[Atlantic Ocean] Gorgades

[Bloodedge]

In the Aethiopian Sea, several kilometers south of the lost city of Atlantis, lies the Gorgades Islands. These islands are home to the mythical Gorgon race, alongside various other creatures with no place in human society. At the center of this archipelago is the island Cerna: home to the royals among Gorgonkind, such as Medusa and her immortal sisters. The palace inhabited by Gorgon royals is placed on Cerna, and is made of the stone bodies of the ancient Titanaboa, and the throne within is made of still-living parts of the old serpents, including their eyes.

[Apollymi]

Whether or not they'd spoken about it anymore didn't really matter. As Deianira spent a great deal of time on the sea in the last week or so of travels with Athos. Her newest sight would be an archipelago on the horizon, small islands which was apparently where Athos wanted to go in the first place. She had an advanced view of this place from the bow of the ship aptly named the Careless Whisper, with use of her enhanced sight. She had a few thoughts on what this place could be, and she'd remark upon it in due time. Her new armor seemed to blow in the breeze as the young man manipulating the boat seemed to be steering them ever closer to this collection of islands.

Over the last week she'd learned a bit about the young man she was with part of it being is rather strained relationship with his god parent, along with his general dislike of people all together which she figured had something to do with his being a gorgon. Regardless of this fact, she'd taken a bit of a liking to him, for reasons all her own, and she'd help in anyway she could. "This is a nice place. Is this the home you wanted to go back to?" she asked as the islands came into a normal line of vision.

[Bloodedge]

By the time Deianira found words to share with the half-Gorgon, the ashen-haired male ceased his manipulation of the ocean waters, bringing their sea vessel to a calm coast across the waves. Many meters still separated the boat from the central, obviously most populated island in the archipelago. Athos held his left hand against his eye patch while looking out unto the land he sought, and words soon escaped him. "I'm going now," he said, not exactly giving the answer Deianira may have desired, but answering nonetheless. Indeed though, this was the home he sought to return to, albeit not the one he truly desired in the depths of his heart. As he stepped toward the edge of the boat, he hesitated for only a moment. "... Thanks," he stated. Without further ado, the son of Poseidon leaped into the sea, where he would swim toward the forest which seemed to be in a perpetual state just prior to the death of all trees on the island.

[Apollymi]

Deianira received not the explanation she sought, though if she were being truly honest with herself she didn't really expect an answer. What happened next though, was well beyond her expectations. As the lad rather casually mentioned he was leaving, after bringing the vessel to a gentle coast. He did this and soon enough escaped the boat into the sea, but not before uttering a single word of thanks. This was something well and truly unexpected, the raven haired lass had wide eyes, but before she could react he simply disappeared off the edge. She stood there on the coasting ship alone for a few moments, her eyes and mouth agape and her mind full of thoughts. "He said thanks?!" she wondered aloud now on her own. In fact, the child of Dionysus found herself in a bit of internal conflict. To be fair, she'd helped the boy get to the place he wanted to go, so far as she knew. He was now armed in a way which he thought would help him overcome whatever obstacle he meant to face.

Even so, Deianira was plagued by the idea that she still didn't actually know much about this boy nor his plight. Beyond this, he'd offered her thanks which she hadn't rightly expected from him. It felt wrong to abandon him at this point, and beyond that, she had no idea what troubles he'd find himself facing. 'I should probably just leave this be, it tends to upset him when I go places after him...' she thought. 'But... I'd feel bad leaving him right now without knowing that he got what he actually wanted. It's a shade too close to an untruth for me to be satisfied,' she thought as she paced back and forth a few seconds longer. 'Okay, how about... I don't get involved, I'll just make sure he's okay. Yeah, that isn't meddling... not really,' she argued with herself. 'I can't leave him,' she thought. 'But, I don't want to steer this boat, and that water closer to shore looks murky... ugh... fine,' she thought making a deal with herself to do a thing which she didn't do often.

In this moment a necklace which she kept hidden beneath the neck piece of her new armor and before that beneath a leather strip she always wore. This would seem strange it looked a bit like a stone only not like any one which occurred naturally in the world. It had a strange gleam to it and was diamond shaped and glittered golden ever so slightly. The light of it increased by a drastic amount and it'd envelop the young demigod. In doing so, it would clothe her in golden armor decorated by filigree and fitted to her frame. It was not unlike the armor seen on one such as Camus or even Aoilia. It categorized her as one like them, a Champion for a God or Goddess, in particular, Deianira was once again linked to Artemis. Afterward the girl would jump from the top of the ship, and in doing so perform a spin in the air, causing a pair of giant golden wings to blossom from her back. They were part of the armor, but served the purpose to allow the girl to fly which she began to do in the same direction that Athos had taken off in.

