[Third Person's PoV]
A clawed hand burst forth from the shattered rubble, breaking the stillness where the Gorgon had been buried. With relentless energy and unholy determination, it began clawing its way free from the crater that had become its grave. Stones tumbled aside as her cursed form reemerged, rising from the wreckage like a nightmare returning to life.
Simultaneously, the skies above darkened as Lucian plummeted downward like a meteor. He landed hard just a few feet before the Cursed Entity, the ground cracking beneath the force of his descent. Dust and debris exploded outward in thick clouds, rising like pillars around him. His arrival was thunderous, the quake of it rippling through the earth.
Lucian landed in a low squat, his arms petrified and unmoving—useless stone extensions of his body. Despite this, the aura surrounding him was overwhelming, oppressive. The cursed Gorgon—an entity born solely from hatred, vengeance, and malice—froze.
As Lucian lifted his head, locking his unseen gaze upon her, something strange and foreign stirred within the Gorgon.
Fear.
He had managed to install a new emotion into an abomination that had never known anything but hatred. Lucian's very presence wrenched something primal out of her—an emotion she was not forged with, not equipped to handle.
The Gorgon began to tremble, her snakelike body recoiling against the instinct to fight. She started to crawl back, her movements erratic, driven by instinct rather than reason. In that moment, logic abandoned her. Fear had clouded her mind, replaced her cunning with desperation. She slithered backward with everything she had, her body convulsing with dread.
She stumbled into the ruins of Medusa's long-destroyed shop. It was here, amid the tattered remnants, that her primal instincts lashed out. She attacked—the only thing her mind could comprehend to do. Attack what scared her. Attack him.
Lucian watched her attempt to retreat with narrowed eyes, his voice like gravel sliding over steel. "Coward," he muttered disdainfully, his voice echoing deep from within his hardened armor.
He prepared to leap, to strike and finish her off. But something made him pause. Power rippled from her—A wave of curse energy rippled out of her like tidal wave, bathing everything around her in its putrid power, and then the shattered petrified statues around her began to stir.
The broken stone men crumbled—turning into dust and gravel, they became swirling chaotically—as they reformed. What emerged were Terracotta warriors molded in the image of Greek soldiers. Their eyes glowed crimson with cursed energy, and a wretched screech escaped them as they turned stiffly toward Lucian, the dust of centuries falling from their limbs.
Lucian's eyes narrowed. 'They're all the people Medusa turned into stone…'
A deep, demonic growl rumbled in his throat, rage bubbling to the surface.
The snakes atop the Gorgon's head suddenly twitched violently—then tore themselves free. One by one, they dropped and slithered away from her now-bald head, only to twist and stretch into humanoid serpentine creatures, cursed spawn with fangs and weapons.
An army had formed before Lucian. Dozens of cursed serpents and hundreds of reanimated warriors stood ready for battle.
'This reeks of Athena's influence…' Lucian thought amused. But then his chest began to rise and fall with growing intensity. A laugh, deep and guttural, escaped his lips. His shoulders shook until he could no longer contain it.
"HahahAHAHAHAHAA! YOU THINK AN ARMY WILL BE ENOUGH TO STOP ME?!"
His voice thundered across the battlefield.
The Gorgon screeched, reacting to his provocation, her trembling finger pointing toward him as she forgot her most lethal power—her petrifying gaze—lost in the fear he instilled. She sent her army forward with a mindless cry.
The army surged. A stampede of stone and cursed flesh charged toward Lucian, a wall of shrieking malice and sharpened cobblestone blades.
Lucian's laughter came to a halt, but the grin beneath his helmet only widened. It was stretched unnaturally, sharp canines flashing in the darkness.
"You picked the wrong person to try that on…"
His shadow rippled beneath him—then exploded outward like spilled ink across the earth. From the darkness, a monstrous roar echoed. A surge of shadow energy erupted as Lucian's personal shadow army burst forth, answering their master's silent call.
From within his shadow, a familiar elite emerged: Murder, Asura, Golurk, Lorax, Chicken Feet, and Assassin—the amalgamation of all the shadow stalkers Lucian had slain in the labyrinth.
And they weren't alone.
Dozens more surged behind them: fifteen griffins screeching through the skies, thirty-five Hellhounds snarling with bloodlust, ten Thunder Spirits crackling with lightning, twenty Empousa with their fangs bared and claws extended.
