The Goddess's Taste
To borrow the words of a certain sage to discuss the philosophy of Eris:
There is no hierarchy in discord. There is only a hierarchy among those who incite it!
Eris was always willing to savor any kind of discord as her tribute. Like the gods who eventually grew tired of the fragrant nectar and the finest ambrosia brewed by Hebe and Ganymede, she had long since grown bored of the trivial disputes, discord, anger, and hatred that could be found anywhere.
Commonplace conflicts, like the bickering of market women or mutinies on ships, were far too pathetic to soothe her boredom. And the squabbles of heroes over land, women, or glory, or the wars of kings shouting about avenging their ancestors or past grudges—she had grown tired of those ages ago.
The reasons were varied, but the content was always the same. The goddess of discord and strife had simply become weary of discord and strife.
Was that not the very reason she had chosen to follow Dianes? A black wave that stirred up turmoil wherever it went. Unfortunately, when Dianes first left the forest of Chiron, she had been on the other side of Greece, goading a seemingly interesting weaver. When he set out on his journey to the edge of the west, she had missed her chance because she was at Olympus, watching Zeus and Poseidon wrestle.
However, just as her mother had prophesied, and just as her divinity had led her, Dianes had presented her with the greatest conflict in history, and Eris was more excited than she had been since the Titanomachy.
What kind of life had he lived in that world he called Hyperborea before her mother brought him here? Dianes, who would usually just laugh off most things or create bloodbaths with a bored expression on his face. He was the prophesied companion of Eris, who rarely revealed his inner thoughts unless he was clashing weapons with the likes of Ares, Athena, or Poseidon, or plotting against gods and goddesses. Seeing the pure rage he displayed for the first time, Eris felt as though her breath had been stolen away.
‘Ah...!’
The overwhelming divine power that made even the breath of Aea recoil in fear, crushing everything as if to force it into submission just by his presence. The black lines of slaughter that slashed through the air as if to say that everything that defied his will and violated his taboos was wrong. And in the center of it all, Dianes, burning with a pitch-black aura in his eyes—to Eris, he was far too seductive.
‘I want to see it again.’
Eyes that had lost their reason, glowing blue with pure rage. A perfect swordsmanship perfected after thousands, no, tens of thousands of refinements. Even while surrendering his body to anger, his intent to kill was so sharp and exquisite that it was terrifyingly beautiful.
‘I’m jealous.’
What would it feel like to have such immense hatred, such pure rage, directed solely at her? To receive with her entire body the chillingly beautiful hell-flower that bloomed only for her?
‘I’m jealous! I’m going crazy!’
Just by recalling that face—the beautiful face of Dianes, who had lost his reason to pure rage—Eris felt her lower abdomen throbbing. If only he would grab her by the throat with the hand that held that sword, and glare at her with those eyes filled with fury!
“Haaa...”
The mere imagination made her body feel as if it were burning up.
“How is it? Am I right? That woman you killed, she’s your lover, right?”
So, Eris decided to step in a little. A small, private chamber enclosed by her wings. The most powerful heaven, the discord of Olympus, and the hatred prevalent everywhere. Bolstered by an unprecedentedly radical anger and conflict, and possessing an intuition sharper than anyone else when it came to such discord, Eris was confident.
Dianes, who usually showed such a carefree demeanor that even Poseidon or Zeus looked like children, had been angry enough to resolve to kill. Then, that strange woman revealed by Hecate’s trickery must surely be a human who had left a deep mark on Dianes.
However, Dianes was a man who would instantly slit the throat of a mortal enemy or laugh to inflict even greater pain. Therefore, it was reasonable to think that the woman was a lover, or at least a woman for whom he had harbored one-sided feelings. Yet, when Dianes first saw her face, he had been so surprised he looked as if he had seen a ghost, even showing fear. Eris had seen that look too many times.
“How is it? Am I right? Am I?”
Come now, get angry, hate me. All her desires turned into anger and hatred directed at her. Because she loved and desired him deeply, she wanted Dianes to be angry at her and hate her.
‘In the end, the things that remain most bitterly in all emotions and time are hatred and anger.’
Sadness is too heavy and sinks deep, and joy is too light and flies away in an instant. Only her divinity settled long in the souls of humans and gods, and its power crossed generations and eras.
The more he raged, the deeper Eris’s affection would grow. The more he hated, the larger and heavier the existence of Eris would become to Dianes.
If Aphrodite said that love was about falling madly for someone, then this was Eris’s way of loving, and her way of making someone love her.
“Hmm~? Why aren’t you saying anyth...”
“....”
But Dianes’s reaction was strange.
“Huu...”
How should she put it? He was angry and annoyed, but beyond that, he looked so dumbfounded that it was lamentable?
“You, don’t tell me that’s your taste... No, I suppose it’s natural if it’s natural. Good god.”
“Eh?”
The man she wanted to love and hate her was looking at her with a face like he was watching a child who had pulled a slightly mean prank, the same face her beloved mother used to look down at her with.
“I’m sorry. I called you the Goddess of Strife. Compared to you, you were just a softie.”
“What?! W-what is that supposed to mean?!”
“Forget it. Forget it. You’re cute, though.”
