Chapter 406: Athena Divided into Three!
The petrification continued.
Whether moving or immobile, everything within Athena's field of vision was turning to stone.
Thus, the other's world quickly turned into a stone world.
And the master of this world was also undergoing petrification.
The petrification spread upward from the feet, transforming them in an instant into a stone statue—a slightly trembling statue struggling to break free.
Then, under Athena's enhanced petrification, the stone statue eventually fell silent.
At this point, the duel between the two sides ended with her victory, right?
So, Athena stepped into the world she had conquered with the demeanor of a victor.
Suddenly, sensing something, Athena's expression changed drastically, and she attempted to retreat.
However, the entrance behind her had already vanished.
At the same time, the frozen world, painted in gray, disintegrated into powder and disappeared.
"So that's how it is... You actually deceived me like this."
After the other's beast broke through the bounded world, the subsequent duel was nothing but Athena's illusion.
Back when she had infiltrated the other's beast with her curse through her followers, the other had simultaneously been counter-infiltrating and counter-corrupting her.
Thus, without her realizing it, she had been poisoned—or rather, cursed—and her mind had fallen victim.
So, Athena also realized that the other possessed another ability: plague!
And plague comes in countless forms, including viruses that induce hallucinations.
After being deceived into this world, she finally grasped the truth, but it was too late to retreat.
"Athena, in Greek mythology..."
As these words of power fell, the surrounding scenery transformed, and Athena found her body rapidly shrinking.
In an instant, she became like a curled-up child, trapped in a dark space.
"Is this your power?"
To understand her past, reenacting ancient myths through words of power?
And she, like a puppet on strings, could only act according to the mythological events?
"...According to the prophecy of Gaia and Uranus, Metis's future children would be intelligent and powerful. After giving birth to a bright-eyed daughter, she would bear a son who would overthrow Zeus. This was like a curse. Zeus, fearing a repeat of the story that had happened to him—where a new generation of gods kills the previous one to ascend—swallowed both mother and daughter while Metis was still pregnant with Athena. But unexpectedly, Athena leaped out from Zeus's head."
As the narration reached this point, Athena truly broke through something and leaped out.
Then, a black scythe appeared in Athena's hand, and she swung it toward a person.
Clang!
The other casually picked up a sword from nearby and blocked her black scythe.
Athena then realized that the stage world was surrounded by a desolate world filled with various weapons.
The stage world was like the arena's combat platform, the desolate world equivalent to the spectator stands, and the bounded world was the coliseum—such was the containment relationship.
"Oh? So Metis is indeed you," Renji said with mild interest.
How could he be so sure of this?
The reason was that when reenacting the myth, not everyone's appearance would be manifested.
It was like watching an animation in a previous life, where aside from the main characters and core personnel, the surrounding characters were all faceless extras. Only under special circumstances would these extras be given actual appearances.
During the reenactment of Zeus devouring Metis, the scene remained faceless, so Renji was unaware that Athena was Metis. However, after Athena burst forth from Zeus's head, she split into two. The teenage Athena, around sixteen years old, continued to follow the story's progression, while the other Metis appeared with a face—identical to Athena's but more mature.
This mature Athena [Metis] brandished a scythe and charged at him. So, why did an uncontrolled Metis appear? The reason was simple: at this point in the storyline, she was effectively in an "exit" state. Thus, Athena split off this Metis avatar, which, free from control, attacked him.
Now, why didn't Melqart do something similar during the earlier reenactment of his myth? The difference lay in their natures. Although Melqart had different identities across various myths, he was ultimately a single individual playing different roles. Athena, however, was forcibly split into three parts within the same myth, each given a distinct name and identity.
This allowed her, while her Athena identity was under control, to summon the exited and uncontrolled Metis to attack him. As for why reenacting Metis being devoured by Zeus didn't harm Athena, it was because during the reenactment, Renji didn't know the two were truly connected, so he couldn't attach the damage to Athena. Now that he knew, to inflict harm, he would have to restart. But if he did, Athena would likely escape the performance stage the moment the plot was forcibly interrupted.
So, what was Athena's other identity? Earlier, Erica had told him that the Gorgoneion's owner was a triple-bodied Earth Mother Goddess. With two of the three already manifested, the remaining one had to be Medusa. Medusa was essentially Athena herself, as Athena had used Medusa's obvious abilities and claimed the Gorgoneion belonged to her.
The question was, how were Athena and Medusa connected? Without this knowledge, he couldn't properly control Athena and Medusa or continue the myth reenactment. In fact, even the myth he was currently narrating had issues. For example, at the very beginning, when he mentioned Zeus devouring Metis, who was pregnant with Athena, starting from the head, the reenacted myth turned into a pixelated mess, making it impossible to discern what happened. This indicated that his narration here was incorrect.
Then, another figure appeared on the scene—a particularly eerie Athena with serpent-like pupils. This was Medusa. He would now be attacked by Athena controlling two bodies.