For half a month straight, the city of Knossos was immersed in a cheerful and relaxed atmosphere.
Farming, storing, brewing, trading... ordinary people continued their original life trajectories, all looking forward to better years ahead.
They did not understand the struggle for divine authority, nor the conflicts of faith.
The few acres of land under their feet and the lamp fire at home were their entire world.
They did not understand the great military and national affairs worried about above, only knowing that under the governance of Great Mother Goddess Athena and Lord Scribe Lorne, more and more wealth was flowing to Crete, and their days were getting better day by day.
Therefore, the smiles blooming on everyone's faces were sincere and warm, without a trace of pretense.
Perhaps due to this authenticity, the sea remained calm and peaceful.
And with Athena stepping in to take over duties, Lorne was able to extricate himself from busy governmental affairs, continuing to secretly develop his Dionysian cult, drawing faith from human joy.
Unlike those Olympian [Gods Above] detached from the mortal world, he was a god of the human realm, born with both divinity and humanity, experiencing death and rebirth, ultimately ascending due to human faith and pursuits.
Thus, the mortal dust was the soil where he took root and grew strong.
As for this open and aboveboard poaching, Athena turned a blind eye.
After all, pursuing joy in painful lives was human nature, and the motivation for them to persist in living.
And as the subordinate god of the hearth goddess, the corners he dug the most were her aunt's.
Since that hearth goddess did not care, why should she bother?
With the backing of the two goddesses and suitable soil for development, the Dionysian cult modified by Lorne achieved rapid development and expansion, soon spreading across Crete, with believers increasing a hundredfold.
The concept of [Joy] and the influence of the [Dionysian Cult] also spread to various Greek city-states with the far voyages of the Minos fleets and the dissemination of [wine], gaining a large number of potential followers.
—The lower the class, the firmer and purer the faith.
After all, compared to those divine-blooded nobles who [were born with everything], [Joy] was rarer and more precious to the bottom class, who had nothing.
As the power of faith surged dramatically and continuously flowed into Lorne's body, his divinity became more condensed, his godhood fully nourished, and that bit of accumulated blank space would soon allow him to engrave a second divine law.
However, with the operation growing larger and the team newly formed, many things required him to handle personally.
Busy strengthening himself while monitoring sea movements, Lorne inevitably felt overwhelmed.
Thus, he simply used drunken dreams to delegate some authority to his sister-in-law Phaedra, letting this trouble-loving favorite daughter of King Minos remotely work for him.
And to ensure the safety of this little girl, Lorne made waste useful by throwing the successfully brainwashed breeze goddess Aura into the Dionysian cult, making her one of the Maenads, responsible for protecting the current high priestess of the Dionysian cult, Phaedra.
Originally, this hunting nymph who spouted wild words wasn't killed by Artemis and could stay on Crete to recuperate because the hunting goddess needed an excuse to frequently visit Crete and rendezvous with him.
But now, having failed to contact his little moon several times, Lorne figured Artemis was unreliable this time.
Thus, on the principle of no waste, the breeze goddess Aura with divine strength was pulled in as a Pal.
Anyway, according to Artemis's intent, this woman insulted him, so as punishment, she was his private property from now on, to handle as he wished.
—Since usable and effective, just use her to death.
—Work hard; this is fighting for the cause of human liberation!
A certain cult leader threw out grand righteous reasons while heartlessly deciding the future destiny of that breeze goddess as protector of the faith.
However, even using all current cards, Lorne still felt overwhelmed.
Whether facing the cult's development or Crete's situation.
It seemed he needed to develop his own subordinate gods soon.
Thinking this, Lorne's native Cretan Minotaur heart began stirring again.
—The three Graces under Aphrodite, the nine Muses and healing god under Apollo, the god Pan under Artemis...
—Mine, all these can be mine!
However, ideas were beautiful, but in the Greek divine era, strength was crucial.
As a newly ascended god, Lorne was not yet qualified to challenge those main gods' authority.
Of course, distant water cannot quench immediate thirst, and the covetous Poseidon would not give him peaceful development time.
Soon, the originally calm sea began gradually becoming unpredictable.
In just a few days, Crete's outbound ships sank one after another.
Some due to fog reefs, some torn by storms, some encountering sea beasts...
Lorne and Athena, rushing home urgently, exchanged a glance, both sinking in their hearts unanimously.
—Poseidon grew suspicious.
If only fog and storms, it could be attributed to accidents, but sea beasts reappearing in the outer Oceanus sea, and on the safe routes guaranteed by the old sea god Nereus, attacking sailing ships...this was thought-provoking.
Clearly, this was that sea god majesty's probing.
As for whether the guarantor Nereus would suffer backlash from the oath, sorry, that was not in that sea god majesty's considerations.
To ascend to the pinnacle of power, he even wanted to kill his own brother; a mere father-in-law, what did he count for?
Looking at the gathering dark clouds on the distant sea, Lorne turned back, still unwilling to give up asking.
"Really no other way?"
"I went to Aunt Demeter, but she went to the underworld to visit her daughter Persephone..."
"Truly watertight; needless to say, definitely permitted by that god-king majesty, right?"
"Mm..."
Athena and Lorne looked at each other, falling into long silence, then jointly sighing.
Time was running out.
Everything as they predicted: ships encountering accidents at sea increased, frequencies of typhoons, heavy rains, earthquakes, and other disasters rose higher.
Even the beast tides originally expelled to the inner sea reappeared in outer sea areas, gathering more and more.
Gradually, even ordinary Minoans sensed an impending crisis like mountains and rain about to come with wind filling the towers, and silently began preparing grain and herbs.
Finally, Lorne received the result.
But not from the sea, rather from the dice of contingency spinning in his mind.
The twelve-sided die on the altar faintly spun, Poseidon's 3 wave lines and Athena's 5 snake patterns emerging in succession, transforming into three golden oracles.
"Blasphemy One: Choose to assist the goddess of wisdom and war Athena against the coming sea calamity; success randomly seizes one divine authority blessing from Poseidon.
Blasphemy Two: Choose to assist sea god Poseidon, prematurely guiding Minos civilization to its end; success randomly seizes one divine authority blessing from Athena.
Blasphemy Three: Choose to oppose both Athena and Poseidon simultaneously, extinguishing the spark of wisdom, collapsing the glory of the sea god, making Minoans weep, sinking Atlantis; success seizes one divine authority blessing from both Athena and Poseidon!"
Seeing the identical three fate branches, Lorne's face changed slightly and the sliver of luck in his heart completely died.
Gazing at the unstoppable storm at sea and the uneasy mortals in the city, he fell into long silence.
This time, which side to choose?
Follow the established fate of destiny, or continue resisting like a mantis arm blocking a chariot?
Finally, perhaps thinking of something, Lorne hooked his lips, suddenly bursting into joyful laughter, a flash of madness in his eyes as the answer escaped his mouth.
"—I choose 3!"
At the same time, the first two oracles in his mind automatically dissipated, leaving only the last, issuing jest and mockery to both destiny and resistance.
(End of Chapter)