as if
the gloomy yellow sand and the blue sky of the desert are completely indifferent
to the suffering of mankind .
---
Athena didn't know how many times this had happened. She was calmly observing her chaotic dream. As the goddess of dreams, she couldn't find the source of this recurring nightmare. It was really frustrating... She seemed to have lost some important memories in this deep dream, and could only run in vain in the wilderness under the scorching sun.
"You are guilty, so you cannot exist in this world." A vague female voice came from a distance, and that voice always made her feel familiar.
"Hey, what exactly is my sin?" Athena sneered, "You're not trying to say that my sin is my existence itself? What kind of old comic book line is that?"
All she got was silence from the other side. She was under the scorching sun that seemed to burn everything, the ground was cracked, and the shadows of everything shrank into a cramped space. She saw several figures appear at the end, among which the blonde girl looked exactly like her. She saw "herself" smiling at the black-haired woman next to her. At this time, the dark-skinned man with long black curly hair next to them inserted himself between the two of them in an unhappy manner. Athena could vaguely hear fragments of their conversation.
"Hey, Chaos, why are you only talking to Doom?" A dissatisfied voice from a dark-haired, dark-skinned man.
"Because I only like Armani, do you have any objections? Ornia has no objections..."
"How dare you say that... Ornia has been pitifully pushed aside because you two are always so close together!"
"I can't believe it. Are you a baby? Why do you care about such a childish thing?" Athena raised her fist when she saw the blonde girl who looked exactly like her.
"Oh, he's jealous... How cute..." The beautiful woman called Ornia laughed softly.
"What? Who's jealous?" the dark-haired, dark-skinned male protested.
Whenever Athena wanted to get closer to these figures and try to see more clearly, the dream was like bubbles in the morning light, which dissipated at the touch of a finger. The picture then dimmed, and the darkness spread from the center of the scorching sun dream until it blocked all the light. In such pure darkness where nothing could be seen, Athena felt an inexplicable fear. The vague and familiar female voice sounded again, and she was still saying: You are guilty.
In this endless darkness, Athena burst into tears for no apparent reason, and she could hardly control herself. She was always proud, but now she felt panic, as if everything was leaving her. All her love and memories of the golden age were inevitably shattered. She didn't even dare to ask what the so-called sin was. But at this moment, she heard the soft and hazy female voice saying,
"Your sin is that you exist in this world and that you encounter me."
"Medici?"
The blonde girl who was reading in the courtyard heard footsteps behind her. She had just taken a nap and woke up from a nightmare, sweating profusely. She seemed to be back in the quiet and beautiful courtyard of the Glorious Era, doing the reading homework given by her father, and Medici always came to bother her for no reason.
The footsteps behind me paused.
Athena looked back and saw Alistair Tudor standing behind her. His hair, which was always neatly tied up, was hanging down and looked a little messy. His beautiful blue eyes were now emitting a gloomy light. Athena stood up to greet him, but she tripped over her skirt in a trance and fell heavily to the ground. Her wrist was scraped on the ground, and red blood flowed out, as if mocking her for losing her body as the Son of God and now being just "Demi-God Athena".
She saw Alistair froze for a moment, and then he came over to help her up. His cold hands covered her back, and she realized that they were both trembling.
But she knew that they were suffering in completely different ways, so she did not hug him, but just gave him a fleeting kiss and left without looking at his expression.
Since that nightmare, Athena became depressed and even lost interest in running around the royal city. Kronos was also thrown to the maids to take care of. She didn't think there was anything wrong, after all, her father rarely took care of her and Amon personally, and she was more familiar with Medici.
But some rumors spread in the royal city. Some people who were dissatisfied with the new policy said that Tudor was a tyrannical emperor who enforced harsh laws and was arbitrary and dictatorial in some affairs of the kingdom. Some even said that he raped innocent and beautiful girls and tortured them to death, and even his queen was always covered with scars.
"Huh? So the rumor started because I was still awake that day and wandered around the front hall with injuries all over my body?" The culprit, Athena, took a sip of tea innocently and looked at Bethel puzzledly.
Bethel frowned at the blonde girl in front of him. The part of her wrist exposed from her sleeve was covered with shocking scars. "So how did you get your injuries?"
"No way, you also doubt Tudor? His mental state is indeed not good, but my mental state is not much better... We are like a turtle and a mung bean..." Athena said speechlessly, but when she saw the stern eyes of the Duke in front of her, her tone weakened again, like a child who had done something wrong, she muttered: "Okay, I hurt myself. I am only a demigod now, and the wound heals too slowly, so this happens occasionally..."
"Why?" Bethel asked.
