But you were not a machine.
You were the one who had taught Artemis what love was. You were the one who had moved a goddess with humanity's dazzling brilliance.
Because of that, you could never choose to abandon everything.
That would truly be putting the cart before the horse.
Just as Artemis argued with you without end, another voice interrupted the two of you.
"Why? Why do you defy us?"
A bird forged from metal flew into the garden.
No, it had been there from the beginning.
The metal bird was so lifelike that even Moran and Artemis had been unable to tell.
Until it spoke of its own accord.
"Hephaestus? Why are you here?"
Artemis saw through the identity of the one controlling the metal bird.
Only that god of forging possessed such craftsmanship.
"The reason is based on incomprehension. No matter from which angle I calculate, no matter how I assess it, I cannot understand why Pellasgi resists so fiercely. From the moment you became enemies of the gods, you had already lost any chance of victory."
Hephaestus's mechanical voice came through.
It was a cold, emotionless tone like a telegraph, mixed with a trace of confusion and incomprehension.
"What I find even more impossible to comprehend is why—
Sniper-Type Interstellar Fighter Artemis, why have you committed such a fallen act? To love a human so deeply. This is degeneration. It runs contrary to the principles upheld by our fleet."
Confused by all these doubts,
he decided not to impose punishment until he had resolved them.
As a result, he sent his familiar to this garden, only to see Artemis so desperately yearning for a human's survival.
This did not conform to their operational standards.
"Gods should not mix in personal feelings. Excessive personal feelings turn what should be highly efficient work into something cumbersome. This is inefficiency.
To us, inefficiency means it should be eliminated."
"Hephaestus! You're so annoying! How can everything possibly run on calculation modules? That would be completely boring! Who I like is none of your business, is it!?"
"...I am merely stating facts."
Hephaestus was like a stubborn old man.
His confusion still had not been resolved.
He had noticed something, more or less, since hundreds of years ago.
He had discovered that Greece, under the rule of the Olympian gods, seemed to have problems he could not ignore.
Decline, low efficiency.
Such conditions should not have existed under the gods' rule, yet for some unknown reason, this was the outcome.
"Intelligent life-form known as Moran. Based on the results, the probability that you survive after opposing the gods is 4.6%. The probability of victory is 0.56%... Why have you continued resisting until now?"
Hephaestus turned to question Moran.
He himself had been one of the targets of this visit.
"Because submitting to you means losing all possibilities. Humans are not machines. To protect things called happiness and freedom, sometimes they will even cast their lives aside without hesitation."
"Is that not putting the cart before the horse? In order to obtain happiness, you instead lose your life for nothing and no longer have any opportunity to enjoy it. Before truly obtaining it, you are already dead."
Hearing Hephaestus's indifferent words,
you could not help but laugh and shake your head.
This god of fire was even more narrow-minded than you had imagined.
The Machine Gods now possessed physical bodies.
Perhaps precisely because of this, their understanding of humanity remained at the most rudimentary level.
"Humans are the intelligent life-forms of this planet. Humans fear the arrival of death and fear the annihilation of the self. Preventing this takes the highest priority in all things," Hephaestus said.
"That is indeed true. Most humans fear those things. Most fear their own extinction. Unable to endure pain and emptiness, they squander their brief lives every moment. In every regard, humans cannot compare to gods."
Moran bluntly spoke of humanity's flaws.
Artemis remained silent.
It was the first time she had heard Moran's view of humanity, and she too wanted to know why he had resisted until now.
"If that is so, then why—"
"God of Fire, there are always a small number among humanity who can cross that barrier. It may be through knowledge, through technology, or through spirit. More than their fear of self-annihilation, they possess things they wish to protect even more, things they do not wish to lose. Because they fear losing them, they choose to give everything without hesitation."
Moran's words contained a kind of power.
It was something the Machine Gods could not understand.
It was a brilliance forged by human hands, something even omnipotent Machine Gods could not create.
"Such people are called heroes. Yet in the Greece guided by your Olympian Machine Gods, what I see is the possibility of heroes disappearing. If you continue ruling humanity like this, sooner or later, humanity will lose the brilliance it ought to possess."
Moran had raised the most crucial issue.
It was not only what you had seen as a hero and a king, but also what you knew about the Type-Moon world.
You possessed more than enough qualifications and confidence to answer the god of fire.
The gods possessed the bodies of Machine Gods.
One day, they would inevitably face this problem.
Zeus of the Lostbelt had loved humanity too greatly, and that excessive love had destroyed humanity's possibilities.
