Medusa's Lair

Medusa's Lair refers to one of many hidden locations that the witch Medusa Gorgon has established to conduct her experiments and plan her fights against DWMA and Arachnophobia, all towards unleashing the Kishin’s madness globally. Many of the lairs include living facilities, laboratories, and collections of her experiments and research.

Location

Medusa has numerous lairs, many of which seem to be underground. These locations include:

The lair where Medusa raised, and tortured, Crona as a small child^[3]
The lair in Libya where Medusa conducted her Black Blood research, which was destroyed by Eruka Frog to kill the investigating Sid Barrett and Mira Naigus^[4]
The lair, "somewhere on earth...who knows where,"^[2] where Medusa kept Brew and, in the anime, Franken Stein^[5]
- That same lair is used for Medusa's death against Maka's Demon-Hunt^[6]
The lair where Medusa kept Crona during her assault on Baba Yaga Castle^[7]
The lair in Central Africa, where Kilik Rung discovers Medusa's Black Clown research and her possession of local residents^[8]
The lair where Medusa, Crona, Eruka, and the Mizune Family fought Black☆Star, Tsubaki Nakatsukasa, and Justin Law with his Clown^[9]
The lair where Crona killed Medusa^[10]

Appearance

The various lairs include some consistent elements. Many of these lairs are underground, with numerous stairways leading below ground. These lairs are decorated with angular lines, composed of numerous straight angles. The lairs in Libya and Central Africa included some common elements. Both lairs had laboratories, with shelves housing in liquid-filled jars many of her experiments, included eyeballs and potentially monsters, such as what looks like an egg with wings and an array. Both lairs also had mystic circles and magic research, making it easy for Sid Barrett, Mira Naigus, and Kilik Rung to confirm that Medusa is a witch and that these were indeed her locations.^[11]

The Libyan laboratory had on its the walls cabinets filled with bottles and even skin tissue pinned to the wall. This laboratory also had a surgical bed and instruments, all bloody. As Medusa left some of her Black Blood in this location, she may have used this facility to develop the Black Blood and track its progress in Crona.^[4]

The lair where Crona kills Medusa more closely resembles a mansion, with large ceilings, wooden fixtures and furniture, and a full dining room with seemingly expensive plates and utensils. Decorations in the lair include cadenzas, paintings, candelabras, rugs, and lamps.

As Medusa uses these lairs to raise Crona, including to feed and clothe them, some of the lairs include locked rooms, a bed, and presumably a kitchen.

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History

Crona's Childhood

Medusa Gorgon used one lair for her experimentation on her young child, Crona. While this lair included multiple rooms with light-colored walls and a checkerboard floor, the rooms themselves seem lacking in furniture, as Medusa would lock away her child into one unilluminated room as punishment for their failure to execute "the little one".

The Experiment Arc

From her lair, Medusa Gorgon, with her crystal ball, observed Free's fight against Maka Albarn and Black☆Star on London Bridge. While Black☆Star was disabled, Maka used Tsubaki in combat due to her inability to resonate with Soul Evans, their partnership strained after a lesson from Franken Stein and Soul's infection with the Black Blood. Free's fight finally forced Maka and Soul to resonate, infecting both with the Black Blood and therefore augmenting their resonance rate. While Maka managed to defeat Free, Medusa ruled the experiment a success, as she learned more about how the Black Blood could augment the abilities of a soul in combat.

Black Dragon Arc

Medusa's Libya lab
Sid and Mira find Medusa's lair
Experiments in Medusa's Libya lab
Medusa's witch circle
Sid finds Medusa's journal

Franken Stein, suspecting that Medusa Gorgon was a witch and seeing she had attempted to augment the Black Blood within Maka Albarn with her own medicine, tasked Sid Barrett and Mira Naigus to gather more evidence so they could receive a warrant from Death to execute Medusa. Meanwhile, at the Death Weapon Meister Academy's dispensary, Medusa used the snake in her body to communicate telepathically with Eruka Frog, who was retrieving an attaché case, which contained a Black Blood syringe, from Medusa's laboratory in Libya. Medusa informed Eruka about the impending arrival of Sid and Mira, ordering Eruka to execute the duo.

Later, Sid and Mira followed their evidence to Libya, where they located a secret laboratory that belonged to Medusa. Sid and Mira found sufficient evidence, including witch runes and documentation, that proved Medusa was the witch who had experimented with Black Blood to turn the demon sword meister Crona into a Kishin. They also found evidence revealing Medusa's plan to resurrect the Kishin during the Eve Anniversary Party at the Death Weapon Meister Academy. Before they could leave the laboratory with this news, however, they found Tadpole Bombs, which exploded. Watching from afar with the attaché case, Eruka assumed the explosion killed Sid and Mira, departing to reconvene with Medusa's Army to prepare for their attack on Death City. However, Sid had actually buried himself and Mira underground, surviving the explosion but not without injury, delaying their return to Death City.

