins to surround her, dancing together with her crimson brimfi-
[Due to certain actions, [Brimstone Elemental] has gained the skill [Brimspark]!]
...Huh. Didn't expect for it to work that well.
Wait, no, that makes sense actually. My status as a [High Human] basically destroys any possible limitation the Brimstone Elemental might've had, so her assimilating that well isn't that surprising.
Powered up and with a new skill, the elemental roars as she sends out a condensed blast of accursed fire and lightning. Gorgon responds with her own volley of lasers, and the two attacks clash in a tug of war. The Brimstone Elemental pushes forward for a moment, before Gorgon wins the tug and overwhelms the elemental's attack.
Not on my watch though.
My magic circuits glowing, I mold my prana into several barriers, stacking them atop each other before the incoming beam, and Gorgon watches in growing annoyance as her attack slows to a stop.
I smirk as both lightning and light dances around me. I call forth my magic, creating a giant ball of hot plasma, glowing with purifying light. Its sheer heat begins to melt through the mountain's stone, and the light it holds burns away the corruption, the demonic flesh that outlines the lair burning in the presence of such purity.
Gorgon's annoyance swiftly turns to fear as I shout.
"[Megido]!" And with my call, the ball of plasma slams down onto the injured Gorgon, drowning out her shrieks of pain with loud cackles of electricity.
Then, the miniature star explodes, drowning the world with light as a wave of blindingly hot plasma flies out in all directions. The stone melts, the corrupted flesh wilts, and I stand there with the Brimstone Elemental by my side, watching the spectacle unfold.
We're unaffected of course. I'm protected by [Magic Resistance] and my beefed up Vitality, while the Brimstone Elemental's natural affinity with fire ensures no amount of heat will hurt her.
And then there's Gilgamesh in the background, sleeping with no care atop that glamorous bed of hers.
Soon, the light fades, and I can see Gorgon lying weakly within a large crater, all of her skin burnt off, her long purple hair trimmed, her golden wings nearly gone. She'd only survived from the scales hidden under her skin, ones that had barely held on against the onslaught of heat and light.
"Y...ou…" She growls, but it comes out weak and soft, the anger overlaid by pain.
I frown. "So, can we talk now?"
Gorgon remains silent.
"Alright, I'll take that as a yes." I grin as Gorgon growls angrily. "Cool! Okay, now, I'm gonna ask some questions."
"As if...I'll let you…!" Gorgon bites out, cursed energy silently building around her.
The incoming attack doesn't escape my mystic eyes however, and I deliver a swift lightning strike down onto her. Concentration broken, Gorgon cries in pain as the built up cursed energy disperses in a cloud of dark smoke.
"Why are you trying to kill humanity?"
"Ngh…!" Gorgon grits her teeth and growls, but I don't care. My mystic eyes flash, and I peer into the downed Avenger's mind, pulling the question directly out of her thoughts.
'Humans, evil. Kill. Must kill. Destroy, impure. God, new world.'
The thought is jumbled, sliced up in awkward chunks, but the message is clear enough. Gorgon hates humanity, most likely influenced by her origin story, and she wants to become the god of the singularity after she clears away all 'impurities'. A simple and common desire, but one that doesn't quite feel right.
Gorgon and Medusa are ultimately the same being, and Medusa has no need to become a god. I mean, she was a goddess herself, so I doubt she'd even want to think of such a thing.
Something isn't right.
"Why bother becoming a god?" I ask further, much to Gorgon's surprise. "Were you not condemned by the gods due to your own divinity?"
'Acceptance. Live. Hide, self. Survive, wrath.'
"H-How did you-!?"
'What?' I blink in surprise. 'Hide herself? Survive someone's wrath?'
I hum softly, thinking over what I'd gathered, musing so deeply that I nearly missed Gorgon's expression slowly shifting into one of terror. "N-No…" She croaks out, trying to crawl away with her injured body.
'Don't hurt. Live. Don't hurt. Live. Don't hurt. Live.'
'DON'T HURT ME.'
The incoming information overflows, and I wince as the connection is broken, my mystic eyes stinging from the sudden snap. Rubbing my eyes, I turn to look at the terrified Gorgon, who could no longer move, her body shaking far too heavily for her to even attempt to escape, her eyes wide and shaking.
She was afraid of me, I realized, and I can't help but wonder why.
But before I can do anything,
"Too bad. I thought you'll last longer."
With impossible speed, a slender hand punctures right through Gorgon's chest, spraying a fountain of blood onto the stone. Then, just as fast, the hand pulls back out, taking with it the magic core that was keeping Gorgon alive.
