A Prophet in Greece, Part 45

"Once, he loved me so deeply. I always thought we were each other's one true love..."

"You know that was once." Theron interrupted her. "Beautiful Metis, you are the goddess of wisdom. Don't you understand?"

"He truly loves you, but every person is his one true love."

At those words, the light in Metis's eyes finally went out bit by bit. Her last hope had been shattered, and her flawless, beautiful face was filled with self-mockery.

"Yes, I knew that long ago," she said softly. "I knew it from the moment I met him, yet I still fell hopelessly in love with him."

"I can't stop him, nor can I become his only one. But I want to be with him forever. That's ridiculous, isn't it?"

"No. It is merely your choice." Theron's expression did not change in the slightest, remaining gentle and tolerant. "You are the goddess of wisdom, so you should understand better than anyone that there is no right or wrong in anything."

"There is only willingness or unwillingness."

"You're right."

Metis suddenly smiled, as if she had figured something out, or perhaps made up her mind. "Since I cannot stop myself from loving him, nor stop him from loving others, then I simply won't stop either. As long as the one who stays with him forever is me, that will be enough."

"I know what I should do. Thank you for your guidance."

She thanked him earnestly again, but the confusion in her eyes had vanished, leaving only obsessive madness.

Seeing this, Theron could not help emphasizing, "I have not given you any advice. Think carefully before you act."

"Rest assured, I have thought about it for a long time, and over and over again." Metis tucked the hair from her forehead behind her ear, revealing a bright, dazzling smile. "I thought of all sorts of methods, but I discovered that none of them would work."

"Isn't it laughable, using wisdom for something like this? But I also know that I cannot persuade myself. Since that is the case, then I should just do it."

It was as though she were speaking to Theron, but also to herself. "I will definitely be with him forever."

"Forever, together."

Typhon, Progenitor of Ten Thousand Demons

At this time, Zeus still did not know that his wife Metis and Theron had held a conversation capable of changing the course of his divine life.

Having just soothed Demeter, he went to engage in another round of his usual back-and-forth with Hera.

The beautiful Hera did not reject his advances, but neither did she ever accept him.

This left Zeus somewhat frustrated, but he did not give up easily. Hera held dominion over fertility, and in terms of divine authority, she was the most suitable candidate to become queen of the gods.

However, he did not have much energy to spare for Hera now, because he still had to deal with the historical problems left behind after Kronos's imprisonment.

For example, how should the descendants who had rebelled against the Titans be handled? And after the Titans were imprisoned, what should be done about the divine authorities they could no longer fulfill?

Most importantly, how should he appease the Titans who had remained neutral during the Titan War, now that their power had been divided up under the new order?

Zeus had never been a softhearted god. He knew how to swiftly consolidate his position in such circumstances: reward those who deserved reward, and punish those who deserved punishment.

He dealt with every god who had helped Kronos during the war for the throne of the gods, and all of them received severe punishments.

Through this, Zeus warned everyone of the consequences of opposing him.

As for how to appease the remaining Titan gods, that was a difficult problem. Zeus could not sacrifice the interests of the new gods merely to make them happy.

Yet these ancient Titan gods were extremely powerful. If they joined forces and rebelled, Zeus would have quite the headache.

So he came up with an excellent solution: marriage alliances.

Zeus decided to make use of his specialty and pursue Themis, goddess of law and justice, as well as Mnemosyne, goddess of memory.

Both were powerful ancient Titan gods. There were only a few Titans left now, and if these two chose to support Zeus, the other Titans would not be able to stir up much trouble.

Not only that, he also pursued Leto, daughter of the Titan gods Coeus and Phoebe.

Actually, the one he had initially wanted to pursue was Leto's younger sister, Asteria.

She was a primordial deity who governed the stars and the night, symbolizing the shining celestial bodies of the universe—the stars.

As the embodiment of dark night and stars, Asteria represented the chaos of the universe and the budding of order.

She wore black, representing the primordial night untouched by divine light, echoing the divine nature of her sister Leto, who represented "concealment."

If Zeus could win Asteria, he could strengthen the bloodline of the Titans and reinforce the legitimacy of Olympus's rule through her power over the stars.

But Asteria despised Zeus's honeyed words. Faced with his pursuit, she transformed into a quail and fled.

Zeus was unwilling to give up so easily, so he immediately transformed into a vulture and chased after her.

The two continued this chase for some time. In the end, Asteria, exhausted, fell into the sea. To keep her from leaving, Zeus transformed her into the floating island of Astypalaea.

Left with no choice, Zeus turned to pursue the gentle and enduring Leto. This would prevent a complete break with the Titans while allowing him to use Leto's divine nature of "stillness" to balance the dynamic rule of Olympus.

It could only be said that Zeus had taken the word "charm" to its absolute extreme, and he truly understood how to play the game of marriage alliances.

Zeus's own powerful divinity, along with the authority and paternal nature brought by his position as king of the gods, was also an immense attraction to these beautiful goddesses.

Aside from Asteria, who would rather die than submit, Zeus was almost unstoppable. He effortlessly had every goddess in the palm of his hand.

Even the powerful Titan goddesses Themis and Mnemosyne revealed their feminine sides before him.

Relying on his "good looks," Zeus successfully divided the Titans and thoroughly secured his position as king of the gods.

This delighted him beyond measure and even made him somewhat smug.

He enjoyed being surrounded by goddesses, and he enjoyed even more the thrill of having everything under his control.

As for Theron's warning to "beware the goddesses," Zeus had completely thrown it to the winds. He did not believe that creatures who could be sweet-talked into falling in love posed any threat to him.

Not only that, even though he knew Gaia was deeply dissatisfied with him, he did not care in the slightest. He could not even be bothered to visit Gaia once.

