38 Ch. 38 Hellas’ Heroes pt.3

Flying using the Greek sun chariot was a novel experience if nothing else.

It would also seem to be a versatile construct as it changed from a Greek war chariot to a large carriage in order to fit everyone. And although very bright and shiny, it was surprisingly comfortable.

The now carriage was obviously decorated with symbols of the sun or the Greek pantheon, but at least it wasn't completely over the top. Beside being basically made out of gold anyway.

During our rather brief ride, I had the time to ask Apollon a few things I was curious about regarding his current role as a sun deity and if he was actually born one or Helios truly passed on the title to him somehow.

Turns out that a shift in belief caused the Greek divinity of the sun to split between Apollon and Helios, resulting in Helios no longer being able to properly control the sun chariot. Unfortunately for Helios, more of his original divinity began going to Apollon due to his other ones having a good affinity with it and the beliefs of the people, eventually leading to the sun god to willingly relinquish the remainder of his sun divinity and retire. Helios now lives as a minor god of Midday under Apollon's banner.

At the same time, Selene the original moon goddess and Artemis were also going through a similar process due to Apollon and Helios, but it was much more difficult to convince Selene to relinquish her divinity due to not liking Artemis. She only retired after Helios had fully handed the sun divinity over due to the massive shift it caused weakening her own connection to the moon and resulting in a few weeks of not being able to guide the moon chariot properly. Selene is now living alongside Eos and her consort Astraeus as the minor goddess of stars.

Quite interesting over all. And informative.

It did highlight a worrisome factor which I would have to research regarding things like divinities however and confirmed the possibilities I had in mind for Eresh too.

This factor was that divinities aren't just affected by a gods abilities and talents, but also by how the people who believe in them view things. As such it might explain why Zeus is such a shit father and husband if people always think of kings as lustful or at least promiscuous, while leaving many bastards behind.

Doesn't excuse the behavior since he could have helped curtail the problem and resisted this kind of behavior by setting his own ideals of kingship and enforcing them, but it might explain a few things.

After that interesting conversation, I thanked the god for the ride and even invited him to come see our musical and medical facilities if he was free. I feel like I was on my way to creating a divine vacation spot with the number of gods I keep inviting, but he did say he'd think about it before leaving myself, my wife and Mana, alongside the 'heroes' at the site of a destroyed town.

"Oh no." Sera quietly whispered as she sadly gazed onto the former town.

"Not even one corpse left. No Petrification marks either. But poison, claw and teeth marks are present. Dropped weapons, used arrows, blood stains, and a trail is visible." I neutrally said aloud as my 'sight' took in every inch of the town.

"Any clues on where this Gorgon is heading Nii-sama?" Mana asked seriously as she used her own techniques to get a feel for the situation. "I personally feel a lot of anger, hatred, despair and hunger from the north-east. That might be it."

"I would say north-east is right. About… 37km away." I replied casually as I felt the Gorgon itself now and found it to be of no threat to either of my girls, but it would be a significant threat to the heroes.

Seeing it however made me doubt the effectiveness of the means devils used to gather information. Gorgon is 10 meters (32ft 9inches) tall and near a 100 meters long. How in the world did they miss any evidence of this? I can see a ton of evidence of her size. The deep waving trail indicating a large serpentine presence, deadly poison to narrow possible suspects, the depth and width of the trail would allow for a certain amount of estimation of the size and weight of the suspect, and then you add the claw and bite marks to to finish off the most obvious bits to at least have a list of suspects. And if anyone had any sort of balls or brains, they could just follow the extremely obvious trail.

'This is pathetic. My guess is all those 'nobles' just found out that their members disappeared and were too scared to even investigate. Instead they nag, whined, complained and even harassed Serafall to do everything for them. I am going to need to build Sera an information network and talk to some 'important people' about how things actually work in the Underworld.' I thought in irritation.

Could you blame me?

