In the scorched pit.
Asclepios came back to his senses from the shock and confusion, raised his pale hands, touched his familiar face, and felt the normal warmth beneath his fingers, the flow of blood and life moving beneath the skin.
His scholar's instinct for observation rose naturally to the surface, and he could not help clicking his tongue in wonder.
"I am actually still alive?"
"More precisely, you died and came back."
The pale-faced Lorne beside him glanced at this troublesome nephew of his and explained the sequence of events without any particular warmth.
Standing directly in the path of Zeus's Thunderbolt, even Lorne himself would have been blown into fragments if he had been there in person, let alone Asclepios, who was only a demigod.
So at the time, Asclepios had absolutely no chance of survival.
His body was genuinely destroyed by the divine power of the Thunderbolt.
Nothing was left. Not even ash.
But just as Lorne had expected, the God-king had not intended to reduce Asclepios's soul to nothing as well, as that would have painted him as needlessly brutal in the eyes of the other gods.
His original plan was first to destroy Asclepios's body in the name of divine law, making an example of him and maintaining the authority of the gods.
Then, graciously yielding to the pleas of the other gods, he would elevate Asclepios's soul into a constellation to adorn the divine authority of his sky, and by doing so bring the power of the healer entirely under his own control.
The first half of the plan went smoothly.
The second half ran into a serious problem.
Zeus destroyed Asclepios's body, then reached out to take hold of his soul, and found that it was simply gone.
Whether he examined the scene himself or went to the three Fates for confirmation, he got the same answer every time.
In fact, this was entirely Lorne's doing.
Before setting out for the underworld, out of cautious habit, he had mixed his own divine blood into wine and given it to Asclepios to drink, then bound a sacred covenant with his soul through holy words, as one final precaution before heading off to stir up trouble in the underworld.
As it turned out, the good he hoped for did not come to pass, but the contingency he prepared for did.
Asclepios walked straight into death's path, his body blown to nothing by Zeus's Thunderbolt.
But just as Zeus and the three Fates had never managed to discover Lorne's true identity and existence over all these years, Asclepios's soul, covered and saturated by Lorne's divine blood, took on the divine nature of Chance, and became a blind spot in the system.
It was neither detected by Zeus nor collected by the underworld, and slipped through by sheer luck.
Since Zeus had no idea any of this had happened, the divine king was currently very confused indeed.
Faced with the furious Hestia, Athena, and Artemis who came storming to his door, he kept insisting on his own innocence.
This was an accident.
This was the underworld's fault.
Someone was trying to frame him.
But Zeus's longstanding reputation for deep scheming had long since burned through every last bit of goodwill anyone had toward him. Hestia, Athena, and Artemis naturally refused to believe a word of it, and simply assumed the divine king had destroyed both Asclepios's body and soul together and was now trying to shift the blame.
Left with no way to prove his innocence, Zeus could only avoid being confronted entirely. Afraid of being cornered at the door by three major gods, he had not even dared return to Olympos recently.
All of the above was intelligence Lorne had drawn out of Medusa, his inside source, on the way back.
"So even he gets to have a day like this."
Having heard Lorne's account, Asclepios could not hold back the twitch at the corner of his mouth. The usually still and subdued expression on his face broke into a gleeful smile that made no effort to hide his schadenfreude.
Lorne glanced at Zeus's prized grandson and asked with quiet amusement.
"So then. Do you still want to be alive?"
"I would rather not."
Asclepios gave a scornful shake of his head, his tone carrying a note of dry reflection.
"These days, being dead is considerably easier than being alive."
Then the god of medicine paused, and a trace of wry humor returned to his face. "Besides, opportunities to watch that God king take a proper fall do not come along often."
Hearing Asclepios's meaningful reply, Lorne gave a satisfied nod.
Not bad at all.
Truly a worthy son of that stubborn Apollo.
The bone of defiance in him was there from birth.
And having just been played by his own grandfather Zeus, his original body blasted down to nothing, even someone with Asclepios's patient temperament could not possibly be without some resentment.
"Come to think of it, something feels strange about me right now."
Asclepios examined the body he now inhabited with repeated attention.
The faint sense of unreality made him frown. "It does not quite feel like being dead, and it does not quite feel like being alive either. My body's sensitivity and coordination are also a little off."
"Did you think I was so supremely capable that I could restore your original body to you perfectly intact?"
Lorne gave Asclepios beside him a flat look and replied without any particular sympathy.
