Greek Mythology: The Spiritual Dominator.

Chapter 530 Underground
Pass through nine layers of clouds and step on the sea of ​​clouds.

It didn't take long before Mount Olympus came into view.

Hestia, carried by a ball of flame, passed through the numerous palaces and came straight to the gate of the Golden Palace on the top of the sacred mountain.

The palace of the God King is as solemn and majestic as ever, with divine splendor spreading all around.

What surprised the goddess was that the door of the temple was closed at this moment, and she could not sense any breath of Zeus.

"Where is the God King? Where did he go?"

Zeus was obviously not here. Hestia swept her mind up and down the mountain, but still could not find any trace of him.

Frowning slightly, the Kitchen Goddess had no choice but to ask the two guards who were just there to serve as decoration at the door.

If she guessed correctly, her brother was probably out having fun again... Pursing her lips, Hestia didn't know what to say to him.

After all, if we exclude the premise that Hera is the guardian of marriage, this is just a personal hobby of Zeus.

Before asking, she was prepared for no result, but once again, the goddess was surprised that the two guards at the door unexpectedly gave an answer.

"Reporting to Your Highness, His Majesty returned to the Holy Mountain from the Underworld not long ago. After summoning the Goddess of Life and the God of Craftsmanship, he left in a hurry."

"Before he left, His Majesty said that he had something important to announce soon, and all the gods in heaven and on earth who were willing to obey him had to be present. It was just that His Majesty was not at the sacred mountain at the time, so the two of us conveyed the message on his behalf."

"In addition to you, the gods of Hades and the ocean are also invited. Since His Majesty the God of Wind is not here, His Majesty Iris, the servant of the Queen of Heaven, will personally convey the message."

"important things?"

Hestia was slightly startled when she heard this. She had not expected such a result.

She was a little confused, but she didn't ask any further questions because the two guards were obviously just conveying Zeus's will and they couldn't possibly know what was going on.

However, she had not encountered such a solemn notice for a long time. In addition, Pluto and Poseidon had not come to the ground for a long time.

What on earth had happened that was worthy of Zeus making such a big fuss, even to the point of recalling his brothers who were disgusted with each other back to the sacred mountain?

His expression softened slightly, Hestia still not knowing that her other brother had already returned to the Father's side.

The goddess just felt that Zeus did a good thing. When announcing the big event, he at least remembered his brother who was far away in the sky.

It would be nice to get together. Since the three brothers separated, they rarely got together. If there was a chance, she would also like to listen to them talk about their lives in the sea and the underworld.

Places like the underworld do seem much more desolate and lonely.

"Okay, I understand. You guys continue to guard this place."

She nodded slightly and then turned and left. Since Zeus was not there, there was no need for the goddess of fire to stay for long.

Although human affairs are important, there is no need to rush.

After all, for the gods, even though the Olympian gods are more aware of the length of time than the Titans of the past, they still do not take the short time seriously.

Just as the turbulence on the sea is very obvious to some people, but for the gods on earth, almost no one notices it.

At most, they noticed the abnormal turbulence in the East China Sea, but no one would have thought that the Sea King, who was canonized by the Divine Court, the immortal god, had actually left the world.

In their eyes, Poseidon had at most gotten into some trouble again and was probably recuperating in his own territory now.

Anyway, the affairs of the sea have always been handled by the ancient sea gods, so it doesn’t seem to be that important whether Poseidon is there or not.

······
If in today's era, Mount Olympus is the center of the East, then the entire East can be regarded as the center of the human world.

Even after thousands of years of development by mortals, humans have only occupied the vast land east of the sacred mountain. Most other places are still primitive and wild.

Since the fall of Typhon, countless demons have spread across the earth, and evil creatures that are difficult to eradicate are everywhere.

The weeds by the roadside, the birds and animals on the hillside, even a piece of soil or a stone, they may all be affected by the strange sunlight that once briefly shone on the human world, and become completely different from their previous selves.

Even though the gods launched several sieges, they still had no success in the end, because they were endless and could not be killed.

As long as there is a tiny spark left, it is possible to revive after a long time. Therefore, the gods can only catch the big ones and let the small ones go, turning a blind eye to the vast majority of evil things that are not of the same level.

From then on, there were evil gods who accidentally gained divinity, criminals who were expelled from the human kingdom, and even some intelligent life forms different from humans.

Most of these beings who were rejected by human countries and gods moved here and continued to survive by slash-and-burn farming.

In response, the gods had no choice but to give up tracking them down.

After all, in a world where the power of the true God cannot be displayed, it is undoubtedly as difficult as ascending to heaven to cleanse the entire human world.

As long as they hold the majority of humanity in their hands, there is no need to kill all these losers.

And today, west of Mount Olympus, across endless mountains and rivers, near a remote stream, a group of strange yet handsome creatures walked out of a dark cave.

