Gorgon
"A massive magical energy signature detected!"
Early one morning, Fujimaru Ritsuka and the others, who were executing a mission on the Northern Wall, were suddenly stunned by a sharp, ear-splitting outburst from the Doctor.
"This Saint Graph scale... is god-class!"
"What? Another goddess?" Fujimaru Ritsuka looked past the wall in trepidation.
Thinking back to what kind of ruthless characters the previous goddesses had been—there was Ishtar and her Bull of Heaven, and Quetzalcoatl, who stood at the absolute pinnacle of the South American Pantheon, along with her Jaguar Man underling. (Jaguar Man had been summoned by the Humanity Order with a positioning similar to Anna's, but after encountering Quetzalcoatl, she became her subordinate.)
It could be said that not a single one was a pleasant sort to deal with.
Now, a third goddess appeared right before their eyes on this unremarkable morning...
"Mash!" Fujimaru Ritsuka shouted.
"Yes! Senpai!" Mash summoned her Great Shield, standing ready in full formation. Beside her, Anna gripped the Slayer of Immortals tightly, her expression dead serious.
Suddenly, the earth outside the wall began to vibrate as fissures gradually dominated the entire ground and then spread outward.
"This is..."
Amid the grey smoke and dust, countless black-and-red giant serpents roared as they tore through the haze, hissing to display their presence.
"Snakes?" Fujimaru Ritsuka's scalp went numb as she looked at the densely packed giant serpents in the distance. Their diameters looked to be at least one or two meters, and in such vast numbers...
They brandished about like tentacles filling the sky... making anyone look at them feel a wave of visceral, physiological discomfort.
"Is it a deity associated with snakes?" Mash strained to think. Then, in the next second, a pair of golden wings slowly reared up amid the haze, sweeping the dust aside.
Once the dust settled completely, what appeared was a massive human torso beneath long purple hair, resting upon a far more grand serpentine tail below.
Standing a hundred meters tall, the giant goddess looked down contemptuously at the barrier that had protected Uruk for so many years, raising an eyebrow in disdain.
"Doctor... that's..." Fujimaru Ritsuka quickly called for aid.
"Though it's hard to believe, the Saint Graph indicates that she is also a Servant," the Doctor's voice came through the bracelet. "Her Saint Graph is Divine Spirit-class, and her class is Avenger."
"Avenger?" Hearing this, Da Vinci spoke up, "Because she harbors deep resentment in her heart, she wishes to achieve revenge—the extra eighth class?"
"What a monster..." The Uruk soldiers nearby were trembling. "How could we possibly win against a monster like that!"
They had previously been brave warriors who dared to fight demonic beasts head-on, but facing the hundred-meter-tall giant serpent god before them, the Uruk soldiers' morale still suffered a massive blow.
"How noisy, humans," the giant serpent god lowered her head to look at the microscopic humans before her. "The arch-enemy of humanity, the leader of the Three Goddess Alliance, the Mother Goddess of Magical Beasts—Tiamat herself has personally manifested. Shouldn't you prostrate yourselves, fall to your knees, and offer up incantations?"
"That is... Tiamat?" Mash's eyes trembled upon hearing this. "The Creation God of Mesopotamia?"
"What on earth," Fujimaru Ritsuka also felt a bit of an ache in her teeth upon hearing this. "Even though I knew early on that this Singularity wouldn't be simple, for Tiamat to already..."
'Enough, already. I thought a single Quetzalcoatl made us matchless under heaven, but what is the meaning of this? How did the Humanity Order think I could handle a situation like this?'
While she was nursing a headache, Kingu, who was rushing over from the distance, was also highly displeased.
'Damn it! Damn it!'
'Why is Gorgon being so disobedient!'
The details of that woman hadn't even been fully fathomed yet. Right now, they fundamentally didn't know how much power Uruk actually held. After all, even Ishtar frequently entered Uruk; heaven knew whether that foolish woman had reached an alliance with Uruk.
After all, she was the guardian deity of the city of Uruk.
And Gilgamesh... he wasn't a pedantic man either. If it was to protect Uruk, he would absolutely not mind using that woman's power.
Ishtar wasn't the main issue; it was primarily her Bull of Heaven. Kingu had sampled enough of Gugalanna's might within Enkidu's memories.
Gugalanna meant "the Great Heavenly Bull," corresponding to Taurus among the zodiac signs. In mythology, because Gilgamesh rejected Ishtar's courtship, the goddess begged her father god, Anu, to send down the heavenly bull in retaliation, which was ultimately defeated by Gilgamesh and Enkidu working together.
