"You only need to protect your ideals, protect the sincerity of your heart. This precious and rare genuine devotion, this proud hero's soul that chases after strength.
Noble Griffith! If losing the armor causes you to lose your battle in the future, that would be far too regrettable. I believe that it is not just you who wishes to fight Achilles at his strongest; Achilles surely wishes to clash with you at your absolute peak as well!"
As the words left his lips, a golden divine spear suddenly materialized in Helios's grasp, radiating the terrifying, brilliant glory of the solar fire.
It was an undeniably powerful divine weapon.
The tangible solar fire swirled entirely around its length, flashing like arcs of golden lightning that looked exceptionally beautiful yet remained laden with immense danger.
It was most likely the powerful combat weapon worn by the chief god Helios himself.
As an ancient Titan god, although he did not belong to the older generation of Titans led by Cronus, he was still an ancient immortal who had emerged during the same era as Zeus.
His father Hyperion and the current Lord of the Ocean Oceanus were both numbered among the original twelve Titans, making Helios a high god of the old divine order.
It was common knowledge that within the Greek pantheon, the raw power of the gods steadily weakened with each successive generation.
Their typical strategy was to overwhelm through sheer numbers, gathering armies of lesser gods to gang up on the reigning King of the Gods.
From the primordial god of chaos Chaos at the very beginning, to sky and earth, Uranus and Gaia, then to Zeus of the thunder, the symbolic concept of the God-King's authority grew weaker and weaker with each generation, and the twelve chief gods were uneven in strength as well.
By the later eras, the difference in strength and treatment between a god who had an older generation watching over them and one who lacked such backing was like night and day.
As one of the few remaining descendants of the ancient Titans, although Helios was never particularly favored by Zeus, he still possessed legendary divine artifacts like the Sun chariot.
Furthermore, he was the powerful sun god deeply revered by the island of Rhodes, where his colossus would eventually stand as one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.
Yet Night found himself entirely unable to read the Sun God's mind, wondering why the immortal would suddenly present his own weapon.
The thoughts of gods were notoriously difficult to predict, and though one particular possibility crossed his mind, he dismissed it as far too absurd since his relationship with the Sun God surely hadn't reached a level that would warrant such a grand gesture.
In fact, records in mythology about this sun god were also very few, and there was not much of a personality to draw reference from.
The only truly memorable figure in his story was actually his son Phaethon, who drove the Sun Chariot but lacked the ability to control the horses, causing them to run wild and deal tremendous damage to the mortal world.
The earth was scorched into a blazing hell, and in the end even angered the earth mother goddess Gaia, grandmother of all the gods.
Under Gaia's fury, she commanded Zeus to strike Phaethon down with lightning and intercept the chariot.
It was a tragedy through and through. In it Helios was only a grieving old father who liked bringing his son along to work, only to watch his son, too eager and impatient to achieve great deeds like his father, die young.
But in reality he was perhaps still a powerful and gentle god, beloved by the people?
Because among the second generation of gods, his father Hyperion, a member of the twelve Titans, took a neutral stance in that war between the third generation of God-Kings and the second, the great divine war for the throne.
Though this prevented him from being imprisoned afterward like the defeated Titans, it naturally also meant he did not receive much favor from the God-King Zeus.
In fact the sun god's position among the twelve Olympians had always been quite awkward.
Even as the rightful sun god and moon god, he and his family were frequently confused with the images of Apollo and Artemis in later generations, having their divine authority and divine artifacts taken from them.
The Sun Chariot itself was even rumored to have been passed down to Apollo.
Perhaps because all the other chief gods were either blood relatives of Zeus or directly his wives.
Or possibly both at once.
And Helios and his siblings were outsiders.
This also meant that though his siblings basically all worked on Olympus, and were even nominally among the twelve chief gods, when the gods divided up domains of faith and territory,
Zeus still carelessly forgot about this highly ranked chief god.
In the end he apologized for forgetting, and when he said he would redistribute, the sun god declined, and instead smiled and chose the island of Rhodes at the boundary between the Aegean and the Mediterranean.
Even under such blatant and humiliating treatment...
The sun god still quietly built up what should have been a hopelessly remote little island until it became the fourth largest island in Greece, one of the birthplaces of civilization in the Aegean region.
One of the seven wonders of the ancient world in the future.
To this day, countless Greeks still loved and believed in him.
The flame he held aloft was treated as a torch that could guide people toward the light ahead.
He built everything from the ground up on his own.
From this perspective, it was clear that the Sun God was not only immensely powerful and highly capable, but his benevolence toward humanity was also undeniable, marking his character as exceptionally pleasant among the pantheon.
Perhaps precisely because he was the patron god of Rhodes who was close to humanity, riding the Sun Chariot as he did, he had witnessed too many of humanity's possibilities.
Suffering, joy, strength, persistence.
It was because he understood this unyielding spirit that he loved humanity even more.
When he saw that brilliant courage, he was so moved, unable to contain himself, he even came down to the mortal world personally.
And now, having heard Night's answer, just as he said he could not bear to watch him face the strongest Achilles in anything less than his best state.
And so...
"You have surrendered the armor that shielded your flesh, so I shall bestow upon you the Sun Spear that can pierce through all creation. Go, and complete this battle between heroes!" When Helios said these words, the people present realized that the other party had actually come to deliver equipment and froze in disbelief.
Achilles's eyelid twitched hard!!
He wanted Griffith to fight him with that divine spear that was clearly no ordinary item, wreathed in solar fire?
Hold on. That was going too far.
Though his own equipment also counted as divine artifacts, his spear would not spray out flames like golden lightning.
The eternal and unquenchable sun fire.
Just getting close to it would probably melt a person down.
Never mind fighting against a weapon carrying that terrifying pressure. Achilles even questioned whether an ordinary person could grip that divine artifact at all.
The sun god was able to completely disregard the flames wrapped around the spear because of his own authority.
Athena showed a surprised expression. "Helios? You are going to give Griffith your own combat divine artifact?"
Helios shook his head, then nodded, and in the end he spoke. "No. Not a simple gift. But a trial. A trial to help him complete the hero's path."
The group was stunned. A trial?
Until they heard the sun god say this. "Human life is very brief. Only a few dozen years. Before he dies of old age, he may use my weapon.
This is the greatest assistance I can give him toward completing his heroic trial.
And I will retrieve it from before his grave after he has passed.
Of course, hero Griffith! You need to continue showing me your courage and your will.
The moment you flinch, the moment you lose your ideals, I will appear in the same way and take back the divine weapon!"
....
..
...
(End of the Chapter)