18 Crete

Eschios pov:

After biting into the meat of the animal I've hunted before, I fed the leftover to Buck, who gladly gulped it down in one second.

After a few hours of Buck flying at full speed, I could see the silhouette of Crete. Flying and landing in front of the castle, I was quickly surrounded by the royal guards.

"Not quite the way you would treat a hero, but I like the determination."

"State the reasons why you are here, and why you have stepped foot on the castle."

After the general-looking guy ordered, Buck spread open his large wings and flexed his hands, as if saying:

[Yo, bro. Can I kill them?]

"I come here on the behalf of Lady Hera and King Eurystheus. They have ordered me to kill your cow, so I intend to go back with some beef on my hands."

Petting Buck to calm him down, I respectfully and politely stated my reasons.

"How do we know if we can trust you?"

"You want to find out the hard way, with the goddess cursing you from up above?"

".....Withdraw your weapons."

Being led to the throne room by the soldiers, I soon found myself facing the King of Crete.

King Minos. The one who's been NTR'd by a cow.

Your wife got banged by a cow? That's rough, buddy...

I didn't pity him, though. In the myth, it was said that he sacrificed children every nine years to the Minotaur.

".....Today must be a lucky day, meeting a famous hero, with that hero also volunteering to take care of that... 'thing'."

Breaking the silence was King Minos, with a look of disgust in his eyes while mentioning the Minotaur.

"There's a problem, though."

"What problem?"

"How will you get out of the Labyrinth alive? It is impossible to get out of there once you enter. I do not want Lord Apollo and Lady Selene cursing me and Crete if something goes wrong for you."

"Don't worry, I have a plan. I'll take full responsibility if something goes wrong. Your father is Lord Zeus, too, so you'll be fine even if things go wrong."

Assuring Minos, I walked out of the grand throne room, leaving the worried Minos to his ideas.

"Just take good care of my Griffin for me."

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The way to the labyrinth was dark and gloomy. Ew, there are so many spiderwebs here. Why did Athena have to make spiders this way?

"We're here."

After arriving, I checked the threads along with the foods that I brought along, which were in my large bag. In the myth, Theseus only needed one thread. However, it's better to be safe, so I got about fifty of them.

My bag is about to explode. once I eat some of the food, it won't be as full... I hope.

"Good luck, sir."

"Thanks. See you soon."

With that, I walked into the dark maze, unrolling my first thread as I went deeper.

_________________________________________

It's been... days? Weeks? I didn't know... All I knew was that I have been in the Labyrinth for a very long time.

My speed and the threads helped me to make it this far, but the maze was huge. I still ran into dead ends, and my supply of food is almost gone.

I have to do this. Children are being sacrificed in Crete to the monster. I have to stop that.

Ah... dead end again.

Just when I stepped back, I felt my feet step on something.

Squishy. I stepped back, and a liquid splashed onto my feet as it contacted a puddle. It stinks.

Looking down, I saw a half-eaten corpse of a little girl, rotting away and letting out a disgusting smell.

*Blewgh*

"Aaaaahh... No..."

I felt myself throwing up, with my stomach becoming empty.

A little girl, below the age of ten. Eaten and killed like this. Anger consumed me, along with the feeling of sadness, disgust, and determination.

Gritting my teeth and rubbing my eyes, I ran again, unveiling the threads and tying their ends to each other.

_________________________________________

Munching on the mud and drinking the dirty water, I forced myself to not throw up. My state was one of the worst that I could have imagined.

Rubbing my now-red eyes, I walked, following the strong scent of metal-like blood.

I'm close.

Unrolling my last thread, I finally reached the large area in the center.

Skulls, bones, and dead bodies were everywhere. Puddles made of blood were on the ground.

In the center of it all was a gigantic creature with white skin, snow-white fur along the neck, and flowing hair that seemed to remind me of Heracles.

Its face was covered with a gray, iron mask, and the two gigantic horns of the beast sprout right beside its face in the areas close to the shoulders, with the tips of the horns being pink-colored.

Hiding my presence, I got near it, moving in the darkness toward it.

Time to attack.

Taking out and holding the twin daggers I brought along, I jumped and slashed the throat of the Minotaur, causing it to roar out of surprise.

One of my daggers was already cracking. The Minotaur's neck was safe, with only a small cut on it, which looked like a paper cut.

Punching its balls, I began to attack the weak spots like the reproductive part, fingers, talus, and neck. Repetitively hitting those parts worked, as shown by its growlings of pain.

