The Record of Unusual Creatures

To Hercules, his memory was forever frozen in the spring. In the unknown wilderness somewhere on the Greek peninsula, the hero who completed the 12 labors washed away the blood stains on his body. He looked up at the Mount Olympus high above and pondered about his future. His suffering was not yet over though. He last stood on the land of his hometown in his human body. But the next time he returned, the fragments of Olympus could from the sky and burn the entire earth.

So his remembrance was fixed here. At this moment, he had lost many things, but he also possessed a lot. His hometown in heaven and on earth was still there, his father was still on the throne, and he had not yet involved himself into the struggles of the world of the gods, because he was still a human.

At least he thought he was a human.

“I don’t like Olympus,” Hercules said. He and Hao Ren stood side by side on a boulder, his arms crossed, looking up at the mountain in memory. A part of the mountain was blurry; it was the realm of the queen Hera. “The goddess was cruel. I don’t know how people in your time understand and see the Mythological Era, but you can imagine it as viciously as possible. Hera once ridiculed my father, and used to say that ‘this person is indulging in having sex with animals.’ Most of the gods on Mount Olympus hold such a view on human beings. They were inconsistent. They had unparalleled power, a hundred times stronger than the people on the earth, but they found that the human beings on Earth had the same appearance as them, of which they felt confused and angry. The gods had dissected countless mortals. They want to find evidence of the fundamental differences between the gods of Olympus and the mortals on the ground that the two species were born differently. They concluded that no matter how close humans were to the gods of Olympus, their souls were only of the animals. That was why I didn’t like that place, even though I used to longing for it.”

At first, Hao Ren thought that Hercules would immediately tell him about the divine artifact and Vivian, but Hercules instead reminisced. But he let Hercules finish, he thought, there might be something meaningful about it.

“What kind of beings were the Olympian gods?” asked Hao Ren.

“Twisted and depressed. After living on the mountain for hundreds of years, I finally understand this.” Hercules’ voice was low. “At first, I was confused by the grand appearance there, but slowly, I came to know about the real side of the gods: they were like trapped beasts in cages, and like urchins who were lost. They were confused, anxious, and inconsistent. On the one hand, they showed their supremacy to human beings; but on the other hand, they were worried about their destiny. They seemed to know that the end will come, and even the cause and effect of the end, but they were powerless. Sometimes I would think, could their cruelty to humanity come from this stress? They couldn’t avoid the end, but humans didn’t have to face this fate. Even humans would one day build a new kingdom on the ruins of Olympus. So they had only gotten more irascible and angrier.”

“Zeus knew the impending destruction of Mount Olympus would?” Hao Ren’s eyebrows arched. “Did he talk about what caused the destruction?”

“He only said that destruction would come sooner or later for whatever reason, because in this world, except for the human beings in the dirt, all the intelligent creatures were only prisoners exiled to this place, and the death sentence had already fallen on these prisoners. The execution, no matter what form it would be, would come one day. Few knew these secrets; the knowledge was only limited to the twelve main gods. But in reality, demi-gods like us knew it. My father seemed to think that the disaster would only fall on the pure Olympians and that half-god half-mortal like us would be spared. Now thinking about it, the countless mixed-race descendants of Olympian gods might also be the secret arrangement of my father; he used the mortal bloodline to escape the scourge and kept the Olympian bloodline flowing.”

Hercules told of what he knew. After hearing all that, Hao Ren’s brows twitched.

The seemingly unproven theory could have worked. With Zeus’ ignorance of the Sin of the Divine Blood, he might have thought of circumventing or weakening this sin by creating a large number of mixed-race descendants!

And his method had achieved a certain degree of success. The offspring of the otherworldlings had some resistance to the innate hostility, but this resistance was useless. The demon hunters, deeply affected by the Godslayer, would not stop hunting them merely because they were mixed race.

“What role did Vivian assume in Mount Olympus?” Hao Ren asked curiously as this was the critical question.

