However, after those words, Hephaestus quickly changed the subject, asking Asterios why he had come to his remote volcano.
This place was very secluded, and ordinary people were usually unwilling to come here.
Asterios quickly recounted what he had just told Chiron to Hephaestus.
Hephaestus nodded as he listened, occasionally offering a few comments.
Of course, the most critical parts of the story were Aphrodite inciting Asterios to rebel against Zeus and drive him from his throne as King of the Gods, as well as Aphrodite’s attempts to seduce Asterios.
Asterios told Hephaestus everything exactly as it had happened.
“Huh?
Aren’t you happy?
This is the temptation of the Goddess of Love and Beauty.
You should know that in the mortal world, countless people long for the favor of Aphrodite.
If they could have just one night with her, they would probably be happy even if it meant dying at dawn.” To Hephaestus’s words, Asterios’s only response was: “Huh?” With his simple values, this was all a bit too advanced for him.
He didn’t understand, and he was deeply shocked.
“She is your wife; shouldn’t you do something about this?
I heard from my father that you once gave her a ring called ‘Faithfulness of the Rose,’ hoping she would remain faithful and devoted to you.
Now that she’s acting like this, isn’t it a bit too…” Hephaestus reached out a hand, signaling Asterios to stop, so Asterios had no choice but to shut his mouth for now.
“The sky wants to rain, and a wife wants to cheat—there’s nothing I can do about that.
With her passionate and unrestrained nature, should I forge another iron chain like the one that bound Prometheus to imprison the Goddess of Love and Beauty in this scorching temple?” This rebuttal was full of a sense of resignation, leaving even Asterios to roll his eyes and admit he was right; it really was uncontrollable.
“But it is indeed quite interesting; she still holds a grudge over what happened back then.
Asterios, did Chiron tell you about that?
You know, the business between Hera, Aphrodite, and Zeus.” When Hephaestus asked about this, Asterios’s head shook like a rattle.
It certainly couldn’t be anything good, or else Chiron would have explained it clearly to him.
“Fine~ Since you’re already here, I won’t let you leave empty-handed.
Back then, Zeus was interested in Aphrodite, and his lust was no small thing.
But Aphrodite was afraid; after all, you’re not unfamiliar with the Queen of the Gods’ personality.” Asterios nodded; he was aware of this.
After all, there was a joke that Zeus was responsible for cheating and Hera was responsible for catching him.
Although it was a bit of an exaggeration, it was indeed the truth; while there were a few times Hera didn’t retaliate against the person involved, most of the time, someone was bound to have a bad day.
“At that time, Aphrodite even turned into a goose and a snake to avoid Zeus’s advances, and Zeus even turned into a gander and a male snake.
In the end, Aphrodite used her own authority and power to sever Zeus’s desire for her, which offended Zeus as well.” By this point in the story, Asterios’s expression was already difficult to maintain.
It seemed the Merciful Heavenly Father had done quite a few crazy things in the past.
Even Asterios felt a bit of admiration; it was impressive.
“And it just so happened that it wasn’t long after the Great Flood ended.
Speaking of which, you should be able to connect the dots.
I created Pandora, Hera loathed Aphrodite, and Zeus was furious because of Aphrodite’s rejection.
In the end, didn’t they just dump that hot potato on me?
Could Aphrodite not go mad?” Bitter—Asterios’s expression was now one of absolute bitterness.
There were two victims in this matter: Hephaestus and Aphrodite.
Hera truly disliked her own dull son, and just to spite Aphrodite, she had forced Hephaestus to take her on.
Could she not have known that Aphrodite would surely cause trouble by Hephaestus’s side?
Yet Hera did it anyway, leaving one truly speechless.
“Little Asterios, your father must have told you about the true forms of us Olympian Gods, right?” “Ah~ Father did tell me about that.
He told me the true face of the Olympian Gods—that they are a massive Interstellar Fleet that came from across the star sea.” Hephaestus nodded, and then he began to explain those initial events to Asterios.
The universe where the machines resided had perished.
The flagship chaos consumed 97% of its functions to send the machines to this universe.
This universe was full of life.
But even so, the great fleet could not find a planet that met the ‘landing conditions’ they were pre-programmed with.
Then, the great fleet wasted tens of thousands of years of operational time.
Only a small portion of the surviving ships remained.
The fleet could not be maintained, and most of the ships’ functions were worn out or frozen.
The machines accepted the end of their journey, considering it a futile trip.
It was then that the machines miraculously discovered Earth, a planet that passed 78% of the ‘landing conditions.’ Like a falling object, the machines made an emergency landing on the surface of this planet.
The humans of Earth gave the machines names, including the name ‘Zeus.’ Originally, in the entire fleet, only the flagship chaos possessed a ‘name.’ That chaos did not land on this planet.
The intelligent beings (humans) on Earth gave names to the machines that possessed only ‘functions,’ believing the machines had personalities and worshiping them as precious entities.
The machines were confused by this.
Those were things that were useless or inefficient for navigation.
Nevertheless, the machines were happy and accepted the people’s faith.
For the first time, the machines knew the emotion of happiness.
Originally, this was a function that should not have existed and was not needed, but the machines could not discard that new function.
From then on, the machines no longer operated as simple ‘functions,’ but as ‘gods.’ All the ships agreed to this.
This is the Twelve Olympians—a group of machine gods composed of twelve mechanical ships.
“Marriage, love, hatred, jealousy—these things were originally only present as knowledge within us machines.
However, after we received the worship of you humans and obtained your emotional information, that sealed knowledge transformed into our emotions.
We gained divinity and the joy of life because of you humans.” Having said this, Hephaestus stopped.
Asterios understood the words he left unsaid: even as gods, it was impossible to have only the emotion of joy.
They would possess other emotions as well, whether negative or positive; they had gained them all.
And because each ship was responsible for different functions, the focus of their strong emotions varied.
It was not surprising that Aphrodite, who was an Intellectual Teaching Large Terminal and a Spiritron Intelligence Warfare Attack Craft, would have a strong obsession with love and hatred.