The Villain of Ancient Greece

On the boundless sea surface, the tide belonging to beasts receded, and the counterattack of humankind began.

Seeing the tide turn and sensing danger from all directions, the Siren Sisters didn’t bother calming the chaotic beast tide around them.

Instead, they stirred the divinity and divine blood within their bodies and let out a high-pitched song toward the sky, summoning their personal troops.

”Laaaa!!!”

One by one, the siren harpies with human faces and bird bodies responded to the command.

They turned back without hesitation and gathered in the airspace around the Siren Sisters, rushing to guard their monarchs—the source of their bloodline.

”Enemy! Enemy!”

”Alert!”

”Protect!”

Amidst the noisy screeches, the siren harpies that had already locked on to their targets in the air beat their wings and flocked toward the dozens of Minosian warships cutting through the beast tide.

Under the agitation of these divine-blooded kin, the winds howled violently, and towering waves pounded against the bows.

However, the bows of the Minosian warships, uniformly adorned with oak-carved, enchantment-inscribed goddess head statues, radiated divine brilliance, holding firm against the storm, allowing the ships to press forward steadily.

Besides being the goddess of wisdom, craftsmanship, and war, Athena was also said to be the first to teach humans shipbuilding.

Hence, she held dominion over maritime navigation and protection.

Yet, the goddess statues aboard the Minosian ships were still merely lifeless figures endowed with spiritual intent.

Most had only endured maritime skirmishes with other city-states.

Faced with the extreme weather stirred up by a large flock of siren harpies, the mortal-made warships began to struggle.

The glow of the goddess’ emblem dimmed under pressure, and creaks echoed from the straining deck boards.

Gradually, the fleet’s advance began to slow.

”Devour them!”

”Devour them!”

”Devour them all!”

Seeing the fleet bogged down, with the divine protection nearing collapse, the siren harpies in the sky revealed their ferocity and dove down in swarms toward the ships.

They bared their sharp talons, aiming to tear the sails, snap the wooden masts, and rip open the chests of the enemies on deck.

”Five-section ritual spell, ready—cover the fleet’s maneuvering!”

Atop the fortress walls, Princess Ariadne, who had been entrusted with the golden scepter by King Minos before his departure, stepped up decisively to take over the frontline command in place of the crown prince.

As one of the few core members aware of the plan, the high priestess who remained on the island was tasked with emergency response during crises.

After all, while Crete currently stood as the leading power in the Mediterranean with over a dozen demigods, their strengths varied.

Only four could truly be considered top-tier: King Minos, Lorne, Little Medusa, and the high priestess Ariadne herself.

Along with the bronze giant Talos, who was King Minos’s hidden trump card, the high-level combatants who could impact the battlefield along the coast numbered no more than five.

Thus, with the tides of war shifting, each of them had a role to fulfill.

At this moment, the priests and priestesses, who had taken potions during the lull and recovered some strength, followed the high priestess’s command.

They stood up, raised their hands, and chanted ancient hymns.

The choral sanctified chants gathered in the air, transforming into golden streams of light.

At the center, Princess Ariadne raised her winged scepter and swept it forward with a powerful gesture.

In an instant, hundreds of tawny-winged owls emerged from the stream of light above the fortress, flapping their wings with crisp cries, tearing through the clouds, and diving toward the sea.

Violent winds surged from the island to the sea, swelling the warships’ sails to full capacity, accelerating their speed.

At the same time, the owls born of light soared past the fleet, raised their sharp talons, opened their hardened beaks, and lunged at the obstructing siren harpies.

As birds of prey, owls were symbols of wisdom and sacred creatures of the goddess Athena.

They served in the light’s presence and guarded the borders of night, tasked with hunting filth and delivering victory.

Accompanied by the crisp, cold cries of birds and the pained, furious screams of women, golden and black feathers rained from the sky, like petals lining the triumphant path of returning heroes.

With the Siren Sisters’ personal troops intercepted and the sea route cleared, King Minos leapt onto the deck, joined the divine-blooded guards, and used the ship as a platform to adjust his breathing, restore his mana, and await the final engagement.

At that moment, several hundred meters away, Lorne narrowed his eyes toward a turbulent, multicolored undercurrent to the left of the bow.

There was something there!

He immediately drew his longbow, pulled the string to its full extent, and fired a golden arrow charged with power.

”Buzz!”

Amid a faint rumble of thunder, the golden streak of light shot forth in an instant, exploding into a burst of golden-red blood underwater.

Immediately after, the mutilated corpse of a demigod-class Lamia, with only half its body remaining, floated to the surface, then was crushed into pulp by a passing warship.

At once, the hundreds of Lamias gathered in the surrounding waters, upon witnessing the fate of their newly appointed leader, let out terrified screeches and scattered like panicked birds and beasts.

