Greek Mythology: The Spiritual Dominator

On earth, snow is everywhere.

It is February, and the ground is still covered with frost.

The rotation of the twelve zodiac star fields has just reached the center of the twelfth zodiac plane. If it is in the distant future, perhaps it will have another better name-Pisces.

Of course, whether it will get the same name in this life is hard to guess. At least now, it is just an ordinary star field.

The cold wind is still howling. It is said that "things will turn around when they reach their extremes". This is a well-known truth, but often only the real wise can see through the fog and peek into the so-called "extreme point".

There is no such existence in the world at this moment. They cannot see through the struggle between the gods reflected behind the natural changes, so the bloodshed and disputes have a tendency to intensify. Many hatreds are formed at this time, and many cities are destroyed.

The losers lose their lives or die quietly in hunger and cold. The winners are not happy either, because as long as this natural disaster has not ended, they will continue to "win".

So resentment began to accumulate, and curses on disasters began to spread... When facing a crisis, people always need a way to vent, and coincidentally, they just have an object to vent.

That is certainly not the goddess of agriculture. After all, in the eyes of humans, Demeter is the only god who is willing to help them personally. In human history, there was originally an existence that was very important. She brought disaster to the world and destroyed an era of mankind.

She is Pandora, an ominous woman. The meaning of this name is "a woman with all talents", but now it is more understood as "the source of all disasters."

...

In the north of the continent, on a path outside an unnamed valley.

A few jackdaws circled in the sky, making dry calls. The dead trees that had long been without branches and leaves swayed in the wind, as if they would collapse in the next moment.

Wearing a soft hat on his head, holding a wooden stick stained with three parts of blood in his hand. A young man walked in front under the flying snow, and behind him, an extremely beautiful woman followed closely.

The cold wind blew into the valley, forming a unique echo, accompanied by the gentle footsteps of the two people. They seemed to have walked a long way, but they did not seem tired at all.

"Are you still thinking about the people you met before?"

The wooden stick poked the ground. For Epimetheus, although he did not need to use it to determine whether the road under the snow was smooth, he still used it as needed.

Along the way, he had become accustomed to pretending to be an ordinary mortal, which saved him a lot of trouble.

"I just don't understand... why they look at me with that kind of eyes."

Following behind, Pandora's pale face was as beautiful as ever. It's a pity that in the north land full of cold wind, no one can appreciate her moving style.

"I didn't do anything, this natural disaster has nothing to do with me, but why..."

The voice became smaller and smaller, gradually becoming undetectable, and Pandora seemed to remember that day again.

After seeing his men being easily killed one by one by Epimetheus, the young captain of the guard had no fear at all. He still charged at the existence in front of him, and was nailed to the ground by the wooden stick of the man in front of him.

But until the last moment of his life, he still looked at Pandora with hatred.

They called her a 'witch', meaning a woman who had extraordinary power like a monster and would bring disaster to mankind. But Pandora knew very well that apart from the blessings of the gods that she could not even actively induce, she was just an ordinary human being, and she could not even beat the young man with extraordinary martial arts.

If she could also cause this snowstorm that affected the world, it would really sound like a joke.

"Why deceive yourself... You know why this is."

"Although you are deliberately given a strong curiosity, it does not mean that you are really that stupid - you are different from the gods."

With a faint smile, Epimetheus did not know who he was talking about.

"After all, if a god is stupid now, then he will probably be consistent in the past and the future. Few of them can learn from experience, and even if more time passes, it seems that nothing has changed."

"But you are a human, you don't have an innate divine position, so you will not be affected by it. You are not like other mortals who only have a few decades of life. So you don't have to put on such an attitude - I have seen all the changes you have made along the way."

There was no response, but Pandora's face calmed down as she followed the man.

Yes, just as he said just now. Maybe when she opened the magic jar just now, she did feel sad and desperate about the resentment and misunderstanding of humans, but now she won't.

It's a simple truth that a long time can smooth everything out. The short time for gods is long enough for her. Compared with the misunderstanding of humans, what really makes her unforgettable is the captain's bravery without fear of death.

He has the courage that most gods and humans don't have... and then he died so easily in front of her.

"In fact, I really want to know - why did you reveal your name?"

Not knowing what the woman behind him was thinking, Epimetheus asked casually:

"You should know that when your deeds spread and when the bodies of those humans are found, your reputation as a natural disaster will be confirmed."

"Then... there will be more and more beliefs that surround you but cannot be absorbed by you, making you unable to rest day and night."

"It wasn't intentional," there was no answer, Pandora just corrected: "I just forgot my reputation among humans for a moment."

"Okay, I forgot about it for a moment."

Nodding, Epimetheus was noncommittal.

The two continued to move forward.

We walked through the long and narrow valley entrance for a long time, until the front finally gradually became a lot more spacious. There is no wind and snow here, and the white frost falling from the sky seems to encounter an invisible barrier, and the place only one step away is still full of life.

Epimetheus stopped here, looked around, and then waved gently.

"Just stay here for now."

"……good."

Nodding, Epimetheus continued walking inside.

Behind him, Pandora hugged the magic jar that had been with her for many years and watched him go away.

…

Crossing a creek that was only a few steps wide, passing by a small area that looked like farmland, soon, an exquisite wooden house appeared at the end of the line of sight.

In front of the wooden house there is a stone table, a few chairs, and a small flower garden surrounded by a wooden fence.

Everything seemed very pastoral, even the middle-aged man who was the only one sitting there.

Compared with what he remembered, the figure looked much larger, but his demeanor looked very leisurely.

