Chapter 1 Inception

In Hercules' memory illusion, time was forever frozen in a spring several thousand years ago. In a nameless wilderness somewhere on the Greek peninsula, the hero who completed the Twelve Labors washed away the blood and grime, gazing up at the lofty Mount Olympus and pondering his future path. At this moment, he had not yet faced the end of his life of hardship. This was the last time he stood on his homeland in human form, and the next time he returned to this place, the Olympian fragments falling from the sky had already burned the entire land to ashes.

So his memory was fixed here, at this moment. He had already lost much, but he still possessed much. His homeland, both in the heavens and on earth, remained. His father still sat upon his throne. He had not yet plunged into the whirlpool of the world of gods—he was still a human.

At least he considered himself a human.

"I don't like Olympus," Hercules said, standing shoulder to shoulder with Hao Ren on a boulder. He crossed his arms and looked up at the divine mountain in his memory. A part of the mountain was already blurred; that was the domain of the Queen of Heaven, Hera. "The gods are cruel—I don't know how people in your era understand and imagine the mythological age, but you can guess as viciously as possible. Hera once mocked my father, saying that 'this person indulges in intercourse with his livestock,' and in fact, most of the 'gods' on Mount Olympus view humans in this way. They are also very contradictory. They possess unparalleled power, a hundred times stronger than the people on the ground, but they find that humans on the ground have the same appearance as them, which confuses and angers them. The gods dissected countless mortals, just to find evidence that there was a fundamental difference between the Olympian gods and the mortals on the ground, to prove that the two species were indeed born with different status, and their final conclusion was—no matter how close humans look to the Olympian gods, their souls are just livestock. So later I didn't like that place, even though I once yearned for it."

Hao Ren had thought that Hercules would immediately tell him about the artifact and Vivian, but he didn't expect that this hero would first start recalling the past. But reminiscing was fine, he thought, there must be meaning to what Hercules was saying.

"What kind of group are the Olympus 'gods'?" Hao Ren asked, following Hercules' words.

"Distorted and repressed. I finally understood this after living on that mountain for hundreds of years," Hercules' voice was low. "At first, I was deceived by the dazzling appearance there, but slowly, I came into contact with the true face of the gods: they were like trapped beasts locked in a cage, or like lost children. They were confused, anxious, perplexed, and contradictory. On the one hand, they showed full authority and power to humans, but on the other hand, they were always worried about their own destiny. They seemed to know when the end would come, and even knew the causes and consequences of the end, but they were powerless. Sometimes I wonder if their meanness and cruelty towards humans are due to this pressure? They cannot escape the future they will eventually face, but humans do not have to face this fate. Perhaps, humans will one day build a new kingdom on the ruins of Olympus, so they become irritable and angry..."

"Zeus knows that Mount Olympus will eventually be destroyed?" Hao Ren raised his eyebrows. "Did he ever say what caused the destruction?"

"He said it would be destroyed sooner or later, no matter the reason, because in this world, except for those humans in the mud, all intelligent beings are just poor prisoners exiled to this place, and the death sentence has already been handed down to these prisoners. The execution day will come one day, no matter in what form. Few people know these secrets, basically only the twelve main gods, but in addition to this, 'half-gods' like us are also qualified to know. My father seems to think that this disaster will only befall the pure Olympian race, and we who have half-mortal blood... will be spared. Now that I think about it, the countless mixed-blood descendants left by the Olympian gods may also be a secret arrangement by my father—using mortal blood to avoid disaster, and using Olympian blood to continue the lineage."

Hercules told everything he knew in one breath, and Hao Ren couldn't help but twitch his eyebrows after hearing it.

This seemingly unfounded speculation might really have some possibility—based on Zeus's half-baked understanding of "godblood sin," perhaps he really thought of avoiding or weakening this sin by creating a large number of mixed-blood descendants!

And his methods cannot be said to be without effect: mixed-blood alien descendants do have some resistance in terms of innate hostility, but this effect is ultimately useless. The Demon Hunters are too deeply affected by the Godslaying Sword, and they will not stop hunting just because the target is a mixed-blood.

"What role does Vivian play on Mount Olympus?" Hao Ren asked curiously, this was the key question.

