"Hmm... Mm..."
Though puzzled, Ladon still nodded seriously at the teacher's grave tone, committing every word of caution to memory.
The ancient serpent's tense expression softened into a faint smile. Raising a hand, he gently brushed Ladon's cold, gleaming silver scales, finally setting aside one long-held concern.
In his memory, the Harpy had stayed far from the mainland, rarely facing danger. Cerberus, though often taken out, had always remained unharmed as the key guardian of the Underworld's gates. But the mightiest of them all, the hundred-headed dragon Ladon, precisely because she guarded a precious divine treasure, was the only one among the three divine beasts to leave behind a record of death.
In the future, Heracles' eleventh labor would be to steal the golden apples from the sacred garden, watched over by the hundred-headed dragon and the three daughters of Nyx. There was no record of Heracles fighting Ladon directly. Instead, he bargained with Atlas, the Titan who bore the heavens. In exchange for helping Atlas shoulder the sky, the hero slipped into the garden, lulled Ladon to sleep, stole one golden apple, and killed her.
The sacred garden lay upon Mount Atlas. In other words, the Titan who later felled Ladon likely roamed this very land.
Though Samael had fed Ladon a golden apple to grant her immortality as a safeguard, Atlas and Heracles were no ordinary foes. One was a reckless Titan bold enough to defy Zeus, the other a notorious slayer of divine beasts. Calling them fools would not be wrong.
What Samael truly feared was that if these two hot-headed brutes clashed with Ladon and lost once, they might only grow more determined, teaming up to bring her down instead.
Yes—both the hundred-headed dragon Ladon and the nine-headed Hydra were female.
Heracles' Twelve Labors were said to atone for the crime of killing his children in a fit of madness. In truth, they were a compromise with the gods—a plea to Hera, Queen of Heaven, to stop persecuting Zeus' illegitimate son. This is shown by the fact that when he obtained the golden apples, Heracles, deeming himself unworthy, handed them directly to Hera.
In other words, the Twelve Labors were orchestrated by the gods. Ladon, unaware of the scheme, had stumbled into it, and died without ever knowing why. After all, the immortality granted by the golden apple was not absolute.
Seeing the intelligent dragon take the advice to heart, Samael finally let out a long breath, the weight in his chest slowly easing.
The wild offspring of Typhon, however, were another matter. The moment they heard they could leave the Arima Caverns to roam the outside world, they scrambled to sign up. Even the three smaller ones involved in this task had volunteered of their own will. But Samael knew the dangers all too well. After raising them for so long, he couldn't help but care for their safety.
Still—these were golden apples! Apples so rare even the gods seldom tasted them!
The ancient serpent looked at the gemstones in his palm, his lips twitching with pained reluctance.
Thief! Scoundrel! Those are my gems! Treasures I risked angering the Mother Goddess to steal!
At the same time, Ladon's central core followed the gleam shifting between Samael's fingers, her heart bleeding with every shimmer.
"Tch!"
"Pah!"
The two locked eyes, each secretly sneering at the other, both convinced they had been cheated.
Buzz!
Just as master and disciple's gazes grew sharper, both weighing whether to go back on their deal, the rocky buds formed by the Earth's power around the golden apple tree cracked apart with a heavy, solemn resonance.
Waves of purple-yellow light rippled outward. The barren, unsettled rocky garden trembled as the soil shifted. Sprouts broke through the earth, shooting upward at a visible pace, greenery spreading like wildfire.
Leaves unfurled, branches stretched, blossoms bloomed, and fruits swelled—all within moments. And in the next instant, all that lush life withered away, its brief existence extinguished.
Samael narrowed his serpent eyes. Through the rising dust, he glimpsed green foliage, dark soil, flickering shadows of life, and within it, divine power as potent as that radiating from the Blood Fort's deity. He exhaled in relief.
It worked!
A breeze stirred, scattering the haze. Yet to the ancient serpent's regret, the towering figure more than two meters tall shrank with each step forward, her grandeur fading as she drew near.
"Ahem, Ana, I still need to rush back to meet Mother Earth. Best to revert to your original form."
Forget about Samael's Delight—that was never happening. But at least if he brought back some tiny shrunken form, it wouldn't look good, would it?
Hearing that her cherished Loli form was forbidden, Medusa, midway through her transformation, stopped abruptly, hesitating for a moment.
"Besides, Athena is here too. If she saw you like that... you know."
At those words, Medusa immediately ceased her shrinking. She kept her mature onee-san form and stepped out of the dust cloud.
Still, even in this usual form, Samael couldn't help noticing that Medusa's chest seemed to have undergone a "second growth," as if swelling with a pride of its own.
Tch. Women and their pitiful competitiveness.
The ancient serpent smirked inwardly, shaking his head, though outwardly he remained perfectly solemn, feigning attentiveness.
Oblivious to this, Medusa walked up to Samael and began summarizing her gains.
So effortless a success, awakening a full day early—and it all came from the Gorgon's memories?
Samael was deeply moved.
As the saying goes, fortune and misfortune depend on each other. Her Mesopotamian ordeal had been fraught with peril, countless brushes with death. Even Ana herself had nearly lost her way, drowning in those wretched memories.
Yet it was precisely through devouring her two sisters, absorbing their divinity, and stealing Tiamat's authority through Summoning, that Medusa now held invaluable knowledge of earth's power and the creation of life, along with a profound affinity for the Earth Mother's authority.
And now, the appearance of the Golden Apple Tree had given her the chance to refine her divinity and complete herself.
There was no doubt—the Mystery Flower now bloomed in perfection only because it had rooted itself in that soil of tragedy and corruption.
Samael felt true relief. He raised his hand and patted the fragrant shoulder of the new Earth Mother Goddess, a smile spreading across his face.
With Medusa's accomplishment complete, the rock behind the Golden Apple Tree shifted upward, shaping itself into a hollow archway.
The two exchanged smiles, knowing this was Gaia's summons. With a nod of understanding, they stepped forward.
But as they passed beneath the tree, its branches rustled above them.
"Thud!"
A golden apple dropped squarely onto Samael's head before landing in his arms. He chuckled, his mood lifting even more.
Hmm, the golden apple he had spent on Ladon was now repaid.
Seems this Mother Earth is rather straightforward.
"Guard the sacred garden well. When we have time, I'll come visit you with the others."
After bidding farewell to Ladon, the two figures stepped lightly into the stone archway. With a flash of earthen light, their forms vanished.
The hundred-headed dragon, who had just been preparing for a nap, instantly sprang to life. The moment she spotted the gems tossed from the fading light, a hundred heads lunged at them like hounds upon prey, snapping and seizing with startling speed.
My little darlings! My little darlings are back!