"Father, it seems that under the protection of Mother Earth's power, you have been doing well recently."

Striding forward, Epimetheus called out the identity of the person in front of him.

Iapetus, one of the least present among the Titans. He probably left the deepest impression on the world by giving birth to several Prometheus brothers.

Of course, now all of his children can be considered enemies of the Olympus Court.

"There's nothing good or bad, I just want to find a place to live quietly. It's just that I want very few things, so it's easy to be satisfied."

Sitting on a simple recliner with his eyes closed and meditating, Iapetus didn't seem very enthusiastic about his long-lost son.

"That's good. Since mother left here, I always thought you would feel lonely."

Smiling, Epimetheus found a chair and sat down.

"Near this valley, I did see a few special human groups. They used the flesh and blood of wild beasts to sacrifice to the gods - some gods I have never heard of, and claimed that 'all things have animism'."

"They seem to think that the object they worship is a tree, a stone, or some kind of powerful beast or something. I didn't care much about this until I discovered that those things actually have consciousness and can absorb faith. "

"Do you know what's going on?"

Asking casually, Epimetheus didn't really expect to get any answer.

Although it happened not far from here, he was sure that his old father would not be interested in it.

Or to be more precise, like him, he stayed away from this phenomenon that he didn't know why it happened, especially when the human world could not exert much power.

"I don't know," Iapetus responded as expected: "If you are interested in them, you can stay nearby for a while."

So the topic ended there. Epimetheus obviously had no intention of causing any extra trouble for himself.

But the conversation started, and the father and son, who had not seen each other for a long time, began to talk about some useful or useless things. They talked about the past days, about Atlas holding up the sky, and about Prometheus being escorted to the East Sea.

Epimetheus was mostly speaking, while Iapetus only occasionally gave some reactions.

It wasn't until the sun set in the west that the late-awakened man inadvertently asked a question.

"I remember... you once made a prophecy and saw the sun falling into the East China Sea?"

"That was not a prophecy I made," Iaptus said calmly, shaking his head and saying, "That was fate that took the initiative to find me."

"No matter what it is, father, I'm just curious..."

"In your understanding, how does fate work? In other words, can the person who controls fate really control it freely?"

Raising his head slightly, Iapitus looked at his son.

As in the past, the latter seemed to lack the confidence and intelligence of his brother. Even now, he still feels so.

"Probably not, that's my answer."

After looking at it for a while without giving a reason, Iapetus said calmly.

"……I see."

With the smile still on his face, Epimetheus continued to chat with his father for a while. He didn't say goodbye until the sun completely set.

The silver moon had not yet lifted into the sky, so he walked back to the valley entrance step by step, where Pandora was still waiting for him.

Passing through the boundary between warm and cold wind, the hindsighter looked at the direction of the sunset. The person sitting on the golden chariot now is not Helios, but Apollo who needs to exert all his strength to control the divine chariot.

It seems that compared to the peeping tom who inherited Hyperion's title of "Looker from Above", this temporary Apollo probably didn't have the time to look around.

"gone."

With a greeting, Epimetheus walked towards the way he came.

"We go around the world and plant a church."

"Is it for you? We seem to be considered guilty by Olympus, right?"

"Of course it's not an aboveboard establishment, use your brain."

Shaking his head, Epimetheus said

"And this isn't for my church, this is for you...and your jar, of course."

······

brush--

Hades, the entrance to the abyss.

The space stirred for a while, and then golden light flashed. The next moment, Helios' somewhat embarrassed figure appeared there.

However, there were no injuries on his body. Obviously, although he had just encountered a little trouble, it was not enough to really hurt him.

"Huh - it seems my suspicion has come true."

"Dozens, even hundreds - why do I feel that if this continues, there will be more gods in this abyss than outside. Is this really reasonable?"

Taking a long breath, Helios met a life that had also just been born from the body of the Death Demon near the exit.

It's just that unlike the [Earth-shaking Worm] he encountered before, he was not able to see the specific process of this one's birth, so he was unable to understand its title that was similar to the true name of a god.

Helios only saw a huge figure appearing silently behind the interface barrier that he marked as the 003-layer abyss. The spherical body is suspended in the air. Located in the center of the head and front of the body is a huge one-eye. Below it is a bloody mouth full of bayonet-like teeth, but the most eye-catching thing is the 10 twisted strips of flesh on the sphere. There is a small eye at the end of each stem, and each eye is staring at him.

Then he experienced the feeling of 'killing you with his eyes'. A beam of dissociation shined from the pupil of the eye, directly hitting him, an outsider who was incompatible with the abyss.

"In the future... there will be no future. I will never come to this ghost place again."

Returning to the present world, Helios finally felt a lot safer. He couldn't help but relax, but then he felt a little worried.

"So wherever the Earth Mother is, she won't be sleeping again."

If this is really the case, then there is nothing the Sun God can do.

The sleeping primitive god is difficult to be awakened by external objects, at least he does not have this ability.

"Then what do you want from me?"

"Of course I-"

He turned around suddenly, but Helios saw nothing. He didn't think it was his imagination, someone was actually talking to him just now.

"Dear Earth Mother, may I ask..."

"it's me."

The next moment the voice came again, a reddish-brown light spot appeared in front of Helios. Then the light spot expanded and turned into a vortex.

"No matter what you want to do with me, come here first. I also want to know what you encountered in the abyss."

Helios should have been happy hearing that unmistakable voice. He didn't find Gaia, but Gaia took the initiative to find the door. But for some reason, he felt a little inexplicably nervous now.

Looking at the slowly rotating vortex... he seemed to be seeing another abyss.