Chapter 158: Chiron Academy, The Beginning (5)
Unlike the people trembling around her, Artemis was genuinely startled.
She had heard that he resembled him, but she never dreamed the feeling would be this similar.
Every now and then, when she visited Athena’s palace, she had seen portraits of the young Lord Poseidon—and this mage looked strikingly like them.
‘And his personality feels eerily similar too. At this point, the odds that he really is of Poseidon’s bloodline are quite high.’
“Still, you’re unbelievably insolent. Do you even understand what it means to block my path?”
“Hahaha, sorry to say this, but I’ve already formed a certain contract with Chloris here.”
“What? What are you—”
“The magic that child just used? I’m the one who taught it to her. Ah—unlike certain people who harmed her kin.”
Poseidon subtly implied that a contract had already been made.
As long as Chloris didn’t say otherwise, Artemis would have no way of knowing the truth.
The only problem was that the nuance of his words was outrageously arrogant.
“You… you arrogant brat. Do you have any idea who you’re speaking to?”
―Hmm. He resembles him more than I expected…? Even more than Triton.
***
Down on the ground, where Artemis was furious at Njord’s insolence and Amphitrite was feeling an odd sense of familiarity,
The people inside Thebes’s palace had momentarily forgotten about one particular god amid the rapidly unfolding events.
High in the sky, sharing sovereignty over the sun with Helios, was a certain golden-haired god.
“…Artemis may be stepping back, but I can’t just withdraw like this. This incident clearly made our mother the victim. Even if Lord Poseidon delivered the punishment, it wouldn’t have quenched Mother’s anger.”
Apollo had no intention of giving up even after his sister Artemis descended and declared she would no longer mete out divine punishment.
To him, forgiving such an insult to his mother after only this much was simply unthinkable.
Moreover, looking closely at the ground, it seemed that insolent mage was the one complicating everything even further.
“That arrogant mage—even if rumors say he’s Demeter’s lover—I’ll make him feel the full weight of interfering with divine punishment.”
From his place in the heavens, Apollo nocked a single golden arrow aimed toward the ground. As the sun god Apollo, this arrow had been forged by condensing a miniature sun within it—one shot capable of erasing Thebes from the face of the earth.
Merely being near it caused objects to melt and the surrounding air to warp visibly.
“Now—die!!”
***
[What?! What the hell is he doing over there? That guy.]
“This is insane. That mama’s boy idiot.”
By the time the two gods noticed Apollo’s arrow, it had already been loosed.
Of course, to the two of them, as long as the most valuable person here—Chloris—could be saved, the rest didn’t matter much.
To everyone else, though, it was a catastrophe.
It was as if the sun itself had descended upon the earth—straight toward Thebes’s palace.
Those who belatedly realized what was happening felt only awe.
When an incomprehensible being was driving them toward death, what remained wasn’t fear, but reverence.
Before such overwhelming, all-consuming violence that even fear itself was stolen away, all they could do was pray.
The same was true for Chloris.
Except that, for her, it wasn’t awe—it was a desperate wish to save the citizens of Thebes.
“Lady Amphitrite, please help! If this continues, every citizen of Thebes will die!!”
[…I’m sorry, child. I’m only here because of your spirit summoning. My true body remains in the deep ocean of Oceanus. I can protect only you and your sisters, nothing more.]
“Lady Artemis! Please!!”
“I can only say I’m sorry. I never expected that fool to do something like this. Above all, it’s already too late to block it without any damage. Even if I stepped in now, Thebes would still be destroyed by the aftermath of that immense power.”
Hearing the gods’ answers filled Chloris with despair.
Was her mother’s actions so wrong that they would lead to the slaughter of hundreds of thousands?
Of course, from Apollo’s perspective, it wasn’t just Niobe’s deeds—it included the insolence of that mage called Njord.
But from Chloris’s standpoint, that was an unknown fact. And even if she knew, the outcome would be no different.
At that moment.
“Hmm… That guy really is a lunatic no matter how many times I see it. This is exactly why mama’s boys are so hard to deal with. They just lose their minds the moment ‘mom’ is mentioned.”
The mage Njord looked at the despairing Chloris, the powerless gods, and then up at the arrogant smile still plastered on Apollo’s face high above. He spoke.
Because everyone was staring at impending doom with their own mix of emotions, his voice rang clearly through the palace grounds for all to hear.
―He’s truly a madman…
―To say something like that even in this situation.
―Well, they’re only now witnessing the majesty of a god.
―At least it won’t be a painful death. Maybe it’s a merciful end for that friend?
“…….”
While the people in the palace murmured among themselves and Chloris remained silent as if exhausted, Amphitrite and Artemis warned him in her stead.
[…That doesn’t sound like something you should be saying. You seem to have played your own part in pulling that idiot’s trigger.]
“Exactly. If he weren’t Poseidon’s illegitimate child, Apollo—that know-it-all—would never have let those insolent actions slide. Of course, what he’s doing now is a bit excessive.”
But the mage paid no attention to Amphitrite’s and Artemis’s rebukes.
The problem was Apollo, who had been poorly raised. He himself had done nothing wrong.
‘More importantly… let’s resolve the situation first.’
“Hecate, give me a hand.”
―…Don’t call my name in front of the gods. I don’t want to get tangled up with you right now.
Njord called out to Hecate, who had been silent until now.
Originally, he had planned to ask her to mediate, but the situation had become too urgent, forcing him to change course.
Above all, he was still annoyed that Hecate had hidden Chloris’s true talent from him.
[Oh? So you have a connection with Hecate?]
“Lady Hecate?”
Artemis and Amphitrite were startled by the unexpected appearance.
―Hah… Haha. Hello, everyone.
[Heh. For a god of your caliber to know this human…]
“You’re still the same as ever, Lady Hecate. Even speaking politely to a guy like that.”
