If he remembered correctly, this Minosian crown prince would eventually meet his end after winning every award at the Panathenaic Games in Athens, sparking the jealousy of the Athenian youth.
Then, while on his way to the city of Thebes, the Athenians would ambush and beat him to death.
And thus began the rift between the Minosians and the Athenians.
As the chief deity worshipped by both cities, Athena could only watch helplessly as this tragic civil strife played out.
Lorne couldn't help but wonder—was there perhaps still a divine hand pulling strings behind all this?
As he silently pondered, he happened to lift his gaze. In the faint starlight beneath the night sky, he vaguely caught sight of countless black specks fluttering in the air.
Wait! Not specks, it's a whole swarm of flying divine-beasts!
As his sharp violet eyes focused further, the blurred forms came into shape, monsters with the faces of women and the bodies of birds.
"Above! Sirens!"
A scribe's sudden shout from behind snapped the crown prince back to full alert.
His briefly relaxed nerves tensed instantly, and he roared without hesitation:
"Enemy attack! Enemy attack!
It's the divine-blood kin! Activate the defensive enchantments—quickly!"
In an instant, the alert was spread. Warning magic circles flared to life atop the watchtowers, and mournful horns echoed along the entire coastline, even reaching the royal capital of Knossos.
Compared to amphibious sea beasts, these flying divine-blood creatures had the terrifying advantage of bypassing high walls and striking directly at the interior city-states of Crete.
"Take cover! Take cover!"
As soon as the garrison within the city caught sight of the coastal warning signals, they sounded their alarms and shouted across the streets.
"Everyone inside—lock doors and windows! Do not come out!"
At the same time, violent winds surged forth.
Dust clouds rose, and the gusts swept through the streets and houses, leaving behind a sharp, mournful howl.
Knossos' previously confused citizens finally awakened to the threat. Faces pale with fear, they rushed frantically toward the nearest shelter.
The previous beast tide was basically limited to landing from the sea, and this fixed attack mode made them subconsciously believe that as long as the coastline was defended, Knossos would be absolutely safe.
But they had forgotten: the vast sea did not only spawn amphibious beasts—there were also flying divine-blood creatures!
This sudden twist threw the Minosian defense into disarray.
Multiple volleys of short-range arrows were fired but achieved little—most failed to even graze the sirens' feathers and were blown away by the swirling air currents.
"Spellcasters! Spellcasters! Intercept them—now!"
At the crown prince's roar atop the wall, the weary priests and priestesses had no choice but to down magic potions to restore their energy.
Forcing themselves to rally, they launched a coordinated spell assault against the incoming horde of sirens attempting to breach the coastal defense.
As everyone knew, these bird-bodied, human-faced monsters could enchant and bewitch the minds of mortals through song.
If they managed to enter the city and sing to the defenseless residents, the consequences would be catastrophic.
At that moment, as the spellcasters strained their magic to the limit and launched interceptive spells, brilliant beams of light ripped through the night sky, blowing over ten low-flying sirens into shredded feathers.
Yet even as twisted descendants of divine bloodlines, these sirens still retained considerable intelligence.
They immediately began emitting sorrowful, piercing cries to disrupt the spellcasters' chants while flapping their wings furiously to gain altitude—evading the attacks coming from the ground.
Under this rising cacophony of haunting wails, the spellcasters clutched their heads in agony.
Their ground-to-air assaults faltered, and their suppression efforts began to collapse.
In an instant, a critical gap opened up in the aerial defense line along the coast.
Fortunately, at this crucial moment, the archers and crossbowmen on both flanks had finished reloading and launched a new volley.
Though their attacks dealt minimal damage, they successfully enraged the sirens, shifting their attention downward toward the coastal stronghold that had been obstructing them.
"Eat them!"
"Kill them!"
"Tear them apart!"
The sirens shrieked furiously as they dove toward the fortress.
Their screeching, laced with mental attacks, gave the defenders splitting headaches and caused their reactions to slow.
As the anti-air barrage weakened, the sirens seized the moment, swooping down to snatch soldiers off the walls—only to drop them from hundreds of feet in the air.
The results were grisly: bodies slammed into the stone ramparts, bursting like bags of meat, painting everything in crimson.
Next, the sirens cleverly shifted their focus to the spellcasters, those human artillery pieces—seeking to exploit their exhaustion and eliminate the greatest threat.
"Shields up! Spears ready!"
Seeing the chaos spreading, the eldest prince shouted immediately, shocking everyone's mind, making the soldiers subconsciously follow the order, assemble into a tight formation, and move closer to the surrounding spellcasters.
But, the Sirens, who were ready to expand their victory, would naturally not sit idly by and watch these humans stabilize their position, and immediately swooped down again.
"Not so fast!"
A crisp, girlish voice rang out.
A small, violet-haired figure took to the skies, unfurling a pair of bronze wings as she whipped her arm forward.
Shh-shh-shh-shh!
Dozens of bronze feathers shot out like razor-sharp darts, tearing through the chests of more than ten sirens in an instant.
Faced with overwhelming force, the sirens' formation collapsed.
They no longer dared approach the area near the deadly violet-haired girl.
They gave up the dense formation and wanted to bypass the purple-haired young girl who exuded a dangerous aura, preparing to outflank and kill the weak ordinary human behind her from both wings.
But by now, the soldiers atop the fortress had regrouped under the prince's command.
Ranks of interlocked round shields formed a barrier, with long spears thrusting through the gaps—ready and waiting.
When the sirens dove again, they were caught off guard. Two or three of the weaker ones were skewered instantly.
For divine-blooded creatures, being impaled by mere mortals was… more than a little humiliating.
Meanwhile, the spellcasters, seeing the danger pass, finally began to regain their strength. With brief recovery, they resumed their roles with full power.
For a moment ..defensive spells, empowering auras, and suppression curses lit up the walls, bolstering the defenders and holding the line.
"Damn it!"
"Filthy insects!"
Thwarted and humiliated, the sirens cursed like fishwives as they retreated toward the sea.
"You're not getting away!"
The little Medusa in the air flapped her wings without thinking, wanting to take advantage of the victory.
"Anna! Get back here!"
Seeing this girl so reckless, Lorne's face changed immediately and he shouted loudly.
Hearing the order behind him, the little Medusa, who had just flown a hundred meters, stagnated and immediately flapped her wings and turned around obediently.
"Aaaaaa—!"
However, just as the young Medusa turned back, a sharp, high-pitched single-syllable chant echoed from across the sea.
In an instant, everyone who heard the lilting melody went blank in the mind. Weapons slipped from their hands as they walked forward in a trance, dazed expressions on their faces as they stepped over the parapets.
"Coo-coo~~!"
Just as the beguiling song was spreading across the island, a crisp owl-like cry suddenly pierced the air. The clear sound jolted those under the siren's spell back to awareness.
At the same time, Lorne, his eyes sharp and mind unaffected, snatched a javelin from the hands of a nearby warrior with lightning speed.
Twisting his body into an exaggerated arc, he hurled the weapon forward with all his strength.
Thud!
With a sharp whistle slicing through the air, the javelin tore past the young Medusa's left side, grazing her hair—then nailed a purplish-red, sucker-covered octopus tentacle lurking in the shadows firmly to the ground.
(End of chapter)