There and Back Again

Giving it a proper look, the first thing I noted was that… The inside of the temple was quite polished, almost illogically so. I could just about see my face reflected against the floor… It was strange; my face, not the reflectiveness of the floor. I hadn't really spent a lot of time in front of a mirror and my face was still covered by the face mask all this time. I hadn't really faced the face which was not my own staring me back through the mirror, but that was not the oddity I was focused on.

Issei had… Protagonist hair, to say the least. Very spiky and distinct, yet the style on me had faded away through everything. Maybe the repeated process of getting covered in blood and whatnot then cleaning myself had caused the supports to the style to vanish, the hair cleaned harder than he ever did himself. But even then… My hair was longer than I expected. Not really shoulder length, but getting there… And I hadn't looked at my head enough to know if it was supposed to be that long or if I was missing some process of further development that was changing me.

I decided to focus on that later and just continue progressing for now, entering deeper into the temple, some unseen mechanism apparently activating and causing metal spikes to rise, blocking me from progression, a strange gathering of purple darkness forming just in front of them before a strange sort of creature appeared.

It was thin yet deadly, almost to the point of being able to be described as skin and bones, yet it had powerful muscles, simply lacking the fat that would normally have to be over a body. It had no skin or muscle at its ribs, no obvious organs either, revealing its ribcage in a way that did not make it seem like a weak spot. A Cerberus by the fact that it was a three headed dog, the eyes and mouth of each head glowing with a purple energy which intensified as it went on its hind legs and slammed back down, unleashing a wave of purple darkness that looked like it would have hurt had it actually hit me.

The wave of darkness was deceptively easy to avoid, being narrow yet with the speed it was moving at, it probably would have killed someone who was more… Well, normal. The Cerberus however made up for that fact by pouncing toward me as soon as it noted that I was clearly unharmed, my body moving into position, Blades crossing as the paw came down, hitting against the crossed Blades and resulting in a strange golden shine. The block worked with apparently perfect, or sufficient, timing, which was then followed along with Nine Lives, Blades moving forward against each other, thrust forward in what could have normally been a strike that would remove the central head's eyes, the right blade then continuing into a sideways slash to complete the set of three hits.

I had taken the Manticore Eggs out of some curiosity and convenience. The Cerberus however just seemed… Badass? No, like there was an innate sort of resonance or something. A feeling that it simply… Fit, unable to be described as anything but that. It looked like death, its skin the sort of gray that one would expect to see on a very old corpse, the glow and shadow powers only further making it something I found myself wanting. It could be quite a pet to send at people.

This only further seemed to remind me of the Shadow Monarch. The Protagonist of Solo Leveling had gotten the 'Job' of Shadow Lord, Monarch, whatever, which was first made out as if an advanced form of Necromancer but had much, much, deeper lore. He was, either way, capable of rising the dead back to life as 'Shadows', which themselves had different colors depending on the level of power, starting off blue, some being red and the strongest ones I remember being… Purple.

Maybe that was why I felt drawn to the appearance of the Cerberus. It would certainly be an immense power to wield. A previous line of questioning came back. If I could store the eggs, could I store a living being? Was the Cerberus, as it was, even truly considered living? Would I need to buy a new skill, or would one simply appear by trying hard enough? I stored the Blades away either way and went in with my fists, throwing a punch.

"[Divide]" Maybe it was simple Pokémon logic, but I figured that it was best to subjugate and weaken the beast through violence before trying further. The further strikes with Arondight were not made, ice covering my hands along with flames to deepen the strikes.

I was not sure if it would simply fall down and die when weakened enough, having taken enough damage, but I took the chance, throwing punch after punch, blunt damage that should not have killed someone, something normally, reducing its power even further when I could. It tried to retaliate, but its attacks proved ineffective. It even managed to create a purple sort of barrier around itself to protect itself, during which I just circled around it in my best replication of a prowl.

"[Divide]" Unsure if it would actually put the barrier down on its own, I reduced its power once more before punching with full force and a greater than normal amount of Mana Burst backing the punch, shattering the defense as I grabbed one of the heads. My other hand came to the other side as I held it in place, the whole body trying to escape my grasp but being too weak to escape or actually do anything with the attacks it was attempting.

If it continued trying to retreat like it had, it might somehow end up ripping its own head off… Which broke me out of my pace, [Sadistic Constitution] not actually active. As much as I was trying to make myself seem as some grand… Predator to the Cerberus, this was probably a moment of weakness, not wanting to actually torture it to death. I had just gotten a bit over excited and too into the fight.

[Skill Acquired!

[Gate: Capture Lv.1/10] – A strange skill in the spacial manipulation tree, loosely related to the Instant Dungeons. Once an entity has been sufficiently weakened, it becomes possible to send it into a small alternate dimension to be 'stored' away, captured for future use. Various factors determine the success rate of the capture, such as the state of the target, their intelligence, sentience, willingness, the original and current power of the target, their size and so on. Simply capturing them however does not mean that they will willingly obey commands]

Thinking about such things, I barely noticed the moment when the Cerberus vanished and the sudden lack of support on my hands made me stumble forward with the remaining force I had been holding it in place with. Huh… That… Actually worked better than I expected it to?

The eggs did not however move to the same skill, staying in my inventory, leaving me with the feeling that I could call on, unleash, the Cerberus if I wanted to. I would probably have to weaken it again if I do so. So I would probably need to additionally get some other skills, like an actual taming skill, or try to further… Train it, if possible, to obey me. I could probably find a carrot instead of using the stick going forward, as I did not really want to simply dominate and force it against its will… Assuming, of course, that it even could be tamed.

As if recognizing even this as a victory, the spikes went down in that strange awareness that could only be described as game mechanics and I was able to progress further from there. Something nudged at the back of my mind though and it was neither Melusine nor the Cerberus. It felt as if there was something obvious I was missing and that my subconscious was berating me for without actually telling me what it was. It was quite an annoying feeling…

More importantly, or maybe just to try and find something more 'solid' to distract me, there was a lack of height under me. I was simply on the floor and there was a slightly higher level up some stairs. I… Really did not want to dangle over the sorts of heights I had outside, which probably meant I should try to learn how to either fall with grace or simply fly. I was pretty sure I could handle a few meters drop better than what was likely at least a kilometer…

This, too, was swiftly proven as I had simply ended up stepping off the elevated bit and falling feet down, a wave of pain and discomfort going up my body in place of broken bones and limbs. Well, I probably wouldn't have actually broken anything by falling this height… Either way, I decided to focus on that as little as possible, waddling a little in pain as I took my walk of shame up the stairs.

The second time went better, but not by much as I simply managed to stop my fall, hovering just above the floor instead of fully falling down. It wasn't until the fifth time that I actually stayed in the air again, after which I started trying to move better than I had been outside. I still felt gravity trying to pull me down, but with calm, measured and equal breaths, I gradually started floating along, closing my eyes for the additional concentration.

