In the moment of utter crisis when [Ehangwen] was struck by Zeus's thunderbolt and began to tip and plummet, a violet meteor fell straight down from the sky.
The target was the highest spire terrace of the Obsidian Castle.
Standing there in black iron armor, the giant Grangotte braced himself as [Medusa] launched herself without a shred of hesitation.
All she could see was the golden ornamented dagger in Grangotte's hand—only [Chrysaor].
"Well now, a bug falls from the sky all by itself."
Grangotte snorted arrogantly and easily hefted his massive poleaxe embedded with iron in his right hand.
He swung the axe blade horizontally along her falling trajectory, tearing the air with a thunderous CRAAAASH!!
But Medusa's speed far outstripped the giant's expectations.
Just before the poleaxe blade could strike, her toe darted out like lightning to step on the side of the incoming axe.
Using the rebound, she twisted in midair and, driving her heel to the limit of centrifugal force, slammed a heel kick into Grangotte's face.
CRAAASH!!
The dull clang of steel denting rang out, but he only wavered—undamaged.
"Pathetic."
Baring his teeth, Grangotte drew the golden blade [Chrysaor] in his left hand. A fierce golden strike sliced through the terrace in a cruciform pattern.
The marble floor was cut like tofu, but Medusa was already gone.
…!
At the very instant Grangotte turned his gaze, a violet streak flashed from his blind spot.
She bounded at super-speed, stepping on falling debris like stepping stones. Bouncing off walls and ceilings, her mobility resembled a mythical beast that had forgotten gravity.
SWISH! CLANG! CRASH!
The golden strike and blue thunder pursued Medusa, turning the terrace into a wasteland, yet she wove through it with acrobatic grace, evading each assault by a hair's breadth.
But she wasn't merely fleeing.
On every shattered pillar she stepped over, every floor fragment, every bit of airborne debris she brushed her chain spikes against, a blood-red seal was covertly etched.
"You noisy fly-brat! Stop buzzing around and just die!"
Angered, Grangotte raised [Keraunos]. From the spire's peak, dozens of fierce blue bolts radiated outward as if to obliterate her.
From the debris in his blind spot, Medusa hung upside-down and murmured in a chill voice, "It's already too late. Preparations are complete."
At that moment, dozens of blood-red seals on the surrounding debris and pillars resonated at once and ignited.
[Bloodport Andromeda] (Anti-User, Bloody Divine Temple).
A grotesque, eye-shaped sigil appeared in the sky, and a massive red hemispherical barrier sealed Grangotte completely inside.
The Gorgon Sisters' malevolent shrine.
She transmuted the entire space into her own ocular dimension—a Grand Noble Phantasm that ravenously devoured the Mana and blood of every creature within.
"Kuh…!? What is this!?"
The moment the barrier activated, Grangotte's massive frame visibly staggered.
The giant's fierce life-force, once roaring through his compressed muscles, sank heavily as if trapped in a muddy bog and began to be drawn into the red barrier. Even a high-Mana being felt his vitality devoured by this brutal absorption.
No matter how giant, inside this bloody shrine he could not use his true strength. His terrifying physical pressure was halved in an instant.
"Now, it's finally a fair fight."
Medusa's lips curled as she whispered the cold incantation.
She activated Brute Strength B, temporarily amplifying her power—a trait possessed only by beasts and demonic creatures.
Weakened Grangotte versus empowered Medusa: the tide of battle completely turned.
WHOOSH! The marble floor shattered like spiderwebs, and Medusa's silhouette vanished.
"Where are you!"
Grangotte swung his poleaxe, but the arc of his dull strike was already clear to Medusa. She snapped the incoming axe handle aside with her chain and dove straight into the giant's guard.
Breaking the sound barrier, she unleashed a hail of kicks at his jaw, chest, and abdomen.
CLANG! CRASH!!
This time it was different. The barrier-weakened iron armor creased, and Grangotte's massive body lifted off the ground.
Medusa planted a hand on the floor, spun like a windmill, and heel-kicked his jaw skyward. As he barely blocked with [Chrysaor], she hooked her chain to a ceiling pillar and flung herself back like a slingshot, creating distance.
Violet projectiles: she darted from wall to pillar, twisting through the air in a three-dimensional high-speed dance—a perfect fusion of power and speed.
"You damned woman!!"
Grangotte roared, spitting blood as he scattered thunderbolts in every direction.
But Medusa flung the spikes of her chains with both hands toward the raining bolts.
