The Dread Knight's Rage-Chapter 86: The Great Gorgon

"My stars... this is so fucking boring." Jiaoying sighed to herself as she sat atop a small cliff, overlooking a ravine.

Being an advisor was annoying this school year. Almost all of Jiaoying’s duties revolved around making sure students didn’t die.

This was something she had never really known the Academy to care about back when she was a student.

And all of these changes were due to the very same student she was following right now.

Jiaoying couldn’t see directly into the group’s cavern for the night, but she could see the orange glow of their lit fire and smelled some kind of cooked meat. Most likely pork.

Jiaoying was so bored she could die.

Being out here as an advisor meant sitting, watching, hiding, and waiting.

Keeping her presence concealed at all times was the most difficult part of the experience. It meant she had to travel lightly and sleep even lighter.

There were also few opportunities to bathe, and even fewer opportunities for her to eat more than the travel-size perishables she kept in her bag.

Jiaoying couldn’t wait to head back to the academy and shut herself in her quarters for days at a time.

Though when she remembers that she doesn’t have many days left there, she suddenly finds that idea unfulfilling.

Her remaining time felt all too short. She didn’t have to think very hard about the reason why.

Jiaoying stops daydreaming when she notices movement opposing her.

On the other side of the ravine, there stands a glorious creature.

A tiger at least eight feet tall, with numerous rolling muscles underneath a glistening coat of striped fur.

Majestic white wings fluttered from it’s back, as perfect as a painting. Jiaoying could tell even from this distance that the feathers must have been as soft as a dream.

The creature did not do anything aside from stare into the cave. Jiaoying felt that it must have possessed some degree of intelligence.

She watched it turn around after staring for a bit, and for a moment, she wondered if she should follow it.

And then, she saw Solomon rushing out of the cavern like a man possessed, and she knew that she did not have a choice in the matter.

-

Solomon felt his heart start again.

It pounded like terrible thunder within his chest, and turned the white static between his ears into a single-minded storm.

For over a year now, there had been nothing. Solomon could almost forget about the other immortal ones walking this world. 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

According to them, they never really left the citadel. So why in the world was one suddenly turning up here now, at this moment...?

Solomon scaled the rocky wall as fast as he was physically able.

He cut his hands along the jagged surface, but never even so much as flinched to allude to his pain.

After reaching the top, he heaved himself over the ledge and set himself to running after the creature who beckoned him.

By the time Solomon caught up to the creature, his face was ashen with stress.

There was a field of ankle-high grass already dead from the day’s heat.

Within that field, a herd of ethereal white horses grazed over the grass, eating what little they could find.

However, a few had no mind for meals and instead took greater interest in the one gracing their presence.

"Bewitching, aren’t they...? I always find the greatest appreciation in the things I did not create myself... It is like an artist looking upon the work of another, and seeing in it all of the things they themselves lack.

For some, I suppose jealousy would arise in that moment. But for one such as I, who knows nothing that I cannot obtain... I know only a sense of gratitude for expanding the boundaries of what I have considered possible."

Solomon swallows. She is exactly the way he remembers her.

Bright golden armor that is lithe and dangerous. A set of glowing green eyes that illuminated even the night. And of course, the living snakes that writhed in a mass at the top of her head.

Somehow, Solomon found Gorgon to be more intimidating now than the first time he saw her.

The way she moved was like an apex predator, completely at peace with the world around her.

But at any moment, she could snap and revert to her primal, savage form.

She hadn’t even bothered to look in Solomon’s direction yet. Rather, she was too focused on petting the horses and brushing their coats.

Her own mount seemed to be incredibly jealous. He sat beside his removed saddle with a disgruntled look on his face.

"These horses are a bit special compared to others in the realm... Did you know that? They have a unique constitution to change their forms depending upon their rider... These innocent creatures are like windows to the soul. Isn’t that mesmerizing?"

Finally, Gogon turns around. At the moment her eyes land on him, Solomon is absolutely sure of but one thing.