I couldn't pick up any speed for one reason or another and I flew into a wall more than once, but… Well, I was actually flying now. A slow flight likely slower than even my walking speed, but a start, the start I needed. Hopefully the actual Skill comes soon… Well, I had to temper my expectations for that and to try and get closer to it, I opened my eyes. It was still easier to fly with closed eyes and I felt as if I was moving more awkwardly now that I could see again, but I couldn't fly blind all the time…

Even if the skill did not end up showing up, when I felt like I had enough, I put my feet back on solid ground, feeling the further results as gravity properly took claim over me and I felt much like I usually do after swimming for a while, even if my body was not strained in quite the same way. One way or another, I put my feet back on the ground and went toward a green mist being let out of a statue on one side of the platform.

Of course, entering a green mist being spewed by a snake statue was usually an easy way to get poisoned, but there was nothing else around here other than a mural of sorts and a locked door with no knew around. I was pretty sure this was the path forward anyway, even if it had been so very long since I played through the game in… The life before this one, little as I seem to truly think of it at this point beyond gaining knowledge about the things in front of me.

To think of all of my experiences before… All of this as some sort of tutorial and chance to gain knowledge beforehand filled me with an odd sort of dread I hadn't expected. My life before all of this was more than that and so were the people in that life. But… It was probably better not to think about it in the first place. I still don't know how I ended up in the Moon Cell, even if I could more or less trace the steps from there on how I got here.

In the starting portion of Fate/Extra, the 'main character' was instead an NPC who thought he was real, but did not even know his name, a fact that was not found out until the last day, or two days. He died, thinking he was real but not even knowing if he really was, or what his name actually was. Was I… Like that as well? Hakuno and Twice were also, technically NPCs generated by the Moon Cell— No. I had to stop thinking about it.

At this point, I will have taken even actual poison, just to move past these dreadful thoughts. The mist however caused everything around me to turn gray and decayed. All of the beautiful luster was simply gone and everything looked so very fragile. As it turned out, it really was. The ground itself started cracking under my feet as if it was going to give out. A few moments later, there was a sort of ticking sound, everything returning to how it was. Breathing in the mist again returned everything to the decayed state.

Some experimentation later, which included obtaining a Gorgon Eye and Phoenix Feather… The mist lasted somewhere around thirty seconds, give or take. I could only breathe in so much of the mist before even the statue seemed to decay beyond the capability to spew out more of the mist. While the various decayed results of my movements seem to be healed, causing sufficient damage is apparently enough to prevent healing, such as the door behind which the Eye and Feather were not restoring itself after being kicked in as well as the mural that was probably supposed to act as some kind of door not bringing itself back together.

I had tried just about everything before starting to look behind walls. It was the most obvious place, even if it lacked any actual normal aspects of a door. Like a lever, handle, key hole and so on.

I was also able to straight up steal the statue, which retained its mist capabilities but the mist itself did not seem capable of being bottled or stored in any other way. If it comes to it, I can probably throw the statue at someone before doing mental damage by the visions of everything having been decayed. I was pretty sure someone, anyone, less ready for this sort of thing would be more disturbed than I was.

And it really was disturbing to see everything start to crumble around me. Disturbing and… A bit cool. The seams between Yin and Yang seemed to be blurring a little, the intersection being crossed rather easily, maybe even at times without my realization. The skill itself had somehow managed to climb to level four without me noticing at that.

{Wait.} Melusine suddenly spoke up as I moved through the strange sort of circular hallway. The walls were… Not really walls, instead being open and revealing a rather large cave that probably implied the temple had moved back at some point as it wouldn't be able to house this sort of space otherwise. Many lanterns were suspended from the ceiling and I moved to lean against the 'railing', feeling as if she had something important to say which could take a bit longer.

"Yes?" I gave her the word.

{Before… You get into more fights. Let's see… You should do things deeper. Your attacks right now are usually lackluster, aside for that additional state you use. Breathe in deeper and draw from deeper inside yourself.}

"Uh…" She did not explain further. "I am not… Really sure how to do that?"

{Hm… Maybe it would be better to tell you to overkill your enemies… You're putting too much importance on meaningless things is what I am saying. You are strong. Well, I am stronger, but you are strong enough right now. Your enemies should be afraid of you even if they seem to pop out of the ground as if unaware who they will be fighting. And you learn by doing it over and over again, don't you? So destroy your enemies and you won't even notice these so called bosses when they do show up in front of you.}

Well… She did have a point… I need to use skills to level them up and if I only use the most powerful attacks and techniques against the bosses then they'd fall behind, won't they? I supposed it could be seen and looked at that way if I really think about it… Then again… "But—"

{No buts.}

"But—"

{It is a basic rule of nature. Obey the strong. Okay? Unconditionally. That means, obey me.} But if I grow used to fighting everyone with lethal and overkill force, I'll hurt those I'm not supposed to… {I heard that! Are there any you're not supposed to hurt around here?}

"No."

{Then there is no problem. When you fight, we're supposed to make the world shudder in fear.}

She stated it so simply. I think the term would have been Himedere? 'I am giving you advice, so be happy!', and yet… It was so flat and factual. There was no haughtiness involved in her words, she simply said it like it was and held none of the excessive pride that would have made her one. "…Why the sudden aggression?" But it was still a bit out of left field.

{…I don't… Want you to be weak, okay?} Ah, there is the emotion. {No, that's not it either. Holding back just… Makes me upset. To see someone who can be so much stronger, reducing themselves to a weaker state for no reason… You're not supposed to be caged, not by others or by yourself. Neither am I. So… Fight. Show them strength, show them power. I will hate you if you're weak.}

"Melusine…" I was… Touched? Doubtful as well about if she really could hate me. "Okay. I will do my best." With that, I pushed the doors in front of me open. "By the way, you have a nice butt." I did my best not to think the next thoughts too loud, but… She may not be very curvy, but she had a nice and petite butt. Smaller than what Koneko was depicted with, even if I hadn't seen the cat girl yet, but it was definitely there.

[+5 Affection with Melusine]

{Idiot.} Tsun tsun~

The room I entered was shaped a bit oddly, another pair of snakes spewing out the mist nearby, though built into the railing and thus probably pretty impossible to simply steal. "Worthless lot. Pathetic. Every last one of them." Though I was not able to see the source of the voice, someone was talking while descending down an elevator of sorts, after which a pair of what should have been just normal statues lifted up a massive hourglass that did not even seem capable of being turned around, yet the sands themselves, which should have been flowing down, instead seemed to be frozen in place.

There was a small group of workers pushing a sizable bust of a statute I found myself hoping was simply a statue and not alive, while one was pulling along what seemed to be a corpse. How… Implicative of a bad boss… Then again, maybe it was just a work related accident? If it was, and that was the boss, then he was sort of an asshole anyway.

