At the foot of the former sacred mountain, next to a riverbed that has long dried up.
In order to find some useful clues as soon as possible, the group has already separated to search.
Take a few quick steps and cross a rotten tree stump.
Vaguely, Hercules seems to be able to see that this place should have been a beautiful ancient forest thousands of years ago.
At that time, when the wind came, thousands of maple trees rang together.
Perhaps the people who lived here would dance alone in the wind and tell their own voices to the grass and trees.
Shaking his head slightly, he erased these old scenes built by imagination from his mind.
Facing the desolate and dilapidated land in front of him, the great hero had no choice.
There was nothing here, not to mention the "real entrance" to the spirit world.
Even half a day ago, Hercules had asked Ander for help to spy on the scenes that had happened here in the past, such as the whereabouts of the golden man.
The so-called entrance may be built near their former gathering place. As long as he finds it, the great hero can find the correct portal.
However, upon hearing his request, the puppet simply told him regretfully that this was somewhat beyond its ability.
"You have to know, Hercules--"
His mouth opened and closed, and the sound of wood colliding on Ender's body was faintly audible: "For nearly an era, this place has been a rare forbidden area in the land of Chaos."
"It's not because there are some terrible creatures entrenched here, nor is it because we are afraid of being regarded as a rebel who misses the Titans by the gods of Mount Olympus. It's just that there are too many twisted rules and traps in this land, and the influence of the remnants of the primitive gods has lasted for thousands of years."
"I can't peek into the traces of the past here, at least not from the last era."
"Besides, forgive me for being blunt, I don't think the spirit world has any direct connection with the golden humans-I mean, that kind of fanatical reverence for the equality of gods is so perfect that it doesn't seem like the character of normal creatures. They give me the feeling that they are incompatible with the spirit world."
"The spirit world... should not place the entrance next to such a life whose nature is locked from birth."
...
"Huh..."
"Maybe so."
"If there are other clues, I don't want to look for traces of the golden age..."
He sighed slightly and continued forward along the river. The hero accepted Ander's explanation, but he did not give up the idea of looking.
After all, as he said, he could not find any other clues at the moment.
After walking for a while, he walked to the end of the river.
Here, Hercules found the ruins of a similarly dried-up pond.
And right next to the pond, Prometheus was half-kneeling on the ground, lowering his head to study a broken stone tablet.
"Your Highness Prometheus... did you find anything here?"
Unexpectedly, the two who had separated before would bump into each other here, and the hero could not help but cheer up.
Taking two steps forward, Hercules looked at the ancient stone tablet.
Tens of millions of years of weathering have made its surface smooth and rough, and a few words are no longer clear.
But just like the stone tablets discovered some time ago, both Prometheus and Hercules have ways to restore the words on them.
As the forerunner's fingertips slid, strange and familiar characters appeared on the stone tablet.
Looking closely, the hero hoped that there would be some useful discoveries on it.
"...Red Leaf Forest...blasphemy...creation..."
"No need to read it anymore."
Standing up from the ground, Prometheus interrupted Hercules' interpretation.
"There is no record of the spiritual world here. In fact, the golden humans in the past really had no relationship with the spiritual world."
"Except that their king suspected that he had obtained knowledge of the spiritual world from dreams, the only relationship between them was the creator and the created."
"As for this stone tablet...it records the deeds of a certain 'blasphemer'. Compared with the golden humans, she may have a closer relationship with the spiritual world."
"Blaster? Are there blasphemers in the golden age?"
Hearing this, he was a little surprised. In the education that Hercules received since childhood, golden humans are synonymous with perfect morality. Even in today's human world, there is a certain root and shape similarity between the two words 'gold' and 'perfection'.
In the face of the great hero's doubts, Prometheus just shook his head slowly.
"She was indeed recorded as a blasphemer, but she was not a golden human."
"This is actually where she once lived, an ancient forest called 'Red Leaf Forest'."
"In that era, this place was not far from the settlement of golden humans, and even these immortal species often came here to get water."
"Until one day later, the 'blasphemer' left here forever. And this place where she once lived was also hidden invisibly under the power of blasphemy."
"The power of blasphemy...?"
The great hero frowned slightly, and vaguely, he had a sense of déjà vu.
And in his chest pocket, Ander reminded him directly.
"Witchcraft."
"If there is any power that the golden humans consider blasphemous, it is definitely not physical power, but the ability to call the wind and rain like a god."
"Witchcraft is such a power. After all, in that era, humans were the only mortals with wisdom, and there were no numerous extraordinary paths in the world."
"But this is the first time I know that the source of witchcraft is so ancient?"
"The golden age... the person who blasphemed the gods... can be called 'blasphemous' by the golden humans, proving that the existence is definitely not a god, and she can use witchcraft... It's really surprising."
"I originally thought that witchcraft actually originated at the end of the Second Age, with the birth of the goddess of the magic network. In this case, it turns out that even she is not the original inventor of witchcraft?"
"Then who is this original inventor?"
The first time he encountered something interesting, Ander slowly crawled out of the pocket of the great hero.
He looked at the stone tablet on the ground, but Prometheus just shook his head again.
"No, Ender, she is the original inventor."
"Or whether she is the inventor or not, she must be the first person to display the power of witchcraft in the world..."
His expression was complicated, and old memories flooded into his mind.
Prometheus still remembered that he and his two brothers lived in harmony at that time.
At that time, he was arrogant and conceited, thinking that he had seen through the world.
But now, he is a prisoner of Zeus, and Epimetheus is on the wanted list of the New God Court.
The giant god who holds up the sky is restless, moving the sky at the end of the Western Sea.
"Hercules... You may not know that in fact, in that era, the goddess of the magic net was not a real god."
"There was no authority, no domain, and even no way to obtain divine power before the rise of faith." "So she was knocked down from the sky by her parents and fell to a corner of the world."
"No one knows that she will become the Lord of the Magic Net, the source of wizards, and the pioneer of innovative secret methods one day in the future. The golden humans just follow the will of the gods and reject the existence of this 'blasphemous spirit'."
"This should be her former residence, the place where her life first grew up."
"And she... Hercules, perhaps the one who may be related to the 'entrance to the spirit world' here."
Among the group of people, only Dionysus who came later had not seen Ander.
Prometheus had communicated with the puppet under the sea eye.
So he was not unfamiliar with the existence and some of the abilities of the former. The foresight raised his hand and signaled Ander to use his special ritual to illuminate the traces of the past here.
Since this place is related to the goddess of the magic net, let's try to find the whereabouts left by the other party.
Unless the other party has not returned here for a whole era, the influence of the great divine power is strong, but it is not enough to extend up and down along the river of time to prevent later generations from prying into what will happen here in the future.
Seeing this, Ander nodded slightly and jumped out of the pocket of the great hero.
Exploring what happened in this era... No problem, this is also one of his divine abilities.
Drama, opera, its existence is the reproduction of things that have happened, or the interpretation of things that have never happened.
Peeping into history, compiling music, and finally deriving real power, this is one of Ander's methods.
So it didn't take long before a complicated ceremony appeared in the open space beside the pond.
The puppet's fingers moved slightly, and hundreds of paper figures fell to the ground under the traction of invisible silk threads and danced around the ritual.
