Myth: The Ruler of Spirituality

At Mount Olympus, within Athena’s circular archive.

The previous brief exchange had already concluded, and the palace once again fell into silence, with only the occasional sound of wax droplets falling.

Ancient books floated in midair, enveloped by haloes barely visible to the naked eye above the shelves, as information exchanged, as if something was being drawn out and pieced together.

Once the will of its true master had departed, the Divine Artifact returned to Athena’s control. At this moment, under her manipulation, the content recorded in the archives was extracted, and under the power of authority, filtered and assembled.

No matter what she intended to do later, it did not affect Athena’s eagerness to first understand the past of this world. Moreover, after the previous conversation, the goddess’s appreciation for these documents increased by more than one level.

After understanding what she was about to do, Athena finally became aware of her current environment. This was a false world, but it carried a complete and world-recognized destiny, that became real because her memory of the Divine King’s secret involved some terrifying power.

Thus, everything here could be trusted, yet not fully trusted. Of course, in this matter, Athena believed she still had the capacity to judge, and this was also one of the benefits she could gain from this illusory journey.

The information she acquired here was a rehearsal for the future, allowing Athena to make more correct choices in the future or avoid many troubles that could be evaded.

"Like Hermes, Hebe, the Golden Apple, and... Hephaestus." Your adventure continues at empire Nôv(el)B\\jnn

"How annoying."

With a bit of examining, as the Divine Artifact organized, the past of this world gradually unveiled itself to Athena. Naturally, her primary focus was on matters related to deities.

After all, in the third era, even though suppression had descended upon the present world, until now, it was ultimately the gods who decided the course of this world. Therefore, Athena would certainly pay extra attention to this, especially those gods not heard of in reality.

First was that young deity she had previously encountered, then the daughter of Hera not yet born in reality, the Goddess of Youth, Hebe... and Hera’s only son, the Smithing God Hephaestus.

Initially, Athena’s mood was quite good, but what surprised her was that as she read on, she actually found records of herself.

Although the documents were vague, merely writing ’After the Smithing God was betrayed by his wife, he sought love from the Goddess of Wisdom who came to have weapons forged, but failed, and his essence fell upon the earth, birthing Erichthonius’, just thinking about it, Athena knew the process could not be simple.

Publicly ’spilling his essence upon the earth’... associated with another record in the documents, about the Smithing God trapping his adulterous wife and her lover under a golden net and then summoning the other gods to watch...

"He must have been born in reality by now... Better keep my distance from him in the future,"

Quietly making up her mind, Athena felt it would be better to stay far away from this god with the peculiar hobbies. Should he insist on approaching, her Divine Artifact was no joke either.

However, this increased the historical content’s value in her eyes once more. Like the Smithing God’s behavior, while not greatly harmful, carried extreme indignity. Athena felt that if such a scene were also played out in reality, she could be disgusted by it for at least a thousand years.

......

The gold and crimson robe of dawn gradually faded, as the relentless sun hung high in the sky.

While Athena was quietly perusing her archive, at the summit of Mount Olympus, the feast of the gods had just begun.

Perhaps feeling that he had just threatened the gods and would soon display his force again, the Divine King now appeared much more amiable.

The Muses, skilled in song, dance, and the arts, twirled gracefully in the hall, as the cupbearers of the gods poured out the Fountain of Youth into their golden goblets.

At Hermes’ invitation, Apollo even retrieved his lyre, playing an accompanying melody. For a moment, the atmosphere atop the mountain was very harmonious.

Smiling, Zeus offered a drink to his Queen of Gods, only to be inevitably refused. The Divine King was not surprised by this—after all, his previous command had indeed angered her.

The cause of the current human wars was merely the extension of the discord between Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite, an escalation of the old grievances among the gods. Thus, Zeus simply drank the nectar himself, then quietly observed the joyous gods.

The atmosphere was so harmonious, filled with joy and beauty, that the gods had long forgotten that wars were still raging in the mortal realm, and mortals were shedding blood in rivers for their will.

But this was to be expected; for the eternal deities, the outcomes in the Mortal Realm were both significant and insignificant. Power, face-saving... to the gods, they were merely tools to make their own lives more pleasurable. The Divine King would not dwell on this, yet for some reason, he always felt a vague sense of unreality.

Everything in his memory was correct, and what he saw before him was no different from ordinary days. However, feeling his power that could upheave the earth and shake the world, Zeus couldn’t shake a sense of emptiness in his heart.

When did this feeling start?