61 The Years

A/N: I originally planned to do a Greek Mythology arc with famous Greek demigods like Cadmus, Perseus, Atlanta, Jason, and so on. How the existence of Apollo affects them and history—through this, I wanted to do a lot of world-building.

I introduced Cadmus in the last chapter just for this. He will go on a quest with Apollo's knights and Hecate's wizards to the neutral territory between Asgard and Olympus to slay the divine dragon. There, they will confront Brunhilde and at the same time, Apollo will confront Hela...

It was my original plan for the next few chapters. However, I decided to change the course of the story to speed things up, scarping most of the Greek Arc.

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Recap : Apollo began creating his off-shot version of blue lanterns. He had finished laying part of the foundation for his project, leaving the rest to his angels to complete to test and help them grow in their paths, not because he was lazy and wanted to see Hecate.

Hecate had ascended to the source, leaving her mark on the origin of magic, which was a feat only achieved by Osthur, Mother Magic, and Chthon, the True God of Chaos, and successfully gained their undivided attention. Hecate also broke the restraint on her divinity and gained the divinity of mysteries through her ascension.

Meanwhile, Nyx and Apollo faced each other and formed an unlikely alliance. Light and Darkness shook hands, mirroring the beginning of everything.

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The light of the sun rolled through stained windows, bathing the room in an auric glow. There were a few bookcases with a blazing sun emblem flanking the walls. The earth was projected from the platform on the far side of the room, shimmering with specks of light. The walls were covered in notes detailing the activities and information of the temples of the Eternal Blazing Sun.

A short silver table in the centre held parchments and books stacked on top of each other. Apollo sat back in his chair, his hand on a file detailing the issues and activities of his religion. His other hand was holding a slice of pizza to his mouth, relishing it as he studied the changing information on the report.

It's been six months since Hecate's ascension. Nyx and Astoria departed for the underworld, bestowing their final blessings on them.

He and Hecate then went back to their normal lives, advancing on their divine path, researching magic and science, dabbling in art and crafting, answering their believers' prayers, performing their divine duties, and, of course, having sex, lots of sex.

It was content and cosy, everything Apollo could have wanted. It was times like this that he felt most supported. It was like a ray of light in the middle of a dark and forlorn path against the wretched fates.

Fates. The Kindly Ones. The mere thought of them made his heart erupt in volcanic rage.

20 years. It has been 20 years since the evils have wreaked havoc on the world. He had accomplished a lot in such a short amount of time. The most important of all was his strength, which had risen to multiple galaxy level. But he STILL felt short whenever he faced his father.

It was simple for him to deduce the reason for this—Zeus was becoming much stronger despite not expending any effort. It was almost as if someone were assisting him in breaking cosmic rules and fraud his way through his divine path.

The Fates were to blame. It had to be them—the cosmic hags who believe they have complete control over everything and everyone beneath them—and he had burst their bubble of delusion, bringing them to their knees in front of the entire multiverse.

To be honest, his inference did not surprise him. After what he had done to them, he expected retaliation from the fates. But anticipating it is one thing; confronting it is quite another.

His grip on the file became tighter. His mottled, golden eyes sparkled. Apollo had no idea how much he would have to pay this time to keep fate from interfering with events.

Calm down, Apollo. Focus.

He took a deep breath. First and foremost, he must find out the plan of the fates. Remaining blind in the face of the Kindly Ones will almost certainly result in death, and death in a gruesome way at that.

So Apollo got to work. He leaned back in his chair, closing his eyes. He started recalling everything that had happened, searching his memories for even the smallest hints. If he found a lead, he would follow it into destiny, scrying through the past, present, and future.

He entered the realm of possibilities, analysing millions, if not billions, of possibilities in his mind in order to find the answer to the impossible in the ocean of these seemingly infinite possibilities.

However, Apollo had an advantage over the fates. It was his metaknowledge. In his previous life, he had learned and read about the Kindly Ones in Sandman comics.

