Chapter 234
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 234
Chapter Title: A Long, Long Night
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She had always been a figure of reverence and attention wherever she went.
The seat among Olympus's Twelve Gods was one eternally honored not just in Greece, but across the seas beyond.
The envy of women, the longing of hunters, the affection of men—and their base desires too.
Artemis, who had lived as the goddess of the crescent moon, one of Olympus's thrones since before the oldest trees had sprouted buds, was accustomed to such gazes and scrutiny.
Yet lately, Artemis was enduring humiliations she had never known in her life.
"Grghhh! H-how dare you... forget me?"
She had been forgotten.
By no other than Dianes, the arch-traitor who had defiled her and cast a curse upon her!
"What full moon? What plump? Bah!"
The night of the crescent moon's power.
She had been utterly defeated by that demigod hero as black as the night itself, and as a result, she writhed under defilements unbelievable for the goddess of chastity.
She had sworn upon the Styx, staking her purity and Dianes's life on a wager.
Yet twice the crescent moon had waxed, and Dianes had not once thought to summon her.
"How... how dare you...!"
And now, at last, the night of the crescent moon had returned once more.
The night she drove her chariot across the skies.
The curse etched into her lower abdomen still strangled her breath and drew forth fevered sighs, but thankfully, with nectar and ambrosia, she could now endure it somewhat.
Yet even so, the venom of lustful shame carved into her chaste body refused to fade. It smoldered dully, tormenting Artemis relentlessly.
Ever since she had laid eyes on Dianes mocking and toying with her body during the Heroic Games.
Ashamed to ascend to Olympus with her defiled form, she had quietly trailed him since he left the Heroes' Grove.
Until just recently, Heracles aside, Dianes and Atalanta were sinners who had to atone to her with death—the most gruesome kind.
Dianes for daring to lay hands on her body and torment her with that horrific curse.
Atalanta for surviving by her mercy, vowing fealty, only to betray her and cling to the very sinner who defiled her.
Even one of those sins warranted hurling them into Tartarus or transforming them into lowly beasts to suffer eternally.
But after the Heroic Games, they had ascended to the rank of Great Hero—one of only two in history—making them foes even Artemis could not easily touch.
Yet all hunts begin with pursuit.
Artemis tracked them out of the Heroes' Grove, ignoring the whining in her lower abdomen and chewing ambrosia.
In the midst, the sinners Dianes and the traitorous Atalanta—and Zeus's Great Hero—somehow vanished with magic.
Left chasing shadows like a dog after chickens, she had taken refuge at the sacred spring dedicated to her in Acrocorinth, soothing her body and managing the curse there.
Ambrosia to heal the gods' flesh.
The sacred spring to bless and invigorate her pure body.
Bolstered by those two powers as she tamed the curse, Heracles and Atalanta suddenly appeared at Aphrodite's temple. Soon after, Dianes emerged with Eris and departed Acrocorinth.
And once more, she witnessed the demigod Dianes's power.
She knew he was no ordinary prey—he had felled her brother Apollo in one strike and wielded her divine power before it had even ripened.
Yet to handle Poseidon's twins, the Aloadae, like mere children?
Even Olympus was wary of those giants, whose strength and divine authority grew daily, heeding Gaia's oracle.
He crushed them with powers evoking Tartarus itself—and even blocked her uncle Poseidon's trident.
No matter that it was her—even she wouldn't dare face the Aloadae, let alone Poseidon's trident head-on.
Yet that demigod—no, could he even be called a demigod?—handled it with ease.
At that point, even Artemis's resolve began to waver.
'...Should I just keep avoiding him?'
The hellish ecstasy that came periodically still terrified her, but with ambrosia's power and the sanctuary's healing, she might recover in time.
And if needed, she could swallow her pride and beg her brother or Tethys of the deep sea for aid.
As her mind tilted toward evasion over confrontation...
On this night of all nights, when she at last performed her divine duty after so long.
The night her crescent chariot left Olympus after ages.
She beheld Atalanta and Dianes entwined passionately in the lofty corridors of Tegea's royal palace.
"L-like beasts... not even!"
Atalanta, proffering her hips to Dianes like animals in rut, bent low. Dianes gripped her waist, thrusting fiercely.
Not in a bedchamber, but in an open corridor, coupling like beasts in that position—Artemis could scarcely believe her eyes.
Atalanta's sweat-slicked body shaking violently, her face melted in ecstasy. Dianes pinning her down, his body and lust-glazed face gleaming.
Her divine eyes of power pierced distance and obstacles, capturing their tryst in vivid detail.
Normally, she would recoil in disgust at such filth.
Or transform them both into beasts for daring to show the goddess of chastity such bestial mating.
But Artemis had already tasted carnal rapture.
Her chaste flesh remembered that day's pleasure like a phantom limb.
-Whummm!
"Hngh!"
Male and female forms glistening under moonlight, slick with sweat.
Atalanta's beautiful physique, even in her eyes, and Dianes's body that drew admiration from her too—burned into her retinas.
The curse missed not the desires of Artemis the woman, not the goddess of chastity, and seized her womb instantly.
"Hnnngh!"
Clutching the chariot reins, Artemis twisted as electric pleasure jolted her lower abdomen.
Torturous swelling within her, like bursting—then cooling to dull emptiness just before release—plunged her into agony once more.
'N-no...! No!'
The scene below overlaid her mind unbidden.
If those brutish hands gripped not tawny skin, but pale white hips.
If the wildly tossing hair were not red, but deep black.
What then?
Would she writhe and weep like Atalanta?
Undoubtedly.
Yes. She too would shed tears of ecstatic joy...
"No!"
Clinging to her fevered body and melting reason, Artemis desperately erased the vile visions blooming in her mind.
"I-I have to... shake this off somehow... hngh!"
Not even wiping the cold sweat trickling down her pale skin, Artemis muttered through her melted expression.
As the demigods below navigated their endless night, so too for Artemis—her long, long night had only just begun, chariot reins freshly in hand.
From that corridor where our patience snapped, through the garden and stairs under construction, to the bedroom we barely reached.
We devoured each other mindlessly, over and over.
As the distant sky lightened and the dawn rooster crowed, Atalanta—drenched in our mingled fluids—finally collapsed in a faint.
I too sprawled beside her, feeling fatigue I hadn't known in ages.
Cradling her head carefully so as not to wake her, I embraced her from behind. Her warm body nestled into me without resistance, thawing my cooled skin delightfully.
"Hng..."
"Haa..."
Paradise itself.
Cool night breeze caressing my back, contrasted by Atalanta's still-flaming body heat.
Her firm buttocks that had clung and shaken busily against me moments ago, her back split taut like a master warrior's, and those hefty fruits asserting their presence even from behind.
A glance down revealed a fierce beauty melted in pleasant exhaustion.
Squeezing my arm brought soft, piping-hot bliss.
Any man faced with this would surge anew, no matter how fiercely they'd just rutted.
"Hngh...♥"
Sensing it even in sleep, Atalanta shivered.
Yet she burrowed into my warmth, adorably. I held her gently.
One might ask how we went so far that a supreme warrior fainted at climax's end.
But I have my excuses.
Each time I thought to stop, Atalanta pressed her lips to mine and whispered.
'Inside... keep filling me inside...♥'
'What if I get pregnant? ♥'
'Haah! So good... too good...♥'
Her rapture-flushed red eyes gazed at me, whispering thus—I couldn't possibly stop.
The result? Our night stretched until the moon set and hazy dawn broke.
Precisely, until Atalanta collapsed from exhaustion.
'Come to think of it, I was too caught up to check, but... I felt a gaze, didn't I?'
Tegea's citadel sat atop the highlands like Acrocorinth.
The king's office and quarters, true to showy King Iasos, crowned the highest floor, with no facing buildings nearby.
Yet that persistent gaze came not from below, but above—faintly so, I wondered if it was my imagination...
"What the...?"
A vague hunch hit me. I rose for water.
Gulping the bedside pitcher in cool morning air, Athena's token on my wrist trembled faintly.
-Whumm! Whumm! Whumm!
"Hm?"
How long since I'd toasted Tegea's chaos with a drink?
Olympus's rival eldest daughter was summoning me.