In the heart of Nafplion, hundreds of divine light beams descended one after another.
Chiron's arrow rain had just fallen, but it failed to cause any substantial damage.
However, as the Archbishop's divine spell was cast, the headless divine corpse finally showed some movement, as if sensing a threat.
Its fingers twitched, followed by its entire palm, its whole arm, and then its entire body.
To ensure that the sacrificial ritual would at least attract a fleeting glance from that Supreme Being, Giordano, the 'sewer of souls' and 'mastermind', had unhesitatingly severed the heads of his captives the moment he 'recalled' his true identity.
He took away the main body where Hebe's consciousness resided; after all, a deity's body could regenerate. At most, the newly formed divine body would temporarily be inferior to the previous one in many aspects.
The remaining parts, however, he simply offered as a sacrifice to the great Blood and Flesh Great Mother.
Now the sacrifice was complete, and the Mother Tree had indeed given a sufficient response.
In fact, if not for the Goddess of Youth's divine power being too weak, and the sacrificial ritual not grand and perfect enough, She might have directly bestowed enough power to create a new Ancient Evil on the spot, striking fear into the hearts of all the Gods, just with this incomplete divine corpse.
Fortunately, this was enough… Slow movements, stiff shifts.
The headless divine corpse rose from the ruins, as if looking at the human holding the scepter with non-existent eyes.
In the ethereal realm, a feeling of being targeted surged into the Archbishop's heart, and a premonition of Death was born out of thin air.
Perhaps it was because Hebe's Divinity of Youth was indeed close to 'Life', and her current state matched the secular definition of Death, that the Mother Tree's power directly bestowed an alternative Life upon it.
[Ancient Evil · Headless Martyr]!
"Boom—"
An invisible domain instantly expanded, and a sense of imminent Death, directly striking the soul, attached itself to the heart of every being present.
This was a kind of instant-kill supernatural ability, similar in effect to [Command · Death], capable of causing any being below a certain invisible 'kill line' to die upon hearing it.
However, those present were either demigods or otherworldly spirits overflowing with positive energy.
So, facing the Ancient Evil's 'greeting', they merely experienced a spiritual tremor and endured the silent roar that could have slaughtered millions of mortals.
Boom—
Boom—
Boom—
Almost simultaneously, three Seraphim noticed the commotion here.
They pointed their hands in unison, and three 'miniature suns' appeared out of thin air, exploding in the city with intense light and heat.
This was [Nine-Ring Divine Spell · Solar Blast], which had an extremely high lethality against beings containing negative energy.
But when the light dissipated, the Ancient Evil was unharmed, as if they were just three large fireworks.
"Your Excellencies, there's no need to waste time on it. I will hold it down,"
the Archbishop shouted from the nameless mountain peak.
He pointed his scepter downwards, and the third divine spell, long prepared, was immediately unleashed.
Faintly, azure divine light pierced through the void, and an boundless chill rose from the surroundings.
Snowflakes began to fall from the Sky, and springs froze into ice springs.
The invisible cold current seemed to turn into shackles, coiling around the Ancient Evil.
[Eleven-Ring Divine Spell · Divine Oath · Crown of Winter]!
Sacred power surged, and the shadow of the artifact symbolizing [Winter] fell from the depths of the spirit world into the mortal realm.
The meaning of freezing all things and the end of cycles spread from it.
In a flicker, the shadow of the ice crown appeared above the Ancient Evil's empty neck, seemingly intending to 'wear' itself on the non-existent head, forever imprisoning its consciousness and existence there.
But as it truly began to descend, a strong resistance surged from the ethereal realm.
The Ancient Evil and the shadow of the artifact, near-divine powers, collided here.
For a time, the Headless Martyr was successfully held in place here.
Slightly relieved, at this moment, the Archbishop finally had time to cast his gaze into the distance.
There, in another city-state far from Nafplion, some priests seemed to be fleeing towards his location.
Judging by the aura emanating from their sacred power, they appeared to be followers of Hera, the Queen of Heaven.
Heretics… After a moment of contemplation, the Archbishop pointed his scepter forward, preparing to guide those few people over.