A ten meter tall woman with a 100 meter long purple and green snake lower half, clawed reptilian with the same color scheme, extremely bodacious body with a toned midriff out in the open as some purple and gold armor covers the connecting area of her upper and lower body with some going up her side and cover her massive breasts. She also had extremely long purple hair with demonic snake heads at the ends dripping corrosive poison from their mouths, very pale skin with a light purple taint, a beautiful face which held gentle features twisted in rage, hunger madness, and a shining pair of amethysts colored eyes with rectangular pupils. (Fgo Gorgon without the weird wings.)

On top of that, she gave off a rather impressive amount of negative energy anyone with any kind of senjutsu training could pinpoint from the country next door, while her power-level stood at high Ultimate-class.

"I'm going!" Hercules suddenly declared as he used his strength to hulk jump… in the wrong direction.

'The idiot can't even tell which trail is fresher and jumped towards where Gorgon came from.' I thought in disbelief.

"Where is he going!? The monster is the other way!" The insect suddenly yelled out surprisingly.

'Who would have thought the weak fool would notice that.' I briefly thought.

"*Sigh* Hera give me strength." Murmured Diana said as she too knew the monster was the other way and now had to deal with the only person on her level bouncing away.

"What a complete moron." The witch simply commented.

"Why is no one going after him!?" Inse-Jason yelled at those present in distress.

"I will go. *Whistle*" Perseus declared as he put his hand under his mask and whistled loudly.

The two female heroes looked on with curiosity while the Golden fool was confused and still mildly freaking out.

That was until a distant figure in sky started to rapidly approached which made Diana get combat ready as a bronze shield and sword appeared in her hands and the witch took out a staff with a crescent moon in a circle at the top glowing with magic in readiness. Jason was standing there like an idiot.

"Fear not. He is my friend." Perseus calmly reassured with a light tone, causing both women to lower their guard moderately.

It turned out that the approaching being was a completely black Pegasus galloping in the sky as its mighty wings beat. Quite a fine specimen as well.

"This is Iskios (Shade), my friend and companion. He's been with me from birth." Perseus fondly exclaimed as he petted the happy looking pegasus which was nuzzling up to him.

"What a fine creature." Diana praised with honest eyes as she sheathed her blade.

"Can I touch him?" The witch bluntly asked as I felt quite an increase in desire from her.

"Later Lady Witch. I would not mind showing you all the Perseus family stables if you desired either." Was the answer as the masked young man mounted the pegasus in a smooth and well practiced manner, but the answer caused the witch to deflate.

"Thanks, but can't." She answered with some disappointment in her voice.

"I would much enjoy a grand sight of such noble beasts, but I doubt mother would permit such a visit." Diana replied almost boisterously.

"Unfortunate. I will return soon." Perseus responded as he took off in pursuit of the hopping muscle head.

"Why didn't you just bring him back Lith?" Serafall asked me curiously as she watched that scene happen.

"I was a bit stunned at the idiot going the wrong way so confidently and this is their Quest." I answered with a shrug.

"Fufu~ it was a surprise." Mana admitted mirthfully.

"Oh! Ok then." Sera simply said with a nod of understanding.

The three remaining heroes apparently heard that and it made the insect gape at us while the women were a bit curious since teleporting someone else from a distance is rather difficult or impossible for most people. Heck, I think Dimension Lost is one of the only sure ways of doing that.

It took a bit of time, but soon enough Perseus returned with his Pegasus and dismounted in front of us.

"He is on his way." He informed us as we could gradually hear the approaching landings and jumps until the muscled figure of Hercules landed in front of us with a completely serious face as if he hadn't just went the wrong way.

"Oh look, the idiot is back." The witch said rather mockingly.

"*Grrrrrr!*" Was somehow the only response as the large man glared at the smaller hooded woman.

"Now that we have all gathered again, time to hunt the beast!" Diana announced as she stepped in the middle of the other heroes with confidence.

"Ah? And who made you the boss of me Amazon?" Hercules challenged as he got into her face.

"And will you lead us brute? Your ancestor was the same as you from what I've witnessed and he was no leader either." Diana retorted as she did not even flinch from the overbearing man.

"I prefer the one with a brain." The witch interrupted with a small mocking grin on her lips.

"Why you!" An angry Hercules replied as his attention turned towards the hooded woman.

