Greek Mythology: The Spiritual Dominator.

Chapter 278 The last snow and sound
In the human world, the sky is full of snow.

It was February and the ground was still covered with frost.

The rotation of the twelve star fields of the zodiac has just reached the center of the twelfth ecliptic plane. If it is in the distant future, maybe it will have another better name - Pisces.

Of course, it is difficult to guess whether it will get the same name in this life. At least for now, it is just an ordinary star field.

The cold wind is still howling, and it is said that "everything must be reversed at the extreme". This is a truth known to everyone, but often only the truly wise can see through the fog and see where the so-called "extreme" is.

There is undoubtedly no such existence in the human world at this moment. They cannot see through the struggle between the gods reflected behind the natural changes, so the bloodshed and disputes are becoming more and more intense. Many hatreds are forged at this time, and many cities are also affected by this. destroy.

The loser loses his life or dies quietly from hunger and cold. The victors are not happy either, because as long as this natural disaster is not over, they will continue to 'win'.

Then resentments began to pile up, and the curse of disaster began to spread... When facing a crisis, people always need a way to vent, and it happens that they just have someone to vent to.

That is of course not the goddess of agriculture. After all, in the eyes of humans, Demeter is the only god willing to personally help them. In the history of mankind, there was a very important existence. She brought disaster to the world and destroyed an era of mankind.

She is Pandora, an ominous woman. The meaning of this name was 'the woman with all gifts', but now, it is more understood as 'the source of all disasters'.

……

In the north of the mainland, on a trail outside an unknown valley.

A few jackdaws circled in the sky, making dry calls. The dead trees that had no branches and leaves were swaying in the wind, as if they were about to collapse in the next moment.

Wearing a soft hat on his head, he held a wooden stick stained with blood. Under the falling snow, a young man walked in front, and behind him, an extremely beautiful woman followed suit.

The cold wind blew into the valley, creating a unique echo, accompanied by the gentle footsteps of the two people. They looked like they had come a long way, but there was no sign of fatigue in them.

"Are you still thinking about those people you met before?"

The stick poked the ground, and for Epimetheus, although he didn't need it to make sure the road under the snow was smooth, he still used it as needed.

Along the way, he had become accustomed to pretending to be an ordinary mortal, which saved him a lot of trouble.

"I just don't understand... why they're looking at me like that."

Pandora's somewhat pale face followed, as beautiful as ever. It's a pity that no one can appreciate her charming charm in the cold and windy north.

"I haven't done anything. This natural disaster has nothing to do with me, but why..."

The voice became smaller and smaller, gradually becoming inaudible, and Pandora seemed to be reminded of that day again.

After seeing his men being easily killed one by one by Epimetheus, the young guard captain showed no fear at all. He still charged at the person in front of him, and was nailed to the ground by the man in front of him with his wooden staff.

But until the last moment of his life, he still looked in Pandora's direction with that hateful look.

They called her a 'witch', meaning a woman with extraordinary powers like a monster who would bring disaster to mankind. But Pandora knew very well that except for the blessings from the gods that she could not actively activate, she was just an ordinary human being, and she could not even defeat the young man with extraordinary martial arts.

If she can cause this storm that affects the world, then it really sounds like a joke.

"Why lie to yourself...you know exactly why."

"Although you are deliberately endowed with strong curiosity, it does not mean that you are really that stupid - you are different from God."

With a faint smile, Epimetheus didn't know who he was talking about.

"After all, if a god is stupid now, he will probably be consistent in the past and in the future. Few of them can learn from experience. No matter how much time passes, nothing seems to have changed."

"But you are a human being. You are not born with a priesthood, so naturally you will not be affected by it. Unlike other mortals, you only have a few decades to live. So you don't need to make such a gesture. Come on - I've seen all the changes you've made along the way."

There was no response, but following the man, Pandora's expression calmed down.

Yes, just like he just said. Maybe when I first opened the magic jar, I did feel sad and despairing about human beings' resentment and misunderstanding, but I don't feel that way anymore.

It's a simple truth, a long time can smooth everything. The time that was short to God was already long enough for her. Compared to human misunderstandings, what really stuck with her was the captain's bravery without fear of death.

He had the courage that most gods and humans did not have... and then he died in front of him so easily.

"Actually, in comparison, I really want to know - for what reason did you reveal your name?"

Not knowing what the woman behind him was thinking, Epimetheus asked casually:

"You should know that when your deeds spread, and when the human corpses are discovered, your name of bringing natural disasters will be confirmed."

"Then... there will be more and more beliefs that surround you but cannot be absorbed by you, making you unable to rest day and night."

"It wasn't intentional," there was no answer, Pandora just corrected: "I just forgot my reputation among humans for a moment."

"Well, I forgot about it for a moment."

Nodding, Epimetheus was noncommittal.

The two continued to move forward.

We walked through the long and narrow valley entrance for a long time, until the front finally gradually became a lot more spacious. There is no wind and snow here, and the white frost falling from the sky seems to encounter an invisible barrier, and the place only one step away is still full of life.

Epimetheus stopped here, looked around, and then waved gently.

"Just stay here for now."

"……it is good."

Nodding, Epimetheus continued walking inside.

Behind him, Pandora held the magic jar that had been with her for many years and watched him go away.

……

Crossing a creek that was only a few steps wide, passing by a small area that looked like farmland, soon, an exquisite wooden house appeared at the end of the line of sight.

In front of the wooden house there is a stone table, a few chairs, and a small flower garden surrounded by a wooden fence.

Everything seemed very pastoral, even the middle-aged man who was the only one sitting there.

Compared with what he remembered, the figure looked much larger, but his demeanor looked very leisurely.

