The Myth of the Greek Heavenly Demon

“Ugh…”

“Is this truly the right thing to do? No matter how improper their conduct, Orion and his gang are still part of this forest…”

“We only hope that the beautiful nymph does not enjoy the taste of blood.”

As I was diligently grilling meat with Hercules, the other Golden Generation members, who seemed to be planning to just sit until the meat was ready, mercilessly gossiped behind our backs.

Their tone and words…
They reminded me of those Justice Sect folks who would lovingly take care of their own even if they committed rape or massacre.

“Not that it’s a bad thing, though.”

As I shrugged my shoulders slightly and turned over the lamb, Hercules, who was tearing raw meat on the other side, nodded in agreement.

“Following the virtues of Hestia is not wrong. But without the strength of Ares and the wisdom of Athena, it is just empty talk.”

“Right, to realize cooperation, one needs the wisdom to see it rightly and the strength to practice it.”

Otherwise, it’s just an armchair argument.
In that sense, they were similar to the members of the Murim Alliance I saw in my previous life.
Even though they belonged to the same sect, even though they were members of the same forest.
These people place more emphasis on the affiliation than on the character, condition, or morality of the subject.
While arguing incessantly among themselves about what honor was and what virtue was in the mountains, and watching the world go mad from a distance, in the end, everything fell apart in my hands.

‘Come to think of it, most of those guys, like the so-called masters of the Justice Sects, ended their lives in tragedy, collapsing under their own weight.’

First of all, Theseus kidnapped a much younger girl in an attempt to groom her, only for her brothers to overthrow his kingdom, and later, he was killed by the king of the kingdom he sought asylum in.
Jason went through great hardships to complete the quest for the throne, but his wife, whom he brought back with him, was a witch.
He tried to take a concubine, leaving his wife alone, and his entire family was ruined by his wife’s hand, and he went mad and died in an accident.
Asclepius, caught in the midst of the Olympian gods’ corrupt nature, was struck dead by a thunderbolt but was later resurrected as a god.
Orpheus went to the underworld to save his wife and returned, but failed the quest due to his own mistake. He was later killed by passing drunkards.

…Oh dear.
Looking at it this way, among the ones here, not a single one had lived and died smoothly.

“Hey! The meat’s burning!”

“…Oh, right.”

And this little hero in front of me, fussing about the meat burning… what could I say?
Among the ones gathered here, wasn’t this guy the most ill-fated?

“Hey. Why are you looking at me like that? As if you’re looking at an old man about to die?”

“…It’s nothing.”

The Recursion Doctor said.
Everyone has their own fate.
Living in this world, everyone has their own role, and their own fate to manage.
This guy and those guys, they all have reasons to voluntarily face hardships and overcome them, leaving their names in history and mythology.
Just as I had once become a god by receiving the aspirations of a million demon swords and ascending to that heavy dragon robe and the hellfire-like throne.
For now, since I am here, I might influence their lives to some extent, but intervening beyond that to change their lives is something I shouldn’t and can’t do.
Not being able to touch them and yet rashly pitying them was also a foolish act.

“By the way, shouldn’t you go see Nesneria?”

“Hmm, should we go now? The playtime should be over by now.”

Sigh, I don’t even know how much effort it would take to rebuild my original martial arts.
Was this the time to worry about others?
As I sorted out my thoughts and reached out for a new piece of meat again.
Something strange caught my eye.

“Hey. What’s that?”

“Huh? What?”

“That. In the sky… Is that a bird?”

The moment I lifted my head, following the smoke rising from the grill.
Something freely traversing the sky under the bright halo of the moon caught my eye.

“…A pink bird?”

A flying object of an incredibly eye-catching color was freely roaming the sky, commanding attention.
Even performing acrobatic flights and 360-degree spins, its movements seemed to scream, ‘Look at me,’ naturally drawing attention.
It couldn’t possibly be a bird.
Could it be that ancient UFOs actually existed? Was that a thing?

…I tried to lessen the tension with frivolous thoughts, but the centuries of time I’ve lived held me back from dismissing it as something trivial.

“It smells heavily of incidents and accidents…”

Nevertheless, my uneasy intuition urged me to heighten my vision to observe it closely.
A pair of blood-red eyes, looking directly at me, were smiling malevolently.

“What on earth are you looking at? What’s with the pink? The sky’s so rough today that even the birds aren’t out.”

Hercules was babbling something beside me, confused, but I had no time to respond.