There were no stairs down in front of me, but there were two paths, two doors and the mist… So I breathed in the mist and went left because it wasn't the right path, punny as my logic was. As I did so, enemies showed up, one being a normal goat man with a shield and the other one being one of the larger and wider variations. I focused, prepared and upped the numbers.

Mana Burst was level fifteen at the time being, dealing fifteen points of damage for every one point of MP used, though I was not quite certain on how it translated into movement bursts, and without an actual HP bar to the enemies, I did not know just how much HP they had and how much I needed to be doing on every hit to come close enough to kill them in a consistent way.

For the most part, I had maintained a low amount of power input into the Bursts, double digit numbers that had been gradually increasing, though I hadn't yet actually tried to increase since leveling up around here, instead letting the raw stat increases increase my damage. Now however, I focused, unsure how exactly to do this without actually looking at it, but as the two enemies charged, I prepared a greater burst, inserting nearly six hundred MP into it, nearly ten times more than I had been before.

The impact dented and pierced through the shield of the cautious goat man, the Blade seemingly stabbing through him, but ultimately still not doing enough damage to actually kill him. A second Burst, this one just barely weaker, somehow managed to intensify the first, solidifying the first Blade as soon as the second was thrust into him, both of them now in the enemy and letting me start lifting him off the ground, besides me, a length of chain being unleashed until he was sailing through the air, used as a flailing implement to hit the larger variation that had stayed behind its apparent protector.

The bursts were never actually all that pinpoint accurate in damage to start with, but as I hadn't been using all that much, the margin of error was a lot smaller, though I hadn't really paid that much attention to the amounts either, not since the first few, which tended to be somewhere between forty and seventy even while I was trying to aim for a fifty. It was a small enough amount that it was recovered almost instantly and it rarely left much of a difference in impact and damage. Going forward, assuming the same margin just gets increased by ten, four and seven hundred is a considerable amount of difference.

I tried the same against the larger enemy, actually feeling the dents having been made by the previous two Bursts as well as the third, used to launch me closer to him, followed by a forth which successfully caused the Blade to pierce into his chest. Each Burst now was accompanied by a small burst of air as the weapon moved at a considerable speed, not quite straining against the sound barrier or anything of the like, but surprisingly moving fast enough that it left a small tailwind.

Shields, in the first place, seemed to have their own logic of being unable to simply be broken by being beat up on, usually requiring some other means to get rid and past them, so being able to simply surpass them was a small feat in and of itself, which further explained, at least to me, why the enemy survived the first hit while a similar one seemed to be enough already to get rid of the big guy.

{Good. Keep improving and, if necessary, replicating. Especially me. You can learn a lot from me, so keep copying me. I won't mind.}

"Yes, yes. I… Will probably be doing that." Copy her lead, huh… That was probably going to take a little longer. Right now, we were still 'fused' together like this, which meant I couldn't actually see her attacks. I did see a few of them back in the Moon Cell though, so I was left wondering if she meant replicating that… Or if she simply forgot that I couldn't copy her lead right now…

Entering a room while thinking about such things, I was once more faced with the ever present existence of puzzles. I was not particularly in the mood for it, simply jumping up with a strong burst, nearly reaching the ceiling, high as it was, due to overshooting, berating myself as I opened the chests that I should have just flown up. I did hover down though after collecting what could be collected. Going further down the hallway lead me to a room full of pots, those fancy chairs hedonists can be seen lounging on… And well, I decided to just steal all of it. They were actually nice enough to steal, unlike most of the things I had run into thus far…

That was it for the left path though, which meant that it was time to go right. After a considerably enough long hallway a… Flying woman? Appeared. I was not really able to focus on her features beyond the fact that she was floating and sending blasts of electricity right at me. Coating the Blades with the [Lighting of Zeus] however seemed to be able to let me block the blasts before I came in close, noting that she was almost completely flat to the point that, were it not for her nipples, I wouldn't have even noticed she had breasts. Not only that, but her mouth was just… Spiked teeth and no lips, making her face rather disturbing to look at, the combination probably resulting in no LP gain.

The First Form seemed to have updated itself, somehow, with my larger amount of Mana Burst intention, three strikes moving even faster than before due to Lighting being utilized instead of Ice, being a downward X slash, followed by the right Blade stopping rather suddenly and being raised up, piercing into her side around the rib area, forcing out a horrifyingly painful scream that disoriented me and gave me a spilling headache.

[-85 HP

+17 HP]

She died, but even if the damage value was low, she gave me quite a 'gift' on her way out. A point to Melusine's favor however is that defeating enemies with only a few strikes like this did make me feel just a bit stronger than just attacking them over and over again until they died. I just had to find a way to not think about the sheer amount of force and effort I had to put into it in the first place to achieve this…

Paradoxes were annoying, if this even was one. Bringing them down in a strike or three gave me a feeling of power, but considering the amount of power I needed to put into it to do it made me feel… Well, not quite weak but still somewhere in that general area…

{Then get stronger.}

"…Yeah, that's probably the obvious answer, isn't it…"

For the time being, when my head stopped feeling like it would split open and my ears stopped ringing, I continued, finding a pair of gates blocking my path. There was a pressure plate that caused one to go up but the other went down, and when I got off it, the raised one would go down and the lowered up. There was also a statue of sorts in the next hallway over which could probably be used for something and the mist was also present. All the things that would be necessary, aside for inhuman strength, to solve the challenge were present. Probably.

And so the solution I came to… Was to steal both statues, storing them in my inventory before going to the gate, grasping the bars with both hands and using Mana Bursts on my feet and legs going backwards, repeatedly, to rip the gate off and away. It took nearly a quarter my MP in consecutive, powerful, Bursts but the gate bent and was ripped while Mana Burst leveled up once during the process and again upon completion. The gate itself was golden, so it probably wouldn't have even worked, but it was only after completion that I had even thought of inhaling some of the mist and trying it when it would have been theoretically weakened by age… Well, it was gone now, so I could move forward anyway.

My rewards were two more Red Chests, another Eye and another Feather, but I had decided not to count those until they truly become important. There was nothing else really there, so I went back into the hallway where I had killed the floating woman and along until I reached the next open room, containing only a Red Chest and the mist statue. Breathing in its mist resulted in the floor collapsing around me and well… After stealing the statue, there was nowhere left to go, so I went down, careful not to get hit by the bits of floor when they decided to go back up to where they were supposed to be.

"If you search—" Ah! The voice really needs to stop showing up out of nowhere! "—for truth, the Souls of Hades will aid your quest." This time it was a visage of Hades… With his helmet almost as large as the rest of his depicted torso, making him look almost comical even with the purple glow to it all. The pattern persisted, the Blades stabbed into the pot and it exploding for no good reason.

[Skill Acquired!

