Thinking very hard about the creature known as Grometheus
Next to no canon information has ever been provided about this thing. Where it came from, how long it's been around, nothing. It's unknown if it's categorized as a beast or a demon or what. Maybe a distant relative of the basilisk? Idk. The wiki just calls it an animorph.
Buuuuuuuut its full name has a very familiar rhythm to it.
Grometheus the Fear Bringer
Do you know what it sounds like?
A title granted to a talented illusionist.
Which just leaves me wondering.
The Boiling Isles is a world of transformative curses. Its a world where humanoid witches can become beasts via various methods. (E.g. Eda and Lilith, Darius, Belos, Luz)
So....hypothetically. If there was a witch named Grometheus a long time ago who excelled at illusion magic....just what happened to them?
I imagine that the area of illusion magic comes with the threat of mental deterioration, for both the illusionist and the victim. And based on the magic amplifier that Gus has, it has the potential to violate other peoples minds and tear the most depraved frightening memories out of them.
In TTLGR, Bria stated that illusion magic "Can't even touch [her]" but LR and KT proves that it can. Just not in a conventional sense.
Illusion magic can dig into the mind. It can be so intense that it causes physical pain.
So what's the key aspect for an illusionist to achieve that level of power?
Once an illusionist realizes the potential that fear and memories have, they start working towards utilizing it in their experimental spellwork.
Maybe that's how Grometheus started off.
Maybe they were the one who invented Gus' magical amplifier.
However, imagine living like that. Extracting all the depravity from several people across the Isles for the sake of research. It's a lot for one person's mind to handle. It's like a slow gradual rot inside the brain.
I don't know exactly how the transformation would have happened. Maybe it was a mutation of negative emotions.
Maybe Grometheus was lonely. Maybe they were angry. Or maybe there were just so many memories and fears in their mind that weren't their own, that they couldn't hear their own thoughts anymore.
Maybe they lost themself.
Maybe they drowned in it. They drowned in all the fear that was hoarded inside of them and they became fear itself.
Nobody ever expected history to repeat itself. What happened to Grometheus was not likely to ever happen again. Because Grometheus' magical battery was so overwhelmingly potent that it ate them from the inside.
Surely, there would never be an illusionist that powerful again.
Anyway, fast forward to a sixteen year old Gus Porter at his final year of Hexside. He's Grom King.
And Grometheus the Fear Bringer didn't stand a chance.
Gus is standing on wobbly legs as the crowd's cheers pound against his eardrums.
He was supposed to defeat the monster and send it slithering away again for another year.
But instead, there's a creature's corpse withered at Gus' feet, and as the rotting gunk melts away, he's not surprised to see a witch's skull.
Why would he be surprised? He saw it all.
Gus is standing there, horrorstruck, as some stupid crown materializes on his brow.
He killed one of his own.
And now....all of that creature's memories and fear belong to him.
It's like a rot inside of him.
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