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(Fate) Chapter 158: Have you ever loved someone?
🕑 Added 2024-10-07 17:00:06 +0000 UTC"You want to hunt me… do you think I’m as foolish as Hermes?!” Aphrodite was furious, but there was also a hint of amusement in her laughter.
“It’s not hunting,” Promise replied calmly. “The reason why I hunted Hermes was because everything he did was for amusement, so I thought it fitting for him to be the one entertaining others.”
As for you...
The young man gave her a serious answer. “So naturally, I won’t hunt you, Goddess Aphrodite. I simply want to ask you one question… As the goddess of love, beauty and desire, one of the twelve gods of Olympus, have you ever cared about the lives of others?”
“And… have you ever truly loved anyone?”
As soon as Promise finished his question, Aphrodite hadn’t fully processed his words when a goddess dressed in black, with black hair and red eyes, appeared in the temple, accompanied by a swarm of underworld butterflies.
It was none other than Hecate, the goddess of crossroads and magic, and Medea’s teacher.
As she stepped into goddes of beauty, Aphrodite’s temple, flowers from the underworld bloomed beneath her feet, and the fluttering butterflies filled the air, darkening the space as she began casting the spell of fate that had been prepared for a long time.
Helen’s eyes widened as she recognized Hecate.
She naturally knew the other party after all, she had been saved by her once before.
But before Aphrodite could fully react, Hecate had already completed her magic.
The wings of the underworld butterflies fluttered down, landing on the goddess of beauty and shrouding the temple in darkness.
"Promise, do you believe me when I say that after this, I’ll throw myself into the abyss of the underworld?"
After doing all this, Hecate said with a sigh of relief, glaring at Promise with a mixture of frustration and disbelief.
"You’ve already tricked one god, and now you’ve become addicted to tricking a second one?
And this time it is the main god of olympus.
I can’t even imagine what you’ll dare to do in the future!"
She continued, exasperated, "And please, I’m begging you, please be a decent person.
If you want to cause trouble, invite someone else.
Can’t you mess with someone else instead of dragging me into your schemes?"
“No,” Promise responded decisively. “And I don’t believe you would actually jump and hide in the abyss... at least not right now. After all, Medea hasn’t returned home yet.”
He added with a sly grin,
"Beautiful goddess Hecate, you wouldn’t want your student to be left in tears, would you?"
Hearing this, Hecate’s face twisted with fury, and she nearly lost control of her expression.
But by then, Promise had already grasped the threads of fate.
Seeing this, the goddess glanced at Helen and noticed Cupid’s bow and arrows nearby.
So, in an act of petty vengeance, she wrapped Helen in the same fate she had cast around Aphrodite.
In fact, from the moment Helen had first met Promise at the temple built upon a pile of severed heads, she had known.
He was an extraordinary person.
After her experience in the labyrinth when she was unable to get out of it and hearing more about Promise from her goddess Aphrodite when she returned, Helen became even more certain that she couldn’t let Promise slip away.
Because this world would never see another like him.
Even so, she still hadn’t expected Promise to be capable of something so outrageous, something that completely shattered her understanding of the world.
Goddess Aphrodite… was crying.
Helen watched in disbelief as the goddess of love and beauty, the same deity who had always taught her how to dominate men and trample everything in the world underfoot, the exalted goddess she had once revered, collapsed before her in a flood of tears.
Promise had enacted his ‘revenge’ on the goddess of beauty, Aphrodite.
It wasn’t a hunt.
It was a glimpse into fate.
He made Aphrodite see, at that very moment, the birth of a crimson rose.
A white rose stained by her own blood, forever turning red and symbolizing eternal love.
.
.
.
Oh, great and lofty goddess of love and beauty, Aphrodite, if I may ask,
Have you ever truly given your love to anyone?
........
.........
On the island of Lemnos, inside Aphrodite’s temple, when Hecate, the goddess of roads and opportunities, appeared, the dark sky descended like a mourning moon.
She performed what seemed like a magic from the age of gods... no, in the hands of this goddess the so-called magic, seemed to be closer to a miraculous spell.
That was the magic of fate.
Even the great goddess Aphrodite, one of the Olympian twelve, was enveloped by Hecate's power.
This was the true might of Hecate, the ancient goddess of crossroads and magic in Greek mythology.
Although she often appeared unreliable and laid-back, especially with Promise and Medea, she was undeniably powerful.
Even among the twelve Olympian gods, the only one who could firmly overshadow her, besides Zeus, was that one other deity.
"Hmm, let me think about it. If I were to give little Promise a divine oracle during this trial of goddess of beauty, Aphrodite’s, what would it be?"
A flawless face, with the corners of her lips gently curving into a smile.
The goddess, clad in a pure white gown, lightly stepped onto the staircase leading to the divine realm.
These were steps only gods could tread, and at the end of the staircase lay the Greek Pantheon atop Mount Olympus.
Beneath the radiant sunlight, the goddess’s silver hair shimmered with a soft, glowing luster.
"Indeed, it must be about love," she mused.
"She is the goddess of love and beauty, the most beautiful of all the gods. Because of this, the gods love her, and mortal children adore her.
She appears too perfect, but... that perfection is like the surface of water, where even the smallest drop will ripple and shatter it."
The goddess chuckled softly, her brilliant golden eyes glowing with absolute wisdom.
Every veil of mystery in the world was laid bare before her gaze, hiding nothing.
"So, young Promise, my divine oracle for you regarding Aphrodite is simple.... that is:
The goddess of love and beauty has never truly experienced, nor even understood, what love really is."
With that, the goddess’s words fell like a soft whisper as she stepped lightly back into the divine realm, leaving this long-delayed oracle for the young man she favored.
Meanwhile, thunder rumbled in the heavens.
In the heart of the divine realm, within the central temple, a towering male god sat upon the highest throne...
Zeus, the King of the Gods, had arrived.
...
