章節 20: Chapter 19: Pluto and the boys hunting Deviants in the Bronze Age, 3000 – 1300 BCE (1)
A/N: Third in collection ranking in just three days... you guys are assholes... I have another fanfic to finish too...
[3000 BCE, Athens]
We were on the coast of Athens. Ajak, Sersi, and the other people who stayed in Athens were saying goodbye to each other. My winged constructs were waiting for us on the beach, and now it's my turn to say goodbye.
I looked over at Ajak and bowed. She just smiled, typical. I hugged Makkari and Druig casually, gave a middle finger to Sprite and Phastos, which they gave back, hugged Sersi as well, and finally, Thena.
"Well, I guess I'll see you in the next century or so." I said.
She hummed and patted my shoulder. "Don't hurt yourself."
"I probably won't die... you know, being an eternal and all." I shrugged.
She just smiled, and pushed me away to the others much to my amusement.
"Right lads, we're going east first." I said to the others. "Ikaris, you don't need the construct, right? You can fly, after all. "
"Yeah, I'll just fly."
"East? That's like the farthest thing from the map? " Kingo commented as he looked at the map that Phastos gave us about the deviants.
"Exactly, we're going to the farthest place first."
"Where exactly?" Gil said, looking at the map that was in Kingo's hand.
"That island over there." I pointed to a small island near modern day Turkey.
Gil then shrugged. "Alright, let's go."
All of us then hopped onto the constructs and took off, starting the journey.
[3000 BCE, Lesbos]
After about half a day of flying, we've finally arrived on the island of Lesbos. It is raining heavily right now. There is no sunlight whatsoever. We landed near the coast of the island, and quickly searched for a place to stay for the night.
After a couple of minutes of searching, we've found a cave that is filled with food and clothing for some reason.
"What do you think this place is?" Kingo asked us as he lit up the cave using his finger gun.
"Perhaps an offering to their gods?"Gil hyphotisised.
"That may be true..." I murmured. "Let's stay here for the night. Tomorrow, we'll search the entire island, and we'll move further east after that."
Everyone just hummed, and quickly set up a campsite inside the cave.
"You all sleep first. I'll watch." Ikaris offers.
"Nah man, I'll watch." I insisted.
"You sure?"
I just hummed. Ikaris just shrugged and prepared to sleep. We don't really need sleep, but hey, sleeping is nice.
A couple of hours later, when everyone except me was sleeping, Gil suddenly woke up from his sleep and sat beside me, in front of the fire.
"Can't sleep?" I questioned.
"Yeah, man, just strange is all."
"What's strange?"
"Being away from the others." Gil admitted. "First time for me."
"It's only been a day…" I chuckled. "Miss Thena already?" I teased.
He just chuckled in amusement. "We're not like that… I saw her as a sister."
"Really?" I asked curiously. "That's rather interesting."
"What? You want to get in her pants? " He mused.
I just laughed quietly in that cave. "I'd be stabbed by her before I stabbed her."
Gil just groaned. "Fuck man, don't make me imagine that…"
I just chuckled. "But I don't know man… we're immortals. Our 'choice' is quite limited in terms of love…"
"You could do one-night stands with the humans." Gil shrugged.
"You do one-night stands with humans?" I questioned Gil, really curious about the answer.
He just scoffed. "Of course not."
I chuckled again. "Anyways, I'm rather curious about what we would encounter on the expedition. I've got a feeling it'd be more interesting than the one I've been to before. "
Gil just hummed uneasily. "It'd be interesting alright… especially when deviants can absorb the animals around them…"
After that, the place went quiet. We stared at the fireplace for a while, before Gil asked again. "You think they could absorb humans?"
"Possible." I hummed.
"Can they be sentient?"
"Possible." I repeated. "But they probably need to absorb a lot of humans for that… or one of us…"
"Wait what?" Gil asked, a bit surprised.
"If they can absorb humans… they can probably absorb us also."
"That's… a rather scary thought… A deviant with our power…"
"Well, just be careful not to be absorbed."
