145. It Has... Burned White......!
145. It Has... Burned White......!
Hephaestus's Temple
Hermes took out two gems from his bosom and showed them to Hephaestus.
"One is the origin of the Abyss, the 'real thing' with that fragment."
"And the other is──one who once sat upon the throne of kings, and has now fallen to being an ordinary god."
A light pink gem and a dark gray matrix stone.
Placing the two upon the anvil, Hermes asked.
"If we mix these two, won't it be interesting?"
"It won't be interesting."
"Aww, don't be so stingy!"
"Gah───!!!"
Hephaestus shouted, striking the floor with the hammer in his hand.
"Don't shove such filth before me!"
"Filth... is that the right word for it?"
To Hephaestus, a member of the Pure Love Faction, the true Queen of the Night could be seen as, so to speak, a true whore.
A soul that rolled and rolled and rolled around like mad. To Hephaestus, who could see that, this was truly something difficult to even touch with a fingertip.
But on the other hand...
"That one is quite fascinating. A virgin.... it seems, but I feel an eerie sense of unease."
"Because she was a former male god."
".....Don't tell me."
"I mentioned it earlier, didn't I?"
One who was once the king of the heavens
But has now fallen below.
"The soul of Cronus, the existence of Cronus."
"...What kind of bomb have you brought, you bastard!"
"Aww, is this a one-day or two-day thing for me?"
"That's true but──ggeueung, so what do you want? Tell me what you desire and why you've come all the way to my temple."
He didn't particularly have any grand request in mind, but
"Do you feel like making a virgin succubus?"
".......?"
He erased the existence of the Succubus Queen, Lilith.
He erased the soul inside, leaving only the vessel behind.
Since that vessel was stained in many ways, it would be difficult to remove the stains, but it wouldn't be completely impossible.
And if he placed the soul of Cronus (the virgin) into that renewed vessel──wouldn't that become a single 'virgin succubus'?
"And the virgin succubus created that way would soon become a 'pure love succubus' who gazes only upon one person."
"What nonsense... a succubus being pure love?"
Hephaestus said, slinging his hammer over his shoulder.
"Let's do it right now."
Ah, he just couldn't resist pure love.
...
..
.
What followed after this was simple.
They took apart the structure of the gems, analyzed them, erased the soul, and preserved the shell.
"....Is that something worth putting so much effort into?"
"Shut it! It's no exaggeration to say that a virgin's worth comes from this very membrane!"
Just how many hours was he spending on the hymen restoration technique alone?
Hermes idly toyed with Cronus's soul in his hand, killing time.
"If it were up to me, I'd want to put it in as is, but... if it accidentally bit its master, wouldn't my reputation suffer? So, shall we become just a little more docile?"
[Rather, rather just kill me....!]
"Aww, killing you would be such a waste!"
[Ah... no.... Rhea, Rheaaaaa!!!]
Hermes's divine authority, Mirage.
Normally an authority used for escape, he was now using it solely to torment Cronus.
Like that, when Cronus's mental state was appropriately ground down and the succubus body was about to be changed into that of a virgin,
"Hermes! The succubus, where is the gem of the Succubus Queen?"
"....Hera?"
Hera, who suddenly burst in.
"The knowledge contained within the gem is needed. And... Hephaestus, your power is also needed."
"Mine as well?"
Hera briefly explained the situation and pulled over the mirror of the oracle for Hephaestus.
"Chrono, the Hero, is attempting to erase the succubus's carnal crest engraved on my child."
"Isn't that a good thing?"
"Yes. That is a good thing. However──even because of the Hero's disposition, the erasure of the carnal crest must not be allowed to happen."
"What does that mea──ah, aha!"
Hermes, who seemed to have roughly grasped the situation through intuition.
Hephaestus himself couldn't catch on and was bewildered, but Hermes explained it to him instead.
"Chrono, our Hero, is through and through a pure love fundamentalist, you see? Even if you suddenly tell him to take a new woman into his arms, there's no way he'd do so like other heroes... Ultimately, because we can't make her into a succubus via the carnal crest and he's 'reluctantly' maintaining relations, the very moment the carnal crest disappears, the possibility of relations itself will vanish completely.
