Chapter 77: Mithra, Sun god (1/2)
”I think there's a misunderstanding. We don't know who this Angra Mainyu is.” Alex spoke truthfully.
”LIES! LIES! You work for him! Lord Mithra, in the Sun Temple in Parsa, will vanquish you!” The king refuted their claims.
Alex turned to Hermes, only to gasp when he saw that the veins in his head were visible and that his eye was twitching.
Hermes restrained his anger and told Alex, ”There's no way of getting through to him, Alex.”
”Let's go, Hermes.” Alex felt like there would be a catastrophe if they stayed in this place.
”Alex, I will not let anyone associate Olympus with some devil's cult.”
”Hermes, let's go, we can solve this later.” Alex tried to calm down Hermes.
The latter nodded and Alex turned to the three merchants who were shaking in a corner of the room, ”You three, move, you'll be killed if you stay here.”
Following their dispute with the king, they flew away from the palace and back into the house of the kind couple.
Alex left the angered Hermes outside and entered to bid his goodbyes to the couple.
He subtly gave them a blessing and after that, the two flew outside of the city.
As Alex looked at the sunny landscape, he commended Nyx's ability to hide yesterday's fight, as there were no traces of it.
Hermes looked at him and commented, ”That's a nice-looking ruby, where did you get it?”
Alex coughed repeatedly and said, ”I dug it down, hmm, in Babylon! Yes, Babylon!”
”That aside, we're far enough from the city, we can use the chariot now...?”
Hermes nodded and they landed. As usual, he threw the mini-chariot on the ground and it grew in size until it could fit the two of them.
They got on the seats and the chariot swiftly flew out into the horizon.
Alex noticed that they weren't going exactly east, and inquired, ”Umm, Hermes, where are we going?”
Hermes clenched his hand on the chariot and declared, ”We're going to the Sun Temple in Parsa.”
Alex perceived little details such as how Hermes' blinking increased in frequency, his clenched fists and he concluded he was still angry.
”Are you sure? You don't seem in the best state to meet another god.”
”Alex, I feel my very best, I have never felt this good in all of these centuries of living,” Hermes spoke with wide eyes.
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After flying for quite some time, the scenery below changed from a rocky desert into a fertile valley.
Within this fertile land in the middle of the desert, it was to be expected that there would be a large city, and they were right.
This was Parsa, a city more commonly known as Persepolis.
From here, they could see the intricate statues and massive temples very clearly.
Alex exclaimed in awe at the beautiful city.
It was partitioned into two parts.
One part of the city seemed to be a religious and bureaucratic center, and it contained all of the temples and colossal architecture.
The other part seemed to hold the lower-class residents of the city and comprised more mundane architecture and buildings.
Hermes didn't stop at the urban center and instead directly made his way towards a massive temple-like structure in the former part of Parsa.
'He seems so tense...' Alex commented on his friend's attitude.