When I said that, we suddenly heard a slithering sound, which made us alert.
"You hear that?" Gil questioned me.
"I heard that alright…" I murmured.
"Should we wake the others?"
"I think not…" I said. "Let's check it."
Gil just nodded and activated his exoskeleton gauntlet, while I summoned around six hound deviants, ready to alert me at all times.
We then delved deeper into the cave, with the constructs and Gil's gauntlet acting as lighting for us.
As we delve deeper, the sounds of hissing snakes can be heard, which makes us more alert.
"You think it's a deviant?" Gil whispered to me.
"Probably…"
Then, we arrived at the end of the cave, and we saw a big room, filled with the skeletons of human beings.
"Definitely deviants…" I murmured, frowning. "You want to know if they can be sentient if they eat humans? We're about to find out…"
Gil nodded cautiously as we neared the source of the sound, and when we arrived, we saw three deviants, in the shape of women, and their hairs were slithering, as if they were snakes…
Gorgons?
"They looked human…" Gil frowned.
"Still a deviant though. Can't have human skin." I pointed out. I looked at my hounds and my eyes glowed golden. I commanded my hounds to attack the deviants, and the six hounds obeyed my command.
I turned my bracelet into my bident, and prepared to attack.
But as soon as my hound strikes, something really unexpected happens.
The three deviants turned around, and they just used their tails to slam away the hounds.
"Fuck." I cursed.
I summoned more deviants. I don't want to summon the bigger ones... As the cave is quite small for constructs like Apophis, Ghidorah, or Hydra…
So I summoned a bunch of lizard deviants, waiting for my command.
Gil then rushed to the three deviants and used his fist to jab the nearest deviant. A loud boom echoed as Gil's fist punched the face of the deviant, throwing it away.
Then, we heard hissing sounds from the other deviants. All of them then quickly attacked Gil, but my lizard deviants stepped up and defended him. My lizard constructs bit the deviant's tail, and threw the deviant away from Gil, slamming the deviant against the wall.
I rushed to the deviant that was just thrown away, and I stabbed my bident through its chest, impaling it.
The deviant groaned in pain as it slowly died from my spear, and I heard that the other deviant was slithering to attack me.
Gil, however, stepped in as well as my constructs, annihilating the other two constructs.
But when Gil was busy, the dying deviant in front of me suddenly did something.
My... cosmic energy was slowly absorbed by it, with just a stare. and I panicked.
I quickly extracted my bident from it and stabbed its head, ensuring that it was dead.
"I was not expecting that..." I murmured, looking at the now dead deviant…
"Are you done there?" Gil suddenly questioned me from behind.
"Huh? Yeah,"
"You alright?" Gil asked me suspiciously.
Should I tell him? Later, maybe… "Yeah, I'm good…"
Gil nodded. He was carrying the two other deviants he killed. "We should probably place the body in front of the cave. I bet the humans around here worship them because they fear them. "
I hummed. I absorbed the three deviants, and cut their heads off, so we could display them in front.
I need to study these deviants later on.
"They aren't sentient after all." Gil commented.
I hummed weakly. "Probably not enough humans, or just absorbed the wrong people…"
Gil shrugged. "Who knows."
"Well, I need to study it later."
"You do your thing, man. You do your thing."
After that, we went back to the camp as if nothing had happened.
[2500 BCE, Lycia]
It's been 500 years since anything really interesting has happened... we just kill a bunch of deviants. After that encounter with the 'Gorgons', we haven't encountered other deviants that absorbed animals. It's not Greece after all, as we're in Anatolia now, so it's normal... maybe.
I told the others about my experience with the Gorgons, and based on their reaction, I'd say they'd be more careful around those abnormal deviants.
I learned Greek in these 500 years. We started to cross paths with some humans in Anatolia. We even lived in a city for a while, which was nice... as it was pretty uncomfortable constantly sleeping outside.
Right now, we're at a small settlement in Lycia. We've heard rumours around here, that a monster that has a snake for a tail, has two heads, a goat's and a lion's head, was rampaging across the region over here. Kingo accidentally heard it from a travelling human, so we've decided to investigate it.
