Ball of Nothing

Chapter 327 Underwater Tea Party

Poseidon couldn’t believe it. Back then, desserts were often hard as rocks and wouldn’t go down without good tea or wine. Now, these cakes as Zero called them melted the moment he put them in his mouth. The pies were sweet and gave off a baked fragrance that he never knew before. Who would have thought that the cuisine served in Hell would surpass the feasts they threw in Heaven several thousand years ago?

Zero proved to be more challenging than Poseidon thought he would be. If the teen resembled a lamb before, right now, Poseidon was convinced that Zero was actually a fox in rabbit skin. The teen would often let out bits of information slip in between small talks and not say anymore, prompting Poseidon to take the initiative to ask a question. Zero would always answer them just enough to satisfy the titan but still curious enough to want to know more. The young one would then seize the opportunity without fail to ask more about his personal history and about his niece.

\"How did you lose your eyes?\" Zero asked after he answered Poseidon’s question about what kind of person Enma was like. The poor titan didn’t even know that he had a nephew and thought that Hades was still working in Tartarus, overseeing the sinners and passing judgement to those in the afterlife. Zero didn’t have the heart to keep the fallen god in the dark and told him about King Enma as well as the Purgatory. He hinted that Heaven and Hell have reconciled and knew that Poseidon was dying to know more but withheld that information for now.

The question that Zero asked was a touchy subject for Poseidon who was contemplating if he should leave out some details for Zero or give him the full story. Knowing Hades, his brother might have already given this mysterious guest some background information. How troublesome...

\"It’s going to be a long story...\" he told Zero who paused in the middle of reaching for the teapot.

\"I can answer any question that you have if you let me know everything there is to know about what happened to you and Athena. My current business is to resolve Athena’s regrets and lift the curse on the gorgon sisters. However, as a disciple of Hua Tuo and Merlin with the ambition to become a travelling doctor, I want to find a way to save you too.\"

The sincere words touched Poseidon who smiled sadly. \"That would explain how you managed to put all my subordinates to sleep. You must be a very talented doctor and magician to manage that under my watch.\"

Zero blushed. \"Not really, I just have really good teachers.\"

Poseidon sighed heavily. It had been a long time since he attended any tea parties. Here on Hyacinth, there wasn’t really much going on. His subordinates weren’t at an intellectually stimulating level to hold such deep conversations or interesting debates. Of all the subordinates created, only Carlsen was capable of speaking. Zero’s company might be unexpected but it was very appreciated.

\"I’m not sure if you’d be able to help at all but it won’t hurt to satisfy your curiosity. In return, I hope you can satisfy some of my curiosities,\" Poseidon admitted.

Zero agreed and Poseidon started with his story.

\"This happened during the time when Mount Olympia was still full of life. The Titans were still fighting each other over petty things daily like the humans on Earth. The story I’m going to tell you happened before the lost records were founded. Back then, Heaven wasn’t formed yet. The Titans could be considered the first inhabitants of that plane. It started with the House of Great Gods that was built by us. Originally, there were only three titans - Zeus, Hades and myself. The creator created several Great Gods to assist him with keeping the seal of his memories hidden with their existence. The world knows it as six Great Gods and one Enlightened One that held the key for the creator’s reawakening. However, the truth was that the creator created more than just six Great Gods and back then, Buddha wasn’t part of the package deal. Buddha came in a lot later. None of the Great Gods knew about Buddha’s role in the awakening until after that Sage God told us the Great One was no more. The Great One’s name is Solo and he created more than a hundred Great Gods, scattering them to different worlds and dimensions to keep tabs on the various Divine Entities he created. Our job wasn’t to guard only memory fragments. We were meant to protect these Divine Entities and prevent them from killing each other. Many of these created Great Gods perished trying to fulfil their duties. Not all Divine Entities are easy to work with like the Divine Sister of Kindness who gave you this quest. Great Gods can become sources of energy for these Divine Entities and some of them were hunted down as food sources. Hades, Zeus and I were luckier. We were assigned to a Divine Sister called Law who decided to reside in Heaven with two other Divine Entities called Murvin and Isaben. Freya and the other Norse gods in Valhalla came later to guard their assigned Divine Sister, Isis and her mysterious clansmen settled down a lot later at the far edge of Heaven’s plane. If you’ve been there, you would know what I’m talking about. Back then, the angels didn’t exist, Heaven was barren land.\"

