Chapter 168
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 168
Chapter Title: Did I Hear Wrong?
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Did I hear that wrong?
The sun god rolled pitifully across the ground, while the satyr who had dared to challenge him knelt there in a daze.
Everyone fell silent at the sight of Dianes bursting onto the stage, his black robe billowing around him.
A little over a month ago, this warrior who had displayed earth-shaking prowess in his bout with Heracles had now obliterated the face of the world's most radiant and beloved sun god.
Some shouted for him to hit him again, standing in thunderous applause, only to be hushed by whispers of, "Do you want to die by his father's arrows?" from a certain great hero.
In any case, it was true that the spectacle had left most heroes and gods frozen in shock.
The face of a god—no, not just any god, but one of Olympus's Twelve Olympians, a male deity at that.
To strike it right in front of everyone?
This could be seen as a challenge to Olympus itself, potentially inviting Zeus's judgment.
"How dare you! How dare you lay a hand on my face!? I'll kill you! I'll hurl you into Tartarus right—"
Above all, Apollo, who had been struck so suddenly in the face, flew into a rage at the swelling on his handsome features and began unleashing his divine power. The crowd had to hold their breath against the scorching heat radiating outward like his blazing sun.
"...."
But the black-haired demigod bearing the full brunt of the sun god's fury simply lowered his head without a word.
-Thud!
He dropped to his knees right there.
"My..."
"Your?"
"My baby, my precious babyyyy...."
Ignoring the raging sun god entirely, Dianes knelt and gathered the shattered remnants of the flute with his hands.
Tears even welled up in those black eyes, leaving everyone blinking in confusion at the bizarre scene.
"Wah-hah-hah-hah! Oh nooo! My babyyyy! My poor babyyyyy!"
He then hugged the debris to his chest and burst into loud sobs.
This even startled Apollo, who had been trembling with fury, into clamping his mouth shut—what more could be said of the others?
"If I'd known this would happen, I would've carried it around and played it every single day! Oh nooooo!!"
-Wah-hah-hah-hah-hah!
His wailing, clutching the wreckage as if a child had died, might have seemed comical at a glance.
Yet no one gathered there dared to laugh.
From those black eyes shedding tears and the back trembling as he gathered the pieces rose an unbridled fury and murderous intent that no sorrow could conceal.
"Ma, Ma, Ma, Marsyas...."
"Dianes, I'm sorry...."
"C-can you fix it...?"
Dianes gripped Marsyas's hand with shaking fingers, sobbing out the question, but even Marsyas could only close his eyes in despair.
This was no ordinary flute—it had been smashed by the god of music in a fit of rage.
Shattered by a sword forged of solar divine power, its mystical essence lay in irreparable pieces. Attempting to repair it was impossible, and worse, it might provoke Apollo's wrath.
And Dianes, the person involved, knew this better than anyone present.
"I'm sorry."
"Wah-hah-hah!"
As the greatest artist he knew pronounced the death sentence, the mightiest hero in present-day Greece—one even said to eye the gods' thrones—sank utterly.
After sobbing while clutching Marsyas's hand for a while, Dianes suddenly snapped to attention as Apollo strode up behind him.
"Ahem! Y-you seem to be missing the point here... What you should be worrying about right now isn't that damn flute!"
...Oh boy.
Watching this, Heracles held his breath, bracing for the impending disaster.
'What the hell? Isn't he being too arrogant?'
'How dare he strike Lord Apollo's noble visage!'
'Lord Apollo! Burn that insolent demigod to ashes!'
A few cheered Apollo on, hurling anger and hatred at the sinner who had touched their revered male god's beauty.
But most lesser heroes were screaming inwardly.
'....This is bad!'
A little over a month ago. The epic clash between Heracles and Dianes on Poseidon's coastline.
How many hearts had been shattered by that mythic showdown?
The lesser heroes who remembered the black-clad great hero's divine might—which made even his Heroic War feats look like child's play—held their breath at the sun god provoking the unprecedentedly agitated Dianes.
Dianes fell eerily silent in an instant at Apollo's bellow, evoking the image of Typhon's volcano on the verge of eruption.
"Get up and repent your sins at once!"
"...Sins?"
Finally, Dianes stirred at Apollo's thundering roar.
