Chapter 363: The Sneaky Dragon Girl Scores Big(3.6k)

Watching Gigantes after Gigantes brand themselves with the sigils of the Old Gods, the god king Kronos nodded in satisfaction, something flickering faintly behind his eyes.

Everything comes at a price.

Gods and demons alike are fed on blood.

And only through sacrifice can greatness be achieved.

It was true in the past. It is true now. It will be true forever after.

The silent thought drifted through his mind, and he lowered his gaze to a handful of Gigantes holding golden short blades, his eyes settling on one blade stained with gold red blood as he spoke, unhurried.

"I sense the presence of my dear daughter, Hera, on this blade.

Did you cross blades with her?"

Atlas, the Titan who held up the sky, felt a chill run through him at the words.

Though the weapon meant to kill gods that His Majesty had granted them let them badly wound the Queen of Heaven, Prometheus, tasked with hunting her down afterward, had let the woman escape.

His brother had only just been freed from his suffering and punishment by the Old Gods, and before he even had the chance to earn credit, he already botched a task.

Telling the truth of it plainly would surely leave His Majesty displeased.

Worse, Prometheus had picked the wrong side during the war of the Titans, throwing in with the new gods of Olympus.

That alone was already a serious mark against him.

If Cronus decided to pursue the matter seriously, there was no telling what he might use it as an excuse to do.

Just as Atlas was working out how to make excuses for his brother Prometheus, Alcyoneus, King of the Gigantes, stepped forward and cleared his throat, offering an explanation before the altar.

"Your Majesty, we badly wounded her, but Ladon, the dragon with a hundred heads who guards the sacred garden, carried her off."

As he spoke, the King of the Gigantes shot a subtle, knowing glance toward Prometheus in the corner, careful not to let it show.

Earlier, when Cronus had come after him demanding answers,

Prometheus had spoken up in his defense.

Now he was simply returning the favor.

By then, Atlas and the Gigantes who had taken part in the chase caught on as well, and one after another they spoke up in loud agreement.

"That’s right. That dragon was far too strong. A hundred heads casting magic all at once, she nearly leveled the whole mountain when she cut loose."

"And she never even tried to hold her ground. She stirred up chaos and got Hera out the moment she could."

"There were three nymphs too, able to control the weather and the clouds, causing enough trouble that there was no way to guard against them."

Though the blame for letting Hera slip away fell mostly on Prometheus as the one leading the pursuit, if punishment came down, everyone who had taken part in the chase alongside him was bound to suffer for it too.

Besides, they had all just benefited from the foreseer’s good fortune, feasting on the treasures of the sacred garden and strengthening their own divine nature.

The least they could do was return the favor and cover for him.

Hearing the Gigantes answer with one voice, Cronus, the god king, showed no sign of suspicion at all.

If anything, he nodded along in agreement.

"True enough. As Typhon’s eldest daughter, she comes closer to that demon progenitor’s original form than any other beast alive. Her strength and potential are beyond question."

"With Ladon’s help, Hera fled into the Sea of Chaos. What happened at the sacred garden won’t stay hidden for long, and with the hands we have on the ground now, dealing with both Ladon and Hera at once, and capturing them both, is a fairly difficult task. Please, tell us how you’d like us to proceed."

Alcyoneus, King of the Gigantes, pressed the question, neatly burying the matter of letting Hera escape.

Cronus let out a short, mocking laugh and spoke without any hurry at all.

"Since she’s Typhon’s own child, let that demon progenitor deal with her himself."

"You mean..."

Alcyoneus scratched his head, thoroughly lost for a moment.

Cronus narrowed his eyes, raised a hand, and closed his fingers in a slow, grasping motion toward the monster beasts scattered across the sacred garden.

At that moment, their bellies were still round from the earlier feast, divine nature spilling off them.

Splat splat splat splat!

In an instant, space twisted and collapsed.

Hundreds of monster beasts across the field, caught completely off guard, burst apart, blood spraying, bone and flesh exploding outward, thick crimson matter splattering across the ground and tracing out the shape of an enormous magic circle.

Looking over his own handiwork, Cronus let out a cold, sinister laugh.

"Old friend. Wake from the abyss. It’s time you came to enjoy the sunlight of this world with me again."

At once, the ground beneath the blood red magic circle tore open, forming great maws that ran straight down into the abyss, swallowing and absorbing every scrap of monster flesh and limb scattered across the ground.

"Roar!"

A thick mist of red and black blood surged skyward, carrying a hundred voices tangled together at once, sometimes forming human words, sometimes bellowing like a bull, roaring like a lion, howling like a hound, the sound rolling like thunder to the ends of the earth.

Sensing that terrifying presence, every monster beast across the mountains dropped flat to the ground, trembling, letting out one shaking whimper after another.

Typhon.

The last son born where the earth met the abyss of Tartarus.

Father of the wind that shattered everything in its path.

Forebear of a hundred billion monsters and demons and giants.

Bearer of a hundred dragon heads, a tongue black as pitch, and eyes that spat fire.

A monstrous god so terrible that not even the stars and the clouds could compare, hidden away from the world ever since.

As the wellspring of every beast bloodline, this demon progenitor held an authority over the monster races he had spawned that nothing else could match.

Seeing Typhon’s divine will surfacing, Cronus reached out, grabbed the three headed venomous dragon from beneath the golden apple tree straight out of the air, and hurled it into the magic circle, laughing heartily.

"Take this body for now. Use it as you like."

Immediately, the thick red and black blood mist inside the magic circle poured into the three headed dragon like a waterfall that had finally found its outlet, flooding into its body without restraint.

But that overwhelming, domineering divine nature was clearly more than a small venomous dragon could withstand.

Even after feasting on the treasures of the sacred garden and absorbing a portion of the earth’s own divine nature, it remained as fragile as a clay doll before the demon progenitor Typhon.

Splat splat splat splat!

Only a moment later, the three headed dragon, suspended in midair, let out a cry of agony as its scales burst apart layer after layer, exposing flesh and bone that kept tearing itself apart and reforming.

A Chimera’s serpent tail, a Sphinx’s pair of wings, a Hydra’s scales, all began sprouting one after another across the dragon’s body, while spurs of bone kept punching straight through its flesh, curving outward into vicious, razor sharp arcs.

In no time at all, the beast Typhon had forced himself into became unrecognizable, its whole body a warped mess of tearing and fusing, scraps of flesh and scale dropping away constantly, like a corpse stitched together by force and set walking.

"Useless."

A cold, hollow snort came from the dragon’s mouth, its black slit pupils sweeping over its own body still tearing and reforming, then over the trembling beasts around it, plainly displeased.

Seeing this, Cronus smiled faintly and spoke.

"No need to rush. This is only a body to tide you over. Find her, and you’ll have something better."

"That’s right!"

The dragon’s mouth curled into a cold, sinister grin, and it turned its monstrous head to gaze off toward the sea to the southeast.

"She’s mine."

With that cold declaration, the dragon spread the Sphinx wings on its back at once and beat them hard, whipping up a bitter wind, and shot off toward some point deep in the Sea of Chaos.

Immediately, every monster on the islands and every beast in the water seemed to hear that command, one that could not be refused, and rose into the sky or plunged into the sea, gathering into a swarm vast enough to blot out the horizon, sweeping along behind the dragon in a great tide.

Only once the demon progenitor Typhon and the beast tide under his command had vanished past the horizon did the Gigantes in the sacred garden finally breathe a sigh of relief, looking with plain fear toward Cronus, still standing over the altar.

With a single motion, he crushed hundreds of high tier monster beasts across the sacred garden, offering up their flesh and even their souls entirely to Typhon just to wake that demon progenitor.

It was a method as bloody and merciless as they came.

And what was more, the monster beasts thrown into the sacrifice all seemed to have been part of the group that split up the sacred garden’s spoils earlier, having enjoyed no small share of its earth touched treasures.

Cronus making an example of them was clearly meant to warn the rest, so the Gigantes would think twice before acting on their own again.

Otherwise, the beasts crushed dead with a single blow might well be a preview of what awaited them.

Seeing the Gigantes in the sacred garden thoroughly cowed, heads bowed, none daring to meet his eyes, Cronus looked satisfied.

He turned his gaze toward the vast sea in the distance and grinned, savage and wide.

"Since Typhon has already gone ahead to lead the way, the rest of you follow along too. I’m quite looking forward to getting close with my dear daughter again."

Having just witnessed how ruthless this Titan god king could be, none of the Gigantes present dared refuse.

They scrambled to their feet, scraped up whatever was left of the sacred garden’s resources, then plunged into the sea or rose into the sky, sweeping off in pursuit of Typhon and the beast horde ahead.

.

.

.

Meanwhile, somewhere in the Sea of Chaos, inside a hidden cave on a nameless, deserted island.

Three nymphs gnawed on sour fruit in their hands, their translucent wings folded tight, heads hanging low like frost struck eggplants, slumped listlessly at the mouth of the cave, missing the sweet, clear spring water of the sacred garden more with every bite.

If it weren’t for those damned Gigantes and their beasts, they’d still be back in the sacred garden watering flowers and tending herbs, living an easy, peaceful life.

Amid their quiet grumbling, the three nymphs turned to look at the Queen of Heaven, Hera, slumped inside the cave, worry and anxiety plain in their eyes.

This uprising by the Gigantes and their beasts had clearly been planned in advance, and worse, they carried weapons capable of wounding a soul, weapons forged to kill gods.

Their mistress, in trying to protect her daughter Hebe, had let her guard down for one moment and taken a grave wound from one of them.

Though Ladon, the hundred headed dragon, had arrived at the critical moment and chosen to stand with them, carrying them clear of danger, Hera’s combat strength had taken a heavy hit from the wound the godslaying weapon left, and so far there was no sign of it healing.

The wound across her abdomen, which kept splitting open every so often and seeping drops of gold red divine blood, was proof enough of that.

Hmm.

No telling how much time had passed before Hera, inside the cave, slowly opened her eyes, let out a breath heavy with strain, and frowned down at the faint, stabbing pain in her belly.

Undoing the effects of a godslaying weapon was, unsurprisingly, no easy task.

And on top of that, the golden short blades the Gigantes carried seemed to have been infused with the authority of the Old Titan Gods.

Those old relics really knew how to cause trouble.

Hera cursed under her breath, then looked up at the endless sea, a quiet worry rising in her chest, and murmured to herself.

"It’s been so long. I wonder how that troublesome girl is doing. Whether she got out. Whether she’s found him yet."

"Instead of worrying about her, you’d do better worrying about yourself. Our situation is far more dangerous than Hebe’s right now."

An irritated snort came from the dark, and a striking, coolly beautiful young woman stepped out of the shadows: silver white hair, golden serpent slit eyes, a pair of bat wings on her back, a dragon’s tail trailing behind her.

She tossed something glinting with gold light to Hera, who sat resting on the ground.

"Eat this first. If we run into them again, I might not be able to look out for you."

"A golden apple?"

Hera blinked, then looked at Ladon, the hundred headed dragon now in human form, with a somewhat baffled expression.

"Ahem. Found it on the ground."

Ladon answered with a dry cough, her eyes drifting elsewhere without meaning to.

Watching the dragon’s reaction, Hera shook her head, said nothing more, and bit into the golden apple.

The sweet flesh melted into a divine liquid rich with life and the earth’s own nature the moment it touched her tongue, flowing out through every part of her body.

Immediately, the withered divine nature inside her drank it in, and the wound the godslaying weapon had torn across her belly began, faintly, to close.

Even her pale face gained a touch of healthy color.

There was no denying it, a golden apple carrying the trait of Immortality made for an excellent remedy for healing life itself.

Gurgle.

Just as Hera settled into healing herself, the faint sound of someone swallowing reached her ears.

She looked up toward the sound and found the three nymphs at the mouth of the cave, each still holding their sour wild fruit, staring at her, or more precisely, at the golden apple in her hand, with open longing.

The nymphs smacked their lips, want written plainly across their faces.

"Want some?"

Hera smiled and broke the golden apple in her hand in half, tossing the untouched side over to the three nymphs by the cave mouth.

"This half is yours. Go on, take it."

Looking at the half apple now in their hands, the three nymphs seemed a little overwhelmed by the gesture.

"But this is for healing your wound. Giving it to us..."

"My wound is too deep, and a godslaying weapon forged by the Old Gods is aimed squarely at us new gods. One golden apple can only ease the effects on me a little.

Whether I eat one more bite or one less hardly changes anything."

Hera answered with a faint smile, then turned a softer look on the three little ones, wings scratched and faces smudged with dirt.

"You three, though, wore yourselves out plenty helping Ladon and me get away by stirring up trouble. If anyone needs to eat well right now, it’s you."

Hearing their mistress reassure them, the three nymphs settled down and split the half apple between them eagerly, taking turns biting into the sweet divine fruit until it was gone, not even letting the stem or a drop of juice go to waste.

Seeing the three of them clearly still wanting more, Hera simply held out the other half as well.

The nymphs tried to refuse at first, but in the end their hunger won out, and they accepted their mistress’s gift, equal parts embarrassed and thrilled.

"You seem to have changed a lot."

Ladon leaned against a stone pillar inside the cave, head tilted, studying this Queen of Heaven she found herself unable to quite figure out.

As Ladon remembered her, this woman had never been particularly generous or forgiving.