"It's been like this for thousands of years... Isn't it common sense that I'm mentally ill? You can tell by looking at Amon! But at that time, my body recovered very quickly so no one ever noticed. Ah, in fact, I was caught by Adam once... Hey, why do I have to explain so much to you? You're not Adam!" Athena said dissatisfiedly, "It's better for me to hurt myself than to kill people everywhere!"
"Is it because of the dual approach?" Bethel took a sip of tea and asked her question, which was full of loopholes.
"You all seem to know everything?" Athena said indifferently, as if there was no conspiracy behind her: "Although I was called a star angel at that time, I was also a writer like Adam. I don't know who picked up my body during the war of gods, otherwise I could turn into a dragon to show you..." (Bethel: No need)
"Anyway, stop throwing mud at Tudor. Even Amon has asked me about this..." Athena changed the subject with confidence, but Bethel was not sure what was wrong with him today. He was always polite and well-mannered.
"Why did you start calling him Tudor?"
"Ah… this…"
Seeing that she didn't answer, Bethel took a sip of tea leisurely and asked again: "You said that I smell like your corpse. Does that mean that I am using your Beyonder characteristics now?"
"Well, why not..." Athena muttered softly, "After all, we Star Angels are only one-line descendants for three generations." She turned around and prepared to flee from here, but the Duke suddenly came close to her, gently grasped her injured wrist, and pressed it against his heart: "So, don't you want to take it back?"
"Hey, hey, hey, it's rude to ask any more! It was just a drunken joke!" Athena pulled her hand back in an instant and fled out of the window in two steps, scaring the guards stationed downstairs.
-A
man will not fall into the same river twice, said Amanis. So Athena would never make the same stupid mistake. One morning, she was still asleep, and she saw a red-haired man pushing open her door. His fingers, which were always cold, were now hot, gently caressing her cheek.
"Athena." He whispered. "Do you know who I am?" He lowered his head, and his red hair fell gently on her forehead, blending with her golden hair.
"You are Yar." Athena said softly. Then she heard that the other party seemed to leave with satisfaction.
For some reason, she shed a cold tear at that moment.
Then Ouroboros came, sneaking in under the guise of a sleight of hand. It was the first time Athena had seen this otherworldly angel looking back and forth. "Medici is dead," he told her then.
"I know."
"I thought…" Ouroboros showed some hesitation and helplessness for the first time, "I thought Tudor was hiding from you…"
"I know," Athena simply repeated, interrupting him.
---Volume 1: The Birth of All Fallacies---Pure White Statue
"Look up," she said. "Then you can see the crystal of sharp white flame at the top. That is my body from years ago, and my soul now."
The climate in King Solomon's City is dry. Walking among its huge, irregular and twisted buildings, one does not feel cramped, but instead feels an inexplicable sense of emptiness and loss of consciousness, as if walking in a scorched wilderness under the scorching sun. No one here has a place to rest their souls, so they can only seek pleasure to dispel the superficial sorrow and hidden regrets. In this cave where everything climbs up tiny cracks, it rains for some reason three months before winter arrives. Athena got off the carriage decorated with golden patterns, carelessly stepped on a gecko's tail, hummed an off-tune ballad, and didn't care that her white skirt was stained.
The waiter at the door was already used to her spontaneous visits, but he still looked at the young blonde curiously. Her identity was not outstanding in this royal city full of nobles. She was just the inconspicuous third daughter of Duke Amon, with blonde hair that didn't fit in. She rarely appeared in social occasions, but every time she met her, she was always followed by Medici or Ouroboros, the legendary former right-hand man of the sun god. They followed her as if they were following their most loyal master. Such a spectacle could not help but make people look sideways, but everyone seemed to have forgotten to talk about it, as if their thoughts were blocked or stolen by someone. At this time, the blonde girl came over and walked in front of the waiter, who seemed to be frightened by such a close distance. She stared at the sapphire tie buckle on his chest, and like a magic trick, an identical one appeared in her hand out of thin air, and she smiled like an innocent child. "This is beautiful, I'll take it." Before the waiter could react, she had already walked away.
"It's not that I'm asking Medici to play a trick on everyone again." Athena curled up on the sofa - she always liked to shrink herself into a very small piece, as if this could resist something unknown - and drank a sip of cold milk and said, "He doesn't know where this rain came from."
