Chapter 233 Io disappears at the end of the world

After getting Apollo's promise, Hephaestus did not keep the secret any longer. He described in detail the topography of different places on earth, the location of Olympus, and the Delphic Oracle under Mount Parnassus.

These were all told to him by his adoptive mother. In fact, Hephaestus himself had never been there, but this was enough for Apollo.

Knowing the destination, the young god thanked him solemnly, and then promised again:

"Your Highness Hephaestus, no matter what, I will remember your help today. When you need me in the future, I will definitely fulfill my promise and do my part."

"I hope so, Apollo, but you can leave now. The earth is far away, and it is not an easy task to find Delphi based on my description alone."

Nodding, Hephaestus' attitude was still not enthusiastic. Although the two sides had a common goal for the time being, he still didn't want to stay with this handsome and sunny god for long.

Apollo didn't care about this obscure act of expelling guests. After thanking him, he chose to leave directly.

"Maybe he can succeed?"

"Who knows."

Looking at the place where Apollo left, Hephaestus shook his head. He didn't think anything would happen to Apollo, but he didn't think anything would happen to Apollo. In any case, he was an immortal true god.

Picking up his forging hammer, Hephaestus began to cast again. His skills were not high enough. Compared with the Cyclops, although he had the same talent, he still needed enough time to practice. At least now, he couldn't use the priesthood as material to cast a real artifact.

Of course, what Hephaestus wanted was never an artifact. He just hoped that one day, he could create a tall and mighty substitute to cover up his ugly and short appearance.

······

On the other side, Apollo left Lemnos Island and embarked on a journey to find the Temple of Delphi. Just like the heroes of later generations, he met many different people along the way and did many things.

There were injured humans, hospitable river gods, evil monsters, and nymphs chased by ferocious beasts. He used his warm light to heal the wounds of humans, solved the three-headed giant snake that had been entrenched upstream for the river god, killed the demon that coveted his blood, and helped the nymphs drive away the strange beasts. In order to repay Apollo's help, the elf born from the ash tree gave him a silver bow.

This is said to be a creation of giants, with extraordinary power, which made Apollo, who got it, love it. With its help, the young god had a smoother journey. With the help of this treasure, more strange beasts died under his arrows, and many mortals were saved by him.

As he continued to move forward, the name of "Apollo with the Silver Bow" began to spread among the regional gods and mortals who survived the flood. Gradually, they all knew that there was a god who could bring light, heal people's injuries, and was willing to help others. He was looking for the Delphic Oracle. He was going there to get rid of a giant snake that had done many evil things.

Although no one knew the origin of this god, and he had never said the source of his bloodline, these people or gods blessed him and hoped that he could get what he wanted.

All of this was seen by Helios, who drove the sun chariot across the sky, and then reported it to the king of gods who were paying attention to it.

He didn't like Apollo-because unlike others, the sun god saw the other party's divine power at a glance, which was the power of [light]. Just like he divided the authority of his father, the Titan Hyperion, the other party split the [light] of his mother goddess Theia.

But no matter how much he didn't like it, the mother of light had been away from the world for a long time, and he was about to be promoted to a powerful god, so Helios suppressed this subjective emotion and reported to Zeus what Apollo did on time every day, without doing anything extra.

After all, there is no direct conflict between the two of them, and the other party is the son of the God King. Helios can't think of any reason for them to be enemies.

"So along the way, he helped a lot of human migrants who have not settled down yet, and made the disabled and sick people recover. He was regarded as a protector of migration and a god who heals pain?"

In the evening, standing in front of the Palace of the God King, Zeus confirmed to Helios who had just been off duty.

"Yes, Your Majesty."

Nodding, perhaps because of the upcoming promotion, Helios seemed a lot more confident. He looked at Zeus and suggested:

"Do I need to stop his contact with humans?"

"He is currently... not far from Olympus. If he is allowed to continue like this, it is likely to repeat Prometheus's old story."

Speaking of this god of foresight, Helios did it unintentionally at first, but then his tone suddenly paused. At this moment, the sun god suddenly remembered the warning he had given him under the whirlpool in the East China Sea.

‘You don’t need to worry now, but if another god who is qualified to drive the sun chariot is born in the future, you have to be careful.’… Could this existence be Apollo?

At that time, he was not the only one who heard this, but also Crastos and Bia who escorted Prometheus. Helios didn’t know whether they told the king of gods about this. If so, why did Zeus ask him to report on Apollo?

