Chapter 248 Hundreds of Years in the Human World

Since the war outside Mount Olympus ceased, the world has finally returned to its former peace.

The sun and the moon alternate in the sky, and the world is changing. Except for the gods who occasionally come and go, the earth suddenly becomes quiet. Perhaps on another level, there are still many changes taking place, but at least as far as mortals are concerned, when that night filled with visions passes, nothing similar will happen again.

So gradually, just as it had been going on before, human footprints continued to spread across the entire land as time went by. At the same time, churches that believed in gods also began to fill the area.

The first was Hestia and Themis. They were composed of those who had firm beliefs and were willing to swear to open up the wilderness for mankind and guard the sacred fire, as well as warriors who were willing to listen to the teachings of the goddess of justice, eradicate evil and eliminate injustice in the world. They received the guidance of the two goddesses and determined to spread the goddess's will to more people, so they compiled scriptures, divided their powers, and traveled among different city-states to promote the teachings of the gods.

And their behavior was undoubtedly very successful. In this era when information exchange is inconvenient and humans are separated in all directions, this organized and large-scale spread of beliefs is like a dimensionality reduction attack, and it has quickly become mainstream in quite a few places. trend of thought.

Even if according to the scope of belief defined by the gods in advance, there are many city-state monarchs who implement certain beliefs in the name of the king after seeing the manifest gods, but they are still helpless under this kind of church organization. Obviously, the actions of the priests are more attractive than the empty descriptions of the greatness of the gods.

They made stories about God's deeds and beautified God's thoughts into doctrines. It just so happened that the two goddesses were very consistent with human understanding of beauty, both in their thoughts and actions. Therefore, even if no city lists the two goddesses as orthodox sacrifice objects due to the carving up among the gods, it still does not affect their influence among humans that is greater than that of every Olympian god.

At first, this was not taken seriously by the gods, and few gods paid attention to this kind of communication between mortals. They also followed past experience and simply relied on showing miracles in front of mortals to reveal their existence. But gradually, as the names of the two goddesses spread more and more widely among humans, the gods who finally noticed it suddenly realized that maybe their casual approach saved time and energy, but it seemed too backward. .

The primitive worship of nature and power was ultimately no match for convincing ideas and real clergy, so in just a few decades, large and small religious orders were established. The gods choose their spokesmen in the world according to their own preferences, or simply directly choose the kings who believe in their own city-states, and then order them to learn the churches of the two goddesses and then spread their names.

Since then, the newly established power structure among humans has changed again. Just like the Bronze Humans, the priests serving the gods have become an indispensable member. Although unlike the previous human generation, the priests held absolute power, their identities were still extraordinary.

And before that, a small thing that happened in the middle brought something that greatly intensified the evolution process. After all, in this still barbaric era, strength is what humans value most.

Fortunately, because of this small thing, believers in gods also have the possibility to master power.

About ten years after the end of the God War, at a banquet to welcome the return of Apollo, the goddess of wisdom announced a special discovery to the gods. She claimed that she invented another special energy by observing the magic network, analyzing the elements, and finally using divine power as the basis.

It is not powerful, and even appears weak compared to divine power, because it inherently weakens divine power. However, this does not detract from its value, because it is a power that can be used by the gods in the mortal world, and even beyond the gods.

As long as this power is transferred to mortals and a witchcraft-like structure is 'fixed' to the magic net, then any human being, regardless of whether his 'qualifications' are mediocre or extraordinary, can take advantage of the existence of gods and the magic net. Master this extraordinary power.

Compared with the path that requires self-training and sufficient talent to achieve success, this system that only concerns the favor of the gods, without any talent restrictions, and with a natural upper limit is undoubtedly the most satisfying to the gods - after all, they still have Remember the mortal who wielded his sword against the son of the Sea Emperor.

If there were more people like this, it would be difficult for the gods to be as comfortable as they are now in the mortal world. But they can't stop this power, because the humans spread across the entire land are no longer able to be easily protected just because they live in one place like the previous generation. If they themselves cannot master the power to fight against the strange beasts in the wilderness, then the deterrence of the holy fire alone will not be able to expand their numbers.

