"BOOM——!"
Brilliant thunder carrying the majesty of divine punishment struck down vertically.
The Shield of Aegis instantly crumbled, dense lightning scattered like splashing water.
"Bang!"
Athena abandoned her shield just in time, but was still affected by the residual power of the thunder. Her slender maiden body was directly smashed against the temple wall, and a corner of the temple was completely destroyed.
With just one strike, the trinity Earth Mother Goddess Athena displayed an extremely wretched state.
However, Earth Mother Goddesses often possess dragon-serpent level vitality. For Athena, such injuries could not yet threaten her life.
Moreover, this was the Parthenon Temple, her own shrine. Within it, she naturally gained inherent bonuses.
The silver-haired goddess swallowed all the blood foam surging up in her mouth, refusing to show any sign of weakness before her enemy.
Her owl-like pupils stared fixedly at the thunderclouds overhead.
"This nature of lightning?"
She sensed familiar power within it.
"Oh? You've encountered the Last King?"
Zeus noticed Athena's surprise and doubt, and after brief consideration, asked this question.
"The Last King?"
Athena was slightly stunned, then immediately recalled.
In her previous defeat to Ryuga, she had been instantly killed by Ryuga using lightning of similar nature. At that time, Ryuga had used the Divine Sword of Salvation.
Although she didn't know how Ryuga had obtained the Last King's power, that lightning's power clearly originally belonged to the Last King.
Now, hearing Zeus say this, with the goddess's wisdom, she immediately noticed something.
"The Last King's lightning was a blessing you bestowed?"
"Precisely!"
Zeus nodded slightly.
"Of course, besides myself, there are also the powers of foreign gods Indra and Odin. Otherwise, with the Last King's strength alone, he might not be able to eliminate those blasphemous rebels and reshape the relationship between humans and gods."
If the Last King was the Campione cleanup machine appointed by the gods, the chief executive officer CEO pushed forward by the gods.
Then the god-kings Zeus mentioned now were the board of directors behind the scenes.
They were the true wielders of divine power. To them, even the Last King was merely an employee.
The source of the Divine Lightning of Salvation was these god-kings.
Since Ryuga could easily defeat Athena using the Divine Lightning of Salvation, Zeus as one of the sources naturally could accomplish the same.
Athena was no fool - she naturally understood this point.
But there was one thing she still couldn't comprehend.
"Why are you this strong?"
The opponent's strength had far exceeded the level of a chief god or god-king, almost reaching another realm entirely.
Such power, she had only seen before in the battle between Ryuga and Jibril.
This was not the strength a normal deity should possess.
"Why?" Hearing this, Zeus revealed a majestic smile, his golden pupils filled with ambition.
He raised his lightning staff high, declaring to the world:
"Of course it's because—I am Heavenly Father Zeus, the King of Gods, the Only Supreme God higher than all else!"
Accompanying his majestic roar, even the phantom of Mount Olympus began to tremble, and all the Olympian gods surrounding the area bent down, showing attitudes of submission.
"Only God..."
Athena's eyes widened, keenly catching this keyword.
As far as she knew, regardless of which pantheon, the Only God and Supreme God were concepts that should exist but would never manifest.
Just as Christianity had no God or God's Son appearing, and Zoroastrianism had no Ahura Mazda or Angra Mainyu, beings of this level would not appear in the divine realm.
Yet Zeus now declared himself the Only God. Although he hadn't truly reached this realm, Athena keenly sensed that he wasn't lying.
At least, his goal was to become the Only God.
He was not content with his identity as god-king and wanted to advance his power further!
"How is this possible?!"
Athena instinctively found it absurd, not because she lacked sufficient imagination, but because in her view, Zeus's goal was inherently unachievable.
"As the son of Cronus and Rhea, grandson of Uranus and the Earth Mother Goddess, if you are the Only God, then where does that place your parents? Even disregarding the Earth Mother Goddess's dignity, can you truly violate your own origins?"
Athena directly voiced her doubts.
The Only God in pantheons was generally like God—originally the Creator God from the beginning.
The Only God created the world, differentiated angels and demons. Above him, there were no stronger deities. Only this could be called omnipotence.
To become the Only God, at minimum, one couldn't be a created being, right?
Otherwise, compared to the created deity, wouldn't the deity who created him be stronger?
And if Zeus were viewed as an Only God who became stronger through battle and cultivation, that would cause even greater contradictions—if ordinary deities could become the Only God by overthrowing god-kings, then why couldn't other deities accomplish this?
Under the constraints of these contradictions, Zeus could almost never be praised as the Only God. The basic logic didn't make sense.
Unless he abandoned his own mythology and erased the history of Uranus and Cronus, but that was obviously impossible.
The myth of rebelling against his father god Cronus was the primordial construction of Zeus's divine core. Denying this would be equivalent to suicide.
"Hmph!"
