"Come… warrior."
Between layers of gauze curtains, a woman with a graceful figure sat upon the bed. Smiling softly, she gazed at the heavily armored man before her and extended her flawless, jade-like arm. As her gentle voice called out, the atmosphere of the entire room rippled and turned seductive. A pink aura spread through the space, making everything unbearably ambiguous. Her voice was filled with alluring charm, and amid her call, the steel-clad warrior lowered his weapon and slowly walked toward her.
Seeing this, the woman smiled. She sat up, letting the thin veil draped over her body fall away.
"Feel pleasure, brave warrior. Come, remove your armor and savor this incomparable moment of bliss… together with me…"
The woman's voice seemed imbued with a strange magic. Step by step, the man ascended the stairs and came to the bedside. Then, he reached out and slowly removed his helmet.
"———————!!!"
However, at the instant the steel warrior removed his helmet, the pink aura filling the room shattered instantly. An overwhelming killing intent and terrifying aura surged forward head-on. Even the goddess before him turned deathly pale, her entire body trembling. Her earlier calm and confident demeanor vanished completely, replaced by raw fear in the face of death and destruction.
Before the woman could even speak, the steel warrior suddenly stepped forward again, reached out with one hand, and seized the goddess's slender, fragile neck, lifting her straight up off the bed!
"No————!!"
The scream was cut short. The warrior's hands tightened sharply, and in the next moment, he effortlessly snapped the woman's neck, her head slumping downward. Immediately after, the warrior hurled the lifeless corpse of the goddess to the ground, stepped forward, and stomped on her body, grinding her into the floor. Then he exerted force again—next instant, the woman's body bulged, burst apart like a crushed insect, blood spraying everywhere as divine power flowed into Duanmu Huai's body.
"This is really boring."
Glancing at the system notifications appearing before him, Duanmu Huai frowned slightly and muttered to himself.
Ever since he stormed Mount Olympus, Duanmu Huai had been fighting nonstop. Although the heroes had all found excuses to avoid intervening, the Greek gods still possessed plenty of loyal and capable followers, so Duanmu Huai naturally encountered resistance.
But that wasn't important. What mattered was that during this process, Duanmu Huai gradually discovered the true nature of the Greek gods.
Strictly speaking, the Greek gods—were not gods at all.
According to Star Ocean OL's definition, gods, believers, and faith form a trinity. But the Greek gods were different. Although Duanmu Huai gained certain divine offices and skills after killing them, upon closer inspection he discovered that these divine offices and skills were basically useless.
For example, when he killed Poseidon, he naturally obtained the divine office of Sea God.
And the Sea God's ability was "freely manipulate seawater."
Alright—only seawater. Freshwater didn't count. Mineral water didn't count. Soda water probably didn't either.
Throw that into a desert and what the hell is it good for?
Isn't that just trash?
What kind of god is this low-tier?
As Duanmu Huai slaughtered his way upward and collected more divine offices, he became increasingly convinced that the Greek gods were less like gods and more like elemental spirits. Like the fire elementals or water elementals that appear in many games. Their abilities were extremely narrow and specialized.
At that point, Duanmu Huai finally understood why these gods treated their followers the way they did.
True gods require faith to gather power, and after believers die, their souls belong to the gods.
Thus, gods and believers usually support each other.
But the Greek gods clearly weren't like that. Just look at their behavior—even the most devout believer would be killed if the gods found them displeasing. Under such circumstances, how many believers would willingly provide faith? And if their power didn't come from faith, then where did it come from?
Now Duanmu Huai finally understood. The power of the Greek gods had nothing to do with faith at all. Their power came from nature—it was a product of condensed natural attributes. Thus, they rose and fell together with the world, but humanity's survival or extinction was irrelevant to them.
Even if all humans died and they gained zero faith, it wouldn't affect them in the slightest.
But conversely, they also had no room to grow any further.
Just as natural lightning, no matter how powerful, cannot spontaneously produce nuclear fusion—these "natural spirits" were capped at their limits.
Like that song goes, wasn't it something like—
The sky is still the sky, the rain is still the rain, under my umbrella you're no longer here.
I am still me, you are still you, it's just that there's one more winter…
Yes. That was the limit of the Greek gods.
And true gods were not like this.
Take the Horned Rat, for example. It is the god of the Skaven and governs plague and conspiracy. If the Horned Rat ascended from a lesser god to a greater one, its faith domain would expand. Perhaps not just Skaven, but all rodents would become its believers. And humans who worshipped it might even directly transform into Skaven.
That was how divine faith truly spread. As long as a god was strong enough, the scope of its divine office could evolve and expand.
