Chapter 60: World Jump?

"Here! Quickly Idiots!" Group of grunts and their leader escape with a girl that is wrapped like a mummy from head to toe but her purple long hair is still visible as the wrap is hastily made.

Meanwhile, behind them is hundreds more grunt covering the escape route of the group with the wrapped Gorgon. Then not even a minute later hundreds more grunts arrived from the east to reinforce the group. In total, almost half a thousand grunts assembled and blocked the streets to slow and hopefully halt the pursuers from stopping them from delivering the Gorgon to their big boss.

"Over here! The enemies sighted on the west!" Few leaders barked orders to coordinate the grunts to use the maze-like street to their advantage.

Meanwhile on Ray's side…

"It's frustrating that we can't just blast the street open and continue. Damn diplomatic rules…" Raynare grumbled and created small Light bullets in large numbers and bombarding the grunts using some kind of magic tools that create magic shields to block the attack. One or two isn't a problem but when dozens of them stack together, even a High Class like her struggle to take down the opponents.

Unlike Mittelt, Raynare control is rather sloppy since she is the type that prefers bigger and stronger attacks in favour of her big mana pool. Mittelt however is doing fine when creating smaller but powerful projectiles but she lacks the numbers. Her attack killed a few grunts but more replaced the fallen one immediately and she barely made a dent on their numbers.

"How much longer for the barrier, Roseweisse?" Ray asked as he waited for Roseweisse to create a barrier to force the humans to leave the city so they could fight without worrying about involving normal humans.

"Another minute!"

Ray then thought of an idea. He equipped Ladon MK VII before lifting both hands, facing his enemies to create a barrier to isolate the grunts under the barrier and create a path for them to move above the barrier.

Ray then dust both hands, satisfied with his handiwork until he saw a few of the girls glare at him.

"What?" Ray asked before checking himself if he looked weird but found nothing wrong.

"If you can do that." Raynare points at the barrier. "Do it immediately instead of making us waste energy and sanity to break through enemies under their turtle shells while being forced to hold back."

"It's not my fault you're weak." Ray whispered his verbal jab to Raynare behind his armor, thinking Raynare would hear him.

"What did you say?"

"Err, I mean I just recently obtained this armor. I'm still not skilled enough to the extent of like an extension of my body."

Raynare didn't look convinced but since they are short on time with their target fleeing from them, she let it pass for now.

They waited a bit longer for Roseweisse to finish casting her magic before they quickly chased after the Gorgon, Medusa. Although the girls suspect that this isn't the first time Ray sees Medusa considering how he seems to intimately know Medusa despite this being the first time he is seeing Medusa.

They quickly chase after the grunts by moving on top of the barrier that trapped the grunts. Since they are moving in a straight line instead of navigating the maze-like street, they reach the other end of the city very quickly while following Medusa's unique energy signature that feels divine like a goddess yet also closely resembles a monster, a mixture of both make her energy signature very unique and hard to forget.

The grunts carrying the Medusa are in sight and Roseweisse quickly jumps from the building, reinforcing her jump with magic before landing just in front of the grunts. Her sudden landing surprised the grunts to stop on their track and allow Ray to quickly deploy a barrier to encase the grunts to prevent escape.

Ray and the group arrived soon after from air, lifted by one of the girls as they travel through air by flying with their wings. Though Ray had to unequip his heavy armor, leaving only the gauntlet partially equipped to maintain the barrier that held the grunts with Medusa. The barrier on the city dissolved as just the gauntlet isn't enough to maintain such a big barrier that encases the city.

"Do we need them alive?"

"No, I doubt grunts will hold important information. Besides, we already get most of the information we need anyway." Hearing Ray's answer, they kill the rest of the grunts and recover the Medusa that is wrapped and chained with magic items that weaken the Gorgon.

"So, what next? We should move out of Greece quickly if we want to outrun them." Ravel said while pointing at the direction of the city, signalling that the grunts will catch up to them soon.

"Thank goodness I keep all our luggage in my inventory." Ray said in relief before nodding to Ravel. "We are leaving Greece. I plan to visit Romania since I have someone to meet over there."

"Is she the vampire, Krul Tepes?"

"Krul Tepes? Isn't she the recently emerged vampire progenitor? Do you know her, darling?" Ravel turns her head in shock to Ray after hearing the name from Mittelt.

