Chapter 25: Theseus and The Minotaur, 1240 BCE (3)

[3rd POV]

Theseus is brave. But he's not 'fighting a monster five times larger than you' brave. So right now, he's scared. Really scared.

His now lover, Ariadne, had given him a map and a ball of wool. She said to use the map to traverse the labyrinth, and use the strings of wool to make a track, so he could exit the labyrinth afterwards.

The girl seems to put a lot of faith in him. She begged him to bring her with him, her justification? 'Father would kill me if he knew that I helped you kill the monster'... as if he could kill the monster alone..

The mysterious man Pluto gave him a weapon that he said could kill the beast, but he still has some doubt whether or not he could kill it, he's a normal human after all…

He stared at the labyrinth entrance in front of him, scared at the prospect of the future.

"Theo!" someone suddenly shouted from the side of him, making him wake up from his thinking.

"Huh?"

"Are you okay?" said the voice, and it turns out to be Ariadne.

"Y-Yeah… I'm okay…"

Ariadne just nods nervously. "Remember, use the wool, so you can go back."

"O-Okay…"

Theseus then gulped loudly, then, he slowly walked towards the entrance, leaving the nervous Ariadne behind.

Theseus entered the dark and damp labyrinth, holding the bident that Pluto gave him. There was no sound at all, only the smell of piss and blood permeated the labyrinth.

He opened the map, and used the abnormally glowing bident as a light source. He studied the map over and over again. Making sure that he's in the right way.

And he followed the map, traversing the dark labyrinth slowly but surely. As time went by and as Theseus slowly got closer to the beast, he felt that the labyrinth was shaking, and he heard roars from the inside of the labyrinth, which made him scared even more.

And now, he was in front of the room that stored the minotaur. The walls shook uncontrollably, roars echoed throughout the place.

Theseus took a deep breath, and entered the room.

There he saw it. 5 meters tall, eyes as red as blood, its breath is so thick that Theseus could see the mist coming out of its nose, and its horns look bloodied.

Once the minotaur saw Theseus, the minotaur roared once again, it roared so loudly that Theseus had to close his ears so it wouldn't bleed, and he closed his eyes as well for good measure.

Once the roar was over, Theseus opened his eyes, and saw that the beast was charging at him, horns first.

Theseus panicked, and he raised the bident that was in his hand, and braced.

The beast then almost hit him, but the bident protected him from sudden death, as the monster's head was now stabbed with the bident, as it charged head on to it.

Even though he didn't die, he still got thrown away by the impact of the charge, and his body hit the wall, probably breaking a couple of bones.

He groaned in pain, but once he saw that the minotaur was wailing from the head wound, he internally rejoiced.

"I- I did it!" He celebrated. But the celebration was cut short, when the minotaur suddenly shouted.

"ASTERION. WANTS. BLOOD!" roared the minotaur loudly, making Theseus's ears bleed as he didn't have enough time to cover it up.

"I-It can talk!?" Theseus freaked out. The minotaur then grabbed the nearest object that it can throw, which was a club that the king probably made for the monster, and the monster threw it to Theseus, making the boy piss himself.

"I-I'm going to die!" he shrieked, fearing for his life.

But before the club could hit him, he already passed out from the fear. As the club neared the boy, something suddenly appeared in front of the boy, blocking the club so it didn't hit him…

"So much for a hero…" that 'something' murmured.

[1st POV, Pluto]

When Theseus passed out, I stepped in and expanded myself. I then kicked the club away from the boy, making the club slammed to the wall.

When the minotaur saw me, it roared more loudly, as if he knew who I was.

"Calm down." I said. "Asterion is it?"

"KILLER! ASTERION WANT KILLER'S BLOOD!" the minotaur shouted angrily.

"Boy… you weren't kidding when you said he's barely sentient." I murmured. Then, a golden construct appeared before me, it was Idemnon, attempting to talk to the giant beast.

"Asterion, listen to me." said Idemnon. "It is of no use, you will join us, one way or another."

