[email protected]/jelopy_jelopy for 100+ more chapters
The night of the grand banquet finally arrived.
The Apollo Familia mansion was huge.
It was built with white stone and bright gold.
Inside, the main hall was full of warm light.
Beautiful music played softly in the background.
Gods and high-level adventurers wore expensive clothes.
They drank fine wine, ate rich food, and laughed loudly.
Then, the heavy wooden doors at the front of the hall opened wide.
Hestia walked in first.
Bell, Welf, Lili, Elias, and Dee walked closely behind her.
They wore simple, clean clothes.
They did not have gold or jewels.
The music stopped playing.
The loud laughing died down.
The entire room went completely quiet.
Everyone turned their heads to look at the door.
The other Gods and adventurers stared at the Hestia Familia.
They did not look at them with respect. They looked at them with deep pity.
Whispers started to spread across the large room.
"Poor Hestia,"
A Goddess whispered behind her fan.
"They are walking right into a trap," an adventurer muttered to his friend.
"Apollo is going to crush them tonight."
At the far end of the room, Apollo sat on a raised platform.
He wore a bright white suit that shined under the lights.
He held a golden cup of wine.
When he saw them enter, Apollo smiled a very wide, fake smile.
He stood up from his chair and opened his arms wide.
"Welcome!"
Apollo shouted. His voice echoed across the quiet hall.
"Welcome to my home, Hestia! I am so glad you brought your little family. I was worried you would be too scared to show up tonight."
Hestia stood tall. She did not look away from him.
"We are not scared of you, Apollo,"
Hestia said loudly.
Apollo chuckled. He walked slowly down the steps of his platform.
He stopped right in front of their group.
He ignored Hestia and looked directly at Bell.
"Such a bright boy,"
Apollo said softly.
"You look so out of place here. A star like you should not be stuck in the mud. You need a much better home. You need a place where you can truly shine."
Bell gripped his hands into tight fists.
He kept his mouth shut.
He remembered what Elias told him.
Apollo looked around the room. He wanted every single person to hear his next words.
"I invited you here to talk as friends,"
Apollo lied.
"But seeing you all like this... it makes me very sad. Hestia, you cannot provide for these children. You live in a broken, dirty church. You do not even have a real bed for them."
Before Hestia could yell back, Elias took a step forward.
He moved smoothly and put himself right between Apollo and Bell.
"You talk way too much,"
Elias said.
The room went dead silent again. Nobody dared to breathe.
A mortal just told God to shut up.
Apollo stopped smiling. His eyes turned instantly cold.
"Excuse me?"
Apollo asked. His voice was dangerously low.
"Do you know who I am, human?"
"I know exactly what you are,"
Elias answered.
Elias stood straight. He looked down at Apollo.
He didn't bow his head. He didn't blink. He looked at the God of the Sun like he was looking at a small bug on the ground.
A mortal was looking down on God, and he did not care.
"You brought us here to make a scene,"
Elias said.
His voice was calm, but it carried across the entire hall.
"You wanted to insult us in front of everyone. Then, you wanted to make up some fake reason to attack us. You planned to force us into a corner so we would have to fight you."
Apollo narrowed his eyes. This mortal was ruining his grand plan.
"I do not know what you mean,"
Apollo said through his teeth.
"Yes, you do,"
Elias said flatly.
"So let us skip the boring part. You want Bell. You want to crush our family. We will not wait for your silly excuses."
Elias pointed a finger right at Apollo's chest.
"I challenge you,"
Elias declared loudly.
"The Hestia Familia challenges the Apollo Familia. We call for a War Game."
The entire hall gasped at the same time.
Someone dropped a glass cup. It shattered into pieces on the hard floor.
The Hestia Familia was calling for a War Game?
They only had a few members.
Apollo had hundreds of strong adventurers.
It sounded like total suicide.
Apollo stared at Elias in pure shock.
He opened his mouth, but no words came out at first.
His big plan was gone. This mortal just stole his stage and his game.
Then, Apollo started to laugh. It was not a bright or happy laugh. It was an angry, dark laugh.
"You challenge me?"
Apollo asked. He reached out and grabbed Elias by the collar of his shirt.
Elias didn't move. He let God grab him.
"A simple mortal looking down on a God,"
Apollo sneered.
"You are very brave, or you are just very stupid. Fine. I accept your War Game. But since you challenged me, the prize changes right now."
Apollo let go of Elias and pointed at Bell.
"If I win, I will take Bell Cranel,"
Apollo announced to the room.
"He will become my child."
Then Apollo pointed his finger right at Elias's face.
"And I will take you, too,"
Apollo said with a cruel smile.
"But you will not be my child. You will be my slave. You will scrub my floors. You will bow down to me every single day for the rest of your short life."
Elias looked at Apollo's pointing finger. Then he looked at Apollo's angry face.
Elias threw his head back and laughed.
It was a cold, hollow sound. It did not sound like a normal laugh. It sounded like a promise of pure pain.
"You want to own me?"
Elias asked. He was still smiling a chilling smile.
"You can certainly try."
Suddenly, the air in the room completely changed.
The warm, bright light of the banquet hall seemed to fade away.
The heat from the large fireplaces vanished in a second.
The temperature dropped instantly. It dropped so fast that people could suddenly see their own breath in the air.
Thick frost began to form on the edges of the tall glass windows.
Apollo shivered.
The God of the Sun actually felt cold.
Dee walked slowly up to Elias. She did not look happy at all. Her eyes were empty, dark, and completely endless.
She looked right into Apollo's eyes.
"You want to take my boyfriend?"
Dee asked.
Her voice was very quiet, but every single person in the hall heard it. It sounded like metal scraping against stone.
Apollo tried to stand tall and act strong.
"I am a God,"
Apollo said, though his voice shook slightly.
"I take whatever I want to take."
Dee tilted her head to the side.
"You are nothing,"
Dee said.
The cold grew even worse. The water in the glasses on the tables froze completely solid.
The adventurers in the room hugged their arms, shivering violently.
"If you win, you get nothing,"
Dee told him, stepping closer.
"Because you will not win. But when we win... we will take everything. We will take your big house. We will take all your money. We will take your family. And we will take your pride. I will personally make sure you have absolutely nothing left."
Apollo took a slow step backward.
He did not mean to do it.
His body just moved away on its own.
He felt a deep, terrible fear clawing at his chest.
He was a powerful God, but this strange girl terrified him.
On the other side of the frozen room, two Goddesses watched the scene play out.
Freya held a silver cup of wine. Her beautiful purple eyes were fixed on Elias and Dee.
She felt a deep thrill run down her spine.
Next to her stood Hephaestus, the God of the Forge.
She wore her black eyepatch and a dark, formal suit.
"Apollo is a massive fool,"
Hephaestus whispered.
"He really is,"
Freya agreed softly.
They both looked at Apollo.
They didn't feel angry at him. They did not even feel annoyed by his arrogance.
They only felt pity.
They could see it clearly. They could feel the heavy, dark shadow wrapping around Apollo's neck like a tight rope.
Apollo thought he was playing a fun game with mortals.
He thought he was the strong hunter trapping weak prey.
But Freya and Hephaestus knew the terrible truth.
Apollo had just challenged Death directly to a game.
And Death had happily accepted.
Apollo didn't know it yet, but he was already a dead man walking.