"Bang!"
The doors of the Memory Temple suddenly opened from the inside, and soon, a figure was thrown out from within like a cannonball and rolled all the way down to the foot of Mount Helicon.
Immediately afterward, the doors slammed shut heavily.
The entire temple, which looked like a magic cube, turned into bubbles and vanished without a trace.
Lorne climbed up from the ground at the foot of the mountain, spat out the grass bits in his mouth, and looked at the now vanished Memory Temple on the mountaintop with a face full of helplessness.
No way around it.
Ever since the first night when those Muses had willingly offered themselves, they had tasted the sweetness of the union between man and woman, becoming addicted and starting to pull him into sex parties every single day.
Their endless lust was one thing.
The key problem was that his own update time was being severely occupied.
Even the energy and quality of his writing had dropped sharply.
So after enduring nine days and nine nights, Mnemosyne finally lost her temper and kicked him the main culprit who had turned her temple into a den of debauchery straight out the door.
Of course, the nine days and nine nights were not the limit for him and the Muses.
It was the Goddess of Memory who simply could not stand the nonstop noise they were making day and night.
Sigh. Lesson learned.
Next time, when opening a party, he would have to take it easy.
At the very least, he could not go all out right from the start, lest their cries echoed inside the chambers and disturbed others...
After giving himself a deep self-criticism, Lorne rubbed his faintly aching backside, sat down on the grass, and began to think about his next steps.
From the current situation, the nine Muses had already become completely devoted to him.
They had willingly offered both body and mind and had thoroughly become his subordinate gods.
As for the Goddess of Memory, who had been hooked by famous works such as the [Holy Words] [Theogony] and [Aesop's Fables], she had turned a blind eye to the whole thing and, without realizing it, had been pulled onto his pirate ship.
So Apollo's corner had been successfully pried away by him.
Then, according to the plan, the next step was the cleanup process.
After a simple thought, Lorne stretched lazily, drew a huge magic circle on the ground with his fingers, injected divine power into it and called out the long-missed divine name.
At the same time, the projection of the Goddess of Hunt appeared within the magic circle and looked at her lover in surprise.
"Lorne? What's wrong?"
"Something happened. I need to report to you..."
Lorne sighed, and in a way that was seventy percent true and thirty percent false, he slowly told her the story of how Apollo and the nine Muses had broken off.
After listening to her lover's account, Artemis's face sank at once.
"Apollo went too far!"
No matter what, Lorne and the nine Muses had gone to Thessaly on her commission out of concern to visit him.
Moreover, Lorne and the nine Muses had saved that stupid younger brother of hers at the critical moment.
By reason and by emotion, Apollo should not have hurled vicious words at them and greatly humiliated people who had done him a favor just because of groundless suspicion.
If he could not distinguish right from wrong like this, who would be willing to stand with him in the future?
No wonder when he fell into trouble, not a single person was willing to stand up and speak a fair word for him!
At this moment, seeing that Artemis's expression was not very good, Lorne took the initiative to step forward and take the blame, showing off his top-tier tea skills.
"Thessaly is not very safe. I originally wanted the Muses to stay by Apollo's side and secretly protect him.
I never expected it would instead lead them to a complete break. It was my lack of consideration..."
"What fault do you have?"
However, before her lover could finish, Artemis waved her hand to interrupt his self-blame and could not help scolding her troublesome younger brother.
"Things turned out this way because he brought it on himself!"
"Now is not the time to assign blame. Let's set that aside for now."
Lorne stopped his girlfriend from exploding, continued to play the role of a good brother-in-law who cared deeply for his little brother-in-law and turned to look worriedly in the direction of Thessaly.
"Apollo's situation seems a bit bad."
Hearing this, Artemis pressed down her anger and nodded with a gloomy face.
"Correct. Those Gigantes appeared too coincidentally. And it happened right when Apollo and Poseidon were serving their sentences..."
Hearing the Goddess of the Hunt's meaningful murmur, Lorne secretly nodded without changing his expression.
This was exactly the reason why he dared to report to Artemis.
Although Artemis loved him deeply, the sibling affection from all these years would not vanish in thin air.
If he were to stand against Apollo in the open, considering her love brain, she might not stand beside her brother, but his and her loving relationship would collapse, and he didn't want to see that.
After all, who would break up with an otherworldly beauty, whose mind, body and heart are full of you?
That's why he never opposed Apollo.
And that's why he could recount the events truthfully, because the appearance of those Gigantes truly had nothing to do with him.
At least on the surface, he and the Muses had done nothing wrong to that God of Light.
Instead, they were the wrongly accused victims.
Since the motives behind his and the Muses' actions were flawless.
Then, who should this black pot be given to?
And who might ultimately use the Gigantes to harm Apollo and Poseidon while they were serving their sentences?
