Chapter 1 Apollo

Apollo, the only deity to retain his original name after transferring from the Greek pantheon to the Roman religious system. Many later generations only know him as the sun god in ancient Greek mythology, but in fact, this "deity" was originally only a god in charge of art in Greek legends. It was not until around the fifth century BC that he was given the functions of sun god and god of light. After the Romans included this deity in their religious system, they did not give him a new name like they did with other Greek gods, but directly retained the title of Apollo, and in the later evolution of mythology, they gave him various functions—music, medicine, prophecy, light, the sun... In the Roman mythological system, Apollo had a large number of divine powers, which fully reflected the power of the imagination of the broad masses of working people at this time, and...

The collapse of the Realm of Gods.

The reasoning is simple. When the thunder giant clan (that is, Zeus's family) on Mount Olympus was still thriving, they directly ruled the creatures on the earth. Their existence was real and beyond doubt. The mortals on the earth naturally clearly knew which gods they served and what powers they had, but as the demon hunter army broke through the Olympus protective wall, Zeus and his eighteen generations were all caught in the war and could not escape, so naturally they had no time to pay attention to the affairs on the earth. The connection with the divine kingdom was intermittent for hundreds of years, but the priests on the earth had to find their own ways to maintain the status and influence of the gods they promoted, so it seemed that there was no better way than to engage in fan fiction for these gods.

As a result, the originally clear and precise gods became blurred, wrapped in a layer of mystery, and hung with a large number of incomprehensible divine duties.

On days without religious activities and celebrations, the temple was relatively deserted. At this moment, the Romans had not yet entered the period of national decadence. The people still needed to spend a lot of time working, so on weekdays, only nobles or common people who encountered disasters and prayed for help would enter the temple. Today was obviously a day when the temple had an unusually small flow of people. Hao Ren and his party stepped into the temple gate and saw the empty hall inside. The statue of the sun god Apollo and the altar stood majestically in front, while several monks were cleaning around the altar.

Hesperianna glanced at the statue of Apollo and curled her lips: "The eyes are sculpted too big."

Hasson also looked up: "This one was killed by me."

Hao Ren: "..."

The monks in the temple noticed this group of uninvited guests who stepped into the holy place but were commenting on the statue. An old man in a white robe with purple trim walked over. He looked warily at the one-eyed Hasson, as if serving "gods" for many years had given him a certain sense of the demon hunter's aura: "Have you come to seek the guidance of the great Apollo?"

Hao Ren looked at the old man: "Who is your chief priest here?"

The old man straightened his back, full of pride and noble demeanor like every clergy member of this era: "I am."

Hao Ren nodded: "Okay, we want to talk to Apollo, you help us contact him."

The old man was stunned. This didn't sound like something someone who came to the temple to ask for help or worship a god would say—in fact, he had been a priest here for most of his life and had never heard of anyone making such a request: "Do not be disrespectful! Do you know that this is a sacred place?"

Hesperianna took a step forward: "Of course, we know, so we came here to find Apollo, otherwise where would we find the Olympus external window?"

The old priest blinked, suddenly thinking that these people in front of him were barbarians who didn't quite understand the rules of the civilized world, so he patiently explained: "If you mean to listen to the revelation of the gods, then you should first..."

Lily became impatient, suddenly stepped forward and grabbed the old priest's collar, and a pair of energetic wolf ears popped out of her head with a "poof": "Old man, can't you understand human language!! We just want to talk to Apollo! Look at my ears, don't you understand what we do?"

The old priest stared wide-eyed at the wolf ears that suddenly appeared on Lily's head, and then saw a ball of blood-colored energy summoned by Hesperianna, finally realizing what was happening: "You...you...are gods?"

At this moment, the mythological era had not ended. Although the demon hunters had already attacked Mount Olympus, otherworldly beings walking in the world were still often seen. For ordinary humans, these otherworldly beings had a unified classification: gods!

Although this strange social and religious form was a bit ridiculous to Hao Ren, who directly dealt with true gods, this was indeed common sense in this era, and even a part of human life.

Lily nodded with satisfaction: "That's right, we have something to discuss with Apollo, but now Olympus is closed. We know that priests like you have sacred objects that can establish contact with Olympus, so we came to you."

