greek mythology stuff

Chapter 168 A Gamble About Eternity
Hephaestus curled up into a smile.

That's what's interesting.

Gaia bet on humanity with him, she thought she would do what she wanted.Because her thoughts are human nature.Human nature is not static, its decay and depravity are inevitable.

No sane intellectual would deny this.Man can only possess the virtues of human nature for a while, but cannot maintain it forever.

No, maybe mortals do.Because the life of a mortal has a limit, a short hundred years flies by.A mortal only needs to maintain the virtues in human nature for a hundred years. After his death, his life is concluded. He must be a philosopher with virtues because he is dead.

But the gods are not.The divinity of the gods is not much different from the humanity of mortals, the only difference may be that the divinity is eternal.

This alone leads to different endings for gods and mortals.

A god, can never be a philosopher who is eternally virtuous.

Because the gods are eternal, the life of the gods is constantly changing.They encounter all kinds of tests, endure all kinds of temptations and resist temptations, and then change their minds after thousands of years, ten thousand years, or even endless years, and are driven by temptations.

This is divinity...

This is also Gaia's plan.She has given enough temptations, and the temptations are so great that even she herself will feel heartache.Because the water source in front of him can tempt Hephaestus, Hephaestus is a great one, not inferior to her.

This is an eternal test woven by her own hands, and she will corrupt the heart of Hephaestus.When Hephaestus decided to pick up the water source in front of him, no matter what the reason was, he had already lost, because he violated his own heart, and violated the heart that can do whatever he wants but I am forever above the powerful divine power.

And in this debate about eternity, Gaia stands on the side that must win.Because time is eternal, and change is eternal, no matter how small the possibility of Hephaestus being corrupted, it will inevitably happen in such eternal time and eternal change, but sooner or later.

So, that's where it gets interesting.

Hephaestus is a very confident person, so confident that he can be called proud.As he responded when Erebus, the god of darkness, asked him if he was afraid - "Of course I am not."

"I dared to face Uranus when I was not great, but now that I am great, I dare to face you."

"I know that if I really fight, I will be at a disadvantage."

"But in the battle of gods, it's not just about strength, but also the determination and the confidence of both sides to fight to the death."

Hephaestus is such a confident and arrogant person. He always thinks that he will win, even though his wisdom and experience tell him that Gaia is on the side of inevitable victory.

But since Gaia initiated the invitation, he will definitely fight!

Not only does he have to fight, but he also has to personally erase the escape routes of both sides. This is a game about the heart, and no one should leave early!
The divine light in Hephaestus' eyes became blazing, and fell on the volcano on the sea floor below, and fell on the magma of the volcano.The temperature of the magma became extreme, and the extreme temperature forced the seawater to retreat, and the seawater retreated from the volcano like a tidal ebb.

Now, this submarine volcano has been separated from the sea. It no longer borders the sea, nor does it border any domain of any god. Except for Hephaestus, the rest of the gods have lost the possibility of attacking secretly.For this volcano, from this moment on, is forever assigned to his domain by the god in charge of fire.

Even if Gaia has plundered a third of the sea, she has no right and dare not intervene here, unless she wants to declare war and use strength instead of wisdom and patience to seize it, then... this debate about eternity is Hephaestus wins because the other god at the table thinks he's defeated and walks out early.

And the stakes in this game are the divinity of Hephaestus, his heart that put a question mark on the column of firmness.This seems to be an extremely unfair bet. If Hephaestus loses the bet, he will lose his heart, and if Gaia loses, it seems that he doesn't need to pay anything.Even Hephaestus had no chance of winning from the beginning, because the time limit of this gamble is infinite!

but……

Is it really……

No god dares to use his wisdom and reason to tell people that as long as he decides, he will never change, because his heart is so firm that he will never change or go back.Even if a god really said so, how could he prove it?
There is no way to prove it, because the only way to prove eternity is eternity itself, and all false eternity will become real only when death comes completely.

It's a pity...the dead don't speak eternity.

Therefore, all false eternity will not become real. If it is proved to be true, then there is only one possibility - the person who is verified is eternity, not eternity obtained through testing.

Thinking of this, the smile on Hephaestus' face became meaningful.He stood on the top of the submarine volcano and looked at the darkness deep in the sea, looking at the dark ocean where one-third of the owner's name was changed.

He was laughing out loud in his heart, the laughter was wild and arrogant: "I think my heart has eternal firmness, I bet."

"The creator of my mother god mother, do you dare to bet?"

"Do you dare to come... to prove my eternity?"

Gradually, he actually laughed out loud, and the carefree, loud and heroic laughter echoed in the deepest seabed.

next moment!
he disappeared...

Just as Hephaestus disappeared, a beautiful goddess came out from the darkness of the seabed.She walks in the depths of the ocean floor full of sea water, just like walking on the stairs on land.

She climbed higher and higher on the "stairs", and gradually, she was so high that she could overlook the volcano below.

She could see the lingering water source above the magma—one-third of the essence that had been condensed in the vase of life for countless years.

She was meditating on the "stairs", obviously she could get the essence just by stretching out her hand, but she didn't move.Because - if you can't move, you may not be able to get it if you move.

The god in charge of the fire is hidden in the dark, who dares to move?

At half the price, the beautiful goddess suddenly laughed: "It's turned into a customer."

"If you can't get it yourself, let me watch it, it's very good!"

As she spoke, she turned around and walked into the depths of the darkness, with no trace of nostalgia in her eyes.

Not only was there no nostalgia, but also no panic, the brilliance of the eyes was as usual.

She seemed to have sealed the day of victory, using her wits.

Hephaestus wants to take the initiative to ask for a defeat, so she will give it!
She sneered as she walked: "It's a pity that you are a fool, knowing that failure is ahead, but still going hard."

"In this regard, Uranus is better than you..."
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ps: Happy New Year everyone.I bless my readers together with my fellow riders at the Earth Temple in the deep mountains.

(End of this chapter)