Chapter 205
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 205
Chapter Title: Found You~?
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Found you~?
"Why... why did this happen?!"
Her experiment had ultimately failed.
The power lingering in the straw doll had withered away in the flames, incomplete, only to rampage through her magic power and blaze up grotesquely.
Startled by this, she had rushed toward the temple flames to purify it in a hurry.
But the rampaging energy from the straw doll had swallowed everything around her, and when she came to her senses, she found herself in Acrocorinth—or rather, not Acrocorinth. She was left alone in the darkness of some bizarre space, with Despoina desperately holding out after barely escaping to her laboratory and erecting a barrier.
-Crunch! Cruuunch!
"Ugh...!"
But even that had reached its limit.
Even the door, reinforced with Zeus's sacred oak and all sorts of spells, was starting to break down.
Every time the door shook, the candles forming the barrier flickered and began going out one by one.
Why had she done it?
She should have just been satisfied with turning the bird's form into a human shape.
She shouldn't have touched that horrific thing, should have been content with her current wealth and power, enjoyed little magical experiments on the side, hooked a handsome prince, and lived luxuriously in some kingdom.
Tears welled up as she faced a gruesome death in this unknown place as punishment for her own sorcery, but in the end, it was all too late.
"Sob sob! A-anyway..."
Rather than being devoured by those monsters outside, Despoina wanted to die at least as a goddess in the end.
Should she stab her heart with a dagger? Drink poison?
As she sniffled, staring at the vials and razor blades cluttering the desk, a strange sensation enveloped her.
-Screech? Squeak!
-Kuhaha!
-Kyaaang!
"...Huh?"
The screams of the monsters outside the door, which had sounded different up until now, began to change.
No longer the savage roars of endlessly starving beasts, but like the final whinnies of horses on the verge of death.
And amid that chaos came the crisp sounds of impacts and shouts—clearly from intelligent beings, not monsters.
To Despoina, born a goddess yet prepared even for suicide, that voice felt like a lifeline.
"Over here! There's a goddess—no, a person here! Save me!!"
She hurled away the poison vial and knife she'd grabbed, throwing herself at the door in case they passed by.
-Bang bang bang!
"Here! Right here! Help!"
She pounded on the door with all her strength, frantically undoing the sturdy seals she'd placed on it.
Even so, a corner of her mind wondered if those monsters were using a trick to lure her out.
But the screams and crashing sounds from beyond the door were unmistakably human.
And the faith she'd offered to Aphrodite and Olympus, and the blessings she'd bestowed on Greece's devotees, weren't in vain—the noises were gradually drawing closer to her.
The monsters that had blasphemously howled for her were now screaming and scattering in panic.
[Atalanta, you okay on stamina?]
[Huff, huff... Y-yeah.]
[You've been hopping around excitedly for a while; you must be tired. Leave it. I'll clean up.]
[Don't push yourself too hard either.]
[Ha! Who's the one telling who not to push?]
A weary woman's voice, a gruff one teasing her like a scolding older sibling.
And a calm man's voice mediating between them.
They were human voices—precisely what she'd longed for so desperately.
"...."
But why was this?
The monsters' howls had quieted, the sounds of them fleeing somewhere faded, and even the nearby roars had stilled.
Why did chills crawl over her skin?
Like the biting cold that pierced even feathers when crossing a frozen sea, a chilling dread tightened around her throat, and Despoina slowly backed away from the door.
-Knock. Knock. Knock.
[Are you there?]
"....."
As a mage for 50 years, a goddess for 100, and a bird for n00 years.
Her instincts, honed through lives in forms unimaginable even for ordinary gods, rang alarm bells.
The calm voice beyond the door made the rampaging monsters seem like mere thread-snakes before a hydra.
-Knock, knock, knock.
[I asked if you're there.]
Whether patience had vanished after one knock, the low growl made Despoina freeze solid.
"...Ugh."
It was the voice of salvation she'd so desperately wanted, but she had to say something.
That voice, evoking memories of being chased by an eagle, only drew a pathetic, cracked whistle from her throat.
[She's there.]