"Yes. Anyway let's go quick! They're gonna catch up to us if we stay for another second." Ray said before ushered the group to quickly flee this country but before he could, two people appeared out of thin air which he suspected to be hiding using magic prior to his arrival. He was lured to a trap without even realising it while chasing after Medusa.

———

Few minutes ago,

"Done, all we need is to lure him here and we can attack him before he even realizes it's coming." Athena said while proudly looking at the magic she created. A barrier of sorts that causes her and Perseus to be invisible from the eyes of people outside the barrier by creating a pocket space to store them in but still can perceive the outside world.

Meanwhile, Perseus is relaying his orders to lead Ray here using Medusa which he and Athena noticed Ray is intent on chasing. He had no problems using it as bait for Ray.

"They are here!" Athena quickly informed Perseus.

Perseus took out the arrow and intended to use the arrow as javelin since it can change size with Athena's help. He takes aim and is about to throw at Ray when he is busy recovering the Gorgon but stopped by Athena when she extends her arm in front of Perseus' eyes to stop him from aiming.

"Not now, he is still in alert state. Wait until he lets down his guard before you strike." Athena whispered to Perseus who nodded to the goddess.

They waited for a few more minutes until when the group was relaxed and about to leave, then Athena gave her signal. The invisibility barrier wears off and he quickly lunges at the enlarged arrow before Athena giggled a bit and appeared before Ray after the arrow hit to allow the curse in Eros arrow imprint on Athena herself.

The women around Ray didn't have time to react at all when it happened. By the time they could react, it's already too late as the curse already ignited like a poisonous red and black flame that burned where the arrow hit.

With her godlike strength, Athena pulled Ray to her side before back stepped to Perseus then they got swallowed by a teleportation magic that casted instantly by Athena as she had authority over the territory of Greek mythology.

She appeared again in their temporary base which is the base Perseus used for his quest to search for the Gorgon.

"Hmn, weird. He isn't responding to my call when using, anyone cursed by the Arrow of Eros will immediately be enthralled by anyone who the person is imprinted to." Athena said when Ray became like a statue and didn't reply to her call.

"Could it be that he is resisting the curse?" Perseus offered his thoughts to the goddess which replied with a deadpan stare.

"Do you think I wouldn't account for that, boy?" Athena gaze dangerously at Perseus as he basically just insulted the Goddess of Wisdom.

"Ye- I mean no. No!" Perseus retreated a bit and bowed his head to ask for forgiveness after offended the goddess.

"Hmph, anyway. His body is too relaxed to be resisting the poison. It looks more likely that he cut off the flow of information from and to his brain to enter a coma-like state while still awake." Athena said while checking Ray's body and discovered it to be perfectly fine.

———

[User are under the effect 'Curse of Eros'. User minds are being corrupted by the curse.]

[Corruption is being stopped by allowing the AI to forcefully hijack the user's body using the implant to forcefully induce coma.]

After the two notifications appeared, no more notifications appeared. Ray was expecting some solutions but it seems like he is on his own now. Or at least that is what he thought when more notifications popped up.

[User can initiate world jump to break free from the imprint of individual 'Athena' and commit suicide to restore body and mind to normal state.]

[User can recall anyone with an implant even in the current state before initiating the world jump.]

Whew… at least he wouldn't worry about leaving his- Wait, Xenovia, Ravel and Roseweisse didn't have implant on them yet.

Ray immediately abandoned the idea and waited for more options to be presented but minutes had passed and nothing popped up yet. Until another suddenly appeared.

[Creator prepared a gift with a message attached.]

When the creator is mentioned, Ray immediately shudders. He thought the guy had already forgotten about him after he lived a long while without the mention of that person. Ray hesitates to accept any gift the creator has for him considering how everything went the last time he did.

Or, could it be that all this happened because of the creator! The creator of the system forced him into this situation so he had no option but to accept whatever the sick bastard throws at him.

[The system can assure, the creator has not interfered with the user's world to cause the present event.]

As if Ray would believe the system when it was created by the sick bastard himself. The system could be lying to him and sided with its own creator.

Ray has doubts but what can he do when he is trapped in this state. Trapped in the implant without anything he could do. Waking up from a coma means he will be enthralled by the curse. He could only stay in this state.

He could try to summon his exoskeleton and control it via his implant but if his captor, Athena is nearby, his exoskeleton will be overpowered instantly.