"NO! ASTERION MUST KILL THE KILLER!" Asterion growled, he then charged at me, wanting to impale me using his horns.

I let Hydra possess me, its nine heads appeared from my back, and before it could hit me, the hydra's heads bit Asterion's joints, so the beast cannot move.

"RELEASE ASTERION! ASTERION WILL KILL YOU!" The beast struggled to break free, trying to hit me.

The heads then release their acid, and the beast screams like a bitch.

"Calm yourself down Asterion," said Idemnon. "It will all be over soon."

Asterion growled at Idemnon. "TRAITOR! ASTERION WILL NOT SPEAK TO YOU!"

Idemnon just stood there silently, emotionless. "It's useless to make him join willingly, just do it." he said.

"What did I tell you Idemnon, they never will."

"They just didn't know how it feels yet." murmured Idemnon. "Go on."

I hummed. I grabbed his neck, and stared into the red eyes of Asterion, and I used Fluffy's deadly stare to absorb its energy. Asterion continued to struggle as I absorbed his energy slowly, and slowly but surely, it's body wither away, and Asterion became one with me…

"Strength depending on rage? Suitable for a beast like him I guess…" I murmured.

"ASTERION IS NOT A BEAST!" shouted someone inside my head.

"Yeah, yeah whatever…" I rolled my eyes as Idemnon entered me again. "You guys talk for a while, I need to deal with the boy…" I said as I looked at the unconscious boy, the smell of piss was around him…

I sighed. I am not going to carry him…

---

After that mess, I dragged Theseus's body using the Hydra's head, and we got out of the labyrinth, where Ariadne waited.

"W-What happened to him?!" she shrieked as she saw me dragging him.

"He defeated the minotaur." I lied as I threw the Minotaur's head to her, making her gasp. "But he was so tired that he passed out."

"Then that's great!" she joyed, but then she turned to me. "But how come you enter the labyrinth without me seeing it?" Ariadne asked suspiciously.

"Doesn't matter." I shrugged. "You want to carry him? I'd rather not carry him, he smells of piss."

"Piss? Why piss?"

"Normal reaction." I shrugged. "Let's go, the boats are waiting."

We then walked towards the boats, but I let Ariadne and the unconscious Theseus go there first, as I wanted to drop the Minotaur's head in front of King Minos's palace.

After that, I went to the boats, and saw that the people were already preparing to leave.

"You're the last one." Gil grinned at me. "We almost left you."

I shrugged. "I can fly, it's useless to leave me here."

"True." he laughed, and he helped the others to open the sail, and finally, we left the island in the darkness.

We then heard the sound of horns from the island, probably the king noticed that I left the Minotaur's head in front of his palace, that or because his daughter's missing.

The sounds of horn woke up Theseus, and when he woke up, the people cheered of joy at their 'hero'.

"W-What happened?" he was confused.

"You killed the beast Theo!" Ariadne shrieked of happiness.

"I-I did?"

"Yeah, Pluto told us."

He then turned to me. "I did?"

I shrugged. "Whatever you believe in, boy."

"Y-Yeah… I did… I did!" The boy then cheered, and the rest followed. And the rest of the Athenians gathered around him, asking him of his fight…

"Why did you lie?" Kingo questioned me in the corner of the boat.

"Don't want to attract more attention." I shrugged. "King Minos will probably hunt us down now because of the non-existent fleece… I'm not saying that we should not do this sort of thing anymore, but let's do less of it…"

"But we just can't help it…" Kingo laughed. "It's fun."

"Yes, yes it is fun."

We then saw that Theseus turned from the boy that slept on his own piss, to a good story teller… he made up his fight to the masses, building more lies.

I sighed. "I'm starting to regret that I lied now…"

Kingo laughed once again and said, "It's probably not a big deal." He then left, talking to the other eternals.

"It's definitely a big deal Kingo… you'll see…" I shook my head in amusement as I looked at Crete one last time.