The Myth of the Greek Heavenly Demon

Chapter 26 – The Hero’s Fury, The Heroes’ Astonishment, And The Goddess’s Cheers

“Ah…?”

Why can I see the sky?

Son of Alcmene, bearer of Zeus’s blood, destined for a path of glory.
Archimedes, who was also known as Hercules, the young hero, was suddenly bewildered by the vast blue sky unfolding before him.

“Huh…?”

That wasn’t all.

Why are his limbs, always full of energy and vigor, so heavy now?
Even his eyelids, which hadn’t budged during the three-day-and-night battle with the Nemean lion, felt so heavy.
Why was breathing so difficult and painful?

He couldn’t comprehend the strange and unfamiliar sensations he was experiencing for the first time in his life.
Barely lifting his limp hand to wipe the liquid flowing from his nose, a red substance—something he was certain he would never see from his body—clung thickly to his hand.

“Uh… cough?! Cough?!”

That was not all.
With just a slight exertion, a hellish pain pierced his lungs, and the hot bile and blood that surged up felt like they were burning his esophagus.

“Ughhh…”

Had he ever been in such agony since birth?
Had death ever been this close?
In the death-like pain scorching his mind, Hercules trembled with fear for the first time in his life.

“Hey”

“Huh…”

The blue sky unfolded beyond his blurred vision.
A pitch-black silhouette obscured it, looking down at him.

“Tha… Thana… tos..?”

Had the god of death finally come to take him?
Even in the agony that seemed to burn his whole body, Hercules could not hide his despair.
As he caressed his chest, death whispered softly.

“Hey, get a grip.”

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“…Huh?!”

It was like magic.
The little touch of death brought a searing pain to his eyes, as if scorched by a hot iron, and slowly subsided, as his hazy mind gradually became clear.
Then, in his clear vision, the face of the man who stood with his back to the light, whom he thought was death, slowly came into view.

Hair as black and glossy as the night sky.
A beautiful face that even Apollo would envy.
But what overwhelmed all of these was the mysterious dignity wrapped in his star-like obsidian eyes.
It was Dianes, with whom he had just been sparring.

“D-Dianes? Wh-What happened?”

Could it be that the Forest of Heroes was invaded while he was on a morning run?
Who was the enemy? A beast? A monster?

As he looked around with concern that others might have fallen to the enemy, Dianes, who had been looking down at him blankly, soon burst into a chuckle as if finding it absurd.

“Ha, you dazed fool. Don’t you remember?”

“R-remember what…? Ah!”

Hercules, bewildered by Dianes’s sneer, soon had a vivid recollection, and his eyes widened.

“Ah, it seems like you remembered.”

“You, you… h-how did you do it..?!”

Five fingers extended towards his chest, approaching like a shadow.
Sensing an unusual energy gathering at the fingertips touching his chest, he tried to say something.
But before he could, from the tips of those five fingers, an enormous power, reminiscent of Poseidon’s wrath, ravaged his body.
The energy was as hot as hellfire, as cold as the breath of Caiman, as fierce as a landslide, and as resolute as tempered steel.
Such storm-like pain burrowed into his entire body like tree roots digging through the earth; he was already sprawled on the ground, bleeding, presenting a disgraceful sight.

“Calm down and catch your breath. Do you want to collapse again, coughing up blood?”

“You… you… bas… tard!!”

For the first time in his life, he felt the reality of death and writhed in hellish pain.
For the first time in his life, he fainted in front of someone, and the shame made his head overheat.
Thus, a fury that far surpassed the lingering pain enveloped Hercules’s entire body.

“I will kill you!!!”

-Bang!!

Hercules sprang up, striking the ground like a thunderbolt, swinging his fist.
Each time he threw a punch, the air screamed.
Each time he stomped his foot, the ground shattered, and dust arose.
When hunting the Nemean lion, when engaging in a grand battle of 1 vs. 100 in the Forest of Heroes with other minor heroes, and even when dueling with Chiron, he never revealed his full power.
Bleeding from every pore and ferociously swinging his fists, his appearance was enough to chill the hearts of the minor heroes gathered in the Colosseum.

“Evacuate! Evacuate!! You’ll die if you get caught up in this!!”

“Get out of the Colosseum now!! No, just get as far away from this area as possible!!”