[The system recommended the user to accept the gift and message from the creator.]

Fine, I'll accept it.

[Extracted]

[Do users want to play the voice recording of the creator's message?]

Do it already.

[Playing…]

"Du.. DuDu. Du. DuDu.

We're no strangers to love,

You know the rules and so-"

"Joke a side, hello again Ray-6768-3 or would you rather be called as test subject 6768-3?"

Ray couldn't understand the joke but being called with a weird name then as test subject immediately made him want to beat the shit out of the being that did it to him though he knew it was a wistful thinking with his current strength.

"However, Eros huh… You isn't the first RAY to be fucked by Eros and certainly isn't the last one. I wonder if this is simply the working of fate. Regardless, you now find yourself in a bit of a pickle aren't you?"

Ray couldn't see the facial expression of the creator since it's a voice recording but he can at least hear the amusement in the voice of the creator.

"So, what I have is a deal for you, my dear test subject. In the gift are two pills. Red one will give you the solution to your predicament but that's it and it comes with a tiny 'little' side effect of losing your mind to madness but I can assure you it's temporary. The blue one though is the same as above with permanent power up instead of temporary. However you must fight against the husk of the hero Heracles for the ownership of the power."

"Now, with the deal laid in front of you. Choose your options and entertain me, my test subject."

Then the creator stopped talking but the recording still went on for a bit more. Ray simply waited if there was any surprise in the end.

"That idiot got rick rolled but didn't understand it. What a waste of a good meme. *Sigh* Ellen dear, fetch me some popcorn and Dr Pepper please!"

"Take it yourself, you lazybones, the fridge is literally a few steps behind you. Maybe I should tell Kurumi where you are hiding from her?"

"Please don't, mama! I don't wanna do paperwork again, mama! Those things are the creation of evil."

"Stop hugging my leg, I get it already. I will not tell Kurumi."

"You are the best, Ellen *kiss*."

"Always lazing around and mess around with your ####. Why am I even doing this, pampering this man child. Besides, I'm your wife, not your mother or maid. *Sigh* What kind of emperor holes up in his basement like a shut-in and throws all his work to his wives."

"The whole room is a mess again… Hmn, the recording is still going. How careless he is-"

Only then the recording ended. The image of the almighty god or higher being he had for the creator vanished instantly after the latter part. Ray decided to not care about it and focus on solving his current predicament.

Ray didn't give a lengthy thought, why have it temporarily when he can get it permanently. The condition had been laid very transparently. Red pill he gets it temporarily just to solve his problem and no need for a boss fight but blue one is permanent power up only if he wins the boss fight.

If a month before, Ray might hesitate but with Ladon MK VII, he is confident to win. Besides, the creator didn't ban any equipment which means the armor is fair game.

Ray opens the gift and takes the blue pill before swallowing it immediately. Then the environment changed immediately. Here, he now has his body instead of just his consciousness. In front of him is a behemoth of a man with charcoal black skin, protrusion on his limb joints and massive sword made of sharpened stone slab.

Looking above the behemoth of a man, Heracles. Ray saw twelve HP bars stacked on top of each other, then the name Heracles below the golden symbol of a ram head.

"▂▂▃▃▄▄▅▅" The berserker howled before pulling out the stone slab sword from the ground and used shunshin jut- No, it just moved in extremely fast speed that it look like the berserker teleported in front of Ray and smashed the stone slab sword on his face like a watermelon smashed by a sledgehammer.

Definitely not a pleasant first death for Ray. But he has another 11 lives to go.

Meanwhile a man child shut-in emperor is laughing hard while choking on the popcorn and then scolded by his wife for being loud and messy while she is trying to clean up his room.

—————

Yay, chapter 60! Another small milestone passed.

Sorry for the baiting title. Lmao I have a bad habit of world jumping my mc just to run from problems. I wonder who gave up reading the chapter after seeing the title.🤔

Also, if anyone still hasn't guessed it, the creator is Ray Elliot from Ray Multiverse fic. The Ray after he become Emperor of the multiverse and decided to spend his escapades from his paperworks to fuck up his other counterparts or RAYS just for his entertainment but he will give them power to at least survive than straight up slaughtered. The ultimate antagonist of type RAYS and many had tried to rebel against Ray Elliot but failed because he is too strong, literally when he can condense suns and use it like danmaku or throwing black holes around like candies.