Chapter 41. Winter Season (5)
“It worked...!”
Julian’s voice trembled.
At the same time, Zeus’s Artifact reacted.
The cracks running across its body vanished in an instant.
The spear erupted with brilliant golden light.
BOOOOOOM!
A shockwave like a thunderbolt crashing down spread through the cavern, even though there was no sky above them.
The black tentacles trembled and smoked.
“Oh my...”
Irene murmured.
“Zeus is pissed.”
Typhon seemed to sense it too.
The entire cavern shook as the monster screamed in pain.
[Grk... Grrrrr...!!]
The Authority of the god of lightning was paralyzing Typhon’s cells.
Perhaps because this was the monster that had once rebelled against Zeus in myth, its reaction was especially violent.
Seol-A shouted.
“Now’s our chance!”
“But... how do we deal with it?”
“If we drag this out, Zeus’s durability will start getting eaten away again!”
For a brief moment, before the black tentacles could recover, silence fell.
Then Julian spoke.
“...There’s a place in mythology where Typhon was sealed.”
Everyone looked at him.
“Mount Etna in Italy.”
Julian continued.
“Returning it to where it’s supposed to be...”
“That’s probably the most fundamental solution.”
So they had to move it.
“But an Artifact capable of transporting something like that...”
There was no way they had a teleportation Artifact capable of moving a Divine-Grade monster.
Then—
“I’ll do it.”
“?!”
A familiar voice came from behind them.
“June!”
He looked like a high school boy.
He was one of Jooheon’s tomb-raiding subordinates.
But his true identity was an Artifact.
And not just any Artifact.
He was Chaos, an Artifact capable of opening all kinds of black-hole gates.
He was also one of Majesty’s greatest treasures and the final judge who once determined who would become Majesty.
Chaos itself did not recognize the institution of Majesty.
But it had acknowledged Jooheon personally and elevated him to that position.
And June should have been in seclusion under Jooheon’s orders.
“You came back!”
“Yes.”
“It seems quite a lot happened while I was away.”
Julian immediately asked:
“Can you move Typhon with one of your dimensional gates?”
June normally needed Jooheon, his owner, present in order to activate fully.
So Julian wasn’t sure whether he could do it now.
June answered briefly.
“With Majesty absent, I’m currently operating in Defense Mode.”
“Defense Mode?”
A faint light shimmered across June’s body.
“I’m preventing enemies from invading through ‘regression’ or ‘time’ Artifacts.”
It seemed to be one of Jooheon’s standing orders.
After all, Jooheon himself was a regressor.
He knew better than anyone how troublesome time-related Artifacts could be.
If their enemies began using similar powers, this world could be devastated.
“So right now, most of my power is being used to block that possibility.”
“Because that was Majesty’s order.”
June looked toward Typhon.
“However...”
“Even in this state, basic spatial transfer should still be possible.”
“Oh.”
June’s eyes shone gold.
“Coordinates...”
“Mount Etna.”
At that moment, an enormous gate appeared overhead.
[Chaos Gate]
The passage connected.
Beyond it, they could see the interior of Mount Etna.
Red magma churned beneath clouds of volcanic ash.
Typhon reacted immediately.
[Grrrrrrr!]
The monster began thrashing violently.
Irene shouted.
“Now!”
Typhon’s massive body was dragged toward the Chaos Gate.
The monster screamed as though an unseen force were pulling it away.
Then—
The gate closed.
Silence returned to the cavern.
“...Is it over?”
“Yes.”
June smiled.
“I sent it to the location you specified.”
Everyone finally breathed in relief.
“Zeus’s durability has stopped falling too...”
Was it finished?
Then Seol-A suddenly bent down.
“...Wait.”
“What’s that?”
Something had been left behind in the place where Typhon had been.
A single small seed.
Thin smoke rose from it.
A strange smell began spreading throughout the cavern.
Julian’s face turned white.
Zhuge Liang’s Artifact immediately identified it.
“...Disease.”
“What?”
“This is the same plague spreading through our world.”
“!”
But that wasn’t the biggest problem.
Julian’s expression hardened.
“This Artifact...”
“It belongs to Demeter.”
“!”
Irene’s voice trembled.
“Then...”
“The intruder attacking Zeus wasn’t actually Typhon—”
Julian nodded.
“Right.”
“It was the Majesty using Demeter’s Artifact.”
“So the Demeter Artifact User was trying to invade both my world and the wine woman’s world.”
Cynthia stared at Jooheon.
Wine woman?
Before she could complain, Majesty Yoo Jaeha spoke.
“I’ve never met this Delaira personally.”
“But as far as I know, Demeter’s Artifact operates in two seasonal modes.”
Jooheon raised an eyebrow.
“Seasons?”
“Yes.”
“Summer Mode and Winter Mode.”
Jaeha explained in a clear, lecturing tone.
“In Summer Mode, it governs growth, abundance, nurturing life from the earth, and making everything flourish.”
That fit perfectly for an earth goddess.
And Demeter’s most famous myth involved—
“After half the year passes and Persephone is taken down into the Underworld...”
Jooheon’s eyes narrowed.
“The season changes.”
“...Winter.”
Jaeha nodded.
“Exactly.”
It was a famous myth.
And in Winter Mode...
Demeter stopped granting abundance and prosperity.
That brought hunger.
Disease.
Death.
Jooheon’s expression twisted.
“...So that bastard really is the one who sent the disease disaster into my world.”
It was an obvious conclusion once the pieces were connected.
Majesty Jaeha and Cynthia reached the same answer.
“Then if we want to eliminate the disease—”
“We need Persephone’s Artifact!”
Cynthia’s eyes lit up.
“If we turn Winter Mode back into Summer Mode, the plague should stop!”
Logically, that was correct.
If the seasons needed to change back...
Persephone merely had to return to the surface.
But Jooheon immediately cut in.
“That’s useless.”
All three looked at him.
“Why?”
Jooheon answered in an utterly practical tone.