"She? She plays an important role in almost all pantheons," Hercules said, folding his arms across his chest. "She is the only individual who has no innate hostility towards any race, and no race can have excessive hostility towards her. She has fought countless opponents, including Demon Hunters and 'aliens,' but have you ever heard of anyone having a mortal feud with her?"

Hao Ren thought for a moment and shook his head.

"Because she is a balance point, the only hope to eliminate disaster. My father once said that all exiles in the world have committed the same great sin, which is to offend a force that created all things in the universe, and this great force has also left the sinners with the only path to redemption, which is to seek the forgiveness of the 'Enslaver.' Vivian Ansetta is this Enslaver. Her mission in the world is to forgive sinners, but she will not forgive everyone, nor will she know her mission. My father knew this secret, so he deliberately befriended that ancient blood clan, hoping to obtain that precious amnesty quota, but now it seems... ultimately no one has been pardoned."

Hao Ren found that the information he got from Hercules and the evidence from the Origin Ark had discrepancies.

According to the evidence in the Origin Ark, "amnesty" had actually already happened at the beginning. The Creation Goddess completed the amnesty for all races at the moment of her fall. The Origin Ark and the Yggdrasil Space Fortress were responsible for executing the amnesty, and Vivian's identity was just a guide. However, in Zeus's eyes, Vivian was the one responsible for the amnesty—he thought for a while and decided that Zeus's information was wrong.

After all, Zeus didn't know about the existence of the Origin Ark.

After coming to this conclusion, Hao Ren looked at Hercules: "Then what's the deal with that artifact? Why does it have Vivian's power?"

"Because it was made by Vivian Ansetta herself. Of course, the person involved probably doesn't remember it now."

Hao Ren was really stunned this time. He was stunned for a full minute before he stammered out a few syllables: "She... made it!? Didn't you say that the core of the artifact was something you obtained by chance?"

"That's right, that core was indeed found by my father in a strange cave at the bottom of Tartarus, but we didn't have time to understand anything about it—when Athena had just put that thing on the experimental platform, the Countess suddenly appeared in front of us. I happened to be there at the time, so I still remember the situation then... her eyes turned blood red, and she didn't seem to be very conscious. She rarely used violence, but she blasted away all the guards and forced her way in, then demanded that we hand over the core."

Hao Ren swallowed: "You handed it over?"

"It was snatched away by her," Hercules laughed. "The Countess's power is very strange, sometimes very weak, sometimes incredibly powerful, and that day she was incredibly powerful, so Ares was beaten to the foot of Mount Olympus in three moves, and Apollo was beaten unconscious on the spot. Later, my father rushed over and told us not to stop her—so the Countess took that thing away openly. Three days later, she returned and gave us a scepter, saying that the core was sealed inside the scepter, and that the scepter could therefore generate a steady stream of powerful magic, which was the only safe way to dispose of the core. After giving us the scepter, she left, and there was no news of her for an entire century."

Hao Ren immediately thought that this should be when Vivian ushered in her sleeping cycle.

If what Hercules said was true, then Vivian's sleep that year was obviously very different from previous ones.

"Hathaway didn't tell me this detail..." Hao Ren muttered.

"Because I didn't tell her about these things."

"It seems that Vivian already knew the danger of the scepter's core back then, but since it's such a dangerous thing, why did she hand it over to you?" Hao Ren suddenly didn't understand. "Wouldn't it be better for her to keep it herself?"

"I don't know," Hercules spread his hands. "Athena also thought about the same question. She said the only answer was: the Countess herself could not hold that scepter. When the scepter was in her own hands, the danger would be a hundred times greater, and if the scepter was sealed somewhere, the energy fluctuations it leaked might attract the attention of other families. Therefore, it was better to hand the scepter over to Olympus. My father valued promises and would definitely take good care of this artifact."

Of course, there was another possibility—Hao Ren thought—perhaps Vivian was about to fall asleep that year. She didn't have time to think of a better disposal plan, so she had to hand the scepter over to the Olympian family first.

"That scepter did bring us great power," Hercules shook his head with a wry smile. "A century later, the Countess visited again, but she didn't mention the scepter again. My father guessed that she had forgotten about it, so he simply never mentioned it to her again."

"Greed, huh..."