"Watch out!"
Apollo instantly sensed movement beneath the water and instinctively yanked Eros behind her.
A massive black tail sliced through the ocean, rising like a curtain that blocked out the sun, crashing down toward their tiny boat.
Compared to the enormous tail and the mountainous wave it carried, their little vessel was like a speck of dust.
Boom!
The tidal wave struck a thin golden barrier of light but couldn't breach it.
Even so, the sheer force of the wave reverberated through the shield. The boat shuddered violently, creaking as if it would collapse at any moment.
Eros barely kept his footing. It was the first time he had ever come face-to-face with a creature of mythic scale.
The shadow beneath the waves hadn't even revealed itself yet, and still the raging sea nearly swallowed him whole.
Apollo's lyre transformed into a golden longbow. Her blazing amber eyes pierced through the murky depths, tracking the beast slithering beneath the waves.
Golden rays materialized into divine arrows, raining down like sunlight tearing through the storm, illuminating the turbulent sea.
Finally, the monster showed itself, rising from below like the embodiment of the storm.
A jet-black serpent. Enormous, beyond anything Eros had ever imagined, even greater than the titanic snakes he'd read about in myths.
With its serpentine frame and skeletal strength, it looked like it could devour him and the entire boat in a single gulp.
And that's exactly what it was trying to do.
Its tail whipped the ocean into a whirlpool, dragging the boat closer to its widening jaws.
Apollo's arrows struck its scales, leaving behind nothing more than pitted scorch marks, barely even scratches.
"Hey! Apollo, are you even trying?!"
Eros shot a bolt of his limited sky-given authority toward it. It singed the serpent's flesh slightly, but the impact radius was far too small.
Then Apollo's expression changed, surprised, almost disbelieving.
"Python?!"
"You're supposed to be dead!"
There was no more holding back. Whether Hera noticed or not, Apollo unleashed her divine presence.
In an instant, Eros's vision went completely white, like getting flashbanged by eighteen grenades in a pitch-black FPS night map.
Blinding light erupted from Apollo, then contracted. Just before the serpent's fangs closed in on them, it exploded outward in a burst of radiant energy.
The shockwave and flash were so intense, Eros stood dazed for several seconds before he could even blink again.
"Okay… who just threw a Solar Flare?!"
Eros rubbed his eyes, squinting at the stunned-looking Apollo.
"Is it over?"
A gaping hole had been torn through the clouds, and the raging wind and crashing waves began to ease. The serpent's shadow slowly sank back into the sea.
It all felt abrupt, almost anticlimactic.
"Yeah," Apollo nodded, but her radiant face was shadowed with unease.
"That thing… I killed it. I killed it with my own hands. So why is it here again?"
That monstrous serpent Python had once hunted Apollo's mother, Leto, under Hera's orders.
Not long after she was born, Apollo had slain it herself at Delphi with her bow and claimed the site as her sacred temple.
So why now? Why was it back?
No, something was wrong!
By the time Apollo realized it, it was already too late.
The serpent, which had silently submerged earlier, was now racing upward like a lightning bolt from the depths.
Its gaping maw shattered half of the boat in an instant and swallowed Apollo whole.
Eros stood there, stunned.
Apollo… really?
Weren't you the one who swore everything would be fine before we left port? And now what? this?
Even a defeated boss gets to make a comeback and own you on round two?
Luckily, within the serpent's jaws, golden light flared once again.
Apollo wedged her longbow between its jaws to hold them open, then summoned a blazing gold sword into her hand.
Sensing something was off, the serpent immediately spat her out, flinging her back onto the splintered remains of the boat.
"You scared the hell out of me! I thought you were really gonna get your ticket punched."
Eros let out a deep breath of relief. If Apollo had died, he'd honestly consider restarting from scratch.
Unless he just screamed "ZEUS!" really loud and hoped for a buffed-up divine bodyguard to drop from the sky.
But the next moment, he noticed something wrong.
Apollo's sunny expression, usually radiant was now clouded by a visible shadow. Her aura dimmed.
A cold chill crawled up Eros's spine.
No way… poison?
This was Greek mythology, poison here wasn't a joke. It was practically a rule-defying weapon. So many demigods and heroes had died from it.
Even Cronus, the Titan King, was forced to vomit up his five swallowed children after being weakened by Metis's potion.
"No… it's not poison."
Apollo grit her silver teeth and crouched low, glaring at the serpent like it had just mocked her.
"This is worse. That thing... it's using fragments of dark authority, must've been gifted by Hera."
Python. A child of Gaia. Apollo's destined foe.
She had already slain it once, it was supposed to be her stepping stone.
Yet here it was again, resurrected from the depths of Tartarus, and now cloaked in a power it should never have had.
Apollo's eyes narrowed. In all of Olympus, there was only one being who had both the motive and the means to make this happen.
Hera.
But Apollo had been so careful. She hadn't exposed herself once since this journey began.
If Hera had simply noticed Eros sailing off alone, there was no reason for such a direct, targeted attack.
And now that she thought about it, Eros remembered how all this trouble started—and realized something.
His achievement, Flamebearer, had dramatically increased his notoriety.
Of course Hera would've noticed. His rising fame had caught the attention of the gods.
Damn it. I really thought the fame buff was just a buff. I completely forgot that it might actually come with consequences!
Hera hadn't been interested in him at first. She probably expected he'd die naturally when his era ended.
But with his sudden notoriety spike, she took notice, and in the process, discovered Apollo hiding at his side.
Goddamn it, Eros thought. We haven't even set off properly and this is how I go? Apollo looks like she's about to fall over!
The pitch-black serpent didn't rush in again. Instead, it circled beneath the waves, biding its time, waiting for Apollo to weaken.
Light could push back the darkness, but darkness, when thick enough, could smother even light.
If Apollo had time, she could purge the dark fragment from her body and easily defeat the serpent.
But the moment she tried, the serpent would pounce again.
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Hey everyone! I'll be dropping an extra 1 chapter once we hit 200, 400 power stones! If you're enjoying the story, don't forget to spend some power stones. I'd really appreciate the support. Thanks a bunch!