From Today, I'm a Player

Chapter 213: Two Serpents Pt. 8

“Damn it!!!!” Heracles screamed at the top of his lungs. “Throw the offerings inside!”

Although they had run as fast as they could to the source of the ceremony, when they arrived, all they saw was the last of the offerings being thrown into the pillar of darkness.

The final offering had been a child who didn’t seem to have even reached fifteen. The child was dragged at the hands of a Hunter and roughly thrown like trash into the pillar of darkness. The scene of the child screaming seared itself into the minds of Heracles and Odysseus.

Against all expectations, they didn’t find the dark pillar of darkness, the ceremonial offerings, or even Yashin himself. Instead, there was a monstrous, massive white serpent before them.

–ROAR!!!

“A D…dragon??!!”

“N… no, it's not,” Odysseus said, slowly getting back up. Blood was dripping from his head, and his clothes were all dusty.

“It sort of looks like a serpent?”

He had never seen a serpent of such massive size, but the pupils and the feeling it gave off was definitely that of a serpent. They soon confirmed what it was. The white serpent that stared down upon them clearly opened its mouth and spewed something over them.

“Dodge it!”

A blue-purple liquid fell toward Heracles and Odysseus.

Shhhhh.

The two quickly dodged as the blue-purple liquid cascaded over where they had just been, melting everything it touched and corroding quickly deep into the ground, seemingly descending forever.

“If we get even a little bit of that liquid onto us…”

“We’ll die.”

Heracles and Odysseus looked at each other and nodded. They had failed to stop the ceremony.

Grit.

They were unable to even save a child. In return, the price for their failure towered over them. A white serpent slithered its long neck back and forth as if it could pierce through the heavens.

“Is that…” Odysseus looked up at the sky as he spoke.

The serpent was writhing around as if it was in pain after spewing the liquid toward the two of them.

“Is that supposed to be Yashin…?!”

Yashin, who they had come all this way to find, was nowhere to be seen. All that had appeared in place of the fading pillar of darkness was the white serpent in front of them.

Looking at the serpent tower over them, it was easy for them to infer that Yashin, who had gained the power of the Rulers, had become the serpent itself, turning into a monster.

Lee Jun-Kyeong hadn’t arrived yet either.

“It seems we’ve only had a pitiful showing since arriving in Japan,” Heracles said, looking at the serpent in anger.

“Shouldn’t we do something before the Underdog comes?” Odysseus responded in turn.

Compared to Heracles, Odysseus was normally relatively docile. However, right now, he was radiating a similar fighting spirit to his partner. It was because of his overwhelming feeling of helplessness.

This came about from not being able to save someone that he wanted to save, and it was something he hadn’t wanted to ever feel again after becoming a Hero.

“Let’s try it,” Odysseus said, pulling out his bow, a weapon he rarely ever used.

His bow was a weapon that was ever close to being a divine weapon, and it was rare to see even within Olympus. However, to Odysseus, it was just an object that reminded him of painful memories. It was also the reason why he was with Heracles, who was often called the outsider of Olympus.

Heracles looked at the bow and said, “Penelope’s Bow…”

She had been Odysseus’ beloved companion, Hunter, and Hero, and the bow was a memento that had been left behind when she had died.

“I haven’t heard that name in a long time.”

Although Odysseus aimed his arrows calmly, it was inevitable that his memories would be written in the creases on his brows.

“It’s been a while since you and I agreed,” Heracles said as he imbued strength into both gauntlets.

The two weren't looking at each other. Instead, both were staring at the white serpent that twisted its massive head.

Rumble.

The mana emanating from Heracles’ body crushed and pulverized the entire area around him as his eyes turned redder and redder. Odysseus also drew upon his mana as Penelope’s Bow radiated light. The weapon resonated with his mana and began to strengthen the arrow knocked on its string.

They both knew that the huge serpent in front of them was a monster that would be difficult for the two of them to handle. However, they hadn’t become Hunters just to run away from an enemy they couldn’t match. Rather, they had become Hunters in order to face such unmatchable enemies.

“It’s been a while.”

“Yeah, since we’ve felt this level of tension.”

Their feet slowly fell as they walked forward.

“Don’t…” The first to step forward was, as always, Heracles. “Die, friend.”

In one hand, the silhouette of a lion enveloped his fist, while the other had the shape of a bear. Soon, both silhouettes began to take on a reddish glow from their originally blue outlines.

Madness was the source of Heracles’ power that influenced and changed everything, and it was an insanity that he had only drawn upon to an extent he could control. However, now, it was time for him to let go of the reins.

Swish!

An arrow passed by his ear as he rushed toward the serpent’s head.

“I’m not some hopeless damsel, either,” Odysseus said, his arrow flying through the air and striking the white serpent on the head

–Howl!!!

***

Heracles grabbed the serpent's head.

Although the head of the giant serpent was far too large for human hands to grasp, Heracles’ hands were not normal. One hand had become a massive lion and coiled itself around the serpent’s head, while the other had become a huge bear, crushing the serpent between itself.

In between the two beasts, Heracles roared violently, “Keugah!!!!”

Drip, drip.

The red light flowing from Madness completely coated his blood. Although the venom that flowed from the mouth of the serpent fell to the ground like rain, it was unable to reach Heracles. While Heracles barely held on to the dredges of his sanity, he signaled Odysseus to make his move.

“Shoot…it!!!”

Thud, thud, thud, thud!

In the blink of an eye, the sound of flesh being pierced repeated continuously in Heracles’ ear. The serpent's head was filled with countless holes as if it had become a honeycomb with arrows lodged deep inside.

Tak!

At that point, Heracles, even without a signal from Odysseus, let go of the serpent’s head and fell far away.