"And what of you Perseus?" Diana asked as this suddenly turned democratic.

"I have no intention of participating in this Quest, but I doubt many want a leader who jumps away from his team." Perseus carefully answered.

"This great gentleman does have a point my well muscled friend. The gods brought us together for a reason and a leader needs to understand how to communicate and direct his team." Jason added as he jumped in with a glittery aura as he swept his hand through his hair.

'Now I understand why such a weakling as the title Jason. He is a son of Aphrodite.' I thought as I felt his aura subconsciously calm the group and made them tolerate the weak idiot voicing his opinion.

"Hmph! Whatever." Hercules grumbled.

The witch on the other hand seemed to realize what just happened as well and her hostility towards the blonde ponce increased a lot.

"Then we shall set off together to slay the beast and stop more destruction and death from spreading to the innocent." Diana announced as she charismatically drew her blade in the direction of the trail.

"I've said this more than once, but I won't help kill her." Perseus stubbornly responded.

"Then don't." Jason hurriedly said as he approached the masked hero, "But just like the others, I am certain you would at least not desire the deaths of innocent people. As such you could protect or evacuate nearby towns and villages as the beast is targeting them."

Those words made Perseus hesitate a lot and think things through.

"Fine. I won't help you kill her, but I won't let her kill others." Perseus finally replied as he mounted his pegasus.

'Like I thought, a good guy. One with actual hero qualities. Probably the only here, with Diana being second but she seems to have a bit too much battle lust.' I thought as I observed them all.

Perseus went ahead to scout, while the remaining four began to make their way towards their target.

Jason had to be carried by Hercules as Diana and the Witch were able to either run or fly at great speeds, while we simply used our wings.

Our masked pegasus rider returned with rather dire news as he spotted the Gorgon approaching a new village, killing and eating any living being in her path. As a result the heroes picked up the pace significantly and Perseus went ahead to warn the people to evacuate.

Arriving quickly, they spotted the rather large form of the Gorgon as she slithered her way towards the village Perseus had mentioned with desire in her gaze. But then one of her hair serpents noticed the group and she immediately turned her head towards them as she now intensely focused on the heroes.

'Now that's an interesting decision. She focused on the smaller, but stronger humans over the larger population. Is it because hunger isn't her true motivation?' I thought as I began analyzing the Gorgon using all my observational and sensory skills and Magic's to understand exactly what this former Goddess in the making is.

She won't notice us until I allow her, hence why she hasn't looked up towards us.

The heroes realized that the Gorgon was going for them now and quickly decided to attack as Hercules dumped Jason and jumped towards the monstrous babe with a roar, while Diana burst forward with incredible speed as she held her shield at the ready and her blade positioned to parry or strike, the Witch began rapidly creating intricate magic circles and reinforcing at least Diana as small purple flashes appeared over the Amazon from time to time, and Jason was just kind of on the ground gaping at the giant Lamia.

The roaring Hercules was surprisingly not swatted out of the hair be the attacking snake heads as he somehow managed to punch or kick them in ways which allowed him to change his trajectory enough to dodge or simply blew them away. It wasn't until a few banded together that they were able to force Hercules into a straight forward clash and send him away.

It seemed that the hair snakes might have a degree of sentience as the Gorgon's eyes were on the approaching Diana, using her reptilian claws to strike, but the Amazon was using her swiftness to smoothly dodge each strike while focusing completely on her target's head.

Diana the managed to time the Gorgon's attack perfectly and jumped onto her receding arm to use it as a shortcut to her goal. The Gorgon used her other hand to try and swat her away, but it was dodged.

"Take this!" Diana yelled out as she began swinging her blade towards her targets neck, but unfortunately she focused too much on it and missed the great tail which smacked her off the Gorgon's shoulder and into the ground as she left a trail in the earth due to the rough landing.

"You ok princess!?" The Witch asked as dozens of magic circles glowed with power next to her.

"What a blunder." Diana responded as she stood from her small crater with a gash on her cheek where she was hit. "But worry not sister! We shall vanquish this beast."

"That's good. You attack again, I'll distract it." The Witch replied as the two nodded to each other.

