Chapter 52
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 52
Chapter Title: Nyx's Daughters: Eris and Nemesis
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The Virgin of the Embers, Herald of Disaster, Mischief-Maker of Strife, and Goddess of Discord.
Eris, daughter of Nyx who instilled fear in Olympus and Greece alike, floated along as if walking on clouds, her heart light and buoyant.
Just moments ago, at their mother's summons, Nyx's children had gathered in Tartarus for the first time in ages.
In her eyes were the mystical Three Sisters of Fate, the Moirae—her older sisters.
The stern Nemesis sister, the taciturn brother Thanatos, the ferryman Charon brother, and even Hypnos brother, dozing off with his head nodding at the gates of the abyss.
All the siblings currently active in Greece, maintaining their consciousness, had assembled.
Nyx's offspring, who struck terror and dread into any human or god they encountered, even one by one.
Gathering such beings in one place, the words spoken by their Night Mother, risen from the depths of Tartarus, were utterly shocking.
Their brother had been born after thousands of years.
The stone-faced Nemesis sister couldn't close her gaping mouth in astonishment,
The usually silent Thanatos brother's eyes widened round,
The ferryman Charon dropped his oar,
And Hypnos brother jolted awake from his sleep.
Even the three Fate sisters, who had been spinning their threads right there, nearly dropped their sacred tools.
No need to say how monumental this news was.
Moreover, at their mother's added remark that he had been shaped in human form and now wandered the lands of Greece, the siblings felt as if they'd been struck on the head.
Why? How? What on earth?
Leaving behind only a brief reunion with her children after centuries and this bombshell declaration from out of nowhere, the ancient Night Mother slipped back into the abyss.
The reason for their shock wasn't just that their mother had created a new sibling after millennia.
The problem was that she had molded him in human form of all things.
Humans were beings granted innate uncertainty and endless potential by the primordial Chaos.
Finite yet evolving through generations, they sometimes produced unprecedented geniuses among them, propelling all humanity forward in an instant.
The opposite of gods, whose essence remained unchanged unless inheriting divine duties in eternal immortality—lumps of unpredictable possibility that even the gods couldn't foresee.
The great prophecy that Olympus needed human heroes to avert Gaia's foretold war meant that only when divine power merged with human potential could they overcome the curse of the Protogenoi.
Even the old Titan kings of yore feared the possibilities granted by Chaos to humans, demoting and crushing mankind as insignificant to destroy that potential itself.
And yet.
The mother of fate, the primordial Night even the Olympian dynasty feared, had birthed her child in human flesh?
"Chaos help us..."
"Mother, what in the..."
"Sisters, we..."
"""We're doomed."""
The goddesses of fate slumped in unison, while death and the ferryman undoubtedly entertained useless thoughts behind them.
Eris alone stifled her laughter, stomping her feet in glee.
'This is gonna be fun!'
Somewhere between human and god.
Shaped as human, yet essentially one of them, born of the primordial Night—surely the start of monumental chaos.
True to her nature as the goddess of strife and discord, Eris, already scenting massive conflict, moved swiftly to act.
-Crunch!
"Eek?!"
No sooner had she spread her wings than a pitch-black balance sword slammed down on her garment's hem.
Following it upward with her gaze, pale white eyes glared at her.
"S-Sis? What's wrong?"
"Eris, you were definitely thinking something weird again, weren't you?"
The goddess of retribution and retribution, stern guardian calling for justice.
Nemesis.
Eris's older sister, whom she called the blockheaded stone girl with no give—now glaring at her with severe eyes.
Six pitch-black wings fluttered sharply, her long raven hair equally dark, in perfect contrast to her snow-white skin.
And those sharp, piercing pale eyes that seemed to see through all worldly lies, almost without pupils, sometimes made even her sister Eris flinch.
"No, what did I even do?!"
"Lie to Mother instead. Don't even think of feeding me your nonsense."
"...Tch!"
As Nemesis sister said, Eris had planned to bolt from the underworld right then to find her unseen baby brother.
How much had she been worked to the bone among the siblings as the youngest?