"What I gave you is a vessel I shaped from my own divine blood combined with the power of creation.
At best it is a temporary container for your soul. Being able to function at all is already more than you deserve."
The fact that Asclepios was alive and moving at all came down to two things.
First, the sacred covenant sealed before the journey protected and concealed his soul.
Second, Lorne had obtained the power of creation from Persephone during his time in the underworld.
Without that, even if he had managed to retrieve this nephew's soul, the most it could have amounted to was a wandering ghost.
"Here. Drink this first. It will deepen the fusion between your body and your soul."
As he spoke, Lorne reached into the magical array and pulled out a bottle of the elixir of immortality, tossing it to Asclepios.
The latter caught it and drank it down in one go, the faint sense of unreality in his body easing somewhat.
Watching the life come back a little more into his nephew's bearing, Lorne continued. "Also, the sacred covenant bound into your soul can help conceal you from Zeus and the three Fates for now, but only temporarily.
If you do not want Zeus to drag you back to Olympos and turn you into his property, you will need to drink the wine I brew on a regular basis to keep the covenant running and maintain your body's vitality."
"Is there no other way?"
"Not for now."
Lorne shook his head and waved a dismissive hand.
"Stop asking so many questions. Managing to keep you out of Zeus's hands at all is no small thing."
Asclepios looked at the wound on Lorne's palm that had not yet closed, and opened his mouth, then stopped.
He understood perfectly well what the so-called divine wine was actually made from.
Divine blood was the vessel of divine power.
Losing too much of it placed a considerable burden on the one giving it.
Having been saved twice in a row by the person in front of him, even Asclepios, who did not place much weight on such debts, had no desire to owe too much.
Of course, Lorne was no great philanthropist either, and had no particularly noble quality of giving without expecting anything in return.
It was simply that Asclepios had just barely escaped death and had nothing to his name at the moment.
Beyond his skill in medicine, there was simply nothing to extract from him right now.
The payment for this particular job would have to come from someone else.
Lorne rose, brushed the dust and grass from his clothes, and looked toward a certain city-state in the north, a subtle smile spreading across his face.
"Come on. Walk with me to Thessaly."
Asclepius was slightly stunned upon hearing this, then reacted and coldly snorted while shaking his head.
"Find him? No way!"
"After all, he is still your father.
Your aunt didn't dare to tell him about your matter before. Now that the dust has settled, whether you are dead or alive, he should at least know, right?"
"What if he knows? Would he dare to seek revenge against that God King for me?"
"Not necessarily!"
Lorne smiled and looked at the incredulous Asclepius in front of him with amusement. "How about we make a bet? If he doesn't have the guts, then you win. I'll help you beat him up and never interfere in your father-son affairs again.
On the contrary, if he dares to seek revenge against Zeus for you, then you lose..."
Some big filial son was quite tempted: "Sounds good, and then what?"
"Stop thinking about that trash [Immortality Potion] of yours.
Help me focus on developing the [Immortality Drug]. I'll provide the materials!"
As soon as Lorne said this,
Asclepius's expression instantly became unsettled, his gaze burning with intensity.
"You have a way to get the [Golden Apples]?"
"Before, no, but now it seems there is some clue."
Lorne smiled meaningfully, and in his mind the figure of the snake mother Echidna appeared.
If he remembered correctly, the hundred-headed dragon Ladon guarding the [Golden Apples] in the sacred garden was the famous offspring of Typhon.
With this connection to the snake mother, he might really be able to sneak in, grab a few golden apples, and have Asclepius concoct an advanced [Immortality] potion for him.
A mere [Immortality Potion] had limited effects on gods and came with a bunch of troubles.
Of course he didn't care about it.
In comparison, the [Immortality Drug] with the characteristics of the main gods was what really interested him.
Before there were no opportunity and no materials.
It was nothing but a wild delusion.
Now, with the key to the sacred garden in hand, obtaining the golden apples was not entirely impossible.
And most crucially, Asclepius had already been publicly reduced to ashes, indirectly removing the hidden dangers of the immortality potion.
It was the perfect time to have this god of medicine stay focused in a small dark room working for him, preventing him from wandering around all day and causing more trouble.
"It's a deal!"
At this moment Asclepius was breathing rapidly.
He agreed to the bet without hesitation, his voice cracking a bit from excessive excitement.
Golden apples!
Those were golden apples containing [Immortality]!
