Valhalla Saga

Episode 53/Chapter 1: The pursuers (1)

TL: Tsubak

ED: SlowAsLightning

“Hermes!”

“Athena!”

The youth reacted at Athena’s call.

The Messenger God Hermes.

The son of Zeus. The guardian God of thieves and merchants.

Athena ran towards Hermes and hugged him.

Hermes also hugged her back by reflex but he was perplexed and just blinked.

“Wow, it seems like you have really gone through a lot. Athena coming to hug me first. How long has it been since we hugged each other? No, is this the first time? Is there a feast today?”

His smiling face of a bad boy was really charming. Athena embraced him once again.

“I will do it one more time.”

“Good for me.”

Hermes even closed his eyes as if savoring this moment and concentrated on their hug.

But that time was short. Athena got out of Herme’s embrace naturally and put on a smile with mixed emotions.

“I’m really glad you are safe.”

You could see in her smile how much she had suffered.

Hermes seemed to have found that smile regretful as he spoke with an exaggerated tone.

“Safe my ass. I got hit with the lightning of my father and only now did I become able to roam. You know if you can see me right? My divine power shrank down by quite a lot. That bastard Dionysus has been sweeping down my polises while I was asleep.”

The God of wine and madness Dionysius.

Athena bit her lips. Hermes having stayed as someone wanting to maintain the world meant that Dionysus and Aphrodite had turned.

But it was something she couldn’t turn over.

Athena grabbed an important point from Hermes’ words.

“Hermes, what do you mean asleep? You lost consciousness after you got injured?”

“Yes, I blacked out in a blow. I don’t know if you remember but my location back then was a bit vague, right? I wasn’t somewhere Hera-nim could block it for me.”

The reason the remaining Gods of the 12 Olympians that had remained as beings wanting to maintain the world getting seriously weakened was because of the lightning of Zeus that activated in a really unexpected situation.

Athena, Apollo and Hermes got hit by it but the amount of damage they suffered was different.

The one that suffered the most injuries was Hermes and the one that suffered the least was Apollo.

The reason for it was simple.

Apollo and Athena were able to benefit from the barrier Hera spread reflexively as they were next to her.

But Hermes was facing Hera so he got hit by the lightning directly.

“But wait a moment. This isn’t the time to be speaking.”

Hermes interrupted himself as if he had just remembered and then took out  a small staff and inserted divine power to it. Then, the staff started to fly in the air and drew a magic circle.

It was a really big and complicated magic circle so it seemed like it would take some time to draw it completely.

Hermes checked that the staff moved well and turned to look at Athena once again.

“Um, Athena. Don’t you know anything about Hera-nim?”

He put an anxious face compared to before.

Zeus had many children among the 12 Olympians but the only ones that were born between him and Hera were Hephaestus and Ares.

All the others were the ones that were born due to his injustices outside.

It was impossible for Hera, the protector of families, to look at the illegitimate child’s in a good way as they were proof of his injustices.

Because of that Hera dislike most of Zeus’ children and they didn’t have a good relationship either.

But only one person. Hermes was the only different one.

Hera treasured Hermes like her own child and Hermes also loved Hera as his own mother.

The reason their relationship was special was thanks to Herme’s plot but it was quite a bewildering and magnanimous idea as expected of Hermes.

When Ares was still a kid, Hermes transformed into Ares to pretend that he was the real one and grew up taking her breast.

Later on Hera realized that Hermes had tricked her but it was already after their affection had developed.

In the end, Hera kept treasuring Hermes instead of getting angry at him and Hermes acted affectionately and played the role of an affectionate baby.

Athena bit her lips once again. It was because she knew that the anxiousness that appeared in his face was real.

“I’m sorry. I could only turn my back to Hera-nim and escape.”

Anger appeared at Herme’s face for an instant. It was rage at Athena for having escaped without Hera.

Athena faced the rage of Hermes and spoke about what happened to Hera briefly.

Hermes closed his eyes after listening to everything and suffered but it only lasted a moment. He retrieved the rage he had towards Athena and shrugged his shoulders.

“Well, can’t do anything about it. It’s not your fault. You don’t have to feel that sorry.”

