After secretly escorting Medea back through the night and returning to the Argo, I took a brief rest.
And the moment the sun rose, we headed for the field that had been named as the site of our promised showdown.
Far across the plain, two bronze bulls were visible, stamping the earth and spewing flame from their mouths.
Behind them stood the King of Colchis and the Colchian army, wearing sly smiles as they waited for our ruin.
Jason, pale with fear, stole a glance at me.
"Astellon... are you really sure about this? Those bulls aren't just beasts...!"
Instead of answering, I smeared the oil Medea had given me over my sword and armor.
Then I let my silver hair whip in the wind and stepped forward.
"Jason, stay back. A king's trial is finished by the king himself."
A hot wind swept across the plain.
That wind carried not mere heat, but a suffocating pressure.
From far away, the two great bulls were charging toward us, trampling the earth beneath their hooves.
Boom.
With every stamp of their feet, the ground caved in.
And the next instant—
Fwoooosh!
The flames bursting from their nostrils warped the air and scattered in every direction.
"..."
I watched the sight in silence, then slowly raised my sword.
I could feel someone behind me drawing in a sharp breath.
It was Jason.
"Astellon... that's..."
I tilted my head slightly and replied, "They're not beasts. They're monsters."
Then I took a step forward.
The instant one of the bulls recognized me, its red-hot eyes flashed.
KWAANG!
Then it shattered the earth and came barreling straight at me.
I drew in a breath.
Hot.
This was no ordinary flame.
It was fire laced with magical energy.
In that instant, I felt the blaze sweep across the armor coated with Medea's oil.
Sssshhhk.
The heat that should have seared my flesh slid over my armor as though skimming glass.
"...Just as I thought."
At that, I muttered low and twisted my body aside.
KRAK!
The bull's horn swept past right beside me, and the ground behind it exploded apart.
I did not miss that opening.
The explosive force of its charge.
And its straight-line movement.
"...Here I go."
I planted my foot and drove straight into the bull's flank.
A second charge.
This time it was faster.
More savage.
As though it existed solely to trample me beneath it.
But I did not retreat.
Instead, I took one more step forward.
I could hear Jason's horrified cry from behind me, but I had no room to spare for it.
"...If you mean to block my path..."
I lowered my sword and deliberately exposed myself within the bull's field of vision.
Its gaze locked onto me completely.
Good.
Just like that.
"...Then learn exactly what price you pay, beast."
KWAAAAAANG!!
A head-on charge.
At that moment, I twisted my foot and turned my body halfway around.
Then I reached out not with my sword, but with my hand.
KRAK.
And the bull's horn was caught in my grip.
The instant I seized it, the impact surged through my entire body.
My bones rang.
It felt as if my muscles would tear apart.
But I clenched my teeth and spoke as though nothing had happened.
"...Heavy."
But.
I did not take a single step back.
"...Kneel."
I said it low, but clearly.
"You..."
I poured on more strength.
And the bull's body tilted ever so slightly.
"...are something I will rule."
In that instant—
KWAAAAAAAANG!!
The bull's massive body twisted to one side and slammed the earth as though dropping to its knees.
The shockwave burst outward in all directions.
With a thunderous roar, the earth screamed.
Through the thick cloud of dust, silver hair gleaming in Colchis's sunlight, my back could be seen as I pinned down the bronze bull's overwhelming mass with a single hand.
Every sound that had filled the plain vanished at once.
"Impossible... he... did that...!?"
From afar, Jason, who had been devising his strategy, muttered like a scream.
But the one most stunned of all was the King of Colchis.
He gripped the armrest of his throne so tightly it seemed he could not believe the sight of a bronze bull being crushed like a mere beast by a foreigner's hand.
The heat and vibration of the bronze traveled through my palm and shook my whole body, yet I did not even blink.
My hand, coated with Medea's oil, did not burn; rather, it was chilling the bull's magical energy into submission.
"To call you a monster... you don't even know your own place."
I roughly twisted the horn of the kneeling bull and turned my head toward the other one.
Seeing its companion subdued, the second bull snorted flames in fury and charged at me.
Whoosh—
Using the horn of the first bull I was still holding as a lever, I launched myself into the air.
Then, spinning once in midair, I landed lightly on the back of the second bull and threw the steel yoke I had prepared in advance over both of their necks at once.
"Now, it's time to plow the field, you bastards."
At my words, the bulls that had been raging only moments before fell silent as if nothing had happened.
Then, unlike before, they became docile and began to plow up the plain.
Wherever the plow drawn by the bulls passed, the hidden flesh of the earth was turned over, leaving behind strange traces of magical power.
And the heroes who witnessed it, Jason among them, burst into cheers, while the King of Colchis watched on in silence.
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