Faced with Athena's inquiry, Zeus snorted coldly, showing no intention of explaining.
Looking at his murderous gaze and confident expression, he clearly felt he had a way to circumvent these paradoxes.
"This matter has nothing to do with you. However, since you dare betray me as Heavenly Father, you should be prepared to be struck down by thunder, shouldn't you?"
Magnificent thunder descended like an inverted tree branch, then was grasped in Zeus's hand and aimed at Athena for projection.
All the spiritual veins of the Olympian divine realm boiled under Zeus's control. The lightning spear, like one picking up prey, aimed at Athena's heart.
A bone-chilling sense of danger filled her entire body. Athena tried to escape, but Zeus's staff had already locked onto her. Even fleeing to other divine realms probably couldn't escape this lethal thunder.
At the most critical moment, suddenly, a goddess interrupted Zeus's action.
Glancing at Athena, who was completely locked on and would die on the spot in the next second, the hearth goddess Hestia suddenly spoke:
"Great God-King, could you please show mercy to Athena's transgression for my sake?"
As Zeus's sister, her wording at this moment was quite respectful, clearly acknowledging Zeus's claim as the Only God.
But the moment she spoke, the Olympian divine power flowing within Zeus's body wavered weakly.
As one of the three virgin goddesses of Greek mythology, Hestia belonged to the most mysterious deities with the fewest legends in mythology.
However, the divine authority she wielded had always been quite important. Whether hearth fire, sacred fire, or sacrificial fire, all were within her domain of power.
And given humanity's form of worship toward deities, the eternal sacred fire she controlled was precisely the most crucial faith fire—the key hub for converting human faith into divine power.
In other words, all faith power obtained by the Olympian divine realm was provided through conversion via her divine authority.
If she were willing, even if she couldn't completely cut it off, she could greatly affect Zeus's power.
Zeus obviously understood this point. His movements immediately slowed, and his predatory gaze immediately turned to his sister.
"Hestia, do you want to betray alongside Athena?"
He asked expressionlessly.
"...Absolutely not."
Cold sweat immediately appeared on Hestia's forehead.
Although she could influence Olympian divine power, she herself had no great combat ability. While Athena could withstand one lightning strike, she couldn't even endure half.
If she truly angered Zeus, being stabbed to death on the spot would be getting off lightly.
The atmosphere on the scene immediately became tense, with the gods keeping their heads down in silence.
Only the young moon goddess Artemis, after hesitating, gritted her teeth and stepped forward.
"Supreme and omnipotent Father God, Hestia absolutely has no such intention. Athena was merely misled by outsiders. Please calm your anger!"
The three great virgin goddesses rarely stood on the same side.
"Outsiders?"
Zeus savored this word playfully, the might of his lightning staff neither increasing nor decreasing.
At this time, the sun god Apollo voluntarily stepped forward.
"Reporting to the supreme Heavenly Father God, I previously encountered a strange Campione in the lower world. Athena's matter might be related to him."
Having once faced Ryuga, he had an extremely deep impression of him.
"Father God, regardless of the reason, Athena is challenging your majesty. She must be executed here and now to demonstrate your divine authority as the Supreme God!"
The wine god Dionysus also stepped forward. Unlike other deities, his attitude toward Zeus was clearly more intimate and casual, and his killing intent toward Athena was genuine.
Seeing Zeus didn't immediately take a stance, Dionysus immediately became excited.
"Father God! Have you forgotten your goal? Since Athena has already violated the contract, what hesitation do you still have!"
"You need only completely slay her and plunder her power, then you can completely break through fate's shackles, transcend fate, and become the eternally omnipotent Supreme God!"
"If you can cross that step, with the Supreme God's power, you will be invincible in the world. Who else could become your opponent?"
Other pantheons without Supreme Gods cannot! That strange Campione I once encountered cannot either!
Just as Dionysus prepared to continue his fervent persuasion...
A voice, unfamiliar to the gods but very familiar to Athena, rang out—a clear, pleasant girl's voice:
"Of course there is!"
Appearing along with the crisp, melodious voice was a girl who looked sixteen or seventeen, resembling an angel.
"Before Master Ryuga, who dares claim invincibility? Who dares speak of being undefeated?"
Jibril gently covered the corner of her mouth, her gaze proud and sharp.
Upon seeing the Flügel girl, the gods were slightly stunned with little reaction, but Zeus revealed a completely guarded gaze, his expression becoming thoroughly serious.
When seeing the black-haired, black-eyed human youth who arrived together behind the Flügel, except for Apollo and Dionysus, all the gods showed puzzled expressions.
Unlike when seeing Jibril, the wine god Dionysus almost instinctively stepped back, his expression incredibly panicked as he shouted the opponent's name:
"Campione... Ryuga?!"
To be continued...
Advance 50 Chapters are up on my Patreon!
pat reon.com/ReidAstrea