— You think so too, right? Zeus?
— As for whether he actually did it, does that even matter?
Lorne gave a playful smile in his heart raised his head to look at Artemis, who already firmly believed this conclusion in the magic circle, pointed at the sacred Mount Helicon ahead and spoke in a deep voice.
"After breaking off with Lord Apollo, those Muse goddesses angrily ran back to the Memory Temple in a fit of rage. I chased all the way here hoping to see if anything could be salvaged."
Then the master green tea artist online put on an expression that was both guilty and helpless and let out a soft sigh.
"But no matter what they said, they refused to return to Apollo's side.
Only after my repeated earnest persuasion did they give a compromise solution."
"What?"
Hearing his words, Artemis asked immediately.
After this exile, Apollo's authorities were already at their most fragile and lowest point.
And the Gigantes that had appeared in Thessaly at just the right time were an extremely dangerous signal.
If it was Father God's intention, then stepping on him at this moment might not lead to any accountability afterward.
Now, in this turbulent period, even his nine subordinate gods had abandoned him.
But Artemis could not blame them at all.
Because the reason they did was, wasn't because they were traitors or opportunists, but simply because when they had wanted to help him, they ended up being slandered by their own main god...
Once this news spread out, it was still uncertain whether her stupid younger brother could return and how much of his divine rights would remain after he did.
Seeing the tense look on the Huntress Goddess's face, Lorne did not drag it out any longer and directly told her the Muses' conditions.
"They can continue to nominally serve as Lord Apollo's subordinate gods, and they can also return to Olympus, but they will not accept his command.
At most, they are only willing to temporarily accept my supervision to observe the future..."
After listening to her lover's explanation, Artemis let out a sigh of relief.
Fortunately, it was not the worst outcome.
They were unwilling to accept her younger brother Apollo's command but were willing to obey her lover Lorne's arrangements.
To their demand, even Artemis, who was anxious to help her brother overcome the crisis, expressed her understanding.
After all, during the three years her stupid brother Apollo had been exiled, it was Lorne who had taken care of those Muses.
Therefore, the two sides had maintained a good relationship.
Having just broken with their main god, whether to avoid retaliation or to avoid awkward meetings, handing them over to Lorne as an intermediary for supervision was undoubtedly the best choice.
No matter what, there were still the four words "to observe the future."
After suffering such a great grievance, these Muses were still willing to maintain surface harmony and continue helping Apollo stabilize his divine rights.
Together with that sentence, it was already giving their former master Apollo enough face.
Thinking that most of the trouble she had been worried about had been resolved, Artemis let out a long breath and temporarily set aside her worries for her younger brother, seriously looking at her reliable lover.
However, upon closer inspection, the Goddess of Hunt noticed the large patches of scratches on her lover's body and could not help but ask.
"What happened to you?"
Lorne scratched the back of his head and showed an embarrassed look.
"I was thrown out by Lady Mnemosyne..."
"You have suffered..."
Hearing his words, Artemis, who didn't know the exact reason why a certain scoundrel was thrown out, bit her cherry lips, and her gaze toward her lover was filled with thick guilt.
It must have been very hard to persuade those Muses to change their minds.
Clearly, in the whole incident, he himself was the most innocent one who had suffered the most loss and impact, yet because of Apollo's involvement, he had to humble himself to beg others and was even publicly thrown out of the temple.
Thinking of this, Artemis immediately became furious and said.
"When I get back, I will definitely give Apollo a harsh lesson to vent your anger!"
"No need."
Lorne gently shook his head and smiled as he looked at the projection in the magic circle.
"After all, he is still your younger brother. Only when he is fine can you be safer."
"Lorne..."
Hearing her lover's considerate answer, Artemis felt deeply moved and secretly decided that once the situation calmed down, she would definitely reward him well as compensation.
With every part of her body, whatever he wanted to do, she would give him.
Sensing the gradually rising temperature in the Huntress Goddess's eyes, Lorne subconsciously pressed his faintly aching lower back and quickly reminded her.
"By the way, although I have already talked with the Muses and accepted their demands. Lord Apollo probably still does not know. And given his personality, he probably will not agree easily."
"Don't worry. I will go to Thessaly right after this and personally persuade Apollo."
Artemis, however, smiled and comforted her hardworking lover.
Although her words were gentle, a series of cracking sounds from her knuckles came from behind her.
It had to be said that the sound was very convincing.
Lorne secretly drew a cross over his chest and mourned for that God of Light for a few seconds.
But immediately afterward, his expression turned serious, and he informed Artemis of another new hidden danger.
"There is one more thing. Asclepius went to Cyprus and may have gotten involved in the conflict between Ares and Aphrodite."
Hearing about her nephew's whereabouts, the Huntress Goddess's expression changed slightly.
