The Witch Chronicles (In Bloom Book 2.5)

Clash of the Gods Part 3

With the aid from our pegasus, we landed in front of a crumbling temple. Rubble was scattered and towered in various places. A portion of the ceiling was missing.

The most striking décor were the petrified statues of men. They had their hands stretched out in front of them as if to shield their eyes from something.

We took a peek from the entrance. In the middle of the room was a crimson flower growing underneath the only sunlight pouring in. To determine who would go in, we played rock-paper-scissors.

Idia lost.

"No fair! I say best two out of three," he complained.

"You're sounding just like Azul when he lost a game of dice."

"Please, can't you do it? I'll handle the next challenge!"

"What if it's something even worse than this?"

"Worse than facing a monster that can turn you to stone?!"

"We have two pomegranate seeds left. If something happens, I'll use one to heal you," I tried to encourage him, "Come on, you can activate stealth mode, can't you?"

The hesitation was evident in his face. In his mind, he was probably trying to come up with any other excuse or bribe so he wouldn't go in.

I switched tactics, "I thought you Ignihyde students were built differently."

"Excuse me?" he grimaced. "What're you going on about?"

"You're the dorm of the Lord of the Underworld after all. I thought you could succeed in any task that's given to you. Scratch that, exceed in any task."

"But that-"

"I thought snatching a flower and not getting caught would basically be a level zero difficulty task for you."

"Whad'ya-"

"Okay, guess I'll just have to do it myself then."

"No!" Idia blocked my path, "I'll show you! Just watch!"

He confidently marched inside the temple.

There was silence, followed by a shriek.

I peeked to see Idia cornered by a woman with the body of a snake. The smaller serpents of her hair hissed as she got closer.

When she spoke, her voice was as smooth and sweet as honey, "Are you lost?"

Her tail wrapped around his body and pulled him close to her. Idia tightly shut his eyes and looked in the other direction.

The woman hooked a finger to his chin, "I would much prefer your eyes to look into mine."

"Medusa!" another woman's voice echoed through, "That's not the way to welcome guests!"

Then a third, "I was in the middle of decorating! We need to seriously vamp up our interior"

Amidst their conversation, I caught their names. The two snake women beside the one in the center were Euryale and Stheno. The one who caught Idia, was Medusa.

Viewing him from the side, Idia's eyes remained tightly shut. Regardless of Medusa's forms of persuasion, Idia wouldn't budge.

"What brings you here? Have you come to slay us too?" Medusa asked.

"I-I-I heard stories about you three," Idia quickly answered. "I wanted...to see i-if they were true."

Euryale nodded, not convinced, "Right. Cause you're not like other guys."