327 Underwater Tea Party (1/2)
Poseidon couldn't believe it. Back then, desserts were often hard as rocks and wouldn't go down without good tea or wine. Now, these cakes as Zero called them melted the moment he put them in his mouth. The pies were sweet and gave off a baked fragrance that he never knew before. Who would have thought that the cuisine served in Hell would surpass the feasts they threw in Heaven several thousand years ago?
Zero proved to be more challenging than Poseidon thought he would be. If the teen resembled a lamb before, right now, Poseidon was convinced that Zero was actually a fox in rabbit skin. The teen would often let out bits of information slip in between small talks and not say anymore, prompting Poseidon to take the initiative to ask a question. Zero would always answer them just enough to satisfy the titan but still curious enough to want to know more. The young one would then seize the opportunity without fail to ask more about his personal history and about his niece.
\”How did you lose your eyes?\” Zero asked after he answered Poseidon's question about what kind of person Enma was like. The poor titan didn't even know that he had a nephew and thought that Hades was still working in Tartarus, overseeing the sinners and passing judgement to those in the afterlife. Zero didn't have the heart to keep the fallen god in the dark and told him about King Enma as well as the Purgatory. He hinted that Heaven and Hell have reconciled and knew that Poseidon was dying to know more but withheld that information for now.
The question that Zero asked was a touchy subject for Poseidon who was contemplating if he should leave out some details for Zero or give him the full story. Knowing Hades, his brother might have already given this mysterious guest some background information. How troublesome...
\”It's going to be a long story...\” he told Zero who paused in the middle of reaching for the teapot.
\”I can answer any question that you have if you let me know everything there is to know about what happened to you and Athena. My current business is to resolve Athena's regrets and lift the curse on the gorgon sisters. However, as a disciple of Hua Tuo and Merlin with the ambition to become a travelling doctor, I want to find a way to save you too.\”
The sincere words touched Poseidon who smiled sadly. \”That would explain how you managed to put all my subordinates to sleep. You must be a very talented doctor and magician to manage that under my watch.\”
Zero blushed. \”Not really, I just have really good teachers.\”
\”I'm not sure if you'd be able to help at all but it won't hurt to satisfy your curiosity. In return, I hope you can satisfy some of my curiosities,\” Poseidon admitted.
Zero agreed and Poseidon started with his story.
\”This happened during the time when Mount Olympia was still full of life. The Titans were still fighting each other over petty things daily like the humans on Earth. The story I'm going to tell you happened before the lost records were founded. Back then, Heaven wasn't formed yet. The Titans could be considered the first inhabitants of that plane. It started with the House of Great Gods that was built by us. Originally, there were only three titans - Zeus, Hades and myself. The creator created several Great Gods to assist him with keeping the seal of his memories hidden with their existence. The world knows it as six Great Gods and one Enlightened One that held the key for the creator's reawakening. However, the truth was that the creator created more than just six Great Gods and back then, Buddha wasn't part of the package deal. Buddha came in a lot later. None of the Great Gods knew about Buddha's role in the awakening until after that Sage God told us the Great One was no more. The Great One's name is Solo and he created more than a hundred Great Gods, scattering them to different worlds and dimensions to keep tabs on the various Divine Entities he created. Our job wasn't to guard only memory fragments. We were meant to protect these Divine Entities and prevent them from killing each other. Many of these created Great Gods perished trying to fulfil their duties. Not all Divine Entities are easy to work with like the Divine Sister of Kindness who gave you this quest. Great Gods can become sources of energy for these Divine Entities and some of them were hunted down as food sources. Hades, Zeus and I were luckier. We were assigned to a Divine Sister called Law who decided to reside in Heaven with two other Divine Entities called Murvin and Isaben. Freya and the other Norse gods in Valhalla came later to guard their assigned Divine Sister, Isis and her mysterious clansmen settled down a lot later at the far edge of Heaven's plane. If you've been there, you would know what I'm talking about. Back then, the angels didn't exist, Heaven was barren land.\”
Zero nodded. He read about the origins of heaven in one of the ancient tomes in Merlin's forbidden library. Poseidon only gave Zero more reason to believe in Solo's intention to start a fight with his future self for some unknown reason. Zero was even more determined now to gain the acceptance of all Divine Entities before Solo's plans could take place. So far, Zero felt like he was in the lead. If he had been any later, Poseidon might not be around to give him the clues that he needed.
\”I read about it in Merlin's library,\” Zero admitted after some time and Poseidon smiled. He should have known that the eccentric wizard would have something like that lying around.
\”That would make explaining on my part a lot easier. Do you know the war between humans where gods had to join them?\”
Zero shook his head. \”I only heard of the war when humans fought against gods and slain a lot of them. They even hunted dragons into extinction. That's the trigger point for why the old Earth had to be destroyed and a new god born from the power of these humans created the second Earth that the Half Moon villagers are from.\”
Poseidon was still slightly with Zero's explanation about this new god and new Earth but filed that information aside for now. He would have his chance to clarify them later.
\”No, this war happened a lot earlier before the war between humans and gods. Back then, the titans were fighting too much on Mount Olympia. However, as everyone was more or less evenly matched in terms of power, it was hard to find a clear victor. To resolve their dispute, these titans took their fights to Earth. Those without the power granted by Solo started to build up their own powers by feeding off the power of prayers and thoughts from those of a lower plane. It's about the time when religion among mortals became popular.\”
Zero nodded. He could understand where everything was slowly falling into place now. If the gods started gaining followers and grew their unique power that way, he could now understand why Eros tried to defame Athena. The matter was more than simple jealousy. It was a war between the gods. In order to take down someone as powerful as Athena, they had to first cut away her source of power. Rumours were the easiest way to ruin the faith in Athena's believers.
\”Let me guess,\” Zero grinned. \”Back then, Athena was a very popular and powerful goddess so many other gods like Eros started underhand tricks to try and make her followers turn away from her so they could take her down, right?\”
Poseidon nodded. \”That's right. However, Athena was not just my niece and Zeus' daughter. She was my best student and had grown to be even more powerful than a Great God. Such petty tricks weren't enough to take her down.\”
Zero nodded. If it was so easy to take down a mighty goddess like Athena who was worshipped for just about anything from intellect, war and beauty, the other gods would have succeeded long ago and Athena's curse wouldn't have lasted till today. Poseidon was considered a Great God, yet his powers had faded so much over the years. The God of Oceans was barely clinging onto his existence right now but Athena's curse never weakened even after all this time. Zero couldn't imagine the power she had when she was still at the peak of her power.
\”However, Athena was a child and a lady just like any other. She was kinder than anyone else and that was both her strength and weakness.\”