Dungeon Raider System-Chapter 931: Trial of Paris

"Long ago, in the times of heroes that would make a name for themselves and pass it on for generations to come by achieving what everyone else deemed impossible, a young man faced such odds in front of three goddesses facing a crisis. They fought for a title never before heard of, the title of who was the fairest of them all. It could be considered a petty squabble by most, mainly because that is precisely what it was, but calling it inconsequential would be the furthest from the truth. First, because back then beauty was starting to swiftly gain ground among the mortals as one of the core values of their society.

For centuries humanity had carved the likeness of anything and everything under the sun, even humans themselves, but never before did they achieve such beauty. They carved sculptures out of stone that looked precisely how a human was supposed to look like, according to their aesthetics, blissfully unaware that among the first attempts to create humanity the gods had done the exact same thing millennia ago.

But where the gods plastered utility to then share the spark of life with their sculptures, humans portrayed such vivid actions to something that never meant to move, deep emotion in what was never meant to feel. They achieved through craft what the gods couldn’t with their power, they created something that was both completely useless and utterly indispensable.

Art, as it would turn out, had a long way ahead of itself, but many of the gods were already sensing an incoming shift in the balance of power as they realized whoever became the god of beauty would soon gather a power comparable to that of the gods of war, if not surpass it.

As you must know judging by your connection with the muses, humans draw energy from the gods. Not just any gods, but the ones that are biologically related to them, descendants if you will...." Loxias Apollo did not stop talking from the moment he caught his breath after being defeated and though there was no hostility in him, he still caused a massive headache on Jon whose only worry was to get to the church as fast as possible.

"Indeed, I know." Scofield replied in a jagged breath as he was far from recovered from his fight against Apollo, though contrary to Jon he actually enjoyed the conversation.

"Hang on, that doesn’t make any sense. If that were true, it would mean traits are determined from birth, but it’s a known fact that they aren’t. Parents rarely pass on their traits to their offspring. Furthermore, two siblings possessing the same trait is almost statistically impossible." Jon pondered.

"I know it’s difficult for a small minded mortal to understand, but it is the truth." Apollo said with a smug, earning himself a devastating blow to the face that could have killed a heavenly rank hunter, yet it only caused mild annoyance to Apollo.

"He’s telling the truth, for a human to gain a trait they must come from a god’s lineage, but humans are so intermixed most of the human race inherited genes from all the gods that had... mingled with humans in the past." Dana said in the most matter of factly manner possible.

"Mingling with humans? Is that how you call what we did?" Jon said with a smug that managed to make Dana both blush sheepishly and give him a death glare at the same time. Not her actual ’death glare’ skill, just a really mean look.

"We’re married, you idiot." A faint smile formed on her face at the childish humor of her husband.

"Here’s something you may not know," Apollo butted in to purposely cut the romantic scene taking place. "it may sound crazy, but gods also draw strength from humans. They’re inferior creatures and hardly worth the air they breathe, at least that’s the overall opinion about humans. If you ask me, I find them amusing and pretty interesting. I quite like their stories." Apollo went on his rant despite noticing everyone was paying close attention to him, or rather, precisely because of that. If there was one thing Apollo enjoyed was to keep the listeners on a cliffhanger for as long as he could.

"Like the story about the three goddesses you were telling us about." Scofield prompted him to speak.

"Precisely! These three goddesses wanted to see who of them was the fairest of them all, but it was not a matter of vanity like you would think. In fact, they were quarreling for power, because they had noticed how humans revered beauty and they correctly guessed it would only become more important in human society in time."

"In other words, the one to become the goddess of beauty was bound to become powerful overnight." Jon nodded.

"Not just powerful, the next thing. But of course, they could not agree on who of them was most beautiful so they came up with an idea. Seeking for a neutral point of view, they asked a man. Back in those days, all problems were solved through either violence or diplomacy, which meant all heroes of the time were either ruthless savages like Agamenon... not that I have anything personal against him, he was actually quite fun at parties, or they were liars. Not precisely the kind of people you would want to ask for an unbiased opinion. But times were already changing and it just so happened that Hector’s brother, a young man with a penchant for getting under ladies’ peplos..."

"That’s the tunic thingy." Dana explained.

"Hi, my name is Jon and I’m an archaeologist." Jon pointed to himself with a blank face.

"I know, I just... nevermind."

"Hang on, did you wear them?" Jon forgot for a minute about Apollo’s story and felt more curious about Dana’s past history.

"Don’t you want to hear how it ends?" Asked Apollo with a sly smile.

"We all read the Iliad." Scofield said with a feeble cough.

"But what happened after that, you won’t believe," Apollo said gauging the interest of the crowd before continuing. "Aphrodite was chosen, yes... she became the goddess of beauty. But here’s something not even Dana knows..." Apollo didn’t get to finish the sentence when the realization hit Jon like a truck.

"Shit, we have to run." Jon became pale as a ghost and was about to run, but that meant leaving Scofield behind. They might be rivals, enemies even, and they would take every chance they could to take a dig at the other’s character, but thanks to their relationship with Uriel they found enough common ground to develop a mutual respect.

"What is it? It can’t be that bad." Dana asked, knowing it could and probably was that bad.

"In the ancient times people worshiped fertility, crops, the sun... you know, the usual. Modern society stranded from the path of religion, but they still worship some concepts. Like the electricity that allowed for human’s very survival or alcohol, which makes living worth it. But there’s one concept modern society worships above all... it’s beauty."

"O knew it! This list makes no sense at all." Dana mumbled to herself.

"What do you mean? We found this fellow with the list." Jon said more confused than scared.

"I’m not doubting that these guys are here, but all the gods mentioned in the list are the ones that went ’missing’."

"They’re not missing anymore, are they." Jon chuckled.

"Hence, they’re like me, they chose to live along humans which means whoever wrote that list wants to take them out of the picture." Dana said prompting Apollo to nod.

"Warm, but not there yet."

"The true question is how did Nikki’s friend knew about these gods." Jon muttered.

"Cold." Apollo said with what could pass as a smirk through the mess of what remained of his face.

"The true question is whether she’s really my friend or..." Nika paled for an instant, then shook her head and finally she attempted to use shadow blink to jump to Uriel’s location, but failing to even sense their bond. Words became unnecessary as everyone realized at the same moment they’ve been played by an unidentified god and Uriel was not safe.

They took to run at the same time, though Nika’s speed could not be compared to that of a god and a hunter about to reach the divine rank, but she managed to attach herself to Dana’s shadow in the last split second before she disappeared. Doing so caused her a bad case of nausea despite her heavenly rank, though that was to be expected considering that being strapped to Dana felt akin to being tied to a moving car.

They reached the church in no time, but the doors were closed. That shouldn’t have posed an obstacle for those present, but the sacred barrier around the church made it impossible for her to even approach it and the same thing happened to Jon whose proximity to the divine rank also excluded him from the consecrated ground.

Nika should have been able to pry open the doors without effort, but they were locked from the inside and no matter how hard she tried they wouldn’t budge. She even used all her sizeable strength to break the doors open, only managing to cause a slight rattle.

"Move aside!" Mayhem shouted at the distance as the army convoy neared the position. She had been channeling her flux energy from the moment the hunters darted away and continued to do so as they tailed them.

Mayhem extended her arm to the church door and activated her trait, her eyes glimmered in a bright orange before a cascading jet of explosions burst out from her hand directly onto the holy doors lifting a cloud of debris and smoke, and causing a crater outside the building.

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