"You didn't stop him?"
"I tried to persuade him, but he would not listen at all…" Lorne also felt helpless.
Troubles kept coming one after another.
Just thinking about it, Artemis, who was already somewhat overwhelmed, instantly became both angry and annoyed.
"This father and son pair, one after another, they are all stubborn donkeys that never let anyone have peace of mind!"
Lorne nodded in agreement and was extremely certain that, although the future God of Medicine's mother had cheated during pregnancy, the God of Medicine himself was definitely Apollo's offspring.
After all, this stubborn donkey temperament had been inherited perfectly.
However, this was also an opportunity.
Lorne's eyes flashed, and he proactively spoke.
"How about this? The matters in Thessaly and Mount Helicon are already settled. I will go to Cyprus right now to ensure Asclepius's safety."
"No, it is too dangerous!"
Artemis immediately shook her head and refused.
Clearly, in her heart, although her nephew was important, he was still far less important than her lover.
However, Lorne was still unwilling to give up this opportunity.
"It is fine. It is not like we have never been to Cyprus before, and my goal is only to secretly protect Asclepius's safety. There is no need to really confront those two head-on."
He wanted to go.
Not only because of the immeasurable value of the God of Medicine himself, but he also had another plan.
Cyprus was a must.
Seeing her lover's determined eyes, Artemis, after some internal consideration, still felt somewhat hesitant.
"Now the Muses are no longer here. If you run into trouble all alone, what will you do?"
"If you are really worried, then give me something to boost my divine power or guarantee my safety."
Lorne smiled to dispel his lover's doubts and secretly muttered in his heart.
— For example, the Sun Chariot?
Yes, this was the real reason he was willing to protect Apollo's son.
— The divine authority of light, the [White Horse] that carries the sun!
Currently, this thing was being temporarily managed by his beautiful lover, Artemis.
If he did not take the chance to get it now, he would be letting down this father-son pair's donkey temper.
Sure enough, under Lorne's gentle guidance, Artemis's eyes lit up, and she immediately handed something to her lover.
"Right! How did I not think of this? Take this!"
As a weight sank into his hand, Lorne lowered his head to look; however, as he did so, the originally confident expression on his face slightly froze.
Because what he saw was not the [White Horse] but a piece of colorful and bright pig skin.
Memories of skin-tearing brains, boiling skull, throbbing, and other not-so-pleasant memories surged into Lorne's mind one after another.
"Don't worry. Ever since the last time I used my own divine power to erase the demonic nature of this thing and engraved part of the authority into it.
Once Asclepius runs into trouble, just put this on and ram that lover of Aphrodite to death!"
As Artemis spoke, she made a throat-slitting gesture with her hand.
Her silver pupils flickered with obvious ill intent.
Lorne even saw a faint trace of excitement in them.
Alright, his girlfriend, who had madness carved into her bones, was indeed not some kind-hearted saint.
Besides, the opponents were Ares, son of Hera and the Goddess of Lust and Desire, Aphrodite, whom the virgin goddess hated the most.
On this point, Lorne naturally stood firmly on his lover's side and decisively accepted the demonic pig hide and the task of protecting the future God of Medicine.
After everything was arranged, the projection in the magic circle left a deep, affectionate kiss on Lorne's forehead, then reluctantly withdrew all its divine power and cut the connection.
Well...even though she was too reluctant, she had no choice.
She still had to rush to Thessaly immediately to check the situation and persuade her foolish younger brother.
She really had no time to continue being intimate with her lover.
As the Huntress Goddess completely disappeared from his sight, a golden wheel disc emerged behind Lorne.
The massive hunt goddess divinity and authority contained in the demonic pig hide in his hand flowed into the golden wheel disc like rivers into the sea and transformed into the phantom of a wild boar that stomped its hooves and roared.
When the last trace of divine charm was outlined, the golden oracle of [Twelve Blasphemies] in his mind turned the pointer to 4/12 progress.
Lorne could not help but open his eyes and look at the now completely lusterless demonic pig hiding in his hand with satisfaction.
It had to be said that his own little moon was truly generous.
Although she did not give him Apollo's Sun Chariot, the divinity and authority contained in this demonic pig hide allowed him to directly manifest his fourth avatar.
As the saying goes, what is lost in the mulberry fields is gained in the eastern fields.
This was probably it.
Just when Lorne was about to calm down and study the function of his fourth avatar carefully, his chest suddenly felt hot.
He immediately pulled out a bronze emblem engraved with the Medusa gorgon emblem from his chest, looked at the several floating and flickering light patterns on it and his expression changed.
Something really happened?
What a jinx!
Accompanied by a depressed curse, the Lorne at the spot turned into a fierce gale and disappeared from in front of Mount Helicon.
(End of chapter)