"Bang!"
Inside the palace council chamber, Nero, who had been happily nibbling on grapes, stared in confusion at the half-person-tall stack of documents that Samael had suddenly dropped in front of her.
"I've already taken care of the important and urgent matters. The rest are just trivial odds and ends. Take them and practice. If there's anything you don't understand, contact me."
Samael clapped the dust from his hands and shot Nero a glance, clearly unimpressed with how long she had been slacking off.
Plop…
The tyrant froze. The half bunch of grapes she had been about to pop into her mouth slipped from her hand and landed on the table. Her neck stiffened as she stared at the pile of work, easily several hundred documents. She swallowed hard, then slowly raised her hand toward Samael, emerald eyes blinking with innocent confusion.
"I suddenly remembered…"
"No. You didn't remember anything.
"You're not going anywhere until all of this is finished. And afterward, I'll personally review it. Whether you get to crawl into bed tonight depends entirely on you."
Samael expressionlessly covered Nero's mouth with one hand. His gaze was meaningful, and a faintly sinister smile crept across his face.
"Oh dear… my head… my head hurts…"
After barely reading a few lines, the tyrant's face turned pale. Sweat appeared on her forehead as she clutched her head and slumped weakly onto the floor.
"…A chronic headache?"
"Yes. An old problem. Every time I start thinking, my head aches terribly and I can't focus. It's terrible. I truly want to help, but this illness always prevents my outstanding talents from being fully used!"
"Oh…"
Samael narrowed his snake-like eyes and watched Nero lying across the table. She looked pitiful, curled up and stubborn at the same time. His lips curved in a faint, ambiguous smile as he slowly dragged out the sound.
Nero glanced up and noticed the documents on the table being moved aside by a pair of hands. She immediately started whining even louder.
The Ancient Serpent bent down, gathered the papers, and turned to the Valkyrie waiting quietly beside him.
"Brynhildr. Hang her upside down outside the door. Let her get some fresh air and clear her head."
"Smack!"
Before the Valkyrie could even move, Nero, who had just been acting half dead a moment ago, instantly sprang up full of energy. She hugged the pile of documents tightly and hurriedly spoke.
"It's fine! This small problem can be overcome! I will begin working immediately!"
"Not forcing yourself, are you?"
Samael asked with a very "kind" smile.
The tyrant shook her head so hard it looked like a rattle drum. Her emerald eyes sparkled with determination, and her small face was full of righteous resolve.
"In that case, Brynhildr, stay here and keep watch over our Emperor. The moment she starts spacing out, getting sleepy, nodding off, or looking exhausted, hang her upside down outside immediately.
"I heard from Odin that this method works quite well. It keeps the mind clear."
Right before stepping out the door, the Ancient Serpent made sure to remind the Valkyrie to "take good care" of the patient.
"Yes, my lord!"
Brynhildr nodded solemnly, her gaze fixed with complete seriousness on Nero at the desk.
Seeing that look, the tyrant hurriedly lowered her head and began scribbling through the mountain of paperwork with a miserable expression.
Satisfied that Nero's attempt to muddle through had been firmly crushed, Samael nodded in approval. He then walked leisurely out of the palace and headed toward the Pantheon through the deep night.
Along the way, the slanted crescent moon cast a cold, pale glow. Broken shadows stretched across the ground. Palatine Hill, which had been swept by divine power several times earlier in the day, had fallen completely silent. Even the birds and insects had stopped making noise.
An eerie stillness filled the air.
Only the faint clatter of armor as soldiers patrolled back and forth, along with the rhythm of their footsteps, brought any sign of life to the darkness.
As Samael observed along the way, he noticed a trace of weariness in their spirit.
The Pantheon, once crowded with visitors, now felt strangely empty. Only a few priests remained to watch over the place.
It seemed the death of Romulus had not only weakened Rome's military strength, but had also shaken the very faith that sustained the empire.