Heretics could also be enlightened, and if they truly refused, killing them was no harm.
However, if corrupted by evil, even the soul would be polluted, and it would be very difficult to cleanse.
As for whether the Queen of Olympus would have any objections to him enlightening her followers back to the right path, that was completely outside his consideration.
No other reason: when Ares, the God of War, personally led his army to attack Silvermoon City, Olympus's intention was already quite clear.
War was inevitable, and there was no need to avoid it. No matter what, the Archbishop would not allow the armies of those heretics to set foot on Silvermoon City's land.
So, when those few priests frantically crossed the spatial gate leading to who-knows-where, they were greeted by a seemingly young face.
"Come, look here, yes, it's me."
Propping his scepter on the ground, while maintaining the existence of the artifact's shadow, the Archbishop took out a scripture.
"Choosing to flee in the face of evil, not fighting to the last moment when the temple collapsed… It seems your faith isn't particularly devout."
"But it doesn't matter, perhaps this is just because you haven't found the true resting place for your souls… And I will help you find it."
...
Mount Olympus, the Queen of Heaven's divine palace.
Gritting her teeth slightly, Hera dug out her eyes, which seemed to have developed a vague consciousness of their own, and emotionlessly urged her divine power to regenerate them.
Although her newly born eyes still made her feel vaguely uncomfortable, the Queen of Heaven temporarily had no time for such trivial matters.
She once again invoked the Queen of Heaven's divine authority, looking towards that small city for the second time.
Hera had not found a way to resist the erosion in such a short time; rather, she understood that the previous situation would not happen again.
The Mother Tree's power was indeed mighty, but its might lay in Itself, not in the evil It created.
The reason Hera suffered such heavy damage from afar was simply because she saw the Mother Tree's gaze cast down at the moment of the sacrifice's completion.
However, an Outer God sealed outside the world could not constantly focus there, unless It had sufficiently powerful anchors there, but Nafplion currently had no such thing.
So, without encountering any hindrance, Hera successfully saw the images near that city this time.
Subconsciously searching for Hebe's figure, the Queen of Heaven, however, failed to find her daughter's familiar face.
She only saw a city-state filled with shouts and fear, struggling or fleeing priests and nobles, and the Archbishop holding a scepter, whose sacred power was mighty.
Feeling some annoyance, Hera hadn't expected that some of her divine officials would be so cowardly… But there was nothing that could be done about it.
After all, unless in close proximity, the Gods could not accurately measure how devout a follower truly was; this was something verified in the Bronze Age.
To this day, Olympus could only ensure through various means that its divine officials were indeed followers; beyond that, only a Legend-ranked divine official could guarantee strong faith.
No other reason: if one's faith was not devout enough, a priest would experience a rift between themselves and their sacred power during their promotion to Legend, thereby directly tearing their own soul.
Unless a God actively suppressed this backlash, Death was their only outcome.
"Phew… One cannot blame these mortals entirely."
"Their power is still too weak; they simply cannot defeat these immortal evils."
Exhaling lightly, Hera was not overly angry.
Because she knew very well that among the Gods, only the Goddess of Life Moanda's priests could eradicate the Life force of sealed evils, or cleanse the inherent pollution of ordinary evils.
Beyond that, even the God King's followers could only place them in sacrificial temples, praying for Zeus to unleash his indestructible lightning to purify those defiled evil demons, so their choice to flee was not entirely incomprehensible.
Of course, understanding was one thing; it didn't mean she would forgive them for it.
It was one thing for others to flee, but as her own priests, if they couldn't even protect the temple, then what use were they to her?
"Hmm?"
The changes near Nafplion did not escape the Queen of Heaven's notice; when hundreds of light beams descended, the Archbishop's presence immediately caught Hera's attention.
Is he a priest from the spirit world?
He can summon so many powerful spirits in one breath.
Slightly surprised by this, Hera was momentarily taken aback.
Those demigod spirits were truly extraordinary, especially on the mortal lands.