It was like a magical witch sacrifice, communicating something.
Watching silently, Hercules waited for the change to come.
The goddess of the magic net... was once not regarded as a god... blasphemers... the change of eras...
seemed to have some understanding, but when he came back to his senses, there was nothing.
On the site of the former forest, vague images gradually took shape.
········ The pond water
gurgled
and flowed.
The bright moon shines on the pool, and the reflection is like a jade plate.
I don't know how long ago, Hecate in a red dress took small steps, jumped over a fallen dead tree, and turned around in the open space under the moonlight.
Not far away, the moon goddess covered her mouth and laughed softly, but there was a trace of envy in her eyes.
When she was very young, she also longed for such a free life, but from the moment she was born, the moon was forced to be shrouded in the shadow of her father and brother.
Thousands of years have passed, Hyperion may have fallen asleep, Helios has become a pawn under Zeus, and she has finally regained her right to independence.
However, today, Selene can no longer do such a thing.
The traces left by the repression she once had are difficult to fade away... at least not now.
After all, it had not been long since the change of eras, and the bronze humans were still active on the earth, although they were unaware of their impending death...
"Ah - what are you doing?"
"Haha... what do you think (*^▽^*)?"
With a cry of surprise, the girl in the red dress secretly came behind the moon goddess who was immersed in her memories and gave her a big 'surprise'.
For a moment, the gloomy mood disappeared without a trace, and a smile reappeared on the girl's face.
Obviously, although she revisited the old place, the obscure emotions between Selene's eyebrows could not be hidden from Hecate, because here, she also experienced an imperfect childhood.
But compared to her friends, Hecate was never alone, she also had a talking stone slab to accompany her, while Selene was alone... After playing for a while, it was unknown how long it had passed, and the two immortal gods sat side by side on a huge rock next to the pool.
The water in the pool was above her ankles, and the shadows of the moon and the human figures intertwined.
Looking at the moon that she should have driven sliding across the sky, Selene couldn't help but feel a little sad.
"Hekate... do you think that the God of West Wind who has been secretly following us for a while will go to the King of Gods to complain about me..."
"I also sneaked down here... Although I am different from my brother, I have not separated my priesthood and can control the moon without the help of a divine weapon... and the moon is not that strong..."
"Okay, don't think too much."
"Zephyros? A lucky villain, he is not worth mentioning at all."
"Didn't you see that he didn't dare to really hide his tracks when he was following? He was just pretending."
"As for that golden-haired guy... He can't even handle his own affairs, how dare he come to trouble you."
"He is now eager to have less trouble and take the human faith that he treasures first."
"If he dares to trouble you, I will help you teach him a lesson."
"Compared to that, do you remember the golden human we met on the road?"
"Tsk, I didn't expect that this once honest uncle would have lived until today, and even survived the end of the Golden and Silver Ages, and survived the demise of their creator's court..."
"Selene, you know, although I don't have a prophecy, my intuition tells me that he and you, no, your father and brother may have an inseparable connection."
"Maybe one day they will meet in battle... Don't look at me like that. Although Helios is a medium-level god, he is just an ordinary human, but intuition is unreasonable."
"Besides, you don't have a good relationship with them. Do you still worry about him?"
The calves swayed, splashing on the water.
Hecate ignored the wind god and Zeus, but mentioned the oldest human king.
But in her eyes, whether it was the human king or the origin of the future warrior path of the human race, these identities were never taken seriously by her.
If there was anything about the other party that made her care, it was probably the kindness that was difficult to conceal, although he refused to contact her due to the oracle.
"This is a good thing, but also a bad thing..."
"The golden humans... their kindness is unforgettable to me."
"But it is this kind of bottomless perfection that makes me feel that their destruction is deserved."
"'Deserved' - how ridiculous it is to use this word to describe them, but that's what I think."
"Selene, what do you think?"
Her thoughts were so erratic that almost no one could follow Hecate's thoughts.
But she didn't care, because she knew that no matter what she said, Selene would continue to follow her.
"I don't know..."
"But since you said so, then they deserved it."
Sure enough, Selene put Helios behind her in an instant and talked about the golden humans.
But she really didn't have any impression of those people... So she just smiled gently, just like the moonlight that sprinkled down from the sky to the world.
"Golden Age... It turns out that there are still people alive today..."
"Your Highness Prometheus, do you know anything about the golden survivors mentioned by the goddess of the magic net?"
In reality, beside the long-dried pool.
The stone where Hecate and Selene sat is long gone, and the clear pool water is only left with dead branches and broken leaves.
In front of Hercules, the traces of the past reappeared here, but he could not see the true bodies of the two goddesses. Instead, there was only a halo full of different rules.
Obviously, even if it is not a great divine power, even if Hecate, who ascended to the godhood in the Bronze Age not long ago, has not even entered the realm of powerful divine power, but the true body of the gods is still difficult to be easily reflected.
Through the shadows of the past, several viewers can only see the interaction between the two groups of light and shadow, and some blurred and distorted sounds.
"...I don't know. As for the king of the Golden Age, I only remember that he knew that he had received divine revelation in a dream and was the first human created by Chaos."
"Maybe it was because God put more effort into creating him, or maybe it was because as the first 'human', he was favored by fate. In short, he has a longer life than his peers."
"But no matter how long his life is, it is difficult to conceal the nature of mortals. Under absolute power, his life is also difficult to preserve... I always thought he had died at the turn of the era, but I didn't expect him to live to this day."
Before the great flood caused by the trident came, Prometheus was taken away as a criminal, so he didn't see the fight between the son of Poseidon and humans.
So when faced with Hercules' question, the foresighted man could not give an answer.
"His name is Cohen, this is one of the few impressions I have of him."
"As the goddess of the magic net said, he is a model of integrity and kindness like every golden human."
"Besides that, I have nothing to say."
"I see."
Nodding slowly, although a little regretful, the great hero also expressed his acceptance of this.
Indeed, the existence of golden humans is quite unfamiliar to the gods of Olympus today, and they basically have not lived in that era.
Without saying more, Hercules continued to focus on the shadow of the old days.
The golden age was just a small episode that had nothing to do with him, and the entrance to the spirit world was what he really wanted to find.
·······
Beside the pond, the moon goddess and Hecate stayed here for more than a few months.
Under the guidance of the goddess of the magic net, an antique wooden house that took more than ten thousand years to build reappeared in the world, and then disappeared under the complicated mystery locks again under her superb skills.
During this period, a god once wandered here in the form of breeze, but eventually returned in vain in the intersection of the magic net strings.
The two goddesses settled down here and recalled the time of the last era.
Time passed, and several months passed quickly.
One day, a surprised cheer rang out from the wooden house.
The figure flashed, and ripples appeared in the void.
In an instant, Hecate put down the half-roasted lucky game in her hand and appeared beside Selene.
As soon as she entered the house, the soft moonlight shone in all directions, and the bright white phantom moon appeared behind the goddess.
Just one glance, Hecate knew that Selene had made a breakthrough in the practice of meditation, and even resonated with a certain phase of the moon in the spiritual world.
No, not a certain phase, but almost all phases.
As a natural moon goddess, Selene's affinity with the field of "moon" is innately unmatched...