"But he can easily solve this rain." Bethel sat on the high-back sofa, staring at her with eyes as deep as the starry sky. His eyes were not as sharp as Alistair's. At a glance, it seemed like a meaningless starry sky, casually and gently leading people into a deep vortex. He and the girl sat opposite each other, separated by a chessboard on the glass coffee table, as if there was some kind of invisible game between them. Bethel actually wanted to ask - do you think you can control everything in King Solomon's City? Even Adam was not so confident. Where did she come from? Alistair Tudor might know vaguely, but he didn't want to believe it. Once he believed that she was the "holy light of the Creator", how could he believe that she really loved him? Looking at how she treated Medici, he knew his own ending in advance.
"I like rain. Don't you think that only when it rains, all the dust will sink to the bottom, and the vague ambiguity in the air will disappear. This will force us to face our true thoughts, right?" Athena blinked and smiled at her.
"I'm afraid no one in this world knows what you really think." Bethel's fingertips unconsciously rubbed the second gem button on his chest. He had to admit that every time he talked to her, he felt a little anxious. Perhaps it was because she, as a dreamer, was deliberately disturbing his mind. According to the Amon family, she was only a Sequence 3 dream weaver. With Bethel's status, he could completely close his mind island in front of her and avoid her mental suppression, but he always had the illusion of being an inferior in front of her. Mr. Men, who was known for his elegance and arrogance, did not believe in anyone but himself. Therefore, even Solomon had never put him in such a situation.
"You seem to have always been curious about me." The girl smiled nonchalantly, as if her secret would not affect the success of her plan. She took out her heavy chips without caring, but she was confident that she would never lose everything. That kind of extreme self-confidence made her have a meaningless romantic atmosphere. In the dim light of the fireplace, her gray eyes were like dry ice burning in the sea. It seemed to exist there firmly at the moment, but it would soon become invisible and dissipate in the air.
There are probably few people in the entire city of King Solomon who are not curious about you. Bethel complained in his heart. Rumors about Athena Amon are rampant. The most popular saying among noble ladies is that she is Medici's lover, but now Tudor has stolen her love, so the relationship between the two has been destroyed and has become tense. Athena is now bored and reading a novel by a third-rate writer. The story is based on the three of them, telling a great love story in which he loves her, she loves him, and he loves him. She reads with great interest. "This is much better than what Adam wrote." She commented.
"Alistair told me something very interesting. He said that you look very similar to the statue in the Golden Dust* Church." Although Bethel's tone was always gentle, he was quite majestic inside. Everyone who saw him like this would involuntarily retreat and obey, except Athena, who was like an untamed cat and still maintained that lazy attitude.
"Really?" She replied calmly, "So, at that time, did he see the memory of the sun leaking from his mind? " She didn't care about exposing the fact that she was peeping into other people's spiritual worlds. Who told you to peek into my teenage years through the memory fragments left by my father! Athena couldn't help but complain in her heart, I don't even want to watch it myself! Making a videotape of someone else's middle school years and randomly playing it to irrelevant people, is this a new type of mental torture! If I am guilty, please let me marry Medici, not...
"So you are indeed the fallen star angel." Bethel used a declarative sentence this time, as if he was saying a prophecy that was about to come true.
"Well. Actually everyone knows it, but no one talks about it. It's like the emperor's new clothes. But I didn't expect you to come out and be this noisy kid. Isn't this a bit of a character break?" Athena continued to joke indifferently, and did not explain anything about her resurrection, nor did she explain the significance of her reappearance in this era.
"If that is really you, it means that you have known Medici for thousands of years, but now you are willing to kill him for Tudor?" Bethel's tone was still calm, but what he said was quite sharp, but Athena just let the sharp blade pass through her soft skin lightly.
"Yes, I have known Medici for a long time and have been with him since I was born. Therefore, only we ourselves understand the intimacy of this relationship." She just drank the tea at hand and answered irrelevantly.
02 Fly, just keep flying
"The rationality of the long-lasting daylight will also be wiped out by the meaningless waste of colors of the sunset; history, which is seen as endless, will suddenly realize its own end."*
In this declining royal city, everyone knows that the building is about to collapse. The nobles have their own ulterior motives, and the power on the throne is in jeopardy, but everyone is maintaining superficial peace, just like a calm surface of water covered with water plants. From a distance, it looks like a lush and peaceful green land, but if you step on it, you will fall into the abyss. Tudor and Trunsoest still play the role of the king's most loyal believers. On a dim morning, everything seemed as dull as rust, and Solomon summoned Athena to his palace on a whim.
Everyone knew that Solomon's previous queen had just passed away. At this point, he allowed a noble girl known for her beauty to come to his residence, which inevitably made people feel that he had ulterior motives. In the royal city filled with demigods, a Sequence 3 Dream Weaver was nothing. She was only known for her beauty, but the beauty of gods was only the most insignificant thing among the vast abilities they possessed. She had already walked into the palace that looked like a dead lake before the rumors spread. In fact, she had secretly come to the main hall many times. After all, she had even illegally invaded the residence of the ancient sun god many times - although every time she was discovered, she would be thrown out by the collar.