It was just a pity, looking at those Seraphim, the Queen of Heaven knew that although she theoretically also had the divine power and Divinity to create demigod spirits, in reality, she simply did not have the technique.
Such special spirits could not be created simply by giving enough divine power and Divinity to a soul; it already belonged to a kind of creation and genesis in the realm of souls.
In all of Olympus, the closest thing to it was probably the Heroes of the Hall of Heroes.
However, the Hall of Heroes needed to suppress the starry Sky, making it impossible to use… Her gaze shifted, and Hera began searching for Hebe's whereabouts again.
In the spring… no.
In the nearby city-states… no.
Among the surrounding mountains… it seemed not either.
Frowning slightly, Hera didn't know where the Goddess of Youth had gone.
But just as she was searching carefully, a sudden, inexplicable chill surged into her heart.
Focusing intently, Hera immediately noticed that ice crown.
"An artifact projection, huh… The Primordial God' heritage is truly unfathomable."
A hint of envy flashed in her eyes; as the Queen of Olympus, she didn't even possess any artifacts of renown, and was even inferior to Hebe's golden cup.
Watching the ice crown descend upon the familiar-looking headless divine corpse, Hera couldn't help but sigh in her heart.
"To suppress a near-divine evil with the shadow of an artifact, it is indeed enough… But why does this Ancient Evil look so familiar?"
A thought flashed through her mind, and the Queen of Heaven couldn't help but observe carefully.
Although the headless divine corpse's appearance had been partially altered by the Mother Tree's power, its general form remained unchanged.
At this moment, an ominous premonition surged into her heart, and an invisible pressure descended inside and outside the divine palace.
Outside the palace, seven Sea Nymphs and Nymphs gathered together. They looked at the distant, atmospherically oppressive temple, not understanding what was happening.
"Your Majesty… What happened?"
"I don't know…"
"Perhaps they encountered some intractable problem… Wait, what's that?"
Boom—
Before the words had even fallen, suddenly, a thunderous tremor instantly overturned Hera's temple.
Golden light rose from the divine mountain, crashing directly towards the Golden Palace on the mountaintop.
Pushing open the Golden Palace gates, Hera strode inside.
Looking at the God King feigning sleep on the throne, she could no longer suppress the rage in her heart.
"Zeus—you're still here… What are you waiting for?!"
The God King was not omniscient, Hera knew that of course.
But she also knew that Zeus could not be unaware of her invoking the Queen of Heaven's divine authority.
What she had seen, the God King must have seen too, and earlier than her, and more than her.
Yet until now, Zeus was still sitting here obediently, not having rescued Hebe from her perilous situation!
"…You are the God King."
Taking a deep breath, looking at the figure on the throne, Hera finally reminded him coldly.
"…I know, but Hebe is no longer there."
"I will bring her back, but not now."
Opening his slightly tired eyes, Zeus promised in a deep voice.
But hearing his words, Hera only felt more enraged.
"Not now… But I only want now."
"Since you won't go, then I will go myself."
Bang—
Turning to leave, Hera felt her emotions were a bit too agitated today, but with Hebe's whereabouts unknown, her reaction should be reasonable.
Zeus didn't know what else he was thinking; she could only rely on her own strength… With a flash of divine light, Hera returned to her damaged divine palace.
"Someone, repair it."
"Before I return, I want to see it restored to its original state."
"Also, whoever wanted to see me just now, appear before me now, immediately."
Trying to regain calm thought, Hera felt her state was a bit off.
Hebe's situation had already occurred; since she couldn't eliminate the problem in the next moment, she should come up with a solution that was as complete as possible.
But before that, she planned to deal with the previous matters.
Her guardians in the West Sea garden… They must be here to present the golden apple.
Her heart seized, Hera suddenly remembered that she was supposed to hold a banquet after Hebe's offering, but now her daughter was gone, was there still a need for her to hold a banquet?
"Let them come over first."
She no longer had time to attend to Ares's matters; let Zeus play his schemes and tricks himself.
As for herself, no matter what, she would first put away the golden apple.
A banquet was unnecessary, but when she brought Hebe back, she could use these golden apples to help her recover.