We're entering a settlement right now. Our clothes are probably foreign to them as we're wearing our battle armour, so we're a bit eye-catching, especially Gil with his gigantic body. But we're wearing cloaks right now, so our faces can't be seen by them. We looked a bit different from them after all…
We saw a lot of bronze in that settlement, can't really be surprised.. I remember that Asia Minor was one of the first to develop bronze-smithing.
We approached a local 'authority' that was coming at us. He was trying to put on an intimidating face. Heh, me, Ikaris, and Gil have a more intimidating face than this guy. Not Kingo though…
"What brings you here, traveller?" He questioned us, acting tough.
We put off our hoods, and looked at the man, trying to look intimidating as well. I heard him gulping… hehehe.
"We heard a rumour." I said in their language. "That a monster was rampaging across the countryside."
"Y- You mean the Chimera?" The man reconfirmed. Oh, it's the Chimera? This should be interesting.
I just nodded. "Do you know where it is?"
"Are you sure?" he asked seriously. "There are already a lot of men trying their luck on that beast, but so far, no luck."
"Just tell us where it is." Gil grunted. My man is good at acting, I mean... It's Don Lee. What do you expect?
"Very well," he nodded. "It's east of this settlement, at Mount Cragus. It's hard to miss the mountain."
"Thank you." I nodded, and all of us put our cloaks on again. Ready for the journey to Mount Cragus.
"If you succeed, bring the heads to us. We'll reward you handsomely. " The man said, perhaps that he was confident in us.
I just hummed, and walked away from him.
"May the gods aid you in your quest, travellers!" From afar, he shouted to us, and after that, we walked to the destination.
"Why can't we just use your constructs, man?" Kingo protested.
"It's part of the experience, Kingo." I wisely stated. "We're monster hunters right now. Act like one."
"I must say, I'm enjoying this right now." Gil commented. "I just had to grunt in front of people and act tough, and people will treat you seriously."
"Well, you three look tough, while I'm here looking like a travelling comedian." Kingo scoffed.
I laughed at Kingo's fortune. "What about you, Ikaris? Are you enjoying the experience so far? "
He just shrugged. "It cures boredom, I guess."
"I can't imagine you doing this alone with Thena back then..." Kingo commented. "It's just a lot of flying, searching, and walking. You probably didn't talk to people back then either. That's even more boring…"
"At least it's easier now with the map." I said. "Although it's rarely accurate…"
"Still better than nothing, I guess."
We then continued to walk to the mountain, where the Chimera was said to rest, and once we got close to its lair, I could already smell iron in the air.
"Get ready, gentlemen." I said as I summoned a bunch of lizards, hounds, and bull deviant constructs, along with my new favourite construct, Fluffy (Cerberus x Cerberus x Gorgon).
Fluffy was quite big. It has the same distorted feel as Hydra and Ghidorah, a sign that it's really powerful. It's one of my proudest experiments to date. Its power is like that of the Gorgon, able to absorb a creature less powerful than it with just a stare, and the cosmic energy can make Fluffy bigger and bigger... But the nice thing is, it can also control its size, which means it is quite versatile.
Anyway… we started to advance towards the lair, getting more and more alert as the smell of blood in the air was getting thicker.
"What do you think the special ability of this 'Chimera' would be?" Kingo asked, as he readied his finger gun.
"Probably just extra viciousness, to be honest." I answered. "Lion x Snake is not a good sign... I don't know how it can absorb a goat though…"
As soon as we entered the lair, from the inside, a vicious roar was suddenly heard. If we weren't eternals, we'd probably be deaf by now.
"Here it is, gentlemen!" I announced with a wide smile.
Ikaris then launched himself into the inside of the cave, flying quickly. We then heard a ruckus inside that lair, and not a minute later, Ikaris Laser beams suddenly shot from the inside, and with it the chimera, who was thrown away to the outside of its lair.
It was hideous just like they interpreted it, part lion, part goat, and part snake.