Only this much capability?

Standing at the bow, Minos finished his pre-battle breath adjustment and opened his golden eyes.

A chilling, resolute smile rose on his aged face as he gripped his bronze spear and roared forward:

”Abandon defense, full speed ahead! Watch me slaughter them!”

The highly-trained divine-blooded Royal Guard, upon hearing the king’s order, didn’t hesitate.

They immediately cut off energy supply to the ship’s defensive spells and fully activated the acceleration magic arrays.

In an instant, dozens of warships glowing with radiant sigils charged forward like lions into a flock of sheep.

They plowed bloody and dismembered paths through the chaotic beast tide, heading straight toward the Siren Sisters at the core.

As the fleet neared the center of the beast tide, even from behind, Lorne could already see the fear and twisted horror on the faces of the Siren Sisters.

Too reckless!

Looking at King Minos, who was itching for a decisive battle at the front, Lorne’s unease only grew and he instinctively scanned the battlefield around him.

At that moment, on the beach of Crete, the bronze giant Talos was pounding the Great Whirlpool Charybdis, without mercy;

To the rear-left on the vast sea, the gorgon Little Medusa was locked in fierce combat with the six-headed, twelve-legged Scylla.

With her exceptional talent and Athena’s gifted Bronze Serpent Armor, she firmly held the upper hand, slowly wearing down the sea monster’s divinity and life force;

Atop the fortress wall, Princess Ariadne, who in charge of rear support, continued chanting the next round of grand ritual incantations.

Repeatedly invoking Athena’s name, she joined forces with the temple’s priesthood to suppress and weaken the Siren Sisters’ divine oceanic authority;

Not far off, the original Lamia, whose heart had been pierced, hung pitifully against the wall...

Lorne turned his gaze again toward the nearly collapsed divine-blooded kin nearby, unable to form effective resistance, and the completely chaotic beast tide around and his mind came to a clear conclusion.

Things were progressing smoothly.

Everything was heading in a favorable direction.

But…

It all seemed too smooth.

Lorne frowned deeply and quietly pulled back a bit further, thoughts racing in his mind.

Ask himself honestly, if he were Poseidon, constantly scheming to seize Crete—

Then before breaking all pretenses, he would definitely have thoroughly investigated the Minosians’ actual strength and deployment.

The more detailed, the better!

And King Minos, as the ruler of Crete and an old rival of Poseidon, would no doubt have been a key target of interest.

With Zeus’s ambiguous attitude, any trump cards Minos might hold would likely not be secrets to Poseidon, who had long been plotting.

Right now, the only true wildcards, true variables, were Lorne himself and Little Medusa, two unexpected demigods.

So what if… those variables were removed from the battlefield?

Six top-tier demigod sea monsters against Minos, Princess Ariadne, who were both demigods of comparable level, and the godlike bronze giant Talos.

Six versus three.

On the surface, the advantage was clear.

But the problem was, Poseidon, after planning for so long, wasn’t aiming for a mere advantage.

He wanted a guaranteed victory.

Moreover, as the son of Zeus and Europa, and future chief of the three judges of the Underworld, King Minos along with Talos had already surpassed the level of beings that mere demigods could hope to defeat.

For the Sea Temple to end this in one final stroke, six top-tier sea monster demigods wouldn’t be enough.

Unless...

Lorne looked at the beast tide that did not swim back to the inland sea even though it was defeated, but still violated its survival instinct, and a thunder sounded in his mind.

Suddenly, he realized a decisive factor that Poseidon might be preparing to use.

His expression changed drastically as he jerked backward, yanked the bird-feather pendant on his chest that enabled long-distance transmission, and shouted into the activated glyphs:

”Retreat immediately! A god—!”

”A god might be joining the battle from their side!”

At the same time, standing at the bow, King Minos’s body jolted.

He pressed his hand against the golden bird-feather pendant on his chest, which had begun to resonate.

His expression darkened as he looked toward the Siren Sisters a hundred meters away—depleted of divine power, on the brink of collapse.

A god… it’s possible…

Yes...but ..

”Crack!”

With a crisp cracking sound, King Minos made up his mind, raised his hand and tore off the bird feather pendant on his chest, then grasped the bronze spear and jumped from the deck, like an aged lion on the savannah who had caught scent of prey—charging forward.

Lorne stared blankly for a split second, watching the feather pendant in his hand simultaneously crack, then looked ahead at Minos charging alone, spear in hand, toward the Siren Sisters.

He was stunned.

But only for a moment. In that lightning-flash of clarity, Lorne understood exactly why King Minos had made such a decision.

It was only a possibility…

If they retreated now, abandoning the opportunity, they’d give the beast tide time to regroup. Who knew how many more would die on Crete? How many more variables would emerge?