The deep cave has no visible bottom, as if it leads directly to the core of the earth.

They groped their way out cautiously. Although it seemed that this was not their first time on earth, their behavior clearly revealed their fear of the human world.

Tread...  

Move in unison and try not to cause any extra noise.

He nimbly moved over the seemingly ordinary bushes and stumps, his eyes inadvertently checking the traps he had set the last time he came.

After patrolling an area thousands of steps in diameter, they found that no trap had been triggered.

It is hard to say whether this is a bad thing or a good thing. The group returned to the starting position. A trace of regret flashed in the eyes of the leading creature, but he also breathed a sigh of relief in his heart.

They came here for "hunting", but the result of hunting is often accompanied by a crisis of life and death.

Even though her loyalty to her 'mother' was unwavering, she knew very well having witnessed a horrific scene before, that death and dying were not the same.

Being killed by 'prey' is different from others, those corrupt and evil lives will not let the dead rest in peace.

The fact that one cannot return to nature after death is the source of her fear.

"Keep moving forward."

"Direction: due north."

The leader spoke, and pleasant but inhuman language came out of his mouth.

Seeing that nothing was discovered, the companions behind him breathed a sigh of relief and prepared to continue the unfinished task.

Every time they came to the surface, they would expand the scope of their exploration and set up new traps.

Until one day, they captured enough 'prey' here, or attracted existence beyond their imagination, and then their death declared this exit as a restricted area.

This cycle repeats itself over and over again.

After all, except for a very small number of very stable passages, which can even go directly down to the underworld at the bottom of the world, most of the passages to and from the ground are sometimes stable and sometimes collapsed.

With the turbulence of the underground, which they call the 'breath of the earth mother', new cracks are always born. So for them, as long as they want to find it, there will always be a portal to the surface.

After a short rest, the group continued to carefully explore the surroundings.

Go upstream along the river.

When they arrived at the edge of the area they had explored previously, the short distance of a few hundred steps took these handsome creatures most of the day to walk.

It was not until sunset that the leader looked at the sky and prepared to return with regret and relief.

Another fruitless day, but that's how it is most of the time.

"All right."

"Let's stop here for today and continue next time.

"Get ready, the rear team becomes the front team, retreat one by one, remember to be careful..."

"--etc!"

The originally suppressed voice suddenly became urgent, and then he raised his hand suddenly. At the signal of the leader, the group stopped immediately.

Because of their positions, the people behind could not pass through the field of vision of the first person, let alone know what she saw. But under her urgent command, the overall movements of the team seemed neat and standardized.

Suddenly, the only sounds left in the forest were the rapid breathing and the rustling of leaves in the wind. Only the leader continued to carefully observe his discovery. On the other side of the stream, two thousand steps away, on a tall ancient tree, several green fleshworms were gnawing on fallen leaves, and some were spitting out white silk to weave a cocoon for themselves.

Living things live in harmony with nature in one place, which looks no different from any other place.

However, this ordinary scene did not appear so in the eyes of the leader. A hint of fear and excitement flashed in his dark pupils.

There, a faint red line was wrapped around the body of a green caterpillar, as inconspicuous as a natural pattern.

If any other human were here, they would probably think that it was just an accidental stain of resin, or an accidental mutation of the caterpillar.

But for the captain who had come into contact with the 'prey' more than once, she knew very well what it was.

This represents their opportunity, but also a natural disaster for an area.

"Recorder, record."

"In rift No. 8-3-7251, a life with [Traces of Corruption] was discovered today."

"The source of the corruption is unknown, but preliminary estimates suggest it should be no more than a 'higher evil'. We can hunt it down and sacrifice it to the Great Mother, then request support when we return."

"Now, continue with my previous orders."

"The rear team becomes the front team, we retreat carefully."

There was no response, but the entire team turned around and retreated in unison.

I was as careful as I was when I came here and didn't cause any noise on the way.

Until they returned to the dark cave entrance, no more accidents happened.

Standing at the entrance of the cave, the leader took a last look at the dense forest by the river. She knew that the next time she came here, there might not be any living things here anymore.

When a region is found to have signs of corruption, it will soon be contaminated by everything there. They are the tentacles of the Mother of Flesh and Blood, tainting the divine authority of Life in a filthy way.

Only great mothers can save all this, and they are the most steadfast guards of nature.

Salsa…

The figure disappeared at the cave entrance, and the forest fell silent again.

Thousands of steps away from the cave, by the river, that special caterpillar continued to gnaw on the leaves. Only the silent trees around it witnessed what was happening.

After a long time, when the sun set and all things returned to the darkness, all life on earth fell into sleep one by one.

In the deep night, a plain voice suddenly came from the woods.

"..."

"Well, I've seen it, it should meet your requirements."