The Ancient Serpent let out a quiet sigh. As the main entrance of the Pantheon came into view, he pushed aside those wandering thoughts and stepped inside.
Several priests in white robes recognized Samael and naturally did not dare stop him. With respectful attitudes, they guided this unusual visitor through the Pantheon.
More than ten hours had passed since the fierce battle earlier that day. Though the half-collapsed Pantheon had been restored through Magecraft repairs and now stood upright once more, the divine power it had lost and the elaborate Magecraft arrays that had required enormous manpower and resources to construct were impossible to restore in such a short time. For now, it was little more than a hollow shell.
Samael walked through the temples of Zeus, Hera, Apollo, and the other Olympian gods in turn. As he moved from one hall to the next, he quietly released a trace of divine power, attempting to resonate with whatever fragments of divine will still lingered within.
However, whether it required a special method or for some other unknown reason, none of the former Olympian gods responded.
Then again, that was hardly surprising. The divine realms and sacred lands within the various mythological systems were never easy to access.
Even in the Norse system, he could not simply travel freely. To return from the human world of Midgard to the Golden Hall of Asgard, he needed to use Rune magic to call upon Heimdall, the guardian god, and open the Bifrost Bridge that connected the two realms.
But Rome is on the brink of disaster. Can't you at least give me some kind of response?
As Samael grew increasingly irritated at finding nothing, he finally stepped into the temple of Ares. At last, a faint ripple of divine presence came from within.
The resonance was extremely weak. If he had not been paying close attention, he might easily have missed it.
Don't tell me Ares is this useless too?
The Ancient Serpent frowned and immediately followed the faint trace of that aura.
After searching for a while, he discovered that the resonance did not come from the statue at all. Instead, it was coming from beneath a stone slab in the floor.
Frowning slightly, he casually erased the defensive Magecraft array carved into the surface. Then he pried open the slab and reached into the dark recess beneath it, pulling out a long and heavy bronze chest.
After brushing away the layer of dust covering it, the relief carvings on the surface became visible.
The scene depicted a raging sea.
Above the waves, the Olympian gods held swords, shields, and spears. Alongside them were powerful human heroes with bulging muscles. Under the escort of nymphs, they drove their chariots forward, charging toward a vast whirlpool in the sea.
Their enemies were towering giants nearly a hundred meters tall, their bodies twisted and monstrous.
At the center of those monsters stood a white god of terrifying presence, bearing a ring of stars behind him and wielding a seven-colored radiant sword.
The Greek Catastrophe. The War against the Titans.
Samael's pupils shrank slightly.
After some careful attempts, he finally grasped the Spear of Nation Building and used its divine power to resonate with the chest. With a faint sound, the lid opened, and the secret hidden inside was slowly revealed under the flickering firelight.
This is…
From a groove at the bottom of the chest, the Ancient Serpent lifted out a metal longbow and a single remaining thick arrow engraved with complex divine runes. He stared at them in surprise.
Samael studied the arrow for a moment. His gaze lingered on the patterns carved along its shaft before he turned toward the young white-robed priests standing behind him.
"Does anyone know where this came from?"
The priests looked at each other awkwardly. Under the gaze of a god, they could only shake their heads one after another.
When the Assassin Order infiltrated the Pantheon earlier and launched their sudden assassination, many of the elder priests who carried the temple's secrets had been killed or seriously wounded. The chain of knowledge had inevitably been broken.
"The records of the Pantheon's original construction and every yearly renovation were all preserved. And after each tribe joined Rome, the divine runes they passed down were also documented in the archives!"
Fortunately, one quick-thinking young priest offered a suggestion.
"Good. Take the others to the archives. Gather every record related to this and organize them. Bring everything to the imperial council chamber in two hours."
Samael patted the young priest's shoulder approvingly, then lowered his gaze back to the bronze chest, narrowing his eyes slightly.
"As for this, I'll take it with me and study it."
After taking another look around and finding nothing else of interest, the Ancient Serpent picked up the bronze chest and headed back toward the Roman palace.