"You!!" Artemis trembled with rage, her beautiful face becoming distorted.
No one had ever dared to insult the gods so nakedly. This was not only an insult to her personally, but also a trampling of the entire Olympian pantheon.
"Who are you?" Artemis shouted sharply, her silver longbow still drawn.
Setsuna said calmly, "I am the God of Death, the ruler of death who will bring the Twilight of the Gods to you high and mighty, self-proclaimed eternal gods!"
"Arrogant!" Artemis was so angry she laughed. Even Hades would not dare to provoke the gods of Heaven like this.
"Arrogant?" Setsuna chuckled lightly, throwing a battered divine cloth out of space.
It was a dark red divine cloth, covered in cracks and dried bloodstains, but its originally ferocious and magnificent shape could still be faintly discerned.
The divine cloth of Ares, the God of War.
Setsuna said casually, "There was a fool named Ares who was also spouting nonsense in the Underworld before, trying to seize the authority of the Underworld. So I killed him."
Artemis stared fixedly at the battered divine cloth on the ground. The aura was all too familiar to her. It absolutely belonged to Ares.
At this moment, she felt a chill run through her entire body.
Although Ares was far less powerful than Hades, he was still a major god. He had died so silently, without any disturbance or complication.
This undoubtedly showed one thing: that the other party's strength far surpassed Ares's, so much so that Ares could not even send a distress signal.
A fear she had never felt before surged in her heart, never expecting that even major gods could also die!
"You... you..." Artemis's voice trembled uncontrollably. "You thief who has stolen the authority of the gods, you executioner. How dare you... how dare you..."
"He who steals a hook is executed, he who steals a kingdom becomes a lord. And what I want is to steal the entire universe!" As Setsuna spoke, he casually swatted.
Artemis didn't see how Setsuna struck, but she felt the power of an entire universe slap her in the face.
"Ah—" Artemis flew backward in an extremely disheveled manner, spinning like a top.
She continuously collided through several divine walls inside the Moon Temple, and with a 'splat', fell into the sacred pool where Saori was standing.
"Cough, cough..." Artemis struggled to raise her head from the pool water. Pale golden divine blood, mixed with the pool water, flowed from the corners of her mouth and her nose.
Her silver hair was wet and plastered to her cheeks. Her magnificent Moon Goddess divine cloth was covered in cracks.
What made her even more mortified was that when she looked up, she saw Athena's rather subtle expression.
Setsuna, however, had no time to pay attention to her anger. He looked at Saori. "Athena, you personally killed Hades. Heaven has no place for you."
"So, would you like to join me, your former Pope, in overthrowing Heaven?"
"To fight for this earth, for all the beings who have been toyed with by the gods, to carve out a future that truly belongs to them?"
Saori bit her lip, hesitating.
Artemis stood up from the pool water, looking at Setsuna with eyes full of shock.
"You were Athena's Pope? You are actually human? How can a mere human be so powerful?"
Setsuna said calmly, "You gods, born with immense power, have long been accustomed to resting on your laurels, relying on the power granted by bloodline and divine office, reaping the benefits without sowing."
"Even the most basic desire, 'the desire to become stronger', has been worn away over the long years."
"How could you possibly understand the infinite possibilities that humans, within their finite lives, can burst forth with for survival, for protection, for transcendence?"
"You..." Artemis was momentarily speechless, but then her anger surged again.
"Don't be too pleased with yourself!" She shouted, blustering but inwardly weak. "I admit your power is indeed immensely strong, even among us major gods, it is among the top..."
"But we still have the great King of Gods… Zeus!"
"Father's power is beyond your imagination! He is the King of Gods, the Lord of Thunder, the Ruler of the Sky. You could never be his match!"
However, Saori, who had been silent all along, suddenly spoke. "Zeus will not appear. At least, not in the form of Zeus."
Artemis jerked her head around, her eyes full of shock as she looked at Saori. "How do you know? Father, he..."
Saori slowly raised her head, her gaze seeming to penetrate the dome of the temple, looking toward the infinitely distant direction of Heaven.
"Sister, do you know why, since the Mythological Era, I have continuously reincarnated, living as a human?" Saori asked softly.
Artemis frowned deeply, 'Isn't it because you were just bored of being a god and wanted a different way of living?'
Saori continued, "Because, my true body was completely destroyed as early as the Mythological Era. In a battle with our father, the King of Gods... we destroyed each other."
"What?" Artemis exclaimed in shock, her eyes wide open. "How have I never known this?"
Saori said calmly, "Our father certainly wouldn't want others to know that he was so wary of me, his daughter, fearing that I would overthrow him just as he overthrew our grandfather."
"So, when my power and wisdom gradually threatened his rule, he chose to strike first."
"That battle was known to no god. Our true bodies annihilated each other in some hidden corner of the universe, with only a wisp of our most original divinity escaping."
"My wisp of divinity reincarnated as a human. During that time, I felt the beauty of humanity and also received kindness from humans."
"To repay that kindness, I chose to protect humanity in the name of Athena."
"So that's how it was..." Artemis murmured. "What about Father?"
Saori said hesitantly, "I suspect that the divinity he escaped with did not reincarnate like I did, but instead possessed a certain god, or was devoured by that god."
"And the god I suspect is our brother..." Saori said deliberately, "Apollo, the Sun God!"
Artemis's expression changed dramatically. Although they were both children of Father, her relationship with Apollo was actually closer than with Athena. They were twins born of the same mother.
But Athena was now saying that her brother's body had very likely been taken over by her father.
Saori sighed softly. "That is why I tried to use the Gold Cloths to split the authority of the sun. If Apollo were still our brother, he would certainly not sit idly by and watch his authority be split."
Artemis's voice trembled. "Brother... he didn't notice..."
Athena sighed. "Yes. It is regrettable."
Setsuna suddenly understood, 'No wonder in the original work, Athena was no match for Apollo.'