Chapter: 230
From the coffin of Zeus, gripped by the Goddess of Life, lightning crackles and spreads ceaselessly.
As if pleading to be returned to its master, Zeus, or attempting to escape from the goddess’s clutches, sharp bolts of lightning spiral out in a frenzy.
However, the Goddess of Life appeared to be completely unfazed. In fact, she seemed to wear a small smile that implied, “Go ahead and try your best.”
After a bit of time passed, the lightning erupting from Zeus’s coffin gradually began to wane.
It resembled a wild horse, once rampaging freely, that had been subdued by its rider and was now exhausted. As if it had no strength left to produce more lightning, the golden coffin fell silent.
“Hmm. What a superfluous decoration. No matter how much I suppress and control my power, I won’t be able to produce even ten percent of my original output. Tsk. I’ll have to break this shell.”
With that, the Goddess of Life squeezed the hand gripping Zeus’s coffin tightly. Suddenly, the coffin deformed as if it were made of paper.
The golden coffin crumples and cracks, revealing the forms hidden beneath the surface.
Then, a laurel wreath made of pure lightning, which had been trapped under the golden shell, began to reemerge in its original form.
This was the authority of the King of Gods, once worn upon his head.
It was both the symbol of the King of Gods and the physical embodiment of power.
“It’s finally worth looking at,” the Goddess of Life said with a satisfied smile upon viewing the lightning laurel.
“Alright then….”
Instead of wearing the lightning laurel on her head, the Goddess of Life placed it into a suddenly appearing box and tucked it away, as if she had no intention of using it herself.
“You who tried to force a god out of someone unwilling and sacrificed your following… What should be done with you?”
With that, the Goddess of Life cast her gaze around at the other gods, smiled coyly, and snapped her fingers. Instantaneously, the gods who had been frozen seemed to regain their ability to speak and began to clamor.
“Save me! Goddess of Life!”
“I, I… My head definitely shattered, didn’t it? When did that regenerate…?”
“Ugh, ugh… Zeus made us do it! Zeus!!! With his authority, he forced us! We didn’t want to do it!!!”
The gods began barking at one another, desperately trying to dodge the crisis at hand, each claiming their innocence. Even Poseidon, whose shattered head had just inexplicably reformed, looked utterly bewildered.
In this chaotic scene, the mighty facade of the gods had completely vanished, leaving only pitiful beings begging for their lives.
“Please show some mercy! Goddess of Life! You’re the most benevolent deity, aren’t you?”
“Benevolent? Me?”
At one of the gods’ outcries, the Goddess of Life chuckled softly.
“Just where on earth did you hear such nonsense about my benevolence?”
“Isn’t it well-known among all living beings that the mercy of the Goddess of Life is a fact? Even now, countless souls pray to you, and you respond by curing their ailments and suffering, don’t you?”
“What are you talking about? I just extend a helping hand because miserable children are crying and suffering. It’s not out of mercy.”
While people often label such actions as merciful, it seemed the Goddess of Life regarded it as a natural duty.
“And if I were truly benevolent… I would have eradicated war from this world. My allowance of war to persist because it’s deemed necessary makes me quite the opposite of benevolent.”
As she spoke, the Goddess of Life wore a slightly bitter expression.
“If I were genuinely merciful, I would’ve wiped your kind from existence before you pitiful gods could even emerge. Yet, I’ve allowed you to exist and draw breath. Is that also considered merciful? Surely, if my help causes others to suffer, it can’t be considered mercy, right?”
Tilting her head, the Goddess of Life muttered to herself, clearly questioning the very notion of mercy.
“Well then, let’s save the philosophical musings for later. Just because I extended a little help to some beings doesn’t mean I owe the same to you. Truthfully, I already offered it, but you lot kicked it aside.”
“What do you mean…?”
As the gods’ expressions contorted in confusion, the Goddess of Life firmly stated,
“Baal. King of the gods. The deity of the skies whom I crowned to manage you arrogant and willful beings. Had you accepted his rule, recognized his authority, and followed him—these problems never would’ve arisen.”
“B-but…”
“But? You all denied his rule, didn’t you? That’s tantamount to denying my will. Is it too excessive to expect further mercy from you lot?”