Its identity was a woman.
With long pink hair and a beauty boasting sensuality even from afar, her venomous smile naturally evoked the word ‘seductress.’
However, the large wings behind her, resembling those of a bat, and the ominous blood-red aura she exuded, informed me that she was a god, and a very, very dangerous one at that.

“…I’m going.”

Leaving just those words, I deployed my full qi into my Ghost Flying Step.
The direction that venomous-smiling goddess was heading was undoubtedly towards the forest where Neri had gone.

It seemed tonight would not pass quietly after all.

Even the insects seemed to be horrified by the tragedy, as two figures wandered aimlessly through the eerily silent forest.

“Sniff! Sniff…!”

“Q-quiet! Sh-shut up!”

Orion, son of Poseidon, and Hecateris, son of Hecate.
Once celebrated as future great heroes and mighty sorcerers, the glory and confidence they once had were nowhere to be found. Not even the sinister cunning they used on nymphs and female heroes or the cruelty they inflicted on the weaker could be seen.

Their hair was disheveled, their tunics were soiled with dirt and leaves, and their hands and knees were bloodied from rolling on the ground.
However, what would shock anyone the most was their faces, which were reminiscent of madmen.
Their eyes were hollow and unfocused, their mouths drooled with blood and saliva, and their noses were crooked.
They no longer resembled the minor heroes who once harvested in the Forest of Heroes, nor the tyrants who oppressed numerous young talents. Their current state was utterly pitiable.
However, the horrific disaster that unfolded before their eyes just moments ago was enough to shock even the strongest of minds.

“Kyahahaha! Where are you going? Tag? Hide and seek? I like anything! Dianes said it! If you start something, you have to finish it cleanly! So don’t run away~”

And the clear voice that whipped around their ears as they were out of breath.
If they even slightly lost strength and slowed their steps, that voice would come flying, and they couldn’t afford to slow down.
How long had they run like that? Finally, the magician, exhausted, screamed at Orion.

“O-O-Orion…!”

“Wh-what the hell?! If you want to die, do it alone!”

“This is strange! I mean it, it’s strange!”

“What the hell is so strange?!”

“This forest!”

“What?”

Only after hearing the words of the last remaining member of his gang did Orion realize the oddity.
Originally, this forest attached to the Forest of Heroes for hunting and gathering practice wasn’t that big.
At most, it was a forest that Orion could traverse in five minutes if he ran at full speed.
But now, they had been running through this forest for clearly more than thirty minutes.

“Wh-what’s going on…?”

“That’s not all!”

It was evident that if they stayed like this, that scoundrel would use him as bait and escape.
The magician, who had to somehow stick with him, was rolling his eyes frantically and then discovered the biggest anomaly.

“Th-the moon is gone.”

“What?”

Orion was startled by those words and looked up at the sky. Only then could Orion sense something strange.
It was a clear night without a single cloud, but Artemis’s chariot, which should have been looking down at them, was nowhere to be seen.

“Wh-what’s going on?”

Unable to just stand there stupidly, the son of Poseidon and the child of Hecate felt their legs give out, unable to stand any longer.

-Thud!

The moon was the chariot of the goddess, who raced through the night, and the eye of Olympus that protected Greece day and night.
But the moon had disappeared?
It meant that a force powerful enough to even obscure the eye of Olympus had trapped them and this forest.

“H-how is this even possible? This is the Forest of Heroes! The inviolable sanctuary bestowed by the twelve gods of Olympus to the sage Chiron!”

The child of Hecate, well-versed in sorcery and magic, clutched his head and screamed in madness, unable to explain the phenomenon with any wisdom he had learned.
No god, not even the King of Gods, Zeus, dared to show such great divine power in the Forest of Heroes.
It was a consecrated land where the honor of the twelve Olympian gods and even the King of the Underworld, who had no place in Olympus, respected Chiron.
Releasing such immense divine power to hide the moon in this forest was impossible.

“Th-this…”

Orion gritted his teeth as he looked at his last comrade kneeling on the ground, screaming.
How did things get so twisted?
What on earth had he meddled with?
Why must he suffer this humiliation?
With one question leading to another and nowhere to direct his hate, Orion could only grit his teeth.

“I, the son of Poseidon…!”

Orion, trembling all over from despair and hatred, slowly lifted his head at the presence that gently landed before him.

“Hello~ Are you very busy?”

There, a beautiful enchantress was looking down at him with a venomous smile.