He apologized out of the blue, and then started stroking her hair as if he were soothing a young child?! How dare he! Her hair, which even Mother Nyx had praised as lustrous and flowing, like a flower on a spring day when war blooms!
“You! That’s blasphemy!”
-*Stroke, stroke.*-
“Aren’t you going to take your hand off? Ah, there. That feels good...”
-*Rustle, stroke. Rustle...*-
“Uhehehe....”
However, to Eris, who had never been touched by a man’s hand before, the exquisitely stroking touch was far too stimulating.
* * *
The group of gods all seemed to have a screw loose somewhere. I had certainly been short-sighted to think of Eris as just a simple goddess of strife, a goddess to be loathed.
‘This one isn’t in her right mind either.’
Hecate’s interest in me was akin to Athena’s. A craving for unknown knowledge from another world that she didn’t know. Of course, while Athena was a very dignified and rational scholar, this one was closer to a mad scientist who would inject poison into her own forearm if it meant getting results.
But Eris’s provocation was different. The end of her poison, which was filled with pure malice and ecstasy, was simply a pure desire for me to be angry and hate her.
Not for any other reason. The goddess simply wanted to see me angry. Eris just loved seeing me lose my reason and rage, and she didn’t know what to do with herself. But perhaps it was typical of the scatterbrained goddess Eris that it was exactly to that extent.
‘In times like this, getting angry is exactly what this goddess of strife would like.’
The goddess of discord and hatred only enjoyed discord, hatred, and the conflicts that followed, but a demon who had rolled and rolled through the red dust of the mortal world knew how to grasp and shake them.
‘In the first place, her motives are so obvious that I can’t even get angry.’
Of course, it was a goddess-like deductive ability to infer the relationship between me and her after seeing my reaction and Hecate, who wore her appearance. But how many eons had I built up to get fired up over the same subject right after having already exploded once over the same thing?
“Uhehe... meat, mee-at. Mo-re...”
Even if she was a goddess, Eris had adjusted herself to be infinitely close to a human. When I stroked her hair lightly and swept her blood points, she melted like sticky rice cake.
“Uung, hehehe...”
Looking at this scatterbrain who had completely let her guard down and was laughing foolishly, I didn’t know where that charisma from earlier had gone.
“However.”
That was one thing, but she needed to be properly disciplined.
-*Crunch!*-
“Hiek?!”
As expected of a goddess. That small head, which was soft yet fit perfectly in one hand, offered a great grip. Eris, whose hair was suddenly grabbed, woke up from her hypnotic state with wide eyes.
“Listen well. If you provoke me like that one more time, I’ll make you beg to be erased instead.”
“....”
I may look like this, but from techniques to martial arts and authority, everything that possesses humanity, has a consistent mind, and has form cannot escape the pain and ecstasy I bestow.
“Kill, collapse, destroy, and corrupt. That is my specialty.”
The realization of the demonic path I gained in my past life. The realization of divinity I walked in this life. If those I have taken in and those I am confronting are the protagonists who are meant to shine, then I am the wall that blocks them, the hammer and chisel that breaks them. Every agony and hardship they gained was, to me, authority and a weapon.
However, the only reason I haven’t used that power until now, except for Apollo and Athena—those arrogant twins of the sun and moon—is one thing.
“Because I’m not satisfied unless I collapse them thoroughly once I lay a hand on them.”
Because of that, the most famous and beautiful sun god had to taste death in an immortal body after being beaten by a giant he had looked down upon for so long, and the moon maiden goddess, who started with a bad relationship and acted up without knowing how high the sky was, had fallen into my hands before she even knew it, her body and mind held by me.
“But, do I really have to make you end up in such a terrible state too?”
“....”
If I hadn’t been in a state of ‘sage time’ like I was today, I might have really killed her with my own hands. Even if it didn’t look like it, I was secretly glad for the existence of siblings like Eris and Nemesis. It was my wish that I wouldn’t have to cut Eris’s throat with my own hands.
“So, never, ever provoke me like this again. Do you understand?”
“Yes. Ye-es...♥”
Whether she understood my threat or not, as I let go, Eris collapsed powerlessly with hearts floating in her eyes.
“...Ho-oh.”
As Eris collapsed, folding her wings, Hecate, who I faced again, was looking back and forth between me and Eris with an intrigued face.
“Wow... I suspected it, but I didn’t think you’d actually have Eris wrapped around your finger like this.”
My annoyance flared up at that beautiful, admiring face.
-*Shing!*-
After aiming precisely at the goddess’s smooth brow, it was finally worth talking.
“Shut up and get to the point. If I don’t like it, I’m just leaving.”
“Hmm? Are you sure you can act like that toward me right now?”
“What?”
Of course, I didn’t think she would be a goddess who would listen obediently just because I aimed a sword at her, but Hecate laughed confidently and reclined on the sofa.
“Ah, ah~ I can’t have that~ I was going to send you off just for the sake of seeing Hera’s face and the good show you gave me...”
Shrugging her shoulders in a theatrical manner, Hecate looked at me with half-lidded eyes and laughed.
“Who do you think Hydra is quietly sealed in Lerna thanks to, anyway?”