The gods stood speechless before the Goddess of Life’s words.
The truth hung heavily in the air; they had rebelled against Baal and his authority, which ultimately resulted in his fragmentation. Thus the spirits, now severed from Baal, became independent deities and ascended as the leaders of Olympus.
Such a leader of Olympus…
“Th-th-th-…”
Now stripped of his power and authority, Zeus was deteriorating rapidly.
His once resplendent golden locks transformed slowly into gray strands, and his once strong, muscular form began to wither.
Time itself seemed to fast-forward, as Zeus aged at an alarming rate.
“Hmm? Shrinking like a balloon? Was that body upheld by Baal’s power? What a wasteful usage indeed. Quite the comical sight.”
The Goddess of Life laughed at the poor state of Zeus.
Zeus, desperate to say something to her, could only manage weak groans—simply the visage of an aging deity.
“So, what shall be done with you? Would it be better to kill you cleanly and end it, or should you be left to sink into despair? Zeus, what fate do you desire?”
“Ugh… R-return what is mine…”
“Ah, what’s that?”
“Return to me… my crown, my power, my authority!”
In a weak voice, Zeus pleaded.
“Ha! Since when has that been yours? Did you not pilfer it from Baal? Such greed you possess!”
The Goddess of Life found amusement in Zeus’s pitiful desperation.
“Well, of course, you felt no guilt stealing from Baal while brazenly using his powers. Truly a detestable character.”
“Ugh…”
Zeus groaned incessantly in apparent anguish. Observing him, the Goddess of Life remarked,
“Killing is simple, yet pain lasts only a moment. Even dead souls can be subjected to further torment, but a soul devoid of its memories is hard to even call the same as in its past life. Hmm… that’s accurate.”
With that, the Goddess of Life seized Zeus’s head, which could barely bear its own weight.
“Zeus, do you know what punishment Odin endured?”
“O-Odin?”
“Yes. After facing his miserable defeat at Ragnarok. He must have relayed it through Hermes.”
At those words, Zeus’s eyes began to waver, as if he anticipated what fate awaited him.
“How convenient that you know these things. Yet, merely living as a human wouldn’t provide much entertainment.”
The Goddess of Life gripped Zeus’s neck, causing him to sputter, gasping for breath as if being strangled.
“You could say that even being a human would be too luxurious for you. You’d fit better as a worm.”
“A worm…?”
“Yes. By sheer coincidence, I’ve even thought of a fitting name for you.”
As soon as those words left her lips, Zeus’s body, ensnared by the Goddess of Life, began to transform.
Wrinkled skin fissured as though it were a dry tree trunk peeling away; Zeus’s flesh shattered and dispersed into tiny fragments.
Eventually, all that remained of Zeus was his head and neck, clutched within the Goddess of Life’s grasp.
“You shall no longer be a god. No one will worship you. You will become the most contemptible of creatures. Despite this, you will remain unable to suppress your unquenchable greed.”
At the Goddess of Life’s decree, Zeus’s expression twisted in horror. With only a neck to speak from, he rallied all his strength to shout,
“O Goddess of Life! Goddess!!! You shall be cursed!!! You will face my curse!!! The Goddess of Life shall never again tread upon the world of the living! She will be barred from the cherished lives she holds dear! O Goddess of Life! Be cursed!!!”
Across the silence following Zeus’s final shout, thin cracks began to etch themselves across the remnants of his head and neck, splitting them further apart.
“You think your petty curse means anything? It’s laughable.”
The Goddess of Life sneered, squeezing her grip, reducing what remained of Zeus’s body into oblivion.
“You, a remnant of Baal, will now bear the name Baalzebub… Ah, but that name feels a tad unfair to Baal. So let’s adjust it slightly. Henceforth, your new title shall be Beelzebub. You who are doomed to peep at rotten corpses and mire, you shall be crowned the King of Flies beholden only to greed.”
At that, once all traces of Zeus had been obliterated, the Goddess of Life was left holding only a tiny fly, no larger than a child’s fist.
It stood as the remnant of a god who had lost everything, now reduced to mere greed.
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