[Soul of Hades Lv.1/10] – Release the Souls of the Underworld to do your bidding. Vaporizing enemies restores HP]

The Blades were now covered with a purple sort of flame, much like the Cerberus, that same feeling from before showing up again, drawing me toward it. Healing, huh? Enemies showed up as well to let me test the new upgrade against. I thrust again with the increased amount of Mana Burst, trying to get as close to five hundred, wanting to be consistent. It failed, about six hundred MP being spent instead…

More importantly, a hand showed up. It was a massive hand that 'grew' out of a strange sort of rift left at the place where the blade impacted the enemy, at which point it somehow located the nearest enemy and slammed into it, sending it flying before disappearing.

This… Turned out to be a consistent thing. While they did not show up with every attack, every attack considered 'strong' enough, or by some other method of deciding when, caused a rift to open and a massive hand, about three times my height in length and yet pale as the dead and almost only as thick as my own arm, making it look even more ghostly, would appear to attack my enemies. All I could do was roll with it.

Actually, with my enemies now dying as fast as they did, there was less of a point to using the Ice again and this power was… Well, still resonating with me. Compared to blindingly fast attacks I can just barely actually keep up with myself, the Ice which was losing its usefulness now and fire which I was already able to infuse into my weapons, this was probably the best option out of the four for the time being. Or I was just making excuses to use the cool power, which a bit ironically was not ice.

In the next room, the enemies were large statues that came to life and tried to attack me with hammers, which itself provided a bit of an experimentation opportunity with the power of the Souls. Hitting the floor was valid as it also summoned a hand, it was possible to summon multiple hands within a small distance of each other, but not immediately next to each other, the hands, likely due to their length, had a considerable amount of power but were still weaker than my actual direct strikes… And the statues perished before I could think of and test more things out.

The bust from before was found, but the workers were nowhere to be seen, and while continuing on, all I had found was an elevator with a lever in the middle of it which lead down to the… Burial place of previous Oracles. Which itself lead to a suspended platform over a floor filled with spikes. Because of course it did. Their architect needs to be interrogated if they are even still alive and or were ever sane…

Now, normally, one would probably have to swing on the platforms, which itself was strangely Kratos made since he is one of the few with such means at his disposal… But I could fly and I had already broken one of the side-puzzles, so I continued my attempts at learning to fly by flying over the current problem.

Well, it wasn't quite flight as much as long jumps, landing on one platform then the next one beyond it, still not quite confident in being able to cross the full length in one flight. Even like this however I had landed at the end of the spike floor and being faced with a massive door I had no normal way of opening. This, too, however was solved by cheating as I took a statue out, breathed in the mist, broke the door and stored the statue again.

Yay for sequence breaking~ Well, it wasn't quite sequence breaking, was it? I was still going the way I was supposed to, just using my own sort of logic… I was also able to obtain the final Gorgon Eye and Phoenix Feather to complete the respective sets, bringing me up to forty-five hundred HP and thirty-six thousand MP.

Beyond the now broken door was… Ah, I think I remember this part as well. Breathing in the mist caused the floor to collapse around me, including the gate normally blocking my path. I was never really good at the timed things, usually taking more than a few frustrating tries, looking back… Now however, though mostly due to Bursts further increasing my speed, yet making the floor collapse even more, I was easily able to move between the platforms left over by just barely surviving bits of floor, making it to the next statue to breathe in the mist again and continue on.

It was only at the end of all of that that I was in front of the statues holding the massive hourglass. How the fuck were normal people supposed to go through this temple and meet the oracle!? That basket dude that died to the Manticore wouldn't have been able to run away from the monsters in this place or deal with the traps! And where were the workers!? I was pretty sure they could have actually showed me a better path by now…

While mentally complaining like that, a strange new floating creature appeared, this one more like a man with crescent blades for hands and a spiked helmet that summoned three spectral copies of itself without that much fanfare before falling through the floor, leaving a strange cloud of… Smoke that moved. The copies immediately set their sights on me, moving with perfect synchronization to try and cut me down immediately, forcing me to retreat for the sake of defense and survival.

Slamming a Blade to the ground summoned a hand, which grabbed one of the copies and slammed it against the ground. This turned out to be a valid hit-and-run strategy, even if a bit cowardly, leaving me running around, slamming the Blades against the ground, summoning the hand which either dealt damage to one of the copies or reached into the smoke, pulled out the original and slammed him instead.

Even the appearance of a second one of the digging summoners did not change the strategy, though when that new one was the only one left, I was actually capable of going straight for him and impaling him on the Blades before he could dig himself down into the ground.

With the enemies defeated, I started exploring the door for clues on how to actually do this. I was pretty sure the hanging platform had to be slammed into the hourglass, which would cause the statues to drop it, letting me go down normally, but… Was that really the only way? This is the point at which the workers really would have been useful to consult…

Actually, maybe I was thinking about it the wrong way. Instead of all of this being prevention from someone going in, it was preventing for them to go out and escape considering the work conditions. And it just so happened that it also made actually getting in an absolute nightmare as well…

The answer to the hourglass problem, as it turned out, was almost yes, but actually no. When I was pretty sure I grabbed everything I could, I just took the earlier pillar statue that was supposed to be used on the gate puzzle and put it on top of the hourglass. The weight was enough to have the statues lower the hourglass and let me descend with minimal property damage and merely at the cost of one… Not very good taste decoration.

"Place your offerings for Aletheia. We will decide if they are worthy at our will." And I was immediately, casually and almost bored-like greeted by an old man sitting on a throne with a woman, a girl more likely, who had a golden mask covering her whole face, as if I hadn't just gone through all that I had gone through. Was there really a different, easier, path? There was also a third man, holding, with shaky hands, a plate of fruits, but I barely even noticed he was there. The masks more or less made them look and feel as though they were not alive to start with, but rather… Dolls? They were certainly human though.

"I am not making any offerings." The ones I got were pretty strong. I was close to leveling up again and I am not leaving behind double experience.

"You presume to seek an audience with the Oracle and yet you bring no offerings? Bold. Stupid. But bold. Return when you have brought appropriate sacrifice." He tried to dismiss me, but I was not going to go through all of that in reverse to get out and try to find something appropriate for this..

I felt the flip as I noticed the object on his chest. The same one I had taken off of the Fury just before being sent back to Kirra… Well, looks like fate already decided the outcome, thus I prepared the [Sadistic Constitution] "…Is your life enough?" It probably didn't sound the way I wanted it to, but well… Considering the logic of this world, I was more likely to have to kill him than to get it by peaceful bartering.

He gave a theatrical sigh. "Remove him." It was only then that I noticed the two weak looking men with their own golden masks wielding spears… Who proceeded to just drop the spears and run in fear. "…We have to find a better slave trader." A common event, apparently. After that however, he threw off the strange cloth that was over half his chest, revealing a withered up… Conjoined twin, following which he drew power from the amulet, becoming younger and the twin seemingly returning to life.

"We will not tolerate your impudence." Apparently, the twin talked even if I would have preferred it that he didn't. "You will not see her!" With those words and the power of the amulet, the ground, the bridge under us, began to collapse as he simply teleported a short distance and I had to start running, chasing after him… Right after stealing his chair to be petty. Wait, where did the fruit guy go? Oh right, the floor is falling, better hurry.

