章節 33: Gratuitous Self Satisfaction For A Spear Boy
(Artemis POV)
I was born powerful.
I could speak before most children would cry for the first time.
I have hunted monsters across the world and slain many in my time as a goddess of the hunt.
Yet when I saw a child who seemed to be reasonable and intelligent, I had no idea what went on in his mind, but now I see the extent of his creativity. As I now stand in a Victorian-Era city, the sky is blood red, and the moon shows the same color of blood. But what made this experience one that I shall never forget was my one weakness.
I could not access my divinity. I had no one coming to help me, as my other huntresses had disappeared when we were sent here, and I could not feel my connection with them. But before I could even move a muscle, I felt a presence appear behind me, and as I turned around him, I saw someone I did not believe.
I saw Orion, my old friend and the one who came closest to being more than that, but his eyes had been removed and his body covered in arrows. The arrows were tinted gold, as I remembered that day. It was the day when I lost a true friend and a day that I shall never forgive my brother for.
Orion then said, "It's good to see you again, Arte, but I must ask why. I only desired to be more than what we were." Shaking my head, I slashed at my hand as I knew that this wasn't real, but Orion then grabbed my arm, showing that he was physical.
"But Apollo could not allow that, could he? He never liked me. I can still feel the blazing arrows enter my skin, yet yours hurt more than I could imagine. I was your friend, yet you could not recognize me! You could have spread your divine sense, but no, you listened to your jealous and possessive brother. I am dead because of you." Orion then grabbed my bow and shattered it before disappearing into a puddle of blood.
My hands had formed fists that were so tight that I began to bleed, and as I walked through the streets, I saw every single person I killed as the streets were filled with blood. Yet, as I saw a large fire with people gathered around it, they all turned to me, and they had the same features as Orion, with no eyes and covered in wounds.
And again, I recognized those faces as they were the children of Niobe that my brother and I slayed, and before I could react, they were all in front of me and ripped apart my quiver and took my knives. Another grabbed me by the face and threw me through the neighborhood , and after being launched through multiple buildings, I came to a stop with my right arm broken.
The pain was making me nauseous as I walked through the endless winding streets. My rage was only quelled by my desperation, as I had never felt so powerless. As I entered a church to seek shelter from the endless blood rain, I found myself being watched by hundreds of men as they all sat in the pews.
They just sat there and watched as all of my victims judged me, and as I grabbed a fire poker, I went to slash one in the face, but it just went through him, and after doing that, they began to yell various titles.
"Murderer!"
"Hypocrite!"
"Failure!"
"Man Hater!"
Multiple titles were thrown at me, but what made it worse was that with each title, I was grabbed by multiple white hands from below and was being dragged down into a vortex of fire. The pain made me scream out as I found myself standing amidst a field of white flowers.
As I looked around, I saw a house in the distance that was on fire, and as I looked around the field, I saw multiple crosses where all of my huntresses were crucified on them with their eyes removed and an arrow through the heart.
"AHHHHHHHHHH!" I yelled in frustration as I slammed my fists on the ground. The reality shattered as I found myself on the ground but still in the glass-like dimension with the boy sitting on his throne. If I had not been so angry, I would have admired its beautiful design, but I immediately rushed him. he then flicked his fingers, and before I knew it, my legs were slashed out from under me.
"AHHHH JUST KILL ME DAMN IT! WHAT HAVE I DONE TO YOU TO DESERVE THIS?!" He simply looked at me as if I was making a joke before standing up and walking towards me, and as he kneeled down, he lifted me up by my hair. As I smacked him over and over, he simply looked at me with complete and utter indifference.
"You know I was never even going to do this, but just this once, I decided to be petty. To see what it felt like to exert my strength over a person that once held me at bay. It is less satisfying than I thought it would be. You lack the strength of your fellows and the will that your own followers had. They were willing to follow you to their deaths even if some of their desires were more selfish." He then grabbed my legs and smashed them into a paste.
"But I just this once I'm going to allow myself to revel in this. Does this situation not remind you of something or someone?" He then gestured behind him as I saw my huntresses, Zoe included, bound on the ground with gas over their mouths as they screamed in rage, with some looking devoid of hope.
"You see, there was a situation many years ago just like this where a woman of great power was struck low by a dishonorable act. She witnessed all of those she cared about killed right in front of her eyes while she was unable to move or even speak. I am allowing you to speak just this once. So what shall you say to them?"
He then looked to his other selves. They must have been clones as they hefted their individual spears to their necks, and my eyes widened.
"When I get out of this, I will grant you every agony! I shall watch as my family tears you apart, and I use your teeth as a necklace. I will AHAHHH!" He then smacked me in the face, and I was slammed onto the ground.