Unlike the Greek gods—take Poseidon. Nicely put, he was a Sea God. Put bluntly, he was just a Saltwater God.
For all anyone knew, even saline IV bags weren't under his jurisdiction.
What use were such divine offices and skills?
Some psychics were stronger than this.
Thinking this far, Duanmu Huai let out a long breath, then swung his hammer, smashing open the heavy door before him.
"Bang!!!"
The massive iron door shattered, and Duanmu Huai strode inside.
What came into view was a lavish, beautiful garden filled with lush trees and flowers. But compared to Duanmu Huai, who was steeped in bloodshed, it felt utterly incongruous.
"It should be about time."
Duanmu Huai raised his head and looked at the sky. The palace atop Mount Olympus was right ahead. Once he passed through this garden, he could slaughter his way to that old bastard Zeus and chop him into eight pieces. Honestly, after understanding the true nature of the Greek gods, Zeus no longer felt threatening to Duanmu Huai. Apart from controlling lightning and transforming himself to trick women into sex, what else could that old bastard do?
He probably couldn't even tell DC from AC.
"I didn't expect you to actually make it here."
At that moment, a voice rang out. Duanmu Huai looked up toward the source and saw a woman emerge from the depths of the garden. She wielded twin swords and wore the attire of a warrior. Her face was resolute, her eyes gleaming with intelligence. Duanmu Huai raised an eyebrow.
"You are…?"
"Athena."
"Oh…"
The goddess of war and wisdom. No wonder she was so ugly.
Duanmu Huai swept his gaze over her and smacked his lips. Now he understood why Athena had been jealous of Medusa.
Ugly women cause trouble.
Looking like this, no wonder she flew into rages so easily.
And no wonder Zeus never fancied her.
If Athena in Saint Seiya had looked like this, probably no reader would care whether she lived or died.
"I never imagined you'd break through the gods' defenses and reach this place…"
"You mean those few third-rate hacks?"
Duanmu Huai sneered, cutting Athena off. He'd expected climbing Olympus to be difficult—something like charging through the Twelve Temples. But aside from some trash mobs, only a handful of gods actually dared to block him.
First was Apollo, who relied on his flying chariot to circle in the sky and taunt him, only to get dragged down by Duanmu Huai's gravity gauntlet, crash, and get beaten into meat paste.
Then Hermes, who relied on speed to spam taunts—he became the second unlucky soul under the gravity gauntlet.
Then came the trio of Furies—seeking revenge for their husband Ares.
That was easy. Hammer them to death.
Finally, there was Aphrodite. Unfortunately, she was more interested in skinship than fighting. She even invited Duanmu Huai to "battle" together—but considering she was basically a public bus ridden by everyone, Duanmu Huai rejected her. He showed no mercy and killed her outright.
Her little charm tricks were nothing in front of Duanmu Huai's death aura.
And that was it.
He hadn't seen the other Greek gods. They had either run away or gone into hiding.
"...…"
Athena's expression stiffened slightly. Of course she knew why. Duanmu Huai's killings of Ares, Hades, and Poseidon had terrified the gods. More importantly, Duanmu Huai had absorbed their divine offices and power completely. That scared the Greek gods senseless. They didn't want their hard-earned power going to someone else, so aside from a few gullible or arrogant fools, the rest fled faster than rabbits.
After all, Zeus could hold up the sky if it fell.
"I'm here to negotiate with you, outsider."
Athena coughed lightly and changed the topic. But Duanmu Huai simply raised his warhammer.
"I have no intention of negotiating. My stance is clear—Olympus must be destroyed, and that old bastard Zeus must die. Your so-called power is worthless before me and poses no threat."
"In that case, there's nothing left to say."
Athena's face paled slightly as she retreated like a ghost.
"Then rot here forever!"
"In your dreams!!"
Before Athena finished speaking, Duanmu Huai's jetpack roared to life, propelling him through the garden as he smashed his thunder warhammer toward her. But at that moment, walls of grass suddenly unfolded around him, blocking his path. When Duanmu Huai shattered the grass wall with one blow, Athena was already gone. Only towering hedge-maze walls surrounded him, cutting off all paths.
He turned around—his way back was gone too.
"Well damn. So that's the wisdom goddess, huh."
Duanmu Huai spat, then gripped his warhammer as black flames erupted.
"If you won't let me go up, then I'll burn this damn mountain down! Let's see if you come out!"
With a roar, Duanmu Huai raised his warhammer high and slammed it into the ground!
"BOOM!!!"
In the next instant, black flames erupted violently, instantly sweeping across everything around him.
In the blink of an eye, an incomparable sea of fire spread throughout the labyrinth!
(End of chapter)