Silence. A silence like death.
Long after this battle ended, the gods and heroes all seemed as though they still had not pulled themselves away from that grand and sweeping fight.
And then...
The Trojan side suddenly erupted into a boiling wave of cheers.
Paris broke into a cold sweat, but could not help letting out a look of excitement and relief at surviving.
Hey now! This was a little too thrilling.
Just a moment ago he was almost certain that his invincible brother was going to lose.
That terrifying presence!
If he was being honest, if that strike had landed on him directly, he was not even sure whether Hector would have been able to survive.
But so long as the result was good.
Amid the roars of cheers that seemed to release both fear and the joy of victory.
All the Trojans were rejoicing that they did not lose the final battle.
But the Greek side fell into dead silence.
Diomedes slowly closed his eyes. "Griffith already gave everything he had..."
Though he too felt incomparable regret and unwillingness, that final brilliant strike did not land on Hector after all.
But when they heard Diomedes's words, none of the other heroes said anything.
They did not blame Night for the miss of that final strike.
After all, to have fought to that degree and unleashed a strike of such terrifying force was already a miracle.
He upheld the last shred of Greece's dignity.
"Why are you bowing your heads!! Raise them, all of you!!"
King Agamemnon suddenly roared with fury at the Greek soldiers behind him.
"Our hero, fighting with every last ounce of his strength, showed his valor and defended the glory of Greece, even though he fell in the final battle. That shining figure fighting with everything on that battlefield still deserves the respect of everyone!
Raise your heads. Do not show the face of defeated men for the enemy to look down on.
Griffith, on his very first battlefield, defeated a powerful demigod, and even came close to bringing down Hector, the greatest hero of the Trojan side. He achieved a one-against-three record!
It is we who dragged him down.
If he had more strength left, he absolutely would not have lost."
King Agamemnon believed this without any doubt, and cried it out for all to hear.
This battle, though defeated, was one of honor!
Since the defeat was already a fact that could not be undone, they still could not allow themselves to forget the wounds that powerful hero bore fighting for Greece, and the effort he put in.
As Agamemnon said these words...
He finally stirred the emotions of the Greek people, who let out roars of indignation, all of them bellowing!
As though next time, they would surely wash away this humiliation.
This defeat was not something to fear.
But one day they would come back.
"Welcome our hero back!! Return!!" King Agamemnon.
In the end it was Diomedes who took the lead and brought the other heroes following close behind, on guard against any sudden Trojan assault, each of them resolved to bring Night back as they entered the battlefield.
And to their relief, Hector did not seem to have any intention of taking a prisoner, and did not stop these people from taking Night away.
He only quietly rode his horse back to his own camp.
Though in the end no one managed to achieve more than two consecutive wins, because the Greek side had no more participants to send out, Troy won the final victory.
That was how it should have been.
And yet, just as the Trojans were cheering for the return of their heroes.
Paris stepped forward to welcome his brother, and asked why he did not take Night prisoner or cut him down.
Hector's fist tightened.
As he trembled, barely able to stop himself from giving Paris the couple of open-handed slaps he so loved to deliver...
Hector suddenly fell off the back of his horse.
Thud!!
"Brother!!" Paris and the others cried out in shock and rushed forward to help Hector up.
...
...
The final outcome of the decisive battle had at last been decided.
The Trojan side won the final victory.
But even the gods in the heavens felt incomparable regret.
Many believed this was a victory in name only.
Everyone was still replaying that shining, that earth-shaking sight.
The figure of a hero like a king transformed into a black dragon.
Like the hero among heroes that countless people imagined in mythological epics.
And yet in the end he did not receive a perfect conclusion to match.
If that final column of light had landed on Hector.
Even Zeus, who was planning for Troy to win, couldn't bring himself to take away the glory that belonged to that beautiful, fearless, and courageous young man.
And Hector's fall at the end,
Made many feel this could only be called a draw.
Clearly, even without taking that cannon blast directly, having merely grazed the edge of it, Hector was still critically injured.
His attack had also run dry.
If the two fought once more at their peak, the outcome would be impossible to predict.
In the end, after the God-King announced the result.
This was a battle where Troy won in name, but no one received any substantive reward, namely the spoils of war.
The ownership of Helen was still not decided.
Or perhaps fate had already decided it... but on the surface, this battle only decided the victor and loser between factions, and not the victor and loser between individuals.
No one achieved the record of consecutive wins to be named the greatest.
Because of Night's stunning performance on the battlefield, Zeus felt very satisfied, and temporarily shelved the idea of sending divine punishment down to the Greek side's roster.
After all, he did not genuinely want to weaken Greece.
And even though Zeus did not immediately send down divine punishment, because they lost the decisive battle and retreated to camp, the morale of the Greek side still dropped sharply.
If it weren't for the fact that Hector and other key combat forces on the Trojan side were also wounded, they might have already led their forces out to strike and expand their gains.
When Achilles heard of Night's critical injuries, he left his hideout for the first time, came to the allied camp, and looked over Night's condition.
He was astonished by the aura of his divine equipment that had completely fused with Night's skin and flesh.
But in the end he said nothing.
Even without the armor, he was confident he was still the invincible Achilles.
The problem with Griffith's body was temporarily unclear.
That would be dealt with later.
But right now...
Achilles frowned. After going out he had an argument with Agamemnon. He also had some knowledge of the battle information from the battlefield.
Achilles blamed Agamemnon.
All of Greece, so many capable heroes, and yet they chose two useless people who dragged Griffith down, to the point that Griffith, a musician, had to fight one against three.
If only the first two had a shred of competence and left him more strength, the final outcome of the battle would only have gone to Greece.
Though he knew Night was a double agent, seeing his condition made clear that for now, their plan to defect was not going anywhere.
They would have to stay in Greece a while longer.
Even understanding that Night's final move was probably deliberate, it did not stop Achilles from giving Agamemnon a hard time and making things unpleasant for King Agamemnon.
As for whether these words would offend Odysseus and the king of Sparta, Achilles did not care.
If anything...
He somewhat disliked both of them to begin with.
For Achilles, who venerated valor, the overly scheming Odysseus and the raging-but-powerless grieved king of Sparta were not personalities he got along with.
Of course Achilles did not mock the weak.
But there was also another layer to it. After all, the king of Sparta was King Agamemnon's brother.
.
.
.
(End of the Chapter)