Chapter 22: Heavenly Asura Path 22
Chapter 22: The Moon That Is No Longer a Goddess
"Who are you?" Artemis's ears twitched a little when she heard a voice. It sounded familiar, but her body felt so heavy; the voice sounded as if it was far away and her eyelids could only tremble for a few moments before she remained still once more.
"Oh... Calm down, young lady, I am not your enemy. In fact, it's quite the opposite," an old but kind voice came now. Artemis felt frustrated, her mind was working, but she barely had any strength, and she could only listen to what these people were talking about around her.
"Hestia, calm down, he is telling the truth; he will help us to send Artemis to a place where she can recover better and become strong without needing her now lost divinity," a third voice appeared after the one now identified as Hestia, snorted in annoyance.
"Athena?... So you're involved in all this too. Even the fates intervened so that I wouldn't help Artemis. What the hell is really going on? I don't understand!"
"Young Hestia, this also has to do with Percy, so you better listen carefully," the ancient, male voice spoke slowly.
"Percy?" Hestia muttered in disbelief, staring at the old man. Artemis would have looked at him too if she could, but now she could only listen intently.
"Yes. Athena should already know, but Percy was destined to become a God. Sadly, what happened with Apollo and the three God Emperors alongside Python, caused the threads of fate to be manipulated to a certain extent. Only after Apollo defeated Python once again did fate return to its original state, but the damage had already been done."
"After he became a God, it was only a matter of time before a civil war began to brew. Percy, as someone important on one of the two sides, would end up ruling Olympus. Well, that's a little summary, though you should have already realized all the bad things that are happening without him in the whole equation."
"Why?" Artemis heard Hestia's voice, she asked a single question, but her voice was a little shaky: "Why him? Isn't everything he's done enough? Isn't everything he's suffered enough?!"
Hestia asked out loud, showing how dissatisfied she was with all of this.
"The law of the universe dictates that everything grows until it dies, but the universe must continue to exist. The universe is always constantly expanding, and the law of the universe will never let it stagnate. Percy's destiny exists so that planet Earth and the galaxy it is in will not die out before its time and follow the course of the universe."
"Hestia, you have to understand that no matter what planet it is, as long as there is life on it, it will exist alongside the power of heaven and earth and the universe. There are planets that exist as higher level planes, and Earth should be one of them. Regrettably, the continued existence of gods on the planet has caused it to stagnate."
"The planet I sent Percy to does not allow divine existences to live on it for more than a hundred years, after which it will begin to die. Do you know how long gods have existed on Earth? Too long, Hestia, too long!"
"If the gods had created a higher plane like in other galaxies, the main planet (Earth), would have already let the normal inhabitants enter the ranks of higher planes. Humans would grow up to be able to use the power of heaven and earth and animals would grow up with them. Planet Earth is a special existence, but it's completely stagnant."
Athena's voice sounded next: "Hestia, Percy is special. He's no longer just someone with a special destiny, he's also the person who could save Olympus."
"At least to the gods who didn't betray him."
"And what does Artemis have to do with all this?" Hestia asked just what Artemis wanted to hear. Even if she was tired, she could still think. And she didn't understand what she had to do with all this. While she felt safe with Hestia by her side, she still didn't understand some things the old voice said.
"Percy believes that all of Olympus is to blame for his suffering. And if he has to kill everyone to feel better, he wouldn't hesitate in the slightest to slaughter them all," the old man said seriously.
"And why don't you tell him the truth?" Hestia asked angrily. "You said you sent him to another planet, so you've helped him for a while, so why didn't you tell him about all this?"
"Even if I did, he would still hesitate. I, after all, am the person who is partly responsible for the creation of Olympus. Without me, the primordials wouldn't have been born, and without them, the titans wouldn't exist. And without the titans, well, I think you get the point..."
"You..." Hestia's voice trembled a little, and if Artemis had her eyes open, she would have seen her with an incredible expression and wide eyes.
"You are Chaos…", those two words made Artemis shiver for a moment. The name 'Chaos' made the entire room become colder, but also inexplicably more alive. It was a totally strange feeling.
"Artemis… she's in love with Percy, right?", Chaos asked, but it sounded more like a statement. And Artemis, who was listening, wanted to be swallowed by a hole. She thought that no one knew, she had thought that she hid it really well.
But now it turns out that Chaos knows! And the way he said it, then Hestia and Athena should have already found out a while ago. How embarrassing!
"Then it's good to send her to Percy. She can try to form a friendship with him, try to apologize—which they've wanted to do—and stop him from killing all the gods of Olympus."
Artemis used all the power she had in her body to clench her hand into a fist as she slowly opened her eyes. At that moment, a slightly dull gray eyes, she noticed that his hair had turned light brown and had grown to be about twenty years old.
"I... will...", his low and weak voice was clearly heard by the three. Hestia immediately rushed towards her while carefully checking her while combing the hair on her forehead carefully.
"Even if I say that I can send you, it won't be easy, young lady," the old man looked at her seriously. Artemis didn't look away, she just nodded slowly and with difficulty. She knew it would be difficult, after all, Percy had been sent to Tartarus and she couldn't even imagine how much suffering she went through. Worst of all, she didn't really do anything to help him. Whether it was out of fear of wreaking havoc on Olympus, or fear of descending into Tartarus herself, she didn't do anything.
The least she could do was apologize, and the most... she would be willing to do a lot to get Percy to forgive her.
"Artemis, you have to be careful. Even if it's a good idea to try, you can't just go there being driven by your feelings. Do you have a way to make Percy listen to you? Do you know what to say to him when you find him? Besides, you're weak now and according to what I heard from Lord Chaos, he may be too powerful for you to be safe," Athena frowned as she took two steps forward and spoke to Artemis.
"I don't know if he'll understand...", Artemis turned her head with difficulty towards her half-sister: "I also don't know if he'll forgive me... or you... But I have... a way to make him... listen to me."
"Eh...", Chaos looked into Artemis's eyes before smiling slightly as she shook her head: "It seems that fate and karma between you two are more intertwined than I thought, interesting."
"Well, you have to recover and prepare so that you can go to Planet Douluo."
Artemis just nodded a little, but her weak eyes held a trace of unwavering determination. She might not care if gods like Ares or Zeus died at Percy's hands, but Hestia and Athena were different. Even if only the three of them were left out of Percy's vengeance, it would be fine.
As for her brother, Apollo...
Artemis no longer had any feelings for him.
She turned her head towards a window in the room she was in, watching as a small bird landed to rest while looking up at the moon that seemed smaller than usual.
However, in another place, where the moon was a purple color and hung really close to a dark city, a young man was moving on a bed while sleeping. He was dreaming, his body seemed to have become smaller and had fallen to the ground. At that moment, she could only see a few feet as a beautiful melody played around her.
Fwoosh~
But, that beautiful melody turned into screams of pain and sorrow as a sword appeared in front of his eyes. The man, who seemed to be sleeping, forced his eyelids open, revealing two terrifying red eyes as he pierced the owner of the sword with his hand, directly crushing his heart.
Blood exploded at that moment, staining the bed and his face with vital liquid, and without blinking once or hesitating even a little, he pulled his hand out before dropping the body of a man dressed entirely in black onto the bed.
"Trash," a single word came out of his mouth before he decided to get up from the bed and leave the room.
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