Therefore, the power named "divine magic" by the goddess is particularly important, so the gods did not hesitate to ask Athena for the secret of the holy power, and praised the goddess's wisdom. Then, based on their own natural authority as a medium, Various special magical arts were developed.

As for areas other than innate authority...this is the blind spot of the innate God. Therefore, in addition to the help of Athena, the gods simplified some common magical arts with the help of the omnipotent nature of divine power. There are often huge differences in the 'holy power models' mastered by different gods, and they have various different functions.

When this power was introduced into the human world, this difference seemed to confirm the absoluteness of different gods within their own authority, which also made the compilation of many scriptures more biased. Of course, there are also mortals who question the greatness of the gods, but this has no impact.

After all, all gods are like this, and no one has ever existed, whether it is a god or anything else, claiming to be omniscient and omnipotent, so this kind of statement just comes and goes, and few people even remember that it once existed.

In any case, holy power and magic have been integrated into the world. After a few simple generations, it seems to have become a natural existence, understood and accepted by humans. Even the gods have gradually become accustomed to this convenient energy.

However, there was an additional episode in the middle. On Mount Olympus, the God King, who also learned about the birth of divine magic, seemed particularly surprised. He even once said that he had actually discovered this special system, but had not yet had time to tell the gods.

However, the gods only agreed with his words, but few believed him in their hearts.

After all, Zeus had never shown any talent for creation and invention in the past.

They would rather believe that this is related to Metis, the goddess of wisdom of the previous generation, and would not think that the God King could study such a thing. After all, power and wisdom are not equivalent. This is something the gods themselves know very well.

In short, this episode did not affect the spread of magic and the establishment of the church. Human society is also constantly exploring balance and order in the process of integrating new things.

From rough scriptures to increasingly clear doctrines, conflicts occur from time to time, but are still restrained. The conflicts that gradually arise between the king and the priests, the hidden existence of mortals' beliefs in places where the gods are less likely to notice, and the various changes in the underground and in the sky.

Time flies, one generation grows old, and another generation grows up. On the vast land, some city-states have collapsed, and some have begun to expand the areas they rule, evolving towards true kingdoms. And in the fringe areas where humans are active, there are also humans who have not been able to live in one place for a long time. migration.

For a time, the vast eastern land became more and more different from previous eras, becoming more and more lively and prosperous. Compared to the classical city-states recorded in myths, it is more like a magical and gorgeous fantasy world.

But overall, everything is moving in a good direction. The overall number of humans is still rising, and even the most distant branches of migrating humans have not yet touched the vast sea. Under this situation, the gods mostly just laugh at the conflicts that arise between believers.

They are all busy racing and staking their claim, rather than holding back their energy for trivial matters. More and more faith is pouring into Olympus, and the gods are immersed in joy. Even the God King, whose body has fallen into slumber, is happy to see the rising power helping him to kill the evil spirit faster. Strange force.

The era has thus opened a new chapter. The communication and connection between humans and gods have never been closer, and the situation in the world has gradually become more complicated. All the gods were immersed in the joy of this 'harvest', feeling that the energy they had put in in the past was not in vain.

It wasn't until this day that the unprecedented cold wind came from the north of the earth all the way to the south, causing all things to wither and decay, and the gods suddenly woke up. As a result, human development was hindered, and a foreseeable disaster seemed to be coming. The gods rushed to explore what had happened, but everything was fruitless.

The culprit who caused all this had already left Olympus and walked towards the human world after a big quarrel with the God King. Zeus, the only one who knew the inside story, also chose to remain silent after being angry for a while.

If she wants to make a fuss, let's make a fuss. He couldn't break the promise he made, but if all the other gods showed their dissatisfaction, it would have nothing to do with him.

On that day, naturally someone put pressure on Hades, who had been living in the underworld. After all, the consequences he caused affected the interests of all gods.

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world.

If a central axis were drawn for the land of Khaos, the former Mount Odiles would undoubtedly be on this central line. It supports the sky and the earth, and separates the north, south, and east. Even today's Olympus is far from being able to compare with it.

