Chapter 543 - Helios
After Stern had finished the three syllables of the word ‘Apollo’, not only did Depney’s mind ring with a buzz as he slowly lost all sense of the situation, but even those on the island like Sauron, Abbess Yun Miao, Prince Sargeras, and the rest, were totally stunned!
Apollo?! This mischievously smiling, completely undignified degenerate of the European aristocratic circle, the infamous wastrel of the Cromwell family, the unemployed fellow—he’s one of the twelve legendary Olympians, the sun god Apollo?!
Looking at their uncertain, bewildered expressions, Stern, or Apollo, was displeased. He smirked while starting to speak. “What kind of reaction is that? Why is it that a hooligan like Yang Chen can be Pluto, but a handsome nobleman like me can’t be the sun god? I’m authentic, the first, and will always be. It’s that brat who became the replacement for Pluto!”
“Who the hell are you calling a hooligan?! A brat?! What did I do to offend you?” Yang Chen couldn’t help retorting.
“Oh, that’s right.” Apollo gave a strange mischievous smile. “I misspoke, you’re actually a henpecked brat who’s afraid of his wife.”
Yang Chen stamped his foot angrily, and the surrounding ground collapsed rigidly into a large hole dozens of meters wide!
“I’ve allowed you guys to tail my wife, let you eat and drink for free these past few days. It didn’t matter that you never managed to utter a word of thanks, but now you’re returning the favor with such unpleasant words?!”
Apollo spread his hands, saying disdainfully, “To be frank, we’ve been Persephone’s bodyguards; if it wasn’t because she had a good heart, the both of us siblings wouldn’t have bothered with your arrangements and games. Even if it wasn’t through means like this, I could still root out the idiot who’s been impersonating me during this Paris trip.”
As everyone else listened to Yang Chen and Stern bickering back and forth in their blunt playful manner, their faces became stiff with puzzlement.
What’s this and that?! These two… are gods? Even Prince Sargeras who had lived over a thousand years broke out in a cold sweat. Conversely, Lilith was smiling enchantingly, as if watching something especially amusing.
Depney recovered his senses as he got over the shock, and his face trembled as his eyes filled with hate. He intoned, “How dare you look down on me… Even if you’re Apollo, you can’t stop me!”
With that, Depney once again drew the golden longbow, only this time the scarlet flame arrow was more menacing than ever. The raging flames made it seemed like it was daytime when in fact it wasn’t!
The surrounding people in black felt the scorching air and scattered in panic.
Apollo looked at Depney with some pity. “You think that with that fake in your hands, you can gather enough power to be of a threat to me. Give it up… Let me show you the real divine weapon of Apollo.”
After he spoke, Apollo turned to one side and raised his left hand. His pupils became a vivid red-gold in an instant, as if flames were dancing in his eyes in a bewitching manner!
“Helios!”
As he shouted, a near-platinum beam of flame cut through the black night sky like a descending blazing meteor, falling into Apollo’s hand!
The gold-white blaze transformed into a fiery dragon, and after twisting around Apollo’s arm in a few quick circles, it extended in his left hand to form a flaming platinum longbow!
This bow was quite similar looking to the golden longbow in Depney’s hand, but it was made of pure flames instead!
The whole body of the bow was burning, and the heat of the flame had even caused the metals nearby to begin melting!
Apollo laid down a shield behind his back to prevent the heat from spreading to Lin Ruoxi and the rest so that they were kept from injuries.
Looking at the gold-white flaming divine weapon before him that was making him breathless just by its mighty presence, Depney suddenly became frightened!
“This… This is…”
“This is the true Helios. What’s in your hand is no more than a defective version that Hephaestus, the god of fire, had made by mistake while creating divine weapons for us gods. At most… it might be considered half a divine weapon.” Apollo beamed. “I don’t know where you got hold of that, but it must have come from the same place as the Sword of Thanatos. It doesn’t matter now, for these things are like debris in our eyes.”
In front of the monitor, everyone stared at the brightly burning divine weapon in Apollo’s hand, and was spellbounded. Even the sky above the warship was colored by a faint gold shade!
Sargeras drew in a cool breath, unable to hide his excitement. “In the legends, the sun god had three phases. In his first incarnate, Hyperion was the sun’s original incarnation; the second one, Helios, was the sun god who could drive the sun chariot. And Apollo who has always been mixed up with Helios, is the third sun god—yet the bow he uses is named Helios, could it be that…”
Yang Chen continued, “You’re not wrong. In fact, Hyperion, Helios, and Apollo are the same person, which is that fellow over there, only those are the different incarnations that were awakened at different times.”
Sargeras nodded in realization. “Indeed. With this in mind, it makes sense that the gods will have replacements….”
Some of those by the side didn’t quite understand what Yang Chen and Sargeras were talking about. After all, no one had lived to more than a thousand years like Sargeras; naturally, they knew less about the details of the ancient past.
However, being able to see a live god with their own eyes was already shocking enough!
“It’s no wonder that you’re not worried about Lin Ruoxi being kidnapped. So you’ve planned this whole show with Apollo from the start?” Abbess Yun Miao stared confusedly at Yang Chen.
