The Secret History of Olympus
The sky was turning a faint, dusky gray at the break of dawn.
I dragged Neri back, still fast asleep and oblivious to the world, and returned on the back of Karkinos. Perhaps they hadn't expected me to return in less than a day, but only Antaios and Geryon came rushing out in a flurry to greet us.
“Or!”
“Thor!”
“Orthrus!!”
-Woof! Woof! Woof!
Watching the heartwarming reunion between the two-headed dog, now returned in good health, and the three-bodied, six-armed giant, I shared a quiet meeting with Antaios.
“Has that fellow Baekpa been behaving?”
“He likely doesn't even know you were gone, my lord, but I have treated him as if he were my own child, so do not worry. But... what on earth happened?”
“Ah, well, you see...”
As I recounted meeting Orthrus, healing him, and the subsequent ambush by Apollo, Antaios’s eyes widened as if they were about to pop out of his head.
“You pierced Apollo’s stomach... is that what you say?!”
“The bastard put a hole in my stomach with his arrow, so it’s only fair I return the favor to maintain equity.”
“H-hahaha!”
Antaios blinked, unable to believe it, and wiped his face in disbelief.
Anyone would react that way upon hearing that someone had faced the arrows of the sun god Apollo head-on and, in return, poked a hole in his gut.
Yet, I could not bring myself to be intoxicated by the sense of victory or laugh triumphantly.
“But the thing is... the end, the very end, feels quite suspicious.”
“What happened that makes you so hesitant to speak?”
“...It’s like this.”
The sensation of the strike was certainly there. Since I had pierced the spiritual body of a god rather than human flesh, the feel wasn't exactly the same as a mortal’s, but my intuition, honed through countless bloodbaths, assured me that a fatal blow had landed true.
However, just as I was about to pierce his heart and throat to make sure, as I always do:
“...It exploded.”
“Exploded... you say?”
“Yeah, *boom!* Just like that.”
The moment my black spear pierced his abdomen and that pretty-boy sun god screamed in agony, a massive cluster of light erupted from his body. It was as if the light was going to annihilate the entire island of Moly, and it consumed Apollo in a violent burst.
“I quickly cast a barrier to prevent Neri and Karkinos from getting caught in the blast, but... when the explosion settled, Apollo was gone, and so were the chariot and horses he was driving.”
“Hmm...”
If one were to look at this based on the precedents of supreme masters from the Murim world, one might reasonably guess that his own energy went berserk, shattering him to pieces and killing him. But...
“One thing is certain. He didn't die.”
I had certainly dealt him a fatal wound, but I couldn't shake the feeling that he hadn't perished.
“That cluster of light... it didn't feel like a final, desperate act of self-destruction. It felt more like he was being summoned somewhere.”
“Haa...”
Antaios, who had been frowning deeply as he listened to my story, hesitated for a moment before carefully opening his mouth.
“Actually, my father, Poseidon, once told me about a secret of Olympus.”
“A secret?”
“Yes. The secret of why there are only twelve deities of Olympus, why that number never increases or decreases, and how they came to possess complete immortality.”
Come to think of it, there were quite a few gods associated with Olympus besides the twelve. Pan, the god of the woods who was the guardian of Arcadia, and Dionysus, the god of wine, were also Olympian gods. Yet, the most powerful gods representing Olympus were always limited to twelve, and that remained true even in the distant future.
I hadn't thought much of it because it was treated as common knowledge, but was there a hidden history behind this as well?
“It happened before the three sons of Cronus divided the sovereignty of the sky, the sea, and the underworld.”
According to what Antaios heard from Poseidon, Greece at the time was in a state close to primordial chaos, everything shattered and collapsed due to the Titanomachy, the war between the Titans and the Olympians.
“It was truly a time when the sky was collapsing and the earth was rising up, screaming in agony.”
Greece was a hellscape where meteors fell like hail through the gaps in the collapsing sky, and the cracked earth swallowed the sea and spewed out the miasma of the abyss. Zeus, who led the Olympians to victory over the Titans, is said to have asked Gaia, the primordial earth and the source of all life, for a way to save Greece.
In return for avenging her, Gaia gladly taught Zeus how to restore order and law to the broken world and lay the foundation for reconstruction.
“Mount Olympus, the heart of Gaia and the heart of Greece. A meteor fell and became embedded in its peak. The plan was to carve that meteor into twelve constellations, establish them on the summit of Olympus, and seat gods there to take on the 'Divine Tasks' to manage and activate them, thereby establishing a new order and law.”
By selecting the twelve most powerful gods, including the children of Cronus, to fill those constellations and weaving together the Divine Tasks inscribed into them with their divine power, the constellations would act as pillars connecting Greece to the heavens. By inscribing their divine tasks and names into the sky, the very existence of these gods would cause the order of Greece to revive.
