Chapter 1066: The Cursed Swamp

In the distance, Arthur could see something that looked like a green dot, and at the sight, he muttered, "We’re close, huh?"

Alexia turned her gaze in that direction as well, her eyes peering deep into the vastness of space. After a moment, she nodded before responding. "What you’re looking for is definitely there."

Her words made Arthur smile softly as he walked closer to the viewport’s reinforced glass wall.

"A Venomous dragon with powerful poison, nine heads, and a regeneration power that is almost infinite, they say.

The Hydra was defeated by the strongest Hero of Olympus, Heracles, and buried beneath a mountain of boulders on an Apex World. But even then, the Hydra’s powerful poison is said to have transformed the entirety of that Apex World into an uninhabitable cursed swamp."

There were quintillions of planets scattered across the entirety of the Olympus universe with ’Swamps’ on them, but if someone were to mention the word ’swamp’ to any Deity on the intergalactic stage within Olympus, one particular place would immediately come to mind, and that place was the ’Cursed Swamp of Lerna’.

It was a place that even High-Tier Deities were afraid of visiting because the poison constantly emanating from Hydra’s body was too potent, even though the creature had been sealed there for over a hundred thousand years.

Although they wouldn’t like to admit it, even the Twelve Olympians, including Zeus and Poseidon, wouldn’t want to go anywhere near the Cursed Swamp of Lerna unless they absolutely had no other choice but to go there.

"I haven’t really thought of acquiring any poison-type powers," Arthur muttered, rubbing his chin with a pensive look on his face.

"I have affinities for virtually all attributes, so by that right, I should have a certain level of affinity for the Law of Poison, but it’s never really crossed my mind to incorporate that into my fighting style."

He raised his right hand and clenched his fist lightly, bright crimson flames erupting over his fist as he continued speaking. "My experiments with Fire, Lightning, and Death are already taking up most of my time, so I don’t have the time to add poison into the mix.

Besides, if I get Hydra under my control, I wouldn’t need to."

"That’s why we have subordinates," Alexia said, prompting Arthur to turn towards her as she continued, "They exist as our arms and legs to exert our will in places that we cannot reach, and they can also make up for the things that we lack."

Arthur silently nodded in agreement with her words. He then cast a glance at the surrounding region of space before speaking.

"There’s not a single inhabited planet within several thousand light-years. Perfect." He

A soft smile appeared on his face as he added, "No one would notice even if things became a bit loud."

And no one would also notice the fact that he had acquired the Hydra until it was far, far too late.

◇　◇　◇

The Hero Heracles had completed several quests throughout his life before he officially joined the pantheon of Olympus, with the ones that became especially famous being the ’Twelve Labours’.

Hunting down the Hydra of Lerna was the second of the twelve, and what he had to do was defeat it, just as its name implied. But not even Heracles could kill the Hydra because its nine heads possessed regenerative power that was close to being unlimited.

The Hydra’s powerful poison wasn’t the only reason why it was feared by many gods across Olympus.

The middle head of the Hydra was said to possess an immortality that prevented it from dying regardless of what anyone did to it. In addition, the remaining eight heads of the Hydra would regrow whenever they were cut off.

As such, after burning those eight heads, Heracles sealed the Hydra by covering it with a ’huge mountain’.

Now, standing before the mountain of boulders that piled high up into the green sky, Arthur couldn’t help but sigh.

"Heracles beat that thing solo," he said, pointing towards the mountain in the distance from the observation deck of the spaceship, which had just entered the poisonous atmosphere of planet Lerna.

"Correction, Heracles beat that thing solo, over a hundred thousand years ago," Alexia said.

Her words made Arthur heave a soft sigh as he nodded in agreement.

"Indeed, he beat that thing over a hundred thousand years ago, and unlike the rest of the Olympians who like to sit on their laurels, I don’t think Heracles is the kind of person who wouldn’t improve himself to become vastly stronger than he was then."

Another sigh escaped his lips as he shook his head before continuing to speak.

"When you look at Olympus from the outside, with the perspective of an ’enemy’, you would think that the only people you have to worry about, the real top dogs, are Zeus, Poseidon, and my dad, Hades. And don’t get me wrong, they are the real top dogs of this universe, but there are a lot of other monsters hidden in this place."

"Monsters?" Alexia asked, raising an eyebrow at Arthur’s choice of words.

"Yeah, monsters," Arthur repeated while looking towards the distant mountain. "People with strength that is downright ridiculous, but you never hear about them on the inter-universal stage.

People know that these beings are strong, but people don’t really know just how ridiculously strong these beings actually are. For example, Typhon. Typhon’s wife, Echidna..."