At first glance, it didn't appear to be much of an advantage to him, given who the Fates were. But he soon had a gut feeling about it. And he trusted his intuition, which spared him from making risky judgments and mistakes by giving in to his voracious curiosity. Trust him; he makes a lot of that with his research into science and the cosmos.

Oh, his research into science had been fruitful. With the exception of two-way foil, he had completed all of the necessary theoretical valuations and calculations for others. That dimensional reduction weapon is still bothering him, with only 75% of the research on it completed. And he decided not to stop there, wanting to advance the technology to the point where it could affect even the mightiest cosmic entities. (Even now he is in the domain of one of them. That thought only increased his dread over the power of cosmic entities. But in this situation, there was really nothing he could do about it. He needed to investigate the possibilities, so he couldn't really avoid the Queen of Nevers, who embodied all the possibilities of the infinite multiverse.)

It's an insane and ridiculous decision. However, Apollo was all about getting into it, considering most of his future enemies will be cosmic entities. If he does not begin preparing now, his death in the future is almost certain. But suppose he did die—who would he meet in the end? Would it be the Death of the Endless, the God, or even Lucifer Morningstar himself, or just nothing at all?

Whoa, Apollo, that's a depressing thought. You should really start working on your pessimism.

Apollo sighed. He exited the realm of possibilities. He can't continue with pessimism, as it will lead to nothing but failure.

He took another slice of pizza from the table and began munching it. He let his thoughts fly to distract himself from his heavy heart.

Though not everything about the last few years has been depressing, His little sister had ascended to become the Supreme Goddess of the Moon. She challenged Chang'e, the Moon Goddess of the heavenly court. The battle took place in the Illios, the same stadium where he fought Quetzalcoatl. It has become quite famous for divine battles over the years. Hephaestus has been making fortunes out of it.

During their duel, Apollo willed his sun chariot to circle the stadium with golden banners: ARTEMIS, THE SILVER GODDESS - LITTLE SISTER, THRASH HER INTO THE SUN, AND I WILL TAKE CARE OF THE WHITE RABBIT - PULVERISE THAT LITTLE RABBIT INTO OBLIVION.

Despite his super-motivating slogans, Artemis and Chang'e were still fighting for a foreseeable tie, with neither side having an advantage over the other. Noticing this, his little sister started to finally get serious with the white rabbit (it was her divine form of Chang'e).

Through the years, Artemis has been working on archery, inventing numerous methods and attacks with that weapon, so much so that she gained divinity out of it. And she used her archery divinity in conjunction with her hunting divinity to develop her most lethal arrow.

Through hunt divinity, Artemis found the fatal parts in Chang'e's body, and with archery divinity, she aimed her arrow at the most vulnerable spot on Chang'e. And the silver arrow sailed towards Chang'e, who tried to defend himself. But it was pointless because the silver arrow was unstoppable and unavoidable.

Artemis' move was a causality attack. Chang'e was defeated by a single devastating blow from the Goddess of Hunt (his little sister is fabulous, isn't she?).

She had ascended to the position of supreme moon goddess. Her authority over the moon had risen to the level of other supreme moon gods.

Hermes threw a big party in honour of Artemis. In the divine realms, his little sister's reputation and fame skyrocketed, surpassing him, Hela, and Hephaestus.

Meanwhile, Apollo also got into a little trouble with Chang'e's husband, Houyi, but nothing he couldn't handle (the gobi desert totally wasn't his fault).

Artemis wasn't the only one growing in power on Mount Olympus. A few years ago, Athena also accomplished something monumental. The rumours told different stories about what happened. However, he was aware of the accurate specifics of what occurred. (being God of the Sun and Light has many perks. Under his light, not much can be hidden. During the day, he is almost omniscient and omnipresent in the Western world, and his sister is the same at night with the moon).

It went like this: One day, Athena looked down on the world and saw nothing but destruction and chaos between the kingdoms and city-states of the western world.