Hercules, charging at Dianes without distinguishing friend from foe, was nothing short of a calamity.
If anyone got caught up in that, no one here would leave with their bones intact; they’d be shattered to pieces.

“What on earth did Dianes do?”

“I can’t say for sure… but what in the world did Dianes do to make Hercules spit blood and to make him faint?”

Dianes swiftly burrowed into Hercules’s embrace and reached out to his chest.
The movement was indeed astonishing, but it was merely a burrowing motion.
How could one inflict a blow on that body, which neither combat skills, magic, nor even Asclepius’s poison could affect, without any weapons?
It seemed all was lost for Dianes; in his excitement, he had made a mistake and was about to shake his head.

There was neither a manifestation of immense power nor a deafening explosion.
Yet, Hercules, who had reigned over him like an eternal wall, suddenly collapsed on the spot, vomiting blood.

“Messenger! Messenger!”

“Why?! Why aren’t you running away already?!”

Zetes and Calais, the twin commanders with golden wings, led the great Hercules unit.
The two sons of Boreas, the North Wind god, could fly through the sky like the wind with the golden wings inherited from their father.

“Get Chiron and Asclepius here immediately! It’s a major accident!”

“Is this really the time for that?!”

“Are you ordering us to do that now…? Oh my god!”

-Whoosh!

Just as they were about to make a hasty escape, the wind twins, who had been grumbling at Theseus for calling them, screamed and ducked as a stone flew straight at them.

“Raaaargh! Kill, I will kill them all!!”

The origin of the flying stone was, of course, Hercules, who had lost his mind and was throwing everything he could get his hands on.
However, even in his frenzied state, his sole target was Dianes.
Yet, the reason why the impact reached them too was…

“…My goodness, there was a person who could do such a thing.”

“Is that really the movement of a human? That?”

Was that how Pluto looked, wearing the shadow helmet, Kynee, and tearing through the army of Titans?
Dianes, with movements that no small hero present could follow with their eyes, was deflecting all of Hercules’s attacks.

“I-is that possible?”

“I-is that a human?”

The twins of the storm exclaimed in unison.

“B-by Zeus…”

“I-is it getting even faster now?”

Even the two shining heroes, inheritors of the gods’ lineage, could only stare blankly, struck by a shiver to the head.
And behind them, only Atalanta, who had evacuated all the female heroes, bit her lip and followed Dianes’s back with her eyes.

Meanwhile.
Above the gentle clouds over the Forest of Heroes, a goddess burst into cheers.

“That’s right!”

Clapping her hands and stamping her feet in delight, her grace and elegance remained perfectly intact.

“Hohohoho! That damn thunder god’s son has finally met his match!”

Laughing loudly with satisfaction, the goddess looked down contentedly at the black-haired hero.
Her beautiful eyes, which would make even the stars of the sky bow in shame, and her softly brown hair elegantly tied up and covered with a golden veil—her graceful beauty that would make everyone bow their heads in admiration—would whisper her name softly into the ears of those who faced her.

Hera.

The chief of all goddesses and the highest goddess, the protector of family and marriage, and the queen of Olympus.
She was a wife who never had a peaceful day due to her husband’s countless infidelities.

“You are delivering the divine punishment I have longed to give to that impudent child in my place!”

Hera, her beautiful eyes filled with rage, clutched her still throbbing breast, wounded by the infant Hercules, and ground her teeth.

Hercules.

Despite being born from Zeus’s infidelity, he was named after Hera’s glory.
Even stealing her milk and inadvertently making the protector of home and marriage his godmother, a demigod who deserved to be torn apart.
Even strangling the snake she sent in his childhood, and his feats of strangling the Nemean lion she sent to punish his foster father, Amphitryon, only fueled her fury further.
Obliviously, Zeus boasted of Hercules’s exploits at every regular council meeting…
Hera was truly furious, searching the earth thoroughly with the sole intent of catching and twisting that wretch with her own hands.
However, Zeus, having anticipated Hera’s moves, had already hidden Hercules in Chiron’s sanctuary.
For a long time, she had to endure Zeus boasting about his son during every divine assembly.
But as time passed, her beautiful eyes finally caught sight of Alcmene’s son growing up in Chiron’s forest.

It was the sight of Hercules lying on the ground in a bloody mess.