On the cliff facing the Sea of Oceanus, a faintly briny sea breeze blew past, bringing a rare trace of peace beneath the clamor of war. The brutal battlefield of the old [War of the Titans] no longer bore the slightest trace of smoke or fire.
Samael pulled a bottle of mead from the floating Magecraft array and drank deeply. Beside him, Caesar lightly licked his dry lips, his eyes turning before he placed a hand over his chest and bowed.
"Your Majesty, allow me to offer you a toast…"
"Is this how you trick people into giving you drinks?"
Samael glanced at the sly fat man, who was clearly aiming elsewhere while pretending to speak of this, and teased him lightly. Then he pulled another bottle from the Magecraft array and tossed it over.
"Haha. To glorious Greece, to great Rome, to this damned world, and to your wisdom and virtue…"
Caesar bowed slightly, half serious and half joking. Then he clinked bottles with Samael from afar and greedily drank down the golden liquor.
After a few mouthfuls, the Roman Emperor opened up and began chatting pleasantly with the Greek leader beside him.
It had to be said that Caesar was a master of social interaction. Not only was he talkative, he was also excellent at reading the room. Seeing that Samael had taken some interest in those two old enemies from the Trojan War, he played to that interest and took the initiative to recount the beginning and end of that war.
Looking across the history of ancient Greek myth, in the age when human heroes rose to fame, four great deeds could not be ignored. They had once been the glittering stage on which epic after epic unfolded.
In chronological order, the first was the [Calydonian Hunt]. It gathered a large number of heroes and resolved the beast disaster ravaging the Kingdom of Calydon, effectively declaring humanity's sovereignty over the land.
Next came the [Argo Expedition]. It not only successfully helped Jason reclaim his kingdom, but also allowed the Argonauts to forge deep bonds of friendship. In a sense, it conquered the sea.
Then came the [War of the Titans], in which the wandering star vanguard Sefar was defeated, deciding the future direction of the Greek world.
The Sage King before him had taken part in all three of those heroic epics. The only other deed lucky enough to stand beside them was the [Trojan War], which had set off the gods' wager.
After the [War of the Titans], gods and humans gradually recovered through rest and recuperation. But once the gods of Olympus had caught their breath, they awkwardly discovered something.
The dirty truth that Zeus had once carved divine marks onto heroes in an attempt to enslave their souls and establish Paradise Island had already been quietly spread.
It was said that a certain "very filial" goddess, in righteous defiance of her own family, had even compiled the God King Zeus's piles of scandals into booklets and distributed them far and wide.
On top of that, the gods' other rotten deeds that had restrained human development, such as Pandora's Box, the Great Flood, and Prometheus stealing fire, were also exposed. The humans and heroes of Greece gradually leaned fully toward the Areopagus, while sacrifices and faith offered to Olympus steadily weakened.
The opposition between the two great pantheons, along with their struggle for faith, gradually moved into the open. A proxy war to rebuild authority was imminent.
However, because public opinion had spread too far, aside from a few Main Gods with relatively few black marks, most of the Olympian gods had basically lost control over Greece's local forces.
With no other choice, Zeus and the others could only settle for the next best option and support the mighty fortress of Troy, personally built by Poseidon and Apollo during their exile.
Speaking of Troy, that place was truly miserable. It was known as a holy land where heroes went to grind dungeons, and under the trampling of those Greek beasts, it had nearly been wiped out several times. Only after Hektor was born did the situation improve slightly.
As Olympus shifted its "favor," Troy, now heavily supported, gradually strengthened and developed rapidly.
And as the generational blood enemy of the Greek city-states, while also occupying a vital transport route and standing as one of the richest and most developed cities along the Mediterranean coast, Troy could not avoid conflict.
Two tigers could not share one mountain. Since both sides had gathered on that land again, even without Helen as the spark, a war of the century was inevitable once expansion began.
The outcome of that war was the wager deciding whether the Olympian pantheon or the Areopagus pantheon would remain.
At the time, most Greek city-states, led by powerful states such as Mycenae, Sparta, Athens, and Thessaly, brought their armies to Troy's doorstep.
Troy likewise recruited allies widely. Thebes, Cernissus, Tenedos, and other city-states that still remained loyal to the gods of Olympus came to support it.
The Greeks had huge armies and many powerful generals. Achilles, Odysseus, the Agamemnon brothers, Ajax the Great and Ajax the Lesser, each one was a mighty divine-blooded hero. They also had the luxurious Magus team from the Academy of Athens. They came in fiercely, destroying many of Troy's allies along the way.
But Troy held a strategic position, its walls were high, its people were united, and it had no shortage of allies. On top of that, Hektor was also strengthened by the divine might of the Olympian gods, so naturally he was no weaker than the Greek heroes. Almost every challenger who came to the gates was defeated, greatly boosting Troy's morale.
Unfortunately, Hektor eventually ran into that walking cheat, Achilles, and was beaten until he had no temper left.
After all, according to the oracle of the Spindle of Fate, if Zeus and the sea goddess Thetis joined together, they would give birth to a hero even stronger than Zeus himself. Even though his lover had been thrown to the scapegoat Peleus, making that green-haired King of Thessaly the father of the child of destiny, the oracle of fate still exerted its overwhelming influence.
Because of that, Achilles became the unrivaled cheat among the new generation of heroes.
According to later estimates, it seemed only Heracles, the cheat of the previous generation, could fight him on even terms.
Even with the favor of the Olympian gods, Hektor still could not withstand Achilles' overwhelming strength and was defeated again and again.
Seeing the Troy they had supported about to collapse, the Olympian gods, who were supposed to be watching from the sidelines, shamelessly interfered. They descended in avatars, personally entered the battlefield, and stirred up internal conflicts within the Greek coalition. They successfully reversed the situation several times and nearly drove the Greeks into the sea.
At the time, the Olympian gods were already preparing to hold a victory banquet. But their shamelessly stolen advantage did not last long before collapsing.
According to informed sources, the trigger was that very celebratory banquet of the gods.
Someone placed a golden apple engraved with "For the fairest goddess" on the table in the hall, causing endless disputes among the goddesses.
Among them, Hera, Queen of Heaven, Aphrodite, Goddess of Love and Beauty, Artemis, Goddess of the Moon, and even Demeter, Goddess of Agriculture, Leto, Goddess of Childbirth, Mnemosyne, Goddess of Memory, and several of Zeus's wives all joined the debate, forcing the male gods to take sides.
In the end, the two who made it out of the preliminary round were Hera and Aphrodite.
One of the two goddesses had overwhelming power and authority, while the other had many lovers and unmatched beauty. It was impossible to decide between them. The exhausted male gods all shut their doors and refused visitors, afraid of offending either side.
Zeus in particular had been suffering from a terrible headache ever since he cast a vote for Hera during the last round of judgment. It was so bad that he was even considering having someone split his head open.
It seemed that former Queen of the Gods was indeed no easy opponent.
Of course, as the good daughter of Zeus and Metis, Athena was the true culmination of it all.
At that thought, the corner of Samael's mouth lifted into a wicked smile, and he could not help taking pleasure in their misfortune.