Even with Bursts letting me gain on him pretty quickly, faster than the bridge was collapsing, he just kept teleporting away until we reached a circular portion near the end, the pillars around it just making it look more like a purposefully designed combat arena. Just beyond was more collapsed bride, effectively stranding us on the circular platform even if I could fly and he did not seem to have that capability.

There was, however, a massive statue holding a platform on which was a large, wide more than tall, throne on which I was just barely able to make out the woman. The Oracle which they were trying to prevent me from seeing. Not very successful at that, were they? They almost lead me right to her!

"Your persistence will only mean your death." With how sure he was in himself, it just barely even came out as a taunt. While the conjoined twin's small, strange, arm was empty, the main man wielded a staff of sorts along with a sword, both at least seemingly made out of gold. Even then, the first, opening, attack was made by rapidly aging the ground under me, causing it to collapse and forcing me to fly back up to level.

"He can fly?!" The gravelly voice of the abomination at his hip exclaimed. Even so, the ground under me was restored and a strange green aura appeared beneath me. The guard suddenly became a lot faster, swinging his sword down at me while the staff went upwards diagonally.

[-364 HP

+73 HP

-263 HP

+53 HP]

I was not fast enough to block either attack, but the staff hit had launched me up and out of the green area as everything started moving normally again. Ah… So he wasn't getting faster, I was being slowed.

[-75 HP

+15 HP]

And I hit a pillar. As quickly as I could, I changed weapons, storing the Blades away and taking on Slicer before coating him with [Lightning Zeus] and [Calamity of Flame]. The short opening also let him teleport again, trying to swing the sword down, only for my own to reach and block his, still faster than I could actually perceive.

"First Form, Shooting Calamitous Breath." I breathed out in his moment of confusion, willing the Mana Burst to go up into four digits, the low thousands, leaving me unable to even see the three strikes that were made and simply finding myself with Slicer held up in the air and the guardian exclaiming in pain before being covered in a green glow, which was probably restoring the damage, though it did not seem to be instant and I was able to bring Slicer down to continue damaging him.

I only got the additional slice however before the glow disappeared from him and instead created another area around me, slowing me down again. I was unable to step out fast enough and as soon as he saw I was nearing the edge, he went in for another attack, weapons moving to pincer me. I was unable to call out my attack either, but once more the three strikes were utilized.

[-269 HP

+54 HP]

Only one of his attacks reached me and from the feeling of being struck by something, I assumed it was the staff. It did not, however, send me out of range. The additional damage effect of Sadism was already gradually showing up as well I couldn't keep letting him get free hits off like this. Thankfully, another step was already putting my foot in normal time, letting me Burst quickly and get out of range.

Staying in one spot or being predictable in where I would be was bad, but I was just barely able to think about it before he started attacking again, nearly making me backpedal straight back into the slowed area on instinct. I caught myself before that and instead tried [Spartan's Revenge], mistiming it as I did so, but the force was only focused on my sword, preventing any actual damage from reaching me.

He then proceeded to teleport and I felt the sword pierce into me in what would have normally, certainly, been a lethal hit if not for HP.

[-373 HP

+75 HP]

That's just over a thousand HP gone already, but I still had about thirty-five hundred left. {See, this is my point. You should honor your basic enemies more.} Not the time! {Divide.} Oh…

"[Divide]!"

"What?!" That surprised him well enough and with his strength halved and mine increased by that amount, I turned around and prepared to— A green glow engulfed both of us as I felt the power drain from me. Ah… Apparently time reversion works on this sort of thing? Shit, that's pretty much my trump card disabled already.

[-270 HP

+54 HP

-375 HP

+75 HP]

At least the health loss is more or less consistent. "Your tricks will not work!" The hip abomination did properly taunt. It was, however, wrong. It worked, just not for long and it still left me avoiding the hits as best as I could… At least until an odd flash of inspiration struck me. Though even for that, I had to keep blocking and avoiding his attacks, letting my MP recover even more until I saw a sufficient moment in my Mind's Eye.

[Skill Generated

[First Form, Second Step: Ascension by Division] – An automatic composite skill that starts by using [Divide] against the target before replicating the [First Form: Shooting Calamitous Breath] while using Bursts reaching up to 5,000 MP per hit, leading into a second, third and so on application until MP runs out]

With three hits per application it was up to fifteen thousand MP per use, over the course of, currently, three hundred and fifty thousand, give or take, MP, leading to twenty-three applications or sixty-nine hits, assuming I don't hit enough low amounts on whatever random number generation that leads to 'up to' five thousand. In spite of having found the moment in which the skill was generated, I jumped back, making distance. "First Form, Second Step…" I felt my body move into place as he teleported to close the distance again, as expected. "Ascension by Division."

I felt the power flow into me. Technically, every strike would be stronger, even if by small amounts. I was almost able to see the attacks this time as well, only because of how many there were in quick succession. I also felt the rhythm. While the combination of Slicer's innate speed, Lightning and Mana Bursts resulted in very fast that almost left it as if the attacks overlapped and left no time pass between individual uses, reality was not like that.

One, two, three, pause. One, two, three, pause. Every time, it just barely felt, due to the speed, like three strikes, after which there was a pause where a forth would have been, at which point another set of three were used, another pause, three, pause, my MP being drained lower and lower lower and the rush of battle, of enjoying this, only be driven higher and higher, my senses further sharpened as a result.

Not only that, but I felt an additional side-effect. The Lightning restored MP and even if the enemy in front of me was mostly resistant against such things, as all bosses tend to be, my MP was still restored a few times, not that it mattered, not actually able to lead into a twenty-fourth application in spite of the varied amounts of MP being used and the additional MP recovered.

[Skill Level Up!

Draconic Total Concentration Breath: 6 -> 8

Dragon Heart: 3 -> 4

Mana Burst: 17 -> 20

Sword Combat Proficiency: 15 -> 19

Expressive Expression 1 -> 2

Calamity of Flame: 4 -> 8

Sadistic Constitution 3 -> 4

Lightning of Zeus: 1 -> 3

Eye of the Mind (True): 1 -> 2

Nine Lives – Increasing Blades: 2 -> 3]

It was upon completion that the Nine Lives upgraded, becoming capable of their forth strike. And in spite of striking him so many times over, all I had ended up doing was entering phase two of the fight, the bastard's head simply leaning back as the abomination at his hip yelled that I would have to deal with him now, the two weapons floating by his side. "What are you doing?" Only for him to realize what I had done.

Entering the second phase always did take a few moments, which I decided to make the most of. In front of me was one of the Blue Chests and I simply looked at him, opening it with one hand as blue orbs left the chest and entered me.