He was forcing up a smile compared to before but at the last part he put a quite calm face.

“That’s right, who are they? They don’t seem like they belong to Olympus, are they from Asgard?”

Athena reacted as Hermes hurriedly changed the subject.

“That’s right. They are heroes of Asgard. They are the benefactors that saved me.”

Gratefulness and pride spread in Athena’s face.

Hermes let out a sincere sigh of admiration at her. It was surprising that she was accompanied by warriors of Asgard but it was because the emotions that appeared on her face were quite new.

“Hee, I’m thankful about that. Nice to meet you, I’m the messenger God Hermes. Um….what was it? Oh, right.”

Hermes clapped his hands and then hit his left chest twice with his right fist.

“For Asgard and the eight realms.”

He got it wrong.

But Tae Ho and all the others received it with good expressions.

“For Asgard and the nine realms.”

“Huh? You are also including Erin here? It got destroyed.”

‘I don’t like that bastard.’

Cuchulainn said in a low voice and Adenmaha also put a face full of complaints.

But Hermes that was only concentrating on Tae Ho looked back to see if the staff was still drawing the magic circle and then said.

“Anyways, I’m sorry that we haven’t been speaking until now but can we postpone the introductions? I don’t think we have much leisure. I’m really sorry. I speak a lot so I don’t think we will be able to speak about the important thing if we introduce ourselves. We could speak shortly but this is my nature.”

“It’s fine.”

What did they have to answer to that? In addition, even if he spoke a lot he was still doing what he had to do so it didn’t pose a problem.

Athena led the conversation once again as Tae Ho got out of it naturally.

“Hermes, Ares has pursued us. We have to escape from him. Hades said that you know the path.”

“Um, that’s right. Originally I came to Hades to ask for help. But Hades said that he would fall asleep and that he wouldn’t be able to help me. When I told him that this wasn’t time to be sleeping out of rage, he told me to wait as Athena would be coming soon.”

“Hades also made an unavoidable choice. Please understand.”

“You are certainly nice.”

For Hermes, Athena was the model student.

“First of all Hermes, is the transference magic circle related to the place we are going?”

Athena turned to look at the staff drawing the magic circle. It had barely drawn half of it.

“Yes, at first I thought that only Athena would be coming. If she was alone I could have carried her or whatever and then fly with the power of Talaria like whoosh, but it’s impossible if there are so many of you right? That’s why I’m drawing a magic circle. It’s hard to do it as I haven’t done it in a long while.”

Hermes hit the floor with his winged shoes Talaria and said. It looked like the staff was drawing the magic circle by itself but Hermes was the one that was actually inserting divine power into it.

Athena asked once again.

“Where does it lead to?”

“I told you that I got hit by lightning and lost consciousness right? But the reason I didn’t get captured means that someone obviously rescued me, right? But of course it can also be that Ares or Artemis had no interest in me and just left me there but the probabilities for that-”

“Hermes.”

Athena cut Hermes’ words and he returned to the main topic once again.

“Hades isn’t the only one that has power equivalent to the 12 Olympians but isn’t one. You know with this much, right?”

She could only know. There was only one person if you excluded Hades.

“Hestia.”

The Goddess of the brazier that had conceded her seat as one of the 12 Olympians to Dionysius.

Her strength couldn’t be compared to Poseidon or Hades but it didn’t mean that she was weak.

She belonged to the first generation of Gods of Olympus that were born between Chronos and Rhea just like Zeus, Hera, Poseidon and Hades.

“It’s an obvious thing but she’s fine.”

Because she didn’t get hit by Zeus’ lightning.

A light of relief shone in Athena’s face.

&

Hades kept his promise.

The barrier spread with his divinity didn’t allow Ares and his children to approach them.

“A-The-Na!”

Ares roared and swung his axe towards the barrier. The moment the barrier clashed with the red divine power the sky and the earth shook greatly but it ended with that. The barrier didn’t break down.

Ares gritted his teeth. Hades was certainly strong but this barrier couldn’t last forever. If he kept hitting it with his children a path would open up in the end.

But he couldn’t be sure how long that would take.

The barrier of Hades wasn’t a barrier that blocked all the divinities in a fair way. It was specialized to block Ares and that’s why it was harder to break it.