...You didn't want to eliminate the possibility that had been given, so you came because you wanted to find a way somehow, isn't that right?"
"...You really are quick-witted in this particular area, Hermes."
Well, good.
It was a good thing he didn't need to pain his mouth explaining.
Hera immediately shouted toward Hephaestus.
"This is all for the Great Cause, therefore, Hephaestus, Hermes. Join forces with me and we must protect that carnal crest!"
All of this was for the Great Cause.
Above all, to ensure that our child could cross the finish line into a happy life.
There was also the risk that the child might potentially be transformed into a succubus, but in Hera's thinking, if Yuno was about to turn into a succubus, the one who would absolutely not ignore a single oracle and come running immediately was precisely Chrono.
'Then──it's possible.'
It was a little risky, but
But if by that small risk they could gain an immense 'pure love,'
"Because I can control the risk."
Therefore, right now, they saved the carnal crest.
They saved the carnal crest to somehow forge a bond with Chrono──
[Carnal crest, erase it immediately.]
"...She is already erasing it."
"Kyaaaaak?!!"
Had the situation in the lower realm reflected in the oracle mirror gone all the way while they had turned their eyes away for a moment?
[Uu.... it's a little regrettab──]
[──Erase it immediately.]
[!,....Ueung....]
"Hephaestus.....Hephaestus!"
Chrono coercively threatened Yuno to erase the carnal crest.
The sight of the two apostles erasing the carnal crest in real time, ultimately unable to withstand the threat, came through.
The carnal crest burning up and vanishing by the holy flame.
"Hephaestusssssss!!!"
"Mother──ughk.... shaking me by the shoulders won't solve the matter──ughk....!"
Ultimately, as Hera stamped her feet in urgency, Hephaestus told her a simple method.
"Is it not simply a matter of retrieving Mother's holy flame?"
"That's.... there's nothing more trampling to an opponent than giving something and then snatching it back! This mother didn't raise you like that!"
"Then how about intervening only slightly and then pulling back?"
"Intervene? Intervene, you say...."
Anyway, the holy flame was Hera's, her divine authority.
Setting aside the ignorant act of taking it away, at least a slight intervention would be possible.
"Looking at the erased portion, it seems only harmful parts to the body have been erased, so it appears a new formula could be written on it."
"For example?"
"....A protective barrier, perhaps?"
"Good!"
A protective barrier was good!
In a moment of crisis, the love between the two would become a protective barrier!
"Or what about sensitivity increase? Pure love, you know? If doing it together feels better, won't they not even glance at other people and isn't that good?"
"What foolish words are those....
....Let's do it right now."
Hephaestus changed the formula by thumping his hammer.
The plan was to replace the formula seared and erased by the holy flame with Hephaestus's formula, then overlay it with Hera's power.
Under ordinary circumstances, it would be an impossible task, but Hephaestus was the god of blacksmiths.
Since he had already analyzed the gem once, he instantly modified the formula and created a blessing to overlay it again.
What remained now was simply for Hera to overlay this blessing.
"Huuuuu.... Chrono, Yuno. The love between you two, your pure love, I have witnessed it well with my own eyes."
As the goddess of family, giving a gift to a child who had bloomed pure love was surely a duty she ought to perform.
Therefore, Chrono, my other child.
"Since you have taken my child's virginity, take responsibility for it to the very end!"
A flame blossomed in Hera's hand.
It soon flowed along the mirror of the oracle into Yuno's carnal crest, beginning to overlay a new blessing.
[Pure Love Tattoo]
-Originally a tattoo for corruption, it had been transformed into a tattoo for pure love through the power of Hera.
-100% sensitivity increase during intercourse with 'Chrono'
-Decreased stress resistance and increased mental debuff occurrence rate per hour without intercourse with 'Chrono'
-[Pure Love Barrier] activation
[Pure Love Barrier]
-This is a barrier formed of 'love'
-Nothing is impassable before 'love'.
-Reduces fixed damage of [0/10000].
-The reduced value is recoverable through 'Chrono'.