"Ah--"
Selene slowly opened her eyes and was about to stand up to share the joy of her breakthrough with her friends, but unexpectedly bumped into Hecate's face.
After rolling on the ground, the moon goddess raised her head angrily, and then stopped under Hecate's innocent eyes. After a
while, on another ancient road not far from the wooden house.
There were weeds everywhere and bushes growing everywhere, and there was no trace of the road.
Hecate dragged Selene all the way here without saying what she was going to do. It was not
until the moon goddess stood beside her obediently and was silent for a moment that she carefully drew a circle on the ground.
Suddenly, inside the circle, time seemed to start flowing backwards.
The grass and trees flourished and withered, and eventually turned into seeds; the soil became moist, and eventually dried up again.
Day after day, year after year.
In the blink of an eye, the sequence of time here seemed to flow backwards for tens of millions of years.
Gradually, a small footprint and a mark of someone lying down appeared here. In addition, there was a mark of a hard object sunken in.
"What is this?"
Selene asked.
"This is where I fell - look, the footprint and the mark of lying down are left by me."
"I was tripped by a hard object here, and then fell here... In the end, I took the bad thing that tripped me back!"
Pointing to the marks on the ground, Hecate said briskly.
She took two steps forward, stepped on the footprints of the past, and pressed her hand on the sunken mark.
"This is an exit, an exit that may not have existed originally."
"But when I picked it up here, this exit existed."
"You have meditated more than once, and behind this entrance is the place you saw when you meditated in the past."
"There are many roads leading to the spiritual world in this world, but most of them stop at the first level. A few can lead to the second level, and it is impossible to go beyond the third level."
"Only a few of them are special cases. They were born for some special reasons, and then they have stayed there ever since. Only they can travel to the depths of the spiritual world."
"Go in from here and find a spiritual moon that is most closely related to you... Selene, you only have one chance to choose!"
The voice was not loud, and a little light appeared in the palm of Hecate's hand, and finally covered the entire mark.
The next moment, a silver crack appeared in front of the two people, and the girl in the red skirt stretched out her hand and pulled it directly to a width wide enough for the two to pass through.
Suddenly, a strong spiritual aura came from the other side of the crack, which lifted the spirits of the Moon Goddess.
Looking at the crack in front of her, Selene was a little at a loss.
"I..." Pointing at herself, the Moon Goddess asked hesitantly, "Go inside and choose a moon?"
"Yes, that is, you may have an extra job later - well, I suggest you find a nymph who is willing to believe in you, promote her to be your servant, and then grant her divinity and let her work for you."
"After all, you are the real Moon Goddess, not one of those guys who use part of their divine duties to forge artifacts."
"As long as you are willing, the moon is in your hands, and there is absolutely no possibility of deviation from the orbit."
With a tap of the chin, Hecate looked at Selene who was still a little hesitant, and she took a step back and pushed her towards the crack flashing with silver light.
With a cry of surprise, the Moon Goddess immediately fell to the opposite side of the gap, and she followed in.
As the two entered, the crack was restored, and everything returned to its original state.
Only the shadow on the ground shifted a few points, recording the passage of time here.
·······
In reality, beside the nameless pond.
The image of the past had not yet ended. Hercules watched as two halos of light sank into a place filled with 'mosaic' and then disappeared. Just like a real script, the time in the image tends to flow faster in uncritical places, and slows down in critical places.
In a blink of an eye, two halos walked out of the "mosaic" and returned to reality.
It was very obvious that the silver-white light seemed to be much stronger than before, and the bright moonlight almost always surrounded her.
Looking at this scene, the great hero had an intuition.
With the entry of the moon goddess, it seemed that both the spirit world and herself had been enhanced in the field of "moon".
No... This is not enhancement, but a kind of complement.
Just like the originally separate things finally merged into one, some wonderful reaction occurred at this moment... They complemented each other and played the function of one plus one being greater than two.
Nothing could be more in line with each other, and perhaps from this moment on, Selene was the true "moon goddess".
As for before that, her name of moon goddess was simply unworthy of the name.
Unfounded speculation flashed through his mind, and in the image, Hecate's actions continued.
Returning from the crack to the human world, the goddess of the magic net looked back at the imprint on the ground.
She hesitated for a moment, and finally showed her magic power to move the pool where she had been before.
The imprint penetrated into the water, just like it was buried in the sand in the past.
The powerful mystery lock once shone above this place, but Hecate did not let the magic net string completely cover this place.
She just took out a book from her body, a book that was also a "mosaic" in the eyes of Hercules and Prometheus
. Turning the pages, a projection of something was summoned.
The extremely terrifying space force blocked the effect, sealing this trace in her body forever.
When the goddess of the magic net finished all this, she stepped back a few steps and asked Selene to impose a blockade here as well.
The moon goddess didn't know what to do. She thought for a long time, and finally hid the summoned projection in the reflection of the bright moon falling in the pool. Only at the right time, in the right place, and standing at the right angle could you see what was inside.
After completing all the preparations, Hecate didn't seem to want to stay here anymore.
She waved her hand and summoned the carriage that was supposed to pull the bright moon in the sky, and left the remains of the ancient sacred mountain with the moon goddess.
The image ended here by the dry pond.
Turning his eyes to the dry pond beside him, Hercules knew that this was where everything happened in the old days.
"So that's how it is."
"The correct passage has been hidden. It is hidden in the 'moon in the water'."
"But now there is no water here, so naturally there is no trace of it."
After a little hesitation, the great hero asked Prometheus to create a water flow here to fill the pond.
The foresight did not refuse. The holy power surged in his palms, and a divine art was easily performed in the hands of a true god.
Soon, the dry pond was full again, and Hercules watched the sky, waiting for the arrival of the 'right time'.
...
Two days passed quickly, and on this day, he stood where Selene had stood.
When the bright moon above his head reached a certain angle, the great hero lowered his head and looked at the shadow of the moon in the pond.
The moon in the sky and the moon in the water were facing each other from afar. In the dark, a shackle seemed to be opened. The
next moment, the thing that was summoned by the goddess of the magic net and hidden by the moon goddess in the reflection emerged... Looking at the moon shadow on the water, Hercules was a little speechless.
