Having traversed countless realms, can you possibly be as clever as me?

The former was something Tsurugi deliberately left hanging; this girl needed to learn the hard way about the food she shouldn't have eaten. As for the latter, Tsurugi was having a bit of a headache.

Dongjiang came here not only to shoot targets but also to fill in the craters, so he came to solve these problems and took some time to return to his own world.

Although he was not present in his world, it was still thriving and full of life.

Morgan's magic school was doing very well, and Dumbledore was captured and served as its headmaster for another hundred years.

The integration of the world into the divine era was perfect, with gods, all living beings, and even mortals thriving.

The Romans and Christians were integrated into one, and the British got along very well with the quacks and DORO fairies created by the Tsurugi River.

In short, after confirming that everything was alright, Tsugumi spent time with her family, friends, and lover, and then... well, you know... and some kind of slutty party...

They were all mundane and unremarkable things, nothing worth describing.

After about a year or two, he returned to the world of Greek mythology.

To complete my third and final 'mythical tale'.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

P.S.: There's really not much to write about the moon alone. At least until FGO 3.0 comes out, there's not much background to write about anymore. If related characters are to appear in the future, they can just be integrated into other worlds or the moon can be moved to other worlds.

1054

774. [Return to Greece] The Power of the Prince of the Underworld

"Few people mention the legends of Hades, but his name always evokes fear and regret, making everyone sigh at the inescapable fate."

"The master of the underworld is the ruler of the underground, the master of death. The gods are immortal, but mortals cannot escape the inevitable death. Therefore, even though he is the elder brother of the Olympian gods, few people tell his story."

"But this time, I'm not going to tell the story of this ruler of the underworld, but the story of his son who should never have been born."

"In human legends, Hades fell in love with the beautiful goddess Persephone, even though she was the daughter of his sister. He was so captivated by love that he forcibly abducted Persephone to the underworld."

"And the story that followed is well-known: Demeter, grieving the loss of her daughter, caused winter to descend forever, resulting in barren land, withered life, and the near extinction of humankind. Thus, through Zeus's mediation, Hades had no choice but to agree that Persephone could spend most of the year returning to earth to reunite with her mother."

"But—interestingly, in our story, Hades and Persephone actually have love and responsibility in their relationship; they truly exist as a loving couple and family."

"As the ruler of the underworld, Hades is a majestic, just, yet awe-inspiring sovereign. He spends very little time with his relatives on Mount Olympus, and therefore few understand his inner world."

"Persephone is perhaps such a goddess, an innocent and romantic goddess who falls in love with the cold and serious Queen of the House, but because this love is not blessed by her mother Demeter, there are setbacks."

"But—in this not-so-orthodox story, two gods who truly loved each other gave birth to a child that should never have been born."

"The ruler of the underworld is not incapable of having children, but this child was born with an inappropriate prophecy. Legend says he will replace Zeus and will be the previous incarnation of Dionysus—no offense, my lord, this story and other tales of Persephone were told to me by the Thebes!"

"In short, this young god named Zagreus, the prince of the underworld, is the focus of our story."

"Sit still, I'm about to tell you this story, listen carefully..."

At the gates of Tartarus, a young man wearing a burning laurel wreath awoke from his coma, clutching his head, and spoke rudely to the old man who had been telling stories in an unseen place.

"Oh, shut up, you damned old Homer! My story doesn't need you to tell it here!"

The story in his mind vanished instantly, and Tsugumi—who was also Zagreus—was receiving all the memories from the past thirty years.

When he returned from the Type-Moon world, he was back in his original point in time.

Or rather—it was the point in time that anchored most of the power and existence he brought into it.

His physical body, containing most of his power, was locked in time by Cronus, but his soul had already returned to the time thirty-three years prior after drinking Dionysus's golden wine.

So when Dongjiang returned, what he received was the memory of his past thirty-three years of ignorance and confusion.

"Ah... So, without any past memories, am I really this kind of person?"

As Tsugumi pondered the entire process of those thirty-three years of memories, she muttered to herself.