Lucian raised an eyebrow as he sensed even more reinforcements approaching.
From the distance, the shadows warped and pulsed, and emerging from their depths came Edna—the living shadow of Echidna, Mother of Monsters. She slithered forward, towering and graceful, flanked by an army of Lamias, Chimeras, Manticores, and Nemean Lions—all loyal shadow beasts Lucian had previously conquered in his battle to enter the camp, which he leant to Edna.
Lucian gave a small smirk. "Heh, Edna, what are you doing here?"
"Bosssss~ I brought the sssssuppliessss you assssked for," she purred, her serpentine body coiling with delight. "But then I sssaw you having fun… and decided to join!"
A sudden cackle rang through the chaos as Beatrice descended from the skies, unleashing a storm of magical bombardments.
"My Lord! I came to report our progress—but clearly it can wait!" she cried, weaving expertly through explosions on her broomstick.
Lucian threw his head back and let out another unrestrained laugh, the kind that made enemies falter and allies grin.
"Ha! How convenient. They made everything align, it Looks like the Fates are really on my side after all!"
He turned toward the Gorgon, who now stared at him in disbelief, her trembling form overshadowed by the immense power arrayed against her. Though he couldn't see her clearly, Lucian knew her fear.
"You see this? This... is what a true curse looks like," he growled. "A Curse elicits despair after all~"
The battlefield erupted in chaos the moment the two armies collided.
Stone and Curse clashed against Shadow and Magic.
From the front lines, the cursed Terracotta soldiers charged with unwavering discipline, weapons raised high as their red eyes gleamed with malevolent energy. The cursed serpents slithered in zigzag patterns, fangs bared, spitting venom so acidic it melted the stone beneath them. The Gorgon's scream echoed across the ruined shop, her rage trying to drown out the flickering fear still buried deep in her chest.
Lucian's shadow army met them with monstrous intensity.
Murder, her wings outstretched like razors, descended from the sky with a screech that made the cursed serpents coil in agony.Her horns glowed crimson, eyes burning like twin suns. With a single flap of his wings, he blew away a dozen cursed warriors, their bodies shredded like paper as he passed through them. Her claws, made of molten shadow, cut through enchanted armor as if slicing through silk.
Beside her, Asura roared—six arms, three faces, each showing a different wrathful expression. He danced through enemies in a storm of carnage, each hand was enclosed in a fist Wherever he moved, limbs flew and screams followed.
Golurk stomped forward like an ancient titan, each step shaking the earth. Cursed warriors foolish enough to attack him were pulverized by his massive fists or crushed beneath his feet. His stone skin deflected blades and magic alike.
Lorax moved with quiet fury, branches growing from his back and the ground impaling enemies raising to the air. His deer skull face turned slowly as if mourning each life taken, yet his vines showed no mercy. He summoned roots from the cracked earth to bind, break, and drag soldiers screaming into the darkness.
Then came the absurd yet terrifying Chicken Feet—the cursed house waddled forward on its talon-like legs, cackling manically from within. Windows glowed red, and the door opened to unleash a torrent of dark magic. Shadowy hands reached from inside, grabbing cursed serpents and dragging them into the abyss beyond the threshold.
Assassin, unseen and unheard, danced through the chaos like death incarnate. Only a whisper and the flicker of a blade betrayed him. Soldiers collapsed without knowing they were attacked. Even a cursed serpent, lunging with fangs extended, found its head cleanly separated mid-flight. His eyes were hollow, a phantom among monsters.
Beatrice soared above it all on her broom, conjuring magical storms with wild abandon. Her form—elegant and curvaceous, wrapped in a gown that fluttered like a stormcloud—commanded awe and terror alike. With a twirl of her finger, fire rained down. With a snap, a wall of ice skewered a whole rank of Gorgon's army.
"I haven't had this much fun in decades!" she shrieked, lightning crackling between her fingertips. "You cursed things don't even scream properly!"
Edna slithered through the battlefield like a goddess of war. Her long, scaled body coiled and crashed into enemy lines, snapping spines and tossing statues like pebbles. She lifted her veil just enough to show a hint of fangs, then hissed, unleashing a blast of shadowy venom that melted through stone like acid.
Lucian just stood silently not moving, staring but not looking straight at the Curse Gorgon as it couldn't comprehend what it was facing.
"You shouldn't have attacked my steed" Lucian uttered unheard through the storm of battle that his shadow soldiers crafted in his name and orders.
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