Just as the tribal leaders had finished giving the order for everyone to evacuate,
every person in the tribe suddenly felt their bodies grow unbearably heavy, so stiff they could hardly move.
The air, thick with that strange briny stench and turned into a domain, made even breathing difficult; the simple act of drawing breath had become a painful burden.
Water…
It was as if the air itself were flooded with saltwater.
They could no longer take a step.
Even scattering and fleeing was now impossible.
They could only stare, eyes wide and despairing, as a black, slime-slick "mountain range"
moved toward the tribe—seemingly slow, but in truth swiftly bearing down.
Once more, hopeless ash filled every gaze.
When the shadow fully fell, the truth was revealed.
It was no mountain at all, but the divine body of some unknown god!
Over a thousand second-generation humans, in the instant they beheld this god's true form, underwent terrible mutation.
Their souls, having gazed upon the unspeakable Abyssal Chaos Goddess, twisted and tore in an instant.
Their fragile bodies followed, warping into indescribable shapes.
On once-normal bodies there sprouted scores of inhuman parts—
extra limbs, fleshy growths, writhing feelers, scales, and clusters of compound eyes.
Their flesh was, by instinct, trying to mimic the god they had seen.
And these newly-grown organs and limbs, under the crushing pressure of divine might…
"Bang!"
"Bang! Bang!"
burst one after another!
Blood and meat exploded across the ground; foul gore and torn limbs spread rapidly.
The stench of blood, mixing with the abyss's salty reek, formed a rotten odor like some hellish purgatory.
Those not killed outright shuddered as their souls were torn; their minds shattered on the edge of madness.
First-generation humans had tougher souls and, with that extra strength, could just barely resist.
Even so, they endured an immense, soul-warping agony.
Though they had not yet mutated immediately, it was certain that once this unspeakable goddess drew closer, they too would not escape.
Beneath their skin, those budding, extraneous bodies clawed and writhed, desperate to break free of human flesh and surge out to "behold" their god.
At that moment of utter despair—
a clear, bright, melodious song of civilization and order rang down from the ninth heaven.
That far-reaching, majestic verse was like the first light of creation; in an instant, it swept away the choking distortion and stillness over the earth.
The horrors about to burst from beneath their skin were suppressed by holy power and quickly faded.
All who had been wracked by terrible pain and mutation came to their senses in that single hymn.
So long as they still lived, no matter how ruined their forms, they swiftly recovered; strength flowed back into every limb.
All across the ground, countless people burst into tears and dropped to their knees, praying to their merciful teacher.
The bright and gracious goddess had come; surely humanity would survive this calamity.
A beam of sacred light, rushing and full of the grandeur of civilization and epic, came hurtling down.
Wind howled; clouds rolled.
Golden radiance fell like a meteor, bathing the bloody earth.
The light spread, pressing back every shadow.
The tides withdrew; the air grew light again.
Under that holy, gentle glow, the breath of death receded bit by bit.
Then she arrived: the radiant, learned eldest of the nine Muses; the God-King's firstborn among the Muses; the pride of the all-knowing goddess—Calliope, gold-crowned goddess of epic.
She had seen this hellish scene from afar; rage instantly filled her noble, beautiful face.
In her heart, anger only mounted, and, in a rare thing for her, a true killing intent rose.
She had almost never felt such bloodlust.
"These inner-sea trash really don't quit!"
"Utterly insufferable!"
"These two beasts are quite filial—stuffing themselves and then running back to fetch their parent. Planning a family feast, are we?!"
Her resentment toward Absu Naya only deepened.
"You, Absu Naya, however small a god you may be, are still a god!"
"Instead of staying quietly in your peaceful trench to 'sleep,' you dare come to the mortal world to wipe out these mortals?!"
"Truly you know nothing of heaven and earth!"
"Do you not know how special humans are?!"
"Do you not know these humans are our Muses' students?!"
"And you dare lay a hand on them?!"
Her gaze dropped slightly; the corner of her eye caught the twisted remains of mortal bodies, and her heart clenched. Her original plan was swept aside in an instant.
At Calliope's descent, Absu Naya of course sensed her presence at once.