―Well… it’s just an unavoidable habit.
Hecate spoke sparingly, worried that the situation might make it seem like she and Njord were particularly close.
To those who didn’t know he was Poseidon, Njord looked like nothing more than a madman wearing the mask of a mage.
“Ugh! Stop chattering and help already.”
―Sigh. That damn nuisance.
Despite Hecate’s inner reluctance, Njord treated her openly like a tool to be used.
Hecate let out a deep sigh and, with no other choice, descended behind Njord in the form of a spirit.
Amphitrite and Artemis, watching it unfold in real time, were utterly bewildered.
…At this point, couldn’t you just call them friends?
***
What Njord was about to attempt was to draw out the deepest part of his power as Poseidon without touching the seal that kept it contained within his human form.
―In simple terms, it’s summoning himself to himself.
“That’s why I need your help.”
―Haa… Normally, summoning yourself to yourself is a contradiction. But in your current state, it might actually work. You know this, right? Neither you nor I have ever done this before.
“Yeah, but right now I’m the only one who can stop that idiot’s rampage without any collateral damage.”
Artemis might have been able to block it to some degree, but even she—with power equal to Apollo’s—couldn’t completely nullify an attack unleashed with Apollo’s full divine authority without consequences.
Poseidon slowly turned his gaze inward.
Then he dove toward the deepest part of himself.
With that, the clear blue waves that usually accompanied his human body were replaced by a dark, heavy aura that rippled outward like an undercurrent.
When land-dwellers thought of Poseidon, they usually pictured storms, earthquakes, and oceanic disasters.
But his true essence was like the lightless abyss of the deepest ocean.
The unreachable deep sea—beyond the reach of any race, god, fairy, or mythical being—was the root of his being.
―Well… that’s probably why you get along so well with Lady Nyx.
Hecate was exerting the utmost concentration she had ever mustered. Even she couldn’t predict what would happen if a human body touched Poseidon’s origin right now.
Everything happening here was a first in her entire divine life.
―Alright. Beginning the summoning of self.
At Hecate’s words, the black waves instantly enveloped all of Thebes. As they burned away the approaching light and heat of the sun, the Thebans—who had been on the verge of giving up—lifted their heads in confusion.
Everything they had felt just moments ago had vanished entirely.
Instead, it felt as though some enormous presence had swallowed their very senses.
But unlike their perception, they could neither see nor feel anything at all.
The two gods who had descended to the surface were thrown into disarray.
[What in the world is this?! What is that mage doing?!]
“This is impossible!!!”
Even Amphitrite and Artemis had only felt this kind of power a handful of times in their existence.
“Uh…?”
Even the tears and cries of the despairing Chloris were swallowed whole.
“Sis? What’s happening?”
“Are we… going to live?”
“Really! Is Third Sis right?”
“I miss Mom…”
The confusion of her sisters was swallowed too.
―Squeeze out every last drop of mana! We have to save at least some of them!
―But… this is beyond our power.
―Still—we do whatever we can!!
The anguish, worry, and fear of those desperately trying to save even one more life were swallowed.
―Run!
―Abandon everything! Even grabbing something right now is a luxury!!
―Go—!!!
The raw desire of those who simply wanted to survive was swallowed.
And in the end, even the small sun descending from the sky was silently, soundlessly swallowed.
There was no noise, no clash, no shockwave in the process. Even those were devoured as if by something vast.
All of it simply sank into the deep, lightless abyss.
***
Shock and terror. What had just happened in Thebes could be summed up in those two words.
Terror at the scorching sun. Shock at the black something that had devoured it all.
That was roughly what the citizens of Thebes felt.
But for the gods inside the palace and those capable of using mana, far more was revealed.
The gods, having witnessed Poseidon’s power firsthand, felt a genuine shiver run through them.
To those who could sense mana, it appeared as a vision: a sun-shaped white horse being devoured by the formless thing from the abyss.
Yet what everyone shared in common was the overwhelming sense of ‘presence’.
After that, everything concluded far too smoothly.
The arrogant Niobe and her doting husband Amphion were rumored to have been turned to stone by Poseidon’s curse.
Apollo, the instigator of the entire incident, had already fled the scene. Naturally, Artemis—left behind—was forced to clean up the mess.
“Sigh… To think we came from the same womb as that.”
Under normal circumstances, Lady Artemis would never have had to stay and handle the aftermath of what happened in Thebes.
Unfortunately, among everyone present, she had the lowest status, power, and reputation.
“I only wanted to avenge the insult done to Mother…”
“Hey, come on—that was a bit much, wasn’t it? Just punish Niobe and Amphion. Wiping out all their kids too? That’s excessive, don’t you think?”
“…You.”
“Oh? Did you hear my muttering?”
More than anything, the reason Artemis couldn’t just leave was the shameless mage standing there, openly watching to see whether she handled the cleanup properly or not.
‘If that damn bastard weren’t so deeply connected to Lord Poseidon…’
Njord—who had personally demonstrated that shocking display of Poseidon’s authority—received overwhelming support from Amphitrite.
Anyone watching would think he really was her own child.
‘If it had been Lady Hera, his limbs would have been torn apart long ago…’
“Huh? Your hands stopped moving? That’s weird. The damage that blond guy caused isn’t exactly trivial. Are you sure it’s okay to slack off like this?”
“Argh! You damned mage!! Shut up already! I’ll handle it properly!!!”
“Whoa! Did you hear that? I was just talking to myself—oops. By the way, my name is Njord of the Neptune family.”
“…….”
For the first time in her life, Artemis felt genuine murderous intent toward a human.
She had never cared much about humans before.
But now, for the first time, she understood.
If there were even a few more like that mage in this world, humanity deserved to be wiped out!
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