When the Chimera was thrown at us, Gil quickly moved and bitch slapped the Chimera against the wall of the lair, which shook the mountain around us.
Kingo then charged his finger guns, and after a while, he shot them towards the Chimera, which decapitated its snake tail.
Then, it was my turn.
My constructs, including Fluffy, pounced on the chimera like a hyena fighting for food. It was utter chaos.
"Well… I guess that's done…" I said.
"That's easier than I thought." Ikaris commented as he approached us.
"You want to get that reward?" Kingo asked the group.
Gil shrugged. "Sure, why not."
"You don't want to absorb it, Pluto?" Ikaris questioned me.
I just shrug. "Eh, I can make thousands of these... It's just a failed experiment. "
"Alright then."
After that, we started to tear off the body of the Chimera…
A couple of hours later, we arrived at the settlement, and let me just say… we must've looked cool right now.
It's me, Ikaris, Kingo, and Gil walking side by side. Ikaris was carrying the snake tail, I was bringing the lion's head by the 'hair', Kingo was holding the goat's head by the horn, and Gil was dragging the rest of the body.
We were in our cloaks right now too…
The humans looked baffled at the scene, and once we arrived at the 'authority', he's baffled as well.
"By the gods, You really did it. " He looked really excited. He quickly grabbed a pouch of gold, and gave it to us. "Thank you! May the gods bless you all. "
Gil just grunted, and he took the pouch. "So long." Gil grunted once again.
After that, we left the settlement, feeling like total badasses.
章節 21: Chapter 20: Pluto and the boys hunting Deviants in the Bronze Age, 3000 – 1300 BCE (2)
[2000 BCE, Thrace]
We are now in Greece again, around this time, the previously wandering people started to slowly settle, forming small settlements around Greece.
We arrived at what would eventually become Thrace, and we're visiting a small settlement that has just been built.
We have our cloaks, and we're scouring the place to find some clues about our next target.
Then, we saw something quite interesting in the middle of that settlement.
"What the hell are we seeing right now…" Kingo murmured with a deadpan expression.
"It seems that humans are more capable than we think." Gil said with an amused expression.
We saw four horse-like deviants, being tied up by the humans in the middle of the settlement. And the humans were trying to tame it, so they could ride it…
The four horse-like deviants were tied up, but from the looks of it, it won't hold them for long.
"Well, we need to kill it…" I said.
"Should we buy it from them? We have tons of food and gold right here…" Gil suggested.
"We'll see first." I said.
We approached the crowd of people who were trying to tame the deviant, and we now stood in front of the crowd, watching the event unfold.
"Greetings travellers." a man suddenly walked up to us and greeted us. "What brings you here?"
"We were just passing by." I said. "What's this all about?"
"The gods have sent us some blessings." the man smiled while looking at the deviants. "They've sent us powerful mares so we could use it."
"Did you feed it?" I asked.
"We tried giving it apples, grass, and bread, but nothing worked." the man shook. "So the priest suggested that we should try to feed it with virgins."
We frowned as we heard what he said. "Virgins?"
"Young girls in the area." said the man, he said it like he wasn't wrong.
"Who are these gods you're talking about?" I asked, curious about it.
"You must've come from a place far away if you don't know our gods my friend." the man shook his head. "We sacrifice to a specific god… we do not speak his name, we do not search for him, we simply respect him."
I hummed. "Where did you hear of this god?"
"My Grandfather told me that one of our ancestors came across a child bearing stories…"
Sprite huh. "Continue…"
"She told us about a story of a god… A god that will judge us when we die. A god that controls monsters beyond our imagination. She warned us not to do horrible things, or the unseen one will punish us heavily…"
I hummed. "So what does this god have to do with this horse?"
"We simply believed that he gave us a blessing in the form of this majestic mare."
"Believed? You believed this mare is a gift from god, so you feed it virgins?"
"It is the unseen one's will."
"I'm afraid that's not the case." I said.
"Pardon me traveller?"
"Those are no mares." I commented.
The man frowned. "A stranger has no right to judge what the gods gave to us."
