Chapter 612: Another Old Acquaintance |
“But why would a statue of Medusa appear in the Glacier Plane? Could it be that believers of hers also exist within this plane?”
At that thought, Janna immediately shook her head.
As an extradimensional plane with relatively complete laws and an independent Plane Will, the Plane Will here would absolutely not allow the beings of this plane to worship an “Outer God” from another plane.
Moreover, this “Outer God” was an heretical demon god rejected by the Abyssal pantheon. If the Abyssal demon gods discovered that Gorgon–Medusa had believers in another plane, they would most likely destroy them outright to eliminate future trouble.
“I wonder what exactly caused Medusa to be rejected by the Abyssal demon gods back then…”
“You wretched woman, so you really have been resurrected.”
Just as Janna was still deep in thought, a low, hoarse female voice filled with charm suddenly appeared in her ears without any warning.
The moment she heard it, Janna’s first instinct was to immediately interrupt her Spirit Traverse talent and escape.
“So many years have passed, and you’re still as rude as ever. Not even greeting me before trying to leave?”
“So this is what Artemis meant by ‘no danger’ in the divination result??”
Not only that, even her [Danger Perception] talent seemed to have vanished at this moment, giving her no warning at all.
“What a small world… to think I would encounter that person’s old acquaintance here…”
Realizing that struggling was futile, Janna gradually calmed down. From the resentment Medusa revealed toward Ivrecia between her words, Janna could infer that there must have been some complicated relationship between the two in the past.
“But didn’t Medusa already fall during that God War? Why is she here? Could it be that the content in 《Ancient Magic History》 is actually incorrect?”
The first time Janna had heard about Gorgon–Medusa was during her time at White Coral Academy, when Professor Uta lectured on modern history in 《Ancient Magic History》. It was in the chapter “Abyssal Invasion” that she learned of this terrifyingly powerful demon god.
Although humanity ultimately achieved victory under the joint siege of several Abyssal demon gods, that near-extinction catastrophe had been etched into the memory of every generation through historical records, impossible to erase.
Later, with the formal rise of wizards, and because the Outer Gods had first launched a full-scale invasion against the Abyssal Plane before attacking the Material Plane, the once-powerful Abyssal Plane was forced into decline due to contamination, no longer as formidable as before.
It was during that period of internal and external crisis that Gorgon–Medusa was inexplicably rejected by the Abyssal demon gods. They chose to exile her beyond the Abyssal Plane, even at the cost of losing such a powerful combat force, forbidding her from ever returning.
The last time Janna read about Gorgon–Medusa in 《Ancient Magic History》 was in the section on modern history, where she learned that during the final God War—jointly initiated by the Abyss, the Dream Realm, and the Material Plane to resist the invasion of the Outer Gods—one of the fallen deities was the exiled demon god Gorgon–Medusa…
“I didn’t expect that after your resurrection, you’d still be so vain. Just a mere shell, yet you waste so much effort maintaining it.”
Just as Janna was thinking about how to break free from her predicament, Medusa’s voice once again sounded beside her ear.
“Vain? Is she talking about Ivrecia?”
For some reason, upon hearing this inexplicable remark, the vigilance in Janna’s heart suddenly faded, replaced by a strange sense of familiarity.
“What, after all this time, you still don’t intend to speak to me?”
Seeing that Janna remained silent, Medusa’s previously sarcastic tone suddenly disappeared, replaced by a deep sense of loss and sorrow.
Janna, who possessed extraordinary sensitivity to emotions, could now confirm that this unknown state of existence—whether alive or dead—of the demon god Medusa held no malice toward her, the “reincarnator” of Ivrecia.
“Greetings, respected Lady Medusa. My name is Janna Roland. I sincerely apologize for intruding here and disturbing you.”
Knowing that silence would not resolve anything, Janna finally spoke after some hesitation, greeting the Medusa statue within the ice in an unusually humble tone.
However, after her greeting, Medusa—who had been rather talkative—suddenly fell into silence, saying nothing for a long time.
Janna did not rashly break the quiet, instead leaving the time to Medusa, patiently waiting for her response.
“You are not her. You are not Ivrecia at all!”
After several minutes, just as Janna thought the silence would continue indefinitely, Medusa finally spoke again.
Yet what surprised Janna was that Medusa’s response was not like others—who simply assumed that Janna had temporarily lost her memories due to reincarnation—but instead, in an extremely firm and even intense tone, directly denied that Janna was Ivrecia.
“She’s dead… she’s truly dead…”
After that intense denial, Medusa seemed to have been stimulated by something and began repeating the same sentence over and over.
Hearing this, Janna—who had gradually come to accept that she was Ivrecia’s reincarnator—felt a trace of confusion instead.
“Whether it was the Bloodred Archduke, Lucifer, or even the Lord of Wisdom and Knowledge whom I just met in the World Inside the Book, every one of them was absolutely certain that I am Ivrecia’s reincarnator. Even Aph’s dream gave the same answer… yet only she directly denies this seemingly factual matter…”
Listening to the deep sense of loss in Medusa’s repeated murmurs, Janna felt not only confusion and doubt, but also, strangely, an inexplicable sense of relief…