"It's almost sad how unoriginal that it was. But I wasn't talking about the amount of threats you could give. I was talking about the fact that you knew what your huntresses did, but you levied it over their heads to Foster loyalty. I would applaud such planning, but it seems kind of disingenuous at this point. So which one shall die first?"
He then handed me a bow and arrow as he hefted me up as the lack of blood was starting to get to me.
"All you need to do is kill three of the twelve huntresses, and you will be set free. You have ten seconds to shoot three arrows." Looking at him as if he was insane, he then began to count down.
"Ten."
"I will kill you for this!"
"Nine."
"Stop this madness now!"
"Eight."
"Please, there has to be a better way!"
"Seven."
'Six."
Please, I will do anything! Don't make me do this!"
"Five."
"Four."
"Three."
"Curse you! You insane man!"
"Two."
I then notched up three arrows into my bow as I took aim at three of the older ones, but I planned to hit them in non-vital areas.
"One."
The arrows flew as I cried on the ground.
'Zero. Times up, you failed."
The arrows then disappeared as the huntresses also disappeared. I looked up at him in a rage. But he continued to stare at me with complete and utter indifference. "So tell me, how hard was it to watch? You were powerless to stop the arrows. It felt horrible, didn't it? But I believe that we are near the end of this little gathering."
'You coward, at least let me die like a goddess!." I yelled as he began to chuckle and then summoned a rock.
He then dragged me towards it as a person appeared near it, glaring at me with complete and utter hatred in her eyes. The God Slayer then dropped me in front of her as the woman kneeled down and grabbed me as she said, "Why did you do it? Was it because I bragged? Was it because I was proud of my children? Was it because you could not stand the fact that a mortal could do what gods could not? It doesn't matter now. You don't deserve an honorable death."
She then lifted me up and slammed me down on the rock over and over. As the pain grew and grew, I screamed in agony. "Yes, scream for me just like my children did when you and your pathetic brother killed them all for the passing words of a proud mother."
Again, and again, I was slammed onto that rock with its edge being sharp enough to cut into my skin but blunt enough not to stab me to death. There was so much red and so much pain.
"Let it be known that you died at the hands of Niobe, a mother who lost her children to the goddess of childbirth and the god of medicine. You gods truly are hypocritical existences, but now I am satisfied." She then let go as my broken jaw and bloodied eyes slammed into each other.
The God Slayer then walked up to me, and with one slash my vision began to dim as he said one final statement: "Rejoice Artemis, your pain is over, but the entire world shall know that your power shall be wielded by the very man that killed you. Now begone failure of Leto."
My vision went dark, and I felt my essence being ripped out and reshaped into something else as I screamed in agony and despair.
(Cao Cao POV)
I saw her essence similar to Ares enter my being, and thus Celestine's grudge I had now settled, and as I looked to the women next to me, I asked, "Are you satisfied, Niobe, with this?" The woman, whose face seemed to have aged by endless years due to endless tears, simply shook her head.
"I watched as they slew my children, you know. All 20 of them, all I could feel was complete and utter happiness that I lost sight of one important thing. Hiding your own pride from the gods, I will never be happy with what happened, but this is a good start. I am not above admitting that I should not have been so brazen. Thank you, God Slayer, but I can feel my essence beginning to end, so I cannot join you when you slay that bastard Apollo. Just make it hurt for a grieving widow."
I nodded as her essence disappeared, and the once-crying rock crumbled into dust in the wind.
Looking inwards, I saw Cato hug Celestine as she sniffled a reply (My family is avenged for good. But I fear my selfish wish may harm you, Cao. Can you forgive me?)
Nodding with a smile, I simply replied, "Well, I would rather not be under someone's purview, so this was inevitable, and settling this little grudge was just a bonus. Although I definitely think I can make it as an actor in Hollywood."
I then did some poses like what you would see in a celebrity magazine as Celestine laughed and cried in equal measure.
The healing will take time, but she can take solace in the fact that the goddess of sexism will not harm another person ever again. All of the other huntresses who were not devout followers of the goddess had their memories wiped, as well as their prejudices.
That is my punishment to them as they shall live their entire lives not knowing who they are but feeling an innate emptiness even if they find some form of satisfaction. But for Zoe, she is a lost cause.
But as I turned around and disabled my mirror dimension, I saw the moon's light dim before returning to normal. I heard a scream of rage and despair in the distance as thunder rumbled and lightning crashed all around me.
I simply smirked and gave a middle finger to the sky before entering a portal back to the grand temple to absorb my next authority. Let Apollo and Zeus stew in what happened as they know that they are next.
(Let it be known. This is most likely going to be an end of the edginess as I myself I'm not a fan of gratuitous violence, but it felt the most fitting.)
每周推薦票狀態
-- 推薦票
榜單 
-- 推薦票