The old man you see with your phone is highly suspicious.

It might not even be necessary to use treasure, since the legend of the Thunder's departure has already spread throughout Greece with the seabirds, and the king might provide assistance for free.

The island's king is said to have married one of Hercules' daughters, thus making him related to almost half of the heroes on board.

However, when they approached the dock, there was no one to meet them, and no boats came or went; the entire dock was as silent as a dead place.

All the heroes who disembarked sensed something unusual. They didn't know that in just one day, the whole of Greece had become a living hell. More than half of the people had fevers, infections, and started vomiting. The vomit seeped into the groundwater and flowed into the Aegean Sea, causing a wider spread of the disease.

Upon entering the city-state, the horrific scene chilled everyone to the bone.

The ground was littered with wailing and vomiting corpses, and the streets were piled high with filth from vomiting and diarrhea. This filth floated on the river and on the Aegean Sea, creating a living hell comparable to that of hell itself.

It is comparable to the Ganges River of later generations.

The hero who went to investigate immediately reported the situation back, covering his mouth and nose the entire time.

Upon hearing the intelligence, Xue Dinglu, whose back was still soaked with blood, murmured, "It's gangrene and cholera..."

"Set sail! Set sail immediately! Head to Olympus as quickly as possible." Xue Dinglu realized that this was not a normal plague, but the start of a process to destroy the world.

"Make a simple rain-collecting device. For now, we'll only feed on fish caught in the open ocean, and I'll be the first to handle them." Xue Luding, carrying a bundle of thorns on his back, finished arranging everything, looking slightly weak.

The other heroes, though somewhat puzzled, did as instructed, and the fleet immediately left the archipelago, sailing away into the distance.

After leaving the coast, everyone looked grim and gathered together, asking, "What exactly happened?"

"This is God's punishment for humanity. We cannot interfere. We can only hurry to Olympus and ask the Father to forgive our sins." Xue Dinglu said this as if he were truly a devout follower of Zeus.

In secret, they communicated in code: "The Seven Chapters of Annihilation have begun."

Everyone looked terrible.

The prophesied future is drawing ever closer.

All the heroes who came to this ship did so to avoid such a future.

Just like that brat Achilles said, they were going to "save the world".

Whether driven by a desire to save the world or by a genuine compassion for the suffering of humanity, this group embarked on a path of no return—a path to kill Zeus.

Even knowing that this path would lead to certain death.

From the perspective of the gods in heaven, the third trial was complete.

……

In the underworld, as the bells tolled, Typhon, deep within the abyss, began to utter his second sentence.

"The next day, war will be granted!"

A war broke out between Athens and Sparta that engulfed the whole of Greece.

Both sides accused each other of being disloyal to the gods, which led to the plague. When neither side could convince the other, Athens and Sparta began a massive war involving the entire Greek population.

Dozens of kingdoms and city-states participated, and hundreds of thousands of troops began to fight like madmen.

There were no heroes involved; it was merely a war between mortals. But those mortals seemed possessed by Khorne, engaging in extremely cruel killings. Not a single deserter was spared; they all fought to the last moment, some even smiling as they died.

"How dare they! Who gave them permission to start this war!" Agamemnon, the king of Greece, stared angrily at the bloody war on the distant island. It was not normal, whether it was the soldiers who were as bloodthirsty as monsters or the Athenians and Sparta who had started the war without authorization.

Agamemnon, the Greek king, and Menelaus, the Spartan king, were both aboard the Thunderclap, yet such a war still broke out.

However, this is just the beginning.

On the third day, they gave him hunger.

All the food began to rot and mold overnight. Panic and fear swept across all of Greece. Countless people afflicted with the plague knelt on the ground, begging for the mercy of the gods and for Zeus's grace.

The Skybreaker fleet encountered the sea monster Scylla at sea. After destroying four escort ships, the monster, famous in Greek mythology, was finally killed by the great hero Hector's javelin.

However, not long after killing the Scylla Sea Monster, the Sky Thunder fleet encountered a storm, and several more escort ships sank forever to the bottom of the Aegean Sea.

Fortunately, those sunken ships carried their meager supply of fresh water and food.

The once raging sea quickly calmed down, and the gods, watching the heroes struggle and suffer in the storm, all showed expressions of excitement.

Perhaps this is one of the few pastimes the gods have had in their long lives.

For the gods, the legends of the heroes who defeated the sea monsters and the fleets that conquered the storms are comparable to those of the Argonauts decades ago, and their legends continue.

For the heroes aboard the Sky Thunder, however, it was exhaustion, thirst, and hunger.

Heroes have already begun to be injured, and these are injuries that even the Cursed Blood cannot heal.

When facing the Scylla Sea Monster, one hero had his entire shoulder torn off. Even though Xue Law activated the Cursed Blood to transfer the injury and pain immediately, he could only stop the bleeding and heal. The lost arm could never be returned.

"So, kid, this is our journey. Do you regret it?" Hector asked, his spear deflecting Achilles' shield.

During the previous battle with the Scylla, Achilles had been resentful that he hadn't noticed the giant claw hidden on the ship's side, which had resulted in his colleague being seriously injured. If only he had been a little faster, a little faster!

"I will never regret coming to the Sky Thunder. I only regret that my martial arts skills are not good enough!" he continued to roar, his spear dancing like a dragon.

"when!"

The spear was knocked away and stuck in the deck. Hector's lance was pressed against his throat, and he said, "You are not good at fighting, you are weak at counter-fighting, you have lost your mind. In a real fight to the death, you only want to win by brute force and speed. Your original martial arts skills have been thrown to the winds."

Achilles slumped onto the deck, filled with resentment for not being able to save his best friend at that moment. Regret and resentment filled the mind of this 12-year-old boy.