‘Hades is asleep.’

He could be certain of it. He didn’t know the reason perfectly but at least seeing that the passage to the underworld closed was proof of that.

Athena was a cornered rat but he couldn’t relax. There was no way Hades spread a barrier irresponsibly and left Athena alone. He would have certainly prepared a hole for her to escape.

That’s why he had to hurry. He had to break the barrier the fastest he could and make a path.

But it was at that moment.

Ares, that raised his axe filled with his red divine power, turned to look at the south.

There was someone approaching with a gale.

&

“I healed my injuries in Hestia-nim’s shelter. We will be able to hide ourselves if we are next to her.”

“Hestia hasn’t heard the voice?”

“She hasn’t. Hades is the exception-”

Hermes stopped talking. His eyes were looking at a distant place.

Athena also turned back. Not only the two of them but Tae Ho’s group also turned back by reflex.

The barrier Hades set up was greatly weakened.

It was the result of another divinity apart from Ares’ being added.

But it didn’t end there. Something passed the barrier and it wasn’t Ares or his children. But it was clearly someone that had a divinity.

Bracky grabbed his hammer and Siri nocked some arrows in her bow of light.

They were still far away. They needed some time for it to reach them.

“Get on the transference magic circle! It’s almost ready!”

Hermes yelled hurriedly. It wasn’t the time to fight no matter who the infiltrator was. Right now, getting away from Ares was the most important thing.

They didn’t have time to draw another magic circle again.

Adenmaha grabbed Nidhogg’s hands and got her up on the magic circle. It was so big that they still had space even after ten people got on it.

Hermes looked at the movements of the staff with an anxious face.

Tae Ho glared at the darkness and activated his ‘eyes of the dragon’.

A clear red word that couldn’t be compared to the children of Ares.

Tae Ho knew who he was.

&

The boatman Charon also knew him. He had seen his mother come to the river Styx while he was still a baby.

Charon didn’t stop him and he didn’t attack Charon either. He didn’t even ask the boat from Charon.

He ran on top of the water. It was a charge like a storm.

&

“It’s almost done!”

Hermes yelled. He retrieved his staff and the magic circle started to emanate bright light.

Athena gulped dry saliva. Patroclus hid Sybilla behind him as if trying to protect her. Rolo laid down on the magic circle and opened his eyes sharply.

But then, a howl was heard from across the darkness. It belonged to Cerberus.

“Done!”

Hermes raised his staff.

Athena clenched her fists and looked at the darkness. The light of the magic circle became stronger and Drakon Ismenios realized who was the one that was approaching them.

Patroclus closed his eyes.

The magic circle started to activate. Hermes’ divine power spread to their surroundings.

But at that moment.

“Master.”

Adenmaha said.

Tae Ho heard her voice and also sensed that Adenmaha extended her hand to him.

But he didn’t turn back. He couldn’t grab her hands.

Tae Ho looked at the front.

He finally arrived. He threw his spear toward the magic circle.

That was like a thunderbolt.

It had a really strong force behind it.

Tae Ho sensed.

That the moment that spear touched them the magic circle would get destroyed.

And the spear would reach them before the magic circle activated completely.

He couldn’t stop it with the fake Valkyries. It was too strong for that.

A moment.

A really short time.

The light of the magic circle that surged up passed the height of the group. Fear spread in Adenmaha’s face.

No.

She couldn’t finish speaking. The moment Adenmaha opened her mouth Tae Ho made a decision. He ran outside the magic circle and pulled Arondight from the air.

The one that could stop the spear with an attack.

The one that had the highest probabilities to somehow survive.

Tae Ho was the only one. Then, he didn’t have room to think.

The sword and the spear clashed.

The overwhelming sound covered Adenmaha’s scream like yell.

The spear was fended off.

And the group disappeared along the light.

‘He’s coming.’

Cuchulainn said and Tae Ho looked at him.

[Great hero of Zeus]

[Achilles]

Not the fake but the real one.

He pulled a spear from the air and charged towards Tae Ho.

< Episode 53 – Legend of a Hero (1) > End

TL note: Thanks for reading~