[Bloodedge]

Athos proved himself to be far more agile underwater than he managed to be on land, even transformed. He even utilized said transformation to slither onward from just beneath the water's surface. Eventually, he flopped over into a stream of the murkier waters found deeper in this island, which held its dulled golden color due to these marshlands being atop the carcasses of various serpentine creatures and mythical beings, some greater in stature than mortals could fathom. After only a minute or so of travel through these marshes, he began passing old pillars of stone, and encroached upon a stone building with a very realistic pair of humongous serpents forming its entryway decor by wrapping around most of the outer wall, and one even having its tail stretching out into the water itself. This was at the very center of the island, and though the building didn't seem very large, the opening of the door revealed it to be a mostly underground structure, as the torches upon the wall were on a downward slope. The incline was steep. To descend, Athos - without his eye patch, thus in his Gorgon form again - furthered his transformation to grow out his tail as he slid down. By the time he reached his full length of about 20 feet, he was only about a quarter of the way down.

[Apollymi]

Deianira now taken to the skies above was seated with a very interesting problem. Athos had all but disappeared ahead of her taking off in the water, and while she'd figured he'd be faster in the sea than on land, she hadn't accounted for how much faster. 'This just became a strange hunting trip,' she said as her eyes focused deeper than the surface of the water. She began looking for small disturbances to let her know the way he'd gone. And eventually found herself turning off the main path of the oceans blue and green to a murkier marshland. 'Ah, dead snake problems...' she thought as the golden hue of the water was ever so lightly disturbed by the young boy's movements. Those disturbances though, were quite odd, 'Those aren't legs,' her eyes widened. A big game hunt unlike any other could take place here, and though she was only doing this now to look for her friend it was rather quickly becoming an interesting idea to her. Snakes around this area were large enough to pollute the water, they had to be more than reasonable prey. Her immediate ideal hunting happiness only curbed by a singular idea. 'Wait, wait, it'd be bad to think about hunting someone's proper family right? Okay, calm down,' she managed to think. She hung back quite a bit, finally seeing the white haired lad emerge in full snake form from the waters edge and head into a rather strange looking building. She knew for a fact it led underground, but given the boy's behavior and general demands, she could only figure he had a gorgon stare. With this knowledge and some general idea of where they were, following underground didn't seem like a good idea. so instead she found herself examining the outside of this building. 'These are strangely lifelike?' she thought as she'd never seen a scupltor capable of capturing such livelihood in an animal before. And she'd seen many in her time as a demigod.

[Bloodedge]

The trip Athos was making happened to be one he had made a few times in his life. In this case, though, it was seeming like the longest journey of said life. The corridor he traveled down had multiple offshoots on either side, but he continued on a straightforward path. Eventually, this direct route opened up to reveal a great room that looked something like a discard pile from an ancient library. Books filled the floor in large piles, particularly ones surrounding a staircase that led upward to a throne. Behind the throne was a massive, living tentacle structure with a large eye at its center, and various smaller eyes around that. The true sight to behold however, was the throne itself - or rather, the 41 foot green tail coiled in the area around it, ending in a muscular humanoid torso upon the seat. The figure Athos beheld was a male Gorgon with a crown upon his head, and crimson fabric covering his blinded eyes and binding the majority of his body. His name was Chrysaor, and he was known here as the Gorgon King... as well as Athos' elder brother, one of the first children born of Poseidon and Medusa.

"You..." he hissed as that massive tail began to shift, disturbing the stability of everything around him with weight that greatly surpassed a measured ton. "I knew a Gorgon would come, but you were not what I expected. As well... I banished you. Do you remember those words I spoke to you that time?"

[Apollymi]

Deianira continued to investigate these large snakes on the exterior of the building. Her eyes wide as she realized what they had to be. 'Oh no, these aren't lifelike statues. These were alive at some point, killed, and frozen in statue state...' her thoughts gave her great pause. She'd known Athos had descended into this lair of sorts, and while she knew the boy to be perfectly capable of defending himself, she began to wonder how he'd fare in a fight against something capable of immobilizing something as large as the snakes outside of this place. 'Ugh, I have a bad feeling...' she frowned intensely as she looked at the entrance still hovering above the ground. Instinct and her chats with Invi told her she didn't want to let a snake that could see her normally know her exact location. Still the rumble as something began to stir below gave her pause. 'I should go see... I feel like he's going to be cross with me though,' she said rubbing a golden gloved hand over her face. She'd never had to navigate the feelings of someone who wasn't properly affected by her, and the people who were passively unaffected tended to aim for nice regardless. A feeling of dread settled in as she began her descent and it had nothing to do with her own personal feelings about this place, nor her potential impending doom, and everything to do with the friend she was trying to make, being upset that she'd come. But in her own mind, he hadn't specifically told her not to, so he couldn't really be upset... right?

