"AXTON!" Ace screamed out desperately for Ax.

  The woman stepped back, looking at Ace. Ax dashed past Ace from behind and struck the woman with his sword. She blocked his bde with the back of her hand, wing in pain. Her eyes turned into slits once more, and she stared into Ax's eyes; with a green fsh, he was turo stone once more.

  The woman ied her hand, seeing the blood drip from a slit cut into her scaly limb. She looked back up at Ace, and she hissed furiously.

  HISSS

  She ran straight towards him, her cws aimed at maiming Ace. Ace reacted fast; he didn't want to get hurt. He grabbed his sword and deflected her cw, causing sparks to fly everywhere. As the dy's arm flew ba recoil, she stared into Ace's eyes, her emerald irises split down the middle, brows crooked with rage.

  She stopped attag him. Ace was... fused.

  "Wait! Ax!" Ace looked around in , his eyes iing every angle and dire he could visibly see, looking for his best friend. Ace stopped looking for him as the thoughts ran, his mind going a mile a minute.

  Ace grabbed his gun and aimed at Ax's statue. Much to the dy's visible fusion. Her eyes widened in realization. As Ace shot his bullet, much to his surprise, the dy leapt in front of Ax's body, her shoulder catg the bullet instead. Freezing in ice. She screamed in pain and ran as fast as she could towards Ace's gun. Before she could reach him, Ace shot at Ax's statue.

  Ax's stone head had bee encased in ice, however. The momentum from the bullet had caused the statue to fall over, shattering it. The dy ran to Ax's shattered remains once more, trying to pick up the stone fragments, her eyes turning hazel.

  "I'M STILL ALIVE—" Ax screamed as he ran to strike the woman once more. Ace grabbed Ax's jacket from behind and pulled him back.

  "Wait," he asked Ax. His eyes are staring at the dy.

  "What's wrong? We have to beat her to leave," Ax simply said it as if it was on knowledge.

  "Look," Ace said, as his eyes poi the dy.

  The dy looked relieved to see Ax alive. But it didn't st long; her snakes hissed loudly at the sight of Ax. Fring out in every dire and pointing at them. She looked down at her bleeding hand once more, and her eyes turned baerald as she started to run towards Ax.

  Axton dodged her, causio tumble over and crash into a different statue, causing it to fall over, breaking its head. Causing it to shatter. She then hissed as loud as she could, as if a sword had been quenched in a fe. She stared at Ax once more.

  Before the green light could fsh before Ax's eyes, he grabbed some gravel from the ground and threw it into her eyes, temporarily blinding her, causio wind hiss in pain.

  Ace took this opportunity and grabbed Ax's hand and ran.

  **

  Ax and Ace had run away from the woman's gaze. Hiding behind a colle of statues of different people who had been trapped here since before they ehe cursed room.

  "Shit, how do we beat her?" Ax asked Ace, breathing heavily. He was tired of running, physically and literally.

  "Quiet down! She'll find us. But... I've been notig some patterns," Ace whispered, his voice showing rage but turning quieter as he was trying to expin to Ax.

  "Alright, spill," Ax whispered back, quieting doaying attention.

  "So, the one we're fighting. She's 'Medusa,'" Ace uttered.

  "Yeah, no shit," Ax answered back, sarcastically. "She's the Greek mohe one sin by Perseus," he finished.

  "Yeah, exactly. But here's the problem. The only way to kill her is to kill her without looking," Ace expined.

  "Yeah, of course. That's where you"

  "But..." Aterrupted him, tinuing his expnation.

  "I don't think we should kill her..." Ace replied quietly, trying to avoid making Medusa find them.

  Ax was fused, then he grabbed his . Lost in thought.

  "You don't mean to say..." he said as his eyes widened and he looked up at Ace.

  "From what I saw... she's very protective of the statues. Which are the different people she turned? Her eyes only turo slits when provoked, and he was relieved when she saw you alive... even though you tried to kill her," Ace finished his expnation.

  "You don't say... are you sure it's what I think it is?" Ax asked him, looking for reassurance.

  "She took a bullet for the man who tried to kill her," Ace finally finished, firming both of their suspis.

  "Okay, so what's your pn? Just to scream and walk up to her and pray for the best?" Ax asked Ace, both lost in fusion.

  "I don't... know. Do you have any idea? Any other secret cards up your sleeve that I don't know of?". Ace looked at Ax, hoping he had an idea on what to do.

  Ax arched back with his arms crossed, his back leaning oatue of an elven woman who had turo stone while lying on the floor. He saw her detailed broo the shape of an apple, as it had turo stone. His brows furrowed, he squinted as he stared at the fruity shape.

  His eye widened.

  "No... but you definitely do!" Ax said a bit louder than he should've, excited. Making Ace look even more fused.

  ***

  Ax got up from his position, his sword in his right hand and clutg something in his left fist. Medusa was still looking at him, wanting payback for hurting her.

  "Hey! Snake for brains! I'm over here!" He screamed out, his voice eg throughout the room.

  Medusa looked at him, her brows crooked in rage and pain. Ran as fast as she could, at blistering speeds. Straight towards him, her cws aiming for his chest.