It was just Ares being Ares. The God of War enraged men's hearts with blood and madness. He had amplified the emerging disparities and divisions in the Western world, pitting everyone against each other for a bloody battle.

And then there was war. Here was the real problem that ticked Athena off. The Goddess of Wisdom had no qualms about war as she knew it was essential for the development of civilisation.

But she had strong feelings about the god who oversaw it: Ares. Oh, Athena despised him from the moment they met.

Apollo was certain of it. After all, Ares represented everything Athena loathed and disdained. The God of War started wars for no reason or purpose other than to cause senseless destruction for his own amusement. He desired nothing more than chaos and destruction on the planet. He'll probably laugh like a third-rate supervillain as he watches the world burn.

Yeah, Athena despised the guy. Apollo himself was not opposed to war. The cities and kingdoms blessed by him weren't that badly infected by the power of Ares, and nobody dared to provoke them. But if his followers wished to fight in the wars, he let them join Ares' madness.

Athena, on the other hand, took a different approach than him, most probably because she cared more about humans than he ever did.

She declared, "Enough!" and willed her wisdom into the concept of war. Within a fortnight, she reinvented it: a completely new and improved version of war from the brand of Athena. It granted numerous benefits and advantages over the version of Ares, promising victory with little to no destruction and chaos.

Athena invented strategic warfare and generously (forcefully) instilled it in human minds with her mark of divinity. And humans loved it, as they always do, tossing out the old version in pursuit of something new, shiny, and better.

As one might expect, Athena gained divinity from this. Apollo wasn't sure if she wasn't expecting this outcome or if it was her plan from the start. But he was leaning toward the latter.

All in all, Athena had ascended to become the Goddess of Strategy and Warfare, stealing a part of the divinity of war from Ares.

The God of War could only watch as his divinity was stripped from him. It was despairing to witness; he fought with all his will and power, but it was useless in the face of the might of the cosmos. His divine essence was stripped from him and purified of his will; then it transferred into Athena. It was a known fact that gods could steal the divinity of other divine beings through a few ways, but this new method Ares was stripped of his divinity scared many gods to their deaths.

Ares went mad—literally mad. He thrashed Olympus and almost brought it down on Earth while cursing Athena in every language on the planet.

With a mighty war cry, Athena descended and confronted Ares. They immediately began fighting. The war between Athena and Ares, two war gods, had far-reaching consequences. The very concept of war materialised on earth with their confrontation, corrupting mankind with discord, fear, strife, and rage.

And they struck first with their swords and spears. The force of their exchange hurled them both into the atmosphere, heading for Mars. They fought and raged in space, illuminating the entire solar system with fiery explosions of raw power, then collided with Mars, nearly destroying it.

Zeus broke up their fight, much to the chagrin of Apollo and Hermes. He was expecting an epic battle. He even wagered on Athena against Hermes, who bet on Ares entirely just out of spite. But alas, their father finally decided to ruin their fun, just like always.

Zeus intervened in their fight with a display of might, bringing Athena and Ares to their knees. Though Apollo was fairly certain that Zeus's look at Athena was unusual compared to Ares.

Athena must have probably risen on Zeus's not-so- secret "to-kill" list.

Under Zeus' pressure, Athena and Ares were forced to reconcile. However, this only amounted to increasing their hatred and abhorrence for one another, and they began to confront and thrash each other indirectly through mortals and demigods. They would go out of their way to destroy anything that was of interest to one another and spread the most vile rumours about one another throughout the world. Cadmus, the Prince of Tyre, will bear the brunt of their wrath first, literally being ripped to shreds in between their clashes.

The rivalries of Athena didn't end here as one might have thought. The Goddess of Wisdom was just getting started. Ares was only her first.

Apollo would not be surprised if one day Athena appeared before Trier's gates, clad in her distinctive armour, and challenged him for his sun chariot, declaring that she could drive the sun better than he ever could.