Then, pointing towards the mountain of boulders in the distance, Arthur continued, "And this kid of theirs is called the Hydra."

Even though they were still kilometres away from it and the Hydra was in a sealed state, the power that Arthur could feel from it was immense.

For starters, it was in the Monarch Realm.

Then again, Arthur wasn’t too surprised about that, considering that the Hydra’s mother, Echidna, was an Intermediate-stage Monarch Realm existence.

The real issue here, however, was that this meant Heracles had defeated this Inferior Stage Monarch Hydra over a hundred thousand years ago.

"I guess you really can’t trust any rumours about the strength of anybody these days. People in and outside this universe all think that Heracles is probably a half-step Monarch, or at most, an Inferior Stage Monarch.

But if he was beating Inferior Stage Monarchs a hundred thousand years ago, then he’s probably a Superior Stage at this point."

Alexia nodded lightly at Arthur’s words, and then, a moment later, she turned towards him with a raised eyebrow.

"Shouldn’t you count yourself among those whose rumours of strength can’t be trusted? You had all the universes in this area fooled into thinking that you were at most a Low-Tier Deity, when you were actually a High-Tier. Even Zeus, who overestimated you relative to the others, thought you were going to be a Mid-Tier at most."

Her words made Arthur chuckle before he responded with an amused expression.

"Well, I guess I’m a pot calling the kettle black, huh?"

That laughter of his disappeared a moment later as he said, "But that doesn’t really change what it is I have to do, or what I came here to do."

With those words, cosmic energy wrapped around Arthur’s body, and he vanished from where he had been. A moment later, Alexia, also commanding the ambient cosmic energy and intertwining it with spatial laws, teleported herself outside, just as Arthur had done.

The moment she appeared outside the spaceship, the powerful and dense green poison filling the entirety of the planet’s atmosphere immediately tried to pour into her body.

However, not a single wisp of poison could get inside through any opening in her body, whether it was her nostrils, ears, or even the smallest pores covering her skin.

The cosmic energy that she passively radiated as a Primogenial Realm Existence was enough to defend her against this thick poison that had accumulated within the atmosphere for thousands of years.

She cast a glance towards Arthur, who had a thin layer of destruction law energy surrounding his body, continuously destroying every trace of poison that came in contact with him.

’I suppose the poison is still an actual threat to him at this stage,’ she thought.

Arthur, unaware of Alexia’s thoughts, dashed off towards the foot of the mountain in the distance, arriving in front of his target within a second.

Before him was a literal mountain of boulders, stacked on top of each other until they reached the sky, each one containing a huge amount of gravitational law energy.

Underneath all the giant boulders was a large, pale entity, whose body was being pressed into the ground and bound tightly with chains.

The part of its body that Arthur could see beneath this pile of rocks seemed to be muscular, with long serpentine necks arcing outward from its chest region.

Just like the stories said, it had nine heads, each one sleek and dragon-esque. They had smooth, horn-like protrusions curving backwards from their brows, along with tufts of pale, coarse yellow fur beneath their jaws that resembled beards.

The Hydra’s entire body was covered in a smooth, pale-grey to white hide that gave it a polished, stone-like appearance.

However, despite how close Arthur had gotten to it, the Hydra still had its eyes closed, apparently in a deep sleep.

"It’s hibernating," Alexia said.

"Hibernating?" Arthur echoed with some curiosity.

Alexia nodded before explaining the reason behind the creature’s current state. "It’s been sealed for a hundred thousand years, more than enough time for an immortal being to go insane if they’re stuck in one place, unable to do anything."

Arthur pondered her words for a few seconds before nodding in agreement.

"True. Even if they feel rage and resentment at being sealed, eventually those emotions are going to die down. There will be emptiness, and insanity might follow, so I suppose it’s understandable that this Hydra chose to hibernate to prevent itself from going mad."

Raising a hand, cosmic energy swirled around Arthur’s fingers as he continued speaking. "But unfortunately, I didn’t come here to speak with a hibernating Hydra, but with one that is wide awake."

Arthur opened his palm wide, then lightly thrust it forward, unleashing a radial pulse of cosmic energy that swept across the entire land in a flash.

The expanding pulse of energy moved at light speed, but in the split-second right before it made direct contact with the Hydra’s body, a semi-transparent shield of cosmic energy formed in front of it and blocked the wave of energy Arthur unleashed.

Arthur wasn’t surprised to see the shield of cosmic energy, so he simply lowered his hands, placed them into his pockets, and waited.

What followed was a loud groaning sound and the sound of chains clinking, which was quickly overshadowed by the thunderous rumble of the giant boulders trembling heavily as the existence pressed beneath them slowly raised its body.