"Good. Very good."
Each and every one was a satisfying protection.
However, there was one thing that caught Hera's eye.
"Hephaestus. What's that 'Restriction' in the second line there?"
"If only we'd been given a little more time and budget...."
"...Keeeeeeugh!"
He had made it so hastily that things he hadn't managed to erase got mixed in.
In her heart, she didn't want to give the child anything even slightly bad, but...
"Hera, doesn't love usually burn hotter when there's 'lack' or 'crisis'? I actually think it's a good thing, though?"
"Still, my child...."
"And honestly, if you're a man... when there's a restriction like a leash attached, it's like, you absolutely can't resist, you know? It's the real-life version of 'you can't live without me'!"
".............."
"I'm sorry! I'll plant my head on the floor in apology!"
Hermes immediately prostrated himself flat and stiff on the ground.
"Haaaaah.... Fine. Perhaps your words do have some merit."
Hera slowly let out a breath and nodded.
Yes, it might actually be better this way.
There's a slight element of coercion, but the protection's effects were just as good.
Hell, at a glance, weren't these protections blatantly pushing them to get along well together?
'I suppose if it's set up like that, even if they wanted not to know, they wouldn't be able to───that's what's terrifying.'
Sometimes she doubted if they were truly apostles of Cronus.
They were so pure love that they didn't even feel like apostles of this household.
So pure love that even Hera, who half-jokingly considered herself the goddess of pure love, found herself on the verge of saying, 'How about you start building a harem now?'
When you put it nicely, it was pure love.
Put it badly, and it was frustrating.
"But then, by that same measure of frustration, I can see how much he'll cherish my child...."
Maybe she could consider this part a trade-off.
Just as she was about to conclude things with that positive thought,
[Fuck.... Fuuuuck...!]
"....Hmm?"
Chrono spat out curses.
[You fucking bastards! Please! Just! This... fuuuuck...!]
"....My child?"
No, what was wrong?
It was all done for your good...
[Yeah. My mistake was trusting you all.]
[Cronus was the same, Athena was the same.]
[And now... Hera, even you come at me with this shit?]
"W-Wait! Waaiiit!!!"
Chrono's eyes were half-lost and turned over.
Like a man whose foot had been smashed by the very axe he trusted, his eyes blazed with fury, and Hera was horrified.
No.
Me, I said that's not how it is?
[Chrono... this is a protection given by Hera──]
[──It's not a protection, it's a leash. And for her to... to you... at the very least, if she was a bitch who thought of you as a 'child,' why would she hang this kind of 'leash' on you!]
[But still, all of this is so that you and Chrono will get along──]
[──If she hoped we'd get along, she at least shouldn't have pulled this kind of shitty stunt.]
"................"
His eyes had completely turned.
[In effect, this is just like that, isn't it?]
[Going to a pet café, looking at the breeds, and pairing them up saying they'll make good babies together.]
[Yeah... that's exactly how we're being treated. The gods' dogs, cats, pets.]
[Treatment that fits squarely into that.]
[They see us... as pigs, dogs, and cats.]
"It's not... that's not what it is...."
Really.
Really, there had been no time...
And she'd granted protections, done her best in her own way...
[Chrono. Even so, Hera must have had good intentions for all of this.]
[.....Yuno. If... even if she really had good intentions for that...]
Tears of hurt were practically beading in Hera's eyes.
Right in front of her, Chrono spoke.
[The moment she put a leash on her own child and handed her to another man... it's already game over.]
[...I don't really mind.]
[No. You shouldn't feel that way, Yuno.]
Chrono bowed his head.
Soon, he whispered.
[If only I had found you just a little... just a little sooner, without dawdling... none of this shit would have...]
".............."
Chrono was blaming himself.
Regretting, regretting, regretting.
Not rejoicing that the woman before him had become his,
But regretting that, because of himself alone, her life had become subordinated to him.
──Wooooong!
"The tattoo is glowing."
The power of the barrier that had been empty began to fill up rapidly.
The condition for its value to fill. Chrono 'loving' Yuno.
