"Hiding won't help you. Come on, look at me properly. You're too tall. Lower yourself, lower... lower."
Despite the vast difference in size and strength, Stheno's imposing aura completely overwhelmed Gorgon. The Queen of the Demonic Beasts meekly lowered her body, pressing her face closer to the ground.
"Good girl. Still pretending you're not Medusa?"
"..."
Gorgon still refused to acknowledge her true identity. As Medusa, she would never harm her sisters, and she couldn't bear to accept this reality.
"What's this? Our little sister has grown so much... and now refuses to acknowledge her sisters?" Euryale pressed on relentlessly, seizing on Stheno's words without giving Gorgon a moment to breathe.
"I..."
Gorgon would have preferred battling Quetzalcoatl for another dozen rounds to facing this moment. She never imagined reuniting with her sisters in such a way; theoretically, the chances of their paths crossing again were infinitesimally small. But now that the moment had arrived, she couldn't escape it.
"Sisters... do you hate me?"
"Why would we hate you? You're our beloved little sister."
Stheno reached out to touch Gorgon, but the Duel's rules forbade physical contact. Frustrated by this limitation, she turned her gaze toward Jiang You. He immediately noticed a new task from Stheno appear on his quest log.
The gist of it was: win or lose this match, you'll get three free Stheno cards as a reward.
During this exchange, Stheno and Euryale exchanged a glance, and Jiang You noticed a new task with identical conditions appearing in his quest list, offering a Euryale card as a reward.
The two sisters could understand each other's intentions with a single glance, making it no wonder Medusa couldn't break through their bond.
"Tell us, Gorgon, why should we hate you?" Euryale demanded.
Though she already knew the answer, Euryale insisted on hearing the words from Gorgon herself, just to see her sister squirm.
"Did you... do something to wrong us?"
"I... I..."
Medusa, who had taken countless lives, was ultimately consumed by her accumulating Demonic Nature. She devoured her own sisters, fusing her Divinity into a monster named Gorgon. For her to confess these truths to her sisters would be unspeakably cruel.
"Alright, enough bullying our sweet Medusa," Stheno interjected, shielding Gorgon once more. Euryale puffed out her cheeks in annoyance. Jiang You, recalling their earlier exchange, realized this was a classic "good cop, bad cop" routine. How could these two possibly have genuine disagreements?
"You devoured your sisters, didn't you?"
"Sisters... I'm sorry..."
Gorgon lowered her head, unable to meet her sisters' gazes.
"It's not your fault, dear."
Stheno longed to reach out and touch Gorgon's face, to lend more sincerity to her words, but she couldn't. Gorgon's body was large enough for her to lean closer, but she lacked the courage.
"Medusa did it to protect us, Sisters."
As an aside, while most characters' powers are weakened when summoned as Heroic Spirits, Euryale and Stheno had actually been strengthened, granting them some combat abilities—though admittedly not much.
"We have no fighting skills, so the task of driving away or destroying the invaders falls entirely on you, Medusa."
Euryale, playing the bad cop role, decided that scaring Gorgon once was enough.
"Constantly going against your own nature to kill those living beings... it must be so hard for you, Medusa. All that accumulated malice and your ever-growing Demonic Nature are crushing you. If anyone is to blame, it's those greedy fools! They keep harassing us for the so-called honor of slaying monsters and for the Goddess's body! They deserve to die!"
Some words carry entirely different weight depending on who says them. Gorgon burst into tears, fist-sized droplets splashing onto the ground.
-
Watching the scene unfold, Kingu, who was dueling Goldie, turned green with rage. How could they be acting like a happy family reunion when his true Mother remained? Though he couldn't bring himself to harm them, his loyalty to Tiamat remained unwavering. He knew which loyalty weighed heavier. Tiamat's awakening required Gorgon to sever her connection to Tiamat's Authority; if Gorgon defected, everything would be lost.
"A fake is always a fake! There's no place for you over there anymore! You're just a clown."
Gilgamesh, having sensed Kingu's distress, abandoned all pretense of dignity and roared with laughter. "If I were you, I'd flee this land tonight! No, I'd even consider abandoning this planet altogether!"
-
"So, your Sisters won't blame you. You must have been crying back then, right?" Euryale added, picking up where Stheno left off. "Don't blame yourself; this isn't your fault. It's all due to humanity's greed. So, stop sulking and come back to your Sisters."
"Alright," Gorgon replied, her tone softening.
At her core, Gorgon was still Medusa, unable to refuse her Sisters' requests. Hearing them condemn humanity, she regained her former confidence.
"Let's exterminate all humans together, Sisters. I'll win next time. I'll capture that Servant and keep him penned up. Then, we'll live together on an Earth cleansed of humanity! We'll rebuild our paradise with their flesh and blood!"
"My dear, foolish sister, haven't you figured it out by now?"
Stheno chuckled. Though she wasn't particularly interested in humans, she wouldn't break her word after receiving a favor from Jiang You.
"We don't actually hate humans, you know. Indiscriminate anger isn't befitting of pure maiden goddesses."
"When dealing with innocent humans, a little teasing is enough. Extermination is just too much," Euryale added, and this was the truth. "If there were no humans in this world, it would be so boring."
"But in my current grotesque form, I can hardly be called a maiden anymore..."
Gorgon still couldn't let go of her hatred. Memories of her countless sufferings burned within her, and her hands were already stained with blood. Stopping now was impossible. Her current form, her Spirit Origin, had been forged solely for vengeance. "There's no turning back now. Only one of us can survive—humans or me!"
"Such a stubborn little sister," Stheno muttered, shaking her head in exasperation. Gorgon was wavering, but unwilling to give up just yet. Jiang You had warned that forgiving Gorgon was impossible—it would be a betrayal of the dead. However, Gorgon's strength was considerable; she could single-handedly hold a defensive line against Lahmu in the final battle. Besides, Gorgon would vanish along with the Singularity's restoration anyway. Let her contribute what she could.
"If you can't decide, let your sister make the choice for you."