At the entrance of the temple.
"...Huh?"
Torkel voiced his confusion.
Wrapped in bandages all over his leprosy-stricken body and wearing a helmet to cover his face, he was driving a carriage.
He had just returned from a trip to the eastern port city on an errand for medicine. But somehow, the atmosphere was very different from when he had left.
'What happened...?'
Blinking his eyes inside the helmet, Torkel stopped the carriage and entered the temple.
The inside of the temple was empty, and the few remaining people were hurriedly gathering their belongings and leaving. Torkel was perplexed, not understanding the situation.
"What is this..."
"Ah, Torkel! You're back!"
Then Zenis came out from inside the temple, waving his hand.
His hair greasy with oil and a scruffy beard as if he hadn't washed properly for days.
Torkel gestured around and asked.
"I just got back... But what's going on?"
"Oh, didn't you hear? A monstrous beast is coming, a terribly dangerous one. That's why they are evacuating the temple, leaving only a minimal staff, and sending everyone else outside the city."
"Why evacuate everyone and leave minimal staff in the temple?"
"Lilly is in labor."
Torkel's jaw dropped. Lilly had started giving birth in the few days he was away.
"So, Lilly can't evacuate...?"
"She can't. It's a terribly difficult birth... Ugh, see how I look? I'm helping her and I'm in this state, imagine how Lilly must be?"
Zenis waved his hands dismissively.
"She's covered in sweat, evacuation is out of the question."
"If an evacuation order was issued, it means it's not just any beast attacking. Is the High Priest staying?"
"Of course, how can the priest in charge leave when the mother is here? Talk sense."
Zenis grumbled and gestured towards the barracks.
"Torkel, what about you?"
"Of course... I'll stay."
Torkel clenched his fist and looked around the temple.
"I will make sure that the footsteps of the beast never touch this temple again."
"..."
"I am, after all, responsible for the rear guard of this front line."
Regret was deeply embedded in Torkel's voice.
Listening quietly, Zenis pointed towards the barracks.
"By the way, Captain Lucas was looking for you, go and report to him. They seem to be having a strategy meeting for the defense battle."
"Yes. Then."
Torkel bowed his head in concern and glanced worriedly inside the temple before turning and running towards the barracks.
"...Well, then."
Watching him, Zenis, drenched in sweat, pushed his hair back and stretched, then turned towards the temple.
"Let's continue our own war here...!"
***
When Torkel arrived at the barracks, Lucas was standing at the entrance of the central meeting room.
"Captain Lucas!"
"Ah, Torkel."
Lucas's face brightened upon spotting Torkel.
"Just in time. We were about to start the strategy meeting. This way."
As Torkel awkwardly entered the meeting room, there were all the heroes who remained on the monster front.
The heroes who had fought several battles together, the new heroes who had just been formed and looked visibly tense.
And...
"...?"
In a corner, sitting together and laughing wickedly, five thugs who didn't look like good people at all.
The Blacklist Five from the Crossroad Hotel Casino, also present in the meeting room.
Having recovered their pawned weapons, they looked dangerously triumphant.
"Keke, just participating in one battle, how many gold coins...?"
"And if we behead the monster, it's ten times those coins, right?"
"With that kind of capital, we could clean out the casino here!"
"Just clean them out? Let's just take over the place!"
"Huff, huff, I want to recklessly squander the money I risked my life for...! Hurry...!"
Unknowingly, Torkel found himself sitting far away from these rascals. They were the type of people he definitely did not want to associate with.
"Everyone's here."
Stepping up to the front of the conference table, Lucas began to speak.
"I'm Lucas McGregor, acting commander of the southern front. We'll start the strategy meeting now."
Without further ado, Lucas tapped the chalkboard with his stick.
"In half a day, tomorrow morning... the monstrous legion we're defending against will reach the walls. Some of you may have heard already, but this legion consists of a few elite led by three superior monsters."
The mood in the meeting room turned cold with Lucas's words.
"The Gorgon sisters."
One of the heroes from the Blacklist Five laughed heartily.
"Puhahaha! Gorgons? Those creatures from fairy tales that turn everything to stone just by looking at them?"
"..."
"Such legendary monsters are attacking us? Stop joking around!"
"Does this sound like a joke to you?"
Lucas growled.
"The whole city is evacuating, all soldiers are on wartime alert at the walls... And above all, we need trash like you, does this situation seem like a joke?"
The hero, who started hiccupping unintentionally under Lucas's menacing presence, stuttered in his question.
"Re-really, the Gorgon sisters? Those from the legends?"
"Yes."
"The petrifying beasts that reigned over the Archipelago of Sunken Ships for centuries?"
"There are many stories related to them. Seems like they all refer to the same entities."
A deep and uncomfortable silence enveloped the meeting room.
Realizing the seriousness of the situation, the thugs from the Blacklist stood up in a hurry.
"...I-I'm out. I'm backing out!"
"I came here to earn gold, not to commit suicide...!"
"How are we supposed to fight mythical monsters like Gorgons?!"
That's when it happened.
Swoosh!
Lucas drew a blade of light and pointed it at their throats.