Besides, this time, King Minos had wagered every single one of his cards.

If he backed off over a mere possibility, and the enemy returned prepared for a second round, his chances of victory would be even slimmer.

After hundreds of years of patience, he didn’t want to wait any longer, and he couldn’t afford to wait any longer.

More than that, even if a god was truly about to descend, he still had to seize this fleeting chance.

Because only by eliminating the Siren Sisters, the controllers of the beast tide, could they weaken the sea’s threat. Only then, when the god truly entered the field, would Crete have even the faintest sliver of hope to resist.

Otherwise, with five top-tier demigods plus a god, Crete stood no chance at all.

And so, the arrow had already been nocked—there was no turning back.

This move, no matter how perilous, left him no alternative.

Perhaps… this is the sorrow of the weak.

Under Lorne’s complicated gaze, King Minos, alone—surged forward, pushing the divine power within his body to the limit.

His graying hair and beard were dyed golden by the raging divine force.

—”Athena, grant me the might of a hundred victories!”

With that silent prayer, King Minos became a blazing golden comet, wrapped in blinding divine thunder, crashing through the air toward the Siren Sisters at the center of the beast tide.

Faced with the descending shadow of death, the three seated Siren Sisters turned pale, their fishtails thrashing madly.

Screaming with all their might, they forced out an impossibly high-pitched note from their throats.

”Aaaaa!!!”

In an instant, crystal shattered, stone cracked, the heavens trembled.

Within several hundred meters, sea beasts and divine-blooded warriors alike howled in agony.

Some of the weaker ones had their skulls rupture outright, spraying red and white brain matter into the air.

Clearly, this had gone far beyond mere singing, it was a sonic attack, weaponized soundwaves.

For the Sirens, whose lives were devoted to the art of music, this was an unforgivable betrayal of their craft and identity.

But in this moment, the Siren Sisters had long abandoned all notions of dignity or grace.

”Splurt!”

Dazed and reeling from the sonic assault, King Minos staggered as his thunder-wreathed spear veered off target.

Instead of striking the Siren Sisters, it plunged deep into the whale beneath them. A geyser of golden-red blood erupted into the air.

”Plunk!”

At the same time, with a crisp sound of falling into the water, the three Sirens sisters jumped into the sea in unison, and then quickly swung their colorful fish tails, swimming towards the deep seabed and the farther inland sea, without looking back, directly abandoning the large group stranded on the sea.

As if… they were fleeing from some unspeakable terror.

Without the enchantment of their song, the sea beasts nearby also erupted into chaos. They scrambled to turn back, desperately trying to break past the Minosian fleet and return to their natural habitats in the inner sea.

But—it was too late!

A horrifying tremor rose from the depths below.

King Minos stiffened before looking down at his bloodied, torn hands… and the bronze spear that was now cracking inch by inch from the tip upward.

”Rrrhhh…”

A low, guttural growl—like the awakening of something ancient—rumbled from beneath the waves.

The sea, once teeming with warships and sea beasts across hundreds of miles, was instantly torn apart.

A massive, abyssal maw lined with circular saw-like teeth broke through the surface, ravenously inhaling the ether from the air.

”Vmmmmm!”

Moments later, arcane glyphs lit up across the creature’s slick, slimy scales.

They gathered into glowing fin-shaped sigils, forming luminous wheels that lifted the enormous beast up from the depths.

A monstrous form, half-serpent, half-fish, stretched across hundreds of miles, revealing its terrifying silhouette to the world.

In that instant, King Minos looked down at the whale beneath his feet… and locked eyes with the monster’s twin ochre-colored vertical pupils, cold and reptilian.

His golden irises met its stare and a chill from the soul itself spread through his entire body.

—Mother of Monsters, Ceto.

—The embodiment of the sea’s unpredictable horror to humankind; the symbol of unknown lands and bizarre creatures.

It wasn’t just a god that had been released from the depths of the Oceanus Sea.

It was a true, primeval demon god!

”RRAAAHHH!”

At that very moment, sensing the disturbance above its head, and the foreign presence standing atop it, the half-serpent, half-fish Mother of Monsters shook its massive fins in fury.

Blinding halos of light bloomed around it, aligning like lenses.

Violent magical currents surged toward the center, spinning into massive ether vortexes visible to the naked eye.

”Run!”

Seeing this, Lorne rushed to one side without hesitation, turned around and grabbed the little Medusa who was fighting with Scylla on the sea, and dived into the water.

And almost simultaneously—

Hundreds of radiant, multicolored light beams swept across the sea.

Ships, sea beasts, towering walls, structures—

Everything disintegrated in that dazzling, merciless brilliance.

(End of Chapter)