"Please you must."
Xerxes gently held Hilde's face.
Then he carefully placed a kiss on her lips.
"Please, kill me with your own hands."
——————————Dividing line——————————
This is the cruelest period in the world.
Hilde needs to kill Xerxes herself.
She was helpless, yet also confused.
Hilde couldn't help but ask, since Hilde would personally kill Xerxes whose body was occupied by Ahura Mazda after Ahura Mazda came to the earth, then what would happen if Xerxes was killed now?
Xerxes replied:
"If you kill me now, Lord Ahura Mazda will look for a new medium, and you won't know where the new medium is by then... But if you kill Lord Ahura Mazda when he has already descended, then Ahura Mazda's power will be completely depleted, and he will be forced to give up the purpose of purifying the world, and then there won't be these problems."
Such a reply.
Just tell Hilde.
This matter must be faced head-on.
Not only did she have to kill Xerxes with her own hands, she also had to wait until Xerxes was tortured in every way during his confrontation with Ahura Mazda, and finally failed in the confrontation. Only after his body was constantly eroded by Ahura Mazda and he died could she take action.
This meant that Hilde could see her beloved Xerxes with her own eyes.
Died from such torture.
And he himself had to destroy Xerxes' body.
After hearing the news.
That night, Hilde, who usually stayed in the palace to handle government affairs, left the palace directly and came to the coastline of the Byzantine Empire. She walked barefoot on the beach, and her small and delicate feet left perfect footprints on the beach.
The moonlight sprinkled on the sea, and the sparkling waves looked like silver rolling on the sea. The bright moon and stars hung high in the sky, as if guarding this land from afar. But the real guardian, Hilde, was walking on the beach with a sad face.
And this time.
Hilde heard the melodious sound of a lyre coming from not far away.
"Ok?"
Hilde followed the sound and looked over.
Not far away, on a big rock on the beach, a young and beautiful woman was sitting on the rock and singing.
If an ordinary person saw this scene.
I guess I thought the Siren had come here.
But in fact, the person sitting on the stone and singing was none other than the goddess of hunting, Artemis.
Seeing Artemis sitting there alone, Hilde exhaled and walked over.
“It sounds really nice.”
"Um……"
Hearing Hilde's praise, Artemis put down the lyre in his hand and looked at Hilde.
"You seem troubled."
"Is it……"
Hilde gave a helpless smile.
That’s right, I look so sad.
No matter how you look at it, it seems like he's worried about something.
Therefore, Hilde had no way to refute it and had to admit it directly.
Chapter 3, Chapter 10: Things about the past
Now, Artemis certainly had no idea what was going on.
She saw Hilde looking dejected.
So, he put down the lyre in his hand with some worry.
"If you have any troubles, can you tell me about it?"
"Is this..."
Hilde smiled bitterly and said, "I really don't know how to put it better."
"Is it a difficult question to ask?"
"No, not really... But, but, I really don't know how to put it." Hilde sighed, and then continued, "Besides, it's very likely that you can't help me with anything."
"Well, there are many things that even a god like me cannot do anything about."
Artemis looked towards the sea helplessly.
What happened recently actually made Artemis feel quite helpless.
"But if you don't speak out, your troubles won't go away."
"……Um."
Hilde walked over to Artemis' side.
Artemis turned her head and looked at Hilde's profile.
The bright moonlight shone on Hilde's silver hair, and all the silver hair seemed to be shining and crystal clear. And the long eyelashes were also particularly clear and visible at such a distance. And in Artemis' eyes, Hilde now was almost exactly the same as Athena before, with no difference. Including personality, Athena and Hilde had a similarity.
after all.
For Artemis.
She had been with Athena for thousands of years, but had only known Hilde for a few years.
In Artemis' eyes, the image of Athena has been fixed. Today, Hilde looks exactly like Athena and speaks in the same voice.
There was no way Artemis wouldn't regard Hilde as Athena.
So she exhaled.
"Are you worried about Lord Zeus?"
"No...ah, that's not right."
Hilde rejected his initial statement.
"To be precise, it's not just this situation. Zeus's matter has been enough of a headache for me, and then something even more troublesome happened."
"…Is it convenient to tell me?"
"Right now, it's not very convenient."