Under the full liberation of that terrifying divine beast, Kingu didn't believe Gorgon could contend with it.
The main reason was that Gorgon's Tiamat authority was Potnia Theron; while producing small-fry troops might be very impressive, it was clearly of no damn use in a showdown between powerhouses of that caliber.
"Mother, it's wonderful that you have awakened today as well," in order to prevent the situation from spinning out of control, he had no choice but to rein in his emotions and fly right in front of Gorgon. "But this is somewhat different from what was scheduled."
This Gorgon, full of resentment toward humans, was simply difficult to control. If he hadn't counseled her several times before, she would have marched out long ago to level Uruk.
But how could that be allowed? Kingu's objective was not to destroy Uruk, but to awaken Tiamat.
He had to ensure that everything proceeded toward the direction of his own plan.
"Before the day of rebirth arrives, please take care of your body."
His meaning was: 'Oh ancestral grandmother, stop causing trouble. Can't we just peacefully and dutifully follow the plan?'
But as far as Gorgon was concerned, she simply couldn't.
Her goal was pure: to destroy humanity.
She was the third daughter of the Gorgon sisters in Greek mythology. Her original True Name was Medusa. Her tragic end after growing up under a curse was based on certain factors—a state where the monstrous nature of her original form was emphasized to an extreme degree.
Being at the stage right before a goddess fully transformed into the complete monster "Gorgon," she originally shouldn't have been summoned as a Servant... but she was already an existence that could be called the Queen of Magical Beasts.
She was a monster, the terrifying Gorgon defeated by a hero. The monster named Gorgon had wantonly flexed her tyrannical power, slaughtering numerous humans until she finally met her own demise.
The monster's corpse was used by humans and gods in various places. Her blood vessels were made into a lethal poison and an elixir capable of bringing the dead back to life; the blood dripping onto the desert turned into venomous snakes; her head turned into a one-of-a-kind weapon. Even the great hero Heracles stated that merely waving her hair three times could cause an entire army to collapse.
It was said that in later generations, Iskandar the King of Conquerors decorated his own portrait with a medallion bearing the Gorgon's head. The monster's corpse possessed unique power and had long been used by people as a certain symbol.
This was the end of the monster named Gorgon.
But where did this monster come from?
The Gorgon sisters were the daughters of the sea god Phorcys and the sea monster Ceto, and the granddaughters of the earth goddess Gaia and Pontus. The three sisters originally should have been born as goddesses.
However, the eldest and second sisters were "complete goddesses," born as the embodiment of male yearning, existing as idols whose countenances and bodies would not change with time. But the youngest sister, Medusa, was an "incomplete goddess." Lacking the attribute of immortality, she would grow with time, which ultimately led to her being viewed as a monster by the world.
Therefore, the two older sisters, Stheno and Euryale, ultimately chose to accompany their youngest sister to the Shapeless Isle in the middle of the sea to live in seclusion, leading a life detached from worldly competition.
But heroes needed achievements. Those demigod scions of Greece required sufficient merits to ascend Mount Olympus, so all the monsters across Greece were targeted.
This included the youngest sister among the three, Medusa.
Coincidentally, Perseus, the son of the great god Zeus, had come of age.
He was the son born when Zeus transformed into a golden rain to meet Danae, the daughter of the Argos King Acrisius, in a bronze tower. Such illegitimate children were simply countless in Greece.
But Perseus possessed the talent to become a hero. Thus, in order to boost this son up to Mount Olympus, a performance to 'forge' a hero began.
Everything in the story originated from a prophecy: the oracle told King Acrisius of Argos that his grandson would usurp his throne and take his life.
Therefore, he shut his beautiful daughter, Danae, who had conceived the divine flesh and blood of the main god Zeus after he became infatuated with her beauty and fell upon her as a shower of gold, together with her son Perseus inside a chest and cast them into the sea.
Then Zeus guided the chest all the way through the great winds and waves, until the tide finally brought it to the island of Seriphos, a land ruled by the two brothers Dictys and Polydectes.
King Polydectes took in the mother and son Danae and Perseus, while Dictys treated them with kindness. Polydectes later became infatuated with Danae, but was troubled by Perseus's presence.
King Polydectes of Seriphos ordered the people on the island to offer him horses, which were extremely rare and precious locally. To rid himself of Perseus, he encouraged Perseus to go on an adventure, and Perseus was very willing. He replied that delivering the head of the monster Medusa should be a superior gift, so if he fetched this gift, he wouldn't have to offer a horse.
