Chapter 80: Mistakes (823 BC)

823 BC, Valley of Kings, Egypt

(Medusa POV)

It took some liberate use of telepathy but En Sabah Nur was imprisoned, stuck in statis in the middle of possessing another mutant in a desperate bid to survive. Without his horsemen terrorizing the people, he had no one who was truly loyal to him. Even those who served him in fear could be persuaded to betray him if they were assured that Apocalypse would die. It took a few subtle mental compulsions using my telepathy and slowly there was a group of rebellions that planned on killing him.

I manipulated the mages so that they would subtly alter the normal ritual so that Apocalypse stays in statis and not awake like he used to in the old ritual. Then the only thing it took was subtly let them know my plan, with them thinking it was their idea in the first place.

On the day of the possession, the rebellion infiltrated the slave guards and collapsed the pyramid, hoping to kill him. I, of course, knew that this wouldn't kill him, but it would destabilize the ritual which would result in En Sabah Nur being trapped under the ruins.

It was very carefully planned and every detail was accounted for. It worked as it should and the mighty Apocalypse was trapped. It was surprising how powerful the man actually was; I actually had to fight seriously near the end. Don't get me wrong, I was always going to win but the man could probably fight Zeus on equal grounds and maybe even win.

Truth be told, the only thing that rattled me was how their mutant powers felt like. The closest thing I could compare it to was magic, and it was so similar to it. But the only difference was that I didn't feel a spell forming, just the energy being dispersed like a spell. Truth be told, I could copy every single attack that did with magic. The spell might take some time to develop but it was doable. What I couldn't replicate was how to cast these spells without molding my magic. A true wizard's power is not the amount of magic that's in their body but how they could use it. Every spell we cast, we must first shape our magic to match the spell and then cast it. These mutants could do it without shaping it, like energy was already fixed in that state. I never noticed that before but I know for a fact that my telepathy works differently. I'll have to think on this later.

With the Apocalypse problem being take care of, I decide to wipe any knowledge of my temple. It was only a matter of time until another idiot sits on the throne as Pharaoh and try to break in with promises of riches and power. I would rather not risk it again. For now, I was done with Egypt. The kingdom is powerful enough so that no outside army could attempt to conquer it for centuries. What they choose to do now will be their responsibility.

I teleport back home to Korinthos, trying to find my beloved. I missed her terribly. These last few days were exhausting; honestly, the fight with En Sabah Nur and his horsemen was less tiresome than my efforts for creating the trap to imprison him. Sometimes, it's the subtle stuff that's more effective. I cast so many compulsions, that it's very mentally draining. I was tempted to just imprison Apocalypse myself but the people needed to defeat him themselves, if they were to have any hope to move on from his reign of terrors and progress.

Now that I was home again, I wanted to just cuddle up to Hestia and go to sleep. I kept looking for her but there was nothing to be found. She was probably still in Olympus because of the council meeting. It was the summer solstice after all. The Olympian council bi annuary meeting occurred there. All over Europe people prayed to them, for gold, for family, for sickness. The even did the same in Korinthos, in my name but I don't really care about that.

I tried using our respective tracking charms – I made each one of us a ring that was imbued in our magic so that we could use it to track and scry each other – but that didn't work and that made me worry. I could feel that she was somewhere in Olympus but it was like the signal was scrambled somehow. Something was wrong, Olympus didn't have wards that could stop me.

Scared out of my mind, I teleported to Olympus, to Hestia's temple there, only to be rebuffed once more. Something was very wrong; I could feel it in my bones. I usually teleported there at my leisure. But I started to gather what was happening, these types of wards were added in sensitive rituals as to stop any type of interference. The ward itself was included in the ritual itself so there was no hope that I could dismantle it without risking the ritual going haywire and killing everyone, including Hestia.

However, I had a small cheat in the form of Death's cloak. The main reason it's so overpowered it the fact that I can use it to hide from anything, including any form of wards. As far as the world in concerned, when I wear that cloak, I do not exist.

I shadow travel to the entrance of Olympus, to find an old man standing before me. He was a relatively old man, with a long white beard that was hunched over. He was wearing a purple robe and was wielding a green staff carved to look like a serpent. But what was most striking were his eyes. They glowed with red. He felt wrong, like an abomination. There was this impulse for me to kill the offending being in front of me. The only time I have felt something like this was when Voldemort attacked me when I was a baby. When I went back and relived the memory, there was a distinct feeling of wrongness around him.

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For all his faults, Voldemort's greatest mistake was making Horcruxes. Honestly, I wouldn't have cared about him otherwise. There were far greatest monsters in the annals of history, Voldemort is but a man in a long line of power hungry dark lords. He wasn't anything special.

This man had split his soul, I hadn't seen anything like it in the past and I should have sensed this travesty over magic when it occurred. This was troubling.

Trying to understand the situation more, I ask "Who are you?"

"I am Herpo, the Serpent Sorcerer, Giver of Divinity and Apprentice to Typhon."

