The girl was only one of a group of girls. Holding each other’s hands, they formed a circle, creating a perimeter around Krios and trapping the castle. From out of the blue mist, eight of these girls emerged without a sound. They were all alike in complexion, deathly pale, and their faces were all turned down, expressionless.
They stood as tall as mountains, and though their outline was somewhat uncertain like phantasms, they seemed to be made up of the same half-real smoke as the skyscraping Capital Tower. Prodotis, king of Krios, who had arrived at the surface via a teleportation gate, observed this without any expression.
A song rang out overhead.
Bird, bird, bird in a cage... The girls’ lips were not moving at all, so the source of the song was unclear. On Krios’s back, the heroes embroiled in battle, the Terean mercenaries, and even the Reincarnators—all felt fear in their hearts.
“So that...is ‘Lily’...”
“The girl in front...is that Iris? Steel-Link’s daughter...?”
This unfathomable situation resulted in a standstill between the combatants atop Krios. Only one among them—Prodotis the Silver—continued to move undaunted. He stood before the blue tower, and then walked toward the girls formed of smoke.
“I take it you are the defenders of the tower of blood. If I vanquish these girls, will my path open?”
“Grr-grraaah!” Bound by a rope of flames and dragged alongside Prodotis, Nue bared her fangs. The ropes, which burned hotter in proportion to the force applied to them, dug into Nue’s slender arms—and burned clean through them.
This had been Nue’s intention all along. In exchange for the loss of both arms, the Chimera was freed. Crimson blood sprayed everywhere. The instant her blood touched the ground, it congealed and darkened, and black feathers crawled out from the stumps of her arms like a swarm of insects.
Metamorphoses. Book Four. Harpy.
“Dill fought for Iris’s sake for all this time! Don’t you touch her!”
“Helicon, the mountain of song!”
The harpy flew, beating her wings, upon which countless eyes blinked—and then fell. Gravity imparted by Prodotis’s Skill pushed down hard on Nue, causing her to sink to the ground. Unable to withstand the additional weight, the eyes blinking across the surface of her wings began to burst open with a series of popping sounds. Nue screamed until she was hoarse.
“It appears that you are not the immortal Chimera, Queen of the Titans, that I once knew. To be held down this easily...you are most regrettably frail.” Tears of frustration poured out of Nue’s eyes as she groaned in agony.
“A frail girl such as thee belongs not on the battlefield where young men cry out their names. Until this comes to an end, thou shalt be protected by my power—Now weep within Phalaris, the boiling armor!” Teleportation gates manifested all around Nue. Via psychokinesis, Prodotis pulled out from the gates a number of seasoned armaments that had slumbered for centuries beneath Castle Krios. Helmets, shields, swords, and spears floated in the air, surrounded Nue as if to protect her, and they left her trapped inside.
As the armaments layered atop one another and the last gap between them was closing, Nue felt the tremors of footsteps. Castle Krios was shaking, along with the ground beneath it. Nue, whose vision was entirely blocked, could not even guess at what was happening, but she was able to glimpse Prodotis’s expression before she was entombed.
“So my giant has been thwarted. Tereans, have you done it again...?!” The ancient hero’s face was twisted with loathing. Opening another teleportation gate, the hero disappeared.
That was the last thing Nue saw.