The Record of Unusual Creatures

In the Temple of Hades on Mount Olympus, not a single Greek god was still alive.

With the demon-hunter distribution map in Hasse’s memory, the group avoided the few enemies in the Temple of Hades and hustled through the quiet palace. In the aftermath of the war, scenes of devastation were everywhere. Beautiful blood-stained murals, gash-ridden stone statues, collapsed ancient Greek columns, broken marbles that had melted, cooled, and solidified in a glassy texture, and the Olympian gods, as well as their servants who had been slaughtered and discarded on the battlefield like animals, spoke volumes of the brutality that happened.

The big bodies of the gods were the most eye-catching, but there were not many of them. Most of the corpses were of mortal servants, genetically degraded descendants of the gods, and the demigods. Their gorgeous armor could not protect them from the doomsday catastrophe. Compared to the brutally destructive power of the demon hunters, the shield and protective spells of the Olympian gods were as weak as babies. The blood of the gods and humans soaked the temple. On some of the places where fighting was the most violent, blood that flowed down the staircase and dried up had turned into a “red carpet” of hundreds of meters long.

It was not hard to imagine the horror scene of blood flowing down these long steps during the battle.

Lily cautiously maneuvered past a body that was killed by a bolt piercing through the chest. The offensive blood stench was suffocating. But vampires like Hessiana and Little Hessiana were enjoying it. At this time, Hessiana lamented, “Sigh, the amount of blood lost is enough to hold a three-day feast.”

“Could you not be so disgusting? I want to throw up already.” Lily’s face pale. “Leave your joke to another time.”

“Bah.” Hessiana snorted in disdain. She flipped another body over with her foot and bent over to examine it before shaking her head. “This is also a human, but have been modified.”

It was a body draped in thin armor. Compared to the tall Olympian gods—large and small types alike, this body was only one meter seven tall, a standard human height. But his eyes were inlaid with shining red gems, and limbs had apparent signs of modifications. Hessiana again turned his body over to reveal the flexible hose connecting the back of his head and spinal cord.

“This is the few ‘lucky’ servants that were chosen to serve the Olympian gods,” said Hasse. “The purebred Olympians were a minority. Even with those descendants of degraded genes, their number was not large enough to rule the entire land. Also, the pride of the gods meant they would not do the menial chores. So there was always a large number of human servants serving the gods. Given a little power, adding a few years to their life, and with a little nervous system control technology, these humans would make loyal slaves.”

“How many pureblood Olympian gods were there?” asked Hao Ren curiously.

“Do you mean those of three meters and above? Not counting mutant like Kronos who was driven out of the family, there were probably a dozen,” Hasse said. “Most of the rest were genetically degraded offspring on Earth and the so-called demigods who were god-human crossbreeds. Both had similar status and the most grassroots rulers in the theocratic community in the Mediterranean region. Occasionally, some more talented individuals were not as good as their forefathers, but still inherited the natural gift of ability. They were skillful in using the supernatural power of the Titans. These groups of genetically degraded offspring would get a promotion and be allowed to enter the higher social class, and even given a divine post. You know, Hesperides is one of them.”

“I see.” Hao Ren nodded and silently jotted the information down in his mind. The things might sound insignificant, but it could be used to determine the level of impact on the Wall of Reality when the otherworldlings crossed from the Plane of Dreams. If there was sufficient data, perhaps the MDT could calculate the overall rate of deterioration of the Wall of Reality over the past 10,000 years and determine the initial state of damage.

The group left the bodies behind them and turned into a path. They walked through the rugged gaps in the palaces but did not encounter any demon hunters along the way. The battle here was over, the demon hunters who replied on their killing instinct would not waste their time in places of which they had lost interest. Except for a few sentinels, the rest of the demon hunters had gone to the Temple of Poseidon.

But Hao Ren knew that if they went further, they would meet the demon hunters and a fight would be inevitable.

The road ahead opened up as they emerged from the trail. The group had now come to the entrance to an open square.

