greek mythology stuff

Chapter 102 The True Trial of Hephaestus
Leaving the handwriting, Hephaestus smiled.

Of course he doesn't just do that.

No, it's that he doesn't just do that to mortals.

Although he respects the choice of every mortal and even the gods, he is also a member of the gods just as the gods are wary of him and fear him.

He has his own life, and naturally he has his own preferences.

Whether intentionally or not, the new sun god Apollo has offended him.

This is one thing that has to be dealt with.

It's like a wealthy family, ignoring petty thieves, then there will be big thieves after a long time, and at that time, no matter how big the family is, it can't support the passage of time.

It was not Hephaestus' punishment to stop the sun from rising.

He just takes back his gift.

After all, Apollo himself is too weak, without external help, he can hardly maintain his own job.

Now is the real trial that Hephaestus decided to give.

He walked out of Anser Temple and looked at the full moon in the sky that was half real and half imaginary.

That is the truth that only the gods can see.

That's what the moon really looks like.

Artemis walks in the sky and sheds her moonlight on the earth.

In the eyes of mortals, during the 53-year long night, they used half their lives and word of mouth to record the changes of the moon in the past 53 years.

The first moon is always a new moon, a silver plate missing most of it.

The turning point was in the third year of Long Ye No. 20, when the moon suddenly "completed".

The missing half of it became visible, only terribly unreal.

Ordinary people can't see clearly if they don't watch carefully.

Of course, this is a mortal perspective.

The truth is—the sun god Apollo fell in the third year of Long Night No. 20, and the moon god Artemis gathered the belief of the original sun god Apollo and successfully reached the height of her brother.

Logically, she should be able to fully grasp the power of the moon soon after gathering her faith.

Why, the appearance she showed was still so difficult.

Of course Hephaestus knew why.

Because the former moon god Selene was still alive, and was "accidentally" let go by Hephaestus. Only she is the true owner of the moon.

Today, she lives in the underworld and enjoys the protection of Persephone, Queen of the Underworld.

The price is unknown...

As long as Selene does not choose to let go, it is impossible for Artemis to truly hold the power of the moon.

However, Hephaestus wanted her to master it.

Because the moon god Artemis is the sister of the sun god Apollo and his ally.

For the long life of the gods, family affection is difficult to restrain them. Only when they are on the same status and they can work together, is the attitude that a qualified ally should have.

When one side is too strong and the other is too weak, the rhythm of this coordination will be broken.

The original state of strong and strong alliance has become that the weak drags down the strong, and the strong wants to get rid of the weak.

Although the family relationship exists, the time is also long. In the face of a long time, those emotions that are not firm enough will gradually drift away, and even turn against each other.

As for - can the relationship between Apollo and Artemis be believed?

Hephaestus smiled.

He doesn't know, he wants to know.

Anyway, his time is long, his status is detached, and he has the confidence to witness many things.

Change the bad, correct the wrong.

It's easy.

Hephaestus lowered his head, his eyes moved from the full moon in the sky to the underworld, and his eyes were on the former moon god Selene.

Selene is bathing in her palace.

It was a garden where all kinds of flowers rushed to bloom first, exuding charming aromas. There was a hot spring in the center of the garden, and the dense mist made the figures in the garden hazy.

However, Hephaestus can judge with certainty that there is no vulgar thing on the woman he is concerned about.

The gardens and people are natural and beautiful, and the mist from the hot springs obscures them, which does not do much, but adds to the beauty.

For whom did Selene prepare such a scene full of desire and beauty?
Is it...for herself?

She will really enjoy that such a beautiful place can be built in such a barren and dilapidated place as the underworld.

Hephaestus lost interest after watching it for a while.

Enjoyment is only appearance after all.

In the vision of Hephaestus, Selene seemed to extend an invisible thread, stretching from the underworld to the moon.

Selene, she never gave up.

Even in the face of the impact of her beliefs, she still holds on tightly to those inseparable things.

Hephaestus shook his head.

Unfortunately, she shouldn't be robbing.

If she hadn't plundered and walked the hidden path, she wouldn't have strayed from her roots.

By plundering the weaker gods and stepping into their domain, although she has gained new power and more changes in her methods, she is no longer the only source.

She is no longer that... the unshakable and unshakable one and only!

This is the price of taking the hidden path.

Put your own inalienable root as a chip on the gambling table, and face loss while being qualified to participate in the game.

Unless there is such a person, He does not lose once, takes away all the chips on the gaming table, and from then on, he alone has all the chips.

but.

First, it's hard.

Second, after the first time, there will inevitably be a second time, no one can keep winning, the world is too big...

Hephaestus has no interest in playing such childish tricks with them.

Therefore, he is the only one who has achieved great achievements in this world.

Although in this world, both gods and mortals more or less control the power of a small part of the flame and the laws of its operation.

