CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED EIGHTY-FIVE

Temple of Doom, Part 2

To enter a haunted zone solo—especially one discovered in the underworld—was the kind of thing Sam might have once been hesitant to tackle. But now, having broken past his old limits, the eagerness for adventure was once again growing inside him.

“Apollo, light my way, and don’t let the darkness take me,” he whispered a short prayer to his patron. “And maybe help Sarah too… that would be awesome.”

He moved cautiously through the temple’s open entryway, taking care to check the corners in case something was waiting by the doors to jump out at him. However, despite the ominous atmosphere outside, the temple’s interior had an almost solemn air to it. As if it were still reminiscing its former purpose as a sanctuary for those who sought the gods in the days before it had been plagued by the taint of a gorgon’s envy.

“Any sign of horrors, Triple-A?”

None so far.

As he crossed past the threshold, Sam remembered to turn on the Mask of the Argonaut’s Darkvision, one of the relic’s hidden features that he’d successfully unlocked after training at Flint Consolidated. Ethereal light filled his vision so that the temple’s interior was cast in a dim glow, allowing Sam to survey his surroundings without it being obscured in darkness.

“Gotta love this mask and all its functions.”

The inside of the temple was pretty much what Sam expected; a large rectangular space steeped in darkness with only crumbling stones and broken columns for décor. There were more statues here too, but while the garden décor outside belonged to people in civilian attire, the ones inside the temple belonged to men and women in armor. Heroes like Sam who’d once braved this temple to face the monster hiding within.

There are footprints on the floor.

A set of footprints had indeed disturbed the layer of dust that coated the stone floor. They were small enough to belong to a woman, but Triple-A couldn’t determine if these were Farsight’s prints or someone else’s. Sam followed these footprints through a straight path that led to the edge of a wide circular hole that exuded a soft orange glow he’d noticed from the temple’s entrance.

“Out of the frying pan…” He pressed a node on his belt and summoned Gram to his hand. “…and into the fire.”

Steps led halfway down to a basement that seemed far removed from the temple interior above. Apart from its stone ceiling, the bottom half of the basement was a thirty-foot drop down into craggy earth divided into these small islands and narrow pathways by molten lava.

“Holy…”

Sam jumped down onto the nearest island and was immediately struck by scalding heat strong enough for Triple-A to alert him of the dangers.

ALERT! You have entered an active volcanic environment. Regeneration is working to counteract the effects of its heat and noxious fumes. However, you are recommended not to stay here for too long.

The scent of sulfur and brimstone filled the air, causing Sam to cough until his lungs could adjust to the strong stench. On the bright side, he no longer needed to keep Darkvision active as the lava lit the cavernous space with garish orange light bright enough to navigate with.

“Triple-A, can you”—Sam cleared his throat—“find Ash?”

While he waited for the system’s response, his gaze took in the space around him, taking note of the many statues arrayed on his island, their stone faces retaining the terror they’d experienced at the moment of petrification.

None of the nearby statues show any resemblance to Farsight.

“Keep looking…” Sam’s brow furrowed slightly. “We need to find her before whoever lives here finds us…”

The idea of finding a gorgon’s lair in the underworld troubled Sam because it meant that the horror who called this haunted zone home must have been extremely old… and powerful. He didn’t want to solo an alpha-level monster if he could help it, especially since the system hadn’t yet found any sign of Farsight in this cavern.

Sam heard movement behind him. A kind of slithering across rocky ground that evoked all sorts of frightening imaginations in his mind.

“Godsdamn…”

He turned around with Gram raised forward, but no enemy was waiting to pounce on him. Just more statues with faces fixed in terror.

“Maybe I just—”

From the corner of his eye, Sam thought he saw a glint of something green.

Gram’s tip drew forward and slid into empty air.

“Ho-boy…”

He heard a hiss on his right, forcing him to turn that way with his sword swinging across the air to slice the head of a satyr statue. Apart from that, there was nothing but the ledge.

“S-sorry, Mr. Satyr…”

Another hiss. This time on his left, but whatever had caused it was gone by the time Sam turned in its direction.

