Chapter 142
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 142
Chapter Title: Crushed by the Calamity I Invited Myself
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Crushed beneath the calamity I had summoned myself.
The king of the gods, Zeus, was the god of the heavens, the overseer of law and order.
He was also the god of heroes, who had sired countless champions, and the king of heroes who protected Greece from monsters and foreign invaders.
Yet no one now remembered the true face of the queen hidden behind that king's majesty.
It was because she had transferred all her past authorities and karma to other gods to bear the greatest divine duty.
"The ancient secrets and sorceries to distant Hecate of the far seas, the earth's bounty to my beloved sister Demeter, and the life of newly sprouting seeds to Kore, now called Persephone, the queen of the underworld."
However, there was one old divine duty she still held.
No one had been able to bear its weight and responsibility, nor enjoy its authority and power.
"Ares is too violent by nature; I'm afraid of what chaos he might unleash if I passed it to him.
And poor Hephaestus... he tried to protect his mother before his father and was exiled, cast into a volcano..."
Hera, who had been lounging obliquely and venting to me, let out a deep sigh and turned her head.
It was in the direction where Hebe had discreetly vanished to give us time to talk comfortably.
"I originally thought of entrusting it to Hebe, that child. But as a mother, I couldn't bear to force the thorny path I walked onto my daughter as well."
"....Heh."
Wait, what about me then?
Isn't this poor demon, already on the verge of being crushed to death by the very calamity he summoned, pitiable enough?
Was she doing this on purpose, or was it just habit?
Hera would sometimes gaze at me vacantly with eyes so breathtakingly beautiful they sent chills down the spine.
In those demonic eyes that could suck away one's soul if one wasn't careful, I could only smile.
'Am I some neighbor auntie telling me to take leftover side dishes?'
Karma was a truly mysterious word to me.
Once dismissed as empty chants recited by Buddhist monks like sutras.
But after surpassing the pinnacle and ascending to transcendence, those profound flows I glimpsed were no longer metaphysical concepts—they had become as commonplace as gravity or air currents, undeniable phenomena.
All things in the world have their karma, and through the karma they perform, all things cycle, reaping the rewards of their deeds in life.
Too organic to call a machine, too intricate to call a living being—that wondrous spectacle defied description.
I could only marvel that this was the world, remembering its grandeur.
The sun blazed white like primordial flames, the sea exhaled endlessly, mountains and rocks hummed low and rippled gently.
A world flowing ceaselessly, grandly breathing without pause.
And in such a world where the greatest karmas took form as gods reigning supreme.
This goddess was suddenly telling me to take a piece of the foundation that formed the world itself.
"No, I mean, whew...."
"Heh heh, complicated, isn't it?"
Complicated? Incredibly so.
Even when I boldly proclaimed myself the world's greatest, the gateway to the true realm was something I wasn't even allowed to stumble toward.
And now it was being handed to me on a platter?
'Realms aren't like levels in a game, jumping up just by completing quests or devouring a god...'
I had no idea how much toil and time it would take to digest it, make it my own, and solidify the foundation.
Only the gods knew—or even they might not.
'How long did it take me to ascend to transcendence and lay the foundation for the Heavenly Demon Divine Art...?'
I remembered it took over twenty years at least...
And in a world where real gods lived, engaging in a god's divine duty—how much more grinding would that require? Unimaginable.
Should I rejoice at grasping a firm clue beyond the realm I had reached?
Or be horrified at a fate clearly reserved for endless suffering? I could only dry-wash my face repeatedly, unsure.
"Any veto power...?"
"Do you think there is?"
Ah, yeah, figured as much.
This goddess Hera seemed disarmingly affable compared to the rumors, yet boasted a peculiarly unyielding pace of her own.
She never bullied or threatened, but before you knew it, you'd be doing exactly as this beautiful lady said.
Life's joys and sorrows came thundering in and out like a mad party, leaving this poor demon with nothing but a smile.
Whether it was a smile or a sob, I couldn't tell.
My shoulders and head grew heavier, my neck drooping like ripe rice ready for harvest.
"Zeus, our proud king, found the great hero through the snakes I sent as omens?"
The queen's voice, unperturbed by my state, tickled my ear and lifted my head that was about to burrow into the ground.
It was a famous tale I knew well.
The story of Hera sending two snakes to kill twin newborns because she didn't know which was Zeus's child from his infidelity.
But unfortunately for the snakes, one was Heracles, and the next day the king and queen saw their son happily playing with the dead serpents.
Hold on.