The two burst into action as Diana moved forward with even greater speed than before and the Witch began a single person bombardement at the Gorgon using her dozens of magic circles to fire super-heated beams of purple light towards the giant snake woman.

In response the Gorgon's snakes opened their maws and fired beams of black and red magic towards the witch and Amazon, sometimes colliding with the magic of her targets and causing midair explosion, being dodged by Diana as she weaved through the beams or jumped over the exploding ground, and other time being deflected by the Witch's own defenses as some of the magic circles seemed to have been for defensive purposes.

Then out of nowhere Hercules came out like the Juggernaut and tackled the side of the Gorgon using his might, causing it to flinch from the impact as she was shoved sideways.

The snakes instinctively shifted their attention to him out of anger and prepared to fire beams at him, but the Witch had not decided to stay idle as she continued to fire her own magic at the Gorgon. The result was a pained and enraged roar as the Gorgon's eyes focused on the new source of her pain, opening her mouth and shooting a much larger beam towards the Witch.

"Tch." Was the only response as the witch slammed her staff into the ground and made a series of four grand magic circles appear between herself and the attack, causing a clash of magic power which tore through the first, slowed down after the second and stalled on the third.

Luckily for the Witch, Diana had managed to climb back up the Gorgon and decided to slice off some of her semi-sentient hair snakes with a righteous cry. As a result the Gorgon froze for a moment before energy erupted from her in great fury as she blew away Diana and Hercules who was still struggling as he attempted to force her to the ground.

The witch reacted swiftly, catching both of them before they got too far, realizing her chances without both of them weren't looking great.

"She's not happy with her haircut. Any ideas?" The witch asked as she began weaving various spells.

The trio could feel the great amount of power radiating off the Gorgon, as well as the malevolent presence it gave off. What only the witch noticed was the change in the snake woman's eyes as they began to give off a far more power than what she had used before.

In response I shifted us out of this layer of existence to make us out of reach of the fabled petrification even if we were all too strong for it to affect us.

"I'll give her more than a haircut." Hercules responded as he held out his hand and a massive weapon made of some kind of stone and shaped like something between a sword and an axe appeared.

The weapon radiated auras of carnage and slaughter as I could also feel a blessing of Ares on it.

"I should get one of those for Lomr." I commented at the sight of the unique weapon.

"I'm sure he would love it." Serafall responded as we both imagined the very emotional ice giant receiving something similar and bursting out in tears of happiness.

"I call forth the great armor of Hera!" Diana shouted out as Golden battle armor, shield and spear appeared, resulting in her own aura jumping up a few notches. (General pic)

'Divine craft and materials. Exquisite enchantments. A few blessings. Not bad at all.' I thought as I looked at the armor. 'That spear though, that things packs quite the punch for something a demigod can use.'

"Drink these before starting. They should protect you both from getting poisoned and at least help you resist her gaze." The Witch said as she threw them two potions each.

Trusting that she didn't want to die and had no reason to betray them, the two drank the potions and had disgusted faces afterwards as they mildly glared at her.

"Can't expect medicine to taste sweet." The hooded woman simply responded.

With a grunt and a nod, the two then turned back the Gorgon for round two and charged.

This time Diana had a rather obvious increase in performance as she went for low-mid ultimate in stats to low-high ultimate, while Hercules simply felt much deadlier with his own weapon as the two challenged the large snake woman once more.

It would seem that the Gorgon wasn't simply watching the trio ready themselves either as her snakes were now shooting out jets of corrosive acid mixed into the magic beams, while anywhere she gazed began to turn to stone, she unleashed magical slashes with her claws and started smashing her tail towards the two heroes.

It was a great show of skills for Diana and instincts for Hercules as the two dodged or deflected the Gorgon's attacks while closing in on her.

Seeing this, the hair snakes burst forward as half went on the offensive instead of just shooting at them, resulting in Hercules cleaving them or using them as stepping stone, while Diana channeled her energy into the spear and smoothly used its edge to cut through each one in her way in a spectacular display of spearmanship.

Nothing remotely close to Scáthach, but impressive nonetheless.

