The Nymphs and the Secret of Chios Island # 1
Whoooooosh—!
I caught it in an instant: something like a black wind tearing itself free from Hex's body.
Hex retched and heaved, gasping for breath. "Wh-what the… how…?"
"Hex! You're back with us!"
Realization dawned on me—the possessing entity that had been dwelling inside Hex was gone. So what that MeTuber Kira had said was true, then! That to help someone attacked by a possession-type monster, you first had to subdue them thoroughly!
"Hex! You should evacuate for now!"
And that was exactly when it happened.
The black clouds shrouding the sky warped into the unmistakable shape of a monster. It had a human upper torso crowned with raven-like wings, while its lower half writhed and squirmed with dragon-and-serpent-like beasts whose eyes glittered in the dark. It was as massive as a mountain, wide enough to smother the entire sky, and its sheer presence hit like a hammer.
"What in the world is that thing?!"
I was honestly a little overwhelmed by its crushing size and aura, and it showed. The wind and rain began lashing at us harder than ever, and I had the sinking feeling that unless I grabbed onto something, I'd go sailing up into the sky like a balloon slipping out of a child's hand.
"Ahh, there it is, that's the one it is…!"
"Even these eyes of Coris can see it, that's what it is…!"
"That disgusting dragon smells like a dragon, it does…! Mweheheh, our nymphs are specialists when it comes to dealing with dragons…!"
Pop—.
Just then, a familiar voice rang out from somewhere. I turned my head, and sure enough—the nymphs were streaming into the dimensional rift. Achilles was with them.
"Sir Ildo! Are you alright!"
"Yes! That giant cloud-thing seems to be at the center of this rift!"
I felt the need to explain the situation as quickly and precisely as possible, but everything was so urgent that I froze up, not knowing where to start, my vision going dark with panic. So instead, I said:
"Jabber-jabber-jellyfish!"
Immediately, Oinoi marveled. "As expected of a magnificent Nymph Secret Art: Chatter Like Crazy, it is…! Heroes who have spent long years among nymphs can sometimes wield the nymph secret arts, they can…!"
"And no tedious flashback sequence needed, that's what it is…!"
"So that revolting dragon is the legendary Typhon from the old stories, is it…? Mweheheh, we nymphs are specialists when it comes to fighting dragons, we are…!"
Pop—.
The nymphs lined up in a row. Then they began their chorus: "Ditch-ditch-ditch-water—."
And right away, something astonishing happened. The pitch-black storm clouds began slowly receding, the rain and wind died down bit by bit, and sunlight started seeping down onto the soggy, churned-up ground!
The storm-cloud Typhon shrank smaller and smaller. By the time it was down to human size, it had lost most of its earlier menace—but the way it kept spitting out bolts of lightning with rumbling cracks still looked plenty vicious.
Just as I was keeping my guard firmly up, I heard something drift buoyantly into the air from somewhere nearby.
━Ying-ying-ying.
It was Ing-ing-i, the typhoon cloud!
The typhoon cloud that had vanished off somewhere earlier came fluttering back and pounced—wbam!—straight onto the human-sized Typhon.
━Krrrung…!
Under the assault of that sky-blue cotton-candy cloud crackling like thunder, Typhon let out a final wail—"Guwaaagh…!"—before Ing-ing-i swallowed it whole, the way one might absorb it into oneself.
━Gyu-i-ying.
Ing-ing-i's body now glowed so brilliantly it made me squint. About five seconds passed, maybe? As the radiance gradually dimmed, Ing-ing-i was wearing a tiny rainbow around its middle like a sash—and at that sight, Oinoi clutched her cheeks and shouted.
"Astonishing, it is…! That is a 'Rainbow Ring', a variety of the typhoon cloud 'Cloudring', it is…! A truly wonderful typhoon cloud that symbolizes peace, it is…!"
Rainbow Ring. A rainbow ring. What a strikingly memorable name.
"A Rainbow Ring? Even I, this Illinoi, have heard of those, I have…! A rare species that even the gods of Olympus wish to see at least once…! Which means it must be worth an absolutely fortune, it must…!"
━Ying-ying-ying.
Shaaaaa—.
Having successfully established its new identity as a Rainbow Ring, the typhoon cloud Ing-ing-i breathed out a gentle wind. Miraculously, that wind shimmered rainbow-colored, and it seeped away into the bodies of Keongkeongi, Ang-ang-i, and Kalinoi, who had all taken small cuts from the knife-storm.
Ssssssss—.
And then something remarkable happened: the wounds on Keongkeongi, Ang-ang-i, and Kalinoi healed up, clean as new!
"Even I, this Oinoi, am learning for the first time that the Rainbow Ring possesses healing powers, it is…!"
Healing powers. Even among awakeners, that was a rather rare ability. And for us, whose animals got themselves injured all the time, it was exactly the kind of gift we needed.
"Ditch-ditch-ditch-water—."
With their song, the nymphs sealed the runaway rift shut. And once the work was done, the world carried on as if nothing had ever happened—the sky cleared right up. Granted, it was nighttime, so it was just as dark as before, but the brilliantly shining moon and stars glittered more beautifully than I could ever remember.
Vroooooom—.
We were on the transport plane that the nymphs and Achilles had arrived in, heading back—and as Oinoi gazed out the window, she spoke up.
"The shape of the land and the stars of the homeland that this Oinoi remembers is very similar to this, it is…! Looking at these constellations makes me miss home, it does…!"
Oinoi seemed to have grown homesick. Longing for a homeland while sitting right in Greece, the land of the nymphs, no less.