[Bloodedge]

"You said there would be only one living male Gorgon the day I came back," Athos replied to the green male. This wasn't exactly what was spoken by Chrysaor; what he said was more along the lines of killing Athos so he was the only living male of their species. Of course, he took exception to the way his younger brother responded. "You cocky little shit. You're just like Poseidon, after all." The words spoken by Chrysaor caused an expression never before seen on Athos' visage - one of anger. Of course, Chrysaor could not see this now either, but he could feel what came next.

In a flash, Athos was slithering up to the throne, baring his neurotoxic nails against the venomless Gorgon King. He was swift in his approach, but what he wasn't, was anywhere near as powerful as his would-be victim. Chrysaor's tail uncoiled only slightly to lash out at the encroaching Athos, and it struck the boy hard enough to launch him to the throne room's entryway while knocking all the air from his lungs. Once this was done, Chrysaor's still uncoiling tail went about removing him from the throne. "Attacking the king... is an act punishable by something much worse than death," the elder serpent spoke while stretching the bindings on his right arm to grab a massive bow from behind his throne. His left arm, at the same time, reached out to take up a quiver filled with arrows the size of long swords. "Firssst~... You'll be my plaything."

[Apollymi]

As Deianira made her descent she began to hear voices. One male voice, though seldom heard was recognizable to her as Athos. The other, she did not know on cue but figured it was whoever the boy had come to see. The nature of this conversation let her know, he was likely the one the white haired young man intended to fight, but beyond that point, there wasn't much to be said one way or the other. 'This doesn't seem good.' she thought as her feet still weren't anywhere near the ground. Still a rather sudden movement from Athos made Deianira's silver eyes widen immensely. 'Fast...' she thought only to immediately find herself shifting backwards to avoid the smaller snake boy flying her way. It seemed whoever this was that Athos had come for was quite a powerful foe indeed, and more than twice the smaller boy's size. 'This... isn't good at all...' she said as she watched in the distance as the very green male gorgon took up a bow and claimed the young man now near her would be his plaything. 'This definitely seems like the sort of thing I shouldn't interfere in...' she thought as she examined Athos from a fairly close distance though he didn't seem to be anything more than winded from his first toss. She could be seen likely from the corner of his eye as a golden glint, she could only hope he wouldn't freak out about it. Still, as she shifted backward she used one of her lesser abused power and spoke to the lad telepathically. Of course, doing so would likely be a bit shocking, and it was something she usually avoided doing to people, but the situation seemed pretty dire. 'Now, before you get mad, you didn't actually tell me not to come. So, I decided to see if you were okay. But this all looks pretty dangerous, so do you have a plan? If you do, I'll just watch. It just felt wrong to have agreed to help you, only for it to lead to your impending demise...' she mentioned quickly only to disappear from the boy's mind just as gently as she'd appeared.

[Bloodedge]

"Firssst... maybe you should do something about that lisp," said Athos as he pulled himself off the floor and, metaphorically speaking, pulled himself back together as well. Before the peak of his rise, a shimmer appeared in Athos' periphery. He did not look toward it, but he didn't need to, as a voice entered his mind before he even could. What he heard within his subconscious was the voice that had plagued him for days on end with its constant attempts at involvement with his ordeals. No response was given... At least, not by Athos. Chrysaor did respond to the girl's existence after whiffing the air around him. "There. You're the one. I've been waiting for two years, but you've finally come. The Huntressss... my perfect Gorgon Queen."

Athos had no clue what sort of interaction Chrysaor thought he was having with the female demigod, but that didn't matter; he was distracted now. With this extra few moments of rest, he took up the Boa Sword gifted to him by Hephaestus, and held it at the ready.

[Apollymi]

A mental chuckle came from Deianira as Athos spoke, aloud and to the man she supposed was his brother, given she knew of is other familial relations. She supposed if nothing else, it was nice to note that his lack of manners seemed to extend in all directions, and not just hers. Regardless of this fact though, it would appear she'd been spotted and not by any method she'd expected. The now distracted Gorgon King, spoke directly to her in a fashion she didn't rightly expect, but since she now knew for a fact that he knew of her presence she hid it no longer. She felt more than a mild bit of confusion at his words, mostly the idea that she was somehow perfect to be his queen. "Huntress? Yeah, but I am pretty sure I am lacking at least a couple of qualifications to be a 'Gorgon' Queen, or anyone's queen really," the girl stated as she watched her companion pull himself together and ready his sword. "Also, no idea why you'd be waiting for me, we haven't met... I never forget a face~" she chimed, and though that was true there were several things equally more remarkable in this moment. "Or another archer," obviously she could be a bit of a distraction to Chrysaor in this moment, and she'd do so to help out Athos, if only because it seemed like the smaller boy could accurately use the given advantage, no matter how small it was.