"What is that?" Ander asked. At the same time, only one person could see what was there. The hero didn't know how to respond to this. He just slightly turned sideways and made way for this position. "I don't know how to describe it... Take a look for yourself." The puppet jumped out of the pocket and looked at the thing in the moon shadow in mid-air. At the first moment, it saw itself in it. But after a moment of shock, Ander recognized it. "A mirror? A mirror that seals a flower?" "No, it's not a flower, it's a portal, but the space around it is distorted, so it looks like a flower to the naked eye..." "Haha, the moon in the water, the flower in the mirror, I didn't expect that these two goddesses are quite artistic." "But Hercules, it seems that you really have no chance to get it now - you can't get past her blockade, and in the human world, I can't use my divine power to help you." "Take away a breath of it, that's the only thing you can do. The shadow of the [Mirror of Spreer], if you want to break the space barrier it created in the human world, only it can do it itself." The legendary artifact symbolizing the [Space] field, since the disappearance of the second generation of God King, there has been no god or artifact in the world that can stand shoulder to shoulder with it in this field. Although Ander knew that the proportion of this artifact in the entire Chaos [Space] field was definitely not high, there was no second God of Space in the human world. From the beginning to the end, the world has never truly delegated the power of time and space to the gods. Otherwise, even in the First Age, if Kronos could truly master more than 70% of Chaos's origin of time and space, he would be a well-deserved great god, and perhaps only Tartarus could be compared with him. However, for thousands of years, except for the Abyss, which gained a lot of [space] authority due to the influx of foreign mixed source power, no other god has had this honor. Even the other primitive gods are the same. They only passively possessed part of the power of space as their domains expanded. "It may be the right channel, but Hercules, it is definitely not for you now." Prometheus said, also looking at the mirror in the moonlight himself. "You want to go to the [World of All Spirits] and summon the souls of the dead in front of the [Well of Samsara]... According to the [Book of Purgatory], there is also a projection of the [Mirror of Spreer] there." "When you can find it, you may be able to open this 'correct' path - if everything is as you expected, and you really have to pass through here in the future." "As for now... I'm afraid you can't succeed." Nodding slightly, the great hero believed what they said. However, he still tried it himself to see if he could touch the door that was so close.
However, the result is just as the two said. The moon in the water and the flower in the mirror seem to be within reach, but in fact, under the influence of the authority of [Space], the distance between Hercules and them is as far as the sky.
"Well... the only authority that can fight against authority is another kind of authority." "
The gods may still be restricted in the human world, but the restrictions on artifacts are much less."
Shaking his head slowly, the hero took a step back.
As Ander said, he absorbed the breath of the artifact.
This is a trigger that can help him guide the direction in the future... Standing quietly by the pool, time continues to flow.
Soon, the moon head deviated.
This road leading directly to the depths of the spirit world is once again buried in this ancient ruins.
The silver light rises and goes straight into the gap between the starry sky and the human world.
On the Star Shuttle, looking at the ruins of Mount Odysseus, which is still huge and boundless even when looking down from the sky, Hercules suddenly feels an inexplicable feeling.
Time passes, and the years are mottled.
No matter how glorious and great your civilization and holiness are, you will eventually bow down to the eternal time. This is
true for the golden humans, the Father and the Mother of Heaven, and the God King who once dominated Mount Odysseus.
"Then what about Zeus..."
"When will his rule end?"
"And when that day comes, will he accept it calmly, or will he struggle unwillingly?"
There is no answer, after all, the future is the most unpredictable.
Retracting his gaze, the great hero controlled the Star Shuttle to continue to go west.
Thanks to this alchemical creation of Silver Moon City, if it weren't for it, the group might not even have reached Olympia at this moment.
And his next goal is the garden of the Queen of Heaven Hera located above the West Sea.
...
"Dionysus, do you know anything about the Queen of Heaven's garden?"
On the way, Hercules broke the calm when he saw his partner who was worried.
Before leaving Mount Odysseus, as the great hero destroyed the sphinx, the god of the west wind who was responsible for issuing the task still arrived late.
However, under the gaze of the eyes of the Caucasian Condor, Hercules unexpectedly discovered that the person who came this time did not seem to be Zephyrus himself.
Not caring too much about this, he just watched the other party's performance silently.
Until the last step, when the other party said the next task, the great hero was really surprised.
Stealing the golden apples in the Queen of Heaven's garden was exactly the same as his original goal.
But since that was the case, there was no need for him to refuse. He
agreed at once, and both parties were very satisfied with it.
But from that day on, Dionysus seemed to be a little entangled.
"He probably got some extra mission, or to be more precise, he asked you to do something."
"However, after traveling together for this period of time, this young man can no longer use you without batting an eyelid - or maybe he never had this ability."
"In short, it's up to you to solve it any way you want. I'm only responsible for solving some of your doubts."
The foresighted Titan told him so, so Hercules chose to face the problem head-on.
Sure enough, when he asked about the "Garden of the Queen of Heaven", Dionysus seemed to finally relax a lot.
"Well... of course I know... I mean, I saw it in the classics I read in the past."
"Hercules, by the way, do you know about the golden apple tree?"
"I've heard of it."
Nodding slightly, the great hero expressed his understanding.
"It originated from the [Seed of All Things] in the [Vase of Life] and took root and sprouted in the hands of the Earth Mother."
"The Supreme that symbolizes [Life] watered the Supreme that symbolizes [Plants], and finally produced a treasure that even the gods rarely see. This is the golden apple tree I know."
"But as far as I know, the one that the Queen of Heaven has doesn't seem to be a real golden apple, but a branch that was once given to the three brothers of the God King by the Earth Mother."
"The hundred-headed dragon Ladon, son of Typhon, guards it. It was subdued by the gods and guards Hera's garden there forever."
"That's right."
Nodding in agreement, Dionysus hesitated for a long time and finally said:
"You are wrong about one thing."
"The hundred-headed dragon Ladon has never been subdued by the gods."
"Or to be more precise, there is nothing in this world that can subdue it. From the beginning, the story about it has been a lie."
"That day, Typhon fell, and the gods hunted down his descendants on earth. Ladon was originally just an ordinary member of them, but at the moment when the demon ancestor died, he, like his brothers, received the legacy from the source of his bloodline."
"From that moment on, the gods were no longer its opponents. It could roam the earth at will. Even all the gods of Olympus combined could not defeat it - this was not because its strength was really unmatched, but because it was too similar to the former king of all demons."
"If Typhon is a dragon snake with a hundred heads, then the nine-headed Hydra is its immortal body, and Ladon is its immortal anger."
"It did not inherit those special abilities from its father. It only inherited Typhon's raging anger against fate and rules."
"So by some unrepeatable coincidence, this powerful demon turned this anger into its special power, and possessed an ability that all gods envy and fear - to avoid the suppression of the laws of the world."
"From then on, the human world became its home ground. Even on the land with the strictest laws, it can still exert power comparable to that of a true god; and far out in the sea, its power is even stronger." " As one
rises, the other declines, and the strong and the weak change places."
"As long as it doesn't madly set foot on Olympus, the gods will have to give way to it - until that day, the king of gods takes action himself."
"No one knows why he targeted Ladon alone. Perhaps it was because he was dissatisfied with Typhon's repeated refusal to surrender, or perhaps it was for some other reason."
"In short, under the power of the king of gods, Ladon was finally defeated. It could not resist the power of the king of gods, and was finally imprisoned in Hera's orchard forever as a gift to the queen of heaven."
"This violent prisoner, an unstoppable madman, indiscriminately kills any creature who dares to set foot in its territory, and in a disguised way protects the safety of the place."
"So, as the years passed, the prisoner became the overseer of the garden in the singing of poetry. No one knew the reason except the gods and itself."
Dionysus narrated the legend of the hundred-headed dragon like a poem.
In front of him, Hercules frowned slightly. Hearing this, he probably guessed what the other party was going to say.
Excluding the fact that he also wanted to obtain the golden apple, the god of the west wind probably didn't expect him to complete such a task when he assigned him this task.
After all, a great demon who can display the power of gods in the world, even more so in the sea, is almost impossible to defeat. It has nothing to do with will and confidence.
Perhaps outsmarting is his only way, and the gods have already arranged this smooth road.