But... Damn it... the Minotaur's durability was insane. It was even stronger than Heracles during the time I fought him. In that battle, endurance was Heracles' specialty, but the Minotaur was all about durability.

Dodging the swings of the twin axes, I kicked down on them and broke the weapons of the Minotaur. Grabbing the broken part of the axe, I smashed the back of the monster's head with it.

It's not getting hurt... The situation is just like Heracles all again...

What can get through this durability? Through regeneration and endurance? What am I lacking? How can I finish enemies like the Minotaur?

The area is too small for me to fully run around in. It's just big enough for the Minotaur to move.

My body and mind are tired. How did Theseus even do this?

"Eat... EAT!!!! I still haven't eaten...! I need to be the monster...!"

It even talks as well? Does it have high intelligence? That makes it harder...

Jumping and landing an uppercut to the beast, I kicked its leg to have him lose his balance, then elbowed him to the wall. Not giving him time to recover, I started to stab him continually using my daggers.

They only created small cuts on his body but failed to make fatal damage. When I stopped to recollect my breath, the tiredness of my body had me go dizzy for a moment. Not missing the chance, the Minotaur punched me and attacked me using punches and kicks.

None of those attacks worked on me, as he didn't have divinity. He couldn't hurt me, I couldn't knock him out. What even is this?

I needed to gain energy. Energy, adrenaline, strength, everything I needed, I had to gain.

Ignoring the constant attacks of the Minotaur, I started to blow attacks at the walls, all in one direction.

Destroying countless walls standing in my way, I felt the sunlight shining at me through my clothes and armor after destroying the last wall standing between the labyrinth and the outside.

As soon as the sunlight shined on me, I felt energy rushing through my whole body.

The blessing of the sun.

I could hear a roar coming from inside the dark. The Minotaur was running at me, and I couldn't let it get out of the maze.

Running to the monster, I used the move lariat to hit him back to the center of the maze. Grabbing the piece of the axe I broke before, I sharpened the tip quickly, making it as sharp as a spear.

The weapon looked like a spear now, but more fit for throwing.

Breathing deeply, I focused all the strength I could use on to my legs, arms, and shoulders.

"APOLLO!!! I ASK FOR YOU TO BLESS THIS SPEAR!!!"

*BOOM*

A sonic boom happened after I let loose and ran toward the Minotaur at full speed. Gaining all the kinetic energy I could gather.

Become an unstoppable force that is unable to be stopped. Pierce through everything... and put an end to the monster's breath.

The spear in my hand looked like a divine weapon, with the tip glowing with fiery-orange heat.

Grabbing the newly-blessed weapon I had, I charged and used all my speed and energy to throw it.

*Shwalk* *BOOM*

The spear pierced through the Minotaur, but didn't stop its charge. Piercing through all the walls in front of it, it broke out of the labyrinth and charged at the mountain range close to it, not even the strong winds being able to stop it.

Crashing into a mountain, the spear caused a shockwave so big and loud, that an avalanche happened to all the mountains.

Collapsing on my knees, I leaned on the walls and walked to the dead body of the Minotaur.

... The threads turned out to be a waste of my time. I should still use them to get out of the maze. It seemed like it would have been a waste if I didn't use it till the end.

Stopping after reaching it, I was shocked to find it still breathing.

"...It... hurts...! Ahhhh...! It hurts...!"

It could talk, but couldn't move. The blood of the monster kept flowing and flowing, I was surprised that it hadn't formed a lake already.

I also never knew the Minotaur could talk. Didn't it have the head of a cow? How is this possible?

Out of curiosity, I carefully grabbed its mask and pulled it off.

"...What... is this...?"

Inside the mask, was a human's face, not a cow's. The face which looked so pure had tears falling down from its eyes, looking so painful.

Looking into my shaking eyes, the Minotaur just said two words.

"It hurts...!"

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A/N: Don't you see how badly I want Eschios to be happy? Joy follows him around everywhere he goes. He even ate the delicious mud cakes for weeks in the dark maze!

Well, here is another one of Eschios' future noble phantasms. It's called:

[Trýpima tis lónchis], and it is basically a form of blessing that allows Eschios to use an excessively large amount of mana to use anything to pierce anything, but if the mana isn't enough, then the master and Eschios dies of mana shortage.

If Eschios has masters like Shirou when he uses it, Shirou would just die from the amount of mana being taken from him.