Polydectes would not let Perseus's words slide. He believed that as long as Perseus died, he could marry Danae. Thus, although the king ordered the other young men to present horses, he demanded that Perseus deliver Medusa's head.
In legend, the Gorgon sisters were all monsters. Each of them had snakes for hair, serpentine bodies, possessed immortal forms, were covered in metallic scales, and had mouths filled with tusks like a wild boar. Their hands were entirely metallic, and they possessed golden wings to ride the wind. The moment anyone looked upon their terrifying appearance, they would instantly turn to stone.
Among the three sisters, only Medusa had not received an immortal body.
Now consider this demigod Perseus. Although Medusa was not immortal, against such a monster, how could he, with a human body, possibly match her?
Perseus could only seek counsel from the deities. The King of the Underworld gifted him an invisibility cap that made him invisible the moment he put it on; Hermes, the messenger of the gods, lent him a pair of winged sandals that could instantly take him to very distant places; Athena lent him a leather bag capable of holding Medusa's head, along with a piece of advice: mortals who look directly at Medusa will instantly turn to stone.
Therefore, he could not face her directly. If it was a reflected image, it wouldn't matter. Thus, the goddess also gave him a shield polished so bright it could be used as a mirror.
What? You're asking about what happened later?
Later, the hero Perseus successfully killed the serpent monster Medusa, using her head to prove his identity as a hero. On his return journey, he coincidentally encountered a sea monster about to devour a princess, and he coincidentally possessed that head of Medusa, a Noble Phantasm that countered the sea monster.
Thus, Perseus successfully killed the sea monster, rescued the princess, and then married her, living a happy life for the rest of his days. Ultimately, because of his status as a demigod hero, he was brought to the heavens by Athena after his death to become the constellation Perseus.
By the way, in his image as the constellation Perseus, he is holding Medusa's head.
Quite a fine heroic tale, right?
If one were to ignore Medusa's encounter.
Medusa had her own side of the story to tell: 'I was living my life perfectly fine on the Shapeless Isle, who did I provoke or cross?'
She hadn't gone out to stir up trouble, sever shipping lanes, or go around killing people; she just honestly lived her own little life. Her occasional killings were merely dealing with those who entered the Shapeless Isle wanting to win the grand name of a hero.
In the end, because an illegitimate son of Zeus needed merits, she was painted as a malicious serpent monster, had her head severed by someone, and couldn't even find peace in death.
It was no wonder Gorgon was an Avenger. Given this experience, anyone else in her shoes wouldn't be able to take it either.
How should one put it, Greek Mythology was just that absurd.
Gorgon looked at Fujimaru Ritsuka on the wall, hatred flashing in her eyes.
"Is that the final Master of humanity?" She sneered, completely ignoring Kingu's counsel.
"Yes," Kingu nodded, knowing that he couldn't persuade her any further.
"How minuscule," the snake hair around Gorgon kept coiled and swirling.
Then, that massive serpentine tail suddenly reared up high like a lion, before forcefully slamming down toward the top of Fujimaru Ritsuka's head!
"Mash!" Fujimaru Ritsuka spoke up to command upon seeing this.
As a battle-hardened companion, Mash didn't need a specific command to read Fujimaru Ritsuka's meaning.
She instantly deployed her Noble Phantasm.
That chalk wall instantly blocked the space between Gorgon and the barrier.
But it only blocked a single strike.
"What a frail life," Gorgon mocked wantonly. "Is this the final residue of Human History?"
In the next moment, the serpent god's eyes glowed with a purple light, and invisible magical energy instantly corroded the entire section of the wall.
"This is..."
Everyone felt as if they were pinned to the spot, completely unable to move.
"Senpai?" Mash struggled to raise her shield, but her body was already refusing to follow commands.
"Mystic Eyes? Evil Eyes?" Fujimaru Ritsuka strained to think.
"I am currently very hungry," Gorgon nodded in satisfaction. "While you harbor fear in your hearts, become my sacrifices!"
"Though you won't taste very good, you will certainly be very precious."
"Take a deep breath, Mash," right at that moment, Fujimaru Ritsuka spoke up in front of her. "Though it won't lessen the fear, your muscles will be more relaxed."
"Also, don't worry, we aren't alone."
Just as her voice fell, two figures flew up onto the wall.
"Lord Fujimaru! We have arrived late!"
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