Put another way, the faster it filled, the more Chrono 'loved' and 'thought' of Yuno.
"There was no need to intervene from the start."
He loved her.
Chrono loved Yuno.
Even if the process was clumsy, immature, and endlessly frustrating,
Ultimately, even if Hera hadn't interfered, the two of them would have connected.
"I was, immature."
The queen of the gods herself acknowledging her own fault.
"I was, foolish."
Hera raised her hand.
"However, I wonder why."
In her hand was a blazing flame.
A sacred flame that erases all that is profane.
"Even though my child blamed me, cursed me as a traitor──I don't feel all that bad about it."
Fine.
I have viewed you all as 'children', but it seems you all are already 'adults' now.
Just as Hera made up her mind to cleanly erase the Carnal Crest and bestow upon Yuno the 'Blessing of the Holy Flame'──at that very moment.
"How pure love."
"Hephaestus?"
"Pure looooove!!!"
"What──?!!"
Grabbing his hammer, Hephaestus kicked off from his seat and sprang up.
"I, Hephaestus, acknowledge this man."
This man.
A true man among true men,
A man's man among manly men.
Just as Ur had once come and said, it was no lie.
Rather than rejoicing that the woman before him had become his,
He felt sorrow that his own inadequacy had bound her to him.
He was truly the living incarnation of pure love.
"I shall, forgive you."
Even if you build a harem, I shall not say a word.
So...!
"My creation! Awaken from your long slumber and reveal your form!"
[Huh?! Light is suddenly coming from Agape...?]
Agape emerged from Chrono's body.
Once a creation of Hephaestus, made at Ur's request.
A scarlet flame blazed on Agape, and it soon began to transform into the shape of a massive hammer.
"The principle is that one does not directly lay hands upon a completed protection──but I have never been told I cannot remotely control it!!!"
[Uh... uh, uhhh?!]
──Claaaaaaang!!!
The hammer struck down fiercely upon what had been Yuno's Carnal Crest.
Soon, by the power of the hammer full of divinity, the text that was forcibly chiseled out of the protection read:
[Pure Love Tattoo]
-Originally a tattoo intended for corruption, it was altered by Hera's power into a tattoo for pure love.
-Sensitivity increase of 100% during intercourse with 'Chrono'
-During intercourse with 'Chrono'────stress resistance per hour──and mental ─buff occurrence rate increase
-[Pure Love Barrier] activated
[......???]
".....???"
In that instant, the 'a's and 'e's of the contents had changed.
Hephaestus slowly sat down on a chair behind him, let out his breath, and spoke.
"I have... burned it... white...!"
As a side note.
[....What is this.]
Chrono spaced out, unable to make sense of the situation.
As if aiming for that opening, Hermes, still in a full handstand, shouted toward Hera.
"Now! It's now! Quick, gaslight him now by saying 'Actually I had a plan but you jumped to conclusions'! Gaslightiiiiiiiiiing!!!"
"Uh, uh, right!"
Hera hurriedly sent an oracle and addressed Chrono.
[Um... I'm sorry...]
"It's fine. I, too, understand your feelings..."
Only when their relationship had finally become good again—no, deeper than ever—did Hera let out her breath. Then,
"How's that. The effect's killer, yeah?"
"...It is good, I admit, but why are you doing a handstand?"
"What do you mean, a handstand."
Hermes shook his head and said.
"For the crime of insulting Hera, I am currently holding up this temple."
"............."
While doing a handstand?
"I am using the empty air as a foothold to hold this temple aloft at this very moment!"
"...I see."
What did I even say.
Soon, Hera stood and returned to her own temple, and Hephaestus had burned white and fainted, so.
"....Hmmmmm."
In a situation where he was left completely alone.
Staring at the jewel of Cronus left behind in one hand, Hermes spoke.
"Originally I was gonna make it so he'd be used like a slave, but if I do that, it feels like I'll get cussed out big time."
[....What is this. What did you just do to me──Hrk... khh, gughgh...!]
"So I'll just cleanly wipe the memories... nah, I don't have the power for that, so I'll just seal them and send you on your way!"
[No... don't──Kwaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!]