The following morning.
The royal city of Arcadia.
After an overnight journey, the group of six finally arrived at their destination.
Atalanta, who had been unconscious on Lorne's back, woke up gradually after a night of recovery.
Although her physical strength and magical power were considerably depleted and she appeared listless, she could at least manage basic movement.
"We have urgent matters requiring an audience with His Majesty Iasion!"
The twin brothers ahead spoke and tossed a bronze Apollo emblem engraved with sun patterns to the guards at the city gate as proof of identity.
Not long after, a middle-aged man of military officer appearance came rushing over.
After confirming the identities of the two Spartan princes, he immediately ordered the soldiers to let them through, personally leading the way himself, bringing these six warriors who came from afar to the Arcadian royal palace at a brisk pace.
With someone clearing the path, the six moved without obstruction and quickly arrived before the doors of the palace's main hall.
After a simple announcement process, they smoothly entered the Arcadian royal palace's reception hall and met the legendary king of Arcadia, Iasion.
He was a tall and powerfully built middle-aged man whose firm features still faintly showed that he had decent looks in his younger days.
After a few brief pleasantries, the twin brothers went straight to the point and recounted what they witnessed and heard on the road to this king of Arcadia in full detail.
"Your Majesty. This beast outbreak is no ordinary matter. We urge you to treat it with great care!"
"I am grateful to you all for coming from afar and for the kind warning.
I will certainly take these matters seriously."
King Iasion responded repeatedly, his expression grave.
However, after only a few more exchanges, he began breathing with difficulty, his face showing an unhealthy pallor, as though his health had run into some problems.
"Are you alright?"
Seeing this, the twin brothers could not help showing surprise.
"My apologies for showing you such a sorry state." Iasion gave a dry cough, a trace of bitterness showing on his face, and helplessly recounted the cause of his condition.
When the beast outbreak first began, this king had also hoped to turn the tide and prevent the situation from collapsing, so he personally led Arcadia's divine-blood garrison forces deep into the mountain range to hunt and kill the mutated and frenzied magical beasts.
However, he severely underestimated the beast outbreak.
And severely overestimated himself.
In the end, Arcadia's divine-blood garrison suffered heavy casualties under the magical beasts' surrounding assault.
Even he himself was seriously injured and had not yet recovered.
After listening to Iasion's account, the twin brothers' faces showed plenty of sighing and sympathy.
Lorne, hidden within the group, could not help but mutter in his heart.
'Taking regular army forces into the deep mountains of the Arcadian range for jungle warfare against magical beasts. What kind of genius move was that?'
The divine-blood garrison soldiers may have carried the name of divine blood, but they were basically descendants diluted through who knows how many generations.
Compared to true divine-blood heroes, the gap was more than just a little.
Setting aside Lorne himself, even Medea could effortlessly finish off several hundred of them given adequate preparation.
Not to mention the magical beasts that grew up in the Arcadian mountains, with every advantage of terrain and home ground.
So the best use of these garrison forces was to lure the beasts to relatively open terrain and use formation and coordinated advantages to destroy them.
Not to throw valuable high-level troops into an environment unfavorable for organized combat and burn through them for nothing.
The fact that he managed to escape at all meant this old fellow was simply lucky.
Of course, it was also possible that when the beast outbreak first started, it had not yet reached this level of severity, which gave Iasion and his remnant forces a way out.
Only after this setback did Arcadia have no choice but to switch from offense to defense, sensibly huddling within the city and recruiting heroes from various city-states, waiting for rescue.
And because they gave up large stretches of forest and roads, the beast outbreak in Arcadia grew more and more severe and the affected range expanded further and further.
The reason Lorne's group encountered packs of demonic wolves on the main road thirty kilometers from the Arcadian mountain range was precisely because of this.
Even more troubling was that this beast outbreak seemed extraordinary.
The magical beast groups appeared to be continuously strengthening and evolving.
Originally this rate was within manageable bounds.
But then Iasion sent his divine-blood garrison in and took a beating.
Those magical beasts had likely further enhanced themselves by consuming flesh with divinity and devouring armor imbued with magical power.
On top of that, these magical beasts began appearing on the main roads, hunting passersby and the various warriors who came to participate in the punitive expedition.
With the prepared side catching the unprepared, quite a few of the various parties that arrived had likely ended up as food for those mutated beasts, driving those creatures to become increasingly difficult to deal with.
The result was that the more experience they fed, the faster the mountain beasts developed, and the difficulty of hunting and extermination kept rising accordingly.
