Chapter 150: The Twelve Thrones (2)**
The interior of the temple, adorned with meticulously carved marble decorations, was beyond clean—it was beautiful.
“Wow…”
Talia stood with her mouth agape, her eyes glittering with wonder.
“Look at this! This laurel wreath is made of gold!”
“Talia, can you bring that over here?”
“Don’t casually think about taking things from the temple, Lyla.”
Oddly enough, she was the type to spend my money generously, yet showed signs of being a penny-pincher.
I clicked my tongue at Lyla’s greed as I glanced around to see if there were any divine relics worth taking.
“Oh dear, I am…”
Lyla muttered something under her breath, but I ignored her smoothly.
“These must have been made by the priestesses of art, right? They’re just gorgeous! I wonder what the Nine Goddesses are like…”
“Hmm… I have a story that I remember about Muse.”
Talia looked at me with eyes filled with expectation.
“It’s a story about enjoying the screams of one who committed blasphemy while being skinned alive as punishment.”
“… Uncle.”
It’s a true story.
Lyla sighed beside me, and I decided to just close my mouth.
“There doesn’t seem to be any magic detected inside. It appears that a miracle rests within this temple. Somehow…”
“It must be a sanctuary.”
In places like this, it would be stranger if it weren’t a sanctuary.
“Gluttony, do you feel anything?”
“I’m not sure. But I don’t sense anything dangerous!”
However, it was difficult to determine what effects the sanctuary had.
“At the very least, it doesn’t seem like a sanctuary designed to repel or intercept external forces.”
“Mary, do you know anything?”
“No, I don’t.”
Since there didn’t seem to be any immediate effects, we decided to venture further inside.
At the end, there was a wide-open space.
“This is it! This must be the Twelve Thrones!”
Marble and gold-encrusted thrones stood, each carved in a form that seemed to represent the owner of that seat.
“There’s a lightning cloud carved, and it’s on the highest point… This must be the seat of Zeus’s priest. Next to it, a man, a woman, and a crown… That would be Hera’s priest’s seat.”
But there was one particularly noticeable throne.
“Why is this one… broken?”
Unlike the other pristine thrones, one was reduced to pieces.
“A spear and shield for warriors, and a wolf. Is this Ares’s priest’s seat?”
“Ares? Who’s that?”
“It’s the old name for Mars. Originally a war God and a son of Zeus, but they parted ways during the Holy War and became an independent force.”
Perhaps the reason this throne was shattered had something to do with that incident.
“Why did he go against his parents?”
Talia pondered the question with a troubled expression.
“Everyone has their reasons. Don’t worry too much about it. Although Mars took a different path by founding the Are Kingdom, he wasn’t strictly an enemy.”
I told Talia the story I had seen through insight.
About Zeus’s priest going up against Carlos with Mars’s army.
“This is more complicated.”
“Well, we’ll find out in due time.”
I examined the temple from corner to corner.
There was talk of treasures, but nothing stood out besides the flashy gold decorations.
‘Well… with this amount of gold, it’s of significant value, but are there no divine relics?’
It was a place permanently designated as a sanctuary.
To leave a place like this with various security measures and say there’s nothing inside?
That’s nonsense.
“Whoa.”
In the meantime, Talia had climbed onto the seat of Zeus’s priest.
“How do I look?”
“Like a tourist who’s too excited. Get down from there.”
“Che… Anyway, I’m also Zeus’s priestess, so it’s okay for me to sit here. There probably aren’t any other priests left.”
Well, that made sense.
Except for Zeus, none of the ancient Olympian Gods remained in this world.
“At any rate, just be careful not to damage anything—”
Crackle.
A spark flew.
Talia looked at me with rounded eyes.
“I… I didn’t do that!”
Crackle!
Electricity emanated from Talia’s body again and spread throughout the room.
‘Didn’t something else just flash?’
It seemed like some sort of symbols or letters appeared briefly, not just the electricity.
“Talia, try doing that again.”
“I don’t even know how I did it…”
Talia shifted around and placed her arms on the armrests, and once again, electricity started to spread.
Golden letters appeared on the wall behind the throne.
“Interesting. It seems to be a sanctuary for records and storage.”
I nodded at Eldritch’s words and began reading the inscription glowing on the wall.
-Poseidon’s Priestess, Isadora.
-During a battle with the Abyssal Plunderer Cahon, she defended the island and bravely perished.
-Her spear and chains became the fetters that restrained the creature, so they’ll prove invaluable to future generations.
Massive chains and a spear.
Cahon’s true form that I saw in the deep sea came to mind.
‘There were more than just one or two spears embedded in it. Which one is the ‘Trident’?’
Knowing didn’t mean I could make use of it myself.
For now, I just decided to remember it and move on.
-Hera’s Priest, Theodore.
-He protected numerous families from the clutches of the vile Temptress Amber, but committed suicide before his corrupted mind could further deteriorate.
‘I guess this one fought Amber, or Beatrice.’
