Chapter 216
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 216
Chapter Title: Aphrodite's Scheme
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Once again, finding myself pinned beneath a goddess after all that twisting and turning, this time I couldn't contain my bewilderment.
Not because the goddess was trying to cross the line again.
But because of me, collapsing helplessly before her delicate, jade-like hands.
"Let's see~ There we go."
A smile of peculiar satisfaction, like catching and pinning a plaything mouse.
However, swirling in those blue eyes wasn't just lust or amusement, but some subtle emotion.
"As expected, you're not just a demigod. Born because of Them, placed upon this land..."
"...Yes?"
Wet fingers slowly trailed from my eyelids down my cheek, jaw, neck, and to my chest.
"Hehehe~"
No matter how I looked at it, just gazing at her was a feast for the eyes—this goddess was a vision—but women of her type were always tricky to deal with.
The kind who belonged to a realm beyond my control, always slyly trying to wrap me around her finger.
She was exactly the type of person I dreaded most.
'No. That's not the issue right now.'
No matter how hypnotically alluring her radiant beauty was.
No matter how my wariness rose in proportion to that beauty.
The biggest problem I faced right now was something else entirely.
The inner energy in my lower dantian.
The divine power in my middle dantian.
The energies that had always coursed through my body like an inexhaustible spring had suddenly drained from their very roots.
'What the hell is going on?'
To be precise, they weren't completely empty.
The lower dantian's energy aside, the divine power in my middle dantian—true essence energy in other words—if that dried up, it meant death for a god or even the Heavenly Demon.
Yet it lingered at the bare minimum needed to sustain life, leaving me unable to hide my shock.
On top of that, the sacred seed in my heart—known as divine karma—had changed form, feeling now like a sprout taking root throughout my blood and qi.
Similar to blood and qi, yet somehow different.
This alien yet familiar sensation only deepened my confusion.
"Hera said she'd finally laid down her long burden, and it turns out you're the child who inherited it."
Poke, poke. Her pristine fingers, nails poised, tapped at my chest.
Right where the newly sprouted seedling had taken root.
"Don't panic too much, dear. A seed needs the most nutrients when it awakens. Right now, you just need to rest deeply."
"What does that..."
"It means it's time to rest and replenish your strength."
Was it just my imagination, or did that word "rest" carry a strange undertone?
With the goddess closing in again amid this peculiar atmosphere, I had no way to resist in my current state.
"...Looks like today's not my day."
But just as Aphrodite flashed a wry smile,
The clamor erupted outside the bath.
"Little bro! Big sis is heeeere!!"
Eris burst into the bath, her poisonous pink long hair whipping about.
"Huh? What? You two already went at it, Aphrodite?"
Flapping her wings, Eris flew right over in an instant and spoke nonchalantly upon seeing us.
"Eris... I never dreamed I'd be this glad to see you..."
Was this how a mouse felt right before being devoured by a cat?
Having become a complete mortal for the first time in nearly centuries, I was on the verge of being gobbled up by the goddess.
"W-What...? M-Me, glad to see you?"
Eris flushed red at the odd point, but even then, I had to stop the goddess's hand slyly sliding down my chest.
"Now, beautiful goddess. Regrettably, basking in your favor seems beyond my station.
With Eris here, why don't you step aside so I can change clothes?"
"He, hehehe..."
"Hoo...?"
Aphrodite alternated glances between me and Eris grinning in midair, then looked at me with a subtly impressed expression before slowly rising.
Her wet hair clung tightly to her body, revealing glimpses of her breasts and intimate sanctuary in between...
"No you don't~ You dare stand up the goddess and still try to sneak a peek?"
A white robe appeared from somewhere, covering her up in an instant, denying me any further view.
"What?! Aphrodite, you didn't do it? You, who makes any man melt?!"
"Indeed~ Nix's son has surprisingly firm resolve?"
Eris's eyes widened in surprise at the lack of any signs of intimacy, but Aphrodite chuckled lightly for some reason and exited the bath first.
"Our children will have clothes ready outside. I've got a date with Ares, so I'll be off~"
She'd licked her lips like she was about to devour me moments ago, yet Aphrodite left without a hint of lingering attachment.
