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Gorgona: Even Monsters Can Love

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Synopsis
He betrayed her once, and she spared him. He betrayed her twice, and she chose to become the monster they all feared. Cursed by the gods. Loved by a mortal. Broken by betrayal. Gorgona was once a divine priestess, beautiful, kind, untouchable. Then came the curse. The serpents. The power to turn anyone into stone with a single look. But even monsters remember how to love. And when the boy who shattered her heart dares to meet her gaze again... He'll learn that mercy is never guaranteed.
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Chapter 1 - GORGONA

"I could have spared you again. But I loved you too much to let you live."

Prologue

"I should have turned him to stone."

They chained me like a beast.

Dragged me through the temple.

The boy I loved, the only one I ever loved, held the vial that drugged me.

I'd fallen asleep in his arms. Peaceful. Warm.

And when I woke, I was in chains.

He didn't look at me.

Not even once.

I screamed. Raved. Struggled.

The gods watched. The people cheered.

And he just stood there, eyes empty, as if I were already a monster.

I should have destroyed him then.

But I broke free. I vanished into the hills where even the stars forgot my name.

There, in the silence, I stayed in a home I'd built myself from ruins.

I made peace with my serpents. I whispered lullabies to the stones.

I waited for pain to stop echoing.

And then...he came back.

Bleeding. Desperate. Beautiful.

He fell into my arms again like nothing had happened.

And because I loved him, gods, I loved him, I wrapped his wounds with trembling hands.

I kissed his lips and let his lies fall into my mouth like honey.

I asked for no apologies. Just a promise.

And he gave me one.

But love, I've learned, is just another word for war.

And mercy,

was my second mistake.

The Divine Curse

Before she was a monster, she was a god.

Not born of flesh, nor summoned by prayer, Gorgona was sculpted from the first breath of starlight, her essence forged in the fire that formed the cosmos. She stood among the divine, not beneath them. A warrior-priestess draped in celestial silk and crowned with living flame, chosen not because she worshipped the gods...

...but because the gods trusted her.

That was their mistake.

——

The Hall of Ascendancy was carved into the stars, a realm unreachable by mortals, suspended between dimensions. Its floor shimmered with constellations; its ceiling breathed with galaxies.

This was where gods gathered.

This was where judgment was passed.

This was where Gorgona knelt.

The Circle of Twelve surrounded her, beings of unimaginable power, born of chaos, fire, time, law, and void. They had summoned her without ceremony.

Only expectation.

She had failed them.

Her hands were still covered in ash.

Not from the destruction she was sent to unleash...

...but from the powers she had burned.

"Speak," said Lady Avyss, goddess of Dominion. Her crown floated above her skull like a halo of blades. "You were sent to raze the mortal realm. We felt no tremor. We saw no fire. Why have you returned?"

Gorgona's lips trembled. Her voice, once honeyed with divinity, was dry and trembling.

"Because... I could not."

A murmur rippled through the gods.

Lord Theros, god of Flame, stepped forward. "Could not... or would not?"

Gorgona lifted her chin. Her eyes, gold, unflinching, held no fear.

"I would not."

Gasps. Disbelief.

"You dare—"

"They were children," she said. "They were laughing in the fields. One offered me fruit. Another sang. They do not even know they've been condemned."

"Because they defy us," spat Vanyra, goddess of Obedience. "They build kingdoms of pride. They name stars after their kings. They forget we gave them the sky!"

"And so we destroy them?" Gorgona's voice cracked. "Not warn them? Not teach? I saw mothers holding newborns. I saw no blasphemy. Only wonder. Only love."

She paused.

"I dissolved the Pillar of Purging. I used my own divine blood to shatter its power."

A beat.

"It will never be remade. Not in a million years. No curse. No fire. No blade forged by god or man can ever wield that power again."

A scream tore from one of the gods.

A bolt of lightning struck the floor beside her.

"You traitor!"

"You heretic!"

"She destroyed creation's weapon!"

"She protects the worms who forget our names!"

The Circle erupted. Their fury shook the stars. Planets wept in their orbits.

Time paused.

Still, Gorgona knelt. Serene. Unmoved.

"I protected something more sacred than power," she whispered.

"Then kneel before your undoing," said Avyss.

The gods raised their hands.

The chamber darkened. Stars blinked out.

And one by one, the Circle pronounced her fate , their voices layered, thundering across eternity:

"By your mercy, you have earned your doom."

"By your defiance, you are severed from divinity."

"Let your face be feared."

"Let your beauty become horror."

"Let your eyes bear death."

"Let no mirror reflect your grace."

"Let no altar remember your name."

"Let your hair become serpents, and your soul—"

"—a curse."

A scream tore from Gorgona's lips as the magic sank into her bones.

She tried to rise , her legs failed.

She tried to speak, her voice cracked into silence.

She reached for her crown, and felt it slither away in strands.

Then came the hissing.

One.

Then three.

Then dozens.

Her hair, alive.

She clawed at her scalp and felt scales. Fangs. Coiling snakes, born of agony, whispering truths she could no longer bear.

Her beauty warped. Her skin shimmered, inhuman. Her reflection flickered, then shattered.

She opened her eyes.

And the nearest god flinched.

"Do not—" she began.

But her gaze met Theros.

He froze. Mid-step.

And then, to the horror of all...

The god of flame turned to stone.

—-

A moment of silence.

The Circle recoiled.

"She is already cursed," murmured one.

"She is poison."

"She is death."

"She is no longer one of us."

Lady Avyss, for the first time in millennia, looked afraid.

"Cast her out," she whispered.

"And where shall she go?" asked a quiet voice. It was Nyos, god of Endings.

Avyss did not answer.

Instead, she raised her hand, and behind Gorgona, the stars collapsed into a void gate.

"A place with no gods.

No worship.

No return."

Gorgona staggered, blind with pain.

"Wait—please—"

But her words shattered.

"No prayers will reach you," said Avyss. "No temple will speak your name. You are no longer divine. You are legend. You are punishment."

And with a wave of her hand, the void took her.

The stars turned their faces.

The Circle fell silent.

And Gorgona fell.

Through realms.

Through time.

Through memory.

Until she landed in a place beyond maps.

No gods.

No altars.

No mercy.

She opened her eyes.

And the sky did not know her.

She was alone.

She touched her face. It hissed under her hand. A serpent coiled around her neck and whispered in a language only she could now understand.

They had made her into a warning.

But deep within, something stirred.

Not rage.

Not vengeance.

Not yet.

But something colder.

Something like truth.

They cursed her for choosing love.

They erased her because she said no.

And now, for the first time in eternity,

She was free.

Her story begins now.

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