"But more of these creatures are approaching us!"
Someone roared, looking toward the distant reaches of the Black Swamp, where more Large-Eyed Tentacle Monsters were closing in.
These feeble creatures crawled slowly on their sticky tentacles.
Though their movements were laughably slow, their strange power was terrifying beyond measure. Once surrounded by those enormous eyeballs—"Even if it costs us our lives, we have to kill one!"
Medea took up a Stone Spear herself, becoming the tribe's bravest warrior as she charged straight ahead.
Bang!!! With a single thrust, accompanied by a shrill, hoarse scream like an infant's cry, the fragile giant eyeball exploded. A foul stench filled the air as it burst into disgusting, viscous fluid that splattered densely across Medea's face.
"Take it away!" She lifted the corpse's sticky tentacle with one hand and quickly turned to leave. When she came back to herself, she was already surrounded by seven or eight Evil Eyes, and her face turned grim.
"Follow me! Fight our way out!"
It was a brutally tragic battle.
Of the tribe's powerful hunting party of nearly thirty people, almost everyone died.
They could clearly have fled, but because they delayed their escape, they were surrounded by those horrifying creatures. In the end, only three survivors escaped that dreadful demon swamp, as though it had been cursed by death itself.
"They're all dead."
Even Medea, a wise woman strong beyond measure, could not help bursting into tears.
Looking at the two final warriors beside her, she knew what this meant.
Over the years, nearly all the tribe's brave men had died searching for food and hunting giant beasts. Out of a tribe of nearly a thousand, only a hundred strong men remained. The other nine hundred or so were old, weak, sick, or disabled. Now they had lost another third of their men and were almost fated for extinction.
"But our race will die sooner or later anyway. It is only a matter of time. We might as well make one last gamble." Medea took a deep breath and looked at the Evil Eye Demon Monster's corpse. "I hope the evil blood of this creature, bought at such a great cost, will be useful."
Over the years, countless people had tried to fuse with the blood of various powerful giant beasts, hoping to gain the Hero King's power like Gilgamesh and protect the tribe.
But aside from the Blood of Power bestowed by the gods upon an unknown creature, all of them had died. It seemed that only the blood of special creatures had any chance of working.
"Perhaps the blood of these filthy, evil creatures can become another kind of Blood of Power."
When Medea returned to the tribe with the few survivors, her father had already fallen into utter despair.
"Have you lost your mind? Do you know what you're doing?!"
The brawny middle-aged giant wore black animal hides and sat in a high-backed fur chair, gasping heavily.
"I haven't lost my mind." Inside the tribal tent, Medea faced her father's furious roar and took a deep breath. "We have no way back. Rather than wait to die, we should risk our lives in one final attempt. If a second Gilgamesh, a Hero King, can emerge and lead our civilization to glory, then that is the only path for our intelligent race to avoid extinction!"
"That is impossible."
The chieftain slowly shook his head and said bitterly, "Only the Blood of Power granted by the gods in legend can bring us great strength. And this disgusting monster is slimy, foul, and savage. Even if we successfully gained such revolting power, the gods would punish us."
"Power itself has no good or evil."
Medea's voice became low and hoarse as she looked at her aging father seated above her.
"Even someone with the bright and mighty Blood of Power may become a tyrant, wield the Holy Sword of civilization, and challenge the omnipotent gods. Yet someone with dark and terrifying power may still protect others if they keep kindness in their heart.
"This monster is completely unlike the other Giant Beast Species! It is weak, even weaker than us humans, yet it possesses unimaginable power. If we could gain power like its—"
"You, Medea, have some nerve!!"
The chieftain fell silent, breathing heavily as if considering this audacious idea.
His decision would affect the rise and fall of their entire civilization and race.
Huff, huff, huff! He lowered his eyelids slightly and gasped again and again. This was a terrifying decision, more important than his own death.
Then he suddenly lowered his head, looked at his stubborn daughter below, and let out a low wail. Choking back tears, he said hoarsely, "But we no longer have enough people to test this new blood."
Over the past two hundred years, if they had reproduced normally, they would not necessarily have dwindled to such numbers. Generation after generation of brave and ambitious chieftains, unwilling to fade into oblivion, had made the tribe's young people attempt to fuse with new giant beast blood.
Every generation, people had died without hesitation, perishing in endless agony.
Those martyrs of every generation had written a bloody history of death for the tribe's rise, leaving their population sparse. Yet even now, they still had not risen.