However, as long as Hephaestus had a thought, it would be difficult for those people to laugh anymore...

All in all, only because Hephaestus allowed it.

If he does not allow it, the flames of the world will not appear in the hands of outsiders.

Even if someone masters all the laws of fire, it is useless, because the laws of fire only exist in the mouth of the god in charge of fire.

Only his promise is the law of the flame.

Hephaestus wanted to thank the god Uranus a little bit.

He pulled ninety-nine percent of the gods in the world into his chariot, breaking and dispersing the root power that was originally solid and belonging in the world.

As the only ones left, Hephaestus has become stronger invisibly.

He seemed to be one of the tallest mountains in the world, and the surrounding hills were pitifully short, unable to bear the impact at all.

This is not because of how tall he really is, but because the surrounding mountains have become shorter...

Hephaestus didn't know exactly how Uranus did it, how he started this huge hidden war, but he also had guesses.

It is roughly related to Aphrodite, the goddess of beauty.

Hephaestus went to her birthplace to see her origin.

She is the root of a small part of Uranus, but the root of the sky can't be found at all.

But without her roots in the sky, she still stands at the pinnacle of the gods.

So, it should be some kind of exchange.

Those gods who participated in the hidden war first, they found the birthplace of Aphrodite, driven by some external temptation, they voluntarily left part of their own roots, and then took some of the sky. source.

Now, who can deny the essence of a great god?
Unfortunately, this is an endless road of no return.

When a great man has not yet fallen, it is absolutely irrational to take his things without authorization...

It's just a pity that it affected a large number of innocent people.

After all, not all gods are the only ones of a certain concept like Hephaestus.

Those gods who have roots but cannot fully represent the whole of a certain concept have become the objects of plunder and are forced to participate in this hidden war.

They can't help it.

If you don't advance, you will retreat, which is a good choice.

so.

Giving without return has a price.

Now, Hephaestus has come to collect the price.

He once saved the life of the moon god Selene, so naturally he would not have paid for nothing.

It's the normal state to have something to lose, isn't it? Even an insignificant idle game can be given meaning by the player's wisdom.

Hephaestus smiled and glanced at the moon god Artemis walking in the sky. He restrained himself, and Artemis couldn't see him even in the sky.

He spoke heartily to the moon, regardless of whether Artemis could hear it: "It's cheap for you, this gift must be collected."

As his words fell, Selene, who was located in the hot spring in the garden of the underworld, suddenly stood up from the water.

The full-grained water droplets flowed down the blonde hair and flowed through her beautiful and slender plump body.

She looked up to the sky in horror.

The garden is open-air, so the hot spring is also open-air. Selene's sight is unobstructed, and she seems to see an endless black curtain in the sky above her head.

This dark scene imprisoned her and isolated her.

As a well-deserved moon god, she...can't feel the existence of the moon anymore...

In this world, Artemis, the moon god in the sky, will be much more pleasantly surprised.

She finally took full control of the moon, under the influence of her long efforts and huge faith.

What a wonderful feeling this is!

Gazing from the earth, the moon is finally a real full moon!
It is no longer half solid and half illusory. It will have more beliefs and stronger power.

Meanwhile, Hephaestus seized his moment.

He snapped his fingers at the moment when the moon god Artemis was at his best, and shattered one of the endless beliefs in the world.

In his treasure house "Frontier", it hangs on the big fireball in the sky, and the beliefs entangled in it are pulled away by the mighty power. into the body of another sun god.

Mount Olympus, Temple of the Sun.

There was no warning.

The rank of the sun god Apollo fell again.

He looked blank.How could this be the result of hard work?

His godless eyes looked at the small window full of artistic atmosphere in the temple. Outside the small window, above the sky, a bright full moon was so dazzling...

……

Outside the Temple of Anser, Hephaestus looked at the full moon in the sky and talked to himself.

"You, will you be mostly happy or sad?"

Under the moonlight, his figure gradually dimmed.

He went elsewhere.

He wanted to see, in this era of fanaticism, what kind of life did unbelievers live.

He found the young man he had met many years ago, the young man he had boasted about as a scholar.

That, the one that appeared between the lines of Priest Anser's words - Otis!

At this moment.

Hephaestus stood behind him, watching him quietly.

At this moment.

Otis has received a letter from Sata.

The old man whom he respected from the bottom of his heart called him back.

The words in the letter were very ordinary, but Otis felt that something was wrong.

Sata had never spoken such empty words to him before. After reading the whole text, it was full of obscure and incomprehensible reasons.

This is not Sata's style.

What the old man said to him the most was: "Otis, start small. You can't just talk about big things, they have no foundation, and you may not even really understand them yourself. Keep your eyes on the big things. Lower it down, lower it down, talk about you and me, talk about everyone, and give more examples."

"If you can't even cite a small phenomenon when you are talking about a big truth, then everything you say is just your guess and reasoning, which is untenable."