The chains narrowly avoided the lightning and became entwined in the collapsing stone pillars and ceiling fragments.
"Fall."
Medusa yanked the chains with monstrous strength. The other end wrapped around Grangotte's raised arm, and tons of rubble tumbled down like a waterfall.
CRAAAASH!!!
The massive debris pile crushed Grangotte completely, and the terrace floor caved in. The sounds of blood spraying and bones shattering reverberated within the barrier.
Medusa exhaled sharply, hovering in midair as she surveyed the destruction.
Though the golden strikes and lightning had blackened her shoulders and thighs, she had escaped fatal injury.
But there was no time to relax.
RUMBLE!! From the rubble, blue sparks exploded and the crushing stones launched into the air.
The sight of Grangotte emerging from the debris was gruesome: half his black iron armor shattered, flesh torn away to reveal white bones.
Yet Medusa's eyes widened in horror—for across those exposed bone fragments, rune letters glowed blue.
"…You've inscribed healing runes onto your bones."
With a horrible crack, the magical circuits etched into his bones activated, and his torn muscles and flesh boiled and regenerated, restoring him to his original form in an instant.
"Your petty tricks end here. Now it's my turn!"
Grangotte roared, hoisting both [Chrysaor] and [Keraunos] as his Mana swelled as though to rend the air.
This next strike could not be dodged with mere acrobatics.
A cold smile crept across Medusa's lips.
She tore off her eyepatch—[Breaker Gorgon] (Self-Sealing Dark Shrine).
Instantly, the once-bloodred barrier turned an even deeper violet.
Her unveiled eyes: [Mystic Eye].
"…Guh!?"
Grangotte's charging motion slowed. Ashen petrification spread across his massive muscles and newly regenerated skin at a terrifying pace.
With the barrier weakened and Mystic Eye's weight combined, all of Grangotte's strength ebbed, his knees trembling as though they would give way.
Just as Medusa gripped her chains to deliver the finishing blow—
"GRAAAGH!!!!"
Instead of unleashing his thunderbolt at Medusa, Grangotte drove it straight through his own chest.
"What…!"
FWOOSH!!! The thunderbolt of the gods pierced through Grangotte's body and raged madly inside him. Its divine energy forced its way into his ashen veins, cracking and shattering his stone-cold skin.
Even at the cost of reducing his own flesh and organs to charcoal, the thunderbolt's destructive sacred energy shattered the petrification curse from within.
"Ha! Did you really think such tricks would work on me?"
Pulsating with both blood and lightning, Grangotte roared and leaped.
The golden gleam of [Chrysaor] in his right hand and the thunderbolt in his left fused into one, tearing Medusa's blood-red barrier asunder and unleashing a colossal cruciform vortex of destruction.
"…This might… hurt a little."
In midair, a single dagger slashed lightly across her throat.
Blood spattered as a massive magic circle bloomed in the sky.
From its radiance descended the mythic celestial beast, Pegasus, shining with blinding white light.
Medusa leapt astride the holy steed, gripping the reins with fierce resolve. Her power surged explosively as the divine blessing that greatly bolstered Pegasus's endurance wrapped around her like a meteor.
"
As if stars were plunging from the heavens, Pegasus galloped across the sky.
The lightning-wreathed giant and the beast queen on her mount collided head-on atop the crumbling walls of the island castle.
BOOOOOM!!!!!
The horrific explosion that numbed both sight and hearing.
The fusion of golden strikes, thunderbolts, and celestial light obliterated the upper levels of the Obsidian Castle and Medusa's bloody shrine, vaporizing them completely.
Knocked back by the blast, Medusa tumbled across the ruined battlements, leaving a trail of blood. Pegasus retreated, and her body was battered by burns and lacerations.
Red blood dripped from her lips as she gasped for breath.
Amid the dust on the opposite side, Grangotte—his right arm and chest grotesquely twisted and shattered—knelt, gasping for air.
The runes inscribed on his bones were overloaded by Bellerophon's strike, and further regeneration seemed beyond him.
A fierce battle worthy of being called a myth come again.
Only the ragged breaths of the two monsters filled the ruined battlefield.
Atop the highest point of the shattered wall, Kay looked down at the two bloodied figures.
"To think Medusa would fight him that hard. He really is a monster. Well, the outcome's decided, but… am I not going to get a chance to fight?"
In her hand, she quietly held the golden blade that had belonged to Grangotte.
"Those who stand in my Master's way… and those who soil the traces of my 'Child' [Chrysaor]… will not be spared."