"Father, it seems that under the protection of Mother Earth's power, you have been doing well recently."

Striding forward, Epimetheus called out the identity of the person in front of him.

Iapetus, one of the least present among the Titans. He probably left the deepest impression on the world by giving birth to several Prometheus brothers.

Of course, now all of his children can be considered enemies of the Olympus Court.

"There's nothing good or bad, I just want to find a place to live quietly. It's just that I want very few things, so it's easy to be satisfied."

Sitting on a simple recliner with his eyes closed and meditating, Iapetus didn't seem very enthusiastic about his long-lost son. "That's good. Since mother left here, I always thought you would feel lonely."

Smiling, Epimetheus found a chair and sat down.

"Near this valley, I did see a few special human groups. They used the flesh and blood of wild beasts to sacrifice to the gods - some gods I have never heard of, and claimed that 'all things have animism'."

"They seem to think that the object they worship is a tree, a stone, or some kind of powerful beast or something. I didn't care much about this until I discovered that those things actually have consciousness and can absorb faith. "

"Do you know what's going on?"

Asking casually, Epimetheus didn't really expect to get any answer.

Although it happened not far from here, he was sure that his old father would not be interested in it.

Or to be more precise, like him, he stayed away from this phenomenon that he didn't know why it happened, especially when the human world could not exert much power.

"I don't know," Iapetus responded as expected: "If you are interested in them, you can stay nearby for a while."

So the topic ended here. Epimetheus obviously had no intention of causing any extra trouble for himself.

But the conversation started, and the father and son, who had not seen each other for a long time, began to talk about some useful or useless things. They talked about the past days, about Atlas holding up the sky, and about Prometheus being escorted to the East Sea.

Epimetheus spoke mostly, while Iapetus only occasionally gave some reactions.

It wasn't until the sun set that the late-awakened man asked a question unintentionally.

"I remember... you once made a prophecy and saw the sun falling into the East China Sea?"

"That's not a prophecy I made," Iaptus said calmly, shaking his head and saying, "That's because fate took the initiative to find me."

"No matter what it is, father, I'm just curious..."

"In your understanding, how does fate work? In other words, can the person who controls fate really control it freely?"

Raising his head slightly, Iapitus looked at his son.

As in the past, the latter seemed to have none of his brother's confidence and intelligence. Even now, he still feels so.

"Probably not, that's my answer."

After looking for a while without giving a reason, Iapetus said calmly.

"……I see."

With the smile still on his face, Epimetheus continued to chat with his father for a while. He didn't say goodbye until the sun completely set.

The silver moon had not yet risen into the sky, so he walked back to the valley entrance step by step, where Pandora was still waiting for him.

Passing through the boundary between warm and cold wind, the hindsighter looked in the direction of the sunset. The person sitting on the golden chariot now is not Helios, but Apollo who needs to exert all his strength to control the divine chariot.

It seems that compared to the peeping tom who inherited Hyperion's title of "Looker from Above", this temporary Apollo probably didn't have the time to look around.

"gone."

With a greeting, Epimetheus walked towards the way he came.

“We go around the world and plant a church.”

"Is it for you? We seem to be considered guilty by Olympus, right?"

"Of course it's not an aboveboard establishment, use your brain."

Shaking his head, Epimetheus said
"And this isn't for my church, this is for you...and your jar, of course."

······
brush--

Hades, the entrance to the abyss.

The space stirred for a while, and then golden light flashed. The next moment, Helios' somewhat embarrassed figure appeared there.

However, there were no injuries on his body. Obviously, although he had just encountered a little trouble, it was not enough to really hurt him.

"Phew - it seems my suspicion has come true."

"Dozens, even hundreds - why do I feel that if this continues, there will be more gods in this abyss than outside. Is this really reasonable?"

Taking a long breath, Helios met a life that had also just been born from the body of the Death Demon near the exit.

It's just that unlike the [Earth-Shaking Worm] he encountered before, he was not able to see the specific process of this one's birth, so he was not able to understand its title that was similar to the true name of a god.

Helios only saw a huge figure appearing silently behind the interface barrier he marked as the 003-layer abyss. The spherical body is suspended in the air. Located in the center of the head and front of the body is a huge one-eye. Below it is a bloody mouth full of bayonet-like teeth, but the most eye-catching thing is the 10 twisted strips of flesh on the sphere. There is a small eye at the end of each stem, and each eye is staring at him.

Then he experienced the feeling of 'killing you with his eyes'. A beam of dissociation shined from the pupil of the eye, directly hitting him, an outsider who was incompatible with the abyss.

"In the future... there will be no future. I will never come to this ghost place again."

Returning to the present world, Helios finally felt a lot safer. He couldn't help but relax, but then he felt a little worried.

"So wherever the Earth Mother is, she won't be sleeping again."

If this is really the case, then there is nothing the Sun God can do.

The sleeping primitive god is difficult to be awakened by external objects, at least he does not have this ability.

"Then what do you want from me?"

"Of course I-"

He turned around suddenly, but Helios saw nothing. He didn't think it was his imagination. Someone was actually talking to him just now.

"Dear Earth Mother, may I ask..."

"it's me."

The next moment the voice came again, a reddish-brown light spot appeared in front of Helios. Then the light spot expanded and turned into a vortex.

"No matter what you want to do with me, come here first. I also want to know what you encountered in the abyss."

Helios should have been happy hearing that unmistakable voice. He didn't find Gaia, but Gaia took the initiative to find the door. But for some reason, he felt a little inexplicably nervous now.

Looking at the slowly rotating vortex... he seemed to be seeing another abyss.

(End of this chapter)