A series of deafening cracks followed as ancient trunks split and toppled, sending up clouds of dust.
Glancing back at the newly cleared path of destruction, Lorne broke out in a cold sweat.
That was too damn close.
"Artemis!"
He roared, whipping his head toward the riverbank.
He didn't even use any honourifics.
After all, he almost died.
Who the fuck cares about that
The goddess turned stiffly, her vacant eyes locking onto his face, and then, her expression twisted into something manic.
'Yes. Kill him.'
'If I can't have him, no one can.'
With that thought, her arms flexed, the bowstring creaking as golden ripples shimmered in the air and radiant arrow of pure light materialized, aimed unerringly at his heart.
Lorne's scalp prickled as an invisible force locked onto him.
The die in his mind vibrated so violently it blurred.
Her fingers released.
The bowstring sang.
A streak of gold shot toward him—
There was no dodging. No escape.
Acting on pure adrenaline, Lorne channeled every ounce of divine power he had.
The War God's Belt at his waist ignited with crimson light, the essence of war itself blazing across his body like flames as he swung the bronze sword in his hand with all his strength, unleashing a torrent of raw combat divinity.
CLANG!
A deafening metallic shriek split the air as the sword, his trusty companion for months, shattered into fragments.
But the golden arrow *deviated.*
By a hair's breadth, it grazed past Lorne's cheek and slammed into the forest behind him.
*BOOOOOOM—!*
The explosion carved a crater a hundred meters wide into the bedrock.
Wind howled in the aftermath.
Warm blood trickled down Lorne's cheek as he stared at his trembling, bloodied hands, his face ashen.
'This crazy bitch is actually trying to murder me!'
If not for the War God's Belt Athena had left him, which was imbued with her divine essence, that shot would've sent him straight to the underworld.
The sheer abruptness of her attack set off alarm bells in his mind.
Although Athena had given him the warning, telling him that this goddess was a dangerous character...but this wasn't just dangerous.
'This isn't right. Even if I rejected her, she wouldn't snap this badly...'
After all, he had spend a coupled of months with her, so even though he couldn't say that he knew her inside out, he could confidently say that he knew her a lot.
Far less than Apollo, Athena or Hestia maybe, but far more than someone else.
So even though he knew she was an Arrogant Tsundere...she hadn't shown any Yandere tendencies ....until now.
His eyes darted around and then froze.
On the far bank stood a figure who should have been long dead.
Orion.
The face usually wore a simple, honest expression.
Now, it was bare with jealousy, the eyes burning with madness as they locked onto Lorne.
'You worthless insect. You foreign nobody. HOW DARE YOU STAND IN MY WAY?!'
"Fair goddess," Orion's voice slithered across the water, "slay this nuisance, and nothing will remain between us."
At this moment, his heart brimmed with a twisted satisfaction born of vengeance.
He wanted to witness this bastard, who had blocked his path time and again, be tortured to death right before his eyes.
'He's the one behind this!'
The moment Lorne identified the culprit, his mind raced, piecing together clues until he uncovered the true reason for Artemis's rampage.
—Aphrodite's divine authority!
Poseidon's mediation between Aphrodite and Ares wasn't just about currying favor with the goddess of love!
What he truly sought was the power of love itself—bestowed by Aphrodite!
Combined with the fact that, during the beast tide disaster, Poseidon had desperately salvaged Orion's half-dead body, the answer was clear.
He didn't just want Crete—he intended to use his demigod son, gifted with exceptional hunting prowess, to forge an alliance with Artemis, the goddess of the hunt, thereby dragging her brother Apollo into his faction.
And if, through Crete, he could successfully force Athena into submission...
Then Poseidon's camp would include Ares, Aphrodite, Athena, Artemis, and Apollo, five Olympian deities, plus himself, nearly half of the Twelve Olympians.
No no...it wasn't just that.
- Hephaestus was bound by his debt to the sea goddess Thetis, and would likely remain neutral.
- Demeter, locked in a cold war with Zeus over her daughter Persephone, would stay out of it.
- Hera, who had long been resentful of her husband's infidelity, was already on the brink of rebellion.
- Hestia had long withdrawn from divine politics.