“The twelve gods would each receive and execute the Divine Tasks inscribed upon their thrones, ensuring the continued existence of Greece’s order. Furthermore, they were granted infinite authority and divine power through the earth of Greece and the power of the stars descending from the distant heavens.”
The constellations of Olympus were not merely thrones for gods; each was a manifestation of the natural phenomena and laws existing on this land. The Olympian gods residing there gained power from them and earned the right to perform their Divine Tasks as avatars of those laws.
Antaios and Charybdis were also originally recognized for divine power and status incomparable to anyone of their time, and Poseidon had taught them this secret early on because they were meant to protect that order and perform Divine Tasks. The current state of affairs was brought about by Zeus, who could not bear to see other powerful gods—not of his own bloodline—occupying those celestial constellations.
“But Zeus went a step further.”
“What did he do?”
“Aren't you curious? Why the other twelve gods, excluding the ruler of the underworld—especially someone like my father, Poseidon—have no choice but to bow to Zeus in the end, even while opposing and quarreling with him?”
Come to think of it, Poseidon’s influence was no less than Zeus’s, and it was strange that he would frequent Olympus and face Zeus for such a long time, even after his most cherished siblings had fallen so low...
The constellations were forged from meteors from beyond the sky, the spiritual power of the earth, and the divine cores and divinity of countless Titans. Zeus is said to have made a proposal to his siblings while showing off those beautiful constellations that would bewitch anyone.
"It was to pledge their loyalty by offering half of their 'Divine Cores' to the constellations for the sake of their unity and the prosperity of their divine status."
“Divine Core?”
“Yes. The Divine Core. The heart that allows a god to exist as a god, the foundation of their divine tasks and divinity. The god themselves!”
The essence of a god. The heart of a god. The Divine Core.
Gaia had only intended for them to sit in the constellations, bolster order with their divine power, and rule Greece with that strength. But once the gods' Divine Cores resided in those constellations that spanned heaven and earth, the Olympian gods began to exert influence over Greece far beyond that of the previous Titans. In particular, the six children of Cronus were said to have enjoyed power and authority surpassing that of their father and mother.
Of course, if the constellations of Olympus were ever destroyed, their Divine Cores would also be shattered, ending their immortality and leading them to death, but...
“Until then, they are not truly dead even if they die, and as long as Greece and the constellations exist, they wield eternal power, and no one dares to oppose them.”
Of all the gods, only Hades harbored doubts about Zeus’s opinion and opposed it, establishing his own throne in the underworld. The other siblings, however, were said to have greatly admired their king and younger brother’s proposal and praised his wisdom. But it was all a ruse by Zeus.
“The essence of the gods, their Divine Cores, became bound to Olympus, which Zeus ruled. The power of the constellations, containing the greatest and most powerful forces, easily overwhelmed and dominated the divine power and cores of the other constellations.”
It is said that the other children of Cronus, excluding Hades, only realized Zeus’s scheme and lamented after he ascended to the highest throne. The younger gods who occupied the remaining six seats later were said to have had no particular resistance, as they were in a position where they had to be loyal to their father anyway. However, the resentment that Cronus’s children held toward Zeus, who had sat above them through schemes and trickery, has reportedly continued for thousands of years.
“...Anyway, judging by what my father Poseidon said, I suspect Apollo’s reaction was not death, but a repatriation to the Olympian constellations. That is merely my speculation.”
“.....”
Of course, no matter how much of an Olympian god he was, he wouldn't be unscathed after suffering a wound that pierced his stomach. Antaios comforted me by saying that Apollo, that bookworm, was a greenhorn who had never even had a proper fight in his life, so he would be cowering in fear, struggling with the injury I had inflicted. But I didn't care about Apollo.
‘I see it now.’
An alliance is, by nature, a potential enemy state located in the closest proximity. It had been fine until I left Messenia after negotiating with Zeus, but from the moment Hera handed me the divinity she had been coveting and I awakened it, Olympus, including Zeus, became my greatest danger as well as my ally.
But by piercing Apollo, a way had occurred to me to dig into that great Olympus and leave Zeus—who had been keeping me in check and on guard under the guise of a beast—unable to move a muscle.
It was not yet time to rest my weary body.
“Antaios. There must be temples to Apollo and Artemis here in Erytheia, right?”
“Yes? W-well, they do exist. It is not to my liking, but since they are the ones who drive the sun and moon after Helios and Selene, they rest their horses here. But why do you ask?”
“Oh, why, you ask? I have committed an act of irreverence against a great and noble god. I must go and beg for forgiveness and seek reconciliation.”
Though, I wasn't sure who would be the one begging for forgiveness and seeking reconciliation.