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[Translator – Seraph]
[Proofreader – Draxx]
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Chapter 64
Apollo, the god of the light, also governs various domains such as music, prophecy, and healing.
Whereas Prometheus possessed the foresight and profound wisdom to predict and speculate about the future, Apollo was a god who could literally see it.
Yet even Apollo, for all his divine clairvoyance, was unaware that Hercules would one day play a pivotal role in the Gigantomachy, the great war against the giants.
Had he known, he might have cured Hercules of his madness without fearing Hera’s wrath.
The Gigantomachy mentioned here refers to the great war in which the Giants, born from Gaia, the Mother Earth, rose up against Olympus with her support, enraged by the gods.
The Giants were beings of immense power equals to the gods, capable of killing them.
It was the ultimate war: the Olympian Twelve Gods versus the Giants.
In preparation for this war, Zeus received a singular prophecy:
Victory in the Gigantomachy can only be achieved with the aid of a mortal hero. Only a human can deal the killing blow to a giant.
Thus, to ensure victory in the coming conflict, the Olympian gods began mating with mortal women, giving birth to many great heroes:
Perseus, Hercules, Amphion, Zethus, Theseus, Achilles…
This era came to be known as the Age of Heroes.
And among those countless heroes, the one ultimately chosen to fight in the Gigantomachy was none other than Hercules.
However, Hercules was only acknowledged as a god and ascended to Olympus after his death.
At present, he was just one among many potential hero candidates.
There was no reason for Apollo to treat Hercules with any special favor—especially if it meant going against Hera.
And yet...
“Hercules. You dared trespass upon my sanctuary and tried to steal the Omphalos. Do you understand what you’ve done?”
“You refused to deliver a prophecy. I had no choice but to summon you directly.”
Apollo stared at Hercules in disbelief.
“You’re saying you pulled this stunt because I didn’t grant you an oracle?”
“That’s right.”
“How arrogant of you!”
The idea that someone had tried to steal the Omphalos just to get his attention infuriated Apollo.
Ssszzzzz…
As his fury flared, golden sunlight blazed across the sanctuary of Delphi, heating the ground like a furnace.
“Very well. I shall purge you of your madness.”
“Much appreciated.”
At Hercules’ thanks, Apollo’s golden pupils gleamed radiantly.
“But if you seek purification, you must first pass my trial.”
“What kind of trial?”
Snap—!
With a flick of his fingers, Apollo transformed the sanctuary around them into a vast open plain.
And then...
──────
Countless golden arrows materialized from thin air, surrounding Hercules from all directions.
“You seem quite confident in your strength. If you can touch me—even once—with that strength of yours, I’ll consider the trial passed.”
“Simple enough.”
With the sun at his back, Hercules launched himself toward Apollo.
A storm of arrows flew in from every angle—
Thudududung—!
But Hercules deflected them all using the hide of the Nemean Lion, which no weapon could pierce.
In an instant, he closed the distance between himself and Apollo.
But the sun god merely sneered coldly.
“Is that the best you can do?”
In that very instant, the deflected arrows of light exploded midair, releasing a massive inferno that engulfed Hercules.
Fwoooosh—!
Hercules plummeted back to the ground, swallowed by flames.
Apollo’s fire scorched the land itself, reducing all to ash in its path.
And yet...
Step. Step.
From within the searing blaze, Hercules emerged.
Though hit by countless arrows, he bore not a single scratch.
A deep amber-colored magical aura—darker than Apollo’s divine radiance—now cloaked Hercules’ entire body.
Kneeling for just a moment as he landed.
Boom—!
The earth cracked beneath his feet, and he charged at Apollo once more.
However, as if Apollo had foreseen this, his arrows were already in place, blocking every path Hercules might take.
Thududududung—!
Hercules deflected the barrage once more with the Nemean Lion’s hide, but the force pushed him back.
Again and again, he tried to break through and strike Apollo, but it was all in vain.
He could not even come close.
“Foresight.”
Apollo was reading fragments of the future—and with that knowledge, he interfered directly, sealing off Hercules’ every move.
───♪
The melody of the lyre, flowing from Apollo's hands, was already shaping the future.
“Will he be alright?”
Jeanne asked, unable to hide her concern at the sight of Hercules, who had yet to land a single blow.
Even as she asked, Hercules stood motionless, his movements sealed by the wall of fire Apollo had summoned.
But I wasn’t particularly worried.
“He’ll be fine.”
After all, he was Hercules.
According to myth, Hercules was a monster of a man who even fought and bested Thanatos, the god of death.
Of course, Thanatos did not possess the divine authority of Apollo, one of the twelve Olympians.
Thanatos, after all, was merely a subordinate deity under Hades, ruling only over the narrow domain of death.
However, Apollo too was not using the full extent of his divine power.
