(Greek Mythology) The Abyss of the Underworld
Chapter 52
"Your name is Artemis." With a casual tone, Ai Miye's beautiful heterochromatic eyes didn't even look at the person she was speaking to. Instead, she compared the items on the plate, trying to choose the one that suited her best.
This piece has a nice color, but that one seems to contain more energy…
"Yes." Artemis maintained a relatively calm demeanor, but a slight tremor in her voice revealed her underlying unease.
It was truly difficult for little Artemis. Suddenly brought to the dark underworld by a strange goddess, facing two unpredictable and definitely not to be trifled with, and being discussed to her face with such disdain, as if she were a toy—it was quite remarkable that she could maintain her composure at such a young age.
"Your mother goddess is Leto, the goddess of night."
"Yes." Artemis didn't know what the goddess of oblivion's purpose was in asking this, but she still obediently answered.
"Useless indeed, unable to even protect her own child." Ai Miye tilted her head slightly, her expression a half-smile, her tone utterly sarcastic.
Indeed, quite useless. Leto was said to be the most gentle goddess, but gentleness was also weakness. If she had been more assertive, given her status as the eldest daughter of Coeus, the god of darkness and intellect, and Phoebe, the goddess of the moon, Hera wouldn't have dared to so brazenly send people to hunt her down, at least not so openly.
"She's utterly disgraced the goddess of night." As the daughter of the goddess of night, Eris held a strong grudge against Leto.
There are three goddesses of night: Nyx, one of the first gods and the goddess of night itself, the embodiment of night; Leto, the eldest daughter of Coeus, the god of darkness and intellect, and Phoebe, the goddess of the moon, symbolizing the starless and moonless night; and Asteria, the second daughter of Asteria, the goddess of starlight, symbolizing the night filled with brilliant starlight, each representing a different form of night.
It goes without saying how fierce and formidable Nyx was; everyone knew that. Asteria was also quite a character. At least she was the only goddess Zeus had ever pursued but failed with, while Leto… well, compared to the other two, she was utterly pathetic.
"Mother Goddess isn't like that!" When it came to her mother, Artemis disregarded her fear. Stubborn by nature, she was quite opinionated even at a young age, possessing her own pride. Even before the first generation of gods, she only showed respect, never truly submitting. Now, she looked directly at Amyra, her eyes filled with defiance.
Slowly, with her slender, white fingers, she picked up the gem she had carefully chosen as her favorite. The crystal-clear gem was a dreamlike, captivating blue, like the mysterious, deep ocean, and also like… Artemis's clear, pure blue eyes.
Slowly and deliberately, Ai Miye put the dreamy, magnificent sapphire into her mouth, crunched it down, and swallowed it. She successfully scared away the little girl's newly mustered courage with her actions.
"I said it's useless, and that's final. No arguing, understand? And no crying," Ai Miye warned calmly.
No matter how extraordinary her birth and extraordinary appearance, Artemis was still just a child. The poor girl, frightened by Ai Miye, had tears welling up in her eyes, but dared not let them fall because of Ai Miye's warning.
Artemis: Waaaaah, the Underworld is so scary, and the Goddess of Annihilation is so scary! I want to go home!! ::>_<::
She looks so easy to bully. —by Ai Miye O(∩_∩)O
Don't think she has any sympathy or guilt. Not continuing to bully her was already showing mercy; after all, it wouldn't be fun if she went too far. (Is this showing mercy?)
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"You're scaring the gods again." Tartarus calmly looked at Ai Miya.
Across from Tartarus, Ai Miya was slowly stuffing a bunch of colorful gems into her mouth one by one, making crunching sounds. The way she ate the gems like candy was quite unsettling.
Others treat candy like snacks, she treats gems like snacks—it's enough.
Among the first generation of gods, Ai Miya's power was second only to Tartarus. Her attack power was extremely strong, and although her defense was somewhat weak, it was absolutely impenetrable to the second generation of gods.
If we were to compare it to a game, Tartarus would be a max-level player with average stat allocation, while Amy is the kind who puts 80% of her attribute points into attack. One is level 100, the other level 90. Even if the level 90 player puts 80% of their attribute points into attack, they still can't beat the level 100 player. However, compared to other gods, Amy still has an advantage in terms of physical strength.
However, because she wasn't born from chaos, Amy ultimately has some inherent weaknesses. Compared to her powerful attack, her recovery ability is somewhat lacking.
Chaos kept her by his side for so many years, partly because he was bored, and partly because Amy couldn't control her power conversion in her early years. Although she's fine now, she still prefers to consume things with high energy, especially when her divine power is depleted.
Therefore, Amy's favorite things are those with high energy content, such as powerful humans or strange beasts, fruits, exotic flowers and herbs, or gems containing energy.
Then, Ai Miya would often deliberately eat gems or other strange, psychologically challenging things in front of others to scare them. (Another cunning and mischievous character.)
"Don't act like you haven't done it before. Your brother's modified Hell has frightened quite a few creatures, hasn't it?" Ai Miya mumbled, crunching on another gem.
As everyone knows, Tartarus is very idle. One day, bored out of his mind, Tartarus had a sudden urge to remodel part of the upper level of Hell into the likeness of the Eastern Hell he had heard of in his previous life.
Although Hell is broadly divided into upper, middle, and lower levels, it actually has many levels. The upper level, after the arrival of Hades, was renamed the Underworld, the administrative body of the Underworld, responsible for judging and reincarnating the dead. Hades and most of the staff in the Underworld also reside there.
The middle level is the abode of the gods of the underworld and the creatures of the netherworld. The lower level is vast and empty. Originally, only Tartarus resided on the lowest level, but later Eris and Amyrtle joined them. After the twin gods took up their posts in the underworld, they also moved away to settle there.
Denise and the flower spirits, both deified and not, exclaimed: "Are we air? Please don't ignore our existence!"
The transformed upper level of hell—the Hell of Tongue-Pulling, the Hell of Volcanoes, the Hell of Boiling Oil, the Hell of Blood Pools, the Hell of Sawing and Knives… the various forms of torture were simply terrifying, successfully casting a shadow of horror over hell, making all living beings tremble at the mere mention of it.
How could it not be terrifying? In a place where even the gods would avoid the punishment for breaking the oath to the River Styx, those tortures were enough to terrify even the gods.
According to Tartarus himself, this was to live up to the underworld's reputation for terror; otherwise, wouldn't it be a waste of its infamy?
But who would believe such nonsense? It's obvious His Majesty Tartarus simply wanted to see the miserable expressions on the gods' faces after witnessing it.
The spectacular performances of the foreign gods, terrified and running away, effectively entertained Tartarus. (Hey! That's enough!)
"But the problem is, all the gods you've frightened and tormented have come to me complaining," Tartarus said.
The underworld is full of cunning and ruthless people; it's not uncommon to be either a prankster or a victim. But Ai Miya is highly vigilant, powerful, and has a wicked personality. She's always the one tormenting other gods, never the one being tormented, especially since she specifically targets gods she knows.
The gods that Ai Miya knew were basically the same gods that Tartarus knew. Tartarus, the only god who could make Ai Miya somewhat restrained, naturally became the object of their complaints, especially Hera, the simple-minded (stupid) and easily fooled one, who cried so heartbreakingly and shamelessly that it was almost unbearable to watch.
"Alright, I'll be more careful next time. Eris just brought Artemis back, so I can go tease her, right?" Ai Miya had to listen to her brother, so she happily decided to go tease the little girl. (Lights a candle)
Hey! Weren't you just complaining about how dull she was not long ago?
"Sure, but remember to send her back when you're done." As long as there weren't another bunch of gods crying in front of him, Tartarus didn't care who Ai Miya wanted to play with.
So, you two heartless, shameless bastards, give me a break! (You should at least have some humanity in mind, right?) Chapter 52