[MP Fully Restored]

Unfortunately, this was ultimately only a precaution. The abomination knew very well what I would be capable of if we got close to each other now, or at least I assumed he knew that, especially since I really wanted to do it. Beyond the sheer rush of battle I had felt, the blade had been moving in patterns I found truly beautiful, the mixture of the flames, the original purple of the sword and the yellow lightning was… Beyond description by mere mortal words.

The fight, as such, moved to long range as I simply kicked the chest at him and he used green blasts of energy to stop it from actually hitting him. Annoyingly, I was proven right and even more annoyingly, I did not have many actual long range capabilities, while he was doing his best to range and zone me while using his attacks, which themselves would be powerful even if I did not know by how much. It shouldn't put me in lethal range that easily, but if I take too many of them now that I take even more damage from attacks as a result of my stacked up Sadism…

Actually, how was I even sane right now? I was pretty sure this amount of hits was more than enough to send me spiraling down into a Berserker earlier when I was simply using my hands… Well, it wasn't like he was going to give me the time to question such things in peace, so I would have to take the blessing in disguise and chase after him.

While he did not seem to have that much flight capacity, he was able to teleport whenever I got close, slow me down, speed himself up with a similar time distortion and floated above the ground to actually move. This, combined with his ranged attacks, made him very annoying in that he avoided every single attempt I made to strike him when I was actually even remotely in range to do so.

On the other hand, I was actually able to see Slicer move now, though just barely. Rather than it moving nearly instantaneously, I was able to properly see it blur, yet even that did not seem to be enough.

[-642 HP

+129 HP

-645 HP

+129 HP

-644 HP

+129 HP]

My best chance was to outlast him, yet the annoying abomination seemed to be adapting faster than I was, speeding himself and his projectiles somehow up while creating a slowing zone under me, letting three of them strike me before I could defend properly, getting me down to a range where I started considering taking one of the HP Chests out of my inventory as well. I just needed to get close enough to him, somehow try to pin him down or catch him making a mistake though and I would win!

I felt the intersection suddenly flip twice, somehow giving me a short experience of a slight mental reset but no further actual change. Even after that however, instead of going for an HP Chest to heal, I took out one of the statues as it practically popped into existence, blocking a few projectiles, the mist being breathed in, my foe too far to be effected. "What!?" Good to know he was still capable of being surprised.

I did not know what he actually saw, but I saw the decayed floor. Slamming my foot down caused it to collapse under me regardless from what I could tell and slamming Slicer down only further took down more portions of the platform. Living things, unfortunately, did not seem to be effected by the mist's decay vision, but it was still enough to change the rhythm of the fight into something a little more to my advantage. Instead of me simply chasing him now, I was taking away his ground to stand, float, above, while I was more than capable, even in this mental state, to fly.

"You may be strong, but Castor is unstoppable!" He declared before turning his back to me. "You have sealed the Oracle's fate! You will never know the truth!" As he spoke, he aged the platform, sending the woman falling down after slipping from her throne.

"Ascension by Division!" But he had, in the process, been a stupid decision, letting me get into range and strike him. What Mana Bursts I had used to move around had their MP recovered, or were simply in range of the Lightning recovering the rest. Twenty thousand-ish MP per application for eighteen repetitions or seventy-two strikes, or up to nineteen and seventy-six.

Slicer moved, uncaring of the Oracle's fate, cutting down the foe in front of me with divine speed, almost creating a pattern in the movements carried out automatically by the System as it reached closer and closer to the original hundred strikes of the technique, still broken up as it was in the beat of one-two-three-four-pause, ultimately failing to do so due to my continued lack of resources either way.

The sheer force of the strikes seemed to be enough to bring the ground under us crumbling all the way, even if the Mist's effects had faded away just before he had turned his back on me. The Oracle's former body guards however were already dead, littered with deep cuts that almost shredded them to a state of the body that could just barely be recognized as human.

I, on the other hand, feel the full length while the rush of battle washed off and away from me, leaving me feeling the full effects of having lost more than half my HP as well as having drained my magical energy to near completion twice over in short order. I barely felt like I could move my body… "Melusine…" So, I breathed out and felt the armor vanish from me, instead being grabbed under the shoulders as she slowed the descent and ultimately placed me down on my feet.

[Skill Level Up!

Draconic Total Concentration Breath: 8 -> 9

Mana Burst: 20 -> 22

Sword Combat Proficiency: 19 -> 22]

[Level Up! x2

HP, MP and Fatigue restored

+200 HP and 20,000 MP

+2 to All Stats]

"It was a good fight." Perhaps knowing I just leveled up and was fully restored, Melusine returned and the armor covered me once more, my body still feeling sore and… Sensitive in spite of the recovery.

[Name: Issei Hyoudou

Level: 17

Job: None

Title: Enemy of All Women

HP: 4.700/4.700

MP: 380.000/380.000

Fatigue: 0

Strength: 102

Vitality: 96

Dexterity: 125

Quickness: 92

Intelligence: 42

Wisdom: 29

Charisma: 48

Magic: 143

Luck: 46]

Finally starting to get into the three digits, huh? I should probably try to work on WIS and INT though… Charisma could also probably use some work… But before that…

[Amulet of Uroborus

Type: Amulet

Quality: EX

Stolen from the Oracle Aletheia by the Prophet Castor. This Amulet's gem can show the life and death of all things. It can also be used to manipulate time to some extents]

The object which I knew was eventually going to reach my hands… More than just having taken it from the Fury, I knew it was there, which was a part of the reason I chose this path. And with this, I can now…

[Sacrifice Not Accepted: Timeline Error]

Ah… Right, I can't yet then. Which means I should probably go see if the Oracle is still alive… It was quite a fall, after all. And yet, she lives. "The relic… You carry has no effect on me." She was an old woman to say the least, older than the bastard apparently named Castor was. She was also missing her eyes, something I had forgotten as well. Yet in spite of everything, she looked fabulous— And I swapped back the intersection to not ruin a sad moment.

She did have nice hair though and in spite of falling for possibly hundreds of meters, she was still fully in one piece and without an outward scratch on her. She was dying, probably, but she didn't actually look like she was dying. "I am sorry." Yet… I probably could have gone down after her instead of finishing off Castor. I had the flight capabilities. The enemy in front of me was more important in the moment however.

"Do not worry. The situation before me is clear. I… Have waited for this day." An Oracle that she is, she probably even foresaw her own death long before this. She even sounds resigned. "You seek the truth?"

"…the truth is that I come seeking the Amulet… But, if you can reveal some things to me…"

She seemed to laugh in spite of her state. She might even survive, all things considered. "The truth always comes with a price… And yet, somehow I feel as though this will not burden you as much. Come closer." She held my hand… And a vision appeared in my mind, as if a recollection of a memory I did not have, let alone know I had, done in third person with vague silhouettes instead of detailed appearances.

"Furies!" …by the shape of the silhouette, I assumed that was me? But did I really sound like that? If it was me, I held a sword to the skies themselves as if in challenge, yet I did not know what sword it was as it lacked the shape of Slicer or even Arondight. "I swear an oath to you in my name, Vortigern! I will bring down Olympus itself! Do you hear me!?" The scene then shifted, the silhouette breaking apart before standing instead in front of a different one with a particular pattern I still found familiar.

