In the world, it snows heavily.

It's February, and the land is still covered with frost.

The rotation of the zodiac is just in the center of the twelfth ecliptic, and if it were in the distant future, perhaps it would have a better name - Pisces.

Of course, whether it will receive the same name in this life is something that is difficult to guess. For now, at least, it's just a very ordinary star field.

The cold wind is still howling, and it is said that 'the extremes of things must be opposed', which is a well-known truth, but often only the truly wise can see through the fog and peek out where the so-called 'pole' is.

There is no such existence in the human world at this moment, and they cannot see through the wrestling between the gods reflected behind the changes in nature, so the bloodshed and strife have a tendency to become more and more intense, and many hatreds are formed at this time, and many cities are destroyed because of this.

The loser loses his life, or dies quietly in hunger and cold. The victors are not happy, because as long as this catastrophe is not over, then they will continue to 'win'.

And so the resentment began to pile up, and the curse of the calamity began to spread...... In the face of a crisis, people always need a way to vent, and coincidentally, they happen to have a person to vent to.

Of course, it was not the goddess of agriculture, after all, in the eyes of humans, Demeter was the only god willing to help them personally. In the history of mankind, there was a very important existence, which brought disaster to the world and destroyed an era of mankind.

She is Pandora, an ominous woman. The name originally meant 'the woman with all the talents', but now it is more understood as 'the source of all the calamities'.

Not knowing what the woman behind him was thinking, Epimetheus asked casually:

……

There was no response, but following the man, Pandora's face calmed down.

And then ...... The beliefs that surround you but cannot be absorbed by you will become more and more numerous, and you will not be able to rest day and night. ”

In the north of the continent, on a trail outside an unnamed valley.

Nodding, Epimetheus was noncommittal.

Epimetheus stopped here, looked around, and waved slightly.

"Are you still thinking about the people you met before?"

The two moved on.

After all, if a god is stupid now, he will probably be consistent in the past and in the future. Few of them have been able to learn from the experience, and even if more time passes, it still doesn't seem to change. ”

Following behind Pandora's somewhat pale face was as beautiful as ever. It's a pity that in the cold and windy northland, no one can appreciate her moving style.

He had the courage that most gods and men did not have...... And then he died so easily in front of himself.

A few jackdaws circled in the sky, making dry calls. The dead wood, which had long been devoid of branches and leaves, shook in the wind, as if it was about to collapse in the next moment.

I walked for a long time in the narrow middle of the valley mouth, until the front of me gradually became a lot more spacious. There is no wind and snow here, and the hoarfrost falling from the sky seems to have encountered an invisible barrier, and only a step away is still vibrant.

"You're going to stay here for now."

"Actually, I'd like to know - why did you give away your name?"

If she can also cause this snowstorm that affects the world, it really sounds like a joke.

The sound grew quieter and more invisible, and Pandora seemed to remember that day again.

……

Along the way, he has become accustomed to pretending to be an ordinary mortal, which has saved him a lot of trouble.

"I haven't done anything, this natural disaster has nothing to do with me, but why ......"

Crossing a creek no more than a few paces wide, passing a small area that resembled farmland, a fine wooden house soon came into view at the end of the view.

After seeing his men easily killed by Epimetheus one by one, the young captain of the guard showed no fear. He still charged at the being in front of him, and was nailed to the ground by the man's staff in front of him.

"But you are human, you do not have an innate priesthood, and naturally you will not be affected by it. You're not like other mortals, who only have a few decades to live. So you don't have to put on such a posture - I see all the changes you have made along the way. ”

They called her 'Witch', which means a woman who possesses extraordinary powers like a monster and can bring disaster to humanity. But Pandora knew very well that apart from the blessings of the gods on her body that she couldn't even take the initiative to invoke, she was just an ordinary human being, and she couldn't even beat that young man with extraordinary martial arts.

The cold wind blew into the valley, forming a unique echo, accompanied by the gentle footsteps of the two men. They looked like they had come a long way, but there was not a hint of exhaustion in them.

It's quite simple, a long time can erase everything. A short time for God was long enough for her. Compared to the misunderstanding of human beings, what really made her remember was the heroism of the captain who was not afraid of death.

Behind him, Pandora held the magic jar that had accompanied him for many years, and watched his back go away.

"Not intentionally," did not reply, Pandora simply corrected, "I just forgot about my reputation among humans for a moment." ”

"You should know that when the story of your appearance spreads, when the corpses of those humans are discovered, your name for bringing natural disasters will be confirmed."

The wooden staff poked into the ground, and while Epimetheus didn't need to use it to determine whether the road under the snow was smooth or not, he used it as he needed to.

He wears a floppy hat on his head and holds a wooden staff stained with three points of blood in his hand. Under the falling snow, a young man walked in front, and behind him, an incomparably beautiful woman followed.

"I just don't understand...... Why did they look at me like that. ”

Nodding, Epimetheus continued inside.

“…… Good. ”

With a faint laugh, Epimetheus didn't know who he was talking about.

"Although you are deliberately endowed with a high level of curiosity, that doesn't mean you're really that stupid—you're not like God."

"Well, I forgot about it for a while."

"Why deceive yourself...... You know exactly why this is. ”

But until the last moment of his life, he still looked in the direction of Pandora with that hateful eye.

Yes, like he just said. Maybe when I first opened the magic jar, I would indeed feel sad and hopeless about the resentment and misunderstanding of human beings, but no longer will.

In front of the hut there was a stone table, a few chairs, and a small flower garden enclosed by a wooden fence.

Everything seemed very idyllic, even the only middle-aged man sitting there.

Compared with the memory, the appearance of the figure looked a lot bigger, but the demeanor looked leisurely.