But now, awakened by Hector's blow, he silently went back to pick up his spear and shield.

Hector was not good with words. He didn't know how to comfort this child, whose strength on the Skybreaker was almost second only to his own. He simply sat silently with him, watching the Aegean Sea under the setting sun and the endless horizon in the distance.

At this moment, Odysseus came before them, handing each person a papyrus scroll and a piece of charcoal, saying, "Everyone, write down what you want to send to your family. Today may be the last day."

"A message for your family?" Achilles took the papyrus and charcoal, staring blankly at Odysseus.

“The wills,” Odysseus said directly. “It was arranged by Xerides. Let each of us leave a last copy. If any of us 32 is still alive, that person will take everyone’s wills back home. These will be our last letters to our families.”

Achilles stared blankly at the thin papyrus in his hand. At that moment, he probably realized that the weight of death was merely a piece of papyrus.

"So you regret it now, kid?" A large hand covered his head. Hector seemed to have already written his will and rolled up the papyrus.

"Do you regret it?" Achilles looked at the papyrus in his hand, then at Hector, who had already stuffed the paper into the seam of his armor, and asked, "What did you write?"

"If someone else sees this before I die, it won't be interesting." Hector looked at the sunset, his dead fish eyes seemingly radiating the decadent aura of a middle-aged man, and ruffled the hair of the little devil next to him with his large hand.

“So if you give up, we’ll find a nearby island tonight and drop you off. You can go home and don’t have to get involved,” Hector continued to persuade the child.

He truly admired this child; he himself certainly wouldn't have had such courage and skill at that age.

Therefore, he hoped that such a child would survive, at least until he grew up and reached the peak of his martial arts skills.

"Didn't we agree to go to Olympus together?!"

"We promised to be in the same fleet for life, don't just abandon me!"

Hector's words of persuasion seemed to have provoked the imp's rebellious nature. He quickly dodged Hector's hand and wrote his will on the papyrus.

“If you end up without me as your fighting force, then you’ll have died for nothing.” Achilles, like Hector, rolled up the papyrus and stuffed it into his armor.

Chapter 57 The Final Trial

The two former mortal enemies now acted like best friends. They went up to the upper deck of the ship together, handed the will to Xue Dinglu, and put it into a sealed wooden box.

The gloom on the faces of each hero who handed in their will vanished instantly, replaced by their former boldness and valor.

Hector knew that this was just a little trick by the benevolent hero to inspire everyone's morale, but he didn't expose it; instead, he went along with this simple strategy.

After the two placed their suicide notes in the wooden box, their fear of death seemed to vanish.

It was as if all burdens had been lifted, and all that was left was to consider the enemy at hand.

“This wooden box was made by the witch Circe. It will never get wet under any circumstances. Even if we all perish, it will always float on the Aegean Sea.” After Xue Dinglu finished speaking, he was the last one. He threw his will into the box, sealed it, and locked it.

"So, if anyone is lucky enough to survive in the end, let them carry the souls of all of us and lead the way home."

Everyone seemed to smile, having finally shed their last burden. Their journey was only halfway complete. Even in death, they would still have companions to carry their souls home, back to their native land.

There is endless darkness ahead, but dawn will always come.

Yes, dawn will eventually come.

But before dawn arrives, someone must illuminate this darkness.

……

"On the fourth day, death was granted."

Mortals, grappling with plague, war, and famine, began to die in large numbers. The underworld was completely filled with vengeful spirits, and even the ferrymen of the River Styx could not cross it.

"On the fifth day, the end of the world will be given."

As sea levels rose, floods began to inundate coastal ports and cities. Raging thunder roared eternally over the Aegean Sea. The last escort ship of the Sky Thunder sank, and the heroes who guarded those last few escort ships were also forever lost in the sea.

Of the 32 heroes of the Skybreaker, only 27 remain.

"On the sixth day, hell is bestowed."

The flood submerged most of Greece, and even among the gods watching the drama unfold from above, many felt that Zeus, the father of the gods, had gone too far, as too many people had already died in Greece because of this new version of the Twelve Trials.

Of course, they didn't know the prelude to the destruction of the world; they could only see this part, and could only complain, not daring to ask their heavenly father Zeus.

At this moment, the people on the Sky Thunder were facing their final trial.

That was the final trial before Olympus, where groups of beautiful and graceful Sirens lay on the rocks, uttering melodious sounds.

Dozens and hundreds of sirens of all shapes and sizes, their chests covered only by seashells, their flawless bodies and jade-like skin exposed to all the heroes.

And then, came that melodious and seductive soft music.

The siren's song began at midnight, and the first to be seduced were the mortal boatmen on the Sky Thunder.

The beautiful and enchanting singing voice was like a young girl's coquettish breath in her ear.

Blood pressure begins to rise, and blood begins to boil.

They were instantly bewildered, and in their daze, they docked the Sky Thunder near the reef where the siren was, ignoring the Sky Thunder's hull hitting the reef, and foolishly walked onto it.

When they regained consciousness, they saw, through the moonlight, a beautiful young woman by the reef, her slightly damp hair hanging down, tears welling up on her collarbone, her rosy cheeks trembling restlessly, her pearly teeth gently biting, and her fair toes curling slightly on the reef.

There are hundreds of girls like this here, each seemingly possessing the most beautiful face in all of Greece. Whether they are mature women, cute girls, or all sorts of beauties, they all have their eyes on these mortal boatmen.

Not only mortals, but even heroes were caught in this illusion.

Almost everyone on the Sky Thunder was affected. When the siren saw that even the heroes were bewitched by them, they played and sang even more enthusiastically.

Even those who were already married and established, such as Hector and Odysseus, as well as children like Achilles, and even those like Xue Lude who were constantly suffering, all disembarked and came to the reef.