But that thin thread of a sound was enough; the voice chuckled softly and moved away.
And then.
-Crunch!
"?!"
Despoina froze as a man's arm suddenly burst through the center of the door.
The arm slithered back in, leaving only a hole revealing the pitch-black outside.
-Whiiish!
A gloomy gust whipped through, snuffing out the laboratory candles in an instant, plunging the room into eerie darkness.
The surviving candles flickered precariously, struggling to illuminate her, but their efforts only cast sinister shadows that slowly closed in.
"...."
Despoina, the Rainless Maiden of Demeter, froze in disgrace.
Like gazing into Medusa's eyes, only her two eyes remained free.
Her tear-streaked gaze naturally fixed on the single hole in the door.
Or more precisely, on the black eye that had slithered into view through it.
Shining pitch-black like a corner of Tartarus, that eye fixed precisely on Despoina, as if saying:
"Found you~♪"
And that was Despoina's final memory.
* * *
Honestly, finding the culprit behind this mess wasn't hard.
The mindless spirits without lifespan or flesh would naturally crave humans with bodies and souls above all.
Given the nature of curses—built on the trinity of incantation, ritual, and space—the caster had to be here too.
So, the place where the spirits were rioting after the only life force besides us was obviously today's target.
The location of the lunatic sorceress who'd caused this disaster.
"...Man. I was wondering how this mess happened. Now I get it."
I clicked my tongue as I surveyed the pitch-black temple under a starless sky.
Aphrodite's temple, adorned everywhere with vibrant rose reliefs and nude sculptures of beautiful men and women.
But swarming with spirits in total darkness, it felt like some horror spot or haunted dungeon—utterly creepy.
What caught my eye, though, was the terrain and ley lines here.
Every land has ley lines like human meridians, and among them are great veins where power surges from deep underground sources.
When these flow properly, crops abound, air is clear, and wars cease.
But if disrupted and chaotic, disasters, wars, and plagues run rampant.
Ley lines are thus crucial in Central Plains sorcery and feng shui, and the utmost caution is needed around great vein hearts where earth energy erupts.
And Aphrodite's temple stood at the center of the great ley line spanning all of Acrocorinth and Corinth's lands.
'Wow. Greeks are all perverts. No, beyond perverts, really?'
How much surveying and ley line checking did they do to build a temple perfectly at the great vein's core?
The structure itself ideally embraced the vein, optimized to draw up its energy—a model of feng shui architecture.
Even I wanted to settle here once for proper meditation and qi circulation; at this level, spirit gods could rest, replenish spiritual energy, and receive offerings.
"Messing with Heavenly Death in the middle of that and botching it. How could heaven and earth not flip out?"
It was like pouring massive venom into a human's crown Baihui or solar plexus.
Thankfully, it happened outside the temple, a bit off from the great vein's true center.
If it'd burst in the main building there, it wouldn't be this weird space—it'd be hell unleashed on the mortal world.
"I suspected, but I didn't think a real lunatic playing with Heavenly Death actually existed."
"Hiii...'
The laboratory, seemingly remodeled from a cluttered inner sanctum full of magic tomes and materials.
Seeing the sprawled sorceress in the center like a starfish, I sighed involuntarily.
"Look at this. Not even just a sorceress."
Lustrous brown hair shimmering with an autumn barley-field golden hue.
Face a mess of tears and snot, but her striking beauty hadn't faded a bit. Despite the grim mage vibe wrinkling my nose, her allure revealed ichor-mixed immortal bloodline.
"Actually, a bit different..."
A strange energy from the unconscious woman—half-divine, half-not.
Her sealed, blocked aura like something bound made me frown, but that wasn't important now.
For now, I hoisted the so-called Despoina over my shoulder and stepped out; Atalanta was on guard for approaching spirits.
"Atalanta. Situation's clear."
"Dianes, is it safe now? That person..."
"Yeah, Despoina. The culprit behind this mess."
In the midst of this tangled chaos like knotted yarn, the first clue to unraveling it had fallen into my hands.
Now, shall we properly solve the case?
"For now, let's string her up."
"...What?"