Time passed; none could say how much.
When Jason finally awoke, he opened his eyes in a daze and felt as though he were lying on the softest cloud in the world.
A faintly familiar fragrance lingered in the air.
"Hm?"
As if sensing his movement, Athena lowered her head, tucked a strand of silver hair behind her ear, and smiled gently at the blinking, confused boy who was staring up at her.
"You're awake? You can sleep a little longer if you want."
For a moment Jason could not react. He simply gazed at the flawless face filling his vision.
Until...
"Since you're awake, hurry up and get up."
Hecate's cool voice came from nearby.
Jason turned toward the sound and saw Hecate sitting not far away. Then he looked at Athena, who had been lending him her lap as a pillow.
His brain temporarily stopped functioning. Only when Hecate's sharp gaze stabbed into him did his thoughts restart.
With a whoosh, Jason shot upright from Athena's lap.
"Tch, stingy," Athena muttered under her breath with a pout.
Hecate pretended not to hear.
Jason, having leapt to his feet, staggered once before steadying himself.
Memories from before he collapsed instantly flooded back.
"Where is Teacher Hephaestus?"
Remembering the God-Slaying Sword still being forged, he instinctively asked while scanning the temple hall.
"She is making a scabbard for you," Hecate replied calmly, glancing to the side.
Jason followed her gaze and saw a pure, holy divine sword standing beside Athena.
The instant he laid eyes on it, he froze.
An inexplicable feeling surged in his heart.
At a mere thought from Jason, the God-Slaying Sword embedded in the floor flew up as though alive, placing itself into his outstretched hand.
At the same time, a wave of joyous emotion flowed from the sword into Jason.
"It looks like a complete success," Athena said with a light nod. "An innate divine artifact... Though it was born after you, because of its unique nature, it will rank among the very strongest divine artifacts possessed by any god until now!"
Hearing Athena's words and feeling the emotions transmitted from the artifact in his hand, Jason could not help asking, "This... is that black sword?"
As if sensing his doubt, the God-Slaying Sword began absorbing divine power from Jason's body. Its holy white blade instantly shifted, revealing its ominous true form as the black God-Slaying Sword.
"That is because we took the stone that once replaced Zeus, King of the Gods (the one swallowed by the second-generation God-King), from Hera and fused it onto the blade," Hecate explained calmly. "This way, you can keep it by your side at all times... The gifts others give you are ultimately external forces.
But this is power that belongs entirely to you."
Only... this power was far too dangerous.
Hecate did not voice the last sentence.
A God-Slaying Sword...
A sharp blade hanging over the heads of all gods.
Hecate looked at her student standing before her.
Even though she had prepared herself long ago, the moment she saw him holding the sword and its blade turned pitch-black and ominous, complex emotions she could not describe welled up inside her.
Just then, Hephaestus arrived in her ornate wheelchair, pushed by a puppet, bringing the scabbard with her.
The scabbard was also white, crafted from the remnants of that stone along with various rare materials.
Once the God-Slaying Sword was sheathed and hung at his waist, Athena stood to the side grinning from ear to ear, which greatly irritated Hephaestus and Hecate.
True, they had planned to let Athena take the blame. If the other gods asked about the sword's origin, Athena could claim she had gathered the materials and forged it herself.
Yet seeing Jason clad in pure white standing beside Athena in her spotless white dress created an inexplicable sense of perfect harmony.
Even Hecate could not help feeling a faint trace of regret.
Naturally, Athena noticed their increasingly unfriendly gazes. To prevent them from starting trouble, she quickly suppressed her smile and said, "By the way, Jason, hurry and give it a true name."
"A true name?"
Jason blinked.
"Yes. You can't keep calling it the God-Slaying Sword forever, right? Once it has a true name, releasing that true name will unleash tremendous power!"
Athena's words made Hecate and Hephaestus set aside their thoughts and turn to look at Jason.
Hearing this, Jason pondered for a while, gazing at the sword hanging at his waist and thinking of what it represented.
After a long pause...
"Then... let's call it Mistilteinn."
Jason gave his answer.
"Mistilteinn?"
Athena tilted her head.
"What is Mistilteinn?"
Not only Athena, but Hecate and Hephaestus were equally puzzled.
Seeing their confusion, Jason merely smiled lightly and offered no explanation.
He gently patted the God-Slaying Sword and said, "From this day forward, your name is Mistilteinn."
Though Jason was not yet a god, this weapon was his innate divine artifact. Therefore his words still carried power.
Almost the instant he spoke, the moment the God-Slaying Sword received the true name "Mistilteinn" and joyfully accepted it, feeding happy emotions back to Jason,
A strange sensation suddenly arose in the hearts of all three goddesses present.
Hecate and Athena instantly stood up.
Shock flashed in their eyes as they exchanged a glance.
"Not just me... even you... We're finished!"
Athena stared wide-eyed at Hecate and could not help exclaiming.
The two of them were extraordinarily intelligent. They instantly grasped the problem.