To the point where even the twin brothers who were sons of Zeus almost did not make it.
'One incompetent general exhausts a thousand men.'
After this round of private grumbling, Lorne patiently waited for both sides to finish their exchange before following the twin brothers out of the palace reception hall.
After Arcadia's king stirred things up like this, relying on the local high-level forces for coordination was off the table.
The only option was to use the recruited hero units to form elite small squads and attempt to enter the Arcadian mountains to investigate the cause of the beasts' mutation, then resolve the problem at its root.
"Please wait a moment."
Just as Lorne was thinking this through, two soldiers standing guard at the inner gate raised their spears and shields to block the way.
A female high priestess dressed in white robes walked out, gave a slight nod of greeting, then led them to a side hall, where she lifted a piece of black fine gauze to reveal a crystal ball enshrined on the altar beneath.
The white-robed high priestess extended her arm to indicate the six of them should each place their hand on it for testing in turn.
The six exchanged glances, brows slightly furrowed.
"This is a required procedure for participation in this hunt.
All heroes must pass this test."
Seeing the group's somewhat skeptical expressions, the white-robed high priestess immediately parted her lips to explain the reason earnestly.
"After all, in order to effectively deal with the beast outbreak, we need to verify everyone's identity and abilities, and ensure everyone's safety as much as possible."
Hearing that diplomatically worded explanation, Lorne and the others exchanged glances and gave slight nods.
Simply put, on one hand this was to prevent enemy spies from infiltrating and ensure their own security.
On the other hand it confirmed what level the recruited hero units were at, so appropriate punitive expedition plans could be made.
The fact that this testing was not conducted when they entered the palace to meet the Arcadian king, but instead formally began after the discussion ended, already showed considerable courtesy toward them.
With the purpose understood, no one had any objections.
They stepped forward one by one and placed their hands on the crystal ball's surface, channeling ether magical power into it.
In an instant, the magical formation diagram activated, and three golden pillars of light rose one after another.
The dark moon Goddess Hecate's seal, the silver white bright moon's seal, and the golden sun's seal formed into shape in succession.
A devotee of the Underworld Moon Goddess Hecate. A favored of the Hunting Goddess Artemis.
A messenger of the Light God Apollo...
All of them were divine favorites!
The white-robed high priestess stared at this pool of such high-quality golden light with considerable shock, then her serious gaze finally fell on Lorne, the last one yet to be tested.
"Your turn."
Lorne gave a slight nod, stepped forward, and placed his hand on the crystal ball, as the grapevine bursting from the earth grew lush and vibrant. Clusters of grapes refracted a clear white light.
'A follower of the Dionysian faith?'
The white-robed high priestess could not help looking at Lorne a few more times, but then shook her head with a trace of mild disappointment.
'Just an ordinary level. I hot excited for nothing.'
However, the high priestess obviously had not noticed the trace of brilliant color contained within that white light, and would never have thought that the most valuable card among the six was the one right in front of her.
Immediately after, seemingly realizing her expression was somewhat impolite, she quickly withdrew her gaze and opened her mouth with a smile.
"Heroes responding to the call are still making their way here from various places and some time is needed for assembly.
So the date for formally entering the mountains to clear out the magical beasts has been tentatively set for three days from now. In the meantime, please rest well in the city.
The temple will arrange accommodations for you."
As she said this, she waved her hand and summoned a younger female priestess, instructing her to lead Lorne's group to their lodgings in the city while she continued presiding over the heroes' registration and review process.
"Next! Yes, just like that. Place your hand on the crystal ball and channel magical power..."
"BANG!"
The sound of the crystal ball exploding came from the hall, along with the grief-stricken scream and cursing of some unfortunate soul covered in blood.
"What kind of rubbish quality is this thing!"
At this point, Lorne, having just reached the door, paused in his step, then quietly quickened his pace, muttering privately.
'Looks like force control still needs more practice.'
---
Walking out of the palace and onto the streets, the group shed the burden from their hearts and finally had the mind to appreciate Arcadia's local customs and character.
"Good day, dear friend. Please allow me to take a moment of your valuable time to introduce you to our heavenly father and savior..."
Looking at the devotees along the way in their black robes, fluently preaching and evangelizing to passersby, distributing towels, flatbread, small cups of sweet wine, and handwritten scriptures,
Lorne finally understood why the high priestess had lost interest in him.
The reason was simple.