"Ladon, the hundred-headed dragon, sounds terrible and difficult to fight against."
Without changing his expression, the great hero asked.
"So Dionysus, what do you think about this?"
"...Of course."
Nodding, Dionysus said in a deep voice:
"In the entire world, no one or god can defeat Ladon."
"Except for the God King and the original gods who coexist with the world, the hundred-headed dragon is an invincible existence."
"However, if you want to obtain the apples in the orchard in the sky, it is an unavoidable guard."
"Fortunately, there is nothing absolute in the world. There is a god who has been given extra tolerance by the law because of a special duty."
Turning to the head of the star shuttle, Dionysus looked at the distant land under his feet.
Although this was the guidance of the father god, it would not harm Hercules... The young god convinced himself.
He did not want to hurt his friends, just as he did not want to see Amon's death. "You know... if Ladon is the only demon who can show the power of God in the world, then he is the only god who can exercise the power of God."
"The end of the sky, the edge of the sea."
"Hercules, the hero who killed the five demons, you are so wise that you should have guessed it... even children in the world have heard his myths from their parents."
"Yes, I have heard of him."
Nodding lightly, the great hero certainly knew him.
The only existence who can show the power of God in the world is the ancient Titan god, the vanguard general of the second generation of God King, [Sky-Bearer] - Atlas.
"That's right."
"If it's him, no matter how strong Ladon is, he will never be his opponent."
Looking through the shell of the star shuttle, Hercules looked at the end of the earth in the west.
At a far enough distance, everything seemed blurry... except for the giant shadow that supported the sky.
Atlas, son of Iapetus, brother of Prometheus.
He carries one-third of the symbol of the sky-supporting god, so the laws of the world have never applied to him, and even the violent Poseidon has never offended his dignity.
So, is that the case?
Someone wants him to meet the sky-supporting god and get something or an answer from him. After all, he has been standing here as a Titan for too long, and the Chaos world does not need an old god who looks at Olympus with equal eyes.
"I know."
After a moment of silence, the great hero just said slowly.
"Atlas, the sky-supporting god, the Titan who controls [power], I have been in spiritual contact with him for a long time."
"Since this trip is destined to be inseparable from his existence, I will go to see him in person."
·······
Hua...
Hua La La...
...
In the west of the earth, endless waves rise and fall.
The Ringing River is far away from here, and the sea god is unwilling to approach here. Carrying the sky
on his shoulders and the sun and the moon on his head.
For thousands of years, like a statue, Atlas stood at the end of the sky, always silent.
Following his gaze, the shadow of Olympus disappeared in the shadow of the remains of the ancient sacred mountain, just as the shadow of the Titans has been entangled in the new temple of God.
And beside Atlas, a tall copper pillar connected the sky and the earth.
The extremely blue spiritual light rose from the bottom to the top, and the pure blue sky light covered and fell.
The two finally intersected in the middle of the copper pillar, bursting out a brilliant light that mortals could not see.
The sky and the sea, two huge forces that could condense great symbols, collided here. With that tiny figure as the end point, they offset each other's accumulated mania.
Hanging in the western sky, Triton has already lost count of how much time has passed.
Even if the brief rage during the Typhon Rebellion disrupted Chaos's time sequence, causing the time between the starry sky, the sea and the land to no longer be unified, his sentence has not yet ended.
Day by day... month by month... suffering in pain, Triton has long forgotten how far away from freedom he is.
He only knew that he went from wailing to cursing, from cursing to silence, from silence to praying, and from praying to despair.
Time and time again, year after year, no one had ever paid attention to him.
It was as if he had been forgotten by the heaven and earth, and here was his long coffin.
...
Hua...
Tat Tat.
Stepping on the sea, feeling the sea water washing over the toes.
With a blank expression, Pandora dragged her black skirt and walked silently on the West Sea.
The giants were like the sky and the earth, and the bronze pillars were so high that you couldn't see the top.
Beside her, Gaia didn't know where she went, and only Epimetheus was with her.
Tat Tat.
"So... my dearest husband, respected latecomer, the child of the Titans - as you can see, is he the target of my trip, Triton, the son of the sea god?"
"Excuse me, I can't feel anything superfluous in him... whether it's a disaster or any other superfluous existence."
The voice was faint, seemingly questioning, but in fact, there was no emotional ups and downs from beginning to end.
Pandora stood quietly on the sea, like a corpse.
Beside her, Epimetheus just smiled.
Like Pandora, he couldn't do anything now.
"Yes, it's him, Triton, the son of the sea god."
"Once upon a time, you were the instigator of human disasters, and he was the executor of the destruction of bronze."
"As for his father, Poseidon, the god of the sea, the earth-shaker who controls [tsunamis], [storms] and [earthquakes], he is the closest god to natural disasters in Chaos."
"According to the original order, Mother Earth wanted you to pretend to be a mortal who fell into the water due to a shipwreck, and then gain the favor of the sea king - but he is gone now."
"He fell into the abyss and couldn't even perform his divine duties... So now the closest person to him in the world is Triton, who has suffered endless hardships."
Letting his nominal wife seduce Poseidon is as common as letting a dog bark at humans in the mouths of the latecomers.
Looking up at the tall bronze pillars, Epimetheus felt the majesty and power of the ancient gods.
A thousand years, or ten thousand years?
He didn't remember, but the bronze pillars remembered.
It was soaked in the blood of the son of Poseidon, intertwined between the sky and the sea, and even after years of grinding, it was able to split a trace of the image that supported the sky.
But if he wanted to get Triton, this bronze pillar was also an unavoidable step... Silently, Epimetheus looked back at the sky.
Before coming, the earth told him that someone who was favored by fate and the will of the king of gods would come here.
She didn't care whether the process was difficult or not, she only wanted the final result, to let Pandora take everything from Triton.
"Heh... what a good idea."
"But Mother Earth... I don't know whether you have found your lost wisdom and danced on the tip of the knife, or you have been covered with wounds and just relied on the world's preference to save your life?"
"I may not know, but you... should know it."
Continuing to smile, Epimetheus looked at Pandora.
"Come on," he said with a smile, "start building... this stage that belongs to you."
Passing through the cloud peaks, it fell from the edge of the starry sky.
The silver alchemical shuttle lived up to expectations and carried a group of people across the waves of the West Sea.
Unlike the East Sea, perhaps because of Triton, who was like a symbol of shame, or perhaps because of the fear of the Titan who supported the sky, neither Oceanus, the god of the ocean, nor Nereus, the son of the ancient sea god who was about to be replaced as the main god, had the idea of expanding their sphere of influence here.
Not to mention Poseidon, in the ten-year war at the turn of the last era, he had also fought with the Titan who controlled [Power] on the earth.
Even though Atlas had not shouldered the responsibility of supporting the sky at that time, his strength was still fresh in the memory of the Sea King.
If possible, he did not want to provoke this stubborn ancient god at all. So along the way, Hercules did not see any powerful marine life.
Even the sea monsters born by the father of all monsters tacitly stayed away from this ocean.
Opening a window on the star shuttle, the great hero could vaguely see the flowers blooming on the Holy Island.
The golden apple tree was planted there, guarded by the hundred-headed dragon Ladon.