Many factors shape a person: soul, environment, experience, but ultimately it is memory.

When Tsugumi's self is detached from this world, leaving behind only a blank soul without past memories, the posture he creates is destined to be different from his original self.

How should one summarize their memories of themselves—Zagreus, the Prince of the Underworld?

A rebellious teenager with a sharp tongue, a penchant for older men, and a constant conflict with his father.

Although it seems a bit too late to call someone a teenager at thirty-three, considering that they are immortal gods, thirty-three might not even be considered grown up.

Moreover, anyone in the entire underworld who looks human is at least hundreds or thousands of times older than him, so it's perfectly reasonable for them to have this quirk!

In the past thirty-three years, the first twenty years of Tsugumi's life were a time of learning, growth, and gradually gaining power.

In the following thirteen years, the first eight years were a time when the conflict with his father Hades gradually intensified, while the last five years were a time when he constantly tried to escape the underworld.

His purpose in doing all this was very pure and direct: he simply wanted to find his mother.

Since sending Zagreus to the underworld thirty-three years ago, Persephone, the Queen of the Underworld, has vanished without a trace in the realm of the dead.

1054 >>

No one knows where she went, but it certainly wasn't in this underground world.

This alone reveals the difference between this extended story and some mythological texts. In the normal version of the myth, Persephone was tricked by Hades into eating the pomegranate of the underworld, so she had to stay in the underworld for four months of the year.

This is actually a mythological interpretation of the changing seasons by the ancient Greeks—because Greece has a subtropical Mediterranean climate, it has no four seasons but only spring, summer and winter, so each season lasts four months, and these four months of winter are interpreted as Demeter's sorrow and anger.

But in this newly expanded story, Persephone and Hades fall in love, so the four months are actually the time she stays voluntarily.

Well, although it's not very orthodox, Tsugumi can still accept it.

After all, he didn't want to accept that his real father in this lifetime was someone who seduced innocent young girls, nor could he accept that his mother was a promiscuous woman.

Moreover, he had absolutely no desire to get entangled in overly complicated family issues!

But is it possible that I've been dying and resurrecting here for five whole years just to find my mother?

Yes, for the past five years, he had been thinking about escaping the underworld every day, but each time he died on the way.

Buried by the vengeful spirits and nemesis of Olympus who once cast this hell into Tartarus, swallowed by the gray mist of the Narcissus Plains and then burned alive in the lava, and killed in the Land of Bliss by the challenge of the heroic souls that emerged from Elysium...

"A young and arrogant prince cannot perfectly control his power and authority, and therefore inevitably meets a terrible end," Homer interjected.

"Shut up, old man!" Tsurugi rolled her eyes, but she was actually quite satisfied with her performance.

So what if so many people die? Is the underworld some kind of safe place?

Even without great power, the fact that one can still resolutely take risks to achieve one's goals is enough to make Dongjing feel gratified and proud!

Of course, it could also be because he was immortal to begin with. And because of the special nature of the soul, his death was merely a return to the River Styx to rebuild his body, and then he could easily climb back up.

Therefore, he was also known as the 'God of Rebirth' by the many souls in the underworld.

Because he can't die no matter what, he's a god of rebirth—no doubt about it!

The deaths of many people are not a disgrace; what makes Tsurugi feel embarrassed is merely the purpose.

What story is this about tadpoles looking for their mother?!

"Phew~~~~ Am I really that starved for love?"

Tsurugi muttered to herself, clearly doubting whether she was really that desperate for love.

However—that's not the most important thing.

Importantly, in these five years, Zagreus, the Prince of the Underworld who had lost his memory, had to some extent grasped the essence of his own power.

Tsurugi opened his right hand and, with an almost instinctive feeling, gathered power in his hand.

Soon, a blood-red stone appeared in his palm.

Over the past few decades, his exploration and mastery of this divine power has been very primitive and superficial—but this is not his fault, but rather a problem with the power he inherited.

Because of fear and rejection by the ancient Greeks, Hades not only had no temples in Greece, but was also not classified as the chief god of Olympia for most of the time. Even in his rare appearances in stories, he was always a villain or a buffoon.