Now a perfect little brother had appeared to pass all that hardship onto—who'd let that slide?
But the goddess of judgment, in charge of her since childhood, had already seen through her completely.
"Sigh... Here. Take this, Eris."
"What's th—this?!"
What Nemesis handed her was a pitch-black wooden tablet.
Those who committed unforgivable great sins sometimes received Nemesis's tablets; the black ones were reserved for the gravest offenders.
"O...rion? Oh! That bastard child Amphitrite went on about when he was born, the one where she kept saying kill Poseidon or save him?"
"Yes, a fool who committed a great sin."
"He stirred up massive strife in the young heroes' forest. Chiron came to greet me every time asking for Orion first, but it quieted down once that Heracles guy showed up."
But what had this bastard done to earn a spot on Nemesis's judgment list?
"Incest, no less— he even tried to harm and assault Oceanus's daughter in his stead. But that's nothing."
"Nothing?"
-Boom!
Unable to contain her rage, Nemesis yanked the balance sword from Eris's hem and slammed it down again.
At that ferocious sight, even Eris dared not think of slipping away now.
"To dare... insult our revered Mother, the ancient Night and primordial Darkness whom we must revere! Without knowing her properly, insulting our brother still bearing human karma, and moreover, letting it reach my ears in this moment shrouded by Night— that is his sin!"
'...Oh boy.'
This Orion guy might be better off dying cleanly, Eris thought.
Just then, she caught a key fact from her fury-filled sister's words.
"So... this involves our baby brother?"
And telling me about it means?
Watching her suddenly eager sister press for more, Nemesis could only clutch her forehead.
"...Hoo, not sure if this is wise."
For Nemesis, who revered and loved her mother more than any siblings in the world, Orion was a supreme criminal.
Her true desire: rush to the heroes' forest, shove that young rude sinner into torment worse than hell.
Yet somehow, Poseidon, hearing his son's name was on her judgment list, blocked her path just before entering the underworld.
First with the prestige of an Olympian triad god, leading massive waves to bar her.
Her balance sword quelled the outrage, so he personally swung his trident causing quakes, clashing against it—but even the triad gods couldn't stop Nemesis exercising her rightful duty.
In the end, Poseidon threatened in desperation to seal all underworld entrances with quakes and tsunamis.
For Nemesis, her duty mattered, but delaying Mother's rare summons after centuries was impossible; she swore to open the path, greet Mother, then negotiate with the sea god.
But before the sinner fled knowing or Poseidon hid him, she had to infiltrate the heroes' forest and capture the insolent culprit.
"Hmm... so you're telling me to go deal with that Orion punk and our intriguing little...?"
"What did you say?"
"...to look after our poor brother who suffered the insult?"
As Eris's shoulders twitched with excitement and amusement, the balance sword swayed in tandem.
The pitiful youngest who couldn't win by strength or time—no, not the youngest anymore.
Anyway, the beautiful, pitiable maiden of strife, discord, and rivalry had no choice but to shut her mouth.
Nodding satisfied at Eris's silence, Nemesis continued.
"Exactly. Even as children of our great and merciful Mother, dreaded by Olympus itself, members of Nyx's progeny—
he's only been in the heroes' forest three days, so against Poseidon's son who's been wreaking havoc on young heroes, he'd be no match.
Go bind that sinner and protect our fragile sibling!"
Those words mere minutes ago—and now the maiden of strife and discord faced a lifetime crisis at that fragile sibling's hand.
-Whooosh!
"Hiiik?!"
A massive black sword evoking Nemesis's balance blade grazed her forehead in an instant.
"Huh? Dodged?"
It was the moment her tear-soaked childhood memories shone—drilled in Tartarus hell-training because "as Nyx's daughter, you need martial talent," stabbed and slashed countless times by that balance sword.
"U-um? Baby bro? My bad, let's talk this out first..."
But that's why she knew.
This guy was no mere fledgling young hero.
One slip, and she might get beaten to near-death by the baby brother, spending ages recovering in the abyss.