Yang Chen held out his hands. “When Ruoxi and I were kidnapped to a warehouse in Romilly and we met the two siblings, I had figured out their identities. I was puzzled as to why they would pretend to be captured, and after some consideration I understood some of it. But according to their plan, even if they managed to find out the culprit, they would only have been catching the small fish, not the big fish. So I get them to go along with my plan, which took more time, but paid off in any case… I feel like this plan would have exposed the culprits more accurately. For instance, didn’t the Vatican reveal their true selves?”
Sauron and the rest wiped the sudden sweat on their brows. They had quite a scare, but now that they knew Yang Chen was in control all along, they became exceptionally proud again.
“But we didn’t expect that the Cromwell… ahem… siblings were gods, it’s just too unreal.” As he spoke, Sauron remembered something suddenly, and asked, “Since His Majesty Stern is Apollo, that means… Miss Alice is…”
Yang Chen smiled wordlessly, and pointed at the monitor, allowing them to continue watching.
At this time, Depney had nowhere to run. His face was ashen and it was like every bone in his body had turned into water.
But a final burst of ferocity made Depney steeled himself with one last breath. Giving it everything he had, Depney drew the bow viciously and yelled in rage, “Go!!”
The arrow that was condensed from the strongest flames was like a laser, aiming straight between Apollo’s eyes!
But just as this unstoppable arrow was about a centimeter away from Apollo’s face, it was suddenly frozen!
Apollo gulped playfully, and opened his mouth wide!
In one swift move, he had engulfed the whole arrow!
Depney stared helplessly as the concentrated flame arrow which was enough to destroy a warship was swallowed by Apollo. His face finally became grey and he had no more strength left to lift the bow.
Apollo clicked his tongue. “If you had used some other half-divine weapon, perhaps it would be of some benefit, but mere flame arrows are useless against me.”
With that, Apollo raised the divine bow Helios, and began to draw the bow…
A blazing platinum flame arrow materialized subsequently, but those who were discerning could tell that this was much more terrifying the Depney’s flame arrow!
The mere formation of the arrow had caused the steel around the deck to show signs of melting into liquid steel!
“Oops, how do I lower the flames? It’s too hot, I’d better shoot quick before the whole ship melts.” Apollo said these puzzled words and immediately released the fiery white arrow!
The onlookers became blinded—on the monitor, they could see nothing but a white flash…
After a while , they could only hear a rocketing white light beam suddenly appearing somewhere distant in the sea, lighting up half the sky, and shattering the dense night sky into pieces…
“This… this seems like thunder and lightning?” Fodessa, who had been mumbling numbly, finally swallowed and asked aloud.
The rest were also trembling deep inside at this astonishing situation: if this had happened amongst human society… wouldn’t it have…
After a moment, the monitor resumed its image.
They thought that such an awesome shocking blow would destroy the whole facility of the warship, but other than the spot where Depney stood, the other areas of the deck didn’t receive any serious damage!
The white flaming arrow just now was contained in a vertical manner, attacking only the small area where Depney was! The kind of control it took was beyond imagination!
But what was even more unbelievable was that Depney—was still alive?!
With his rather scorched hair, Depney looked more pathetic, but he was indeed unharmed, kneeling on the ground, panting heavily with a red face.
Apollo was also slightly stunned, and looked again at the fragmented pieces at Depney’s feet before understanding. “I see. Although the bow was defective, it still contained divine power. It had sacrificed itself to protect you. But it’s also evident that your physical constitution is unique indeed.”
Depney’s eyes revealed a hint of unwillingness, but more so the rage of a dying man.
Licking his cracked lips, Depney said in a low voice, “Even if I won’t live through today, I won’t let those on the island live as well…”
As he spoke, Depney suddenly fished out the detonator from his pocket, and his finger went straight for the red button!
Such a crucial moment, yet Apollo still didn’t make a move; however, Depney was still unable to press the button…
CRACK CRACK CRACK CRACK!
One by one, the crisp solid sounds began from Depney’s finger, from his head to his feet, spreading to his whole body!
Before the onlookers’ startled eyes, somehow a layer of frigid ice had gripped Depney all over his body in a flash!
Until Depney was frozen in a block of mysterious sky-blue ice. Even his expressions and movements were frozen!
Alice, who had been lying down, now got up in swaying motions behind Apollo.
As she gently tousled her enviable silver hair, Alice gave Apollo a glance of mock anger. “Dear, why do you insist on making me do this? Wouldn’t firing just one more arrow suffice?”
Apollo put away Helios which was still in his grip. The bow became a flame and dissipated in a blink.
“Artemis, my dear sister, don’t blame me for this. That boring Hades fellow insisted on finding out what sort of secret Depney was hiding. After consideration, the safest way was for you to freeze him. If I attacked and accidentally killed him or gave him the chance to kill himself, that would cause more trouble than good.” With a straight face, Apollo took hold of Alice’s shoulder, and had barely finished speaking when he kissed her earlobes hungrily, as if the lack of intimacy in such a short time had made him anxious.
The people on the island and the warship were still amazed at the frozen Depney, and Apollo’s words once again gave them a heavy surprise!
What? Artermis?