The Myth of the Greek Heavenly Demon - Chapter 101

Chapter 101 – Is This How It Is Done?

As she unleashed her divine power and revealed her true strength, the face of the blasphemer, who had been smiling leisurely, gradually hardened.
She was the moonlight spear descending from the sky, the silver-horned doe tearing the earth, the mesmerizing hawk, and the sacred leopard tearing at the neck of its prey.
In her hunting ground, under the crescent moon, she commanded the winds to blind the impious, roots to bind his feet, and the pervasive moonlight to form her avatar, drawing arrows to his neck.
Her avatar, the crescent moon, rising high in the sky, was a sharp trap swallowing her prey and a noose tightening around his neck. Each time the moonlight shimmered, the black blasphemer rolled his eyes, unable to hide his anxiety.
Her momentum was gradually increasing, but the impudent one, who was only hastily blocking with the spear, was retreating step by step, as if the force that had defeated the huntresses and the previous large explosion had vanished.

‘I’m going to win!’

It was only natural.

Artemis was so confident of her victory that the moment she entertained the doubt of possibly losing felt foolish.

“Hahaha! What is it? Has the power of a god, the divine authority of a goddess seated on Olympus, finally made you seek mercy?”

“…”

The mouth that dared to disturb her was tightly shut, and the spear that insolently tried to touch her lips was becoming gradually urgent.
The Goddess of the Hunt couldn’t contain her laughter in delight.

“Hahahaha! You look just like a deer cornered!”

Ah, yes! Let’s turn you into a deer!
She would cover his unnecessarily handsome face with the mask of a deer, drape his filthy body in the hide of a beast, and let her huntresses and hounds chase him, terrified, through the eternal night.

The moonlight spread all around and gathered into the hands of Artemis, who was filled with a cruel delight and satisfaction rising deep in her chest and began to shine.

[Σας διατάζω, υπακούστε.]

This was her hunting ground.
A sacred sanctuary allowed only to her and her huntresses, and the land of the crescent moon, where her avatar resided.
All the power of this land began to stir to realize her will.

-Swish!

The stones and roots of the ground on which the blasphemer stood bound his arms and legs that had mocked her.

-Whoooosh!

The swirling wind covered his black eyes and blocked his breath.

-Whirr!

Caught off guard by the sudden situation, the blasphemer hesitated, and the moonlight’s snare and shackles tightened around his neck and bound his limbs.
In an instant, the black-haired blasphemer was rendered immobile. In an instant, he found his life hanging by a thread in her own hands.

“A prey caught in a trap.”

The cruel goddess looked down at the foolish hero bound to the earth and beautifully mocked his folly.

“Your folly will be known throughout Greece. The hero who dared challenge Artemis, relying only on his abilities and the backing of a goddess, met a pathetic end.”

Artemis, slowly looking down at the foolishly bound sinner, then descended slowly and stood before him.
The opponent was already a captured prey.
The audacious tongue that mocked the Goddess of Purity, the eyes that cast lustful shadows over her, the hands that threatened her, and the legs that toyed with her.
For a sinner marked with sin and disrespect towards her from head to toe, a simple death was nothing short of mercy.

“Hmph… Truly unfortunate. So exceedingly unfortunate.”

She slowly whispered, surveying the bound prey.
The Goddess of the Hunt felt a surge of dark satisfaction and exhilaration deep within her chest at the quiet eyes and the blasphemer’s resigned response, as if even rebellion had been abandoned.
Anyway, this guy was prey caught by her, a pitiful loser who needed her permission even to breathe.
Just like when she hunted the giant serpent Python that tormented the twins and her mother long ago, the thrill of capturing a strong and swift prey and the exhilaration of seizing a weakness of her tormentor, stepmother Hera, sent a shiver down her spine.

“Rough and crude, but… I can tell. Truly a beautiful body.”

Artemis, who detested all men except her father and brother, found the captured beast, upon careful inspection, truly a waste even to her discerning eye.

“Did you say Dianes? Truly unfortunate.”

Having lived a long rebirth as a huntress, the Goddess of the Hunt had hunted countless beasts, monsters, and even heroes who dared to target her without knowing their place.
Artemis could see how exceptional the body of the warrior bound before her was.

“With such a nimble and strong body. To dare insult and mock me while flaunting the wisdom of using a goddess’s power.”

Her eyes, which even the fastest bird in the world couldn’t escape, were taunted by a strange speed.
The power that pierced the eyes of the giant serpent Python and shattered its scales with a silver arrow.
The white body revealed beneath the black cloak had no wounds, yet the pulsating vigor and the vibrant muscles that seemed like a volcano about to erupt were truly the epitome of an ideal warrior.

“If you had not been even slightly disrespectful, if you had not insulted me by backing the might of Lady Hera, I would have granted you a peaceful death out of mercy…”

However, the irreverent one who challenged the majesty of Olympus, the scoundrel who dared to provoke the Goddess of Purity, could never be forgiven.
The silver divine power that began to gather in her hand slowly shimmered with a poisonous glint and started transforming into a curse.