- Hermes, ever the opportunist, would sway with the wind...
With this, Zeus, cornered by Poseidon's meticulous scheming, would be isolated, stripped of his authority.
The throne of Olympus might just change hands.
To achieve this ultimate goal, whether by using the Minoans as leverage against Athena or winning Artemis's favor with King Minos's golden hound, control over Crete was critical!
Thus, the beast tide was no random disaster, it was a calculated move to gather the necessary pieces.
In the original myths, Poseidon's scheme seemed to have succeeded.
- Orion, the hunter who roamed the wilds with his loyal hound, became a close companion of Artemis and her mother, Leto.
- Soon after, a rebellion against Zeus erupted on Olympus, with Poseidon, Apollo, Athena, and Hera all participating.
Of course, that rebellion ultimately failed.
After all, no matter what kind of character, he had, Zeus was Zeus...
However, let's not talk about the results.
At this moment, these traces left in the annals of myth all pointed to one conclusion.
Yet, due to Lorne's interference, Poseidon's first step, which was seizing Crete to corner Athena, had failed.
Even his demigod son Orion had nearly died in the attempt.
With his plans crumbling and no immediate way to crack the unyielding Athena, Poseidon had no choice but to pivot—targeting Artemis instead.
So Orion's goal wasn't Lorne at all.
He had come ashore specifically to ensnare the goddess of the hunt!
And to ensure his son's success, Poseidon had clearly infused him with the power of love obtained from Aphrodite.
Without the golden hound to ease the path, subtlety was out of the question.
'If the rice isn't cooked, then force it down her throat.'
In mere seconds, Lorne's mind connected the dots, piercing through the fog to uncover the deep-laid conspiracy beneath.
"Artemis, snap out of it!"
Lorne roared, trying to break the goddess free from Aphrodite's bewitching influence.
But all he received in return was an even more deranged smile.
"I've never been clearer. What I hunt belongs to me, whether you agree or not doesn't matter."
As she spoke, Artemis drew her golden bow, a new radiant arrow materializing on the string.
"Yes, fair goddess," Orion urged from across the stream, amplifying his divine authority. "Remove this obstacle, and nothing will stand between us."
His eyes burned with vindictive glee.
'Why do you always get there first? All of this should have been mine!'
'Die! I want to watch you perish by the arrows of the one you love!'
As the glowing arrow took shape, a chill crawled up Lorne's spine.
This insane woman!*
Beads of cold sweat formed on his forehead as he scrambled for a way out.
But of course, with Artemis, a living siege weapon, gone rogue, running was futile.
'Take out the mastermind first?'
If there was a list of the people, he wanted to kill more than anything, the first name on it would be Zeus...and the second would be this guy ..
This motherfu***
But even as his emotions were seething with rage, he dismissed the idea almost immediately, after all,
'Too far. And with Artemis in the way, I'd be turned into a pincushion before I even reached Orion.'
'Damn Aphrodite's power!'
Lorne cursed inwardly, until a sudden realization struck like lightning.
'Wait. The power of love?'
'I have that too!'
A faded memory surged back to life.
In his moment of desperation, Lorne recalled the seemingly useless "trash" he had once drawn from the twelve-sided die during his escape across the Oceanus.
[Aphrodite's Favor]: The Goddess of Love and Beauty will awaken your divine bloodline, granting you an irresistible allure to the opposite sex for one week.
In an instant, what he had once dismissed as a useless, half-baked blessing now shone like a priceless treasure.
—Thank you, great-grandmother!
'I will always forget your kindness.'
The same ungrateful descendant who had been cursing the goddess of love moments ago now lavished praise on his nominal ancestor and, without hesitation, activated the blessing using the die's divine power.
As his boiling divine blood surged, a mesmerizing pink hue materialized in his crystal-clear eyes.
Seizing the moment, Lorne flexed his facial muscles into a radiant, gentle smile and gazed passionately at the crazy goddess of hunt.
"Artemis, I accept! I will become your divine attendant! I will stay by your side forever!"
'He agreed? Just like that?'
And just like that, their eyes met, and the vow, which was somehow spoken like a lover's promise, momentarily stunned Artemis as a flicker of confusion and hesitation crossed her face.