-Creak! Creak! Creak-creak!
With stiff movements like rusted joints, he slowly turned his head to glare at the god who had called him.
The sight was so eerie that Apollo recoiled despite provoking him first.
His disheveled black hair partially veiled a face pale as death—unrecognizable as the one who had wailed so mournfully moments ago.
'...Hmph! Finally coming to your senses?'
Assuming the rigid expression meant he now grasped his crime and trembled in terror, Apollo sneered coldly.
'Perfect. Not as planned, but this way I kill three birds with one arrow.'
Punish the arrogant satyr who overstepped, humiliate the demigod who stole(?) the woman he coveted to sour Atalanta's favor, and avenge his sister Artemis's disgrace to boot.
Unable to suppress his glee, Apollo channeled his divine power and pointed accusingly at the kneeling Dianes, unleashing a roar.
"That's right! Sin! The sin of daring to touch this radiant sun, Phoebus Apollo!
The sin of interrupting the sacred judgment punishing a blasphemer of the arts!
And the sin of challenging an Olympian constellation—?!"
"Did I hear that wrong? What did you just say?"
-Crunch!
But the roar cut off midway.
Dianes lunged at Apollo faster than sunlight, seizing his throat and hoisting him into the air.
With one hand, no less.
-Crackle-crackle!
Apollo unleashed his solar divine power to incinerate the flesh daring to touch a god's sacred body, but it fizzled harmlessly against the black aura cloaking that hand.
'H-how is this possible!?'
-Boom!
And that was just the start.
Apollo's power, blazing as if to scorch the world, was being pushed back by the black aura emanating from Dianes's body.
As if declaring: You are merely one of countless stars faintly gleaming beside this colossal celestial body.
Doomed one day to be devoured by the abyss surrounding him—a mere minor star.
That black energy mockingly eroded his divine power bit by bit.
"Le-let gooo!"
Like a pathetic mortal, Apollo flailed and thrashed in the grip of a mere demigod, reduced to this humiliation.
His hands, once drawing the bow of the sun, clawed at the blasphemous arm choking him; his legs, ever galloping across the skies, kicked futilely at his captor.
But as if tickled by a sunbeam, the black demigod stood unmoving, glaring coldly at Apollo.
'Wh-what eyes are those...!'
As their powers clashed, sending gusts whipping everywhere, the hair veiling his face parted. Only then did Apollo truly see Dianes's features.
It was a breathtakingly beautiful face.
Even in this situation, Apollo couldn't help but admire it.
That shadowy allure and enigmatic charm would have made him want to claim Dianes as a lover alongside Atalanta, were the circumstances different.
But those black eyes banished such thoughts.
They evoked the darkness of Tartarus glimpsed when he briefly lost consciousness to Python's venom.
Deeply immersed in that abyssal gloom, they stole the sun god's breath away.
"Oh, wrong. Totally wrong."
"Wh-what, guh?! Let—let gooo!"
"I said wrong."
Dianes shook his head as if rejecting an incorrect answer.
Apollo writhed in terror, as if about to be swallowed by the encroaching darkness.
No matter how he struggled or amplified his power, the black demigod remained an unshakable pit devouring light.
Despair crept into those brilliant golden eyes, the hand crushing his throat tightening as if to sever his head.
In that moment when none dared move amid the shocking scene, a silver shadow darted between them.
-Boom!
The sudden charge forced the hand from Apollo's throat, but Dianes wasn't left standing idle.
"Affliction Hard to Dry."
Affliction Hard to Dry
As the captive on his right hand was released, his left whipped out.
The divine demonic energy coiled around it transformed into beastly claws shredding all in their path.
-Crunch-crack!
"Guh?! Kyaa!"
The silver shadow snatched Apollo midair and twisted to block, but couldn't withstand the force and tumbled to the ground with him.
As the identity of the interferer revealed itself sprawled on the dirt, Dianes's already ferocious aura boiled over like an apocalyptic calamity.
"Oh? So your memory isn't great after all. Expecting mercy from me again this time?"
The goddess shielded the coughing, writhing Apollo as she faced Dianes, who sneered coldly upon recognizing her.
"Artemis."
It was none other than the hunter of the crescent moon—Apollo's twin sister, Artemis.