“Vivian? She played an important role in almost all celestials,” Hercules said with his arms crossed. “She was the only one who had no innate hostility toward any races, and no races were overly hostile to her. She had fought with countless opponents, including the demon hunters and the otherworldlings, but you had never heard of anyone having a feud with her.”

Hao Ren thought for a moment and shook his head.

“Because she was the balance, the only hope of getting rid of the destruction. My father once said that all exiles in the world had committed the same sin, that was, they had angered the force that created everything in the universe, and this great power had also left the sinner with a way to redemption, that was to seek the forgiveness of the Pardoner. Vivian Ancestor is the Pardoner. Her mission in this world is to forgive sinners, but not all sinners, and she won’t know her mission. My father knew this secret, so he wanted to make acquaintance with this ancient Blood Clan, and hoped to find forgiveness. But now it seems no one has been pardoned.”

The information Hao Ren got from Hercules somehow did not tally with those from the Ark of Origins.

The evidence in the Ark of Origins showed that the absolution commenced right from the beginning. The Goddess of Creation had completed the absolution of all races at the time of her death. The execution of absolution was in the Ark of Origins and Yggdrasil, and Vivian was just a guide. But in the eyes of Zeus, Vivian was the Pardoner. Hao Ren thought for a while and opined the problem lay with Zeus.

After all, Zeus did not know the existence of the Ark of Origins.

Hao Ren concluded in his mind and then looked at Hercules. “What is the divine artifact? Why does it contain the power of Vivian?”

“Because Vivian Ancestor made the celestial object. Of course, she might not remember it now.”

Hao Ren froze for a long moment. “It’s her? Didn’t you guys get the core of the celestial object by chance?”

“Yes, my father indeed found the core in a mysterious cave at the bottom of Tartarus, but we didn’t manage to study it. When Athena put that thing on the testbench, the Countess suddenly appeared in front of us. I was there at the time, so I remembered what happened. Her eyes were blood-red, and she seemed to not in a clear state of mind. Uncharacteristically, she brutally assaulted the guards and stormed in, demanding us to hand over the core.”

“Did you give it to her?” Hao Ren swallowed.

“She took it.” Hercules laughed. “The power of the Countess was strange. Sometimes it was weak, yet sometimes powerful. Vivian had great strength that day; she tossed Ares tossed down the Mount Olympus, and beat Apollo into a coma. My father rushed in and told us not to stop her. So the countess took the thing away. Three days later, she came back and handed us a wand, saying that she had sealed the core in the wand, the wand contained a steady stream of powerful magic, and it was the only safe method of disposing of the core. After that, she left, and we had never heard from her again for a century.”

Hao Ren immediately knew that Vivian must have had another hibernation cycle.

If what Hercules said was right, then Vivian’s hibernation that time was is different from her previous ones.

“Hathaway didn’t tell me this detail.” Hao Ren mumbled.

“Because I didn’t tell her about this.”

“It seems that Vivian had already known the danger of the core. But since it was such a dangerous thing, why did she still hand it over to you?” Hao Ren wondered why. “Why couldn’t she keep it.”

“I have no idea.” Hercules spread out his hand. “Athena has thought about the same question. Her answer is: the Countess couldn’t keep the wand herself. It would be a hundredfold more dangerous if she kept the wand. But if she sealed it somewhere, the leaked energy could attract the attention of other families. So handing over the wand to Olympus was the only choice. My father was an honored person and would honor his promise to keep the celestial object safe and secured.”

Of course, there was still another possibility, Hao Ren thought. Perhaps Vivian knew that her next hibernation cycle is setting in and she did not have time to think of a better disposal plan. So giving the wand in Olympus family’s custody was the only sensible choice at that moment.

“The wand had brought us great power.” Hercules shook his head with a forced smile. “A century later, the Countess came back to visit but did not mention the wand. My father guessed that she might have forgotten. So he did not mention about the wand in front of her again.”

“Ahh, greedy…”