Myth: The Ruler of Spirituality

Chapter 631 - 210: Exposure

Inside the great hall, two Goddesses of Beauty faced each other, with the Divine King’s power pouring out in all directions.

However, for the moment, even as he tried to stop them with his imposing aura, Zeus still didn’t know how to proceed.

The recent events had changed too abruptly; the handover of the Golden Apple and Aphrodite’s rash action all happened in an instant, and he needed some time to understand the before and after of these events.

It was supposed to be a planned conspiracy, so how did the Golden Apple suddenly end up in Keto’s hands?

The key lay in that mortal’s choice… Everything had been going smoothly just moments ago, but the situation had drastically changed, all because of the other party’s sudden decision. Zeus’s gaze swept over the area where Andrea had been, and, as expected, she had already retreated to a corner.

So, had he fallen into someone else’s trap? Had Athena seen through his thoughts, or was someone else pulling the strings?

If someone else had influence here, then how did they know what he intended to do? After all, besides him, only Discordia and the Goddess of Life knew about this. Was there a betrayal among them?

Most importantly, what purpose did the person who planned all of this have? What was their goal?

Countless doubts arose in his mind, and at that moment, Zeus even began to doubt Hera; in fact, this was precisely what Laine had wanted from his scheme.

It must be noted that although Andrea was a Priestess of Athena, she still harbored the power of the Heavenly Empress within her, her sacred power firmly locked away. Where had she initially been abducted? Of course, it was on the sea.

This caused the situation to spiral into chaos immediately; Zeus couldn’t determine who was orchestrating all of this since Hera’s motivation existed. She and Aphrodite had a long-standing feud, and now it seemed plausible that after discovering Zeus’s scheme, the Heavenly Empress had secretly reached out to the Ancient Sea God faction.

However, at this moment, these speculations were overturned because Laine’s original misdirection needed Keto to retrieve the Golden Apple and then return straight to Hell. This shifted the entire situation to involve a third party meddling in the scheming, leaving even Hera in the dark, and the Lord of the Nine Hells seeming to be the greatest beneficiary.

At that point, internally, Zeus would have to deal with the Heavenly Empress who undermined his planning, even if she offered explanations, and it was doubtful whether the Divine King would believe her; externally, he had to be wary of the suddenly evident grand presence of the Hell faction, as the demons, though they had plotted for souls in the Mortal Realm before, were always considered by Olympus to be akin to Evil Gods, which hadn’t seemed like much of an issue.

Simultaneously, internal and external threats exploded, almost certainly causing immense trouble for Zeus. And while Keto had ignited some internal conflicts within the Divine Court, this was still just limited to suspicions and wouldn’t evolve into war, serving only to distract Zeus.

Unsurprisingly, as long as Andrea managed to escape successfully, making the key witness disappear without a trace, Laine’s objective would be achieved. Whatever Zeus had originally wanted to do would definitely be greatly delayed.

But now, everything had moved in a different direction.

Keto hadn’t left; she was openly confronting Aphrodite. Clearly, at the instigation of the Lord of the Nine Hells, she had never intended to keep the conflict within a manageable degree but planned to dive directly into the fray and ignite a full-blown escalation.

Asmodeus wanted the gods to clash, war to erupt in the Mortal Realm, faith to be weakened, and sovereignty to be shaken. He had no interest in maintaining the stability of the current world; he only wanted to muddy the waters, conceal his own power for a while, and then create an opportunity to join in this grand play of the Mortal Realm.

Unfortunately, an unexpected event occurred again. Because even Asmodeus, observing the Mortal Realm through Keto’s eyes, hadn’t anticipated that among the gods present, someone could recognize hints of his origin from just a look, and the fact that they were able to do this had its roots in him.

"...It’s you, that look... No, indeed, it wasn’t a coincidence that you appeared there back then. Keto, what is your relation to Purgatory?!"

With a sudden shout, Hestia uttered a term that was very unfamiliar to most deities, while Zeus was startled.

Almost immediately, he remembered something his elder sister had mentioned.

Purgatory... a mysterious entity that Hestia had encountered during the destruction of the Bronze Age, on the ruins of human civilization.

The souls of the Bronze Age had vanished, and at that time, even though she was a goddess of great divine power, Hestia was no match for the opponent. And it seemed that Keto was also present at that time?

"Purgatory, or rather, ’Hell’..."

His gaze gradually became cold. Since that encounter, the mysterious person’s existence had always been a thorn in Zeus’s side, which also reignited his sense of crisis, hence his decisive incursion into Asgard to gain further opportunities.

However, in his conjecture, the entity Hestia had encountered back then was probably a peak ancient god of immense divine power, only its origins were unclear. Thus, as his strength grew over time and there was no further news of this entity, Zeus eventually put this matter aside.

But now, could there be more to come?

"Keto, setting aside your affair with Aphrodite for a moment, shouldn’t you explain what exactly you did during the extermination of Bronze Humanity?"

In the Temple, the situation shifted once again.

Flames surrounded the Goddess of Hearthfire, and Zeus also turned his gaze towards Keto.

He had previously overlooked it, but now that he had discovered it, he was eager to know who that being who had encountered Hestia was and where they might be hiding.

As the Divine King who ruled the world, he could accept that there were places yet to be brought under his dominion, but he couldn’t accept the existence of places he did not know about.

’Sigh—this seems a bit troublesome now.’

Taking a deep breath, Keto had not expected to encounter this situation.

She had indeed been recognized, and although she could deny it, the gods might not necessarily demand evidence.

Now she only had two choices, the first was to directly use Asmodeus’s power to return to Hell, then the mission of the Lord of the Nine Hells would be deemed a failure, but it would mean that another monarch’s mission was completed... The other choice was to stay, after all, Olympus did not forbid gods from having contact with other deities, and during the destruction of the Bronze Age, the Divine Court had not yet prohibited deities from harvesting the souls of mortals.

However, this meant she could no longer use the Golden Apple to provoke relations among the gods, meaning the mission was still a failure... So, after quickly scanning the assembled gods, Keto’s gaze became sharp.

If it were just her, then she would have to choose one of these two options, but now, she planned not to choose either.

With the Golden Apple, the things of old weren’t so important anymore. Looking at Artemis, who wore the New Moon Crown in the distance, Keto took out an item from her hand.

"Your Majesty, the Divine King, whatever happened in the Bronze Age, I’m afraid I didn’t violate the rules of the Divine Court at that time, as I remember it wasn’t until after the disaster of Typhon that you helped the gods establish the Divine Kingdom, and only then were humans’ souls forbidden from being taken by each other."

"What, does your Heavenly Empress dislike me getting the Golden Apple so much that now you need to step in and handle this trouble for me?"

She retorted unapologetically, while Hera stood up fiercely.

She was already furious, extremely dissatisfied with Keto getting the Golden Apple, and now her opponent even dared to provoke her?

"Keto, do I need Zeus to stand up for me? If you dare to take the Golden Apple and leave this Temple, I will surely make you pay the price in the future!"

"Is that so? Well, I don’t believe it." Find exclusive stories on NovelBin.Côm

With a cold laugh, Keto lightly tossed the item in her hand towards the direction of Artemis.

"Respected Master of the Wilderness, do you believe it?"

"...Of course not!"

After hesitating for a moment, Artemis’s eyes lit up.

She was here to watch the spectacle today anyway, so why not make it even more exciting? Besides, the item Keto handed to her matched her role as the Goddess of the Wilderness perfectly.

If it’s beneficial and aligns with her thoughts, then why not go for it?

[Something is still missing]