The Myth of the Greek Heavenly Demon

Artemis felt a flash of light as the impact struck her face.
The blinding light filled her vision, and as she regained her senses, the Queen was glaring at her with cold eyes.

“The crime of daring to stand before the Queen, not even bowing your head stiffly.”

“The crime of daring to invade Chiron’s Forest, which was sanctified by the Chief God Zeus and the honor of Olympus, with personal emotions.”

“The crime of daring to harm the children blessed in the name of me, Hera.”

“The crime of daring to claim a child who does not yet belong to you as your own and acting tyrannically.”

“The crime of daring to shed blood from a minor hero and recklessly releasing divine power, tarnishing the honor of Olympus with such a disgraceful act.”

-Slap! Slap! Slap!

Whenever Hera’s delicate hand slapped her cheek, Artemis felt as though she had glimpsed Elysium in the distance.
After the Queen’s slaps, imbued with her divine power, ceaselessly rained down along with her accusations.
When Hera roughly threw her to the ground, her bow and arrows scattered around her.

“Attempting to tarnish Olympus’s honor out of personal feelings, and trying to invade the sanctuary for a matter that neither affected your honor nor your divine duties, is no light offense. But I will let it pass this time.”

Hera looked at the silver bow fallen at her feet and smiled coldly.
Even in her dazed state, Artemis sensed foreboding from that smile and tried to run towards her bow.

-Crack!

“No!!”

Artemis witnessed her divine weapon break in two right before her eyes under the Goddess’s kick.

“If you interfere with my work one more time, you will realize that I was very merciful today.”

Glaring at Artemis, who was staring blankly at her broken relic, Hera leisurely disappeared.

“That’s what happened.”

Not only what Hera did, but also encountering that annoying Dia-something on Passos Island.
The nerve of that annoying guy who dared to trespass on her hunting grounds and even had the audacity to get mad at her.
In the end, when she was about to punish him herself, he attacked her instead and even wounded her shoulder, among other things.
Artemis poured out all the events that had happened to her brother.

“Ha…!”

Apollo, unable to contain his lament, held his face in his hands at his sister’s tearful story.
Hermes conveyed that even Ares, Poseidon, and even his father Zeus were very fond of a human hero blessed by Hera to be led to a lover, and he had heard this news as well.

But no matter how it was, for the Queen of Olympus to strike another goddess so harshly over a mere minor hero?
Moreover, the opponent was a half-human, half-god with uncertain lineage, a traitor who dared to shed the blood of a goddess.
The justification seemed plausible, but it was a situation where his sister had bled to protect a mere half-human, half-god.
No matter how strained their relationship with Hera was, and no matter how great Artemis’s fault was.
They were clearly one of the Twelve Divine Gods of Olympus, and yet blood and tears were shed.
Seeing that the persecuted one was his sister, whom he cherished dearly, Apollo stood up in rage.

“This is intolerable.”

“Brother…?”

Apollo’s eyes, like the sun, flashed with fury.
In an instant, the golden bow in his hand and the quiver of sunlight on his back reflected his determination.

“No matter if it’s Lady Hera, this cannot be allowed. No one can dare to persecute my sister like this!”

However, even Apollo could not dare to confront Hera.
It wasn’t as if Artemis was unjustly oppressed, nor could it be a crime for Atalanta, who hadn’t yet joined her hunting party, to have a lover.
But the main culprit was different.

“To the audacious one who left scars on the pure skin of the Goddess, and used the Queen’s authority to seduce the hunter chosen by my sister, the wrath of the sun shall be upon you!”

If Dianes had heard this, he would have scoffed, “What nonsense is this?” and would have been utterly baffled.
Apollo comforted his sister.

“Sister, just wait a little longer. The foolish one who dared insult the Goddess of the Moon will soon learn what divine retribution is all about!”

A day so mindless that I couldn’t even recall how it passed.
Atalanta dragged Neri, who was whining about wanting to sleep in the same room, to the women’s dormitory.
I was lazing around on the bed assigned to me in my dormitory.

The dormitory was a six-story insula, a type of Greek apartment.
The assigned room was clean and luxuriously spacious, about 20 feet in size, with two rooms attached, and even a bathroom and a bathhouse in this ancient era.
It made me think that this place was indeed the academy of mythical heroes.

Of course, compared to the palace I resided in during the Heavenly Demon period, it was incomparably smaller, but compared to the suffocatingly small study room I lived in on Earth, it could be called heaven.