In his view, so what if Gaia was a primordial god? This great mother of the earth was not skilled in battle, and her greatest ability was merely giving birth.

So what could she use to threaten him?

Would she rely on having children?

That was simply laughable, so Zeus paid it no mind at all.

It was because of this mindset that he never noticed Gaia had been absent from her temple for a long time.

While Zeus was wildly flirting and fooling around with the goddesses, all while consolidating his divine authority, a union capable of changing the course of the world was taking place in Tartarus, the abyss that no god would ordinarily visit.

Gaia, the great mother of the earth, intertwined with Tartarus, the abyss manifested as a stretch of darkness, their auras blending together.

Like several other primordial gods, Tartarus, god of the abyss, was barely personified. Yet from the moment of their shared birth, Tartarus had displayed a desire to merge with Gaia, the mother of the earth.

The abyss and the earth were connected by nature. If he could be with Gaia, Tartarus would gain even greater power—power capable of overturning the world itself.

He had no personhood, but he possessed the instinct to grow stronger.

But Gaia had rejected him in the past and chosen Uranus, the child she had borne herself. Tartarus had no choice but to give up.

Now, however, he saw another opportunity.

When he sensed Gaia's anger, he quietly manifested himself and seduced her with a voice full of temptation.

He told Gaia that if she united with him, she could give birth to a dark power capable of taking revenge on Zeus.

Gaia was filled with resentment, and her dissatisfaction with Zeus had reached its peak. She did not hesitate for long before agreeing.

Not long afterward, Gaia, the strongest god of substance and mother of the earth, became pregnant with the bloodline of Tartarus, the strongest god of void and abyss.

This child was far too powerful. Even while he was being conceived, Gaia nearly could not endure his strength, and when he was born, the earth itself almost split apart.

He was a complete monster. He possessed more than a hundred dragon heads, with the fires of hell burning in every pair of eyes and scarlet serpent tongues flickering from every mouth.

Some of these heads spoke in human voices, while others roared like lions and leopards. Their thunderous cries were louder than thunder itself, echoing throughout the entire abyss.

His arms and torso were humanlike, but below the waist was an enormous python's tail. His head could hold up the stars, and when he spread his left and right hands, he could embrace the entire world. His body was covered in scales, wings, and fur.

The liquid dripping from his mouth was like magma and could corrode every living creature. He was the ancestor of all evil monsters in the world, a monster symbolizing chaos and destruction, born to overthrow Zeus's Olympian order.

His name was—Typhon.

Typhon knew his mission from the moment he was born. He had been created to destroy Zeus and the gods of Olympus.

But under the influence of Tartarus, he also wished to enslave every species, destroy the world, and return all things to the void of primordial chaos.

After Gaia realized what kind of monster she had given birth to, she knew things had gone terribly wrong. The divine natures of earth and abyss were too powerful, so the monster born of them was naturally terrifying.

Tartarus favored the void and despised substance, wishing to return to chaos and nothingness. Typhon was naturally affected by him. Once the dark power of void gained substance, its only desire was to destroy the world.

All of this occurred within the endless abyss, unnoticed by any god. At this very moment, Zeus was still immersed in the pleasure of pursuing goddesses.

The gods of Olympus still did not know what they would soon have to face. They were even still reveling in the joy of finally becoming masters of their own fate.

Curses Come Full Circle

Though Typhon was powerful and possessed the strength to tear apart the earth, he was not a mindless creature.

On the contrary, Typhon, progenitor of demons, possessed incomparably wicked intelligence. Though he wanted to destroy the world and punish the gods of Olympus, he did not act rashly.

The first thing he did after his birth was find Echidna, a female serpent monster capable of bearing his evil power. He injected his essence into Echidna's body.

Very quickly, Echidna's powerful fertility magic produced tens of thousands of monster eggs. Amid the heat of hellish magma, countless monsters were born.

All of this took place in an abyss watched by no gods. No god discovered it, much less realized that a crisis capable of destroying the world was brewing.

At this very moment, two unexpected events also occurred on Mount Olympus.

The first was that Metis, goddess of wisdom and Zeus's first wife, whom he had formally married, announced that she was pregnant.

This child was Zeus's first child as king of the gods. No matter what the gods thought in their hearts, they still showed the proper respect on the surface and came one after another to offer congratulations.

Even the goddesses who had ambiguous relationships with Zeus suppressed their bitterness and offered blessings, displaying their magnanimous sides.

Only one god was an exception: the beautiful goddess Hera.

Hera held dominion over fertility. Just as Zeus was attracted by her beauty, she too was drawn to the powerful Zeus.

She had not accepted Zeus as easily as Demeter had, not because she did not like him, but because she was unwilling to accept it.

Hera believed she was inferior to no goddess. Whether in beauty, divine laws, or their mutual attraction, she believed she was the most suitable for Zeus. Yet Zeus always lingered around other goddesses.

She neither accepted nor rejected Zeus's pursuit. At its core, she was testing him and displaying her own uniqueness.

But Zeus was at a crucial point where he needed to win over divine authority. He did not have so much time to play these games of push and pull with Hera.

Seeing that he could not win Hera over for the moment, and that he had already obtained the throne of the gods and no longer needed her support so urgently, Zeus decisively turned his attention to other goddesses.

During this period, the gods had begun producing descendants one after another. Physical pleasure and spiritual comfort had nearly numbed them all, and every god was indulging themselves.

Then, at this time, Metis announced her pregnancy. Hera was already dissatisfied with Zeus's disregard, and now that she heard Zeus and Metis were about to have a child, the beautiful god of fertility became unhappy almost immediately.

Anger, jealousy, dissatisfaction, and countless other emotions filled the beautiful goddess's heart. To vent this resentment, she chose to conceive a child alone.