Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
“Ruins of Olympus?” Hesperides had no idea that Hao Ren had called on her for this matter. Frowning deeply, she asked, “What are you doing looking for that?”
“So it’s real?” Hao Ren did not dare harbor much hope, but Hesperides’ reaction gave his suspicion some credence. “Any clues?”
Hesperides shook her head as she continued frowning. “Not now. Tell me, what are you planning to do, looking for the ruins of Olympus?”
Hao Ren eyed Vivian to his side and felt that it would probably the very difficult to explain to Hesperides on the matter of the ‘Ultimate Salvation”, “the Truth of the Deicide,” and the concept of “the Guide”, but he could not tell her about. After composing his thoughts, he spoke. “This has something to do with Vivian. Remember the last time at the ruins of the Olympian temple we ran into Vivian’s sculpture? We later found a similar one in the Siren’s treasure trove, and it is the same piece of work, probably made by someone or a group of people from of the Olympians in secret. And in our last mission, we ran into even more suspicious clues and all of them points to… the image of Vivian. I guess that’s as far as I can explain.”
“So you are looking for clues of the secret worship of Vivian amongst my family?” Hesperides caught on to what Hao Ren was saying. While she knows that there is probably a lot of dark secrets coming from this, but she wisely did not dig further, as the sole descendant of an ancient ruined family, her curiosity to many things had long faded, even to matters of her own family. “This might be difficult as I too don’t know much about this. Even back then, such things are kept in total secrecy. Now that Olympus had fallen, there’s very little left of anything from that age. Looking for clues will be even more difficult.”
As she spoke, a deep-in-thought expression appeared on Hesperides’ face. She ran through her memory before shaking her head. “Mount Olympus was not like Yggdrasil. As a foreign dimension, it was not stable, and after Zeus’ flames were snuffed out it collapsed upon itself, and nothing much was left behind. It was pretty much a miracle the other time you managed to find those dimensional fragments, but miracles rarely come twice. The only surviving Olympians today, aside from me, are only a couple of juniors. They were not even considered “gods” on Mount Olympus, so what they know is definitely even lesser than me, and what I do have is probably not of your interest.”
Hao Ren and Vivian looked at each other before he let out a sigh. “Aih.. alright, I know this would not be a walk in the park, but I hope you can do me a favor and keep an ear out for things.”
“No problem. A simple matter, now that the lock-down is lifted.” Hesperides smiled. “I will contact my friends from other sanctuaries and collect any remnants and relics of Olympus as well. I’ll be in touch if I have any news. Oh yeah, what’s your Skype ID?”
Hao Ren was stunned, and his expression awkward. “Uh…. do you use Wechat?”
“…Forget about that. I’ll just drop you an email instead…”
Hao Ren then proceeded to exchange email addresses with a blank look on his face. At that moment Hesperides suddenly recalled something. “Oh yeah, if you are looking for more ancient knowledge, I have an idea. It will be weird coming from me though.”
Hao Ren looked at her curiously. “What sort of idea?”
“Demon hunters.” Hesperides face turned slightly, but she still said it. “They had destroyed many otherworldling families, but they will always preserve all form of knowledge. Their elders and saints were always hungry for all sorts of arcane knowledge. If there are any surviving items that I don’t know of, chances are they’re in their libraries.”
Probably because of the accord, Hesperides had avoided terms like ‘robbed’ or ‘stolen’, but what really happened back then was common knowledge.
Hao Ren immediately recalled the massive library in Coldpath that had bookshelves spanning into the sky.
If the Siren’s treasure trove is the repository of the most lost items in the world, the demon hunter’s library is probably the repository of most the world’s knowledge.
And of course the repository of all sort of manga, comics, and limited edition games. All thanks to White Flame’s efforts in preserving the best of human cultural legacies.
Hao Ren quickly sent White Flame a message seeking the latter’s help in finding out more information about the Olympians.
After Hesperides had left, only did Vivian questioned Hao Ren. “You’re suspecting that the statues the Olympians had made have something to do with the Ultimate Salvation?”
Before Hao Ren could even respond, Lily pounced upon the topic. “Of course! You really think those gods had made sculptures resembling you just because they were decadent rich fags that had nothing else better to do, and needed to pray to a goddess of bankruptcy to let off some steam?”