Hilde didn't particularly want to tell Artemis about this.
After all, it was a Persian thing.
It's of little use for her, a Greek god, to know this.
However, Hilde still held on to some small hope and asked, "I want to ask something."
"What's going on?"
"At that time, when the Persian Empire invaded Greece, I remember that the Greek gods also sent out their own oracles to resist the Persian invasion, and finally succeeded in defeating the Persians. At that time, did you fight with the Persian gods or Persian oracles?"
"We've fought."
Artemis smiled wryly and nodded.
“The fight was brutal.”
"Is it?"
"The Persian oracle at that time was also Xerxes, Xerxes I... At that time, it can be said that he was so powerful that even the gods found him very difficult to deal with. However, the Greeks also fought back bravely. We, the Greek gods, must help those people who believe in us, so we gave power to those heroes. After decades of Greco-Persian Wars, the final result was that almost all the oracles died in the war. And Leonidas, the bravest of the Greco-Persian Wars, stopped the Persian army at Thermopylae. After his death, Lord Zeus closed the divine domain."
“It was closed at that time.”
Hilde was curious about this question before.
After all, the oracle had not appeared in Greece for decades.
The end of the Persian War actually happened not long ago. When Hilde was born in this world, the Persian War had not yet ended.
"At that time, Lord Zeus' decision to close the God's Domain aroused suspicion and confusion among everyone, especially Athena. She was protecting the Athenians at the time. After Leonidas' Battle of Thermopylae, the Persian army immediately turned around and began to attack Athens. Athena and her oracle at the time were preparing to evacuate Athens and turn Athens into an empty city. At this tense moment, the God's Domain was suddenly closed, and Athena lost contact with the Athenians. As for what happened afterwards, Athena didn't know."
"So Athena is mad?"
"of course."
Artemis shook her head helplessly.
"Leonidas, who was protected by Ares, had already resisted the attack of the Persians with his own sacrifice, delaying the attack for enough time. The Athenian fleet, protected by Poseidon and Athena, also began to assemble, preparing to strike a heavy blow to the invading Persian fleet in the Gulf of Salamis. In order to realize the plan of completely defeating the Persian King's fleet, Athena and the Athenians decided to abandon Athens and leave the empty city to the Persians. But at this critical moment, the God's Domain was suddenly closed, and all efforts were in vain."
"..."
Hilde thought about it.
If your own Athena.
I guess when you encounter this kind of thing, your emotions will definitely explode.
However, Hilde thought for a moment and said with a wry smile: "Although the divine domain was closed at that time and the gods' protection was lost, but... things were still going according to their plan. Xerxes I's fleet sailed into the Gulf of Salamis and was defeated by the 300 warships led by the Athenian admiral Themistocles. The Persian navy suffered huge losses at that time and was finally forced to give up invading Greece. The army also immediately retreated to the north. Therefore, Athena and her team achieved their goal."
"That's different."
Artemis sighed.
"The divine realm has been closed, and no one knows what happened underground."
"Too……"
Athena must have been very anxious at that time.
Athena must be extremely worried about what the future of the Athenians and the Greeks will be like.
"So, Athena has been eyeing Zeus since then?"
"correct."
"I see..."
Hilde really didn't know about this part of history.
However, this can also explain why Athena was able to discover Zeus and the secrets of the original book of creation. Because from the moment Zeus closed the divine domain, Athena had already noticed that something was wrong with Zeus, so this happened. So, Hilde understood these things and had a clearer understanding of the logic behind Athena's past actions.
"So, back to what we were saying."
Hilde said thoughtfully:
"If Greece faces pressure from foreign enemies, will the Greek gods stand together to resist the enemies?"
The mentality of the first section of the fourth tune is problematic
"I used to, but now..."
Artemis couldn't give an accurate answer to this question.
"Not now?"
"Maybe..."
"Ok."
It seems that seeking help from the Greek gods in this matter is probably a brain problem.
The Greek gods in the past really worked hard for the welfare of the Greek people, especially since there was the kind and noble god Athena. Therefore, under the leadership of Athena and other gods, the gods of Olympus finally united to fight against the Persian invaders.
But even so.
There is also Zeus, the biggest traitor.
Zeus sealed off the divine realm, nearly destroying the Greeks' efforts to resist.