Sensing the powerful aura from afar, Hercules' several strange objects from the son of Typhon trembled slightly.
A huge dragon roar came from afar, shattering the clouds thousands of miles away.
The powerful demon seemed to sense something, and it wanted to come and check it out in person.
However, the seal left by the God King could not be shaken, just like the first generation of God King who had imprisoned the giants and the second generation of God King who imprisoned the sun. Ladon's resistance was meaningless.
The chain of order shook slightly, and then suppressed it firmly.
Although its ability can exempt some of the suppression of the laws, some is not all.
Facing the order suppression personally initiated by Zeus with the power of the king, even if it can exempt most of it, the remaining part can firmly limit Ladon's range.
"It's impossible to force it. Even if I can borrow your power, I can't fight against the suppression of the gods in the world."
"Ander, it seems that we still have to seek the help of the ancient Titans."
Hearing is false, seeing is believing.
Now that he had personally confirmed the result, the great hero no longer had any unnecessary expectations.
Manipulating the star shuttle to turn, Hercules headed towards the two very obvious pillars supporting the sky in the west.
Although he didn't know that in the original trajectory, he had relied on the help of Atlas to obtain the golden apple, the great hero still had a lot of expectations for this.
His intuition told him that this trip to meet this ancient Titan might bring many different gains.
·······
Swish...
Silver light flashed above the sea.
The son of Poseidon knew nothing about this. He was deeply trapped in pain and despair and had no time to pay attention to the outside world.
After circling the copper pillars for several times and looking at the intertwined power of the sky and the sea, the great hero was secretly shocked. He
was not shocked by the vastness of the sky and the sea, but by Triton's intact life.
Logically speaking, sandwiched between two realms that were enough to reach greatness, even if part of the power was poured in, it would be comparable to the powerful divine power. The copper pillar relied entirely on a trace of the symbol of supporting the sky to avoid collapse.
But Triton was able to survive until now simply because of the great power of the original gods.
From Dionysus, Prometheus also learned some of the truth about what happened in the world after he was captured.
For example, Triton came with a divine weapon and caused a flood in the world; for example, he was defeated by the words of the ancient gods and hung upside down in the west for seven thousand years.
Obviously, the power contained in a word of the primitive gods is far more than that. Although it punished the offender, it also maintained his life for thousands of years.
Silently, several people did not disturb the son of God who was being punished, but turned to fly to the giant god beside him.
From the knees of the giant god, flew to the eyes of the Titan.
The nine layers of clouds were pulled behind him, and only in this position could he look at the top of Olympus.
Walking out of the star shuttle, Hercules looked at the giant god in front of him who could be called the law of heaven and earth, and loudly stated his purpose.
"Respected Titan, Atlas, son of Iapetus, I am Hercules from the human world."
"My friend and I want to take the apples from the Queen of Heaven's garden, but a hundred-headed dragon is blocking the way."
"Powerful and brave, unyielding and tenacious Titan, I hope to get your help."
"If you are willing to lend a hand, I will do my best to fulfill your wish."
The voice was deafening, and the hero's expression was very serious.
He hoped to persuade the ancient god to help him, and he was ready to do something for him first.
However, at this moment, unknown to him, more than one gaze was cast on the end of the western sky.
Behind Dionysus, the king of gods sat high on the sacred mountain, silently watching here.
They had fought bloody battles before, and Atlas would definitely recognize his bloodline.
If he helped sincerely and without expecting anything in return, Zeus would generously forgive his sins and even be willing to marry one of his daughters to him, so that he could replace Nereus, who had not yet returned, and become the new main god of Olympus.
If he flatly refuses, then I must find a way to deal with him... The pillars that support the sky in this world must be controlled by the God King.
If he does not choose either of them, but competes with his son in wits and courage, then Zeus will tolerate him for a while longer.
After all, compared with the indifference in the past, this is also a kind of progress, isn't it?
...
Deep in the earth, under the boundless veins.
Behind Pandora and Epimetheus, the blood-colored long skirt wrapped Gaia's plump body, and the eyes of the ancient earth god were full of satisfaction.
Beside her, a crystal clear branch trembled slightly, as if speaking a language that ordinary people could not understand.
Listening carefully, although not fully understanding, Gaia still felt that she had gained a lot.
Like Hercules, although the Earth Mother had no idea who this person was before, when the disaster in the starry sky occurred, a lifelike painting was composed of leaves like red crystals, and then fell in front of her.
With just one glance, the god who ruled the earth directly locked onto the position of the figure in the painting, and by the way, he saw through his aura from Zeus's bloodline.
She didn't understand what it meant at the time, but Gaia finally made a choice.
Until this moment, although she still didn't fully understand, there must be some secrets among so many special beings gathered together.
"Sure enough... I have regained my power, and I have also regained my wisdom."
"Outer God... I will remember your contribution."
Gaia nodded with satisfaction, watching the terrifying Outer God whose power was enough to create an ancient evil creature. She just smiled, not afraid of the other party's ability to corrode everything.
You are kidding, she is the mother of the earth.
Unless the entire human world is destroyed and shattered, even if the other party works hard for 100 million years, it is impossible to corrupt the center of the entire world.
...
On the shore of the East China Sea, in Athens. At the bottom of the towering Mage Tower, Star God Amon read the book in his hand as usual.
Although he had almost finished reading Hermes' collection, he still had not shown any desire for the outside world.
In fact, in his opinion, although the entire Chaos world was colorful, there were not many things more interesting than this human alchemist.
Especially the ideas that the other party had vaguely proposed, even if he had never communicated with him face to face, Amon had also learned a little from the details.
Concrete...concrete, gathering the masses to become oneself, using the false to cultivate the true, what an interesting path.
He would not interfere with the other party, even on the contrary, he would try his best to help Hermes succeed.
After all, as long as his plan on the other side could succeed, he would of course need a powerful artifact to officially become a member of Chaos, an artifact that could control the situation and change the strength in the hands of the great divine power.
At this point, Hermes' real "masterpiece" in the future is very good...Tilting his head slightly, Star God Amon looked at the west side of the earth.
"It shouldn't take too long."
"The God King of this world is too impatient and too naive... But it's normal, young people are impatient, so I like young people."
"Just calculate the time, is He coming back soon... Tsk."
"Then just bet simply, this time I bet on Him to win - well, of course, but he wins first, and then I win."
"It doesn't matter if I can't win."
"Anyway, no matter what, I won't lose."
Retracting his gaze, Star God Meng shrugged slightly.
He couldn't think about it anymore, just thinking about it made him a little impatient.
These days, through some unique methods of his, Amon also understood some of Chaos's secrets during the last era.
No one knows what he guessed from it... and what he learned.
······
Above the West Sea, Atlas quietly stared at the gazes cast from the God Mountain.
After a while, the God King retracted his gaze, and he also lowered his head slightly, looking at the existence in front of him.
The first person that came into his sight was not Hercules, but the skinny Prometheus and Epimetheus hiding in the sea.
A complex look flashed in his eyes, and he finally turned his gaze back.
Is that you, the hero of the world?
Hercules, the name conveyed by the devil, was unexpectedly also the one that his two brothers valued.
In him, he will find a way to get rid of it... but that is not today.