The hand belongs to a priest, his hair a silver white and his eyes a dull gold. His black priest garb is dyed red from Gorgon's blood, the new tangy color matching rather well with the red shroud he wears around his neck.
"Still, thank you for your work." He says with a smile, one that would have looked quite beautiful if not for the smudges of blood coloring a portion of his face.
Gorgon lets out a harsh cough as she falls, life draining out of her with every second.
"Hmph, pathe-" He doesn't finish as he's suddenly assaulted by a burst of holy light, one hot enough to begin heating the stone into magma. But the priest is unharmed, with only a small patch of his shroud burnt away by the heat.
He looks at me and smiles. "Hmm, to think a girl like you holds a light so similar to the Lord's."
My mystic eyes flare.
[Amakusa Shirou Tokisada (?) Lv 400]
HP: 90.000.000/90.000.000
MP: -
Stamina: -
A strange priest that doesn't seem to be who he is. A Japanese priest who led battles and travelled the lands in the name and glory of the Christian God. His two arms are connected by his legends, for through his hands had he enacted the blessings of god. With both, he can use nearly all forms of magecraft, barring a few specific examples.
Be cautious. His face is a façade, and the one under it is one not to be taken lightly.
"Who are you?" I ask, bringing my staff into my hands.
"Servant Ruler, Amakusa Shirou Tokisada." He says while smiling.
His thoughts however,
'I don't know.'
Say that, and my confusion and caution grows, because if the man himself didn't truly know who he himself is, then how can I?
Then, he flies forward, and I bring my staff just in time to block his sword, the force of his strike pushing me back slightly. His smile grows. "It's nice to meet you."
"Nice...to meet you too!" I shout back as the area around me explodes in a blast of lightning, forcing Amakusa to jump back.
He smiles. "Well, I believe it's time for me to go."
"Hey-!" But before I can do anything, Amakusa warps away, leaving only a small wisp of smoke in his place.
...Oh well.
Placing my staff back into my [Inventory], I turn to look at Gorgon, and I grimace. She's much smaller now, still larger than a normal human, but definitely not as large as she was before. Blood covers her completely, and as her life continues to fade, she continues to weaken, the wings on her back now almost empty of feathers.
And because of it, Gorgon is resigned, her will dying as she finally comes to terms to what role she's been playing in this singularity. Her heart shakes with sadness and anger and fury, directed at the world and at herself as she slowly drowns in loathing.
So I bend down to my knee and ask.
"Do you want to live?"
Gorgon doesn't move, she can't, but I can feel her desperate agreement flowing through my mystic eyes, and I frown. "Even with everything that's happened?" Agreement again, mixed with fear this time.
My frown deepens. "You fear me." I say. "Yet you still beg. Why not just let go?"
And her answer sends chills down my spine.
'Death, bring worse. Enslavement, better.'
Already I can feel the questions burning in my head, but I push them away. Pondering over possibilities can come later.
"Alright." I sigh gently, opening my inventory. "But I won't enslave you. You deserve better than that."
I can feel her surprise, and her surprise grows as I bring out a pure magic core, small but brimming with magical energy, and I can't help but smile.
It's actually the core I made by purifying that stitched heart I got as a drop from the large ghoul in the [Ghoul Dungeon], along with some other magical items I bought from the [Obelisk] to maintain its form.
Coating my hand with prana, I push the magic core into the wound Amakusa punched through, placing the core right where her previous one had been and using [Magical Weaving] to sew the core into her body.
But then Gorgon begins to shake, her body trying its everything to push out the foreign object that just entered, burning her body in the process. She cries out in pain, but I continue on, guiding the magic core's energy to slowly weave together with Gorgon's.
It's a slow, excruciating affair, and one Gilgamesh somehow manages to still sleep by despite the cries of pain Gorgon let out.
It soon ends, and I let out a breath of relief over a job well done. Gorgon's now asleep, the injuries and exhaustion finally catching her. The ground's a bit uncomfortable though, so bringing out a large bed from my inventory, I carry the Gorgon onto it, letting the woman get some comfortable sleep to rest and heal.
Actually...
Now that I think of it, this place wouldn't be too bad for a base! I mean, we have a roof, ignoring the hole I created from my fall, and a nice vast interior, although one that's still filled with mutated corpses.
With some fixing and cleaning up, it'll be a pretty good place to stay!
So, with the Brimstone Elemental floating by my side, we go and venture through the caverns inside this mountain, letting the elemental use her brimfire to burn the corrupted flesh that covers the entire place while I let loose several tanks of oxygen to blow away the burnt smell.
You know, just some basic house cleaning.
สถานะพลังงานรายสัปดาห์
-- การจัดอันดับด้วยพลัง 
-- หินพลัง