This development had completely exceeded even the expectations of Athena, Goddess of Wisdom.
Even Athena began to panic. She turned to glare fiercely at Jason.
Hecate's mouth twitched twice. She strode over, seized the bewildered Jason by the ear, yanked hard, and scolded, "Wretched disciple! Wretched disciple! Can't you ever stay out of trouble?!"
Why were they so furious?
Because...
Beneath the starry sky, Nyx, Goddess of Night, who had been yawning in her night chariot and wondering why little Jason had not come out yet, suddenly froze.
In the endless abyss, Tartarus, God of the Abyss, who had been gloomily playing chess with Typhon, froze at the same moment.
And Erebus, God of Darkness, who cloaked the entire underworld, felt the same peculiar sensation at that exact instant...
They were primordial deities.
If even they felt something strange, then needless to say...
Themis, Goddess of Justice and Judgment, paused. She turned her head, her eyes covered by white cloth gazing toward Hephaestus's temple.
After a long while, Themis shook her head and murmured, "I haven't even given you the Sword of Judgment yet..."
And Zeus and the others felt it even more intensely...
"What true name did you give it?!"
Hecate could not help shouting at Jason, her voice rising.
Mistilteinn.
It was indeed an extraordinarily fitting name for a God-Slaying Sword.
Because what it represented was precisely a sword that slays gods!
Moreover, it was the sword that triggers Ragnarök, the doom that destroys an entire glorious pantheon!
Mistilteinn comes from Norse myth.
In Norse myth there is a God of Light named Baldr, beloved by all creation.
As long as Baldr lived, the Æsir ruled by Odin would never fall, and their glorious divine court would endure forever.
The weapon that killed this universally beloved God of Light and ignited Ragnarök was none other than Mistilteinn!
It symbolized the beginning of the twilight of the gods!
Jason chose this name because he thought of that very meaning.
After all, the birth of this God-Slaying Sword right now was no different from igniting the great war that would herald the twilight of the Greek gods.
Typhon, Ancestor of All Demons, leading the Titan gods against the Olympian gods!
Thus the name truly suited the God-Slaying Sword in Jason's hand.
However... Jason had overlooked one thing, and even the wisest Athena had not foreseen it.
That was the act of bestowing a true name upon a divine artifact.
In the present world, only the name Jason gave produced such an anomaly.
Of course, the main reason was that this particular God-Slaying Sword happened to be worthy of bearing such a "true name."
Thus, in that single instant, the Greek twilight of the gods (the sword capable of bringing about the twilight of the Greek gods) was born!
"What exactly do you know? Why did you choose that name?!"
Hecate scolded Jason, her expression utterly flustered.
This was how far she had lost her composure.
Yet she had every reason to be flustered.
Because in that instant, Hecate understood (truly understood).
She understood the "miracle" she had once glimpsed.
Every last shred of wishful thinking vanished beneath that subtle sensation.
Hecate now knew that the "miracle" she had seen...
was truly coming!
The weapon capable of destroying the Olympian divine court had genuinely been born!
No, this was no longer merely a weapon that could destroy Olympus.
This was a weapon that could destroy all gods!
"Who is it?!"
Then, the furious roar of rolling thunder rang out across the world once more.
"Who dares?!"
Zeus, King of the Gods, was utterly enraged in this moment!
"Typhon... Typhon, was it you?!"
Because even Zeus panicked in that instant.
Panic and boundless fury surged through him simultaneously.
"Typhon, you court death!"
Under the clear sky, thunder tore the heavens apart.
Boom after boom exploded across the skies of Greece.
The wrath of the noble King of the current divine court reached every god and every child of the Greek land.
Feeling Zeus's fury, Athena's expression changed again and again. She immediately pulled Hecate away from Jason.
"Be quiet, Hecate! Say no more!"
Athena said, "The more you speak, the bigger the flaw we reveal!"
Her words snapped the panicked Hecate back to her senses.
Jason stared blankly at Hecate.
Never, not once in all his days, had he seen Hecate this flustered.
"You... sigh!"
Hecate stomped her foot hard.
"I'm done!"
With a shout, Hecate transformed into a swarm of underworld butterflies and flew away.
"Teacher!"
Jason instinctively reached out, but caught only butterflies that scattered in the wind.
At this moment, Hephaestus's expression was also extremely dark.
"I must return immediately," Athena said after a long pause, her face grave. "If I don't go back now, things will become even more troublesome...
Father has never once lowered his guard against me!"
With that, Athena turned to leave.
Halfway, however, she stopped.
She turned sideways to look at Jason, her expression both resolute and gentle as she spoke.
"Put it out of your mind, Jason. Everything will be fine... Even if something happens, I will absolutely resolve it for you!"
Then she departed.
"...Teacher." After a long silence, Jason looked toward Hephaestus.
Hephaestus raised her amber eyes. Seeing the helplessness, worry, and fear in Jason's gaze, she was momentarily stunned.
She quickly wheeled over and pulled him into her embrace.