She wore a long, complicated red dress, as red as the blood in the deepest part of a nightingale's heart. Athena liked red, but although she proclaimed it everywhere, few people believed it. When she was a girl, the sun god always dressed her in pure white, as if that was her representative color. When she rebelled in adolescence and proclaimed her love for red, everyone thought it was a secret confession to Medici, and even Medici himself seemed to believe it. One day, she was reading under the tree at the end of the white corridor, and suddenly heard a quarrel in the distance. She looked up and saw the vague figures of Leodro and Medici, and wondered how these two guys could appear together, it was really strange. At this time, Medici came towards her, with fresh scars on his face, but his expression was very proud, like a general who had just won a battle. But when he really walked in front of her, he lowered his head and looked like he didn't know what to say.
She found it funny because Medici's look was just like how she was cautious when facing the night and her father. The cheerful Red Angel was more delicate and sensitive than usual when facing her, perhaps because she always lied, or perhaps because she could read minds. She just raised her head and smiled at Medici, and he understood what she meant: the one who could be called red in her heart was actually someone else.
—
She walked into Solomon's palace. The statues standing at the door shone with a brass luster, and the statues' slightly opened lips and cheeks were covered with winding green rust. There was a huge oil painting printed on the ceiling of the front hall. The colorful shadow reflected by the painting enveloped her, and a dark red arc fell on the bridge of her nose, like a prehistoric scar. The crystal chandelier above her head was like a row of sharp teeth, and she was a broken scarlet tongue.
Before Solomon told her his intention, she had been frivolously thinking that this was a romantic encounter - she had behaved the same way in front of Alistair, not noticing his gloomy face. Perhaps she had noticed, but she always enjoyed teasing everyone around her. "Wait for me to find some fun." She muttered, "I'm really bored to death lately." She didn't even remember that she and Alistair would be engaged in three days - she couldn't even remember her father's and her own death anniversary.
But when she walked up to Solomon, she found that the situation was not what she expected.
"The empire is falling apart, so people need a miracle, a place of faith," Solomon said straight to the point.
"I'm surprised you would think like that. Could it be that a god would also believe in these things? Do you want me to demonstrate how I can fall from a height without any damage, or do you want me to show everyone the twelve pairs of wings my father gave me?" She joked nonchalantly, as if she didn't realize that this was a serious conversation. But Solomon was not angry. Everyone knew that Athena was like this, and even Adam couldn't do anything about her. Perhaps even the ancient sun god himself often showed her a helpless expression. He just further stated his request:
"I just need to let everyone know that the little daughter of the sun god has been resurrected, and like all my loyal subordinates, she has chosen to stand on my side. Everyone will understand that this is the wisest choice." Solomon's words seemed to carry some strong self-confidence, which made Athena instinctively feel a little disgusted.
"So you want me to become a saint?" The blonde girl smiled innocently, pinching the folds of her skirt like a little girl who knows nothing about the world. "It's a pity, I would rather be a witch than a saint. Isn't that more in line with my aesthetics?"
"You don't have to do anything, just exist there." Solomon conveyed his order in his majestic voice, and seemed confident that he would get the other party's approval. But if he looked up, he would find Athena in a lazy state, as if the overthrow of a dynasty was an interesting thing for her.
"However, regarding the matter of 'miracle', I want to remind you," Athena said boredly, looking at the person on the throne, "Elder Zosima's* body still rotted. Gods and everything that is touted as sacred, if they reveal their non-divine nature, will cause stronger suspicion and backlash." She smiled slyly in the shadow cast by the crystal chandelier, and that smile showed some sadness under the pale light, like the sad and happy side of Sophocles. "You also know that now I am just one of the remains of the Third Age body. I do have the status of an archangel, but the ability of this body is indeed limited to demigod. Who would believe that I am the descendant of that person?"
"But I will make people believe that, and that is enough." The monarch on the throne was as solemn as a black statue that had existed for a long time. He had existed there for a long time and was not aware of the cracks in himself. There was a trace of inquiry in the depths of his stern eyes, which was the kind of subtle emotion that Athena liked to capture the most. She said it with a joking tone, but it was quite offensive: "You actually want to know where my real body is." In an instant, she felt a real sense of oppression. If it were another demigod, she might tremble and be unable to stand, but she still played with her cufflinks, which were given to her by Alistair before. Solomon noticed that the cufflinks were as blue as a perfect and fake sea, and were very similar to the color of Tudor's eyes.
Notes: