The Beginning Of A Five Year Agony-Chapter 49: Samuel first encounter with a Gorgon

After climbing the massive and rigid lesser God’s hand, which is the intended essence almost killed Samuel but thanks to the regenerative ability he survived...

Samuel finally reached the base of the mountain. But To his surprise, it had an entrance, which was well-lit. The light pulsed with an inviting blue glow, a stark contrast to the desolate landscape outside...

Samuel narrowed his eyes in suspicion but began walking forward. As he approached, he carefully observed the surrounding area, scanning for any hidden dangers or traps. The atmosphere grew colder, carrying a faint, earthy scent. He stepped through the entrance. Immediately, the cave’s opening behind him closed with a soft thud and a grinding of stone, sealing off any possible exit. His only option was to go forward...

He continued walking through a narrow, winding passage. The floor was rough-hewn stone, and the atmosphere grew heavier. After some distance, Samuel reached a massive chamber constructed of ice and rough stone. Lamps lined the walls, emitting a bright blue flame that illuminated the vast space. The walls themselves were covered in ancient and mysterious markings, symbols and glyphs he couldn’t immediately decipher, but which hinted at a deep, forgotten history of the gods of this realm...

In the middle of one of the chamber’s walls, an entire layout of the mountain was etched. Samuel was surprised to see that it was not a normal mountain at all, but a complex temple. He walked forward and examined the detailed layout. Looking at it closely, he could tell it had 15 distinct floors, each section intricate and seemingly designed for a specific purpose...

Samuel swallowed, holding Aegirion, his blade, tightly in his hand. Cold air escaped his lips as he gazed at the mountain’s layout. It was a daunting structure, far more complex than he had anticipated.

At the bottom of the layout, a distinct symbol glowed with an internal light... (€€¢✓$€=¥{}£×\¥√÷§)...Below it, words were inscribed, which Samuel, thanks to his god-like powers, could read perfectly...The inscription said, "I am ready."

The moment he read the words aloud, the entire chamber began to shake violently. Dust rained down from the ceiling. A section of the wall, previously indistinguishable from the rest, slid silently inward, revealing a secret door. Cold, musty air rushed out from the newly revealed passage...

Samuel walked to the opening, summoning his shield to manifest before him while Aegirion remained firm in his hand. The hallway beyond was dark, a void of shadow. But Samuel knew he did not have time to hesitate, nor to be afraid of the unknown. So he stepped in. The moment his foot crossed the threshold, the entire passageway lit up, illuminated by an eerie purple and blue flame that flickered along the walls...

He started walking, the purple and blue light casting dancing shadows around him. He walked for what felt like an hour, the silence of the temple broken only by his own footsteps. Then, he started to hear music...a melancholic chorus that echoed through the stone halls.

The lyrics were clear, sung in a voice filled with profound pain and agony...

(Who will love me for who I am?

Who will love me for what I am?

Who will love me without any hate of what I can do to them?

Nobody.)

The song ended with a choked sob, the sound raw with sorrow.

Samuel stood there for a while, listening to the fading echo of the voice, before entering another massive chamber. The walls of this chamber were slick and glistening, covered in thick, green saliva. The overwhelming smell of dead and rotten corpses filled the air, a putrid, sickening odor that assaulted his senses...

Samuel looked around. Indeed, there were dead bodies everywhere, scattered across the floor and clinging to the walls. He noted that none of them were of mortal flesh...they were the remains of various creatures, some alien, some familiar looking like the ones from the ship he had just left, all twisted and consumed. He inspected every corner of the chamber with his eyes, his stance naturally defensive. His heightened senses were screaming, detecting a significant threat nearby, hidden but powerful.

Then, a large, thick glob of green saliva dropped onto Samuel’s face. His eyes widened. He instantly understood the direction from which the saliva had come... directly above him...