[Bloodedge]

"No. You are the queen... the other bow-wielding Gorgon. There is no greater truth," said Chrysaor. In truth, though Chrysaor had once paid the price of his own eyesight, but it had come with the secret benefit of sight beyond sight. He was a seer, in some respect. He had foreseen the huntress, Deianira, entering his throne room with the scent of a Gorgon upon her. Surely this vision could not have led him astray, as none of his others - including that which foretold his rise to kingship - had done so before. "Could it be... the two of you came together?" he asked while shifting his head toward Athos, who stopped dead in his tracks in that very moment. Whilst this conversation had been such a distraction, Athos had begun slithering toward Chrysaor by taking an arc approach to the side opposite to Deianira. He'd hoped to make use of his sword by approaching in such a way, bu Chrysaor remained aware of the boy's presence at all times. To silence his approach further, Chrysaor readied his bow by pointing it in Athos' direction, loading into it an arrow of great proportions that seemed to take unrivaled amounts of brute strength to even draw back. As he made these movements so powerful in nature, the enchanted fabric wrapped around his body seemed to somehow be stretching, not to accommodate his movements, but to hinder them from a would-be greater state. "You will not sneak up on me, son of Poseidon. Be still as I speak with my queen."

[Apollymi]

"No greater truth? That seems a bit set in stone..." she said with a small chuckle. "No pun intended of course. Well... maybe just a little. It was funny," she said in reference to her own joke. Still this boy spoke as if he'd seen her with the sight beyond that of his normal form, which was the only way such a thing was possible considering he was likely blind by his mannerisms. Regardless, Deianira felt the need to clear up a few things. "I'm not a Gorgon at all, I'm a demigod. Child of Dionysus and separately from that Artemis' chosen Huntress. It is literally impossible for me to be the 'Queen' in your vision, I couldn't be a Huntress anymore if I was..." Deianira managed. She watched casually as Athos shifted around and hoped he would strike soon, but it seemed that the massive gorgon king was more than aware of his younger brother's movements. Deianira's eyes widened as she watched Chrysaor but arrow to bow, with a strength she'd not seen in a demigod in quite some time. And beyond that was quite acutely aware of the movements of the ribbons which seemed to hold back his person.

'You should be very careful. The tensile strength behind that arrow is going to be greater than anything I've ever seen produced. If it hits you, it'll go straight through...' she mentioned that warning with the warm telepathic whisper she'd given the lad Athos before. "The strength required to use that bow is massive. I'm impressed," she said, and there was a great amount of truth in that sentiment, but still... there was the matter of how she'd arrived in this place. "I'm just looking out for a new friend. He got here before me, but I was arguing with myself about whether he'd be upset if I followed him here..." she said honestly. This conversation was something of a distraction, and the golden clad young woman would keep it up. Though she knew her words could likely be taken as flirtatious she didn't mean them as such, she was, in fact, being as honest about her life situation as she possibly could, so that Chrysaor should he continue living after this situation wouldn't get the wrong idea. All the girl knew were platonic relationships, because that is all she could know and keep the full range of powers she currently possessed. This included her ability to use a bow which wasn't something she'd give up, especially given how much it allowed her to help her friends.

[Bloodedge]

"... Hmph," was Athos' response. He'd take the warning of Deianira, but it didn't much matter. He knew the power wielded by his brother was beyond the comprehension of mortals, but of the multitude of reasons Athos himself had been banished by the elder Gorgon, one was the fact that Athos boasted powers Chrysaor could not possess: the powers of their father. As such, the white-haired boy's free left hand touched the floor beneath him, causing finite tremors in the ground to bring rise to a pillar of rock in front of him. As this formed, Chrysaor continued speaking to Deianira. "So you did come together. No matter. Old tomes tell of those blessed by Artemis; some were foolish enough to try hunting us in the past. There are methods for keeping the blessing, and methods for fixing this... lack of Gorgon blood. As king, I hold these powers. Or... are you too attached to this mistake?" Chrysaor's ending query spoke of Athos. He knew of the wall this boy attempted to use as a shield, but he knew more of his own strength. He released the arrow he'd been holding, resulting in an audible effect akin to a small sonic boom as it blasted through the stone wall, and the floor thereafter. Between these two things was a splatter of blood, visible from either side of the barrier, but not a single sound came from Athos. "The boy will never be upset. He'll never be anything. He was never anything more than a clump of genes and powers that should have never coexisted. Join me, huntress. As you can see, my power is more than enough to do something about that curse you were given by Artemis."