The two began a much more explosive fight as the continuously sliced, cleaved and pierced the snakes of the Gorgon as she seemed to produce as many as needed, while sometimes being pushed away due to having to block an attack head on. The potions of the Witch were working for now as well, neither getting poisoned nor petrified.

Now speaking of the Witch, she was focusing on support more than damage, casting protective and enchantement spells on the two while casting some forms of debuffs on the Gorgon. And although she couldn't do anything major due to the Gorgon's divinity, power and natural abilities in the field, she managed to fool her senses from time to time, causing her to attack in places no one was or distract her, halt her movements for a moment, make her snakes hit each other and other clever and well timed pieces of support as she kept herself out of the focus of the monster before them.

The trio even managed to start making their foe bleed, finding out that her blood spawned poisonous snakes or his simply corrosive wasn't great, but they could still handle that as they fought.

Jason, who they had all basically forgotten, was running away from them as he killed a few poisonous snakes from time to time when swinging his shiny blade like a pussy.

But they fell in into a rhythm as the group began to slowly whittle down the Gorgon, and although the heroes were getting tired and the two close range combatants had taken some hits, they were slowly but surely looking like they were going to win.

During their fight, I had the time to fully analyze the Gorgon too.

Turns out that Athena is more of a bitch than I realized as she didn't just corrupt Medusa's original divinity, she also ensured her madness, that she would consume her sisters and that she would be killed even if it wasn't by them. The bitch might think it was clever, but she almost created a second Trihexa because she wanted to ensure that even if she grew stronger than anticipated, other Pantheons would see her as a threat too and erase her for the Greeks. She basically tied her divinity with an aspect of madness and gluttony, making it so the Gorgon would always hunger and grow stronger through consuming others, but parts of their souls would remain within her, causing it to become an instinct driven mass of pieces of souls constantly eroding the original core of who Medusa was.

The really interesting part was that she didn't only have one source of divinity, she had three. Even after reforming. And not only that, the two were protecting the original as they did their best to ward off all then wailing souls, spending their own power in the process.

'What a powerful bond those three must have shared. And those bastards ruined it all for them.' I thought as I realized exactly who's divinities these were.

As I looked at the corrupted goddess with pity, I also noticed that one of her hair snakes had actually went down her back and stealthily made its way to the most vulnerable member of the party.

"Huh? Wha-ARGH!!!! HELP!!!!" Jason yelled desperately as the snake bit him, threw him in the air and then swallowed him whole.

The trio were momentarily distracted and slightly shocked over one of their members getting eaten just like that. Although they didn't exactly like him and he had been pretty much useless, he was still a chosen Hero like them. Too bad they didn't have much time to think about it as the Gorgon began attacking them with renewed vigor, while the Witch didn't seem to care at all.

'That's what insects deserve when they buzz around a battlefield they don't belong in.' I thought coldly at the fool you dared try to place his lips on a part of my wife in front of me.

Unfortunately for the remaining heroes however, the Gorgon didn't just get some energy back from eating the idiot, but also a power up as the giant snake woman pressured the trio more and more.

'So that's why she chose this group over an entire town and attacked devils. It also explains why no remains or signs of petrification were present. Higher caliber beings offer a bigger gain, which is rather obvious now that I care to think about it. That explains why she would prefer 4 people over a village full of them, because even though Jason was an ant, he was still a real demigod and a spiritual successor, thus much more nourishing than normal humans.' I thought neutrally as the Gorgon began pushing back.

"Should we help them?" Serafall asked with some worry.

"Not yet. There's already another on the way for that." I replied as Perseus appeared beside us on his pegasus.

"What happened? I suddenly felt her power increase." The masked rider asked with some nervousness.

"She ate that Jason and seemed to gain a nice little increase in power from it. I'm guessing that's why she decided to fight instead of keep moving towards the village." I answered the young man, "How is it over there by the way?"

"She ate Jason!?" The shocked hero yelled out, which earned a beam curtesy of the Gorgon that I simply bent around us.

"Indeed." I simply told him as I watched him with some slight interest.

'Now what will you do little hero?' I thought as the fight became more obviously in favor of the Gorgon and Perseus noticed.