Without thinking too much, Helios lowered his head slightly and avoided Zeus's gaze. He couldn't figure out the reason behind it, but it didn't prevent him from feeling a little uneasy.

"You don't need to care about Apollo's affairs. His connection with humans is not that deep, and it's far from the level of Prometheus. Since I let Hestia's followers contact humans, there is no need to stop Apollo."

Waving his hand, Zeus signaled that the sun god could leave. As for the reputation left by Apollo in the world, it was a good thing for the king of gods.

After all, he is not Poseidon, or any other god, he is the son of the king of gods. When the other party's identity is made public in the future, all the reputation that Apollo has made will be attributed to Zeus. After all, all this is a "trial" given to him by the king of gods.

"Speaking of which, this seems to be a good idea?"

Looking at the back of Helios leaving, Zeus suddenly realized that Apollo's behavior seemed to be further extended.

The other party is at least a god, so even if he is his son, his achievements will not be completely attributed to the God King. After all, among the gods, it is not uncommon for offspring to be stronger than their fathers. But if he can have some demigod offspring, or just descendants with divine blood, that would be different.

Moreover, for those humans who already have a stable settlement, Zeus has been thinking about how to spread his faith. His previous idea was to direct and perform a divine revelation himself - a storm suddenly came, heavy rain continued, and mortals were at a loss. At this time, someone who received the "revelation" stood up and thought that everyone should pray to the great King of Thunder, and then he would go through all kinds of hardships, and finally Zeus would send down a miracle and give them the power of divine arts.

This was still the inspiration he found from those believers of Hestia. The God King was somewhat envious of the piety of those humans, so he wanted to do it again. All of this came from the prayers of humans themselves, rather than his initiative to go there. This is undoubtedly a good idea. But now, the God King suddenly found that he had another way.

Not only is it useful, but it is also very much in line with his heart. If ‘work’ and ‘hobby’ can be combined into one, it would be a good thing.

“Perhaps making those human monarchs descendants of my divine blood would be a more permanent solution?”

He glanced at another magnificent palace, which was Hera’s palace. Zeus could already foresee the other party’s reaction, but it didn’t matter.

Let’s give it a try first. If it really works, he will wait until Apollo returns to his position before he really starts his plan.

As for what the first ‘experimental product’ will end up like… that’s not what the God King cares about. If the other party is a god, he still needs to consider the gods’ feelings. But for mortals, no matter what he does, the gods will at most think he’s a little absurd, and won’t have any other ideas.

······

Zeus’s thought is a disaster for mortals, but for the gods, it’s just another after-dinner joke.

Perhaps because Zeus has not shown his real powerful strength, gradually, other gods no longer shy away from talking about things related to him—such as Metis in the past.

The gods lamented that Hera's offspring had been born. Although he had not grown up yet, his sharp divine duties undoubtedly showed his extraordinaryness. However, Metis failed to leave her own children, and even the Ocean God couple did not take her seriously.

——For example, the history of the God King's affair and the anger of the Queen Hera seemed to be a cliché, but before that was at least limited to the gods, but what they did not expect was that this time, Zeus actually set his sights on mortals.

Near a newly established human city-state, the God King once again did what he was best at. Inachus, the monarch of Pislazi, who led his people to open up their homeland through thorns and thorns, had a beautiful daughter.

Her name was Io. Although she did not have an extraordinary body and was just a mortal in the world, she had a beautiful face that moved the gods and a graceful and moving figure. But like everyone recorded in later myths, her appearance did not bring her happiness, but instead brought disaster.

Zeus came to the mortal world, and he used his power to mobilize the clouds to block the possible gaze of Helios from the sun chariot. Then on the grassland called Lena, the king of gods successfully made the other party pregnant with his first demigod offspring.

His experiment was successful. When Zeus's blood was nurtured in the body of the human royal family, he felt a slight connection gradually formed. But this connection is still unstable, because Io is just a princess, and this is just a very ordinary city-state among the new generation of humans. He needs to do more.

He needs to make his offspring the future monarch of this human city-state, and let this offspring with divine blood become the proof of the divine right of kingship. Starting from him, there will be more kings with his blood in the future human beings, and the existence of the king of gods will penetrate every corner of human society. One day, mortals will even equate "Zeus" with "king" to achieve his great cause.

But although everything is well thought out, this is just a test product after all. Facing the furious Hera, Zeus temporarily chose to take a step back.