Zero nodded. He read about the origins of heaven in one of the ancient tomes in Merlin’s forbidden library. Poseidon only gave Zero more reason to believe in Solo’s intention to start a fight with his future self for some unknown reason. Zero was even more determined now to gain the acceptance of all Divine Entities before Solo’s plans could take place. So far, Zero felt like he was in the lead. If he had been any later, Poseidon might not be around to give him the clues that he needed.

\"I read about it in Merlin’s library,\" Zero admitted after some time and Poseidon smiled. He should have known that the eccentric wizard would have something like that lying around.

\"That would make explaining on my part a lot easier. Do you know the war between humans where gods had to join them?\"

Zero shook his head. \"I only heard of the war when humans fought against gods and slain a lot of them. They even hunted dragons into extinction. That’s the trigger point for why the old Earth had to be destroyed and a new god born from the power of these humans created the second Earth that the Half Moon villagers are from.\"

Poseidon was still slightly with Zero’s explanation about this new god and new Earth but filed that information aside for now. He would have his chance to clarify them later.

\"No, this war happened a lot earlier before the war between humans and gods. Back then, the titans were fighting too much on Mount Olympia. However, as everyone was more or less evenly matched in terms of power, it was hard to find a clear victor. To resolve their dispute, these titans took their fights to Earth. Those without the power granted by Solo started to build up their own powers by feeding off the power of prayers and thoughts from those of a lower plane. It’s about the time when religion among mortals became popular.\"

Zero nodded. He could understand where everything was slowly falling into place now. If the gods started gaining followers and grew their unique power that way, he could now understand why Eros tried to defame Athena. The matter was more than simple jealousy. It was a war between the gods. In order to take down someone as powerful as Athena, they had to first cut away her source of power. Rumours were the easiest way to ruin the faith in Athena’s believers.

\"Let me guess,\" Zero grinned. \"Back then, Athena was a very popular and powerful goddess so many other gods like Eros started underhand tricks to try and make her followers turn away from her so they could take her down, right?\"

Poseidon nodded. \"That’s right. However, Athena was not just my niece and Zeus’ daughter. She was my best student and had grown to be even more powerful than a Great God. Such petty tricks weren’t enough to take her down.\"

Zero nodded. If it was so easy to take down a mighty goddess like Athena who was worshipped for just about anything from intellect, war and beauty, the other gods would have succeeded long ago and Athena’s curse wouldn’t have lasted till today. Poseidon was considered a Great God, yet his powers had faded so much over the years. The God of Oceans was barely clinging onto his existence right now but Athena’s curse never weakened even after all this time. Zero couldn’t imagine the power she had when she was still at the peak of her power.

\"However, Athena was a child and a lady just like any other. She was kinder than anyone else and that was both her strength and weakness.\"

Zero held his breath, afraid of what Poseidon would say. The young doctor could already guess what happened next.

\"They targeted her emotions to bring her down. As despicable as that sounded, it was very effective. There really weren’t many things that Athena could be affected by. However, she had a few weaknesses. She was rather fond of Hades and me who treated her like family.\"

\"She had a crush on you, I heard.\"

Poseidon didn’t confirm or deny it but Zero understood. The God of Oceans still blamed himself for his niece’s untimely demise and suffering because of him. The young doctor didn’t like this mentality but there wasn’t much he could do about Poseidon’s grief. Athena did die because of her feelings for him, this fact wouldn’t change.