She used to wear a permanent look of bitterness and grudge, spending her days scheming up ways to kill off mistresses and illegitimate children.

So how, after so long apart, had she suddenly become a completely different person?

Not only did she risk herself covering their escape and sent her own daughter off to safety, she now handed out a precious golden apple to three little nymphs without a second thought.

It was like looking at an entirely different woman.

"Nothing stays the same forever. Gods included."

Hera answered with a faint smile.

Dust and blood streaked her face, and yet her grace and elegance only seemed to shine through more, as gentle and warm as a mortal mother’s.

"After I let go of the things he told me to let go of, I found I actually had more, and could gain more, than I ever did holding on to them."

"He? Who’s he?"

Ladon blinked, curious now.

Who on earth had the ability to turn Hera, that bitter, grudge holding shrew, into someone like this?

"A very interesting little thing. Someone who matters a great deal to me."

Hera murmured it softly, a trace of fondness rising in her eyes, a calm, sweet smile spreading across her face.

"Tch. That told me nothing at all."

Ladon muttered the complaint, her face darkening, then held out her other hand toward Hera.

"Take this. And don’t go giving it away again."

A familiar shape and weight dropped into her palm.

Hera looked down and found another golden apple, her mouth twitching as she gave Ladon a long, quiet look.

"How many of these have you been hiding?"

"Found them."

"Found how many, then?"

"Three. I used one myself on the way here to get my strength back.

The other two are both right here now."

Ladon answered, none too pleased, casting a reluctant look at the two apples she’d just given up.

Even though she teamed up with a certain thief who raided the sacred garden and pulled off a big score, her own cut of the golden apples didn’t amount to much.

With a hundred heads, even one bite each was almost enough to clear out the whole stock, so the two apples she had left were genuinely scraped together and hidden away.

If she had known the sacred garden was about to get looted clean by the Gigantes and their beasts, she would’ve stripped every last apple off the tree herself.

Better yet, dug up the whole tree and taken that too.

Letting a windfall like that slip through her fingers really stung.

With that thought, Ladon gave Hera, now holding the apple, a long look and issued a solemn warning.

"You owe me for this. Eat one, and you’re paying back two. Three. No. Ten!"

"..."

Hera, apple halfway to her mouth, found herself briefly at a loss for words.

Eating something someone had already given her, and now she owed a debt on top of it?

At loan shark rates, no less?

Still, remembering this was a dragon, and greed simply came with the territory, and that Ladon had just gone out of her way to help her, Hera gave in and nodded, agreeing to what amounted to a thoroughly humiliating loan agreement.

Hearing that she’d not only make back her loss but stood to profit from it going forward, Ladon’s face lit up at once, and even the look she gave Hera turned warm and friendly.

"Don’t worry. As long as I’m here,

I won’t let them lay a single finger on you."

Hera felt a flicker of warmth and had just opened her mouth to speak when Ladon clenched a fist, her face bright with excitement and anticipation.

"After all, you still owe me thirty golden apples!"

"..."

Hera’s expression darkened, and she grumbled to herself.

So all that sudden thoughtfulness was just to squeeze more out of her?

And wait, by the terms of the deal, wasn’t it supposed to be twenty? How did it become thirty?

Don’t tell her the one Ladon ate herself on the way here was somehow getting charged to her tab too.

Under the long, quiet stare of her creditor, her victim, and her former employer all rolled into one, the greedy dragon suddenly felt a twinge of guilt and coughed her way toward the mouth of the cave.

"You rest up. I’ll go take a look outside, see how things are."

This girl.

Hera shook her head, swallowed the golden apple, and was just about to draw on the divine nature and vitality within it when the sky outside the cave filled with crimson light.

"Get down!"

Ladon, who had just stepped outside, felt her pupils contract sharply.

She immediately shifted into her true form, a dragon with a hundred heads, and rushed back into the cave, throwing herself over the three nymphs and Hera and shielding them beneath her body.

"Boom!"

The next instant, a searing streak of light dropped out of the sky, and the shockwave from the blast tore outward in every direction, setting fires all around, sending wood chips and dirt flying, filling the air with the sharp shriek of shattered rock tearing through the air without pause, and stripping away most of the cave in a single blow.

As the drifting smoke and dust cleared, Ladon beat her wings, shook off the rubble covering her, and looked up to find the sea and sky thick with beasts, and at the front of them all, that three headed venomous dragon, radiating a fear and pressure she couldn’t quite name.

A terrifying figure, long buried in memory, surfaced in her mind.

The demon progenitor. Typhon.

(End of Chapter)