“Stop being so glib!”
Hecate, Goddess of the Underworld, rolled her eyes at Hephaestus in annoyance.
Although it wasn’t immediately apparent, the goddess could sense that the words tumbling out of this brat’s mouth were nothing good.
Although the goddess appeared young—looking like someone just starting middle school in later ages—her brain was on par with Hephaestus’s adoptive sister, Metis, the Goddess of Wisdom.
She couldn’t be bothered to bicker with Hephaestus, so she simply reached out and touched him directly.
However, as soon as she did, she immediately sensed something was wrong.
“Eh?”
Hecate raised her dark eyebrows slightly and tapped the armor on Hephaestus’s chest.
Listening to the sound that came back, she suddenly lifted her head as if she had realized something.
“Your body?!”
“As expected of you—to notice my changes so easily.”
Hephaestus couldn’t help but marvel at the goddess’s keen perception.
To think she could judge the changes in his body just by the echo from his armor.
Previously, in his hollowed state, his build had been too gaunt.
To make himself look stronger, his armor had been a bit large—so when he was fully geared up, tapping his chest plate or other areas would produce a hollow echo.
But now, his body had returned to normal.
After he adjusted it, the armor—which had been a size too big—now fit his body curves perfectly.
Now, tapping it only produced the sound of metal, with no more hollow echoes.
Since his change had already been exposed, Hephaestus didn’t bother to hide it anymore.
He simply took off his mask, revealing his face.
“Oh ho—you brat, you’re actually quite handsome.”
Hecate’s eyes brightened slightly.
She looked Hephaestus up and down with great interest, marveling at his current appearance.
“What is it?
Did you come here to show off your new look, or are you interested in me?”
As Hecate said this, she deliberately struck a seductive pose and winked at Hephaestus.
“If it’s the current you—it’s not entirely out of the question~”
To be fair, seeing the goddess perform such actions was actually quite erotic.
After all, a youthful face with a voluptuous figure is quite something—especially since the clothes the goddess wore were essentially just a piece of white silk with a hole cut for her head to go through, secured by a belt around her waist.
It looked loose and baggy from the front, but from the side, the visual impact was something ordinary people couldn’t handle.
Especially in this era, where things like underwear hadn’t even been invented yet.
Well, the gods of this era could be completely open with each other as soon as they took off their outer garments.
However, Hephaestus knew that this goddess was no pushover—Zeus was a cautionary tale, after all.
Besides, coming down to the Underworld today wasn’t just to search for building materials—coming to see this goddess was also one of the purposes of his trip.
“You joke, wise Hecate.
I have come to seek your wisdom, hoping you can resolve my confusion.”
Regarding Hecate’s intentional seduction, Hephaestus replied with an unchanged expression: “I have recently gained new insights into magic, but I have become lost in that vast ocean.
That is why I have come to seek your help—hoping you can guide me.”
Hephaestus had come to find Hecate in the hopes that she could resolve his confusion.
For some time, he had been shutting himself away to study the First Flame—investigating what exactly this thing—for which he had fought and died in his past life—really was.
And he had actually managed to produce some results.
But Hephaestus understood very clearly that his brain wasn’t very smart—at least in this regard, his brain didn’t work very well.
Currently, he was like an ordinary person who knows that 1+1 equals 2, but doesn’t understand why 1+1 equals 2.
He could only follow his understanding from his past life, reproducing things from his memory based on his own hands-on experience—just copying the motions.
Simply put, his current state was: “I reckon this will work,” and then it would work—though he didn’t understand the principles at all.
He felt that he couldn’t just keep going down the path of “I-reckon-it-works” power forever.
He needed to deeply understand the principles to help him go further on the path to becoming stronger.
That was why he needed to seek this goddess’s help.
Because Hecate was not only the Goddess of the Underworld—but also the Goddess of Magic.
Compared to his adoptive sister Metis, the Goddess of Wisdom, this Underworld goddess could help him more in this regard, allowing him to understand the mysteries within more vividly.
Of course, part of the reason was also that Hephaestus didn’t want his adoptive sister Metis to worry about him.
“Oh ho?
You?
Magic?”
Hecate widened her eyes.
She—who had always appeared composed in front of Hephaestus—rarely revealed such a flustered expression.
She puffed out her cheeks, and her attempt to hold back laughter made her look like a hamster—exceptionally cute.
However, for Hephaestus, the person involved, it wasn’t very pleasant.
But he didn’t argue much—instead, he chose to let the facts speak for themselves.
Hephaestus calmly extended his arm.
Then—
“ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ—”
A piercing sound—like a thousand birds chirping—rang out suddenly.
Golden lightning flickered continuously within the library.
“You?!”
Hecate widened her eyes, staring fixedly at Hephaestus—or, more accurately, at the golden spear of lightning in his hand—with a look as if she had seen a ghost.
“Miracle: Sunlight Spear.”
Holding the lightning spear, Hephaestus gave Hecate a calm smile that didn’t lack style.
“That is what I call it.”
“Wait, wait—I need to process this.”
Hecate rubbed her temples, looking thoroughly shocked.
And in fact, she was.
As everyone knew, the authority over lightning was held by Zeus.
Besides him, the King of the Gods, no one should be able to command lightning.
Yet now, right before her eyes, Hephaestus had blatantly summoned a golden spear of lightning.
What did this mean?!
Thinking of this, a flash of light appeared in Hecate’s eyes.
The curse Cronus had issued when he was imprisoned in the endless abyss of Tartarus was well known.
This couldn’t help but make Hecate wonder if Hephaestus might be the prophesied child from that curse—the one who would overthrow Zeus’s rule.
But that wasn’t right.
Hephaestus was born to Hera alone.
The reason he was conceived was that as Hera matured and her power grew, her authority of creation erupted—and the overflowing power nurtured a child in her womb.
And Hephaestus’s terrifying appearance was because Hera lacked mastery over her own power, causing him to be born with defects.
Such a Hephaestus had absolutely nothing to do with Zeus—so how could he be considered Zeus’s son?!
“Actually, you could try believing in me.”
Just as Hecate was deep in thought, Hephaestus suddenly said, “Perhaps you would be able to use the Sunlight Spear just like me.”
“Huh?”
Hecate was a bit bewildered—but Hephaestus’s face was filled with eagerness.
When he was hunting down the Lords of Cinder in his past life, he had been incredibly skilled at using Miracles.
While magic and pyromancy were quite useful, he just felt that Miracles were incredibly good.
Because Miracles were the kind of thing that worked as long as “I reckon they will.”
They said Miracles could only be used by having faith in gods.
But back then, he had used a Sunlight Spear to blast a certain Lord of Cinder.
“I believe in you—what does that have to do with you”.jpg
But then another question arose: if someone in this new world believed in him—the God of Fire and Creation—could he really allow his followers to use Miracles?
Hephaestus looked at Hecate, his gaze eager and expectant.