Hasson added coldly from the side: "This is a great honor."

Cold sweat dripped from the old priest's forehead onto his shoulders, and then he seemed to suddenly react and shouted loudly to the lower-level priests and monks: "Quick! Close the temple doors!"

The solemn and heavy doors of the temple slammed shut during the day, which would probably cause speculation and discussion among ordinary people outside, but for Hao Ren and his party, who were only passers-by, these things were insignificant. They came to the depths of the temple under the guidance of the old priest. There was also a statue of Apollo and an altar here, but there was no open space around the statue for ordinary believers to worship. Obviously, this was a place exclusively for temple priests.

The old priest trembled as he took out a delicate brass box from the secret compartment under the statue. After opening the box, he took out a gold badge with a sun relief. With a complex expression of excitement and awe on his face, he handed the badge to Hao Ren.

As Hao Ren reached out to take the badge, the old priest suddenly took a deep breath and said, "You...you may not be able to contact the great Apollo."

Hao Ren raised an eyebrow: "Why?"

The old priest seemed to have struggled psychologically—as a humble "mortal servant," he did not really understand the world of the "gods," nor did he know whether his actions at this moment would please the gods or anger them, but after some thought, he still said, "In fact...even we find it difficult to contact the realm of the gods now. Perhaps the degenerate behavior of humans has angered the gods. Since decades ago, they have rarely directly issued decrees, and our prayers can only be answered occasionally...especially in the last ten years, I have not heard the voice of the great Apollo at all, perhaps...perhaps we have lost the favor of the gods..."

The old priest's tone was a little fearful, partly because of the unease accumulated by the gods' lack of response, and partly because he was worried about angering these unknown "gods" in front of him.

Otherworldly gods have never been benevolent beings who care for their people. They rule humans only because they need humans to constantly offer them sacrifices and entertain them. In this era, humans have more reverence and fear for "gods." Divine families like those of Olympus and the Norse pantheon, which have some rules and regulations, are better, but if you have to face some wandering gods, you really can't be careful and humble enough.

"Gods" can get angry at any time, and even if they are not angry, just to "have some fun," they may slaughter the humans in the entire city. The old priest did not know whether the people in front of him were benevolent or evil gods, so he was naturally uneasy.

And Hao Ren and Hasson exchanged glances after hearing what the other party said.

The war that took place in the "divine kingdom" would not directly affect the human world, but its impact would inevitably spread to the world.

The people living in the temples were the first to be affected: due to the crumbling of the divine kingdom, most of the temples in the mortal world had probably lost contact with the various "divine kingdoms."

However, Hao Ren didn't care about this. As long as Mount Olympus was still there, he would naturally have a way to contact them.

Under the old priest's fearful gaze, Hao Ren took the badge and then probed his mental power into it.

The gold badge was just a facade. Inside this small metal device was a delicate magical structure. Its function was to read the holder's mental signals, and after simple decoding and forwarding, connect to the Olympus communication hub located in another space.

It was just a magical version of a walkie-talkie.

Moreover, in order to allow humans with weak mental strength and lacking magical skills to use it, this communication device deliberately simplified the functions and reduced the difficulty of use. Even so, only a few trained and talented humans could activate its power, but at least the priests in the temple could use it.

Even ordinary people can master it after training, so it was even easier for Hao Ren to crack the decoding rules of this thing.

With almost no effort, Hao Ren erased the anti-theft chain module of the gold badge and then activated its function. A faint golden light began to appear on the surface of the badge.

The old priest looked at this scene with awe—he could only make the badge respond a little with all his strength, and that little response was completely different from the scene of great brilliance. He realized the power of the "gods" in front of him, so he lowered his head even more humbly.

"Your power is amazing."

Obviously, with the gods of Olympus entangled by demon hunters and unable to care about the human world, their priestly class had little "piety" left. The rule that was originally maintained by violence and intimidation naturally had little sustainability.

"You go out first," Hao Ren thought of something, so he asked the old priest to leave first, "What we want to say is a secret between the gods."

The old priest hesitated a bit about this request: "But..."

"Don't worry, Apollo won't blame you," Hesperianna glanced at the old priest, "But if you don't go out, we'll blame you now."

The old priest immediately shivered and hurriedly left this place.