This was partly due to the ancient Greeks' natural aversion to and fear of death. They did not have a clear tradition of ancestor worship or sacrifices to the world of the dead; at most, they had the custom of placing two coins on their eyes as tolls when they died.

On the other hand, they had absolutely no idea how to describe the power that the 'master of the underworld' should possess.

This is not just a problem for the ancient Greeks, but a problem that almost all mythologies around the world have struggled to address.

Leaving aside distant examples, the rulers of the underworld in Chinese mythology—from the Lord of Mount Tai to Fengdu, from Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva to the Ten Kings of Hell—are almost all described, like Hades, as having a focus on controlling the power of the underworld rather than on their actual strength.

Unlike forces with concrete elements such as thunder, ocean, and earth, which are easily observed and described, the greatest fantasy of the ancients regarding death was simply that it took away the soul directly.

But it remains a global inertia—those who wield this power to take people away are not the masters of the underworld, but their subordinates.

1054>>>>

The power to take away the souls and lives of mortals belongs to Thanatos in the underworld, and in the Chinese underworld, it is the job of the Black and White Impermanence. Of course, the latter is a matter of authority, but the former is a matter of existence and value.

It is certain that Hades, the god of the underworld, does not have the authority to directly take away the soul of a mortal—of course, this is not a bad thing, after all, the god of death is a rather awkward and comical position in Greek mythology.

The immortality of gods is an unbreakable fundamental principle of this world, therefore Death cannot kill any god. Even the souls of demigods and heroes can only be taken by Thanatos through violence.

However, most of the time Thanatos does not possess such violence.

His most infamous humiliation was being outmaneuvered and trapped by Sisyphus, a mere mortal, resulting in the death of everyone on Earth. Therefore, not having the power of death was by no means a bad thing in the world of Greek mythology.

In this situation, what exactly is Hades' power?

Dongjiang began to try to recall, and based on his memories, he was certain that his father in this life was not the utterly shameful person that netizens described.

Hades appears very rarely in Greek mythology, and there are almost no descriptions of battles. The rare instance is when he is shot in the knee by an arrow from Heracles—but becoming Heracles's cushion is not an unacceptable thing.

Ares, Apollo, Poseidon—which of them hasn't served as a stepping stone for Heracles? There are even records of them being defeated by ordinary heroes; Aphrodite even has the shameful feat of being defeated by Diomedes, who was designated to possess three times the courage...

Hades, however, was able to precisely suppress Achilles, the strongest hero of the Trojan War, as well as many other heroes who had entered the underworld before him—these were not honest and lawless men, and it would take some skill to suppress them after death.

Hades was actually the chief in the struggle against his father Cronus because he was the youngest and strongest of all the sons.

Yes, there's a very interesting little story—although Hades was Cronus's eldest son, he was the last one to be spat out of Cronus's mouth, thus becoming the last born 'youngest eldest son,' while Zeus was the longest-living 'eldest youngest son.'

Moreover, as the warden facing the various monsters and Titan remnants imprisoned in Tartarus, he couldn't hold onto his position without considerable skill. Furthermore, if he were incompetent, he wouldn't be able to command the numerous Nyx offspring within the Underworld.

As for being frightened by Poseidon, this is actually a result of misinformation—the description in Book 20 of the Iliad is that "Hades, the king of the underworld, was terrified and cried out as he leaped from his throne, fearing that Poseidon would crack the earth above him and expose his dwelling place to the gods and mortals."

This passage can actually be interpreted as Hades being worried about the underworld being exposed to the mortal world rather than being frightened by his brother. As for the part about being frightened and falling off the throne, that is purely a product of secondary processing.

Of course, how one understands it is one thing; for Tsugumi, the most fundamental thing at this moment is how to comprehend and master Hades' power.

He stared at the bloodstone in his palm, one second, two seconds, three seconds.

OK, all done.

I have grasped the core of Hades' divine authority!

As for what form of power it will take—we'll talk about that when we get there!