He reacted instantly, flipping backward. As he moved, he kicked Aegirion upwards, straight towards the ceiling where the unknown creature was hiding. A loud, metallic clang echoed through the chamber as the blade struck something solid. The creature, previously unseen, fell from the ceiling, its form suddenly visible, tangled in chains and what appeared to be some kind of grotesque webbing...

Aegirion, still connected to Samuel’s mind, quickly shouted a command to him..."Close your eyes!"

Samuel instinctively moved his shield, bringing it up to block his vision, precisely as Aegirion instructed. All he could hear now was the distinct, menacing hissing of a snake-like creature in the massive chamber, the sound echoing off the slick walls...

"If I can’t see it, how can I kill it?!" Samuel shouted, moving backward, trying to create distance while blind to his foe.

Aegirion, with incredible speed, flew straight into Samuel’s face. It rapidly took the shape of a pair of sunglasses or military binoculars, firmly attaching itself to his head. Through the specialized lenses, Samuel was now able to see...

It was a Gorgon. The creature had a humanoid female body, but its head was a writhing mass of snakes for hair, and its lower half was a powerful, serpentine snake tail. Immediately, all the memories of the past battle Arithmos had had with the Gorgon Queen flooded Samuel’s mind. The sudden influx of memory, particularly the immense power of Arithmos, caused him to waver for a second, a fleeting moment of vulnerability. But he quickly regained his composure, forcing himself to move again. With those memories, however, came critical knowledge... he now knew how to kill the Gorgon in front of him...

A guttural roar erupted from the creature. It seemed to have noticed that Samuel could see her, despite her powerful petrifying gaze...

But in a matter of moments, she closed the distance between them with surprising speed. Samuel was genuinely surprised by her agility. He used his shield to block her incoming claws, deflecting the sharp talons. Then, he spun around, delivering a powerful kick to her neck. The blow sent her crashing across the massive chamber, hitting a far wall with a deafening impact. The sound of their clash echoed violently through the vast chamber...

Immediately, she sprang up from the debris, seemingly unharmed. She opened her mouth wide, and a surge of light green energy began to rotate and blast outwards from her throat, a concentrated wave of power flying directly toward Samuel. He blocked it with his shield, but the sheer force of the blast sent him reeling backward. His feet dug deep into the ground, leaving long furrows in the stone as he struggled to maintain his balance.

Before he could fully recover his footing, she was already in front of him. She slashed at his face with her claws. As she attacked, Samuel noticed something crucial...a sign, a pattern that was too obvious to ignore. She had one clear goal...to remove Aegirion, which had transformed into the goggles helping him to see her without being turned to stone. Judging by her focused aggression on his eyes, she was at a significant disadvantage because he could see her, which was why she was trying to remove the goggles at all costs...

At that very moment, Samuel saw an opening. Her stomach was wide open as she swung her hand towards his face. He smiled grimly and then activated "Hand of War." He slammed his fist into her stomach with incredible force, sending her body crashing upwards into the ceiling before she fell back down to the ground with a heavy thud.

But she was not dead yet.

She began scratching her own face, rolling around on the ground, seemingly disoriented. Then she stopped, her movements becoming less violent, and she began to speak to Samuel. Her voice, once hissing and monstrous, now sounded more human, softer, almost pleading. "Why... Why... Are you not in love with me yet...? WHY? Come to me, my dear... it’s cold here, right? Come!" Her voice was tinged with a strange, broken longing...

"If I had to choose between freezing to death and loving you," Samuel uttered, a cold smile on his face, "I guess the ice is not that cold after all... Activate ’Periodic Poltergeist.’"

Samuel turned invisible, vanishing completely from her sight.

"My Love, come back! Don’t leave me!" she roared, her voice escalating into a frantic scream. "No!"

Samuel reappeared directly behind her. "No, I won’t," he exclaimed, a devilish smile on his lips. Without hesitation, he proceeded to slash Aegirion across her chest, a deep, precise cut. The blow sent her crashing violently into the nearest pillar, shattering stones around her.

Green blood splashed everywhere as the Gorgon’s body went limp...

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