I was impressed that he had protected people against that detestable woman.
‘The priest of a Goddess of the family helps in battles? Let’s see. The divine relic…’
-The glorious relic he wielded, Hera’s scepter, was re-consecrated to the Goddess.
I had no choice but to give up on this relic.
Instead, I noticed that the inscriptions were following a certain pattern.
“It’s not just records of heroic deeds and their ends; there’s also information about their divine relics.”
Truly records left for future generations.
Unfortunately, without the Gods, the temple had stayed closed, the method to open its entrance lost over time.
“Seems some heroes failed to uphold their honor until the end.”
-Demeter’s Priest, Alios.
-He protected many despite losing family and friends, but ultimately turned traitor to save his only remaining daughter.
-The relic he used was reclaimed by the furious Goddess.
Those hailed as heroes left a variety of legacies.
Even the priest of Hephaestus, who crafted all heroes’ weapons, ended up a traitor, and, along with the relic, defected to the Church of Hayat.
“If it’s Hephaestus’s relic, it must hold immense crafting potential…”
Lyla lamented in regret.
“You never know. If we can liberate it from the Church of Hayat, I’ll hand it over to you.”
The priests of Artemis, Hermes, Athena, and Aphrodite all perished.
‘Since there are stories about Cahon and Beatrice, there should be something about Carlos or Johann…’
There was only information that all of the heroes’ relics were stored here.
“Artemis’s bow, Hermes’s shoes, Aphrodite’s girdle, Athena’s shield.”
Each one was a divine relic to be coveted.
I couldn’t use them, but as someone who grew up reading Greek myths, they were fascinating items.
“Gluttony, would you want to consume such relics?”
『I’d love that! Are you going to give them to me?』
“Yeah, later.”
I also planned to feed any relics that the rest of us couldn’t use to Gluttony.
‘Hmm… Seems Dionysus took Hestia’s place among the twelve Gods here.’
-Dionysus’s Priest, Estevan.
-With his lively personality, he raised the spirits of his allies. He sustained serious injuries, retired peacefully, and passed away gently.
-His last trick was hiding the relic inside a goblet of a plaster statue.
If it’s a relic of Dionysus, it must be related to wine.
‘Might not be useful to me, but perhaps handy for Ender?’
The records now only had three more to tell of.
“It’s the record of Zeus’s priest!”
Talia, who had come close without me realizing, read from it.
-Zeus’s Priest, Alexandros.
‘Alexandros? That’s the same name as the priest I saw through insight!’
That very powerful priest who stood against Carlos.
-He guided everyone and gifted victory to his God but quietly entered rest as his God departed.
-His relic ascended back to the heavens with Zeus.
“Ah…”
Talia let out a noise of utter disappointment.
“I thought I’d get a cool sword or armor…”
“Well? If it’s Zeus’s relic…”
Once I checked the mentioned relics, I realized they were items familiar from myth.
“It’s likely a spear. A throwing spear named ‘Astrapé’.”
“Wow… Uncle, how do you know all that?”
“It’s just stories I heard as a kid.”
We turned back to the records.
-The future must remember this if they read it.
-The Supreme God’s relic cannot be simply bestowed.
Talia pondered on that sentence.
“There must be a special way to obtain it.”
“Don’t be too disappointed. Even if not Zeus’s relic, there are plenty of relics you can use.”
Athena’s shield, ‘Aegis’.
Hermes’s shoes, ‘Talaria’.
I had earmarked these for Talia.
“But according to what’s written here, I guess I’ll be able to get that Astrapé one day, right?”
“Yeah, that day will surely come.”
Finally, Talia smiled brightly again.
“Hmm, next is Ares.”
-Ares’s Warrior, Astron.
-He overcame the greatest crisis and brought victory, becoming the foundation of the Are Kingdom.
The subsequent narrative, unlike the previous records, didn’t speak of his end nor a relic.
-We reveal Astron’s secret hidden here.
“Secret…?”
I looked toward the shattered throne.
Could this be about Ares who became Mars?
-When Mars decided to leave Olympus, Astron naturally followed, founding the Are Kingdom.
-However, there is a crucial secret that isn’t recorded anywhere.
-In truth, Astron had long since crossed the cold river of the underworld.
“What does this mean?”
“Does it mean that he had died a long time ago? How could he have served as Ares’s priest then?”
Did they resort to necromancy?
Reading further, I halted with a jerk.
“Uncle, this is…”
“… Indeed. So this is the truth about Are kingdom.”
The hero Astron was betrayed on the 44th battlefield by another Ancient God faction, Meru, and met a tragic end.
Reaching the end of the 5th rank, Astron, at his final moment, gave up everything to conjure a miracle of reversal.
-Mars descended himself into that body.
-He achieved that reversal, but only a vessel containing God remained, as Astron had vanished.
-Future generations must be wary of Are kingdom.
-Their king is not human; he is the War God Mars who has descended into a human vessel.