Facing Ares's coercion,
Night had a splitting headache.
If his current strength were sufficient, he would have already put on a follow-up to the Kratos heroic epic right here in Greece and killed this guy.
Since all the gods already believed that a hero by the name of Kratos existed.
Then let that shining heroic epic write a new and even more grand new chapter.
Following the dragon-slaying, the next great achievement would be god-slaying!
When night fell, though he had not informed Artemis of what happened during the day, the various divine beings who kept constant watch over he gradually all learned one by one of the war god Ares's coercion of the hero Griffith.
And then...
Boom!
The moonlit radiance on Mount Olympus suddenly erupted with a terrifying divine might.
The night sky that was already brilliantly lit by stars saw those stars grow even larger and brighter, as though they might fall from the heavens and descend at any moment.
The big boss behind Night's back finally showed up!
"Ares!!" When the moon goddess's cool and fury-suppressing ice-cold voice rang out across the sky.
It was the moon goddess's anger and questioning after learning that someone was trying to dig away her ward.
Then before Ares could come out to respond, an arrow filled with annihilating moonlight suddenly shot from the cosmos into the central tent of the Greek camp.
In the instant that terrifying divine power, which felt like it could sink the continental plate itself, came down.
Boom!!
The goddess Athena stepped in front of it, holy shield Aegis in hand, blocking it.
The immense power of that spectacular arrow was completely absorbed by the Aegis.
Without managing to cause any real disturbance, it was stopped.
It nearly caused a great catastrophe.
Seeing that the arrow capable of destroying the entire Greek camp and this whole section of the continental plate did not land, Athena let out a breath of relief.
"Stand aside. Goddess of wisdom. This is a matter between me and the war god Ares. It is no one else's concern!"
When she saw the goddess Athena appear before her and block her outburst with a divine artifact, Artemis's voice turned cold.
On the other side...
Athena, who was equally among the divine beings who paid the most attention to Night, had long since known the full course of events.
She naturally understood exactly why the hunting goddess was furious and why she came.
Athena began trying to use words to calm Artemis's anger with courage and care.
"Stand Back Artemis, his majesty God-King Zeus already knew of this matter.
He has her to stand watch here and not allow chief gods to fight here, as it would affect the Greek allied forces on the earth below."
"As for the matter you are worried about, I can guarantee in Athena's name that I would protect Griffith and not let Ares's intentions succeed."
And in response to Athena's words, Artemis's reply was simply and brutally another arrow launched straight at her.
The willful and pure goddess was not going to easily give up the idea of punishing Ares just because she heard her father god Zeus's name.
After all, at this point
Night held a special place in Artemis's heart of some weight she did not even understand herself.
She only knew that when she heard Ares wanted to seize Griffith, and even use the name of Greece to morally pressure Griffith, Artemis found her cool composure completely impossible to maintain.
Uuaaah!!
In that instant it was as though a string in her mind snapped, and then a pitch-black flame ignited and burned completely through her chest.
Leaving her with only one thought.
To shoot every poacher that set their sights on her treasure with a sacred arrow and kill them all.
Only by washing it in divine blood could this fury be appeased.
And that was exactly what she did.
In the end Athena had no choice but to battle Artemis, and deliberately guided the battlefield upward into the starry sky.
Crash!!
Stars were shot down from the Greek night sky from time to time.
In full eruption and even surpassing her normal limits, Artemis at this moment, despite already having given a portion of her authority through the divine artifact to Night, still unleashed terrifying attacks capable of shooting down planets.
And so, Athena, who had the aspect of a war goddess and was one of the rare goddesses among the twelve Olympians known for combat prowess, was also pressed to fight with full power.
In the end the two goddesses fought for real.
After who knew how long, patch after patch of stars in the Greek night sky went dark.
Finally...
After who knew how much effort it took to physically calm the moon goddess down.
Athena, who was called the goddess of wisdom and war in name but was often jokingly described in myths as a goddess of victory in practice, barely made it through.
This time she almost ate a loss from the moon goddess's sudden full-power burst.
Athena came back from the sky in a somewhat disheveled state, and noticed a certain war god who had spoken big words earlier but was now pretending to be completely unaware of the battle and killing intent in the heavens above and was hiding in his tent like a turtle pulling in its head.
Quite a few dark thoughts rose from Athena's depths too.
'Heh! Heh heh heh!!!
Artemis and I fought each other half to death up there, and you sat here doing nothing and reaped all the benefits, did you?'
Though relying on the power of the divine artifact and more refined martial skill, Athena had gained the upper hand over Artemis in that divine battle just now, and physically strong-armed Artemis into reluctantly agreeing not to go find trouble with Ares again.
But Athena still had to protect Night's virtue...
Ahem. Protect Night's existence.
She could not allow the war god to forcibly impose the blessing.
Athena agreed!
Among the twelve Olympians, except for types like the goddess of love Aphrodite who were completely unsuited for combat, the gaps in divine power and authority between the others were not large.
Even for Athena, suppressing Artemis was not easy.
She had no desire to face an enraged hunting goddess again.
And Athena knew that this time Artemis was still holding back.
If she released Scorpio without holding anything back...
But if Scorpio actually descended, that was the point where Zeus would have to personally step in.
Perhaps realizing this as well, Artemis still held back somewhat during the fight.
And she, Athena, also did not play all her cards...
When all was said and done,
Athena actually did not particularly hope Ares would succeed either.
After all...
Diomedes was right!
(Diomedes: The war god? Believe him? Better come believe in Athena alongside me instead!)
And when Athena paid a late-night visit and told Night the agreement she reached with Artemis.
"..."
His scalp went numb.
So what kind of treatment was this for him?
Before returning to the Greek universe, no matter how wild his dreams, he could never have imagined that three chief god-level beings would come to blows because of him.
And the goddess of wisdom and war personally came to serve as his bodyguard?!
Hiss!
If this stretch of mythology was passed down to future generations and accumulated enough legendary fame to become some kind of conceptual entity or crystallized fantasy, something like a noble phantasm that could summon, or rather attract, a whole bunch of Greek gods with bare hands.
When others fought they summoned at most an army or divine artifacts.
He directly triggered a divine descent. A combined summon.
Just imagining that sight was absolutely explosive.
It seems without realizing it he turned into a male version of Pandora?
No. Even Pandora never received treatment at this level.
Having the gods go this... berserk?!
So strange, so incredibly strange!
Night was already unable to describe what he was feeling at this very moment.
And he already had an ominous premonition.
The divine beings who had their eyes on him were probably not limited to just the war god Ares.
First Mach, which was Eris, then Ares.
These gods had various ties of kinship with each other.
Knock one away and another shows up.
Just like Mach and Ares, Apollo and Artemis, Helios and Eos his older sister, and Selene his younger sister.
Who would be next?
Instinctively Night looked at the goddess Athena before him.
This one... should not have been charmed yet, right?
.
.
.
(End of the Chapter)