Thus, the goddess of strife and maiden of discord performed the bizarre miracle of backing down in the conflict she ignited and suing for peace.
"I'm telling you, I never had a sister like you!"
...Though the miracle's beneficiary showed zero interest in accepting.
-Roarrr!
Gnashing his teeth viciously, the baby brother added pitch-black flames to his sword.
How was that a fragile sibling or a three-day newbie in the heroes' forest?
Eris made a tearful face, inwardly cursing her absent sister.
As sister said, catching that Orion fledgling was easy.
Even from afar, the low aura of jealousy and discord wafted; following it past Chiron's eyes into the forest, she found the wrecked fledgling hero collapsed amid the mess.
To evade Poseidon and Olympian eyes, she borrowed Mother's power to isolate the area, descending personally to punish the one who dared insult Mother.
Poseidon's bastard son, spotting eyes upon him, let lust bloom in his gaze upward.
Stunned by the sight, she subdued him a bit harshly, but mission complete—time to reunite with the eagerly awaited baby bro.
From afar in the sky, that pretty black-haired young hero screamed "our baby bro."
Jet-black hair overall, snow-white face, pretty—idly wondered if Nemesis sister looked like that as a kid.
And smartly, at her slight glance, he dashed right to his big sis.
Like a girl raising a puppy, endeared by his cuteness—vowed not to hell-train him like Nemesis sister.
But what was this?
Now Eris was about to get devoured in reverse.
-Boom! Boom!
"Still... dodging?"
How did he pull off such divine moves? Clutching the fainted nymph, her brother swung black sword and black flames ferociously.
"Eek! Dodge, gotta dodge! Or I'm dead meat!"
"So why provoke death? Making us both tired!"
It looked like typical sibling spat, but the baby bro's black sword somehow sealed her flight and evasion perfectly.
Like a caged bird driven into the corner, his blade relentlessly pressed and bound her.
What martial art or magic could bind Nyx's daughter? Eris was baffled.
But opponent was Nyx's son too, albeit human-bodied.
A once-in-history singularity granted human chaos potential and Nyx's power.
In a way, it made sense.
"Still! Using that on your own sister?!"
Tears welling, whining like she did to other siblings.
But the baby bro's eyes held no pity.
Cattle-Raising Demon Sword - Initial Heat Mirror
Black Flame Myriad Forms
"Black Flame... what?"
Muttering like a magic incantation, the unnamed baby bro swung his black-flame-wreathed sword.
Pitch-black flames melted everything in their path, lunging at her.
-Roooaaarrr!!
"Gaaah!"
When the endless flame charge finally ended.
From the black flame's tip, Eris staggered to her feet, flickering.
"Oh...?"
"Y-You...!"
The baby bro gasped in admiration, never expecting her to rise; the goddess of strife glared, dropping her barrier.
"T-To your... b-big sis... is this... okay...?"
"For someone saying that, you crossed the line first."
"Th-That was just a prank!"
"Draining a kid's energy with unknown tricks, blatantly flapping wings to provoke touching Neris—that was you. Getting hit is natural, no?"
Tilting his head, swinging the sword her way while still cradling the white nymph—infuriating; Eris trembled all over.
I'm the big sister.
I'm the sister.
No longer the baby, she was the senior goddess to squash this new baby under her like Nemesis sister and teach him...
"Black Flame blocked, now Terror Flame's turn?"
Gently setting the nymph behind him, the baby bro gripped the black sword two-handed in stance.
The torch-like black flames sank instantly.
No, not sunk.
Just compressed into the blade's surface, invisible outwardly.
"Blocked Black Flame, wonder about Terror Flame?"
For the first time, a smile crossed the cold statue-like baby bro's face.
Very cold, very cruel.
Perfectly suiting her tastes—brutally sadistic.
Cattle-Raising Sword - Initial Heat Mirror
The black sword rose high into the sky, then slowly fell toward the distant Eris.
Distracted by the smile piercing her heart and the beautiful sword.
In that instant Eris forgot to dodge.
-Clang!
"That's far enough, brother."
The judgment sword engraved with white balance and karmic wheel blocked the black sword.