If the name Mach was one that not many people knew, then the name Morrigan should be far more widely recognized.
Mach was the first name to appear among the three aspects of one particular goddess in Celtic mythology.
And the other two names were Morrigu, or Morrigan, and Badb, meaning death.
This three-aspect goddess was collectively known in Gaulish Celtic tradition as the Matronae, the Three Holy Mothers.
Their names corresponded respectively to the concepts of catastrophe, war, and death.
Some say the goddess of war fell in love with Cú Chulainn, and after being rejected, placed a curse on him that ultimately led to his death in his prime.
And in Europe, the story of Cú Chulainn has long carried the title of the Celtic Achilles.
Mythological systems influence and draw from each other.
If Cú Chulainn corresponded to Achilles, then the goddess who caused Cú Chulainn's death corresponded without question to the one goddess who was not invited to Achilles's mother's wedding and set off countless disasters and conflicts through a single golden apple.
The goddess of misfortune, Eris!
Of course...
At this point Night was only somewhat suspecting that the goddess before him was Eris.
That deity who enjoyed stirring up conflicts and calamities on earth.
Setting aside the other party's name and identity in Greek mythology, just the name Mach alone carried nothing of good significance.
In the early agricultural age, the image of goddesses in Celtic mythology was one of governing fertility and harvest.
And the goddess of the Ulster region was called Macha.
She appeared far earlier in time than Morrigan.
And in Celtic society at that time, women held considerable status, and could even become the rulers of entire tribes.
Placed in the worldview of a neighboring setting with disobedient gods, this was a primordial earth mother goddess, a powerful divine being before she was overthrown by male gods and brought low.
Legend described a beautiful goddess with bright red hair.
Macha in this period had no image as a war goddess.
She symbolized the supreme sun and the warm earth.
But after the arrival of patriarchal society, male gods began ascending one by one to the thrones of godkings across the great mythological systems.
This radiant solar mother goddess was reduced to an out-and-out antagonist.
One who liked to create conflict, calamity, and chaos, who hoped to see war, and who wanted to reduce the earth to a total mess.
This fit perfectly with the characterization of Eris.
Of course, a name alone proved nothing.
But what Mach said next seemed to increasingly confirm her identity.
She looked at him and spoke bluntly.
"Hero Griffith, I greatly admire you, so much so that I want to possess you right here tonight and take you to bed."
"You do not need to know my true identity. You only need to savor the ultimate pleasure alongside me, little one!
I brought you a great gift. I imagine you will quite enjoy it."
That excessively direct attitude...
Night: "..."
Wonderful.
Another god who craves my body.
First came the Roman goddess of beauty Venus, also known as the goddess of love Aphrodite.
Now comes the Celtic goddess of conflict and war, Mach.
Every single one of them refuses to use their own mythological identity, and prefers to play an alt account.
For this kind of god who wanted to play but did not dare show their real face, hiding behind layers of cover instead, Night felt nothing but contempt.
If you have the guts, reveal your real identity and come at me openly.
This was wanting to play, while also being afraid of the hunting goddess Artemis's retaliation afterward.
Though thoroughly contemptuous on the inside, he revealed nothing on his face and calmly asked. "What gift?"
"Death, of course. I merely applied a little trick and had all the heroes dancing in the palm of my hand.
That hero who dragged you down on the battlefield, Palamedes, and Odysseus as well.
One died a miserable death, one was thrown in prison. Had it not been for their disgraceful performances, the supreme and most exalted glory of all Greece should have been yours.
If you wish, I can even make that king of Sparta rotting as a prisoner in Troy suffer the same fate.
How about it?
Surprised, my dear..."
As she spoke, the goddess Mach looked at the man in front of her with burning intensity.
At this moment, her blatant lust was completely undisguised.
After embracing Night from behind, her hands pressed against his chest and began sliding down toward his abdomen and even further, wanting to do something interesting with him.
But the latter locked her two jade-white hands in place.
With a slightly "shocked" tone, he questioned her. "Palamedes's death is connected to you? Odysseus was framed by you?"
Mach nodded with a smile.
"Heheheh, that is right!
Do you not find it fascinating?
Speaking of which, when I first came looking for you, along the way
I inadvertently discovered the dark thoughts of that man, and then saw quite a few interesting things.
That man's thoughts would without doubt stir up conflict and disaster.
It would throw the already weakened Greek camp into complete chaos.
And so I applied a few methods.
I drew out the malice within his heart, then took control of the minds of Palamedes's own attendants and had them hack Palamedes to death in his sleep. And I forged that will and letter.
And just as expected...
Things became far more interesting."
To be honest, Night did not consider this any kind of gift.
To be honest, although he wanted that guy dead and then put the blame on
Odysseus, as he listened to her describe each step without any restraint or attempt to conceal her thoughts at all, that intoxicated and excited expression, treating all of this as though it were art, a masterpiece, even faintly licking her red lips, he knew that this had nothing to do with doing it for him.
It was entirely for her own amusement.
As though born for chaos itself.
She wanted to see humans fall into conflict, to be consumed by their own malice and boundless desires, to finally end up slaughtering one another.
Taking pleasure in conflict itself.
A god like this...
Was dangerous!
The aura Night sensed from her was far, far more dangerous than the goddess of love Aphrodite he once encountered.
That goddess of beauty, though she also bewitched living beings, was more formidable primarily through her terrifying charm that could make one subtly submit without realizing it, a beauty as though mental domination had reached the level of a divine power.
But her own raw strength was nothing remarkable.
Which meant that as long as one's will was firm enough, most of her methods could be nullified.
But this was equally a god who brought chaos and controlled people's hearts.
Listen to this.
From just what was revealed in those words a moment ago.
Framing others, controlling minds.
The other party was a genuinely dangerous element through and through.
If you thought this goddess could only manage these petty tricks, you would be wrong.
All these methods of stirring up the darkness in human hearts served her divine power.
If the other party truly possessed authority over conflict and similar things...
Then she might be like the war god Ares, who craved beyond measure for humanity to sink into eternal chaos and war.
Endless war and slaughter could bring them even more power.
And throughout this process, they did not even need to personally step in.
They only needed to guide things from the shadows, and through methods this simple could easily obtain everything they wanted.
Methods were only the process.
The form they took was not important. What mattered was the final result.
And for a god who would stop at nothing to achieve their goals, in a certain sense, her danger level in Night's eyes was even higher than that of the God-King Zeus himself.
At least Zeus still had a face to maintain and would absolutely never openly move against him in a straightforward way.
But this one, from the look of her... This woman would not hesitate!
..
...
(End of the Chapter)