[ηλίθια σκύλα Φορέστε τη μάσκα του θηρίου και μετανοήστε για τις αμαρτίες σας.]

In her hands, the curse took form—the mark of the prey, her favorite punishment for those who defied her.
It was the divine punishment she should have inflicted on him in Passos when he dared to catch her arrow.
Now, the curse would pierce the blasphemer’s heart, warping his body and beginning the hunt.

“You shall have a mouth but be unable to speak for yourself, have legs but be able only to flee, and possess a human soul but end your life as a beast.”

The goddess’s delicate lips whispered punishment into the sinner’s ear with a sweet fragrance, and her curse-laden hand slowly began to approach the hero’s heart.

“…do you have any last words?”

-Nod.

The irreverent hero was looking at her with strangely calm eyes as she approached.
Soon, a delightful hunt would begin, and the end for this blasphemer was already set.
Artemis decided to grant his last words with goddess-like mercy.

“I will grant my final mercy. Go on, leave your last breath.”

What would he say?
Would he repent for his sins and beg for mercy? Would he flail about disgracefully in a frenzy?
Would he pathetically beg for his life with worthless flattery? Would he kiss her feet in submission?

Without hiding her deep sneer and cruel delight, the beautiful goddess lifted the wind that sealed his lips.

“Phew… so…”

“So? You’re asking to be spared? Begging for mercy?”

“So… pffft!”

“…?”

The black eyes that had stared at her in fear began to shake, and then his head drooped as his body trembled.
Was he so terrified that he couldn’t even catch his breath? Just as Artemis was about to savor the moment—

“PUHAHAHA! HAHAHA!”

Contrary to all her expectations, the prisoner, finally finding his voice, burst into laughter as if it were amusing.

“Have you lost your mind?”

In response to the laughter that didn’t fit the dire situation of this irreverent hero, Artemis muttered disdainfully.
The irreverent one just shook his black hair and continued to laugh.

“Pfft… Ah, wait. I can’t… Hahaha!!”

Despite her mockery, the man only laughed harder, as if he couldn’t contain his amusement.
His laughter unsettled the huntresses around them, and even Artemis found herself raising her voice, a strange sense of unease gnawing at her.

“Wh-what is it?! What on earth is so funny?! You are about to be caught in a state between life and a terrible death at the hands of this Artemis!!”

No matter if it was the king of a mighty kingdom, a hero with a reputation that shook the heavens, or a beast that shook the earth.
When her arrow was aimed and the moonlight cast upon their neck, everyone would cry and beg for mercy.
The sight of once mighty men kneeling before her and pleading for mercy was the greatest entertainment for her, and subjugating men who claimed to rule the world and watching them die miserably was the ultimate pleasure.
However, one of the most formidable prey in her long new life, Hera’s minion, was supposed to kneel before her, begging for mercy, and disgracefully surrender. Yet, the man showed not an ounce of fear and merely laughed.
His demeanor was so starkly opposed to the intimidation she felt earlier from his presence that it turned her shame into a blush on the goddess’s face.

“Pffffft… Ah, sorry, sorry, so what I mean is…”

“Yes, what is it? Go on, speak! Beg for your life, lick my feet, and plead for mercy!!”

In an inexplicable urgency, Artemis found herself bizarrely asking him to surrender to her.
Even her huntresses were bewildered, and Artemis herself was confused, as he began to speak.

“So… is this how it’s done?”

“What?”

A deadly breath cut through the air.
In the blink of an eye, the moonlight and vines that had bound the blasphemer were gone.
Artemis, bewildered by what had just happened, didn’t even notice the black shape lunging at her neck until it was too late.

-Crunch!

“Kyah?!”

A black snake, coiling around her throat and chest, squeezed tightly.
Sharp pain pierced her white neck, and Artemis let out a scream.

It was a colossal snake clad in pitch-black scales, like the sky on a moonless night that even the moon refuses, with eyes flickering crimson flames.
The massive black snake that instantly violated the goddess’s neck dug its fangs deeper, and the strange energy coursing through those long fangs made the goddess shudder.

“This, what is this…? Grr?! Stop, stop! Argh!”

Artemis’s body convulsed and bent like a bow, as if a scorching flame was coursing through her veins.
A chilling anxiety swept down her spine, and her intermittently twitching body was already beyond her control.
The strange sensation of electricity flowing through her entire body made Artemis’s instincts scream in alarm.
She had a premonition that something truly disastrous would happen if she stayed like this, so Artemis shook off the snake with all her might.

“Grgh… Let go, let go!”

Regaining her senses, she channeled her divine power to push it away, and the snake that had constricted her surprisingly easily fell away and transformed.

“You, you bastard…!”

“How was that? I just learned it from you; didn’t I pick it up quickly?”

Looking down at the goddess, who was trembling and cowering like a newborn fawn, the demonic master who had reached the pinnacle of demonic arts laughed cheerfully.