I was… Standing in front of Kratos… Hugging him? The vision was broken however before more could be reveled and the Oracle coughed. "My time grows short, I fear." She apologized as such and I wanted to tell her that it was fine, yet it somehow felt like she knew and that I would simply be wasting her short time if I did. "And you… There is no way to free yourself but to slay the ones to whom you swore your oath to. Even then, Olympus may not take kindly… Your life… Will be one of conflict going forward. Such is the path on which you have placed yourself…"

Oh yes, I know it will. Bring down Olympus? I was certainly going to do that if I continue the story, which I was fully intending on doing. "But… Why would the Furies be after me?"

"Orkos… Knows." She put her other hand over the back of mine in a way that was strangely too… Close. As if we somehow had history together. "Across the sea, the Lantern of Delos keeps the Eyes of Truth." I found myself putting my other hand over hers as well. "Find the Eyes… And they will… Show you the path... To Freedom…" Her last breaths were breathed as the life faded from her, having spent her final moments helping me.

All I could do was keep moving. I was not even sure if giving her a proper burial would be possible. "…I hope Elysium is an unknown for you." I did not know what else to say, moving on forward to wherever this path would lead me to…

I did however find a distraction pretty quickly. Every now and then, a broken apart Red Chest could be found, and now restored with the Amulet. I tried, just in case, to try and restore one of the chests I had already opened and harvested the Red Orbs out of, but it did not work like that, sadly… Oh well, that wasn't quite the intended use for taking all of them anyway.

o.O.o.O.o

The path rather quickly put me back near Kirra, leading me right back to the Water Wheel and pretty much forcing me to use the Amulet to restore the… Aqueduct was the word, wasn't it? To progress further. Apparently underneath the wheel was a strangely large amount of water that, thanks to the [Ice of Poseidon] I managed to dive through… And revealed to me that I had perfect vision underwater.

It was a good thing I could breathe underwater, considering it took me a good few minutes of diving to actually get to the other side, where I needed to be. Which turned out to be a harbor. I really was just following the path without knowing exactly where it would lead, huh… That's actually nice, in its own way.

With the boss done, as I explored the harbor, I upgraded the Blades again, causing their appearance to change slightly, becoming more curved, but otherwise not changing all that much. I was still planning on using the Blades for most of the fights going forward, but I simply hadn't seen any chance to win the fight against Castor without using Slicer's sheer speed.

"And here you are again, Orkos." The presence of a familiar inky figure told me what ship to board. "Why? I mean… Are you not the son of the Furies yourself? So what then has brought you to my side? Or do you just call them Mothers? …maybe I misheard?"

"…Kratos." Huh? "The injustice of his oath made me doubt them. Even through all of his suffering, he did not understand why he was chosen, why Ares needed and still needs him." Kratos was smart, but well… Not wise, I suppose. Not until his much later years at least. "The God of War has been plotting for years."

"Plotting what?"

"The downfall of Olympus itself. A plot which created me. I was brought forth by the joining of the War God and the Fury Queen. In Rage and Insanity, Ares hoped to conceive the perfect warrior. But I was only a disappointment to him… It was my mothers who spared me. They gave me the task of keeping the oaths and although my burden was great, I was determined to be of service to those who said they loved me."

"I… Do you need a hug?" I offered and in spite of his emotional charge in his explanation, I saw his lips curve up a little in a short smirk of entertainment.

"But it was Kratos. The task of his bond finally made me question the actions of my family and so I sought council with Aletheia. It was she who revealed to me the plot of Ares to overthrow Zeus, but he needed the perfect warrior to do so. Ares molded Kratos to take down the very walls of Olympus, be it for him or with him I do not know. What I do know is that, to make sure Kratos was beholden only to him, Ares and my mother devised three blood tasks. Spill the blood of his enemies, the blood of the innocent and the blood of his very own." There was another laugh slash snort just recalling that. "Yet soon after he did so, completed all three, you showed up and killed him."

"I… Killed him?" Was that what that hug Aletheia showed me was?

"Do you still not recall?"

"I only recently even found out what oath I made to the Furies… But how did that end up…" No, this was before my imprisonment, so referring to the prison to him would be confusing as it hasn't happened yet.

"Yes… You swore to the Furies themselves that you would bring down Olympus, only to turn around and kill Kratos. I am not sure if they were more enraged by the fact you did so or that he did not even put up a fight, allowing you to do so. But they were enraged and your Oath considered broken. Megara hunts you down relentlessly for it, yes, but it seems Alecto and Tisiphone still believe that you may yet be made into a tool for their plan, though it still requires your capture."

"If slaying Kratos is considered breaking my oath, then hasn't Olympus naturally found out about it?"

"It seems that Olympus is not yet aware of the circumstances. Ares however, most certainly, will hunt you down, sooner or later, for this as well, assuming the Furies do not get to you first."

I am making enemies all over early huh… "But… You do know that they will die, don't you? You helping me only has that sort of ending."

He looked me in the eyes. "Perhaps, I would rather see them dead than victorious." Even having said it like that, he almost sounded certain yet still vanished with those words.

The boat had started moving during our conversation, taken out of the harbor by being dragged by a giant of sorts, and aged one, hunched over with some sort of hook rack on his back, various parts of his body overgrown with barnacles somehow. I could only assume that Orkos had put me on the path to Delos. He wouldn't just strand me on a boat going somewhere random would he?

…would he?

The scenery around me changed however as I once more found myself in front of the dead Fury, holding the Amulet in my hands, right where I had last been. I suppose this means the timeline is properly corrected and on the normal path then, which means—

[Level Up! x2

HP, MP and Fatigue restored

+200 HP and 20,000 MP

+2 to All Stats]

[Primordial Slain!

Power Stolen: [Parasite Infestation]

Innate Ability Recognized. Combining skills…

[Divine Dividing: Ray Horizon] has been updated with [Corrupted Species Continuation]

[Corrupted Species Continuation Lv.1/100] – An advanced Primordial Authority. By utilizing one's [Dragon Heart] it is possible to create Dragons, though they will be weak and low ranked, yet by infesting other living beings it becomes possible to fuse with their 'ranks', making the end result more powerful than either life individually. The quality of lifeforms created by this, either directly or by infestation, increases with the Skill Level. It is further possible to infuse various powers into the Spawn so long as they are core to the user; the powers of the infected are carried over to the result. Current Cost: 10.000 MP per Spawn]

I was left blinking, confused, for a few moments… Before I realized that these was delayed rewards for having slain her. I was sent back before I actually reaped the benefits. What… What the hell… I mean, I understand the logic, but what the fuck?

…one thing at a time. I looted her helmet off of her body.