Something felt off about her vibe...
Was I dragged into another one of the goddess's troublesome affairs?
"What? Aphrodite just walked away from a man? You got a quick trigger or something?"
"...Quit talking nonsense and get out. I need to change."
"Heheheh~"
Aphrodite was in a great mood for the first time in ages.
She'd met a beautiful man, beheld an alluring one, and witnessed the hero who saved her domain and priests. How could she not be pleased?
From the first moment she saw him, this man had made her heart race fiercely.
And the hero who offered her the finest tribute with his sparkling wit only grew more appealing the more she saw him.
What was her divine karma, after all?
Love itself.
The more love overflowed in the world, the higher her authority soared, and the more lovers praised her karma, the greater her renown grew.
She affirmed all forms of love infinitely, and those who loved were her most devoted believers.
The ocean's most precious treasure.
The world's mightiest female warrior.
The maiden of strife even the gods feared.
The stern arbiter before whom even the Big Three bowed their heads.
These were the women entangled with that black-blue-haired man whom Aphrodite had witnessed firsthand.
Among them, the warrior Atalanta had nearly sworn virginity as a fierce huntress and devotee of Artemis.
The maiden of strife was fated to be unloved and unembraced, fitting her karma.
And the stern arbiter had lived excluding personal emotions as a mediator of judgments.
After endless ages, women she'd never expect to see in her temple were pining for a single man!
"Hehe, hahaha... Yes, I've been holding back a bit for far too long."
The long peace of Olympus following the Titanomachy.
People claimed the gods' wars were over, but that was nonsense—they knew nothing.
The gods were still very much at war.
Warring over their karmas, nations, heroes, and followers in endless strife within Olympus.
Athena and Ares's rivalry for war's supremacy was practically routine, exemplified by their past contest over Athens with Poseidon.
A god's karma's glory directly fueled their fame.
Until now, her karma of love had been an unchallenged force, but unchanging glory eventually fades.
Lately, fools were even doubting her beauty alongside her love.
How could she, as a goddess, not care?
And then, a man appeared who made not one, but three such women yearn with romantic longing—women who'd never grace her temple.
"Sigh~ I was this close to just pouncing on him today..."
The firm texture of that toned body still lingered phantom-like on her fingertips.
His black hair, slick with water, flowing like silk.
Above all, those profound black eyes shifting hues with her every movement had ignited the passion of the goddess of love and lust after so long.
"But I must hold back. Just a little longer."
For the goddess of love and lust to restrain her desires was absurd, but what could be done?
As that enchanting hero had said, any man who tasted her body would think only of her, no matter what woman he held!
"Sigh~ Being too beautiful is a sin, isn't it?"
If such an alluring man became her captive, it would exalt her name, of course.
But if she let him loose a bit longer, how many of her rivals—goddesses and women ignorant of love—would come begging for her blessings!
"Think of it as an investment. I just need to endure a little more."
Suppressing her boiling lust, Aphrodite wiped away the moisture and began her primping.
She couldn't hold back the rising curve of her lips any longer.
For one goddess circling the women around hero Dianes had come to mind.
"Hehehe... She's trying so hard to hide it."
A rival even Aphrodite could scarcely believe, her greatest obstacle—one whose gaze had never strayed to Aphrodite's karma.
Not like Athena, sworn to virginity by the Styx, nor Hestia, who declared no one would claim her.
A huntress who particularly despised Aphrodite's karma as filthy.
From that fierce, savage Artemis, Aphrodite had caught the scent.
A thick, explosive aroma of lust that astonished even Aphrodite.
And when she realized those eyes fixed on one man alone.
Not even her creator, Uranus, could know how shocked Aphrodite had been.
"Honestly, it surprised me. I don't know what trick he used."
But so what?
The key was that Aphrodite's rival, the pristine virgin huntress, writhed uncontrollably with heated desire.
Spread love widely to those who'd lived without it, set their bodies ablaze with lust until they knelt—then she would claim him.
"Yes, just a bit more. Let your heart race freely a little longer. Trample the moon, quell the strife, melt the judgment."
Stroking the image of Dianes tussling with Eris in the mirror, the goddess of beauty smiled wickedly.