Shit, this guy was Typhon's apprentice. The lava elemental must have shielded the soul splitting somehow. This is why I don't like fighting old Atlantean. While I'm more powerful than most of them, they have studied magic for far longer than I did and subtle things like this can be very annoying.

Wait a minute, did this guy say he was Herpo, as in Herpo the foul, the creator of the Horcrux and basilisks. That guy learned from Typhon of all people?

The only puzzling thing was his divinity thing, "What do you mean by 'Giver of Divinity'?"

He laughed maliciously at me, "I have discovered the secrets of true divinity, you are here to witness mine and the Olympian's ascension. Leave mortal or suffer the consequences of my wrath!"

This was getting even worse now. "The secrets of divinity, you mean how you split your soul?"

The man spluttered with a bit, "How do you know that information? Who are you?"

"Well, you said that you were Typhon's apprentice. I am his slayer, Medusa."

He snarled at me, "You! You're dead, Zeus said so himself. You ruined everything. You killed him before I could finish my apprenticeship with him. I did however learn the secrets of the soul. As you can see, I am immortal."

"The soul is supposed to be whole, Herpo. What you accomplished is an abomination. You're mad, to rip your own soul in half."

"Madness is just another word for genius that others don't understand. If I am an abomination so are the rest of the Olympians."

"Explain!" I demanded.

"It doesn't mean anything; you'll be too dead to do anything about it."

He suddenly started hissing, but it was hissing that I understood, it was parseltongue, {My Children, kill the intruder. She is not to pass.}

Shit, these were probably basilisks, I needed something to even the odds. I bellow, "Erebus!" and from the shadows appeared a phoenix as dark as the night itself. I look at him, "The giant serpents attacking us are dangerous, go for the eyes, they can kill on sight."

My companion trilled in affirmation and I then relaxed and closed my eyes; I couldn't risk getting killed by a stray look. I then use a spell I created in a whim a few centuries ago. It allows some sort of rudimentary sight by sensing the magic around. It's not true sight, but something like a magical radar. And everything has at least a small drop of magic, which means that I could see when my eyes were closed.

I could feel Erebus clawing at one of the Basilisk's eyes and giant snake screeching in pain. Suddenly, I felt a spell fly towards me and I instinctively block with a shield. I need to get rid of the basilisks before fighting Herpo; I had to interrogate him first and I couldn't do that with a few basilisks around. Determined, I leap into the air, conjuring some wind under me to propel me further upwards. The snakes were over sixty feet tall and I had to get above them. There were three basilisks in total and while Erebus was handling one of them, the rest noticed me and started attacking.

Before it could do anything, I conjured two spikes of steel and banish them towards the eyes, blinding one of them instantly. The target of my attack hissed in pain and his brother took offense at me and leapt, trying to swallow me whole. Instead, I conjure a small ball of quartz and carve, using transmutation, a quick destabilized runic array that would explode in seconds. I channel magic into the ball and let go of it. I then transform into a raven and narrowly dodge the offending basilisk.

The basilisk ended up swallowing my small bomb. A second later, the basilisk's head exploded, killing it instantly. It was so strong that the basilisk ended up with no head.

In response, Herpo was hissing in fury, {Smell him! You don't need to see him to kill him!}

Of course, I knew that and as the snake obeyed its master, it found me and opened his maw to attack me, only to receive another steel spike through the roof of its mouth, going through its brain and killing it instantly.

Sensing for Erebus, I notice that he had somehow killed the other basilisk. Talk about a badass bird! Anyway, I open my eyes and look at Herpo. He tried to cast a spell at me using he staff and with a wave of my hand, I cut off his hand, disarming him literarily.

The man screamed in pain and just telekinetically summon him and snarl at him. I was quickly running out of patience, "What did you do, pest."

He laughed bloodily at me, "I gave them immortality and it was so easy. They were so gullible. Faith is a very powerful thing, daughter of Atlan. To truly believe in someone is more than just words. You give them power over you. A miniscule part of you, your essence, your very soul becomes theirs. I only gave them a way to harness it. Imagine it, thousands, even millions of miniscule pieces of souls empowering them and propelling them into godhood. Not that they know what would happen to them should they rise. Agamotto's sanctums will remove them from this realm. They will end up in the realm of gods and demons, and you know what that means, they will not survive for long. My master's goals shall be accomplished. The Olympians will be destroyed."

"Why are you telling me all this?"

"Because you're already too late. The ritual has just begun and there's no going back."

I growl at him, "You're sacrificing the afterlife of thousands of people just for revenge in the name of a dead master."

He just gave me a smug smirk and I say, "Then you won't be here to see it." I conjure a sword of shadows, ready to cut off his head.

He laughed at me, "You're wrong again. After all, you spent all this time fighting just one half of my soul."

Shit, I was fighting a Horcrux, all this time. I just decapitate the man and start sensing for a soul piece. I quickly find it in the form of the serpent staff that Herpo held. With a sneer on my face, I conjure some Fiendfyre and direct it at the staff. A high pitch scream pierced the previous silence, signifying the Horcrux's destruction. After I was done, there was nothing left of it but ash.

This could end up catastrophically, I needed to deal with it before it's too late, if it isn't already.