\"In any case, the other gods succeeded and Athena who couldn’t take the burden of this power succumbed to it. I believe you’ve heard about some of Athena’s curses. I might not know the true reason why she did what she did but I believe in the kindness she possessed. The gorgon’s curse is not a pretty one and neither was Arachne’s curse. I don’t know what that girl is thinking about most times but Athena never does something without a reason. I believe in her integrity even if her actions proved otherwise. Her thoughts can sometimes be very twisted but I blame the experiences others have put her through. Her intentions can be very veiled beneath her immediate actions and reactions. Simply put, she’s very dishonest and often doesn’t do or say things she really wants. It’s her personality to do things in a roundabout fashion.\"

Zero blinked. Why did this seem very familiar? \"Is she the kind of person to give someone homemade cookies and tell them that she only did it because she wanted to know if it was poisoned instead of telling them that she made it for them because she wanted to thank them?\"

Poseidon nodded quickly and snapped his fingers, leaning forward on the table. \"That’s her alright! It took me many years to understand that she can never be honest about what she wanted. For a few thousand years I’d always been guessing about what she truly meant. Her actions were so contradictory, who would have expected it to be something so completely opposite? Athena once came to me asking a bunch of weird questions, making me choose one over the other. I didn’t understand why she did it until she threw me a birthday party, preparing a gift according to my likes and dislikes. The girl can be very awkward at times...\"

Zero felt sorry for Athena. It took two to tango. Athena might be awkward but Poseidon wasn’t very bright either. The titan was extremely dense when it came to understanding a woman’s heart.

\"Sorry to ask this out of the blue, Poseidon. But have you ever fallen in love before?\"

The fallen god paused then blushed terribly before stuttering horribly, trying to deny it. The young doctor merely smiled in exhaustion. Now he knew why Athena’s feelings never got through to Poseidon.

\"Don’t lie. Since things have come to this, you might as well let me know who the lady you love is.\"

The titan changed from red to blue and even green then white but eventually settled for a heavy sigh.

\"Actually, Athena found out about who I loved. She ended up cursing her in what I think is jealousy. Back then, I’d been banished for committing too many crimes. Zeus and Hades passed the judgement themselves upon my request. I wasn’t actually banished and imprisoned on Hyacinth. I just happened to settle down on this planet after the unfortunate incident. Before this, I roamed around the continents in different worlds as a wandering god who exchanged miracles for favours. In one of the worlds, I met this troubled young queen whose kingdom was falling into ruins. I decided to lend her a hand and she became a very renowned ruler respected by all. We fell in love and I told her everything about myself including my banishment and my regrets. In order to repay the kindness Athena had shown me and ease the guilt that I had in my heart, this queen erected a temple in Athena’s name and spread Athena’s name as a religion for her people to worship.\"

Zero tilted his head to the side. \"Was this woman found kissing you in Athena’s temple and cursed to become a gorgon alongside with her sisters because she was caught by Athena?\"

Poseidon didn’t deny it and Zero groaned in frustration. Was the gorgon’s curse really a simple case of jealousy?

\"Why did she have to kiss you in her temple? Of course, Athena would be jealous!\"

Poseidon growled. \"It wasn’t what it looked like. Would you stop interrupting my story?\"

Zero apologised meekly, not expecting Poseidon to lose his calm.

\"This queen had a duty to her people and I couldn’t stay with her forever. Even if we had love, we had to part. That day we went to Athena’s temple together to pray for Athena’s happiness before I left for good. That kiss Athena saw was a farewell kiss. I didn’t even know about the curse she placed on Medusa until a few centuries later. Nobody told me about it until Hades came with the news of Athena’s suicide.\"

Zero was speechless. Did that mean that everyone suffered because of a misunderstanding? Medusa was cursed by Athena who misunderstood her relationship with Poseidon while Poseidon was dying because he blamed himself for Athena’s death and Medusa’s curse. Medusa was cursed to be a monster trapped forever in Valhalla simply because Poseidon wasn’t clear with Athena about where he stood about his feelings.

Zero groaned. How was he going to resolve this lover’s spat? If anything, Poseidon didn’t talk about Medusa with much fondness. However, Athena seemed to always strike a sore spot in the titan whenever her name was mentioned. Could it be...?

The young doctor shook his head. Whatever the truth was, he still had a mission to resolve this regret and lift the curse. As a doctor, there were two types of illnesses he couldn’t cure and Poseidon was definitely affected by one of them. Zero wasn’t foolish enough to involve himself with the affairs of lovesick fools.