Alaric had no idea that the blessings he carried from the goddesses were enough to set the imaginations of the two before him adrift.
At the very least, for now, the two goddesses had acknowledged his identity.
No, more than mere acknowledgment.
The way they looked at him now carried a hint of reverence, even eagerness. Gone was the lofty detachment with which divinities usually regarded mortals.
For in their eyes, though they were goddesses, the two sisters possessed only the most fragile, lowest-grade divinity.
What's more, the domains they governed held little power in combat, and they themselves were not warrior gods.
Their existence, rather than that of true deities, was closer to that of immortal, ageless spirits.
Ordinary mortals could do nothing to them, true, but among gods, they were little more than ornaments, like the nymphs of old, good only to serve as attendants or decorations.
How could such beings dare offend Alaric, who stood under the favor of three great goddesses?
As for that glimmer of eagerness in their eyes…
Well, best left to the imagination.
With both sides having recognized each other's identities, all enmity naturally dissolved into alliance.
Stheno and Euryale were two among the many deities hoping to align themselves with the rising star, Hecate.
It was only because Alaric had known them from his past life, and held a certain fondness for these "familiar faces," that he chose to bring them under Hecate's banner.
As for why the sisters had made that decision, the root of it all lay with Medusa.
Possessing the Mystic Eyes that turned others to stone, Medusa had been branded a "monster" by the outside world.
Even on this remote island, she was not spared from wave after wave of "heroes" seeking to slay her.
To repel them, Medusa was forced time and again to use the power of her eyes, which gradually began to consume her.
Bit by bit, she teetered on the brink, ready to fall from demi-goddess to monster.
Unlike Medusa, though the three sisters were all daughters of the former sea god, Stheno and Euryale had been born as complete goddesses, bearing both divinity and divine essence, wielding true divine power.
Among them, the elder sister Stheno was the embodiment of male desire, the fallen goddess created as the ideal image of womanhood.
She represented the mature, graceful aspect of femininity.
Though she had the appearance of a young girl, every gesture of hers exuded the dignity and charm of a noblewoman, perfectly realizing man's fantasy of a sophisticated, elegant woman.
All men adored and praised her, graceful, noble, and yet with a trace of indolence.
To worthy rivals she was mercilessly cold, embodying the cruel and unfeeling side of womanhood itself.
If Stheno was the "ideal woman," then her younger sister Euryale was the "idol", the living image of the maiden in a man's heart.
This too was reflected in her nature: she lavished unconditional affection on all things beautiful and cute, while reacting with unfiltered disgust toward anything ugly.
Pure and innocent, yet capricious and unreasonable to a maddening degree. In her mind, if she didn't speak, she wouldn't be blamed; if she wasn't caught, it didn't count as deceit, though afterward, she would always hate herself for it.
In short, she was the very picture of the "adorable girl" men couldn't help but fall for.
Naturally, the very reason for their divine frailty stemmed from this.
After all, in the hearts of men, women were meant to be delicate.
And so, when their youngest sister Medusa began to succumb to the corrupting power of her Mystic Eyes, the two elder sisters were utterly powerless to help her.
Though they cared little for fame or status among the gods, they were left with no choice but to turn to a greater power, Hecate, the goddess of magic, hoping she might save their sister from the curse of becoming a monster.
As for Medusa herself, unlike her sisters, she had not been born a complete goddess, but an "unformed" one.
Had things gone as they should, she would have grown into a being much like her sisters, the embodiment of a man's "idol," and attained true divinity.
In that case, she might have kept a youthful form like theirs, perhaps with a personality befitting her potential divine domain, something innocent, even childlike.
But that process had been interrupted, by a curse from a god far beyond their ability to defy.
Medusa had been caught in the conflict between powerful deities.
That curse halted her divine growth and awakened another power slumbering within her, the power of the Mystic Eyes.
Her body began to mature like that of a mortal woman, while the demonic energy within her slowly consumed her divine essence.
...
After learning about the three sisters from Stheno and Euryale, Alaric placed a temporary seal on the Mystic Eyes.
As for their plea, he agreed that it wasn't an impossible problem to solve. Remove the curse, and Medusa would naturally return to her original form, a small, loli-like goddess like her sisters, and continue her natural growth toward divinity.
Both Aphrodite and Hecate would easily be able to lift such a curse.
But Alaric had a different idea.
Unlike Stheno and Euryale, he believed the power of "the demonic" wasn't something to be feared, but rather something that could be harnessed, if Medusa could master it.
His goal was to help her become a being that embodied both godhood and demonic might, able to shift between goddess and monster as needed.
Of course, such a thing couldn't be done overnight. It would take time and study once he returned.
After sealing Medusa's eyes, Alaric lifted the "Eternal Stasis."
Freedom returned to her at once.
During the stasis, Medusa's personal time had been completely frozen, she hadn't even realized she was restrained, nor sensed the passage of time.
Thus, the moment the restraint was undone, her body instinctively continued the motion she had been making before, dodging aside and taking a defensive stance.
And then she saw, standing before her, her two sisters, appearing out of nowhere.
"Eh… Eh? S-sisters? What are you doing here? Quick, get back! That man is dangerous! Even I couldn't defeat him!"
At her anxious cry, the two goddesses exchanged glances, and smiled with mischievous delight.
Before Alaric, they had restrained their feminine whims, but before their youngest sister, they had no such reservations.
In truth, Stheno and Euryale had always loved teasing Medusa, it was simply their way of showing affection.
Now, Euryale, the elder sister, spoke to her little one with a singsong voice.
"My, my, such a sweet little sister, still so caring, even now. But don't worry, dear.
This gentleman is our guest… though, I suppose you were right about one thing.
He is a 'dangerous man', in every sense of the word. But tell me, little one… how did you know that?"
Medusa: " …?"