He was hesitating.

He was conflicted between following his heart and the words and feelings of the original Perseus.

He then turned to me.

"Can they be saved?" He asked me in a serious tone of voice.

"Who? The heroes?" I asked him as I played dumb a bit.

"No. Jason and Medusa. Can they be saved?" He asked as he clarified.

"Jason no. His body has melted completely and his spirit joined that mess within her. Medusa on the other hand, I could save her." I answered with a bit of a lie since I could technically make Jason a new body and let whatever remains of his spirit heal in that, but that's not going to happen. "But why should I save her instead of simply killing? Although I pity her for what the gods have done to her, she is now a potential threat beyond what you know."

"If you save her then i will take you up on your offer and come under you alongside my family. That will include our businesses, connections and pegasi ranch." He seriously answered as I felt his nervousness.

"Now that's an interesting offer." I replied with a devilish smile as I felt rather pleased over getting someone with such potential.

Honestly I would have settle for just him, but to gain one of the oldest families in Greece and one that is already functioning well on its own is a pleasant bonus I will not reject.

So I took out a contract and edited it a bit to fit both our terms.

I simple terms: Perseus and his family would come under me, which includes all their assets, and in exchange I would save Medusa and ensure the future of their family's survival and prosperity.

Perseus read it and then followed the instruction by leaving a bloody thumb print at the bottom to seal the deal.

"Pleasure doing business with you Perseus. Now to begin with my end of the bargain before two other potential recruits lose their fight." I said as my wife had slightly amused smile at my antics while Mana just rolled her eyes a bit.

I descended in front of the heavily breathing witch with a small smile.

"Haa. Haa. Haa. Finally. Haa. Doing something?" She asked a bit sarcastically due to having been rather stressed since Jason was eaten.

"It wasn't my fight until someone made it my business." I answered as I pointed at the pegasus riding Perseus.

"He do something?" She questioned as she was mildly surprised at his presence.

"Yeah, signed a contract with a Devil to saved a damned soul." I answered with a smile at the irony.

"It better not be that bastard Jason." She said as she tightened her grip on her staff.

"Forget that insect. I've been asked to save Medusa." I told her casually as I began to walk towards the Gorgon.

"What!?!?" The witch asked as this didn't really click for her until I was farther away.

This would be rather simple and serve as a great means of testing Remnant.

'Eresh.' I thought as I sent a telepathic message to the goddess connected to me.

'Lith? How are you? Is anything wrong?' She sent back with some worry and happiness mixed in.

'Everything is fine, but you're going to receive an influx of souls in Remnant soon and I wanted to warn you. There might also be two divine spirits involved, and if the reach you i want them to be carefully taken, protected and maintained.' I told her as it would be a waste if Medusa's sisters simply vanished.

'Understood. I'm ready.' She confidently replied.

'Good. I'll come check up on things once I come back.' I responded as i kept the line open in case something happens.

Saving Medusa herself wouldn't exactly be a hard thing for me in all honesty. I was simply planning on 'freeing' all the souls and spirits within her to Remnant using my Longinus, then place a seal on Athena's handiwork and her memories until she fully lost herself. I was not exactly sure what the divinities of her sisters would do while this is happening, but they should help keep Medusa more stable. This wouldn't exactly be a struggle because i am immensely more powerful than both Medusa/Gorgon and Athena.

During my slow approach, Diana and Hercules were blasted back and landed nearby, allowing me to see the extent of the damages.

Hercules had bruises, burns, bite marks and scratches all over his body due to not wearing much in the first place, but not many wounds were severe or bleeding much. The real problem for him was that he had been poisoned even through the Witch's potions and some purplish vains were starting to become visible on his left arm and right leg.

Diana on the other hand had fewer wounds and no poison, but was physically and magically drained thanks to using a mix of both during her fight. She took fewer hits as well, but proved to be less durable than Hercules, now sporting a few cracked bones.

"What are you doing!?" She urgently asked as she noticed me nonchalantly approaching the foe they were failing to beat.

"Taking care of things. I received a good deal for it." I answered with a smirk as she continued to watch me walk forward.