And if we draw another axis for the eastern land, Olympus will be slightly closer to the northeast, and as for human settlements, it will be further east.

The closer to the sacred mountain, the denser the human population, because this is the direction in which the fourth generation of humans migrated. They traveled from west to east on the eastern land after the great flood, looking for a suitable place to live.

Those who are closer to Mount Olympus tend to migrate shorter distances and take longer to settle and reproduce. They have a clear lead in both population and culture.

Of course, this often means that the gods pay more attention to them. It is completely common for seven or eight gods' temples to exist in a city.

In contrast, those emerging city-states that are farther away seem to be ignored. No one knows how many small cities there are in the entire eastern land that have been established less than a hundred years ago. There are even quite a lot of them. Even the temples of the gods have not been built yet, and no priests have ever been here.

This is a normal thing. After all, the church is developing very fast, but human beings as a whole are developing faster, and those remote places are naturally ignored. Like the Kingdom of Eleusis, it was such a country that was established in only two generations.

Its founder is dead, not from old age, but from the pain of fighting along the way. As the son of the city's founder, Eleusinus, Keleus naturally inherited his throne and became the king of this kingdom, which actually only had one city and a few small towns as its territory.

In the first twenty years of his succession, everything went smoothly. The country, which originally had only a few hundred thousand people, grew stronger under the governance of Cleus. However, for the past year, the king has been frowning.

The climate change was too sudden. Not only did the temperature drop, but even the crops stopped growing.

The land became barren, sources of food became less and less, and wild beasts began to attack humans regardless of danger. The Kingdom of Eleusis, which had never encountered such a situation, had no way to deal with it, and the small amount of food reserves could not last for a few years. A famine was just around the corner, but as king, Cyrus had no choice.

Until this day, the king, who was still thinking about countermeasures, received news that his daughters brought him an unimaginable guest.

…

"Ms. Moyle, this is our home, and it is also the only palace in the city."

Walking on the compacted dirt road, four girls with ordinary looks but obviously unusual clothes were gathered around an old woman.

They supported the old man and introduced her to everything in the city and their home - the Eleusis Palace at the end of the road.

Of course, it is said to be a palace, but it is actually just an ordinary building that is taller and wider in area. Eleusis, which had only experienced two generations of monarchs, had no taste for pleasure, neither the king nor the people.

They advocate pragmatism more, and this simple style is clearly reflected in many corners of the city.

"Really? Haha, thank you very much."

Looking at the palace at the end of her sight, the old woman named Moir smiled and thanked her. But there was still a hint of disgust flashing through her eyes.

But after all, it was a palace for mortals, so she reluctantly accepted it. The mortal king was already the one with the highest status, and she could not ask for more, so Moir tried her best to look satisfied and grateful, but she did not know that her thoughts were clearly seen by several people around her.

"Providing help to our kin who have come from afar is what our grandfather always taught us when we were still here."

The eldest of the four girls supported the old woman and asked casually:

"The weather is getting colder... I wonder why you are walking through the wilderness alone?"

"..."

There was a wordless silence, and Moir's expression changed slightly. After a while, just when a few people thought she wouldn't say anything, the old woman said calmly:

"I came to look for my daughter. She was so innocent and lively... but she was taken away, just like me."

The atmosphere became a little cold. Even though several girls tried their best to say something to liven up the atmosphere, nothing changed. Until several people entered the palace, they could not return to their previous appearance.

"I'm tired."

Entering the palace, Moir expressed his opinion calmly.

She has no consciousness of being a guest at all, or in other words, this is already a polite behavior towards mortals in her understanding.

Then the daughters of King Cyrus looked at each other, and their sister stood up again.

"Please come with me and I will take you to my room."

"Then lead the way."

Nodding, Moir agreed as a matter of course.

Behind her, the other three girls did not follow, but hurriedly left after watching the eldest sister and the woman leave. They didn't know who this old woman they met outside the city, who seemed to be 'begging' but could not hide her arrogance, might be walking through the wilderness alone in this era, which was something even their father could not do.

Invite the other person into the palace and express their kindness as much as possible. This is what they can do. As for the rest, it was up to the king to decide.