An apartment from the mythological era, styled in ancient Greek fashion, yet boasting modern facilities that would not fall short even when compared to the 21st century.
I was quite satisfied and laid down on the bed in the bedroom, organizing the layers of hardcore quests.

“Ugh?”

I shuddered with an unpleasant, trembling feeling and jumped up.

“What’s this? I have a feeling that something incredibly troublesome is about to happen.”

When you spend almost half of your life scheming and the other half in bloody battles, you start to develop something akin to intuition or a sixth sense.
When something big and unusual was about to go down, my body would shiver out of nowhere like this.
However, the problem now was that I couldn’t predict what, where, or when the trouble would explode.

“For now, the most troublesome thing is…”

It was Atalanta, who earlier, while beautifully sweating, had made those bullies kneel.
Even though my martial skills and sight weren’t what they used to be, there was no way I couldn’t recognize that terrifying combat technique that had beaten up my personal reaper in front of me, and had also beaten me up until I mastered it.

“Damn… Fighting Demon, that lunatic, he’s really hitting my head even here?”

Supreme Fighting Demon.
There was a legendary fighter who achieved his ambition of conquering the entire martial world with just his fists, an ambition that some praised as the spirit of a true warrior, while I called it simple-mindedness.
He shattered the common belief that only warriors with similar advanced martial arts could rival others of the same level, and despite being a figure of the demonic path, he was a leader followed by many in both the Justice and the Evil Factions.

No matter how much the Justice Faction boasted of their chivalry and justice, in the end, their chivalry and justice depended on how well the order they ruled in the martial world could be maintained.
They claimed themselves to be justice, so those who did not follow were considered enemies.
Righteous third-rate warriors coughed up blood from the beatings of spoiled brats who had good fathers.
The downfall of local, reputable martial artists under the tyranny of those backed by powerful families was not a matter of just a day or two.

However, the Supreme Fighting Demon, who subdued those enormous sects using only pure combat without resorting to any wagers, was a cult leader who commanded the most followers in history, regardless of Justice or Evil Factions, despite being a demonic practitioner.
It was to the extent that, when he left the cult and roamed the martial world, the Nine Great Sects and the Five Great Families, who had been disgraced by him, sent pursuit teams, claiming that a demon was running rampant in the martial world, but the smaller sects under his command united to express their support for him.
As a result, the period when the Infinite Martial Demon was the cult leader was said to be the closest the Heavenly Demon Cult ever came to unifying the martial world.

And what was passionately highlighted along with such a fighter was the Supreme Fighting Demon’s unique martial art, Fighting Demon Arts, which glimpsed the realm of divine techniques through external martial arts.
The Crazy Wind Spear technique, created by a simple-minded martial artist who would even beat up a hardworking Grim Reaper, was a martial art with a simple name, overcoming the limitations of weak internal energy through physical skill.

But Atalanta executed it?

How on earth?

“…It’s not that I have no idea at all.”

Surely, at that moment when Atalanta and I shared our thoughts at the infirmary last time.
The pinnacle of the three disasters reached through the Heavenly Demon King’s Landing.
That gaze was not just the shape of a mountain peak, but everything I had learned and experienced.
And beyond that, it was the manifestation of all the joys and sorrows, pleasures and pains spread throughout the world.
The sea of clouds lurking beneath my feet was my lifetime, my resentment, and my grudges.
The stars twinkling above my head were the martial arts I had mastered, my enlightenment, and the state I had reached.
By the slimmest of chances, it seemed she not only overcame the demonic presence but also managed to steal a small piece from the constellation hanging in the sky.

“Sigh… I don’t know.”

I felt pity for her life, withering away and tormented by her inner demons, so I extended a small hand of help.
Little did I know this cheeky girl would even rob my secret pocket.
Of course, she didn’t intend to, and perhaps the Crazy Wind Spear technique’s enlightenment was a good match for her.
Or maybe, without realizing it, I wanted to give her something.

“Starting tomorrow, I’ll teach you in earnest.”

That old man from the Crazy Wind Spear technique. He’d be thrilled to see his martial arts passed down to a hero from ancient mythology.
At this point, Atalanta was only barely mimicking the form of the Crazy Wind Spear technique.
Before she develops any bad habits or things go awry, I should stick close and teach her well.

“Well, putting that aside…”

What is this ominous feeling?
Although the biggest issue had been resolved, I still had an unsettling intuition that tingled down my spine. I decided to sit at my desk and start organizing the quests piled on the papyrus one by one.