Medea took a deep breath. "Yes, our Babylon Tribe no longer has enough strong men for experiments. They still need to protect us. But we have enough old, weak, women, and children. For all these years, men have protected women. This time, it is women's turn to step forward and test this blood."
Medea fell silent, then said in a low voice, "And if large numbers of women die, we will have fewer burdens. Shrinking the population may not be a bad thing. This time, let the women of our tribe die."
Swish!!
In an instant, the tent fell completely silent.
Half a day later, blazing Torches burned atop the tribe's heights as Medea gathered all the tribe's people.
"If we do not wish to walk toward extinction!"
"If we hope to restore the glory of the Sumerians!"
"If we hope for a great next-generation Hero King to lead the civilization of intelligent beings!"
"Death cannot break our arms or destroy our backbone! The great Hero King Gilgamesh once said that humanity's history of resisting nature was a history of courage and ode. That was why he ordered the historians to record history. And today, history will record our courage on this day!"
Medea breathed heavily, standing on the high platform and roaring at the old, weak, women, and children below.
"Tomorrow morning, we hope you will come for the tribe! Ode to Humanity is an ode to courage!"
The women below held their children in silence.
Everyone knew there was almost no chance of survival.
That night, countless women silently bid farewell to their husbands and children throughout the tribe. After weeping, they all resolutely chose to undergo the test.
After all these days and months, they had suffered enough. Their husbands had died, their fathers had died, and their sons would die in the future as well. What did they have left? They had only themselves.
There was no one left to protect them. The only ones who could protect them were themselves.
This day was destined to be soaked in blood and cruelty.
Countless women stepped forward without hesitation and tried to accept Evil Eye Blood. More than four hundred corpses lay scattered across the ground, piled everywhere in painful, twisted heaps.
That blood was incompatible with their own, yet three women ultimately survived: Medea, along with two others named Circe and Cassandra.
The three of them were forever immortalized upon an ancient stone wall.
On the Babylon mural, amid the blood pools of countless suffering women, only three steadfast women stood bathed in blood atop endless corpses. The three stood together, raising a massive blazing Torch high in their hands. This scene was engraved into Babylon's historical murals, and later generations called that sacred ancient mural the "Three Witches."
They had taken up civilization's flame.
History was carved into the mural, telling of the human tribe's rise into civilization and its great courage in fighting nature and wild beasts!
After painful death came rebirth. In the time that followed, these three great and resolute women once again led the tribe's civilization forward. They began to possess a strange spiritual power, their minds strong and keen, mysterious and evil like the Evil Eye.
They gradually gained the ability to barely resist giant beasts, using their minds from the rear to interfere with the beasts while warriors wielding stone axes fought on the front lines.
Their immense mental power also often made it difficult for them to control their own spiritual fluctuations. When they became excited or exhilarated, they could inadvertently shatter another person's mind with a mental shock and kill them.
Thus, all three were virgins.
They were lonely and proud, and no one even dared approach them.
Medea possessed a fierce sense of honor and duty. She led the tribe into war, wielded a wooden staff against giant beasts, and went out to hunt for food.
Cassandra had a gentle and easygoing nature and loved peace. She enjoyed leading the women to herd livestock, grow medicinal herbs, heal the people, and battle disease.
Circe was an exception.
Mysterious deaths among men began to occur frequently in the tribe.
People secretly cursed Circe, while Circe silently bore her resentment. In secret, she began using her mental power to curse the men who opposed her, causing splitting headaches, darkened eye sockets, and thinning hair.
Witch Circe gradually became synonymous with evil and terror within the tribe.
Even the other two could not persuade her to stop, nor could they join forces to kill her, because they needed her power to protect the tribe.
Because of Circe's tyranny, the status of women also became exalted. The three of them gradually came to be feared by the warriors and were called Witches by the tribe, symbolizing power, evil, mystery, the unknown, fear, and omnipotence.
From that day onward, the tribe entered the Wizard Era, ruled from on high by women.
The Spear of Flourishing Witchcraft recorded: The Babylon Tribe suffered beast disasters, and its men became few. Women consumed Evil Eye Blood, and the great Three Witches emerged: War Witch Medea, who governed chaotic war and glory; Curse Witch Circe, who governed chaotic sexuality and curses; and Spring Witch Cassandra, who governed the mysterious arts of medicine and herding.