Chapter 134: Medusa head

Chapter 134: 134: Medusa head

Nova chuckled darkly, a sound completely devoid of warmth, and gave her head a slow, mocking shake. "You want to make me your wife? You certainly have an insatiable appetite," she replied, her voice dropping to a freezing whisper.

​Trison clicked his tongue against his cheek. Facing the absolute void of Nova’s glare, a primal, suffocating fear began to claw at his insides, but he forced his features into a mask of rigid defiance.

​"You only have this one chance to think it through," he threatened, his voice tight. "If you follow me, I promise you an unforgettable time."

​"Oh... like Naomi, you mean?" Nova retorted sharply, the words cutting through the air like glass.

​Trison froze. All color drained from his face as he stumbled a step backward. "What... what do you mean?" he stammered, his false bravado fracturing.

​Nova stared straight into his eyes, her expression terrifyingly still. The pressure in the room seemed to plummet. "It amazes me. You are staring your own death right in the face, yet you still think you can claim me as yours. What exactly do you think you are?" Her tone grew even colder, echoing with lethal promise.

​Trembling, Trison tightened his white-knuckled grip on his firearm. "Fine. If you won’t cooperate, I’ll just have to end you right here," he snarled.

​He pulled the trigger. The gunshot roared through the quiet mansion, but the bullet never reached its target. It froze dead in midair, suspended inches away from the barrel, perfectly still.

​Trison lowered the gun, his eyes wide with horrified realization. "I see... you’re some kind of alien too, aren’t you?" he muttered.

​Nova merely smirked, a dark, wicked curve of her lips. She offered no explanation.

​"It doesn’t matter what you are. It’s useless," Trison spat, desperately clinging to his last lifeline. "I have the Mermaid Essence. It protects whoever owns it and makes them untouchable. Don’t even think you can kill me. It’s impossible."

​Nova’s evil smirk widened into something deeply sinister. "The Mermaid Essence? You mean... this?"

​With a flick of her wrist, a small, wooden carved box materialized in her hand. She tossed it casually at Trison’s feet. The lid popped open upon impact, and an ordinary, dull rock tumbled out onto the floor.

​Trison’s eyes bulged in pure shock. He dropped to his knees, frantically clawing at the box and the useless stone. "Impossible! Where is it? Where is my Mermaid Essence?!" he shrieked, sheer panic finally overtaking his heart.

​"Unfortunately for you, you will never be untouchable. Even if you still held that damn essence. I could still kill you over and over again," Nova said.

​In a fraction of a second, the space between them vanished. Nova materialized directly in front of him.

​"Ahhh!" Trison screamed in terror, scrambling backward. He hurled the wooden box away and raised his gun, firing wildly, emptying the clip in a blind panic.

​Every single bullet froze in the air around Nova like suspended raindrops.

​"I’ve decided. I won’t kill you," she said softly, her eyes glinting with malice. "You are far too ugly to die by my hands."

​With a subtle flick of her finger, the suspended bullets instantly reversed direction. They tore through the air and shredded into Trison’s legs. He let out an agonizing, bloodcurdling scream as his knees shattered, his lower body instantly paralyzed. He collapsed into a pathetic, bleeding heap on the marble floor.

​Nova took a slow, deliberate step closer, towering over his writhing form.

​"You... you can’t kill me!" Trison gasped, choking on his own agony. "If you do, not only you, but Cassian and everyone close to you will be implicated!"

​Nova’s hand shot out, her fingers wrapping around his throat like a steel vise. She lifted his heavy frame entirely off the floor with one arm. "Implicated? You mean some powerful master is backing a dog like you?" she sneered.

​Trison’s face rapidly turned a bruised purple, desperately clawing at her iron grip, struggling for a single breath of air.

​"I don’t give a damn how powerful he is. If he dares come after me or my men, he’s dead meat too," Nova said effortlessly. "But as I said... I won’t kill you."

​A wicked, gleaming dagger materialized in her free hand. Before Trison could even take proper glance at the blade, Nova drove it brutally into his eye.