Jokes aside, not long after her fight with Ares, the Goddess of Wisdom decided to challenge Poseidon to a contest over ownership of a rising city -- Athens -- which he had first claimed, right next to Trier.

Athena won the competition since the mortals preferred her gift to the city over Poseidon's. Let's just say the god of the seas didn't take his loss to the younger generation well. On the same day, a massive storm encompassed the majority of the Atlantic and Mediterranean. Thus was born another rivalry that would go on to cause its own set of tragedies among mortals and demigods.

Speaking of tragedies, Hera, the nastiest bitch of the cosmos, suffered a humiliating tragedy at the hands of her own son, Hephaestus.

The Gods had gathered on Mount Olympus for the tenth time to discuss the situation of the War of the Nine Realms, which was truly heating up at that moment.

A live broadcast from the battlefield was sponsored by none other than Apollo, with commentary provided by Aphrodite.

The gods sat at the edges of their thrones, not wanting to miss a detail of the battle as the light unfolded in the throne room of the gods. They had the ambrosia and nectar ready in their hands for the thrilling show of blood and war.

'On the last episode of the war of nine realms,' Aphrodite began, 'Hela, the crown princess of Asgard, personally led the righteous army of gods through the wretched realm of Jotunheim, liberating the giants from the clutches of the evil tyrant Laufey.'

'The princess was oblivious to the truth about her war, though. This was the final test for her from the All-Father; would she die as another one of his disappointments or triumph as his worthy heir?'

Hephaestus barged into the throne room, disrupting the show much to the dismay and exasperation of all. He was welcomed into the throne rooms, however, because he brought gifts for everyone. Hera, on the other hand, obviously did not join in the fun.

The God of Fire didn't mind his mother. He took out his gifts and presented them to the gods.

Finally, Hephaestus presented his last and greatest gift to his beloved mother. It was the most beautiful divine throne. The throne was perfect and ethereal in every sense, so much so that it managed to entice Hera herself, who sat on it without a second thought.

She was instantly tightly bound by invisible and unbreakable chains. The chains encircled Hera so tightly that she couldn't breathe, and all of the divine ichor in her veins flowed from her arms and legs.

Ares tried to persuade Hephaestus to release his mother, but the latter was obstinate and unyielding. The God of Forges stormed out of the council of gods quickly, and no one bothered to stop him, not even Hera's own mighty husband, Zeus, who could have also completely broken the chains himself, but the Sky Father didn't do that and instead assigned the task to Hermes.

Hermes began to visit Hephaestus from time to time and began to peacefully talk with him. A week later, Hermes finally convinced him to release Hera (that imp invented the silver tongue). Hephaestus came back to Mount Olympus, declared his forgiveness of Hera's act of cruelty, and released her.

Here is where everything completely derailed from the intended course. The moment that Hera was unrestrained by Hephaestus, she attacked him in utter rage and indignation.

Hera did not recognise Hephaestus as her son but instead disowned him fully in front of the council, labelling him an abomination unfit to be regarded as a god. It was Zeus who finally managed to calm his seething wife, who had destroyed most of Olympus in wrath.

Despite Hera's rage, the Sky Father stuck to his word and gave Hephaestus a seat on the council.

Apollo knew what had caused the change. It was him. He had already humiliated Hera before, and now Hephaestus did it again. It crushed her majesty and reputation for all to see, and no one—not even her own husband—offered her help and support in her most vulnerable state. That would be enough to snap anyone, let alone Hera.

Knock!

Apollo said, restraining his flying thoughts.

"Enter,"

Knock!

"Hermes, enter." Apollo rolled his eyes, his gaze penetrating the door.

Knock!

"If you knock the door again..." Apollo trailed off, letting the air carry his words.

The door swung open immediately. Hermes entered the room with caution. "I have come all this way, passed through treacherous paths, and fought terrifying monsters; I have warred against mighty gods, bearing the message just for you, my dear brother, free of cost."