At present, the Machine Gods had not realized such a problem existed.
Humanity under their rule
would ultimately cease to be human.
For humanity, this was the most terrifying problem. Because the Great Gods were omnipotent, there would no longer be any possibilities or dreams. Such existences could hardly be acknowledged as human.
"Speaking in your manner, God of Fire, that future would be the truly inefficient future, wouldn't it?"
"..."
Hephaestus could not answer Moran.
In truth, he calculated according to Moran's words.
Using the rule of the gods and the conditions throughout Greece as references, he performed continuous calculations and reached a conclusion.
Examples like Artemis would continue to appear. The Machine Gods would become increasingly indulgent and excessively protective of humanity.
The gods would protect everything humanity possessed, and the gods would define everything related to happiness.
In other words, they would take everything away.
Humanity would therefore become reeds that had completely lost themselves.
They would become reeds that could only praise the gods.
And because of this, heroes would no longer be born in the future.
For the operation of the system, this was undoubtedly extremely inefficient.
My Glory Be with You All
'After calculation, the prediction made by the human before me is reasonable. Comprehensive calculations have reached the conclusion that allowing native life-forms to remain independent would be more energy-efficient than having us rule them.'
Although Hephaestus did not say it aloud,
the calculation unit of his main body had already reached a conclusion.
It was unbelievable that this would be the result.
For the first time, Hephaestus felt something akin to surprise.
"However, it is ultimately only a projection. The current situation is insufficient to produce a conclusion. Pellasgi's destruction is inevitable. With Artemis alone, there is no possibility of defying the gods. Information on the individual known as a hero is currently unknown and cannot be calculated. Everything you have said is therefore baseless."
"When all is said and done, you simply can't accept it yourself."
"Denied. If sufficient information and examples are available, accurate calculation is possible... That depends on whether the hero you speak of possesses the conditions necessary for me to calculate."
Although Hephaestus said this,
you still did not despair for the future.
On the contrary, it was precisely the opposite.
Having learned where these Machine Gods' problems lay, your determination to oppose them became even firmer.
Artemis was angered by your stubbornness.
After repeatedly trying and failing to dissuade you, she chose, like Hephaestus, to leave the royal garden. Before leaving, she told you when the gods would arrive.
"The gods will descend in three days. The first to arrive will be the Four Great City-States that believe in the gods. They will join forces to wage war against Pellasgi, and the blessings of those six gods will grant them..."
Artemis did not forget to leave these words behind before departing.
She was still angry.
But she could not simply watch Moran go to his death, so she could only tell him all the information about the gods' side.
Her decision to stop trying to dissuade him was not surrender.
Once the war guided by the gods begins, I'll let him witness a failure carved into his bones. When his life is threatened, once that time comes, he'll surely ask me for help.
Artemis held onto that thought.
She could not be certain that Moran would truly ask for help.
But this was all she could do.
This situation differed from the previous simulation. As long as Moran was willing to ask her, a goddess, for help,
then she would certainly act.
Time flew by.
In the final three days remaining, Pellasgi mobilized the full strength of the nation to face the coming war.
The entire nation stood united.
To protect the only sanctuary in this world that belonged to them, men, women, young, and old all took up weapons.
At this moment, before the gods' arrival—
only one final day remained.
At noon that day, all the citizens of Pellasgi City were summoned before the palace square by you.
Tens of thousands of citizens gazed at the high platform.
Standing there was their beloved king. Not only did humans offer him love and reverence, even divine beasts and magical beasts lowered their heads in unison, willing to offer blood and flesh for the father they loved.
"I hereby declare—people of Pellasgi!
From the founding of Pellasgi decades ago, I told you that war would eventually come. This time, the enemy we face is the Olympian gods! They are Alien Machine Gods who came from beyond our realm and usurped the authority of the Mother Goddess! Needless to say, Pellasgi has reached a moment of life and death!"
Even without using magical power to amplify his voice,
Moran's resounding words reached every corner of Pellasgi.
They entered the hearts of every citizen.
The people living within this city raised their heads and looked up at the Emperor of All Beasts whom they had followed all this time.
"Whether you flee or indulge yourselves,
I have seen it countless times over these decades, and I have delivered countless judgments. In the end, what we gained was this last remaining paradise in the world. Yet even with such an ideal, faced with the mighty power of the Olympian gods, we will likely be destroyed to the very last one!"
Moran's long hair drifted like a mane.
Before you continue