Power Up!
"...That's the situation, so I wanted to ask for your opinions."
Jason and Heracles had returned from the royal palace on the island of Hora. I called them both over to reveal the goal of this journey and the story I had heard from Hecate.
"A Hydra... I, I never even imagined..."
"Hmm."
If it were a descendant of Typhon, it was a name often heard even in the Forest of Heroes. However, everyone had been puzzled because its movements had become strange for some time, and now that they were to face that very monster on a journey they had coincidentally joined, both of them looked shocked.
"I-is it really true? Are we going to face a descendant of Typhon, a Hydra with poison that even Apollo cannot cure?"
Jason rubbed his face repeatedly, as if he couldn't believe it at all.
"..."
Even Heracles, who would usually be excited and running wild, was crossing his arms, his mouth shut tight, lost in thought.
'Honestly, I'm struggling with this too.'
According to Hecate, the Hydra, having felt its limits at some point, had asked her to move it to a remote place. Following that request, she had carved out Lerna, where the Hydra was located, along with the nearby Argos, and sealed it off by turning it into an island in the Aegean Sea. The problem was that while Hecate’s power was waning, the Hydra had fallen into a frenzy. Hecate, struck by the Hydra's poison, had abandoned her contaminated body and escaped, leaving only her soul behind.
"In other words, we have to defeat a frenzied Hydra that has swallowed the authority of the goddess Hecate?"
"Correct."
Since it was a matter intertwined with divine authority and divinity, and because Hecate was making such a fuss, I had only explained to these two that the Hydra had swallowed Hecate's power. Either way, the opponent was immensely powerful, and we were in a situation where we had to face a monster unprecedented in Greek history. That was why, as soon as Hecate heard the news that I was going to defeat the Hydra, she had been waiting here on Hora Island. She wanted to test whether I could truly handle the Hydra and whether I could free her from the curse of madness.
However, the result was ambiguous.
The Hydra's nine heads had no blind spots in wisdom or combat, and it was said that even if its reason had vanished, its intelligence remained. The Hydra had instantly overwhelmed Hecate and swallowed her whole, and Hecate, poisoned by the Hydra's venom, had barely managed to save her divine soul—the part corresponding to her divinity—before it too was corrupted.
Since Hecate had given such an assessment despite the lethal techniques I had unleashed with all my heart, I, too, changed my thinking slightly. For the first time in my journey, I decided to seek the help of others.
"Hmm... as I thought."
Jason, who had been deep in thought with his eyes squeezed shut, tilted his head and let out a sigh.
"It's dangerous. Extremely dangerous."
"Even with the three of us?"
"Yes, even with the three of us. Even with you, Dianes."
If it was the calculation of Jason, who had the best strategic eye among the three of us, he was likely right. Especially if Jason, who had caught a glimpse of my true potential, was saying this, it meant the current Hydra was a formidable opponent indeed.
"Have you ever looked closely at a snake?"
"A snake?"
"Yes, a snake. Haven't you ever wondered? Why is this long, legless lizard the most dangerous predator in the ecosystem, and why can it sometimes defeat beasts much larger and stronger than itself in a single strike?"
Come to think of it, I hadn't really thought about it. I just thought of them as good or bad omens if I saw them on the road, or just found them creepy. Of course, I knew their poison was dangerous.
"Even excluding the poison, a snake is a very strategically designed creature. Because it has no legs, it makes no sound, and its scales are hard to pierce with the teeth of most beasts. Furthermore, its survival ability, capable of operating on land, underground, and even on the water's surface, is frightening. A snake that sheds its skin and lives eternally, reaching the end of that path, has become a tremendous monster or divine beast."
"And the Hydra is the king of such snakes."
"Exactly. And you're saying it uses magical powers because of the goddess's divinity? This fight is absolutely disadvantageous."
In particular, his opinion was that if the Hydra, which had the background of being a child of Typhon and a descendant of Gaia, and had received the authority and gifts of many gods, had fallen into a frenzy, even the three of us would be at a strategic disadvantage.
"...Certainly."
I didn't say it out loud, but Heracles, who should have been the one to catch the Hydra, was still a growing hero even though I had passed on my martial arts to him. Moreover, we were in a situation where we didn't even have the Nemean Lion's pelt, the key item needed to catch the Hydra. It was a difficult situation for these two to come up with countermeasures against the Hydra's poison, which was said to make even the gods abandon their immortality.