Hao Ren titled his head for a bit and was pretty sure that he was just about to say what Lily had just mouthed out…
Vivian immediately threw Lily a furious glare, but the latter had already scampered off after blabbering without much thought. Turning back to Hao Ren, she said, “Don’t tell me that those statues.. are mimicking that ritual in the Ark of Origin?”
“It’s quite clear that they were not able to reproduce it, but I would not discount that fact at all.” Hao Ren nodded. “No one knows if the Olympians had actually received salvation, but there are people amongst them who knows of the Deicide and the Original Sin, and they had mistaken you for a vessel of the goddess, or her reincarnation, and probably hoped to absolve their sins by idolatry, or to avoid the coming of the world’s end.”
“Then why didn’t they coming looking for me? Wouldn’t it be more effective to seek forgiveness from the person proper than praying to some random statue?” Vivian suddenly found herself unable to comprehend their actions.
Hao Ren raised an eyebrow. “Nonsense, try putting your feet in their shoes, and if they would actually come to you back in the day going ‘Oh dear me, you are really a goddess, and got stabbed by someone. We somehow had accidentally helped the killer, and now Armageddon is upon us. So just stand there and let us prostrate ourselves before you. If that doesn’t work feel free to freeload at our place as long as you want!’ What would be your reaction?”
Vivian pondered for a bit. “I would think Zeus was a crazy bastard before flying off to the opposite side of Earth to chill out. Oh, I might have beaten the snot out of them before that.”
“Well, there you have it.” Hao Ren shrugged. “First of all, you would not have co-operated, and Zeus and his kin probably have no idea what is their progress. So wouldn’t it be super awkward if they were to pull off some insane ritual only for it to not work? So I think they went the path of idolatry to see if things work and if it does to proceed further…”
“It must have been because it did not work that they did not bother finding Battie no?” Lily quipped casually.
As she just said that, everyone trained their eyes on the dumb husky, and Hao Ren had to take a deep breath before spitting venom. “That’s because they got wiped out by your underlings in your previous lifetime.”
Lily’s ears perked up immediately as she glared back. “I’m their former lord! You know what former means?! So why the hell what had happened after my abdication has to do with me?
Hao Ren was really confused by the point of view the dumb husky had taken…
Well, for both Hesperides and White Flame, poring through ancient tomes from ages past is not something that can be done quickly, so Hao Ren put the matter aside temporarily. Turning to Odin, he saw the old man standing facing Hel, both were silent.
He had no idea how long the two had been staring at each other, but the atmosphere was getting uncomfortable.
Odin had already gotten over the matter. For an old man who had sat on his iron throne for two thousand years before going on a trip to space with Yggdrasil, what was there to not let go. Hel, on the other hand, was still weary. Based on what Vivian had said, Hel back in the day was a hotheaded rebellious rascal, and her way to rebel against her parents was rather refreshing: She led almost a million dead to wipe out the elders, and that was the cause of tension.
The Twilight of the Gods in Norse mythology was a saga full of blood and tears, and every hero in the story was a steel-hearted warrior, and the generations after only knew of the mighty clash between gods, but the real story behind it was filled with regret, blind rage, treachery and misunderstanding, and those heroes were mere mortals.
But as Hao Ren looked at the two, he was close to getting a panic attack from the awkwardness alone.
“It’s fine. It has always been like this.” Odin turned towards Hao Ren, his expression stiff. “No matter when we meet, we never had anything to say… Ah, forget about it. This is way better than last time. The mood was even worse.”
Hel turned away with a blank face too. “Don’t like talking.”
“Alright, alright, I’ll leave it to you two to work things out.” Hao Ren heaved a sigh of relief as he knew that the two had buried the hatchet. “I’m heading back.”
Odin was dumbfounded and his expression changed quite a bit before returning to a serious look. “I know my words are hollow, but I wish to let you know, your aid of the Nine Worlds leave me…”
“Hold it right there.” Hao Ren waved Odin off. “I’ll never get used to that. It’s just my job.”
Odin nodded as he grabbed Hao Ren’s hand. “I’ll leave them in your good hands.”
Hao Ren smiled. “Have a well-deserved rest.”
Hessiana then scurried from the corner as she hugged Vivian’s leg. “Lady Vivian, you’re leaving already?”
Vivian simply just threw blasted the little bat familiar away with a thunderbolt before pulling Hao Ren by the arm. “Oh stop it. Let’s go!”