When this era ends, everything will be settled. He will personally carry the battle flag and charge in front of the army.
"Hercules... I know you."
"You are the son of the king of gods... and a poor guy who has been deceived from beginning to end."
The voice was like thunder, as if a thousand warriors were beating drums in the sky.
Feeling the oppression that suddenly descended from the mountain of gods, the Titan sneered.
Are you angry? I didn't expect that he would know the story of a demigod and the cause of his mother's death?
He was not afraid of the other party's threats, but considering some things, Atlas finally did not reveal the truth he knew.
"...But it doesn't matter. No matter who you are, I know your intention. I can also kill Ladon and remove everything in the Hera Golden Apple Garden."
"But I won't do that, because this is your mission, your destiny - hero of the world, I can give you the ability to defeat powerful enemies, but you must also agree to my conditions."
"Mortal, do you accept it?"
"I accept it."
The great hero wanted to ask what "poor creature deceived by others" meant, but he finally stopped his doubts.
After these years of training, he has gradually understood a truth.
Some things, knowing in advance is only the root of disaster.
When he ascends to the spirit world, all the past will eventually be open to him.
"Tell me, what are your conditions."
"As long as I can do it, I will definitely do it for you."
Nodding slightly, like a mountain falling.
Atlas held up the sky and stated his "conditions".
"Since you have made your choice... then listen carefully."
"Ever since the collapse of the sacred mountain, the sky has tilted to the northwest, and I have been holding up the sky here."
"Countless years have passed, so long that I have forgotten the time."
"No one is born to support the world, and there will be a day when I am tired of it. So I hope to have a successor, someone who will hold up the sky for me until the end of this era."
"So I am the one you chose?"
The great hero asked loudly, frowning slightly.
"I am willing to promise you that I will support the sky for you for the rest of this era; however, I have my own things to do now, and I don't know if I have the ability."
"It doesn't matter, I don't need you to replace me now... As for the ability?"
Titan said lightly with a slight sidelong glance.
"This is what you need to consider."
"I can lend you the power to support the sky, so that you can obtain this supreme authority and responsibility, but the premise of all this is that you really have the 'qualification'."
"Not everyone can support the sky... Even the gods can't find a few people who are qualified to shoulder this burden."
"Even if you give them the symbol of supporting the sky, they can only be crushed by the sky."
"So mortal, before you seek my help, ask yourself first - do you have this ability?"
Atlas closed his eyes without saying anything more.
Looking in the direction he had looked before, Hercules knew that this was the test left by the other party for him.
There, the bronze pillars that connected the sky and the earth did not move under the bombardment of sea water and hurricanes. Its existence itself "fixed" the sea with the sky, and "stabilized" the sky with the sea.
On it, there was a trace of the symbol of supporting the sky that was shared from Atlas' shoulders. This was the result of the other party being washed by two forces for thousands of years.
Titan's meaning is self-evident. If he wants to prove that he is capable of taking on the burden of supporting the sky, he should first lift up the pillar that suppresses the Son of God.
Lift this bronze pillar?
Looking at the pillar of heaven, although he didn't know how heavy it was, Hercules could roughly guess it.
If this bronze pillar is placed on the ground, I'm afraid that even if all the mortals in the world work together, they can't shake it at all.
The simple weight is meaningless to it. Lifting it means lifting a bit of the sky.
Even though he has always been confident in himself, the great hero is not sure that he can succeed.
"...I will pick it up."
Speaking calmly, under the gaze of Prometheus and Dionysus, Hercules jumped down and jumped towards the pillar connecting the sky and the sea.
·······
Whoosh -
free fall, the sound of wind whistling in the ears.
Passing through one sea of clouds after another, the deep and boundless sea surface is getting closer and closer to the great hero.
Falling from the sky continuously, the air seems like a steel knife.
At a certain moment, the figure of the great hero stopped in mid-air.
Not far from him, the demigod with a human body and a fish tail was bound in front of Hercules with illusory chains wrapped around him.
Taking a step forward, the great hero tried to attract the attention of the son of the sea god.
However, the years seemed to have worn away Triton's will, and he had no reaction to anything in the outside world.
Shaking his head helplessly, Hercules continued to step closer.
Faintly, as the distance approached, he seemed to hear something.
Although he was not sober at the moment, Triton's lips kept humming.
That was his obsession, and even now he could not forget it.
"... have...,... kill..."
"Hmm?"
"Come..."
"... If you have the guts... then kill me..."
"Come--kill me!"
The voice suddenly became high-pitched, and the son of the god with a human body and a fish tail suddenly opened his eyes.
His blood-red eyes stared at the human in front of him, as if he had mistaken him for another being.
"Mortal, it's you... Hahahahahaha..."
"Dead survivor of the golden age, you're still alive? You're still alive! You're still alive..."
"Ahahahahahahahahaha..."
"You recognized the wrong person."
Hercules frowned slightly and tried to correct him.
However, in front of him, Triton simply didn't believe it.
His eyes could no longer see clearly. Even though the body of the demigod was flowing with hot divine blood, he was still inevitably heading towards decline.
But this kind of will, this dazzling will that people couldn't look directly at, only that human had it.
"...Hehe..."
"Mortal, are you here to laugh at me? Do you think you can laugh at me!"
"I, the son of Poseidon, am not one of your old and decayed peers!"
"Mortals have their own way of dying, and the gods have their own way of dying! This is something you will never be able to achieve!"
Shouting at the top of his lungs, Triton raised his neck high and looked at the golden human in his heart.
"Come, come and kill me - just kill me, and you will have to stay here for me..."
"Uh hahahahaha...stay here...but you don't have the ability at all!"
"Because even if it is torture, only the gods have the qualifications -"
Click -!
A crisp sound rang beside Triton.
The high-pitched voice paused, but Hercules did not stop.
When he reached out and cut off a chain of rules that bound the son of Poseidon, the great hero felt an inexplicable restraint.
It seemed that just as Triton said, if he really stripped the other person's life from this copper pillar, then no matter what form of stripping, he must replace his existence.
This was inevitable, because for thousands of years, when the first symbol of supporting the sky was integrated into the copper pillar, its existence itself affected the stability of the "sky".
If you can't lift it like Atlas, you can only support it with your own life like Triton.
It's just that the son of Poseidon can move the sea, but mortals can't affect the rules.
So what Triton said is right, mortals don't even have the qualifications to be punished here.
However, Hercules's actions did not stop because of this. He just continued to reach out and broke another chain.
Snap...
Snap...
Snap... Snap...
...
one after another, one after another.
Looking blankly with his lifeless eyes, Triton could only see a vague figure flashing in front of him.
The shackles on his body peeled off inch by inch, and the son of Poseidon felt unprecedented relaxation.
But at this moment he did not feel happy, but felt a sense of shame.
"What are you doing?" he asked, "What are you doing?"
"Speak!"
"Speak!! "
"Answer me!!!" He
shouted loudly, but no one responded.
On the bronze pillar, Triton only felt the sound of chains breaking and the constant pressure.
As time passed, the shackles became less and less... In contrast, with each passing moment, a pressure was transferred to Hercules.
However, for some reason, when the weight of the sky was transferred with the symbol of supporting the sky, the great hero not only did not feel heavy, but felt more relaxed.