I just shook my head and hummed. "Be careful with those." I looked at my travelling companions, and said. "Let's go."
The others looked at me confusingly, but they still followed me nonetheless.
"Wait a minute…" Kingo murmured as we walked away from the settlement. "Is he talking about you?"
"'A god that controls monsters beyond our imagination'... I'd say it's obvious enough." Gil remarked.
"So… they're giving the deviants young girls because they thought that it will appease you?"
"Sprite probably didn't tell them what 'doing horrible things' meant." I said sarcastically.
"What do we do now?" Ikaris questioned.
"Well we can't just let them continue this, otherwise they'll just continue to feed the deviants they encounter with their own kin again and again…." Gil stated. "We also need to kill the deviant."
"So we should go back?" Kingo asked.
"If we attack it in broad daylight, they'll probably attack us." Ikaris said. "We do not want to attack humans… Ajak made sure to tell us that."
"We know Ikaris." Gil hummed. "So what are we going to do?"
I thought a bit before suggesting. "We wait until midnight, when the humans are sleeping."
"That's good." Kingo hummed. "What happens if the deviant breaks loose before that though?"
"We step in." I shrugged.
"Alright then."
"But…"
"But what?" Gil questioned.
"I think I'll go alone this time." I stated.
"What?"
"It's my mess to fix honestly." I shrugged. "Well, it's Sprite's mess, but it's under my name… and last I checked, I never told anyone to give me virgins…"
—
[3rd POV]
Now, the night is dark and full of invisible terrors, the deviants were still tied up in the middle of the settlement, trying to break the ropes and chains they were tied with.
And after a full day of struggling, the chains and ropes were finally broken.
The four deviants then roared loudly as the chains broke. It probably woke up the entire settlement.
"The mares are released!" one of the ones who guarded the deviants shouted in panic, warning the entire place.
The man who shouted then pointed his bronze spear at the deviants, and tried to stab it, but the bronze spear just broke.
"H-Help me!" The man backed off frantically, as he didn't want to die. But it was too late, the man's head was bitten off by the deviants, killing him instantly, his body then were thrown off to the nearby house, breaking the door.
The humans inside the house screamed as loud as possible..
And after that, chaos enveloped the area. The surrounding houses were attacked, and a lot of people were hurt. But then, something appeared.
Countless golden hounds suddenly rushed to the scene, attacking the deviants, it was Pluto's constructs.
"Looks like I'm a bit late." Pluto murmured. He then commanded his hound constructs to quickly incapacitate the four deviants.
He rode on the back of Fluffy, and rushed to the scene.
The deviants were quickly taken care of, as it was just a normal deviant, not some hybrid.
Pluto then absorbed the four deviants, making the body withered instantly.
And this scene was watched by the newly awoken humans.
He turned around, with the energy still enveloping him as it was waiting to enter his circle.
His eyes still glowed in the darkness, golden hounds were gathering around him, and the sight of a humongous three headed hound standing behind him… it was terrifying.
One of the humans suddenly kneeled in front of him. "M-My lord!" he said as he kneeled before him.
After the man kneeled, everyone followed, all of the humans that were present were kneeling, not caring about the burning house around them.
[1st POV]
Seriously? Kneeling? Your house is burning over there and you're kneeling? Bloody hell… humans are stupid…
Guess I'll play along…
"Stand up." I commanded lazily. The humans followed my instructions, and stood up, but they seemed to not want to look at me…
"Look at me…"
"W-We wouldn't dare my lord…"
"Why?" I questioned, really curious about the answer.
"W-We wouldn't dare to stare at death itself…" the man nervously said.
That fucking Sprite… she must've said that intentionally…
I just sighed. "Are you the priest?"
"Y-Yes my lord…"
"You told them to feed these beasts virgins?"
"W-Why yes my lord… it's your gift for us! We would give it the best of care!"
"Who told you it was my gift?" I questioned. "This thing is a fucking monster, and do you think I would ask my followers to sacrifice virgins for me?" I said again, really annoyed.