Bringing up this story at this timing—don't tell me...?
"Um, Your Majesty?"
As I lifted my head with that uneasy hunch to gaze upon the queen's visage.
There she was, the goddess nodding in satisfaction, as if to say my guess was correct.
"Yes, just as Zeus did. Watching your exploits, I too realized the omen."
The queen of the gods approached with elegant steps and soon loomed over me.
'Different.'
Her softly wavy, noble oak-colored hair, her beautiful eyes that drew one in—nothing had changed, yet everything was different.
The elegant noblewoman idly lamenting her fate was gone.
An ancient mother who had watched over this land before my birth.
A tyrant who had spilled rivers of blood before primordial warriors vomited blood in demonic torment.
A sage among sages who had mastered the profundities of the world beyond anyone's reach.
The first priestess offering faith to gods forgotten, with no worshippers left.
*Smack.*
The priestess of the forgotten gods bent down personally and kissed my cheek.
"The king of the gods and the great hero who bore his blood. Who was the great foe who toppled them in one move?"
Like a witch incantating a spell, the primordial sorceress cupped my face with her pale hands, forcing me to meet her gaze.
"Who was the blasphemer who brought down the arrogant queen who reigned haughtily above the forest in her new moon chariot?"
A cruel calamity that bestowed trials and tribulations upon all gods and heroes breathed into my ear.
"Finally, all the gods of the heavens and kings of the earth. Who made their blood heirs—heroes and princes—kneel, enchant them, and submit?"
The Moirai who determine all fates number three.
The kindly Furies, the Erinyes feared for vengeance, also three.
And the major gods ruling heaven, earth, and underworld—three as well.
An event occurring thrice is fate itself, and the oldest witch's foresight declared it an omen.
The greatest divine duty she had borne to the very end had finally found its vessel.
The grand divine duty left to me by my last ancient Night Mother.
I am adversity itself, tribulation itself, the enemy that brings ruin, and the lord of those manifested as symbols of glory...
The strange string of characters riding the whisper pulsed through my heart's bloodstream.
The name and authority that naturally surfaced in my mind were still minuscule, but sufficient to imprint its existence upon me.
The Lord of Fate That All Fear (O κύριος της μοίρας που όλοι φοβούνται)
The divine duty freshly etched into my heart popped out naturally.
Hearing it, Hera smiled radiantly like a mother beholding her newborn son and stroked my head.
"The karma born of Night returned to Night. All the world's trials and tribulations shall become your servants, attending you. They shall become your spear, vanquishing your foes."
*Smack.*
With the priestess's kiss consecrating my forehead, the grand ceremony unseen by any drew to a close.
"Is handing over a divine duty usually done this quick, like stir-frying beans in lightning?"
After some ambiguous time—feeling like a major event yet not—when Her Majesty the Queen seemed to have caught her breath, looking somewhat weary, I asked.
The peculiar presence felt near my heart.
The divine duty's energy, like a tiny seed planted in soil, was clearly unlike any I'd encountered.
Small, so very small, yet the authority and divinity condensed within were beyond even my comprehension.
I'd tentatively brushed it with the Five Aggregates Plague Art and Reverse Heaven Art, only to pull back in shock as the seed absorbed it all.
"It's just that such events haven't happened lately that you're surprised. Didn't Chiron teach you? Even dividing the primordial three sovereignties was decided by drawing lots, and they exchanged staves, instruments, and divine duties along with them."
"Folks here call that mythology, but you're talking like it's haggling at a black market."
"Puhahaha! Not entirely wrong!"
I couldn't help but retort at the very person whose words shattered the mystique of myths.
Yet she laughed delightedly, leaving me wondering why she doted on me so.
'Is she really that into Heracles?'
Whew...
Looking back, my early tantrum in the Hero's Grove snowballed into this. In the end, it was all a seed I sowed, the calamity I invited myself.
"As you felt, the divine duty planted in you is still dormant.
Once you grasp its meaning and accomplish a task worthy of it, it will one day bloom, and you shall ascend Olympus."
"Or Tartarus, maybe."
In Greece, Tartarus usually meant something like Avici Hell.
But from what Nemesis and Eris said, for Nyx-born like me, Tartarus felt like home.
"Anyway, sorry for rushing it like stir-frying beans in lightning, as you said. Properly, it should be passed amid a grand feast with thousands of priests consecrating..."
Something seemed to bother her, as Hera suddenly scowled and growled.
"Looks like Zeus, that senile fool, caught the scent. No choice."