"So, as expected, Teacher Chiron couldn't stop you, huh?"
As the silver meteor descended from the stars in the night sky, illuminating the ground and bringing a brief calm to the chaotic night, the dragon-tooth warriors were momentarily destroyed by its phantasmal power.
Jason couldn't help but remark as he gazed at the young man sitting on the pegasus, whose bright emerald eyes sparkled like stars.
Then, with a smug, prideful expression, he turned to Heracles, Theseus, and the others, gloating. "See? I told you, not even Teacher Chiron could hold Promise back. Looks like I understand this guy best!"
The pegasus descended gracefully, and Promise dismounted without sparing Jason a glance, acting as though he hadn't heard a word.
Facing the crowd of questioning eyes, Promise spoke calmly, "I just feel that, as a member of the Argo, I should be here too. And look, taking on trials set by the gods that are almost impossible to complete—this is what heroes do. How could I not join in, right?
"But, most importantly..." he continued, "you brought Jason along, didn't you? If Jason's here, there's no reason to leave me out."
"Hey, hey!" Upon hearing this, Jason immediately expressed a serious protest and said, "What do you mean by that, Promise? What's wrong with me? I've been working *really* hard today, okay?"
As the two bantered, the group burst into laughter—even Atalanta's usually serious face softened with a faint smile.
"I thought you'd say we were meddling too much," Atalanta said as she nocked an arrow and let it fly in one smooth motion.
The arrow whistled past Promise, piercing through a dragon-tooth warrior that had just clawed its way out of the ground far behind the young man.
The undead soldiers weren't particularly strong, but the problem lay in their endless numbers.
Among the gathered heroes, likely only Heracles could hold out until dawn; the others were bound to be exhausted by then.
"So, Promise, do you have any good ideas?"
As she spoke, Atalanta casually tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear.
Promise stared at her blankly, obviously convinced the arrow that had just skimmed past him was deliberate, probably her way of venting her lingering frustration from the morning.
The evidence? Medea was standing off to the side, pouting and glaring at Atalanta.
"I do have a plan," Promise said, tilting his head, glancing at the undead soldiers that were beginning to crawl out of the ground again after the pegasus's earlier attack. "But…"
He hesitated, leaving the thought unfinished.
Promise indeed had a solution.
Even if the undead rose endlessly, he could deal with them once and for all.
All it would take was purifying them—or the entire area.
The tools were within his reach.
The seven-stringed lyre gifted to him by God Apollo could unleash divine music to cleanse the land, or Atalanta could fire Goddess Artemis's prayer arrows to achieve the same effect.
But doing so would mean relying on the power of the gods again.
And that was a line he wasn't supposed to cross.
"None of those ideas are quite right," Promise muttered, shaking his head as he watched the dragon-tooth warriors crawling out of the ground once more.
Suddenly, a bold idea flashed through his mind.
"Wait… I think I really do have a way to solve this quickly. But… I might get a beating from Lord Ares later," he murmured, torn by hesitation.
But his cryptic words only piqued everyone's curiosity.
"What is it?" Jason asked, unable to contain his curiosity.
Promise thought for a while, glancing at the night sky above and then at his companions.
In fact, except for Heracles, Theseus, and a few others, Medea and others already showed serious fatigue on their faces because of what happened during the day.
With his decision made, Promise turned to Jason and said, "Jason, I think you're the only one who can handle this task. Because…"
.
.
"Help, help, help! Promise, I hate you!"
Two divine bulls, their bodies blazing with fire, charged out of their cave, roaring in fury. Their glowing red eyes locked onto their target—Jason, this bastard in front of them who had provoked them again and again!
"It's exactly as I thought."
Standing on the trembling ground and watching the raging bulls that Jason had somehow managed to lure out, Promise couldn't help but say. "I suspected this morning that they really do hate and resent him. I wonder what he did to make them hold such a grudge."
Well... it wasn't much, really.
Earlier in the day, when the bulls wouldn't wake and couldn't be budged by force, Jason had just resorted to stabbing them with his sword—right in one of their most sensitive areas.
The… less polite region.
Now, looking at Jason, who was now screaming loudly as he narrowly avoided being gored, tears practically streaming down his face, teetering wildly on the brink of life and death, the others turned to look at Promise, the instigator of all this, the young man who seemed disturbingly at ease; the Argonauts felt a bit speechless.
"I'd better help out," Heracles said with a cough, stepping forward while deliberately putting some distance between himself and Promise.
After all, he, like the others, had long since learned about the occasional "unreliability" and recklessness of Promise.
In fact, he'd understood this all too well during the incident involving Hermes's hunt.
With him taking the first step, Theseus, Atalanta, and even Medea also took a step back from Promise.
After all, when this guy gets angry, he is really inhuman.
Who in their right mind carried a grudge log with him for no reason!
"So, Promise is planning to use the strength of the bulls, isn't he?"
Chiron, watching the battle from a distance, observed the unfolding scene thoughtfully.
Medea's parents, along with the Colchians, were also astonished by the idea and boldness of the Argonauts.
Their amazement quickly turned to admiration as they realized they had underestimated these heroes.
The purpose of luring the sacred bull out was indeed to deal with these immortal undead spirits; however, instead of taming the bulls to fight the undead, the Argonauts used their fiery strength to churn up the ground itself.
Once the earth had been overturned, the heroes began digging out the poisoned dragon teeth one by one.
"This must be Lord Promise's idea!"
Even the usually unshakable maidservant automaton froze for a moment before confidently affirming her conclusion.
"Wait… this works?!"
Ares, the god of war, pointed at the scene below, staring incredulously at Athena.
"Well… Your rules didn't say it wasn't allowed," Athena thought about it, then raised her chin proudly and said. "This is a testament to that boy's wisdom!"
When Athena said this, the first person who couldn't hold back his laughter was Queen Hera.
"Athena, do you hear that? It's the sound of your so-called wisdom crying!"
"Wisdom?" Ares grumbled loudly with dissatisfaction. "Forget wisdom. I don't care whether it is wisdom or not. I just want to see combat, carnage! Where's the fight?!"
"So, you're saying you don't approve?" Hermes interjected lightly.
Ares was just about to nod when he was met with the deathly gazes of the crowd.
At this moment, he immediately understood that if he dared to nod and say yes, he would definitely be kicked down by these guys in the next second.
Ares might have been brash and preferred fists over brains, but even though he wasn't that smart, he wasn't outright stupid.
Especially the look from Hera, which was as if she wanted to eat him, made Ares extremely depressed.
'Who is your biological child?...'
Oh, it seems Hephaestus was also her biological child; then it's okay.'
In the end, he sighed and relented.
Fine.
Whatever makes you all happy.