Chapter 95: A Step Back In Time(3) (2/2)

”I'm here, nice to meet you.....?”

”Aphrodite, my name's Aphrodite...”

After their first meeting, they got into a romantic relationship.

Aphrodite was frustrated, because she didn't truly love the man, and didn't have the same feelings for him as she did for Ares.

One day, she couldn't bear hiding this secret of hers anymore, and she spilled out all of her scheme, which consisted of her revenge on Hera.

Hephaestus frowned and replied weakly, ”You should have known...that Mother hates everything that I am....I think I really liked you...I wasn't ready for this....”

Aphrodite stared mindlessly at him when she heard this declaration.

Her scheme was useless from the start....?

She couldn't even respond, as she heard a familiar voice in the hall.

”Hepha, got any good weapons?”

Ares entered the hall and looked for Hephaestus.

Yet, when he saw Aphrodite, his glabella folded into a frown and he said, ”Urania, what are you doing here?”

Hephaestus laughed weakly and informed him, ”She got into a relationship with me to....get revenge on Mother.....such a great joke, isn't it?”

Ares screamed, ”URANIA, WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?!”

Aphrodite stuttered and replied, ”A-Ares, I w-wanted to get revenge on Hera...for yo-

”So, to do that, you get into a relationship with another person, despite the fact that you should have known that it wouldn't work?”

Ares didn't let her speak, and he continued.

”My conflict with Hera is MY conflict, not yours, Urania, you have no business in it.”

Aphrodite nodded and mindlessly left the pit.

She walked endlessly without a destination, and when it was too hard to bear, she broke down and fell to the floor.

Amidst the sound of her crying, she heard footsteps approaching.

She looked up and saw Athena.

The latter had a look of indifference on her face, as she didn't even glance at Aphrodite and walked along with a pile of scrolls in her arms.

Aphrodite hated injustice, but she realized now, that she hated ignorance and indifference more than anything in this universe.

When Athena was no longer here, she stood up and started laughing maniacally.

One of her eyes had completely turned a magenta color.

'I promise, I will never let anyone look at me with indifference anymore, and I want to be the person who can look to others with indifference...'

'Hera, one day, one day, you will see.'

Aphrodite took up an empty mountain peak in the mountain ranges of Olympus and built upon it, an ugly castle.

She didn't want beauty in others anymore, at least not people she can't control.

She hated all of the god's perfect beauty and wanted it all under her control.

Throughout her time with Hephaestus, she learned a bit of his craft.

So, she crafted a clay urn.

Inside of the clay urn, she placed all of being.

Inside the urn, there was love and there was hate.

There was lust, and there was degeneracy.

There was fertility, and there was sterility.

All of these took the form of the most beautiful woman in the world.

Aphrodite called her 'Pandora, the one that gives all.'

She would grant to the mortals the urn, and when they opened it, it would bring them a curse in disguise.

'From today on, I am no longer Urania or Areia, I am....Aphrodite.'