He had, in his arrogance, imposed a self-limiting trial upon Hercules.
And for that arrogance, Apollo would pay the price.
For in the myths, Hercules was the hero who earned his own purification from Apollo through sheer force.
“So, you’ve given up, have you?”
Apollo looked down at the unmoving Hercules and spoke.
“If you’ve surrendered, say so. Then I shall overlook your crime of attempting to steal the Omphalos, on the condition that you never set foot in Delphi again.”
“……”
Hercules remained silent.
With his eyes closed and body still, Hercules gave no answer.
Apollo read the future.
And in the very next moment, his eyes widened in shock.
He saw a future—Hercules charging straight at him.
The attack would be a simple, honest punch.
No tricks. Just a direct strike.
Even without reading the future, there should have been countless ways to defend against it.
And yet—
“I can’t block it.”
Even though he saw it coming, Apollo realized he could not stop Hercules’s punch.
It was a devastating blow—straightforward, but so pure and overpowering that it nullified all resistance.
For the first time, Apollo learned that there existed attacks that could not be avoided, even if one foresaw them.
And by the time he realized it—
Hercules’s strike had already begun.
BOOOOM!
The ground shattered as Hercules leapt forward with terrifying speed, hurtling toward Apollo like a massive comet from the heavens.
Apollo fired three successive blasts of flame in desperation, but Hercules charged through them unfazed.
FWOOSH—!
His entire body was scorched and blistered by the divine fire, yet Hercules didn’t care.
All he focused on was landing a blow on Apollo. His amber eyes blazed with unshakable resolve.
A colossal, iron-like fist, wreathed in flames, rocketed toward Apollo.
“!”
Seeing that monstrous fist, Apollo panicked and tried to dodge at the last second.
But he couldn’t avoid it completely.
The punch grazed him—shattering his shoulder.
THWACK—!
“Gaaah!”
Apollo crashed to the ground. Agonizing pain twisted his face as his shoulder tore apart.
But Hercules’s assault didn’t stop there.
Though he had already passed the so-called trial, Hercules charged in again, his fist aiming for Apollo’s abdomen.
Caught off guard, Apollo dropped his lyre and raised both hands in haste to block the blow.
Crack—!
A terrible sound of bone warping echoed through the air.
Apollo’s hands, which had caught Hercules’s punch, bent grotesquely under the pressure.
And then, just as Hercules’s massive fist swung toward Apollo’s face—
FWOOSH—!
A brilliant white light exploded, blinding Hercules’s vision.
When the light subsided, Apollo had somehow leapt far away from Hercules’s reach.
A golden wave of divine power, unlike anything seen before, now surged across Apollo’s entire body.
A gentle white glow rose from his hands. Slowly, the mangled limbs began to straighten and heal.
Hummmm—
Even his shattered shoulder was restored. Apollo now stood as if he had never been wounded.
And yet, at the corner of his lips, blood dripped where Hercules’s punch had grazed him.
“So even a god who sees the future can’t see his own future, huh?”
At Hercules’s taunt, Apollo’s expression darkened.
“A promise is a promise. I will purify your madness as agreed. But that arrogance and insolence—I cannot let go unpunished.”
Apollo reached over his back and drew the bow slung there, the Bow of the Sun.
Fwoosh—
The sacred bow ignited in divine fire as it aimed at Hercules.
The sheer heat radiating from the bow caused the moisture in the air to evaporate.
Pop. Pop.
Grass in the field shriveled and crumbled into dust.
The clouds overhead dispersed, revealing a wide, blazing blue sky.
That scorching pressure focused itself entirely on Hercules.
“……”
Even with the bow aimed directly at him, Hercules did not flinch.
He, too, drew his bow.
It was nothing like Apollo’s elegant weapon. It bore no name, no divine brilliance—just a massive, brutish bow.
But it was a bow no mortal could ever draw.
Only Hercules had the strength to bend it.
Creeeak—
With a sound like the world itself tearing, the giant bow warped under strain, seemingly ready to snap.
At its center sat a single black arrowhead—coated with the poison of the Hydra, a venom said to cause even immortals to writhe in agony for eternity.
Thus stood man and god, each drawing their bows, aiming squarely at one another.
And then—
Rrrumble…
A sudden thunderclap rolled through the cloudless sky.
Both Hercules and Apollo looked up.
“Benefactor”
Vanessa pulled me back.
Jeanne quietly began drawing in her holy power.
Everyone looked skyward.
‘He's here.’
With a tense face, I lifted my gaze.
A thunderclap from a clear sky—heralding the descent of a god.
The one who commands thunder and lightning.
King of the gods.
Zeus, the God of Thunder.
Just as something flashed above, a single bolt of lightning split the sky and struck the earth.
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[Translator – Seraph]
[Proofreader – Draxx]
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