“Compared to humans, there is no difference.”

The sound startled a flock of birds, and the next moment, as if they had been there from the beginning, two figures appeared silently in the air.

Zeus did not hide his admiration as he glanced at the hole that led directly to the ground not far away.

"It's really not bad. In fact, the level they showed has surpassed more than 99% of humans."

"Although their power is not strong, that is only because they do not have the blood of gods... But sometimes, this shortcoming is exactly what I need."

"I didn't expect that you would have such achievements in the field of creation."

Elves, or 'dark elves'.

An intelligent life once created by the Lord of Darkness himself at the hands of the Goddess of Life.

They have been active underground in Chaos for a long, long time, but Zeus only recently noticed their existence.

But at the first sight, he couldn't help but be struck by her beauty.

Without going through three generations of human evolution and without ever holding the authority over life, the Lord of Darkness actually created this kind of life group that can evolve on its own and provide faith.

In contrast, Zeus himself had made more than one attempt in secret, but the life he ultimately created was either a subspecies of humans that could not escape the barriers, or an existence that could not provide enough faith like the golden generation of the past.

More often than not, the reincarnation in the spiritual world does not recognize that this is an independent life at all and has never cast a soul on it.

It was because of his failure that Zeus knew how difficult it was.

It took four generations of gods on earth to give rise to the human beings of today.

And Erebus only had to do a little to create such a perfect race.

Even if these elves did not have their own 'creator' and their relatively small numbers, I'm afraid these elves would already have the ability to replace humans.

For a moment, the God King's originally inflated heart calmed down again.

With the help of the power of the 'One Day Fruit' and taking on most of the power of the King of All Monsters, Zeus thought he had gradually caught up with these primitive gods.

But now it seems that he is still far from it.

"It's just something I made casually. It's not worth mentioning."

"In fact, I have never paid attention to their life or death."

He spoke lightly, acknowledging this point.

However, Erebus obviously did not intend to explain the fact that he obtained the corpses of alien elves and dwarves from Svartalfheim, the kingdom of darkness and the underworld, and easily created life on this basis.

After all, he had made some localized improvements to make them look more in line with the aesthetics of the Chaos clan. So from this perspective, there was nothing wrong with saying that this was created by him.

"Okay, Zeus, tell me your reasons."

"I remember that you weren't as eager about the abyss before. What's the matter? Did you suffer a loss at sea again, so you want to get back at him?"

"You should be able to deal with a projection of power... Is this a small matter worth coming to see me for?"

With calm and indifferent eyes, the Lord of Darkness's gaze swept across the God King, and finally fell on the hole that led directly to the ground. It seemed that he saw the underworld behind him.
During the conversation, he seemed to be not interested in Zeus's previous proposal. But only he knew that he was also eager to try it.

Not long ago, the incarnation of Zeus came all the way to the underworld just to chase the god of sleep, but finally stopped in front of the realm of eternal night.

He asked the three-headed demon dog what happened here, and then left his own tricks. However, from beginning to end, he seemed to have forgotten that there was a third witness there.

The realm of eternal night and lightlessness enveloped the underworld and surrounded the entire space and time. So Erebus also saw what happened at the door.

But unlike Zeus's various speculations about Nyx, he was not surprised at all that the god of sleep could walk into the eternal night.

Countless years ago, he had witnessed the other party walking out like this with his own eyes, and there was nothing special about him walking back now.

And Nyx probably never paid any attention to him at all, just as the other party had never cared about the ruthless gods of the underworld born from the power of eternal night.

Just because Erebus doesn't care about the existence of Hypnos doesn't mean he doesn't care about other things.

That day, the Dark Lord, who had been watching everything, suddenly remembered that although he had been paying attention to Ryan, he seemed to have overlooked something.

He still remembered the first time he fought with Ryan, at the turn of the second and third eras, he followed the power of the silver human soul and discovered the birth of the interface in the abyss. It was also from that day that he had the idea of ​​breaking free.

As a fellow primordial god, Erebus knew very well how chaotic the time sequence of Tartarus was.

Tens of thousands of years passed in the outside world, but who knows how much time had passed inside him.

Maybe it was hundreds of thousands of years, maybe it was millions of years. Although time had no meaning to him, after so many years had passed, what happened to the interface in the abyss? What changes had taken place in Him? Had He encountered any difficulties?

Those who do not plan for eternity are not qualified to plan for the moment.

The Dark Lord did not know this, but he undoubtedly wanted to know.

Besides this, he also had some unknown plans.

In short, from the moment he created the Dark Elves, Erebus held the attitude that even if he didn't know why, it wouldn't affect his imitation.

So even if Zeus didn't come to him, he would find a reason to arouse the other party's interest later.

With the living God-King leading him, his goal would undoubtedly be much smaller.

(End of this chapter)