–Roar!!!!

The serpent screamed and searched for its enemies. It tried to spew venom at Heracles, but suddenly, the arrows stuck in its head began to explode all at once.

Boom! Boom, boom, boom, boom!

It was enveloped in a mix of explosions and mana, and it became messed up to the point that even the outline of its head couldn’t be distinguished. Odysseus had completed his role, and now, it was Heracles' turn again.

“This is the end! You dog bastard!”

It was a situation where the limit of Madness that the Hunter could handle had already been far exceeded. However, Heracles emitted even more red light, forcing himself even more beyond the limit.

The cataclysm had granted him growth.

‘Because everything around me has changed, I can change, too.’

There were no more limits.

Red blood flowed from Heracles' mouth and eyes. With one hand a lion, the other a bear, he clasped his hands together and joined the two beasts as one.

BOOM!

A grotesque mixture of lions, bears, and numerous other beasts formed, emitting a blood-like red light as if spewing a fountain of blood, awakening a primal fear within the enemy. Alongside the terrifying beast created by combining all that he had into a single blow, Heracles twisted his body while in the air and fell.

He fell not toward the head of the serpent where a massive hole was, but instead toward the long neck connected to the head.

“DIE!”

Heracles' hands struck the serpent's neck like a sledgehammer.

Ding.

There was a small tremor at the point of impact.

–BOOM!!!!!!!

Then, a huge cascade of energy burst forth as if it would destroy the world as an explosion rocked the very air.

BOOOM!

Thick smoke covered the sky like volcanic ash as something cut through the smoke and plummeted down.

Thud!

However, the falling figure luckily didn’t suffer the humiliation of being thrown to the ground by his own blow and was rather quickly caught by Odysseus.

“You did well,” Odysseus said to the figure as he held it from falling. It was a distorted lump of a person, but it was still clearly recognizable as Heracles. Luckily, he was still breathing.

“Did we really…take it down…?” asked the almost terrifyingly battered Heracles.

The smoke slowly dissipated as Odysseus peered through the remnants of smoke and opened his mouth slowly.

“It seems so.”

What they saw before them in the gaps between the disappearing smoke was a huge serpent that had been horribly crushed. Their combined attack against the serpent that was so large that it seemed impossible for humans to take down had been successful as the drooping head of the serpent didn’t seem able to get back up.

“So, then we too…have an explanation to give to the Underdog…” Heracles said with a faint smiling, passing out immediately after his words.

Instead of rampaging mindlessly due to the uncontrollable Madness, he stopped himself by forcing himself to faint. However, at that moment, Odysseus muttered as he watched the scene before his eyes unfold on his own, “That's…that’s not possible…”

Gurgle, gurgle.

There was a grotesque gurgling as the serpent’s head, which had seemingly fallen down and collapsed…

“It’s not dead…???”

It started to rise once again.

“Fu–”

Then, it soon began to split into several pieces and was regenerating. Something was unfolding right before Odysseus’ eyes. The head of the serpent, which had been one, split and created more and more heads like a tangled thread.

Eventually, a total of eight heads formed.

“What the hell are we dealing with…”

BOOM!

As Odysseus mumbled to himself helplessly, one of the heads plummeted down toward the two Hunters, tearing through the space.

***

Lee Jun-Kyeong ran quickly. With every step he crushed the ground under him and split through the heavens, moving so quickly that it seemed that he was skipping through the void.

However, his journey wasn’t easy.

“Set…!”

Set was obviously not dead and continuously hindered him as if to buy time. The sand floating in the sky hurtled toward Lee Jun-Kyeong, attacking him whenever he ran above a certain velocity.

As if it was made from something terrifying, it continuously would break through Lee Jun-Kyeong’s defense and hinder his steps. He would rather have fought and crushed an enemy with an actual body and advanced forward, but the sand in his way just continued to absorb mana and deftly move around him, buying time.

“...!”

Then, although he hadn’t even arrived yet, he saw the head of the white serpent fall to the ground.

‘A white serpent.’

Lee Jun-Kyeong struggled to find out the identity of the monster in his sights in his memory. However, he had no idea what that white serpent could be. He had been wracking his mind for the unknown monster, but the serpent soon seemed to be defeated by Heracles and Odysseus.

“Are we good now…?”

Lee Jun-Kyeong stopped for a moment seeing the serpent fall, but soon began to move even faster.

Boom!

The sand rushed toward him again, but Lee Jun-Kyeong quickly covered his whole body in a blazing inferno.

“Screw off!”

He could feel an enormous amount of mana draining away like the ebb of the ocean as a terrifying heat took over the space, so hot that it didn’t distinguish between friend or foe. The power he had created was so vast that at this point, it had reached an extent that it was able to affect the ordinary humans hiding in Tokyo.

However, he couldn’t help it.

‘Not like this…!’

He refused to lose Heracles and Odysseus. He had approached the location of the ceremony before he knew it, and the serpent was raising its head just as Lee Jun-Kyeong had thought.

The destroyed head was splitting apart, regenerating into an eight-headed monster. The feeling of its aura was overwhelming.

The aura that expanded from the mutated serpent was to an extent that it couldn’t be compared whatsoever with the appearance that it had before it had collapsed, enveloping Tokyo as if it was passing the city to consume the entirety of Japan.

One of the heads that had fully regenerated was plummeting down with its head aimed toward the ground.

“No!”

Lee Jun-Kyeong accelerated even more as a terrifying inferno erupted from his back like rockets. The sand that had been interfering with his movement from Set had already disappeared as Lee Jun-Kyeong reached out a hand as he heard the sound of an explosion rupture in his ear.

BOOM!