"This is troublesome..."
Even for me, it seemed difficult to face a nine-headed monster that had even swallowed divinity. Besides, Hecate herself had said she needed help, so charging in alone would be a foolish act.
'Should I turn the ship around and go catch the Nemean Lion first?'
At this point, the thought that naturally came to mind was farming. I had to catch the Nemean Lion and skin it first...
'Wait, I can't skin it, can I?'
I was in a situation where I had to capture them, not hunt them, so if I skinned them, wouldn't it all be for nothing?
I, who had been contemplating whether to go item farming following the example of the original myth, could only suffer from an unexpected dilemma.
"Ugh..."
"...Then isn't it simple?"
While Jason and I were both agonizing over it, Heracles suddenly spoke up.
"What?"
"If the Hydra is fast, smart, and good at magic, can't we just become that much stronger?"
...Huh?
At Heracles' words, spoken with a blank expression, I felt my head clear up in an instant.
It was obvious. If the opponent is smart and fast, we just need to become that fast and powerful.
"Whew, Heracles. I'm not doubting your strength, but the opponent is a Hydra. Even so..."
"Yeah, that would work."
"Look, Dianes says so too... Wait, what?!"
"As expected!"
Jason sighed and tried to say something to Heracles' incredibly confident statement, but when I nodded and stood up, he was the one left looking dumbfounded.
"It's been a while, let's see how you two are progressing."
***
In the original Greek and Roman mythology, when Heracles caught the Hydra, it is said that he received the help of his cousin to seal the Hydra's regenerative power. When Heracles cut off the Hydra's heads, his cousin would cauterize the wounds with a torch to prevent the heads from regenerating. While they were cutting off all the other heads, the last and most powerful head wouldn't be cut no matter what he did, so Heracles crushed it with a giant rock to kill it.
Of course, I don't know if the Hydra I'm facing now is the same Hydra, or if it's a Hydra that has been powered up even more due to some butterfly effect. Furthermore, unlike Heracles, who just had to hunt the Hydra, I was in a situation where I had to subdue it and make it my subordinate, like Orthrus. It was certainly a situation that could be called high difficulty.
'In that case, I just need to level up to match that difficulty!'
According to Hecate, the body of hers that the Hydra swallowed was a collection of powerful authority and had become a seal that prevented the Hydra from leaving Argos. There was still a long way to go before the Hydra could fully digest Hecate's body. No matter how much the Hydra rampaged, Argos, sealed by Hecate's power, was located in the middle of the open sea between Crete and Hora Island.
Moreover, Heracles, the protagonist of the original myth, and Jason, who had already changed jobs to a swordsman who could be counted among the best in Greece, were with me. And since I, the Heavenly Demon, the first person to conquer the Central Plains Murim and the grandmaster of the demonic arts, had set out to perform a divine task, if we just spent a little time, we would be able to face even a hardcore-difficulty Hydra.
"I'm going to pull out all the stops this time."
For Heracles, it was a simple task, but for me, it was a life-or-death test of whether I would fall into Ju-hwa-ip-ma (qi deviation) or ascend. If I could pass this, even the Twelve Divine Demons would surely cast their votes in favor of my decision.
As everyone was warming up, I remembered the two of them going to the royal palace.
"Oh, right. Why did the King of Hora call for you?"
"Ah, that? That was a bit unsettling, too."
"I was a bit surprised that the High Priest of the Temple of Athena was also present."
Come to think of it, Athena's divine sign had flashed again. For Heracles to call it an unsettling matter, should I go visit the Temple of Athena tomorrow?
"It was something that surprised us quite a bit too... but we completely forgot because of your story. Go hear the details yourself. We swore on the River Styx not to speak a word of it."
"I'm sorry, Dianes. But you were called too, so you can just go and find out."
"Hmm... well, I suppose so."
True. No matter how serious the matter is, could it be harder than capturing a powered-up Hydra?
...Or so I thought.
"Haa... is this really true?"
"Yes, Dianes-nim. As a servant of Athena and the manager of the Perseus Shrine, it is a presumptuous thing to say, but..."
I couldn't help but lament at what the High Priest of the Temple of Athena and the King of Hora showed me, their eyes squeezed shut.
What they showed me was a group of statues. They were statues of a group of humans frozen in terror. They were so vivid and lifelike that they looked like statues of "people" who were truly alive.