  Ax closed his eyes and raised his sword to eye level. As she raised her arm to cw out his heart.

  k

  Ax dropped his sword on the ground right before Medusa could hurt him. fusing her, her eyes were still filled with rage.

  Ax took a final deep breath, and he opened his eyes.

  Medusa, with all her snakes, stared into Ax's eyes. His gaze was unwavering and unged, but it was not a gaze of fear er. It was of sympathy.

  Her gaze softened iion, turning to hazel as she took a step back. Her snakes lowered as they all looked at him, their lush jade-like scales shimmering itle light there is in the room.

  Ax opened his fist to show two slices of the golden apples, and as he looked at her bruised shoulder and bleeding hand, he could only speak in a nguage she didn't uand. "I'm sorry... for hurting you," he uttered as he looked into the woman's eyes.

  She didn't uand a single word he spoke, but his tone spoke volumes instead.

  She took one g the apples and g him once again. She then grabbed the apples off his palms and took oe and another. And ahe apples tasted like figs and bckberries, pomegranates, and honey. A sweet smoothie of both, which also filled her stomach. Queng her thirst and calming her nerves.

  The bruise vanished, and the bleeding stopped as she ied her hand, the wound closing.

  She looked back up at Ax, Aow standing behind him, walking up to his side. Sharing the same gaze.

  Medusa only nodded in aowledgment. A red door appeared behind her; her head snapped back at him. Medusa took a close look at Ax's face, staring into his eyes as if she reized them.

  Her eyes widened as if she realized something they didn't, "τη? μοι?ζει?... ?χει? τα μ?τια τη?," she uttered. She then turned around and walked towards the red door.

  Before she opehe door, she took a g the two of them. Nodding at them, saying goodbye, "οι θεο? να ?χουν ?λεο?," she said as she finally left, closing the door behind her.

  Room Cleared

  ***

  Both Ax and Ace dropped on the floor, as if the weight of the world had been lifted from their shoulders.

  "You... are a smart one... Gotta learn a thing or two," Ace uttered as his shoulders loosened.

  "You're oo talk; you were the one who figured out the trick to clearing this room," Ax plimented him, reassuring his wits.

  Crack

  Both of them stopped talking, both getting up.

  "You heard that right?" Ax asked Ace.

  "Yeah, I did... it came from—" Ace was about to answer him.

  Every statue in the room shattered—no, they shed. Freeing the people who were stud who were turo stone. Elves, dwarves, taurs. Humans even. They all were dazed and fused. But they snapped out of it.

  Some of them stared at Ax and Ad spoke in nguages her of them uood. Aowledging them, thanking them even as they summoned blue doors and bck doors as they left the room.

  Ax snapped out of awe, closed his mouth, and ran towards the blue door one of them had left, trying to open it. Shuffling, struggling with all his might.

  "Damn it!" Ax screamed out in frustration as the door vanished, leaving him grasping at air.

  "That's not how you do it... I'm guessing you're new here, aren't you?"

  Axton and Aseef looked back; this came from a voieither of them reized. They saw a blonde-haired man with blue eyes, holding a hockey mask and a baseball bat. He was wearing a varsity jacket and jeans, along with a pair of verse shoes.

  "Who are you...?" Ax was about to ask him, but-

  "No time. Out of my way." The man, who didn't look over the age of 21, pushed Ax aside, putting on his mask. Pointing at a dead body on the ground.

  "What the hell?" Ax asked as he stared at the man in shock.

  Ace looked at the body on the ground; he reized it. It was the body of the statue Medusa knocked over wheried to attack them. It was headless, but it was wearing a brown -fitted suit with a bck token tied around its waist on a . He was wearing a trench coat on his shoulders before he died, a brown hat not too far from his grasp either.

  "He's... dead," Ace said as he stared at the man walking up to it.

  "Oh, it'll take more than that to kill this bastard," he said as Ad Ax stared at the body.

  It twitched.

  The body twitched. Where the stump remained, blood pooled over it.

  But where his head was, it sparked. It then burst into fmes, as if a small bush was cast on fire. The hand twitched and moved, gravitating towards the hat.

  The body itself then moved, the fmes burning hotter and brighter. The dead man stood up on his own two feet, his back turned ohe fmes... u, the three of them could see a fming... skull? The skull turned around, as it did. Seared flesh started to form and around its bony interior.

  As the previously dead man turned his shoulders to stare at them, his hand started to raise his hat. His eyes and muscle formed on his head, then his skin, then his hair. The fire is dying down as he regees.

  As the fire stopped, he put his hat ba.

  "You... you still don't get it, do you—" The man started to talk to the blondie.

  The blondie raised his bat and smashed it across his face as hard as he could, making him fly into the wall, spttering blood everywhere.

  "You two... might want to leave..." The blondie said as his e and yellow token was making ied to his waist. The blood on the floor and wall burst into fme as if it was gasoline.

  "Like right now," he said as he was ready to give the fming man a beating.

  "Meet me ter; if you reaexus, look for the 'Prometheus Foundation.' That's where you'll find me, if I live, of course," the man said casually.

  "As for me... I have some unfinished busio attend to." The blondie finished as he was walking up to the man wearing a suit.