He said so, and he did so.

Never before has anything been discussed in such broad terms as in this letter.

but……

The tone and handwriting of the letter were indeed Sata's.

Otis was a little flustered.

Something must have happened, we must go back quickly!

Hephaestus stood where he was and saw him go out in a panic.

But Otis soon turned back.

He walked to the bed, lifted the quilt, and took out a knife.

This knife is very short, no more than thirty centimeters.

The knife is in the scabbard.The whole body of the scabbard is silver, with engraved patterns on it for easy grasping, and a large ruby ​​is adorned at the upper and lower ends. On the side of the ruby, five small gemstones of different colors are evenly distributed.

Near the gauntlet, small strands of colored rope are wound.

Just looking at the scabbard, you will feel that this knife is like a handicraft, just something that hangs on the body for decoration.

but.

Otis pulled out the knife violently.

The knife is silver, with a thick blade and a thin blade.

In the firelight in the house, the short knife shone coldly, and there was even a vague smell of blood from the opened scabbard.

Otis put the knife back into its sheath and hung it in the buckle on his waist.

Once he hangs it like this, this bloody knife becomes an ornament again, just like a wolf ambushing in the wild, just like... him!
He held up the candle and walked out the door.Hephaestus followed behind him.

Outside the house is a large village, and you can see the city-state where people gather in the distance.

There is a temple next to Otis' house, and Hephaestus can see the statue of the goddess of the night with a made-up face enshrined in it, and an old man is sleeping soundly in the temple.

Otis walked into the temple and stood in front of the sleeping old man.

He held the candle expressionlessly, and his bony hand was already on the handle of the knife.

He looked at the food piled up in the corner of the temple.

Farming in the dark is not easy, and hunting is also very difficult, but no matter how much mortals pray, the goddess of abundance is unwilling to give her gifts.

Otis does not resent the goddess, what he hates is the oppression and exploitation of "people" in the name of God.

Among the mountains of food piled up in the corner, there is his portion...

It's not good, it's not good, and Otis is not happy.

He was leaving, and he couldn't leave unhappy.

Outside the temple, a dark cloud just covered the moon.

In the temple, the cold light came out of its sheath, and the body and head were separated.

Otis didn't look at the situation on the ground.

The tragedy of death is not pretty.

Fortunately, although his knife was not fast, it was very accurate, and the pain would only be short-lived if it entered through the throat.

He sheathed the knife and walked towards the pile of grain in the corner.

He stood for a while, not knowing what to think.

Leaning away, the burning candle was thrown at his feet.

The flames spread, trying to devour what could be devoured in front of them.

It crawled towards the piled grain bit by bit.

Without the illumination of the moonlight, Otis's expression was blurred, and Hephaestus behind him was in the depths of darkness, invisible.

The food was ignited and the flames spread.

Hephaestus could hear the long breathing of Otis.

He was interested because the sound of breathing suddenly became rapid.

Suddenly, Otis seemed to be crazy. He stretched out his feet to stamp out the flames, and he stomped frantically. From his more rapid breathing, Hephaestus could judge that he seemed to be in a hurry.

But the flame has already ignited, it is not a spark that can be destroyed by lifting a foot.This makes Otis appear stupid, like a clown.

Soon he reacted.

He stopped moving and stood quietly on the spot.

He took a deep breath and walked out of the temple without haste.

He brought in a bucket of water from the outside, and the water poured over, splashing all over the floor.

The fire that had just started was extinguished.

Otis put down the barrel and sat on it.

In the dark, he sat quietly on the wooden barrel for a while, as if he was meditating.

After a while, he stood up silently, and found a luggage in the temple.

He leaned over and rummaged through the ground, specifically picking up the burnt grains.

He only picked it up for a while before stopping.

Hephaestus secretly calculated that what Otis took and what was burned happened to be what he was robbed of.

He couldn't help praising in his heart: "The memory is really good."

He looked at Otis's luggage again—it was very little, not enough for a few days.

He couldn't help smiling.

Why bother, I didn't expect retribution to come so soon.

Meanwhile, Otis had walked out of the temple.

Hephaestus followed far behind him.

The dark clouds in the sky dissipated, revealing the obscured moon.

The bright moonlight shines down, decorating the earth and the village in front of us with a layer of silver light.

Hephaestus glanced behind him.

Behind him is the temple of the goddess of the night, enshrining a statue of a mortal made-up face.

The moonlight cannot completely penetrate into the temple, so the blood stains on the ground can only be in the darkness, and the food belonging to the villagers is also in the darkness.

Hephaestus looked forward again.

Otis's stride was not fast, but his stride was long.

He was almost out of the village.

He didn't go in the direction of the distant city-state, and the darkness in the temple was also drifting away...
-
ps: [-] to [-], this is the benefit of elastic standards.

(End of this chapter)