​"Ahhh! My eye! My eye!" he shrieked, a horrific, gargling scream tearing from his throat despite his lack of air.

​Nova offered no mercy. She pulled the blade free and seamlessly thrust it into his remaining eye, blinding him entirely. With a disgusted flick of her wrist, she hurled his screaming, thrashing body across the room. He slammed sickeningly against the far wall and crumpled to the floor.

​"Someone! Please! Someone come in!" Trison bawled, coughing up blood as he blindly crawled across the floor, leaving a gruesome crimson trail behind him.

​Nova stepped gracefully into his path and drove her heel directly into his shattered leg.

​Another deafening shriek echoed through the mansion.

​"Congratulations. No one is coming to your rescue. Good luck," she whispered. Without breaking stride, she delivered a ruthless, crushing kick to his jaw. Trison’s head snapped back, slamming into the floorboards with a heavy thud. He instantly lost consciousness, his body going completely limp.

​"What a waste," Nova muttered, dusting her hands. "Your mother really wasted her energy bringing trash like you into this world. Wait here obediently for my Cassian to fetch you."

​She turned her back on the bloody scene and headed for the main entrance.

​Just as her hand reached out to grasp the heavy door handle, the silence of the mansion was shattered. Inside her mind, the System’s alarm suddenly erupted into a frantic, deafening screech. The translucent blue screen flashed violently before her eyes, bathing the foyer in a pulsing, blood-red warning light.

​[ALERT! ALERT! DANGER SPOTTED!]

[HOST IN CRITICAL DANGER!]

​Before Nova could even process the sudden threat, the entrance door was thrown open from the outside.

​The sight that greeted her paralyzed her mind.

​Standing on the threshold was Clark. In his outstretched hands, held directly at her eye level, was a severed head. It was a grotesque, nightmarish thing—a nest of living, writhing vipers hissed violently in place of hair. But it was the eyes that sealed her fate: dead, milky white voids without irises.

​It was the head of Medusa, and Nova was staring directly into its eyes.

​The world stopped. The freezing tension in the room instantly solidified into a suffocating stasis. Nova tried to speak, to move, to blink, but her entire body locked in place. An unnatural, creeping petrification seized her muscles, and her consciousness rapidly began to fade into a terrifying void.

​[System Rebooting...]

[System Rebooting Failed...]

[System Body Protection Activated...]

[System Shut Down.]

​The translucent blue screen glitched wildly, static ripping through the red warnings before the interface vanished entirely. Nova’s eyes slid shut, her breathing ceased, and she stood rooted to the spot, completely motionless—a beautiful, tragic statue carved from flesh.

​For a long, heavy moment, there was only the sound of hissing snakes.

​Clark, who had kept his eyes tightly squeezed shut the entire time, slowly lowered the cursed Medusa head. Relying purely on instinct, he unzipped the heavy duffel bag slung across his back and shoved the Medusa head inside, sealing it tight.

​Only then did he finally open his eyes. He looked up at Nova. She was utterly lifeless, standing like a discarded porcelain doll. A flicker of shock crossed his usually cold features. He reached out, his fingertips brushing against her cold cheek to confirm she was entirely unresponsive.

"​Is this what he meant when he said she would turn to stone as long as she looked into those eyes?" Clark thought. He gave her shoulder a gentle tap. She didn’t budge an inch.

​His gaze narrowed. Stepping past her frozen form, he walked into the mansion, the heavy metallic scent of blood immediately hitting his nose. He spotted Trison’s mangled, unconscious body bleeding out on the floor.

​"How ruthless," Clark murmured, his face impassive. "He might as well be dead already."

​Dismissing the broken man, Clark turned around and pulled out his phone, quickly dialing a number. The line rang twice before it connected.

​"Arrange a flight for me right now. I’m heading back to Australia," he ordered, his voice flat and professional.

​"Yes, sir," the receiver replied.

​Clark ended the call. He slung the duffel bag securely over his shoulder, walked over to Nova’s paralyzed form, and effortlessly scooped her up into his arms in a bridal carry. Without a backward glance, he stepped out into the night, disappearing into the darkness with Nova.