The Gorgon on the other hand blasted beams from all her snakes and her own mouth, targeting myself, Diana and Hercules. But to the shock of Diana, the Witch and Perseus, the beams simply stopped coming closer about halfway to their targets.

"Is this the power of the gods?" An astonished Diana asked aloud to no one peculiar.

"They wish." I replied a bit cockily as I released some of my power and trapped the Gorgon in a space which was just above her skin level.

It was rather useful for trapping people as they simply had nowhere to go anymore.

"Hey! That's my prey!" Hercules yelled as he finally got out of his landing zone.

"Shut up you idiot! You can barely stay up and you'll die if you keep fighting! Just let him take care of things." The Witch yelled back as she approached the large man and began handing him potions to combat the poison he had contracted.

"Be a good boy." I dismissively said as I made him sit down and trapped his body bellow the neck so he could still drink the potions and the Witch could reach his head.

"Grah! You bastard! What did you do to me!? Hey! Don't ignore m-" He yelled until the Witch plugged his mouth with a potion.

Chuckling at the sight, I continued approaching my goal as my hands and feet turned metallic due to activating my balance breaker. I could see the rage, madness and hunger in the eyes of the Gorgon, as well as her struggling against my [Space]. Too bad it was useless as I floated up to her head and placed my hand on her forehead.

[Freedom and Bondage]

The instant I activated these abilities I also opened the channel to Remnant as thousands of souls began being funneled into it in the form of a light purple gas which came out of the rapidly shrinking Gorgon.

The formerly giant snake woman was also losing the snake parts as her hair stopped being alive, her hands became human again and her legs returned. That last bit was a bit of an oversight as she had no pants or underwear on, so I unintentionally got a fully view of a pristine goddess' garden until I hurriedly covered her in a cloak I kept in my storage space.

By the end of the funneling of souls and spirits, only the her sisters were left stubbornly protecting Medusa's own divinity, which was fine for now as they should be safe. Her physical appearance has returned to her true beautiful self, peacefully slept in my arms, her face no longer distorted by madness, demonstrating why Poseidon would covet her so much, and her skin turning into a much healthier color.

"What have you done to the Gorgon?" Diana asked in awe.

"Freed her from her curse. As I was requested." I answered with a satisfied smile over my acquisition of a new goddess.

"Is she no longer a threat?" The Amazon asked as she eyed the sleeping woman unconsciously clinging to me.

"No. Not anymore. Not as long as I am here." I softly answered as my own girls and the remaining Heroes approached.

"Are you bringing her with us?" Serafall asked even though she knew how I was.

"Yeah. Athena would do anything to kill her and I don't trust Poseidon to not have a repeat performance. Even Aphrodite is a threat since Jason was her child and she could convince Ares to help her easily, while Zeus might want a go at her too if Hera isn't paying attention. I'll prepare some compensation and if there's a problem then I'll handle it." I explained to her.

"That's ok. I'll help you with this one. She's suffered enough here and deserves a good home." She replied with determination as she too felt bad for the girl.

"What do we do now then?" Asked the Witch.

"Your Quest is over now that the Gorgon is gone. If anything I will compensate you three as well for your troubles if the Olympians decide to be as petty as usual." I answered as I honestly had far too many ressources to mind rewarding them for their efforts.

What followed was rather simple, I sent Medusa to Da Vinci with strict orders to make sure she is stable and for her to send me a notice when she stirs. I gave her an explanation of her situation so she could start right away. I also sent Eresh a request to check her soul, divinity and the divine spirits of Medusa's sisters once she was done handling the new souls in Remnant.

Then to some displeasure, I had us appear right outside of the entrance of Olympus and quickly guided back to the Grand Temple.

Boy was it a clusterfuck.

Athena wasn't happy when she learnt Medusa was still alive but didn't dare say anything with me here. Aphrodite was still rather terrified of me and only flinched slightly when hearing Jason was the only casualty. Most of the other gods were fine with getting rid of the actual problem without having to do anything themselves, while Ares and Artemis grumbled about not having been allowed to fight or hunt. And Poseidon was rather vocal about Perseus and his family coming under me in exchange for settling their ancestor and founder's regrets and because I offered a better future.

