The Record of Unusual Creature

After being led in circles through a weird, old street in Athens, the group finally arrived at the Shadowy Divide, a peculiar spatial anomaly trapped in time. Most of the modern buildings had disappeared by then and were replaced by ancient, stone buildings as well as statues. Most of them slanted towards the centre of the road like hunting beasts ready to pounce. Hao Ren noticed at the end of the twisted street, stood a building that was vastly different from its surroundings. It looked rather old, but it bore the hallmarks of a modern two-storey, corner lot building with red bricks and blue tiles. The ground floor had a giant glass window and there was a signboard by the door, akin to a storefront.

The “old friend” whom Vivian was looking for was standing in front of the shop waiting for them. She called herself Hesperides, which was a rather odd-sounding name.

Hao Ren eyed the lady, who was clad in black for a moment. He was rather interested in this “old friend” that Vivian made despite her insular nature. Hesperides looked like a lady in her early thirties and she was wearing a rather conservative, dark dress. Her look was mature and attractive, but there was some sort of gloomy aura about her that made it hard for you to focus on her face too long. There was a peculiar ornament hanging across her forehead. It was beautiful but you’d be hard pressed to find another person wearing such an old fashioned piece of jewelry nowadays. It looked almost like it came out of a wall carving.

“You seemed to have made some new friends.” Hesperides was pleasantly surprised by the number of strangers that Vivian brought along. As she sized them up, the caution in her eyes flickered and disappeared. “Hmm… You having one friend was a rarity enough. To see you with so many… my, my, what actually did happen?”

“Not much, I’m just living life day by day.” Vivian shrugged and went into the shophouse. “I’m not here for idle chatter today.”

Hao Ren followed Vivian into Hesperides’ shop and noticed that the store was chock-full of old items. It appeared that the first floor was indeed a shop lot, and there was a long counter near the staircase. There were old clocks, weird-looking masks, worn-out wooden carvings and a whole lot of thingamajigs on the counter as well as nearby shelves. Vivian frowned at the messy scene, the housewife in her tingling almost to a boiling point. “This is so messy… Why are you always lugging trash around every time I see you? What are you up to now?”

“Now? I’m selling antiques of course,” Hesperides replied nonchalantly as she pulled out a few chairs for the group to sit. She herself was seated behind the counter. “I can’t be idling all the way. I need to have something to do or else I’ll rot away. That little girl over there, don’t touch the stuff on the counter. That mask was worn by a pharaoh before.”

Lily quickly placed the scary-looking mask back onto its stand as she stuck her tongue out at Hao Ren. “So, what do you go by, nowadays? What do I even call you?” Vivian said as she pointed at Hesperides.

“I go by Christine these days… I’ll probably use it for a good decade or two.” Hesperides shrugged.

“Christine?” Vivian frowned. “A follower of Christ? What’s gotten into you? How did you face your liege?”

“It’s just a name anyway and my liege has been dead for a long time, so who cares?” Hesperides shrugged her again. “And I guess you’ll be calling me by my real name soon, you and your horrible memory.”

Lily was staring at the antiques around the room before something struck her. Pointing at Hesperides, she exclaimed, “Ohhh!! No wonder your name’s so familiar! Isn’t Hesperides the name of the evening nymph in Greek mythology?”

Hao Ren was stunned by the news while Hesperides waved her hand. “That was a long, long time ago. Please don’t bring it up. Now, even I need to buy a ticket to visit Athena’s temple for nostalgia sake… This just makes me sad….”

Lily slid down her chair in excitement. “Oh! So, it is true?!”

Hao Ren was not well versed in Greek mythology but the revelation was surprising to him. He looked at the demure lady and noticed that she looked out of the ordinary. He then realised that he was looking at a living legend, someone who literally walked out of a myth and he was almost overwhelmed with awe. Conversely, Vivian was a living piece of history as well, but given her status as a housewife/nanny/chef, it was hard to invoke any sort of historical awe. Raven 12345 was a goddess too, but since when did that cup-noodle-slurping goddess ever acted like one? While Hesperides was not as ancient as Vivian or as powerful as Raven 12345, her very existance piqued his interest. In fact, look at the length of her name…

Hao Ren had always hypothesised that people with longer names were more often than not renowned people. Cue Ximen Cuixue, Albert Einstein, Aristotle and heck, the strongest combatant he had at home was called Y’zaks Goodman (count the characters). The weakest among the members of his house was Lil Pea, followed by Hao Ren himself. The weakest of them all was Rollie (spacing counts!). This almost proved his theory that “name length equated to combat strength.” Hao Ren kind of believed that his initial blind trust towards Raven 12345 was all down to the numbers in her name…

Wuyue just looked at Hesperides in disbelief. “I never thought.. that you’d be the ‘Daughter of the Evening’ from the myths… Didn’t people say that the ‘gods’ from your age all fell to the demon—”

“Some of us survived”—Hesperides pointed at herself—”especially those of us who could think fast. If not that, then it was either having enough good luck, or simply being weak enough to be ignored. While not many actually had all of the aformentioned traits, a few of us survived and hid ourselves from the world. I don’t even know how many of my kin are alive, but as far as I know… I’m the only one in Greece. Say… why don’t you all introduce yourselves?”

Hao Ren was so engrossed in looking at his surroundings as well as listening to the conversation between Vivian and Hesperides, that he forgot to introduce himself. Before he could speak however, Vivian stood up first. “Let me. This is Hao Ren, our leader. Just think of him as a human sorcerer or something. That is Y’zaks, a demon…. And the last of us, is Lily… a hus… sigh… werewolf.”

Lily almost jumped. “Why did you sigh?! You just sighed didn’t you?!”

Hesperides gave Hao Ren a surprised look and turned her attention back to Vivian. “Leader? You of all people teamed up with someone? And a follower to boot? Are you that famished that you don’t care who your Blood Thrall is any more?”

“Hush, it was my choice.” Vivian waved Hesperides off. “I came to find out more about the ruins that you talked about. How is it? Have you confirmed that it’s the pathway to the Old Kingdom?”

“The ruins were discovered by Hessiana and her group, but the Lucas Family had a hand in it. Now, both families are fighting for the rights to it. Those two families did work together before, and given the situation, they’ll probably come together soon enough,” Hesperides explained. The entry to the ruins is at the Parthenon, a spatial anomaly point will lead you into the inner sanctum of the ruins. To activate it however, you’ll need two holy relics that are currently in the hands of both Hessiana and the Lucas’. If you want to go to the ruins, you’ll need to link up with them. As for the ruins itself… I’m not sure, never been there before. But based on what Hessiana’s underling excitedly said, within the ruins, you can see some of the functioning temple facility. Additionally, the air is filled with Primordial Powers unique to the Mythological Era. All of this coincides with the prophecy of the Day of Return.”

Hao Ren believed the ruins contain a gate to The Plane of Dreams and asked, “How big is the temple? Are there dimensional rifts leading into a mysterious place? Did you see anyone in there?”

“You seem to be well versed with the ruins.” Hesperides was surprised. “But no, there was nothing of the sort. We don’t know how big the place is. No one saw anything but the entrance. Besides, who could live in there for 10,000 years? Would the person survive on rocks?”

Vivian felt rather uneasy. “Hessiana…. do we have to meet that annoying brat?”

“What’s wrong? You got beef with that vampire?” Hao Ren asked curiously.

Before Vivian could say anything, a massive swarming noise came from the outside as bats started gathering around. A sharp and energetic voice soon boomed. “Lady Vivian? Is Lady Vivian really here?! It’s Hessiana!!! I’ve come for you!!!”