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Last Embryo Volume 2 Chapter 6 Part 1

Translator: DarkHeartedAlchemist

Due to Crete receiving quite a devastating direct hit from Typhoon #24: 「Tauros」, the entire island has essentially become a no-entry zone for normal citizens, which resulted in it becoming partially uninhabited. The explanation offered to the people by the authorities was that it was so that the repair and conservation works could be carried out, but the truth was that it was only a cover-up story to hide the knowledge about what really happened there from the public.

The important thing was that now that Izayoi finally reached the island, there was not a single soul to be seen there. Even though the entire place was about half as large as the island of Shikoku back in Japan, there was no signs that anyone has been staying there, or at least not recently, so at the very least they could be sure that the people have been evacuated as soon as 「Tauros」 struck. The palm trees that grew along the coastline were all shattered and broken, and all the buildings and street stands appeared to have been abandoned fr quite some time. The characteristic white landscape of the town was also deserted, and the only sound that could be heard were the echoing sound of the wind and the waves of the sea splashing against the shore.

Since all of the signs calling for evacuation have been left exactly as they were, them it must mean that ever since the evacuation order has been issued there truly was no one here. Smiling in amusement, Izayoi kicked one of the broken palm trees blocking their way away, sending it flying way into the ocean.

「An island isolated by the diesease, huh? It would appear that Crete has really fallen victim to the virus. I can’t sense a single soul in here.」

「Yes, that seems to be the case indeed. Well? Care to continue your story from where you left off last time?」

「You still want to hear more? Fine by me. I have already told you that I fought against the minotaur once before, right? At the time of that battle he was just a monster firmly integrated with the Labyrinth itself and didn’t seem to possess any signs of intelligence at all, but when I fought with him for a second time, it seemed to have gained it, if only just a little bit. And that was when I finally noticed it. For whatever reason, it looks like the Minotaur is changing back into his human form.」

Izayoi kicked yet another tree to the side as the three of them continue heading towards their destination. As he was being assaulted by an unusually high amount of buzzing insects, Tokuteru inquired about that further.

「And how is that supposed to be connected to the viral pandemic here on Crete, exactly?」

「It might be possible that this is a result of my attempts ad deciphering the meaning of the legend of the Minotaur. If he is indeed a human who was changed into a monster, then there has to be a reason for why he was changed.」

The myth of the Minotaur’s Labyrinth was never super clear on whether the Bull Monster’s divinity and monstrous nature was something he possessed since birth or was it something he aquired later. The former was most likely granted to him by the world itself when the concept behind his myth and fame were spreading across the entire planet, while the latter would probably be a result of the actions he took while he was still alive, so it wouldn’t be all that improbable for him who was born with a human name representing his nobility to be someone falling under the trope of human-turned -monster.

Meanwhile, Pritt, who was just to be attacked by insects as well, stopped the bugs who were about to swarm over her with her hand while saying 「Stop right this instant, there are places that even you are forbidden from touching」, and when they backed off, she simply nodded at them with a smile.

「Hmm, while we are still on the subject, there is something I would like to ask. If we are talking about dieseases and pandemics, then wouldn’t the Demon Lord Balor form the Celtic pantheon usually be the prime suspect here when it come to all similar occurences?」

「Balor? You mean the one who unleashed the plague of Black Death upon the world? His divinity would also be an aquired one due to his association with the Black Death itself.」

Izayoi kicked yet another tree flying and sprayed a copious amount of anti-mosquito spray all around himself (thank God he took it with himself just in case) and then tossed it towards Tokuteru, who accepted it with gratitude since he was beginning to feel a bit overwhelmed with the flying critters relentless assault. He did the same thing Izayoi did, except he also sprayed his entire body with bug-repellent, and then he continued his talk.

「Ah, so that’s it, huh? You think that whatever it was that summoned those two Bull Monsters into this world, it must have been something with a connection to this land?」

「Yeah, either this land here or somewhere in the southern Iraq. Since the Gods of Little Garden need to use the places connected to the legends in some way if they want to meddle with the Outer World, then I thought that those tow… might be the best possible… candidates!」

Izayoi said, kicking the fourth and fifth tree away. His original intention was to simply kick them to the side of the road because he wanted to be considerate of the surroundings, but much to his annoyance it looked like he was pretty bad at properly measuring the strength of his kicks, which resulted in the trees flying all over the place due to how strong the impacts of his kicks actually were. Enraged by sensing the threat to their nests which they barely managed to keep intact throughout all of the violent storms, the bees directed their anger at Tokuteru all at once. Glancing back at him as he was engaging them in an epic battle, Izayoi and Pritt giggled and smoothly proceeded towards the goal of their trip here.

「So that’s why you wanted to come here; because you thought that Crete’s central landmark, the Knossos Palace, was definitely the most suspicious out of all the possible places, correct?」

Arriving at the palace grounds, their destination, the two of them immediately began to look around.

The Palace of Knossos has been deemed to be one of the most famous ruins dating all the way back to the Bronze Age, but with time the ruins gradually began to lose their grandeur and fall apart, and the scars on its image that remained hidden up until now could no longer be concealed, and yet despite that, there were also visible traces of repairs and conservation work, so at least a bit of the glory of the Palace’s formerly pure-white walls could still be seen and felt right from the entrance.

One of the reasons for that was most likely the lack of tourists in the past few months. The thought that even their current civilization might get reduced to something like that thousands of years after the mankind was going to finally go extinct was a truly sorrowful one.

Tokuteru joined Pritt and Izayoi a little bit later, looking all proud of himself for not succumbing to any of the bees’ attacks, and so he placed his hands on his waist with a triumphant expression on his face, although his breathing seemed to be a little more ragged than usual.

「O-Okay, I understand the gist of the story, so… so why don’t we all split up and search for anything suspicious in… here?」

「That won’t be necessary. Remember when I talked how I left my partner back in Greece because there was something that he definitely wanted to see? This was the place I was talking about, and he has arrived here way ahead of us.」

「「Hmm?」」

Tokuteru and Pritt raised their surprised voices at the same time. They heard him loud and clear when he was talking about it, but neither of them suspected that the temple he was talking about was actually Knossos Palace. Right after that, the winds in the sky of the Mediterranean Sea began to gather on above the palace, forming numerous whirlwinds, revealing the figure of a giant bird-like figure dashing through the sky at high speed. Pritt assumed a battle-ready stance thinking that it was an enemy attack, but Tokuteru and Izayoi were both at ease, knowing that it was anything but.

Izayoi was smiling in satisfaction, while Tokuteru looked up in admiration. Going forward to meet their visitor, he raised a voice full of conviction:

「You are… a Gryphon from back then! My my, now this is a nostalgic sight indeed!」