That last one also involved Zeus since the original Perseus was his son and the family was an important one in Greece, but I did state that they would serve as a liaison between House Azaroth and the Greek Pantheon, thus they would basically be part of both sides and everyone would benefit.

Ultimately the Heroes were rewarded for their efforts, although a smaller reward was given due to not technically having succeeded, and the Jason family would receive some compensations for the lost of their Jason. Hercules was seen by Apollon to make sure no poison remained in his system, while I had some more talks with Diana and the Witch I found out was titled the Witch of Betrayal due to holding the spirit of Medea, but most Greeks spit on that title and use it almost as a badge of shame, so she preferred just being called Witch at this point.

Diana was somewhat irked by not being able to truly complete the Quest, but she did personally prefer saving a wronged woman over glory, which raised my opinion of her a good deal while we confirmed my offers for trade and joint military exercises.

Meanwhile Medea seemed more displeased over the promised reward being reduced and requested a meeting in a few days to discuss some matters important to her which she said explains her desire to join a peerage. The hooded woman then teleported out of Olympus rather urgently.

I had already sent Perseus back to his family to discuss the deal we struck and told him that we would hold a proper meeting so everyone would understand what would happen from here on out as the family would become an associate/representative of House Azaroth.

As for Sera, Mana and myself, we stayed for a few more days to discuss some other issues between the Underworld and Olympus. The result was a probation on Zeus and Ares, while Artemis was banned from entering the Underworld until further notice or she paid proper reparations to the wounded parties.

We finally left Olympus a week after arriving, but I found it a fruitful trip overall.

I honestly asked myself if I should follow Serafall on more of her diplomatic trips since I had a good track record so far. Last time I made friends with the main Shinto gods, gained a mate and Good friends who happen to be the future leaders of Japan's youkai, and recruited a great peerage member and little sister. And now that I visit Olympus I secured an entire Hero family, made friends with the Queen and the godly blacksmith, while I became acquaintances with Apollon and Dionysus, obtained a new goddess, got a possible peerage member for Sera, another for me, and built some connections to the Amazons and possibly Antlantis.

But that was for later. For now I had to consolidate everything I had acquired and start getting things rolling.

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EXTRA AUTHOR NOTES:

Tadaa, conclusion of the Greece trip.

I didn't feel like stretching things out to another chapter so I shortened things up at the end there to save some pretty pointless conversations and to just repeat stuff.

The fight scene was basically based of FGO (Fate/GrandOrder) when Medusa/Gorgon/Tiamat fights a bunch of servants. I used her general fighting style of beams and snake hair, then added some more poison, tail work and claws.

Now as for all them characters that are going to be popping up again.

Perseus is on track to be Serafall's Knight as he would together with her as a Liaison to the Greeks and he is a good guy. He doesn't have a crush on her and the blushing in the past chapter was because he was embarrassed. His divine half will be unlocked, allowing him to become stronger much quicker.

Medea is on track to be a pawn. She just doesn't really have the raw power or scared gear for Lith to need to use anything more than this. She does have great potential in magic, and becoming a Devil will help that tremendously, but just being a pawn which can promote to Bishop or queen is more than enough for her. More information on her motives in the next chapter or the one after that.

Diana is actually my plan for Lith's second Knight piece. This is because although she is strong and durable, her combat style is much more focused on skill and speed while adding said strength to back it up. She isn't just straight up Wonder Woman due to having to fit in DxD, but I thought she would work well as a Knight which doesn't have the traditional weakness of poor durability and strength. She will also grow much stronger after unlocking her divine half. She was actually the one I had originally planned to be Lith's queen until Scáthach's abilities, knowledge and experience just knocked her down a peg and made me remove Brynhildr from the peerage.

Lastly we have Medusa. Due to being an actual goddess, even if she was corrupted and a young one, she will not be a peerage member. She will however hold a mix between Yasaka and Eresh's positions as a sort of familiar/bounded goddess. I am thinking personal maid as Fia became too busy being Head Maid to properly do so now.

Hope you enjoyed.