Reborn as the Minotaur God

INTERLUDE: MEDUSA I

After her death at the hands of Perseus, Medusa awoke with the sensation of an overwhelming weight on her shoulders. The heat that burned was agonizing, infernal, abrasive, and suffocating, emanating from Tartarus, with the abyss itself consuming her whole being. Upon opening her eyes, the world around her was immersed in darkness.

The searing metal of the chains cut through her flesh with brutality, slicing through her skin and into her bones. Every movement was an explosion of pain, an endless agony that made her body and soul writhe.

Her head hung upward. The serpents writhing in her head, her daughters and companions in this Torture, were also trapped, their heads being pulled through their mouths, pierced by rusty hooks that forced them to writhe in pain, screaming in agony. They, just like her, were suffering.

The pain was unbearable, but it was not the only torment. Medusa cried, but her tears evaporated before they could touch the ground, as if Gaia herself (the Earth) refused to witness her pain. The pain in her chest was unbearable. She was no longer an innocent young woman who believed in the acceptance of the world; she was a monstrous creature from birth, a born Gorgon. Since the moment she and her sisters were born, they had been seen as aberrations. They were always rejected, feared, and hated for their appearance, for their petrifying eyes, and for the serpents in their heads.

"Why? Why were we like this?..." Her thoughts were a whirlwind, her heart torn by the pain of never being accepted.

Memories of the past blended in her mind, chaotic memories. They were not sweet recollections of a happy childhood, but the first moments of rejection and fear. She had been an aberration, a reflection of a world that feared and cursed her.

She remembers begging and praying to the gods.

"Why did the gods do this to us? Why were we forced to live like this? I just wanted... a little peace... a little compassion..."

The suffering was unbearable, and her cry of anguish echoed through the caves of Tartarus, but there was no one to hear it. There was no one who saw her as anything other than a monstrous creature.

She cursed the gods, cursed the very fate that had made her born this way, cursed Perseus, that hero who killed her mercilessly. All because she protected her home from invaders.

"DAMN YOU! PERSEUS!"

The strangled cry of pain and agony from the Gorgon echoed off the fiery walls of Tartarus, but fell on deaf ears in the world.

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Time, in that place, seemed to have lost all meaning. Decades? Centuries? She no longer knew. Tartarus was a dark and infinite hole where the pain never ceased. Every second was an eternity, and Medusa was trapped in it. There was no escape.

The chains that held her hurt her physically, but they also enslaved her. Each failed attempt to escape only resulted in more torment. And the heat, the unbearable heat, never relented. Her bones felt like they were burning from the inside, her flesh charred with the unrelenting fire that never went out. It was as if the Sun itself was above her.

Laughing bitterly, she remembered that she was no longer a young woman with dreams or hopes. Since she was born, her existence had always been marked by pain. She and her sisters, Euryale and Stheno, had never been seen as anything other than monsters. From the first look of contempt they received from others, to the moments they were relentlessly hunted, there had always been only pain and rejection.

"Why were we cursed like this? Oh, great gods...ANSWER ME, DAMN IT!?"

Everything hurt, she couldn't take it anymore.

Medusa, marked by both physical scars and soul-deep wounds, felt as if fate itself had turned against her, as if the universe itself had conspired to drag her into the abyss. She wondered if her life would always be like this: an existence without love, without compassion. Pain seemed to be the only constant.

"Euryale... Stheno..." She whispered the names of her sisters, but the pain of not being able to ask for their help, of not being able to beg for their forgiveness, of suffering the same cruel fate, was more than she could bear. "I failed you. I was weak... I couldn't do anything... forgive me… help me... please, sisters."

Despair overtook her. With every year, with every passing decade, Medusa found herself more and more trapped in her own sadness. She had no hope. She no longer believed in anything. The emptiness in her chest consumed her, and the pain burned like a coal.

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But then, something changed. A tremor, soft at first, ran through the air of Tartarus. Like a gentle breeze sweeping across the grass, something began to move, and with it, the presence of an immense force, almost incomprehensible, filled the emptiness around Medusa.

And there, with a crack in reality, SHE appeared… Gaia, the Earth, the very concept of life. A presence so grand, so loving, that the chains around Medusa seemed small and fragile in comparison. Gaia stood before her, an imposing figure, her eyes a gentle rose hue.

Medusa simply stared at her, unable to believe what she was seeing. How could such a primordial being stand before her, someone who had been rejected and despised by all?

"You..." Medusa whispered, her voice broken by pain. "You're here...?"

Gaia did not answer immediately. She simply extended her hand, and the iron chains that bound Medusa began to disintegrate, as if they were nothing more than sand. The feeling of relief was immediate and overwhelming. The chains fell to the ground with a dull thud, and Medusa found herself free for the first time in her existence.

The pain she had endured for so long, the burns that had tormented her, all began to fade. Gaia touched her body gently, and Medusa felt her skin regenerate, her wounds close. The serpents on her head, once driven mad by pain, now calmed, as if a deep peace surrounded them.

"You did not deserve to suffer like this, Medusa, my Daughter," Gaia said, her voice soft, yet filled with a strength that cut through any resistance. "I have come to free you. No more pain. No more suffering. I will not let those gods harm you anymore."

Medusa looked at Gaia, tears now freely falling, but not from pain, from joy, from a relief so deep she could hardly believe it.

"I... I never imagined this was possible..." Medusa said, her voice cracking, full of raw, uncontrollable emotion. "I... I don't know how to thank you..."

Gaia embraced her, holding her with a maternal strength. "No need for words, my daughter. Just know that from now on, you will be free. And, most importantly, you will know love. No more betrayals. No more rejections."

Medusa looked at Gaia, her heart racing, as if the words of this divine presence had planted something new within her. Hope. The love she had always desired, but never believed she would find.

"Thank you... mom..."