Chapter 27: Circe's Island

Circe paced back and forth with impatience in her island Palace somewhere in the God Mode Stage, wondering how she could retrieve back her Golden Weaving Loom gifted to her by King Midas, and the sorcery spellbook she worked so hard on. 

Her sorcery spell book contained thousands of powerful spells written in ancient Greek. 

Circe wondered how the two elves managed to sneak past the seemingly docile lions and wolves that are scattered around the island grounds of her Palace. 

The enchanted wolves and lions should have been alerted at the presence of intruders, and torn the intruders into shreds before eating them up. 

Even the seas that surrounded the island had rough stormy waves, making it hard for players who knew how to sail ships navigate the rough waters. Underneath the waters lurked beautiful mermaids who enticed unsuspecting players to take a swim through by shape-shifting into a young but beautiful half-human girl with the upper body of a human, with the lower body consisting of a fish tail.

They could communicate with unsuspecting players through telepathy, and once the unsuspecting player jumped into the water, the mermaid's upper body would shape shift back into that of a ferocious, flesh eating fish and eat the player alive until nothing remained. 

To make things even harder, beautiful sirens perched in the cliffs half-way called out to the players to approach them through their singing. 

Their songs of heartbreak and longing for home can cause the player to be so entrenched with listening that they forget to manoeuvre their ships and crash into the cliffs before drowning in the deep and rough seas. 

Even the skies above the island are next to impossible to access, with thunderclaps that can instantly kill a player with no defensive measures if the player dared to try and fly through to the island using whatever means are possible. 

A flock of Stymphalian birds modified with the thunder element that Circe stole from Athena roamed in the skies around the seas of the island, chasing potential intruders before eventually catching them and eating them. 

Circe at first wondered how the two elves managed to sneak past her otherwise next to impenetrable defence and even set foot inside her Palace, until it dawned on her that one of the elves had the passive ability of animal telepathy, and that the wood-elves are famed for their ability to sneak around pretty much everywhere undetected, being expert  and swift-footed rangers, hunters, and archers who are proficient at nature magic, while the high elves are by nature clever tricksters. 

She couldn't believe that she fell for a well coordinated trap set-up by the high elves and the wood-elves, and got tricked into attacking the fort of the high-elves, only to be forced to retreat when it seems she is winning the battle. 

Damn it, damn it. Now I have to go retrieve the two items that those elves stole from me, as those are pretty much important items I can't afford to lose. On top of it all, I have no clue where Ashera is hiding them, and even if I asked, she won't divulge information. I also know the identities of the two elves who managed to sneak into my Palace, but I have no way of knowing where they are hiding right now. If only I had a lead on where they are, then there would be no need to scour up and down the tower for clues. Just you wait. I'll eventually turn this situation around and find a way to get back at you, Galadriel and Ashera. I know a lot of your secrets. I can use it against the both of you. Let's see who will win in the end. 

Circe thought to herself as she went straight to the training hall of her Palace. 

"Those two elven bitches managed to manipulate the hell out of you and made you play straight into their palms eh, Circe?" 

King Midas looked up at her from inside the training hall. 

He tried out a new passive system skill that he just acquired: Immobilizing Golden Touch 

Whenever he touches an opponent in battle, the opponent turns into solid gold for two minutes, immobilised on the spot, and prone to attacks. 

"You guessed it right, old friend. You've seen how hard I worked to make a complete compilation of ancient yet powerful witchy spells in one spell-book, so it won't be lost and fade into memory. And that old weaving loom, you gifted me before, do you know how much it costs now? The figures alone will make your jaw drop. "

"You can always make a new spell-book, Circe. As for that old weaving loom meh. Forget about it, old friend. It's already an antique, and it belongs to ancient times. Besides, I helped you get richer, and you don't even have to worry about material things. I can make you something golden yet high-tech and modern. What do you say?" 

Circe just threw King Midas a sharp, annoyed glare, then she went out of the training hall, and slammed the training hall doors shut with her witchcraft, and proceeded to her room to think how she can try and locate the missing items, and the two elves. 

I admit that you've won for now, Ashera and Galadriel. However, the both of you won't be able to gloat over victory for long, for sooner or later, I'll turn the situation around. I'll play along with what you two planned for now, and give you a shocking surprise later.

Circe thought to herself, smiling a clever smile as she just remembered that King Midas has the golden touch. 

Let's see how they will smile if they are up against the Golden Powers of Midas, whom only a few dare to challenge for fear of being turned into a golden statue. 

Circe managed to break the curse of King Midas a thousand years ago by going up to Mount Olympus, tricking Dionysus into drinking wine enchanted with a sleeping spell that caused Dionysus to sleep for three days nonstop, sneaking past Zeus and obtaining the reverse spell for the golden curse from Athena, managed to obtain the immortality spell from Apollo, and tricking Athena into giving her control of the Stymphalian birds.

Circe then returned to the world of the mortals, went straight to King Midas' kingdom, and immediately reversed King Midas' curse, and performed the immortality spell on King Midas. 

King Midas was so overjoyed that he assisted Circe ever since, with Circe backing up King Midas' kingdom in return while it still existed.