[Megaera's Helmet

Type: Helmet

Quality: A

Durability: 1,000/1,000

In spite of having been worn by the Fury Megaera, it is a surprisingly normal helmet, holding on innate special powers or immense defense. It has a high conceptual weight however due to its history, meaning it can handle more power and energy being flowed into it, including stronger and multiple enchantments than a mundane helmet of the same type would be capable of

+5% Physical Damage Reduction]

For the time being, I put it in the Equip slot, gaining the effects while leaving it invisible. As I did so however, another Soul Cerberus showed up, preventing further progress for the time being. Infested prisoners also popped out of the ground while I was doing the same to this one as I had to the previous Cerberus, capturing it for the sake of… Future experimentation. Especially with the new skill that was obtained.

Using the Amulet, I was actually capable of reverting the infested back to their original states, at which point I still had to deal with the scarabs that were formerly infesting them while the prisoners ran as far as they could in fear. With all of them taken care of, it became possible to move on with my plan.

[Sacrifice Accepted!

Infinity Stone (Time)

Type: Gem

Quality: EX

Durability: Infinite/Infinite

The name is closer to an indication of potential than a current state. Time related Items, Perks and Maxed Out Skills can be inserted into the Stone. Anyone who wields the Stone is granted access to the powers held within, though as the Stone grows in power, some requirement of a personal power level to utilize the powers may be required.

Items Taken In: [Amulet of Uroborus]

Currently Acceptable Perks/Items/Skills: None]

There it is… It had the same powers as the Amulet itself, or at least it should, so nothing was lost or gained, aside for this being considerably smaller than the Amulet, attaching itself to the back of my left gauntlet and proving its power as I aimed to the open area, rewinding time to restore the path that was there before, as was supposed to be done with the Amulet… I think… There really weren't any clues, but hey, if it works it works.

This left me with the final test to make. Corrupted Species Continuation, or just CSC for short, was expensive, but I focused anyway, feeling… Something happening. Thankfully, this something did not seem to come from inside my skin, though it did leave me wondering where this new existence came from exactly. It was… A lizard. Like, one of the most common lizards one can find, aside for it having wings which were rather obviously too large for its lengthy body.

It was adorable as well. Its body was as long as my palm was wide, its tail wrapped around my pinky and the head was looking around while it vaguely flapped its wings. Using the same skill I had to store the Cerberus… Cerberi? The lizard also vanished and was called back. I… Had enough MP… And I probably did need to level up the skill some, so…

o.O.o.O.o

After a few minutes, I had about fifty lizards around me. I totally did not go overboard. They listened to me too! With a gesture, I motioned them forward and they spread out into the path ahead. One even brought me a Gorgon Eye while another brought a Phoenix Feather, which completed another set of each and increased my HP by another thousand and MP by a hundred thousand. I decided to name them Primus and Secundus as a reward. I was somehow capable, on some innate instinct, of distinguishing them naturally even with all of them actually all looking exactly the same otherwise.

The others, possibly not wanting to be outdone or just not finding anything of note, seemed to lead me to where the story would probably progress from. This lead me to a different kind of infested, a woman, almost completely naked, with insect-like green limbs… Or at least I thought they were infested. The fact that the Stone was not capable of reverting them however, she was a natural monster and killed as such with potentially excessive force.

More of the path was restored, ultimately even putting me back into the room where I first encountered the infested… Though it required flight and, just to be safe, I stored away all my lizards. They can fly later, for now, it was probably better to be safe. Flying really did make things easy… Even if I was mostly just floating up to higher places instead of doing actual, high speed, flight…

When another snake woman appeared, I unleashed the lizards, commanding them to storm her, ten of them somehow entering inside her, infesting her… Until her body started twisting and changing. Her breasts, for whatever reason, grew by a cup size or so before wings sprouted from her back. She looked at me only for a moment before more enemies showed up and she focused on them instead, unleashing a burst of energy that was somehow accompanied by a sort of feminine scream, petrifying the enemies in a flash.

She proceeded to smash the resulting statues before slithering over to me. "…yes, yes, good job." Somehow feeling the intention, I gave the… Snake head… Headpats and she leaned into it… Until my armor disappeared and I wasted no time giving Melusine headpats as well. Apparently, both wanted to be praised. "…adorable."

After a few more moments of headpats, Melusine returned to her usual spot and the Lamia Dragon was stored away for the time being, letting me progress to… The place where I fought the first Chonker. Wow, that feels like it was weeks ago…

The illusion making Fury floated slash flew close. "If pleasure of the flesh will not sway you, then there is only one thing left." She decided on her own before a blue sort of bird appeared from her back and flew straight at me. It did not really leave me with a lot of time to call out my attack, but the First Form was used, four quick yet powerful strikes being made with the Blades, one hand showing up from the side of the bird and digging into it as if to tear it apart from the inside.

Instead, it pulled out some sort of object and threw it in my general direction. The bird gave out a final screech before apparently deciding I was not worth the pain, already, flying back to its mistress. Well, to its credit, most enemies until now did die in less than four hits due to an increased amount of MP being used in the Bursts to ensure such a thing. The fact it was not only alive after that, but after having its insides apparently dug through and what seemed like some sort of hear torn out, was impressive…

Once again, I had to give the point to Melusine as well. Barely restrained fighting like this… Felt good, when I actually forgot how much effort I was putting into it in reality, though the additional skill level ups from the Castor fight were certainly helpful in that direction anyway. Even if I now had to actually keep watch of my MP as it no longer regenerated almost as fast as I was using it, though it did more or less fill back up even between the 'every few dozen steps' I seem to be capable of taking before individual groups of enemies that try to fight me…

"It matters not that you have my son's toy. It is your heard that will betray you." The fury taunted before just flying away through a door that opened itself for her and then closed behind her.

"The sooner we get past Delos, the happier I'll be." The voice was vague and distant, preventing me from progressing further and preceding the feeling of being arguably sent through time again.

"They say it is cursed."

Gradually, everything fit into place. The prison was replaced with a boat, the smell of the sea and the sight of a massive statue in ruin, various parts of it missing, scaffolding revealed, broken apart, barely truly looking human beyond a vague shape, yet in a state where I was not sure if it was simply never finished, if it gradually started breaking apart or if it was willingly destroyed at some point by some intelligent individual or group of them.

"They say the great Archimedes built that statue for Apollo!" And this was… My stop.

"Quickly, he's gone. Let us leave before we are cursed too." Geez, thanks for the confidence… Okay, okay… Need to hype myself up somehow… It really was a sudden shift, enough it almost gave me whiplash even if it was also gradual. I am almost tempted to consider this an illusion with the string of events, but… It just doesn't feel like one? Would I even be able to recognize it as one?

While I was thinking of such possibilities, massive tentacles grabbed the ship in the distance, sinking it in mere moments before throwing half of it at the dock which I was on, missing me entirely, but still a very dangerous implication. Uwah… I gestured with the Stone, reverting time as the dock repaired as if the ship half hadn't even been thrown. A shame about the crew though…