"Father, it seems that under the protection of Mother Earth's power, you have been doing well lately."

Striding forward, Epimetheus called out the identity of the man in front of him.

Iapertus, one of the lowest presence of the Titans. He left the deepest impression on the world, probably because he gave birth to several Prometheus brothers.

Of course, now his children are all enemies of the Olympus Court.

"There's nothing good or bad, it's just a matter of finding a place to live quietly, it's just that I want very few things, so it's easy to be satisfied."

Resting on a humble chaise longue, Iapetus didn't seem very enthusiastic about his long-lost son.

"Well, since my mother left here, I always thought you would be lonely."

Smiling, Epimetheus casually found a chair and sat down.

"Near this valley, I've seen a few peculiar groups of humans. They sacrificed the flesh and blood of wild beasts to gods—gods I had never heard of, and declared that 'all things are animist'. ”

"They seem to think that the object of their worship is a tree, or a stone, or some kind of mighty beast or something. I didn't really care about that until I realized that those things actually had consciousness and could absorb faith. ”

"Do you know what's going on?"

Asking, Epimetheus didn't really expect to get any answer.

Although it happened not far away, he was sure that his old father would not be interested in it.

Or rather, like him, he is temporarily shy away from this phenomenon that does not know why it happens, especially when the human world does not exert much power in the first place.

"I don't know," as expected, Iapetus responded, "if you're interested in them, stay around for a while." ”

The conversation was thus put to an end, and Epimetheus apparently had no intention of giving himself any additional trouble.

But the conversation began, and the father and son, who hadn't seen each other for a long time, began to talk about something useful or useless. They talked about the days that had passed, about Atlas who was holding up the sky, and about Prometheus who was taken to the East China Sea.

Mostly Epimetus was talking, and Iapetus only occasionally gave a slight reaction.

It wasn't until the sun set in the west that the Awakened One inadvertently asked a question.

"I remember...... You once made a prophecy and saw the sun set in the East China Sea? ”

"That's not a prophecy I made," said lightly, Iapetus shook his head, "That's fate that took the initiative to find me." ”

"Whatever it is, Dad, I'm just curious......"

"In your understanding, how exactly does fate work, or can the person who holds it really control it?"

Looking up slightly, Iapetus looked at his son.

As in the past, the Awakens don't seem to have the confidence and intelligence of their older brother at all. Even now, he still thinks so.

"Probably not, that's my answer."

After looking at it for a while without giving a reason, Iapertos said calmly.

“…… I understand. ”

With a smile still on his face, Epimetus continued to talk to his father for a while. It wasn't until the sun had completely set that he took his leave.

The silver moon had not yet risen into the sky, and he walked back to the valley mouth step by step, where Pandora was still waiting for him.

Crossing the line between warm and cold winds, the Awakened One looked in the direction of the sunset. Now it was not Helios sitting on the golden chariot, but Apollo, who needed to do everything in his power to control the divine chariot.

Compared to the voyeur who inherited the title of 'Seeker' from above in Hyperion, this temporary Apollo should not have the time to look around.

"Gone."

With a greeting, Epimetus walked towards the path from which he had come.

"We go around the world and start a church."

"Is it for you? We seem to be considered guilty by Olympus, right? ”

"Of course it's not a fair build, use your brain."

Shaking his head, Epimetheus said

"And it's not for my church, it's for you...... And, of course, your jars. ”

······

Brush –

Hades, the entrance to the abyss.

The space swelled, and then a golden light flashed. The next moment, Helios's somewhat embarrassed figure appeared there.

However, there were no injuries on his body, and obviously, although he had just had a little trouble, it was not enough to really hurt him.

"Phew—it looks like my conjecture has come true."

"Dozens, even hundreds—how do I feel that if this continues, there will be more gods in this abyss than in the outside world, is this really reasonable?"

Near the exit, Helios came across a life that had also just been born from the body of the Death Demon God.

It's just that unlike the [Earth-Shaking Worm] he encountered before, he didn't get to see the specific process of this one's birth, so he couldn't understand its title, which was similar to the god's true name.

Helios only saw a huge figure silently appear behind the interface barrier that he had marked as the 003rd level of the abyss. The spherical body suspended in the air in the center of the head and torso was a large one-eyed with a bloody mouth full of bayonet-like teeth, but the most striking thing was the 10 twisted fleshy stems on the orb, each with a small eye at the end, each staring at him deadly.

Then he experienced the sensation of 'killing you with his eyes', and a beam of dissociating light shone out of the pupil of that eyeball, striking him as an outsider who was alien to the abyss.

"Later...... I won't come back to this place again. ”

Back in the present world, Helios finally felt a lot safer. He couldn't help but relax, but then he was a little worried.

"So where Mother Earth will be, it won't go to sleep again."

If this is the case, then there is nothing the sun god can do.

It is difficult for the sleeping primordial god to be awakened by external objects, at least not in this way.

"Then what are you looking for me?"

"Of course I-"

He turned back suddenly, but Helios saw nothing. He didn't think it was his hallucination, someone was talking to him just now.

"Dear Mother Earth, may I ask ......"

"It's me."

The voice came again, and the next moment, a reddish-brown point of light appeared in front of Helios. Then the point of light expanded, turning into a whirlpool.

"Whatever you're looking for me to do, come over first. And what you encountered in the abyss, I would also like to know. ”

Listening to that unquestionable voice, Helios should have been happy. He didn't find Gaia, but Gaia took the initiative to find the door. But I don't know why, he is now a little inexplicably nervous.

Look at the swirling whirlpool...... It was as if he had seen another abyss.

(End of chapter)