It was as if when the sky pressed on him, something else left him.
The more things were sandwiched between him, the closer he was to something that he could not touch before.
Gradually, around Hercules, the things he had done in the past flashed one by one. It started with fighting a giant lion in the mountains and ended with defeating the Sphinx with wisdom.
At a certain moment, the great hero had an epiphany - these concepts are false and real.
If he is a god, such as the god of war, when the priesthood of [war] is shrouded in him, when the laws of the world related to [war] are under his control, then he is theoretically qualified to change it, expand it, and improve it in his own name.
Just as Themis legislated for the present world, if the god of war can promote some changes related to [war] in the world, his priesthood may be favored by the world and then get a jump in the upper limit; conversely, if he cannot change the world, he can also do something that conforms to the rules of [war] and is enough to affect the fate of the world under the cover of the world, which can also broaden the concept of his priesthood and make it more powerful. However,
for thousands of years, only a few can do the former; occasionally, gods can do the latter, but compared with the original strength of their priesthood, this increase is insignificant.
Just like Hercules has done great things along the way, if he is a fanatical believer of the God of War, then this power feedback is enough to increase Ares's [War] priesthood by an origin equivalent to the divine power level 2 to the divine power level 3, because his behavior undoubtedly expands the concepts related to "combat", "skills", "morality", "war wisdom" and so on in war.
And if these things are done directly by the God of War himself, then this feedback can directly increase his divine power level 5, close to the divine power level 6, and directly raise the upper limit of his divine power.
However, these increases seem to be a lot, but if they are placed in the field of powerful divine power, they are nothing.
They can't even raise the level of the priesthood by one level. What's more, because of the existence of faith, the divine power of the gods in the world now exceeds the upper limit of their innate divine power level, so they can't feel this kind of enhancement at all.
Therefore, for the gods who need it, they can't do such a big thing; even for gods like Ares, it is difficult to do similar things.
The gains are not proportional to the efforts, and the result is that no one will pay attention to it anymore.
Only the sealed sun in the starry sky, Helios took a shortcut - he skipped the process of broadening the concept, and directly used the appropriate part of the concept of the foreign sun to broaden the concept of Chaos [Sun].
This is also a way, but the probability of occurrence is even smaller, and more coincidence and luck are needed.
Therefore, broadening the priesthood is not only dependent on the enhancement of the world, it can also be actively guided by the gods to favor the world's will, which is also one of the meanings of the existence of the gods - of course, since it is the meaning of the existence of the gods, it proves that all these things are said to the gods.
Because only with the priesthood, only with access to the source sea, such great achievements and epics can be accepted by the laws of the world, and then have a substantial effect.
Even if mortals do similar things, it will not be counted on themselves.
What the believers do belongs to the gods, and how much the gods can get depends on the believers' faith; what the believing gods do belongs to the godhood. It is through this means that the godhood released by the [Civilization Slate] is gradually filled with concepts from the initial framework.
The empty [Glimmer] eventually gained the ability related to "healing"; originally it had little origin, but was just a concept created by the [Slate of Civilization]. It was also gradually broadened in the unconscious exploration of the gods of faith, and gradually possessed real abilities in the inner cycle of the world. (See 3-234)
Believers are to the gods, and the gods of faith are to the [Slate of Civilization], just like the gods are to the world.
In the final analysis, the gods are only users of priesthood, not owners. It's just that except for the birth of new gods, He has almost never deprived the gods of their priesthood, so He gave the gods an illusion that the divine power belongs to them.
However, nothing in the world is certain, even the gods themselves are part of the world.
From the beginning to the end, perhaps only the original gods and the Lord of the Interface can be exceptions to a certain extent. Only by mastering the characteristics of the creation field can they resist the rules of the world in a specific field... But these things have nothing to do with Hercules at this moment.
Shadows flashed around him, and past achievements turned into concepts.
Whether it is [War], [Victory], [Wisdom] or something else, these concepts can increase the power of these priesthoods.
But no matter which direction they move, they will not increase Hercules' own power.
Because he is not a god, he does not have his own priesthood as the key to open the source sea, let the power of the world's internal circulation act on these concepts, and finally find the common point that unifies them with the priesthood as the center, and then integrate them into the priesthood to enhance its own origin.
Now he is just a human being, even if the great hero at this moment already has the ability to carry the priesthood. This is the limitation of mortals, and it is also the most insurmountable barrier in the Age of Gods.
"Hu——"
With a long breath, Hercules removed the last shackle, and Triton finally broke away from the bronze pillar that supported the world.
Lying blankly among the clouds, he was a little confused for a while.
Ignoring his thoughts, the great hero looked at the bronze pillar in front of him.
Countless chains were rushing towards him, trying to tie him to the bronze pillar, but their actions were in vain. It
was a bit difficult to start for a while, and Hercules didn't know how to lift this huge bronze pillar.
Taking a step forward, the great hero placed his hand on it, sensing the last trace of the image that supported the heaven and earth that had not yet moved inside the copper pillar.
"How should I pick you up?"
his will asked.
The copper pillar did not respond, it just let that trace of image merge with it.
So in a trance, Hercules felt that he had turned into a mountain, eternally existing at the midpoint of the earth.
He was the highest mountain in the world and the closest to the sky.
When the last trace of image was complete in his consciousness, the copper pillar was still unattainable.
But in the eyes of the great hero, it was just a piece of metal that could withstand thousands of years of hammering by the sea and sky without breaking, a body that he could control at will.
"Smaller, I can't hold you." He
said so, and the copper pillar did so.
The sea trembled, and the clouds shook.
The copper pillar that had been rooted here for thousands of years rose, and then slowly shrank in Hercules' hands.
Beside the great hero, Triton's body was trembling slightly.
He didn't know what happened. In his world, the golden human who once was returned to him.
He once again ignored his dignity as the Son of God and tore him off this place that had endured thousands of years of suffering. Then he grabbed the former execution ground and turned it into a toy in his hands.
"Impossible... Why... No... It can't be like this..."
Muttering to himself, Triton climbed up from the sea of clouds.
He grabbed Hercules' ankles as if he was grabbing a life-saving straw.
"You are lying to me, aren't you?"
"You are lying to me, aren't you!"
"The Father God is gone... It's fake, it's all fake... Kill me, kill me, kill me, and accomplish your feat, and let me return to the real world!!"
"
I don't know who you are talking about, but I am not him."
Speaking calmly, Hercules took a step forward and broke free from Triton's hands.
"I won't kill you, your life should not be decided by me."
"Whether it's that golden human, bronze human, or the god above the spiritual world..."
"Go find them to die, not me."
Raising the copper rod in his hand, the great hero looked at it carefully.
On the rod, the alchemical inscriptions containing the mystery of material change flickered and changed; at both ends of the copper rod, two golden rings imprinted by [Sky] and [Sea] shone brightly.
As the carrier of the symbol of supporting the sky, the former Mount Odilus also has some imagery of [Earth].
The sky, the earth, and the sea merged into one at this moment, and were held in the palm of Hercules' hand. He
raised his head slightly, and looked eastward .
He planned to test the power of this weapon.
Towards the earth... not good.
Turning slightly, Hercules raised the copper rod and swung it towards the North Sea.