"It's all right, it's all right. This is not your fault... No one could have predicted it would turn out this way just from giving it a true name."
Hephaestus gently comforted him. "Hecate is not angry with you either. She is simply... worried.
She is worried about you, that's why she suddenly panicked and lost her temper.
Because she knows. She was the first to know, and she is the one who least wishes (least wishes of all) to see you walk that path.
Jason, she is afraid... afraid that something will happen to you."
Hearing Hephaestus's words, Jason's emotions gradually calmed.
"You cannot be blamed for this... Nor can anyone else. It can only be said that this was fated long ago."
Hephaestus sighed softly.
"You were destined to walk this journey... We simply do not know where the true crossroads lies among the three miracles Hecate foresaw."
"As your teachers, we should not decide the path our student takes, nor should we interfere, but... now I understand Hecate.
So, promise Teacher, all right?"
Hephaestus gazed at Jason in her arms, her eyes gentle and hopeful. "No matter what, do not let that future come to pass, okay?
Neither I, nor Hecate, nor even Athena wishes to see you unhappy, so... do not let that future happen. Can you promise me?"
"That future," of course, referred to Ragnarök, the twilight of the gods.
But Hephaestus could say no more about it now.
The matter could not be discussed further.
Because at this moment, every god capable of peering into fate was surely watching the river of destiny with utmost attention.
Hecate's departure was not entirely because she was angry.
Upon reaching the underworld, she would immediately set out to find Nyx, Goddess of Night.
Only Nyx could now completely conceal this matter and prevent the gods from discovering the truth.
"Yes."
Jason nodded seriously.
He promised Hephaestus.
"Good boy."
Hephaestus smiled softly, then leaned forward and gently kissed his forehead.
And with that, the matter should have come to an end, but...
"Jason, go steal Athena away."
"...Huh?" Hearing this, Jason naturally froze.
He looked at Hephaestus in utter confusion.
Then he heard words that shocked him even more than everything before.
"Athena... has already fallen in love with you."
Jason: ...
???
...
!!!
????!!
"Although she swore an oath to remain an eternal virgin goddess, that oath cannot stop her from falling in love with someone... Moreover, this is the Goddess of Wisdom we're talking about, the ultimate forbidden fruit."
Ignoring Jason's reaction entirely, Hephaestus continued on her own, "Athena is actually the strongest weapon in this world.
As long as she wishes it, there is almost nothing she cannot accomplish.
And they (those wise goddesses) are utterly mad when it comes to the ones they love.
A goddess of wisdom has no defense whatsoever against the person she loves.
So go claim her. Take her for yourself!"
"..."
My teacher, do you even hear what you're saying?!
Jason was completely dumbfounded.
At this moment, he was thoroughly broken.
To Jason, this news was even more explosive than everything that had just happened...
"Teacher Hephaestus, what are you saying?! Lady Athena, Lady Athena she... she...
How could she possibly...
And how could I ever do something like that?!"
Finally snapping out of it, Jason pulled himself from Hephaestus's embrace, took two steps back, and stared at her in disbelief.
"What's the problem? Do you know how Father originally defeated the second-generation God-King?"
Hephaestus said, "Following the plan of the first Goddess of Wisdom, Metis, Father courted goddess after goddess, causing more than half the major gods of the Titan court to stand on Olympus's side for the sake of their daughters.
That was how the Hundred-Handed Ones were finally able to seize and imprison the second-generation God-King in the endless abyss."
...So when the second-generation God-King was playing chess in the abyss and kept losing pieces, that's what those "eaten" pieces were about?
Good grief, as expected of Zeus!
"Athena has fallen for you, so winning her over will be child's play. Just give her a little sweetness and she will devote herself to you completely!"
Facing Hephaestus who was declaring this so confidently, Jason felt... numb!
Yes, for the sake of her student (more precisely, for Jason), Hephaestus truly would do anything.
Even though she herself was unwilling, even though as a goddess her possessiveness was terrifyingly strong, she still urged Jason to use his charms to seduce Athena.
One could only say... she really was a good teacher. Probably?
"Teacher... you're joking with me, right?
...Right?!"
"Do you think I would joke about something like this at a time like this?"
Facing the pitiful Jason staring at her, Hephaestus, unusually firm, laid the matter before him without mercy or room for retreat.
And so, in this moment, Jason felt the sky...
had collapsed!
Then Hephaestus looked at Jason's soulless expression, wheeled over, and pulled him back into her arms.
She pressed him against her chest, puffed out her cheeks, and declared, "But even if you do steal Athena away, you are absolutely not allowed to fall in love with her!
I will never permit it!
You have to promise me, swear to me that you will never, ever fall for her!
Otherwise... otherwise... otherwise I'll cry!
I'll cry right in front of you!"
Having run out of better threats, Hephaestus could only resort to this.
For some reason... she really did resemble Hera a little when she acted like this.
And to Hephaestus's willful demand, Jason gave no reply.
Because at this point, his entire being had completely shut down.
Ah, the ups and downs of life...
sometimes come just that suddenly!