"You've already signed a contract to participate in this defense."
Lucas declared coldly, his face devoid of warmth.
"In other words, you are soldiers of the southern front until the end of this defense, and your life and death are in the hands of me, the acting commander."
"..."
"Desertion is punishable by death under imperial military law. So sit down, mercenary."
Despite their pride, the Blacklist Five were no match for the aura Lucas exuded.
Lucas, who had grown stronger fighting mythical beasts at the front for the last two years, had a spirit not to be overcome by thugs who wasted their lives addicted to gambling.
"Sit down!"
"Ugh...!"
The hierarchy was established with mere presence.
The Blacklist Five, grinding their teeth, reluctantly sat down.
After settling the situation with his commanding presence, Lucas sheathed his sword and changed his tone to a gentler one.
"And don't worry too much. I'm not planning to send you on a suicide mission to fight the Gorgons head-on."
"What?"
"Our current forces are too risky to take them on in a direct confrontation. It's better to think of other strategies."
"Then...?"
Lucas nodded his head and pointed to the chalkboard with his stick.
"The strategy we'll use in this defense is..."
And he mentioned the plan left by Ash.
"'Tag.'"
***
"Sigh, huff, ugh..."
Lying on the bed with a pale, exhausted face, Lilly bit her tattered lips.
Even though her lower body had long been useless, the agony of childbirth spread unbearably. Clutching her blood-soaked clothes, Lilly gasped out in a hoarse voice.
"...I won't die."
Having hovered between life and death several times, Lilly's eyes still held a strong will.
"I promised him."
The man she loved.
But now, remembering the face of the man who would not return.
"I will live."
Drawing a breath, Lilly looked down at her swollen belly.
"Mother will definitely survive..."
With a pale face trembling, Lilly tried to smile.
"Don't give up, baby..."
Even as the monsters drew closer every moment, the priests and midwives who stayed in the temple to help Lilly worked tirelessly through the night to assist with her delivery.
And...
As the long night passed, the sun rose uncaringly bright.
***
On a chilly early winter morning with dry sunlight pouring down.
Thud... Thud... Thud...
The heavy movement echoed as the three Gorgon sisters entered the vast plain.
Among them, Euryale could fly, but not for extended periods.
Therefore, having walked the final stretch in front of the enemy's fortress... they finally arrived at the human's front yard.
At last, the southern walls of Crossroad came into view.
In the front, the first sister, Stheno, and the second, Euryale, still had vacant, mindless expressions, but a smile flickered across Medusa's face.
"The walk was a bit long, sisters. But we've made it."
The walls seemed solid, but that was it.
Medusa was confident that with the power of her and her sisters, no matter how long it took, they could eventually subdue the enemies.
"Let's break through these defenses, then go back to that damned White Night, the Lich, and ask how to lift your curse."
Medusa jingled the chains around her sisters' necks and sneered bitterly.
"...Even without salvation, it doesn't matter."
Medusa wiped the drool from the corners of her two sisters' gaping mouths.
"Even if what that White Night said was a lie, it's okay. We can just return to our hideout and hibernate through the winter again."
Yes, that would be enough.
What use is salvation? Why is it so necessary for her sisters to regain their sanity?
Living together as three is more precious...
As Medusa was thinking this.
"Huh?"
Sssssshhhhh-!
She heard something flying from afar. Medusa looked in that direction.
The sky darkened as if covered - something filled the sky and fell towards them.
Shells.
It was a barrage from the human side's walls. An overwhelming number of shells momentarily blocked the sunlight, casting shadows.
"...Hah."
Looking up at the cluster of shells, Medusa smirked with a wide grin.
"Really, times change, places change, but why do humans always do the same thing?"
Kiiiiing!
Medusa's eyes emitted a chilling yellow flash.
"And always so foolishly...!"
A sharp yellow magical light exploded, sending a powerful wave of magic forward.
Whooosh!
And then - they turned to stone.
The shells raining from the sky, all turned into stone in mid-air.
"Now, sisters, it's your turn."
Medusa then tightly gripped the chains around her sisters' necks and, infusing them with magic, commanded them. Then,
Kiiieeek!
Kyaaaah-!
Stheno and Euryale emitted sonic waves from their mouths, targeting the falling stones.
Thump! Thud...
The shower of petrified shells, pushed away or shattered by the sonic waves, could not even come close to the sisters and fell harmlessly to the ground, breaking into pieces.
Amidst this rain of stone, Medusa suddenly hummed a song in her native tongue.
Φρίξον ήλιε, στέναξον γη
The sun burns, and the earth laments
Εάλω ή πόλη!
The city has fallen!
Εάλω η πόλη!
The city has fallen!
After finishing the short song, the face of the monster was etched with wicked joy.
"Let's go, sister Stheno! Sister Euryale!"
With a burst!
Under the pouring sunlight, kicking off the ground.
Gracefully like children frolicking in a field.
"Let's rampage for the first time in ages! Like in those old days when we were in our prime!"
As they had always done throughout their lives, to kill every human in sight.
The three Gorgon sisters started racing towards the walls of Crossroad.
--TL Notes--
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