But in truth, it seemed that this Greece was not the homeland of nymphs like Oinoi and Illinoi, or Coris and Kalinoi. The Greece the nymphs had lived in and this Greece resembled each other only in land and terrain—beyond that, they differed in small ways here and there. My personal take? The Greece the nymphs came from might best be described as a 'different dimension'. Or would the right term be a parallel world existing in the same location?
I was no rift-studies doctor or scholar, so I couldn't speak with any authority….
"Thank goodness you came through without a scratch."
Shing—clack—.
Achilles said this to me as he put his sword away. He was right—it was a blessing that no one had been hurt. Thinking back on it now, my actions had been reckless in the extreme. If things had gone badly, I'd have been asking for a world of criticism.
"And thank goodness Mr. Hex resisted that possession-type monster so well."
Hex Pascal the Wind Priest, as an S-Rank, supposedly fought in a style worthy of the title—unleashing a relentless barrage of wide-area, high-lethality techniques. They said his power could carve solid rock apart with wind alone. But the possessing entity hadn't been able to draw out Hex's full strength, and in the end its output had dropped to roughly an S-grade a notch below Hex's actual level. That was probably why I'd come out of this fight unscathed and holding the high ground.
"Honestly, all I could think about was resisting the thing that had taken my body for a joyride. Possession-type monsters, I ran into them all the time on business trips to Britain. Having my body hijacked was a first, though."
"I see. Thanks to you resisting, Mr. Hex, we all survived."
A possessing entity powerful enough to crush the will of an S-Ranker like Hex and steal his very body. If something like that had escaped the rift intact and made it out into the world, it would have been a catastrophe.
Shuuup—.
Hex lifted his shirt, inspecting the wounds across his body as if taking inventory. Bruises and scorch marks were scattered everywhere—the marks of beatings from Keongkeongi, from Myeong-i, from Kalinoi.
"Wounds like these should heal up in a day or so, but… strangely, my lower half doesn't seem to have any feeling at all…. That's fine, right…? What was it called, Hyper Zjeuji Slice?"
Hex said he'd watched the entire battle from start to finish while possessed. I did my best to console him.
"It varies from person to person, but generally it'll come back within a few days."
"…I see. So that's how it is. By the way—you're Korea's Ha Ildo, yes? Impressive, really. Even out of my mind, to think I got pushed this hard by the likes of me, Hex."
Unlike the ever-courteous Achilles, Greece's number two was breezy and direct as a gust of wind. He held out a business card to me.
"If you ever want to work in Europe, let me know. The commissions our Pantheon Guild offers don't care about nationality."
After that, we checked into a hospital. We weren't hurt, but getting a thorough round of tests done on everything couldn't hurt, and in the end neither Hex nor I, nor the nymphs or the animals, had anything seriously wrong with us.
"Senior!"
The next day, someone bellowed at me while I was sleeping in my hospital bed. I opened my eyes to find Ari standing there.
"Senior, you were hospitalized! Are you alright!"
Thoroughly alarmed, Ari looked me over from head to toe. The Greek guild had arranged things for my comfort, so I had a private room—but honestly, my body was perfectly fine.
"I'm okay."
"Thank goodness!"
"More importantly, Ari—what brings you all the way here?"
"I… heard you'd been hurt, so I hopped on a plane last night and rushed over…! You said something big happened…! Senior, you were way too reckless…!"
Ari was in a highly worked-up state. To calm her down, I poked her in the forehead with my finger. Boop.
"Settle down."
"Ahk."
Pressing a hand to her own forehead, Ari pulled a wounded-puppy face and shot me a sidelong glare. Ever since high school, this was how she'd always looked at me whenever I pulled a mischievous prank on her. Apparently some things didn't change, even after she'd become a proper working adult.
"Ahh…! The Muddy Water Nymph, that troublemaking Moralis, has appeared again, she has…!"
"Let's beat her thoroughly and purify her squeaky clean, that's what it is…!"
"Of course…! Time for punishment, it is…!"
Doom-doom-doom-doom-doom—.
The hospital corridor was in an uproar, so I got up and went to look—and there were the nymphs, raining down a one-sided beating on Moralis, the Muddy Water Nymph.
"Hyaagh…!"
Moralis, thoroughly pummeled by the nymphs, was shedding a few tears, and honestly, seeing her like that tugged at my heart. Weren't nymphs—all of them adrift far from home, floating in strange lands—supposed to get along?
"Hey, you lot, stop bullying her. Ganging up on someone is bad."
I scolded the nymphs, and they cried, "Time for everyone's joyous Nymph Dance, it is…!" before scampering off to wherever nymphs go. Only Moralis remained, eyes gleaming as she looked up at me.
"Human Ha Ildo…! This Moralis needs no help, she does…! It's not that the nymphs are ostracizing me—this Moralis is the one ostracizing the nymphs, she is…!"
Is that so. Moralis had a tougher spirit than I'd given her credit for.
"Senior, are you heading back to Korea now?"
Ari followed me out into the corridor and asked. She seemed to mean: you've been through something big, so surely it's home now.
But the truth was, I'd come to Greece to meet a man called 'Zenith'. And I still had things I needed to hear from Achilles about the Whispering Coins, too! In other words—my Greek journey was only just beginning!
Watching me, Ari clenched both fists tight, as if steeling some resolve.
"You're always throwing yourself into everything first and never sparing your own body, Senior. So as your personal physician, I'm coming with you on your Greek journey!"