Dionysian faith followers were not rare in Arcadia.
On the contrary, they were everywhere.
As the behind-the-scenes religious head of the Dionysian faith, a certain founding patriarch looked at these followers diligently spreading the faith on his behalf, not knowing whether to laugh or cry.
And seemingly because the soil of Arcadia was particularly fertile for evangelism, Lorne spotted two other groups competing with his Dionysian faith for followers along the way.
One group wore robes bearing star and moon patterns and liked to use certain alchemical-sounding concepts to make simple matters unnecessarily complex, thereby attracting new recruits.
They were the Hermetic sect.
This name came from Hermes Trismegistus, meaning "the thrice-great Hermes," and their faith centered on the foreign God of Wisdom Thoth, the ancient messenger God Hermes, and the Olympian speed God Hermes.
These three deities in one formed the main body of the Hermetic sect's faith.
According to their doctrine, the Hermetics believed that a person's entry into the world was a spiritual journey, ultimately meant to return to unity with divinity and achieve balance with nature's order.
Therefore, a large portion of Hermetic texts touched on astrology, alchemy and methods of using magic, attempting to teach people to harness and command the forces of nature.
This attracted quite a few curious ordinary people.
'The thrice-great Hermes? Three deities in one?'
'Hermes, you little rascal. Remember to pay me the copyright fee when you get a moment.'
Lorne, who had always been the one borrowing and altering mythological content, felt a somewhat ironic amusement at the idea that he himself had a day of being imitated and having his ideas used.
That Olympian speed God, although born in a cave in Arcadia and considering this land his sacred ground, saw his connection to this land decline sharply after his son the shepherd God Pan died.
Combined with Arcadia's naturally fierce people who worshipped strength, he gradually lost ground to Artemis.
The moon temple serving that Hunting Goddess thus became dominant and the mainstream faith of Arcadia.
The white-robed high priestess who tested Lorne's group earlier had come from the moon temple.
And in order to re-establish his foothold in Arcadia's territory, that nimble-minded speed God also began religious reform, gradually developing the Hermetic sect and dispatching his disciples to spread his faith across this land.
'Worthy of the God of merchants and travelers. Always quick-witted.'
Lorne offered this fair assessment and then looked toward the other group competing for territory with the Dionysian faith.
"Merciful Goddess, we thank you for this food you grant us."
A hundred or more people crowded into a cramped dark room, receiving and drinking fresh-cooked barley gruel, then leaned against the walls and floor as though intoxicated, falling into drowsy sleep.
At the same time, thread-like wisps of black fog dispersed from the bodies of the devotees who drank the barley gruel and gradually dissolved into the air.
As these impurity-like things were expelled from their bodies, the devotees seemed to be purified from the inside out.
Their brows smoothed, their faces grew serene, their breathing became more steady, and their entire bodies seemed to radiate a faint glow.
Catching the smell of barley gruel drifting through the door gap, Lorne could not help sneezing.
'Cyceon barley drink. No wonder it smelled somewhat familiar.'
If he remembered correctly, this should be the item the Eleusinian Mysteries most liked to use during their secret rites.
This sect worshipped the harvest Goddess Demeter and the Queen of the Underworld Persephone, hoping to obtain eternal immortal life through specific foods and secret rites.
In the original mythology, the harvest Goddess Demeter, in the process of searching for her daughter Persephone, used the liquid of Cyceon barley drink to anoint the body of a prince of a city-state who had fostered her, and during the night placed him on fire for tempering, hoping to burn away his mortal parts and grant him immortality.
And the sea Goddess Thetis submerging her son Achilles in the waters of the River Styx to give him an undying body was also influenced by the Eleusinian Mysteries.
Because immortality and undying existence were temptations almost impossible for mortals to refuse, the Eleusinian Mysteries spread quite rapidly.
Before Artemis had even been gone long, this outside sect had already attracted a large following in Arcadia.
Walking through the streets,
Lorne fended off light-fingered hands probing at his pockets for the third time, looking at the varied figures moving through the city, muttering.
The moon temple worshipping Artemis.
The Dionysian faith worshipping himself.
The Hermetic sect Hermes secretly assembled.
And the Eleusinian Mysteries, older in years, worshipping the harvest Goddess Demeter and the Queen of the Underworld Persephone...
Add in the beast outbreak connected to Typhon's divinity...
'Good heavens. This place called Arcadia. What a vibrant hotbed of activity, with everything competing for dominance.'
(End of Chapter)