“Blessed Athena, I feel like I’ve stumbled into a horror movie…”

Thanks to all his recent near-death experiences, Sam developed a kind of danger sense that helped him avoid attacks of opportunity made against him instinctually. This gut feeling caused him to duck just as something long and heavy swiped at the air where his head was only a second ago. Instead, whatever it was had struck the rest of the satyr statue, turning it into rubble whose pieces tumbled over the ledge and into the lava below.

Sam rolled to his right to avoid the satyr’s remains while also managing to swing his sword at his hidden foe, but he hit only air once again. And, when he rose back up, Sam discovered that he was alone.

Slippery bastard…” he frowned. “Hey, Triple-A, think you can track this thing?”

The earlier signal interference combined with the harsh conditions around you are making it difficult for the system to determine the location of the Gorgon.

“Fine…” he sighed. “Just find Ash. I’ll take care of things.”

Sam was attacked twice more as he moved across the narrow earthen bridge to reach the next island, but, although he managed to avoid getting hurt both times, Sam was also unable to deal a blow at this unseen foe who seemed too fast for the naked eye to track.

As he hid behind the statue of a Roman-age hero, Sam wondered if there was anything he could do to locate his enemy before it attacked him again. At the moment, he was using Gram’s blade to check his corners, but this wasn’t a very solid strategy for fighting a gorgon.

“The Smithsonian lent dad the Shield of Perseus when he hunted Stheno… I don’t have anything like that with me.”

You could try sending your life force’s aura out around you to check for traces of a horror’s energy nearby. You achieved something similar when you were tracking the Ceryneian Hind across the Ozarks.

“Wasn’t that you?”

Using your power… Now that you’ve learned to control life force outside of your body, this should be a relatively easy task. Why don’t you try it?

“See, if Chiron talked like you”—Sam slid over to another statue he could hide behind—“then I’d be more inclined to listen.”

As soon as he was sure he wasn’t about to be attacked, Sam began the task Triple-A recommended for him. He heard a strange ringing blaze to life in his mind, and then a near-invisible vibration began spreading out in all directions from him. Seconds later, he heard several pings around him. These notifications arrived in the order of their proximity to Sam.

The vibrant pulse of a horror found! Stygian ore found! A faint pulse of a living soul found!

In his mind’s eye, Sam knew exactly where these three discoveries could be found. The ore was below the ledge on his immediate right, the faint pulse of a living soul was on a craggy island to the left of the one he was on, while the vibrant horror’s pulse had come from right behind the statue he was using as a hiding spot.

“Styx!”

In his panic, he’d invoked the name of the dreaded river, although he hoped nothing bad would happen as the Styx wasn’t anywhere near him. Still, Sam was quick to get away from the crumbling statue and the thing that had just slammed into it.

Some might think that Sam didn’t need to run. He’d fought horrors of all kinds by now. He’d even faced two giants’ shadows recently. He could do this. However, when Sam’s life force made contact with the monster’s energy, he realized this was not a foe he could defeat alone. Its strength seemed even greater than that of the empousa he and his friends subdued recently.

Instead of making a stand, Sam ran toward the island where Farsight was supposed to be. He didn’t make it though. Sam heard a familiar twang and he just barely avoided the bronze arrow that zipped past his head.

“She can use weapons?!” he complained. “Isn’t that cheating?!”

Sam gazed at the reflection of Gram’s blade and finally caught sight of the horror that was hunting him.

Serpent scales and fangs and hundreds of living venomous snakes wriggled atop her head like unkempt hair. Her body still retained its alluring human physique; heavy breasts and a tiny waist with green scales and sickly veins marring portions of her naked flesh. Coiled underneath her torso was a serpent’s body that was as thick as the trunk of a tree that had been covered in shiny green scales.

It was her face that caught Sam’s gaze though. Even distorted, she was beautiful. Beautiful enough that Sam momentarily forgot Thunder’s face. But then he saw the crown atop the gorgon’s head, and a fearful chill slid up his spine.

“They say only one gorgon ever wears a crown…” Sam gulped. “Medusa…”