This guy actually had a way to get them!
If it was really as he said, his long-cherished research could advance further.
Wanting to analyze and replicate the [Immortality] that only main gods possessed through potions was no longer a wild fantasy.
So no matter whether he won or lost this bet, he didn't lose out!
At this moment Asclepius was completely hooked on this bet.
He excitedly urged Lorne on, for the first time desperately wanting to see his annoying father.
"Where is Thessaly? Let's go! Let's hurry!"
"Got it, got it. Once we get there, you can't reveal yourself without my permission."
Lorne responded helplessly on the surface, but secretly the corners of his lips curled up.
These father and son might have something to gain, but he definitely wouldn't lose.
Moreover, a grand drama of fatherly kindness and filial piety would at least be worth the extra ticket price.
Oh, no.
To be precise, it should be two shows...
Lorne's profound gaze swept over the Asclepius beside him and looked far into the distance toward the Thessaly labor camp and the Olympus Grand Temple.
The malicious smile on his face grew even thicker as the journey progressed.
~~
Several days later, Thessaly.
On the lush green grassland, a certain Olympus labor camp inmate who was herding cattle and sheep welcomed an unexpected visitor.
"It's you? What are you here for!"
The moment Apollo saw Lorne appear, his face, which had gained some weathered look after years of labor reform, instantly showed an expression of uncontrollable anger.
"Get lost! Get out! Don't appear in front of me!"
Seeing his brother-in-law's reaction so intense, Lorne cleared his throat, trying to ease the atmosphere.
"Cough, actually I came this time with no ill intentions, just to visit you, and incidentally entrusted by the memory goddess Mnemosyne to express thanks for your tolerance toward the Muses."
Thanks to Artemis's mediation,
Apollo no longer pursued the subordinate gods' rebellion.
He also agreed to the request of the nine Muses to obey summons but not commands, and wrote a letter to Mnemosyne making a reconciliation promise.
At this point, the previous conflicts between the two sides were completely turned over.
And it was precisely for this reason that Mnemosyne dared to leave the Memory Temple and lead the nine Muses to visit the War God Mountain.
However, after hearing Lorne's proactively expressed "goodwill," Apollo's face couldn't help but turn iron-blue, full of humiliation and grief and indignation.
"Enough! I've already given them to you, what more do you want?
How long are you going to humiliate me?"
"Ah?"
Looking at the God of Light in front of him gritting his teeth as if he had suffered great grievances,
Lorne's mind was filled with question marks.
Just as the atmosphere was somewhat frozen, a burly figure riding a warhorse galloped across the grassland, heading toward the gentle slope, and asked Apollo with a loud laugh from afar.
"Do you have a guest? Perfect, let me entertain them."
"Admetus, what are you doing here!
Go back!"
However, seeing his friend arrive, this God of Light acted as if facing a great enemy, blocking him back with one hand, and looked warily at Lorne in front of him.
Watching the king of Thessaly retreat back to the shaded area,
Lorne spread his hands, looking very innocent.
"I say, after all, during the previous Gigantes rebellion, I also helped the Thessalians a bit. He just came over to say a few words, is it necessary to be this defensive?"
"Help?"
Apollo's face darkened even more, asking through gritted teeth.
"You mean having my sister stuff a poisonous snake on his wedding day to poison him to death?!"
"Ah?"
Lorne, hearing this inexplicable blame falling on his head, looked bewildered.
"What are you talking about?"
"Still trying to quibble? Fine, let me help you recall!"
As the God of Light took a deep breath and briefly recounted the previous encounter, Lorne's forehead slightly broke into a sweat.
Not long ago, that king of Thessaly, Apollo's close friend, forgot to offer sacrifices to the moon and huntress goddess Artemis at his wedding ceremony, which angered the goddess.
And so, she sent a snake to disrupt the bridal chamber.
Fortunately, Apollo arrived in time to save him, however he still couldn't turn the situation around.
Apollo found his sister and pleaded desperately, only then retrieving his friend's soul.
And the price was to take the initiative to bow his head and reconcile with the nine Muses.
At this moment, with new grudges added to old hatreds, Apollo looked at Lorne in front of him with eyes full of grief, indignation, and determination.
"Whatever else you want, just say it! Don't make things difficult for my friend! And don't use my sister to threaten me!"
Lorne: "..."
Heaven above, who knew that Artemis had mediated it that way?
This time he was truly innocent.
(End of this chapter)