Hessiana looked up. There was a large metal platform extending out from the square, beyond the cliffs of the Hades Peak. At the end of the platform was a light beam. The light beam penetrated the clouds above and produced blurry but bright and colorful lines in the pale-gold radioactive clouds. The light beam passed through the clouds and fell on the other mountain peak opposite the clouds.

The scenery on the mountain peaks was barely visible. There was a palace complex on top of the summit, where a blue light was all around as if a sea floating in the clouds.

That was the territory of Poseidon. The light beam in the air was the light path that Hasse had mentioned.

It was the thoroughfare; apparently, it was guarded. The demon hunters could not destroy the light path in the radiation field, but it did not prevent them from defending at the entrance and exit of each light path to prevent the enemy from escaping. Every time when they attacked a temple, they would first block the light path platform. The fallen Temple of Hades was no exception.

Hundreds of demon hunters were on the platform in high alert. Half of them kept an eye on the light path while the rest scanned the other places for any movements. Their monitoring had no blind spots

The situation was somehow out of Hao Ren’s calculation.

“There are three master commanders, and the rest are all veterans,” Hasse said quietly after just a glance. “Those guarding this place are not ordinary warriors. We need a good plan; the guards are not the problem, but we cannot let them alert the others.”

Hessiana shot Hasse a quizzical look. “Now, you don’t hesitate at all in killing your own men, eh? I remember that when we were in the Amazon Jungle, you hesitated for a long time.”

There was no emotion on Hasse’s face. “For the record, it was only a few seconds. I have gotten used to it. Moreover, they are just phantoms of history. And you too did not seem to hesitate at all in killing the vampires.”

“I have never hesitated when I whack them,” Hessiana said. “You did not know how brutal it was when I whacked the vampire families in the Athens’ sanctuary back then.”

Hasse was speechless.

Was it something to be proud of? Hasse thought to himself.

Hao Ren observed the movements on the platform, where there were over a hundred of demon hunters. While jotting down their pattern of operation, he was figuring how to take down those mighty sentinels as quickly as possible. He then checked his arsenal in his dimensional pocket and hesitated between the choice of the small tactical nuclear weapons and Graviton Grenades.

Just as Hao Ren was about to open his dimensional pocket, he stopped.

Lily had noticed it and asked, in a whisper, “What happen?”

“Maybe we do not have to do it ourselves,” Hao Ren said with a sly smile. “Our ‘allies’ will help us create a distraction.”

“Allies?” What allies?” Lily was baffled.

Just when Lily’s voice trailed off, they felt tremor under their feet.

Accompanying the tremor was angry roars from afar.

Red lightning flashed through the sky, leaving a dazzling bright mark in the background of the palace of Hades. Then the atmosphere in that direction suddenly distorted as if it was collapsing. The radioactive energy clouds floating at hundreds of meters in the air began to swirl under a powerful gravitational force. They spun into a whirlpool and descended close to the earth. In just a matter of a few breaths, it formed a massive storm funnel. As the radioactive energy clouds descended, the already powerful force intensified further.

Kronos had arrived at Mount Olympus.

Lily now realized what ‘allies’ were all about.

“Kronos lives his entire life in battle. It is an uncompromising life—a life without doing any good deeds.” Hao Ren guffawed. “Now let him lead the Titans to fight the demon hunters.”

Just as Hao Ren expected, the demon hunters in the palace of the Underworld were all alarmed as the powerful storm in the distance was hard to ignore.

The commander of the demon hunters immediately inferred that the remnants of Olympus were launching the last counterattack.

The demon hunters quickly gathered and went out to meet the Titans. Fighting broke out as the first batch of soldiers met the horrifying ancient Titans. But when confronting an opponent like Kronos, there was no guarantee that the perfect race like the demon hunters would win. And soon, news of the defeat of the demon hunters came in.

The three master demon hunters had to make a quick decision. They decided to send out half of their men to intercept Kronos.

Hao Ren breathed a sigh of relief when a commander led half of the demon hunters leaving the platform. This was going to be much easier for him.