It was a divine aura of extreme purity and nobility, brimming with order and epic splendor.
Especially that divine glow of "daughter of the God-King" shining within it, brighter than the sun itself.
It was the mark of the highest, noblest divinity in existence—absolutely unique, beyond any imitation.
Absu Naya froze; the pressure she had laid over humankind stalled at once.
Her once cold and indifferent, aloof demeanor vanished in a heartbeat.
Her heart flooded with wariness and reverence.
"…Oh, hell."
"The Muse Crown Princess!"
Here in the mortal realm, Absu Naya was indeed a god on high.
But before this Crown Princess of Olympus…
Absu Naya and the mortals seemed to be on the same level again.
If she offended the Muse Princess, never mind Father Phorcys and Mother Ceto.
Even if Grandpa Pontus came, he might not be able to save her.
Thoughts raced in Absu Naya's mind. At this critical moment, just as she was about to feed her brood after her first inspection, the God-King's beloved daughter had suddenly arrived.
Shouldn't she be on Olympus or in some temple of civilization?
What was she doing here in the mortal world?
More importantly—why now of all times?!
She had stepped onto the scene and Calliope followed on her heels.
Could it be…
that she had come for these humans?
The Muses' role as humankind's teachers was common knowledge among the gods.
Absu Naya's heart gave a hard thump.
She might love sleep and dislike such tiring thoughts,
and grow savagely violent when angered—
but that did not mean she was stupid.
As a member of the fence-sitter clan, had she not learned to read the winds and faces, she would have been crushed into sea-foam long ago.
In a flash she made up her mind.
Test the waters first.
If things looked bad, retreat at once.
She could play and meddle, but never flail around before the God-King's favored daughter.
This top-tier "god-Second-Gen" was too much to risk offending.
So Absu Naya acted as if she had no idea why Calliope had come.
She merely swung that indescribable lower body—sometimes seeming like a whale's tail, sometimes a mass of a billion tentacles—
and, shrinking as she went, drifted slowly forward.
By the time she reached Calliope, her form was about the same size as the Muse's.
She had drawn all her invasive, twisting, stillness-laden abyssal field back into herself.
On the beautiful half of her face she wore a look of humble, innocent respect—a professionally sincere, false smile.
Even the beastly half, scaled and tusked, contorted itself into something like a "friendly" grin.
She bowed slightly, performing an impeccably correct courtesy, and said with reverent formality:
"Daughter of the great, eternal God-King Zeus!"
"Daughter of the great All-Knowing Goddess of Civilization and Memory, Mnemosyne!"
"Noble goddess of epic, mistress of civilization's epics and the art of eloquence, honored Crown Princess of Civilization—Lady Calliope!"
"I, Absu Naya, daughter of Phorcys, a lowly one, offer You my highest respect!"
This string of titles flowed off her tongue as smoothly as water, perfectly demonstrating the fence-sitter clan's professional training.
Her manner was utterly humble and respectful, flawless in every etiquette.
Calliope, however, kept her holy, noble face cold and said not a word.
She did not even glance at Absu Naya directly.
Instead, with her sharp golden eyes—shot through with the light of civilization and inherited from the eternal God-King—she stared past her,
at the mass of Abyssal Whelps trembling and collapsing to their knees under her divine presence.
Her expression was anything but kind.
Absu Naya's heart sank.
"Done for…"
"She really did come to pick a fight!"
"How? As the God-King's beloved daughter, should she not be furious over the deceit and shame He suffered?"
"How can she now be standing up for humans? And this—this goes against His Majesty's covenant with mortals!"
Calliope's gaze swept icily over the foul horde
until it settled on the two monsters who had devoured the entire tribe.
The two idiots crouched docilely, trying their best to look harmless before the God-King's daughter.
But when Mokela's massive, trembling tentacle scratched at the ground in fear,
it passed over something:
a snow-white edelweiss, once pure and delicate, now long polluted by abyssal stillness.
Its petals had turned yellow and warped.
As if to add insult to injury, that colossal tentacle unconsciously ground down on the tiny flower,
crushing it utterly into the mud.
Calliope saw this—and smiled.
A cold, cruel smile.
______
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