Hephaestus -2- "I've Gone and Done It!"
Hephaestus had boldly objected to the marriage and challenged me to a duel, but in truth, half of it stemmed from envy and jealousy toward Heracles, while the other half was pure fear.
He'd meant to show the heroic spirit befitting a major god, but it was a reckless plan all the same. Hephaestus was a god of powerful fire and smithing, but he wasn't a war god. Fighting was his younger brother Ares's specialty, not his.
Yet...
Just what the hell did that guy eat to get so huge?
Hephaestus, who had defied his father Zeus's will, sided with Hera, and been hurled from Mount Olympus, leaving him lame, stared in awe at Heracles's body—a towering figure over two meters tall, covered in even more muscle than his own.
He was taller than his brother Ares, and his muscles were absurdly massive. They weren't just for show, either. Though he'd boldly declared the duel, Hephaestus's mind was a whirlwind of complexity.
But...
Has that bastard Hephaestus finally lost his mind?
The one fuming the most right now was Hera, the goddess who protected oaths of hearth and marriage, queen of Olympus, and officiant and witness to this wedding.
She was the one who had joyfully accepted Adamantia's proposal for a modest ceremony, attended only by Hera herself as the guardian of marriage—a once-in-millennia event.
She was the one who had granted the Protogenoi's request to stand as the direct officiant and witness, honoring her role as the marriage's overseer. It was a golden opportunity to bolster her authority, which Zeus kept undermining.
Yet Hera never dreamed her eldest son—the one she'd always pitied—would stab her in the back like this. Betrayal surged in her chest.
"Hephaestus!"
"Eek!"
"What do you think you're doing? Do you even grasp what this marriage means, to unleash such outrage?"
"M-Mother!"
"I won't hear it!"
With Hera's roar of fury came an immense divine power that crushed down on Hephaestus's body, wracking him with pain. It was the ferocity befitting Olympus's co-ruler with Zeus and queen of the gods.
The great queen of the gods had no intention of forgiving the foolish son who had sullied her authority. Even if she had to strike him down with her own hand, she wanted to preserve the sanctity of this marriage.
Such a union among the great gods would never come again. If this wedding bore even a blemish, the nectar that could fill her deficient authority would never flow twice.
"Hephaestus, my son! How disappointing! Do you sully my authority and expect to live?"
"Gaaahhh?!"
"This time, I'll let it slide. Don't ruin this joyous occasion further—return to Olympus. This is the queen's command!"
"...Please wait a moment, Lady Hera."
"...Heracles?"
Surprisingly, the one who blocked Hera as she moved to punish Hephaestus was Heracles himself—the very man whose wedding had been ruined.
Hera glanced around at the unexpected intervention, but the three great goddesses merely gazed contentedly at their husband. Even the most fearsome presence, Gaia, watched her great-grandson's outburst with a benevolent smile.
Hera let out a quiet sigh of relief first.
"...What are you thinking, Heracles? This one came to ruin the marriage."
"It's my wedding first and foremost, Lady Hera. At the very least, I'd like to hear his reason."
"What an odd fellow. If you'd just left it to me, he'd have slunk away on his own."
"Please, Lady Hera."
"Fine. Since it's your wedding, as you wish."
Heracles apparently intended to hear Hephaestus out, unexpectedly enough. A rude intruder like this should be chased off swiftly, but with the groom himself intervening, even Hera couldn't keep raging. And Hephaestus was her own flesh and blood, after all—awkward to punish harshly in front of others.
In the end, Hera relented at Heracles's words, withdrawing her power and stepping back. Heracles approached Hephaestus, who had collapsed under Hera's divine force.
"Brother, Elder Brother Hephaestus. Are you conscious?"
"Ugh... Heracles, what's your game? I came to ruin your wedding."
"I know. But I don't understand why. What reason could you have to ruin my marriage, Brother?"
"How can a wretch like you marry Lady Adamantia? It's utterly improper—that's why I'm doing this."
"What?"
Heracles couldn't comprehend. What was wrong with him, having duly completed his labors and now marrying Adamantia?
While Heracles reeled in shock at the utterly unforeseen words, Hephaestus grew even angrier at his attitude.
"You don't even see your own shamelessness, do you? Listen here—you were originally human. Didn't you become a god as the price for marrying the Protogenoi Lady Adamantia?"
"..."
"Not content with that, you reeled in Lady Gaia and her other daughters with that pretty face of yours—what gall do you have to drag my mother into this and vow eternal union? Did you think I wouldn't see through your ploy to become a god?"
"..."
Hephaestus's words had already lost all coherence to envy and jealousy. The voice of a man consumed by jealousy rumbled low, like some vengeful spirit. His gloomy tone sent chills down spines.
But Heracles didn't care. Though brief, and though Eros's prank had played a part, Heracles himself had concluded these feelings were genuine, not false—and accepted them as his true heart. This marriage was their wish.
Heracles's voice rose in agitation, matching Hephaestus's own at the undeserved insult.
"Brother, don't insult me like that. Are you saying I deliberately approached all three of them just to become a god?"
"Then how else do you explain this marriage?"
"It was God Eros's prank. Nothing more than the love everyone feels."
"Ha! Didn't you beg Eros for it?"
"Brother, do you truly believe that?"
Hephaestus's insight was now so clouded it bordered on pitiful. That capricious god would never heed Heracles's pleas. True, receiving Eros's ring had influenced his love for the three goddesses—but that ring was a curse.
Far from Eros's blessing. To Heracles, it was no different from a bomb.
"You think it's more plausible that you naturally fell for those three ladies?"
"Brother, stop insulting me. Lady Gaia is watching."
"Ha, now you're hiding behind Gaia's skirts?"
"..."
Hephaestus's eyes were bloodshot red. Having endured Hera's wrath before the assembled gods, collapsing in disgrace before Adamantia, and showing weakness before Gaia and Echidna—his mind was nearly numb.
The initial fear of Heracles's power was gone; Hera's shocked face meant nothing. All that filled him was the need to fight Heracles.
Heracles, deeming words futile, issued a final warning.
"Brother, this is your last chance. If you fear my wrath and that of the other gods, leave now. Today is a joyous day."
"And if I can't?"
"Then I'll have to lay hands on you myself, Brother."
"Ha. What if I'm not afraid of that?"
"..."
Hephaestus was beyond reason now. Even the three great goddesses began openly showing their discomfort.
Frightened, Hera stepped forward, but Heracles raised a hand to stop her. This wasn't for Hera to handle.
It was for Heracles, the aggrieved party whose marriage had been insulted, to resolve. The three goddesses watching him worriedly agreed. Only Gaia beamed with amusement.
Hera shuddered at Gaia's smile and held back.
"You've disregarded my final warning, Brother. I'll take this as an insult to me, Lady Gaia, Lady Adamantia, and Lady Echidna."
"I've never disrespected those great ladies. Heracles, you're the only one who irks me."
"Unfortunately for you, Brother."
Heracles drew the warhammer he'd forged from his belt. He'd never imagined testing its might on the god of smithing, but Hephaestus, blinded by jealousy, couldn't be reasoned with.
As the saying went: crazy dogs needed a good whack.
"Those two are one and the same now. Time to pay the price."
Heracles gripped the warhammer firmly, his eyes gleaming ferociously. Even Hephaestus, lost in jealousy and inferiority, flinched.