Hera would soon know about Apollo's affairs, and before that, Zeus did not want to over-irritate his queen. The king of gods took a step back, and the only one left facing Hera was the helpless mortal princess. From this moment on, Io's painful half-life began.

Zeus used his gradually proficient divine power to transform the princess of Pislazi into a cow to avoid Hera's sight. But Io didn't know that Zeus didn't expect this to be hidden from her. He just used this method to ease the anger of the Queen of Heaven.

If he just showed a nonchalant look and signaled Hera to dispose of the mortal he chose at will, the Queen of Heaven would have nowhere to vent her anger. But he "tried his best" to cover up Io's existence, and was easily seen through by Hera, which made the Queen of Heaven feel "victorious" and immersed in the identity of the winner, diluting Zeus's betrayal of marriage again.

For this reason, around the existence of Io, the king of gods and the Queen of Heaven launched a ridiculous "battle of magic". Zeus turned her into a snow-white cow, and Hera pretended not to know. She praised Io's outstanding appearance among the cattle, then asked her to go over and ordered people to keep a close watch on her. The original princess ate licorice and drank sewage from then on, and even did not recognize Inachus who came to find his daughter, and could only immerse herself in pain all day long.

The king of gods was "unwilling" to fail, so he sent his confidant again to kill the guards and let Io go privately, allowing her to regain her freedom. However, this was still only part of the "fight", because Zeus even forgot to turn the human princess back to human form. So Hera, who followed closely, caught a gadfly, baptized it with divine blood, and ordered it to chase Io endlessly. So the princess, who still could not turn back to human form, fled madly and helplessly in the world, but could not get rid of this unprovoked disaster.

Hera was finally satisfied. She felt that her wisdom defeated the king of gods and made that mortal receive the punishment he deserved. Zeus also got what he wanted. He successfully appeased his queen of heaven and did not cause more turmoil at this critical moment.

As for Io, although she was indeed very beautiful and had brought him a pleasant night, this did not make the ruthless God King pay more attention to her.

There were many mortals, and Io was not special. When Apollo returned to the sacred mountain, Zeus would naturally find the next beautiful woman to complete his idea of ​​spreading blood among human kings.

Everything should have gone on like this. Mortals could not affect the eternal gods. Even if the gods were shackled in the present world, humans in the Third Age were still just playthings in the hands of gods. However, fate was so wonderful that even the gods standing above the mortal world could not really peek into its trajectory.

So one day, under the starry night, when the ancient mother of night woke up from the petals, she looked out bored.

Then she saw that above the sea, at the edge of the world, there was a snow-white cow avoiding the gadfly approaching behind her. She jumped forward like every time before, trying to keep a farther distance, but this time it was a little unusual.

Because in this leap, her figure disappeared on the sea surface out of thin air, and no trace of her could be seen.

…

Swish——

A crack appeared in the void, and behind it was the eternal night and bright stars.

Nix stepped out of it, and the vast East China Sea became inexplicably quiet. Behind the changing veil of the black dress, the goddess looked a little surprised.

“So… where did she go?”

Observing the surroundings with interest, Nix stretched out her hand and grabbed, and the nearby time and space twisted. The laws of the world had a slight reaction to the violent actions of the original god, but she didn’t care.

The power of the Mother of Night surged out, carefully exploring every inch of this void. She wanted to find a time and space tunnel, or some other space, just like the interface of the Nine Realms wreckage that fell before, but the result disappointed her.

There was nothing here, everything was so ordinary, as if everything she saw before was just an illusion.

However, this is impossible. Under Nyx's gaze, even if there is an existence that controls the divine power of time and space, at least the Night Mother can realize that all this is man-made and not granted by God.

"Granted by God...?"

The exploration was fruitless, but Nyx's interest was growing. Behind everything that was normal in front of her, there must be something unexpected hidden.

No one could disappear silently in front of her. Even in the spirit world, she used to just "can't get in" instead of "can't find". But now, the facts are in front of her. How did the cow that was obviously transformed by a human disappear? Nyx has no idea at all.

"If it's a human, it will have a soul... It's really interesting."

With an arc at the corner of her mouth, Nyx stretched out her hand and "knocked" the door of the spirit world directly on the sea.

The next moment, the door opened from the void, but this time, the other side of the door was the fifth level of the spirit world.

Standing in the chaotic time and space, with a few illusory stars as the background, Ryan put down the things in his hands and looked at the rare guest who walked in with some doubts.