— — — — — —
Hermes slowly surfaced from a hazy stupor and opened his eyes.
"You're awake."
The voice was flat, stripped of emotion.
Hearing that faintly familiar tone, Hermes jolted fully alert and snapped his eyes wide open.
He was in a dark, damp prison cell, lying on a gray metal cot. His wrists and ankles were shackled to the frame, fixed in place like livestock on a butcher's board.
Hermes glared at the man standing before him.
"You!"
Black hair. Black eyes. A sleeveless black shirt exposing lean, sculpted muscle.
There was no way Hermes could forget that face.
The new leader of Arcadia. The man who had defeated and captured his incarnation.
His only crushing defeat in nearly ten thousand years.
"How does it feel?"
Ryo didn't react to the glare. Instead, he smiled brightly, his eyes carrying a kind of fervor that made Hermes' skin crawl.
"How does what feel?" Hermes didn't want to answer, yet the reply slipped out instinctively, like he was facing Zeus himself.
Ryo's smile widened.
"Being a machine."
Hermes' mouth fell open. Despair flooded his eyes.
A full minute passed before he choked out, voice trembling, "Can you… unshackle my hands?"
Ryo raised a brow and flicked his wrist. The cuffs binding Hermes' wrists sprang open.
Hermes pushed himself up and sat on the cot. His hands trembled as he lowered his gaze.
In that instant, he learned the true meaning of utter devastation.
What use is a man without his symbol of manhood?
"Why…" His eyes reddened as he looked up at Ryo, grievance practically pouring off him.
"Tools don't need unnecessary features."
Ryo's expression was almost pitying, but his eyes were cold.
"Put it back," Hermes pleaded. "I'll follow your orders."
He had already realized that his connection to his true body had been severed.
An incarnation turned into a machine god, its authority stripped and seized. The loss would ripple back through their shared spiritual foundation and achievements.
As Hermes, he understood better than anyone what his true self would choose.
Even if it meant losing authority. Even if it meant splitting into another Hermes.
The original would never willingly become a machine god.
"I'll think about it."
This time, Ryo wasn't brushing him off. If Hermes performed well enough, he didn't mind reinstalling a few "extra features."
"Thank you," Hermes said with a bitter laugh.
"You're welcome."
Ryo adjusted his glasses. Honestly, he hadn't expected Hermes to change so quickly.
But thinking about it, that was only natural.
After a man suffers a pain he was never meant to endure, he tends to… evolve.
"Get used to your new body. I'll be taking you for some tests later."
"Fine."
Ryo nodded slightly, then glanced at Ares sitting on a metal platform nearby.
"That goes for you too."
With that, he left the cell.
Once he was gone, the atmosphere grew even heavier.
"Well, brother, you don't look too happy."
Ares, now sporting a bronze-toned complexion, grinned from the edge of his cot.
Hermes looked at him. For once, they really were brothers in misfortune.
"And you're thrilled?"
"Of course not. But I don't really care." Ares shrugged and opened his mouth wide. "I've still got my tongue! That's more than enough for me to be a lady killer."
Hermes had to admit, that was a solid point.
Ares laughed. "Look on the bright side. So what if we're machines now? It's not the end of the world."
He puffed out his chest proudly.
"Back then, Athena pinned me to the ground in front of the Twelve Olympians and beat me one-handed. Then she skewered me with the Spear of Victory and wrecked both my kidneys. I still had a great time afterward."
Hermes couldn't help but retort, "That was because Aphrodite knelt in front of Athena and begged for you. That's why Athena removed the remaining divine power from your body."
Ares lifted his chin smugly. "Exactly. I can get another man's wife to plead for my kidneys. Can you?"
Hermes bristled. Was that a jab at his past… capabilities?
"It's just Aphrodite. I've slept with her too!"
"Sure," Ares nodded. "You did. But did she ever beg for you? Athena's pinned you down more than once, hasn't she?"
"…"
Hermes fell silent.
His lips moved, but nothing came out.
There was no arguing with someone that shameless.
You can't outdo a man who has no bottom line.
Then a thought struck him.
Wait. Aphrodite was married to Hephaestus.
And Hephaestus was Ares' full brother.
Hermes blinked.
Actually… maybe he wasn't the most miserable one here.
His mood steadied almost instantly.
Deciding not to engage further, Hermes turned his back on Ares and even set up a soundproof barrier to block out any more verbal harassment.
He focused on familiarizing himself with his new body.
Ares burst into laughter and did the same.
Without realizing it, both of them began carrying out Ryo's earlier command: assessing themselves.
---
Outside the prison, in a shadowed corner.
Within a world of darkness.
Ryo stood beside Leticia, silently observing the two gods sitting back to back inside the cell.
"Looks like the technique works perfectly."
It wasn't that Ryo doubted the method he'd obtained through the forum.
He simply needed to confirm whether the machine gods he created retained independent will or posed any hidden risks.
But judging from the current situation, even a hothead like Ares and a habitual slacker like Hermes were unconsciously following his instructions.
That was reassuring.
Still, there was no guarantee issues wouldn't arise later. To be safe, Ryo planned to keep them under strict surveillance and station them far from Arcadia's headquarters.
Only then would he feel secure.
Of course, the modified Cleansing Formula had proven incredibly effective.
But it wasn't cheap.
Ryo glanced at the forum interface only he could see.
The points balance displayed a clean, unmistakable number: [133,000.]
.
.
.