"W-Well –"
"Do you think it's because of some stories that I control monsters that you would think I would enjoy seeing virgins get eaten by these so-called mares?" I questioned again. "You think I'm evil, priest?"
"N-No m-my lord…"
"Then why'd you tell them to sacrifice virgins for me?"
"I- M-My lord…" the man pleaded. "If you think what I did is wrong my lord… I will accept your punishment…" said the man, but his face looked really pale.
"Punishment?" I raised my eyebrow.
"Y-yes… you are a fair god… judging every soul that entered the underworld…"
I hummed. "Fine, call the families of the virgins."
"P-Pardon me my lord?" he questioned, still not looking at me…
"I said, call the family of the virgins you 'sacrificed' for me." I repeated.
The other men who heard my command quickly dragged the families of the virgins in front of me, without actually looking at me…
"M-My lord…" said a woman in her mid thirties.
"You're one of the sacrificed virgin's family?"
"I-I'm the mother of the sacrificed my lord…"
I hummed once again as I sat on a stool near me. "Do you hate me?"
"I- I wouldn't da-"
"Speak honestly."
"A-A little bit my lord…" the woman murmured. "My child is dead because of you…"
"But I didn't say I want virgins though…" I said rather loudly. "Virgins should be fucked, not sacrificed for these… monsters…"
"But the priest said so my lord…"
"Well, I didn't say anything about that…'' I repeated again. "So was it my fault? Or the priest's fault?"
"I- It was the priest's fault my lord…"
I hummed, I then turned to the priest. "Why do you think I need virgins to be sacrificed, priest?"
"I- I just speculated, my lord…"
"Speculated?" I raised my eyebrow. "You caused a lot of people's death because of speculation?"
The priest just gulped.
I sighed. I then turned to the woman again. "What do you want now then?"
"P-Pardon me my lord?"
"What do you want? You want revenge? Compensation? Or something else?"
"I- I want to see my daughter…"
"I'm afraid I can't do that." I shook my head. "Anything else?"
"Then revenge it is…"
"Okay…" I hummed. I walked to a nearby soldier's corpse, and grabbed his bronze spear. I then walked to the woman, and gave the spear to the woman. "Here."
"My lord?" The woman nervously asked.
"You want revenge right? Kill the priest then."
Then, I could hear the priest begging for forgiveness from my back, but I ignored it.
"My lord… I-"
"Do you want revenge or not? Or do you want to attack me instead of the priest?"
"N-No I wouldn't dare my lord…"
"I can't…"
I sighed. "Fine then." I then turned around, and threw the spear right through the priest's heart, impaling him to the ground, killing him instantly.
A lot of people gasped, but no one had said anything.
"Anyone want to be judged again?"
The crowd went silent.
"Good." I nodded. "You can slaughter pigs or cattles for all I care, but killing your own kin because someone speculated that it will appease an entity?" I shook my head. "That is no good deed."
After that, I just walked out of the settlement, not caring about the mess I just created. Once I was at the edge of the settlement, my three companions were waiting for me.
"You killed a human." Ikaris stated while frowning.
"So? It's just one." I said.
"Why did you do it?" Gil questioned.
"To set an example." I said. "If they continued the practice of sacrificing their own kin, we're practically feeding the deviants… and a lot of mothers lost their child to that priest as well, I just gave them some closure."
"But you disobeyed Ajak's order." Ikaris continued.
"It's just one human Ikaris, it's not going to hurt in the long run."
"Our mission is to protect the humans, not kill them."
"I protected a lot of humans because I killed that priest Ikaris." I said. "That priest's thinking is quite demented, who knows if he fucked those virgins first before sacrificing them.."
"Still…" Kingo murmured. "Was that your first human kill?"
"I think so…" I hummed. "Unless I accidentally killed some for some reason."
"Well, keep it at a minimum." Gil stated.
"I'll try Gil, but no promises."
---
A/N: If you know the monster myth behind the deviants in this chapter, I'll give you a historical meme that I myself don't understand.
每周推薦票狀態
200+ 推薦票
榜單 
3 推薦票 
段落評論