He has never experienced a power like the one this woman possesses. She was heaven-defying, and if need be, heaven-destroying.

Adrenaline rushed through him like a flood, something he knew she could sense.

Solomon could feel her smiling beneath her helmet.

When she spoke again, her voice was practically dripping with amusement.

"Dearest Little Brother... What in the world are you wearing?"

Solomon looks down at his muddy boots and tattered pants.

"Were the gifts that Redeemer bequeathed to you insufficient? If you had burned through that already, you could have come back to the Citadel for more."

"I don’t need any of your charity." Solomon finally spoke.

"Pride? How novel." Gorgon laughs. "You are a silly little man, Disaster. The idea of accepting treasures from us troubles you, but wearing the clothes of a mountain savage does not? Seems a bit strange, doesn’t it?"

"...I can’t afford to give any of you anything that you might want in return. So asking for anything is completely off the table."

Gorgon let out an amused noise. "Oh... I see. Your trust in us is still measured then?"

"Nonexistent is a bit more fitting."

"Perhaps if you got to know us, that would not be the case."

Gorgon walks around Solomon towards her mount. She sits just in front of his exposed belly and leans against it to relax. The tiger finally seems happy again.

"So is it that you don’t need us, or that you feel you cannot afford us? Which of the two bars you from reaching out?"

Solomon’s jaw tightens. "Both."

"Ooh. You favor duplexity, do you?"

"In this case."

"Either or, it is silly." Gorgon yawned. "You debase yourself to wearing these filthy dredges rather than come to us for aid? I do not understand why you choose to wear fabric in the first place, but at the very least, you could make sure that what you wear is not shameful. You dishonor us like this."

"I don’t need money." Solomon sneers. "I am on a training excursion."

Gorgon blinks. "Oh... No time to bathe during this little excursion?"

"No."

"Pity." Gorgon looks away.

Solomon starts to ask the golden woman why she is here and why she has called out to him.

But before he can get his words out, the horses begin to get agitated. Solomon feels the ground start to rumble.

"Calm."

Gorgon’s voice is hard and unyielding, like stone.

With just one word from her, the horses have swallowed their fear and remain standing in place.

Solomon looks around anxiously before he spies the source of the disturbance.

A giant is approaching. This one was even larger than the one that nearly made little Canari wet herself.

Solomon takes an apprehensive stance.

Gorgon laughs deeply, her head to the sky.

"Hahahaha! I forget your youth and inexperience, brother! Does such an insignificant creature cause you to tremble in your little boots? Does your scrotum shrivel from the anxiety?"

"Are you mocking me..?" Solomon’s eyes glow.

"Only a bit. You can do it to me as well when you’re a bit bigger."

The giant spots them in the grass and releases a deep, throaty roar.

It starts to run toward them, and in just two strides, it’s legs have carried it right on top of the deathless.

Solomon summons his sword to shield his body.

"Oh, relax, little brother."

The snakes in Gorgon’s hair grow to unspeakably horrific proportions.

They are as tall as palace walls, and as thick as stone pillars.

The serpents lash out at the giant and bite into him before he can lay a finger on the horses or the Athanatoi.

They twist and rip, tearing away chunks of dirty white flesh and showering the world below with blood.

It all happened so quickly.

Within seconds after showing up, the giant was falling over dead.

Or at least... what was left of it.

Enormous chunks had been bitten out of the giant until he remembered sliced cheese.

The giant fell to the ground in pieces, dying before it could even release a groan.

Solomon was covered in giant blood, and more stumped than he had ever been in his entire life.

He couldn’t move. He couldn’t think.

Gorgon slowly stood up, impeccably clean by some minor miracle.

"Oh... seems like we’ve got a little spy on our hands."

Grogon threw out her arm, and Solomon heard a scream.

From behind a rocky pillar, Jiaoying came flying into Gorgon’s grip, her eyes already beginning to turn orange.

"Don’t you know, child...? Peeping is improper."