But that was all.
Clearly, compared to the diluted blessing Lorne had earned through trials, the full authority of love that Aphrodite had traded to Poseidon, which was capable of swaying even a major deity, was far more potent.
Still, it was enough!
Seeing the goddess's hesitation, Lorne poured every ounce of his love-divine bloodline and Dionysian frenzy into a thunderous shout.
"Wake up! You're being manipulated!"
For a split second, Artemis's ears rang as if struck by a bell and fog in her eyes cleared slightly.
Realizing something was wrong, Orion paled and frantically urged, "Fair goddess, don't listen to his lies! Kill him, and we can—"
THWIP!
However, a golden arrow tote through the sky, accompanied by a dull tearing sound, pierced his shoulder, dragging him all the way, and finally nailing him firmly to a thick tree trunk.
"AAAAAH! MY SHOULDER!"
The unprepared demigod howled in agony as blood gushed from the wound.
And the painful cries, like a spell, poured into Artemis's mind, constantly bewitching her to look back and show mercy.
*CLANG!*
The golden bow clattered to the ground as Artemis dropped to her knees, clutching her head with her hands, snarling through gritted teeth, "Kill him. Now."
The moment she spoke such words, Lorne was already moving. He lunged past her, crossing the stream in a flash. His right hand clamped around Orion's thick neck, silencing his whimpering pleas.
As the grip on his neck tightened and tightened, and the death came near, the pinned demigod struggled wildly, his bulging eyes filled with terror.
"Y-You... c-can't... Father will—"
SNAP!
However, before Orion could finish speaking, the iron-like arm suddenly burst out with the scarlet blood of the god of war, breaking through the last thin layer of ocean protection on the son of the sea god, and directly twisting his thick neck bone at an unnatural angle.
His head lolled forward, eyes frozen in hatred and fear.
In an instant, Lorne's crimson aura erupted into flames, engulfing Orion's body.
In a blink of an eye, the charred corpse and the blackened tree behind it crumbled into ash, scattering in the wind.
With the evidence thoroughly destroyed, Lorne's tense heartstrings finally relaxed, only for his suppressed injuries to erupt in a tidal wave of agony.
His bones, organs, and muscles screamed in protest.
'There's no way he's coming back from that, right?'
Looking at the small handful of ashes in front of him, Lorne, who was also on the verge of his limit, sat on the ground with relief after repeated confirmation.
If Poseidon could resurrect his beloved son from this, he should ditch the title "God of the Sea" and call himself "Lord of the Dead" instead.
With the last bit of doubt dispelled, Lorne was about to completely let down his guard and lie down to rest, when...a warm breath tickled his ear.
And scent of musk and wildflowers enveloped him.
Lorne's neck creaked like a rusted gear as he turned halfway.
His purple eyes instantly met a pair of silver eyes that were beating with hot flames.
They were beautiful...of course, but at this moment, they looked different.
Now, primitive animality and a kind of almost tangible desire burned in them, as if they want to devour him whole.
Just looking at that pair of eyes, a terrifying realization struck his mind.
'Although, Orion, the sources of all this, might be gone, but I'm still here.'
'And if I remember correctly... [Aphrodite's Favor] lasted for... a week, right..?'
"Gulp..."
Lorne moved his throat and swallowed a mouthful of saliva, trying to moisten his dry throat.
Looking at the apex predator who was rolling her pink tongue and licking her cherry lips inches from his face, he squeezed out a forced smile from his stiff face.
"Are you hungry? Maybe we should... eat first—"
*THUD!*
In an instant, before he could finish his words, slender yet inhumanly strong hands seized his legs that were quietly moving backwards and knocked him down easily.
His head bounced off rocks as he was dragged mercilessly into the woods.
Like a rabbit mauled by a panther, Lorne's protests were swiftly smothered beneath a frenzy of claws and teeth.
"Stop ripping my clothes!"
"Wait—I'm innocent!"
"OW! My wounds are reopening!"
"Mmph—!!!"
Soon, the rabbit's cries dissolved into the shadows of the forest, drowned out by the panther's unrestrained feast.
The huntress claimed her prize, devouring her prey with ravenous delight.
(End of Chapter)