Fight to the Death Arc

At the Eve Anniversary Party at the Death Weapon Meister Academy, Stein feigned inebriation in order to drag an unwilling Medusa to the dance floor. During their dance, Stein mentioned Sid and Mira's mission to Libya, asking whether she knew what has happened to the two individuals as they investigated a laboratory there. While Medusa claimed ignorance, Stein dropped his inebriated façade and demanded Medusa admit she is a witch and to reveal what had happened to their peers. After Medusa admitted her plans to revive the Kishin, Sid and Mira returned to the Academy, warning Stein of the Kishin's revival but not before Medusa escaped.

Brew Arc

From her lair, Medusa observed through her crystal ball the mission she had assigned to Eruka and the Mizune Family to sneak into Lost Island's abandoned Demon Tool facility, swap the surviving Demon Tool Brew with a fake, and bring the actual Demon Tool to her lair. Upon the return of Eruka and the Mifune's, Medusa accepted Brew and explained her plans to use the device to defeat both DWMA and Arachnophobia.

Operation Capture Baba Yaga Castle Arc

Crona awakens in their bedroom
The lair where Medusa hides Crona

Medusa, possessing the body of Rachel Boyd, surrendered herself to DWMA, offering Brew as a peace offering along with the names of three witches—KIm Diehl, Tabasa Butterfly, and Taruho Firefly—in exchange for protection and the opportunity to lead a mission to destroy Arachnophobia. During this mission, Medusa lied to her team member, Maka Albarn, that Arachne had captured Crona to use in magical experimentations, in order to convince the meister to join this mission. Once Maka defeated Arachne, however, Medusa left the body of Rachel and took over Arachne's corpse. After her attempt to kill Maka and Soul Eater was interrupted by the arrival of Tezca Tlipoca and Enrique, Medusa revealed that Arachne never captured Crona and teased Maka that she would never see her friend again as she remembered them. What Medusa did not reveal to Maka was that she had hidden Crona in another lair, where the unclothed meister rested in a bed, covered in sheets but having Ragnarok as well as additional limbs, presumably from the Black Clown, extending from their body.

The Witch's Research Arc

Kilik investigates Medusa's abandoned Central Africa lair
Justin fights Medusa in her newest lair

From her latest lair, Medusa uses a crystal ball to monitor Kilik Rung, Kim Diehl, and Azusa Yumi's mission to Central Africa to locate her previous lair, where she kept records of her work creating the Black Clown. As her experiments produced madness in local residents, Medusa was able to allow these residents to attack Kilik and Kim. Thanks to their weapons and the Thompsons, however, Kilik and Kim were able to escape and confer via Incom with Azusa. While the meisters escaped to a nearby field, Medusa dispatched the Black Clown to attack the group. Although the meisters thought they defeated the Black Clown, its unexpected survival was ruled a successful experiment by Medusa, as she ordered the Clown to return to her new lair.

At this new lair, Black☆Star and Tsubaki Nakatsukasa fought against Crona (combined with the newly returned Black Clown), Eruka, and the Mizunes. While monitoring this fight through her crystal ball, Medusa was caught off-guard by the arrival of Justin Law and his Clown. Medusa combined her snakes with the Purple Clown, but they were defeated by Justin. Before the fight could be concluded, however, it was interrupted by the arrival of a person who projected illusions that made Medusa and Justin each see their reflection in this person, who turned out to be Tezca Tlipoca. Although Tezca tries to reach out to Justin to plead with Death for forgiveness for becoming a traitor, the Death Scythe was shocked to learn Justin could not—in fact, never could—hear what Tezca was saying through his loud earphones. As Tezca and his meister Enrique screamed in shocked, Justin used the distraction to depart, as did Medusa, who found this fight had become far too silly. However, Tezca was able to use his reflection of both Medusa and Justin to track their future locations. Elsewhere, Crona and the Mizunes escaped, while Black☆Star was able to capture Eruka and bring her to the Death Weapon Meister Academy to be used in DWMA's missions to rescue Death the Kid from the Book of Eibon and to fight the Asura's clowns on the Moon.

Mad Blood Arc

After destroying a town in Ukraine, Crona returns to Medusa's latest lair, this one resembling a mansion. After updating their mother on the progress of the Mad Blood, Crona sits to a dinner made by Medusa. Medusa then praises her child's work, hugging Crona and telling them she loves them. This show of love confuses Crona, completing Medusa's experiment by driving Crona into such madness that they kill Medusa, ascending another level towards becoming a Kishin.