Chapter 42 The Birth of Pan
This monster was born by sucking the life force of its mother.
Because she had stolen Apollo's clothes and hidden them all, Hermes feared he would immediately come after her when he woke up, so she flew away from Delphi that very night and returned to Arcadia.
Inside the cave in the Kulenne Mountains, Maya sat at the stone table as if she had sensed something was amiss, her expression solemn, her gentle face illuminated by the warm glow of the orange firelight.
When Maya saw her daughter appear at the cave entrance, she moved her lips, but ultimately sighed and stretched out her arms toward her.
Only Maia was there, for the two green serpents, belonging to nature and the earth, were tending to the pregnant Perioppe in Hermes' temple. For some reason, Perioppe's belly was unusually large, as if she were already nearing childbirth.
Because of Peripor's prenatal anxiety and occasional fits of madness, Apiston and Tokei had to stay by her side at all times, holding her tightly to protect her.
That's a digression for now.
“Come here quickly, my dear baby,” the mountain goddess said gently. “You’re finally back.”
Hermes rushed over, put down the scepter in her hand, and threw herself into her mother's arms.
“I’m so sorry, Mother Goddess, for keeping you waiting.” She snuggled against her in a coquettish manner. “I should have told you beforehand. You would never guess what I did in the Underworld…”
She vividly recounted her journey to the underworld to her mother, telling her everything in detail, including that it was first and foremost a task given to her by the goddess Gaia, and the title of goddess of winter bestowed upon her by Zeus.
Maya listened patiently to her daughter's story, even as her daughter mentioned Mother Earth, a subtle pang of pain shot through her fragile heart.
But Maya understood that she couldn't tell Hermes those things yet; they were too complicated for her to easily grasp.
"...I never imagined Persephone would actually submit to Hades and become his wife. It's so unfair! Even though I knew she was powerless, I only regretted that my power wasn't strong enough to save her." Hermes recalled Persephone's troubled expression when she returned to Earth and reunited with Demeter, and felt a deep sense of regret. "But how did the King of the Gods know about this? And what about Athena and Artemis...no, could it be that all the gods already knew about this?"
“Yes, my darling.” Maya stroked her daughter’s head and sighed again. “He is omnipotent and all-knowing. And you should call him Father God.”
Hearing this, Hermes pouted, "I don't want to! That old geezer has never fulfilled his responsibilities as a father, and he doesn't care about you at all. Otherwise, why—"
She paused for a moment, then didn't continue.
She simply buried her head deeper into her mother's warm embrace, sniffed, feeling irritable and distressed.
"I only need you, Mother Goddess." Hermes' voice became very soft, as if it were just a trivial whisper.
Maya continued to stroke her head, and when she couldn't see him, his expression became serious again.
“Me too,” Maya said softly, “but you have to be obedient, you have to be a good girl, my beloved Hermes.”
Hermes hugged her mother tightly and murmured, "Okay, Mother Goddess... but I've always been a good child, because I will always listen to you."
The starry night outside was hazy and beautiful, as mysterious and lovely as a young girl draped in a light veil.
Perhaps the goddess of meteors is here too, watching them alongside the silent night. But tonight, there is no bright moon.
As the night passed, Hermes deliberately bid farewell to her mother before sunrise and flew to the magnificent and solemn temple on the mountain—a temple built by the Arcadians specifically for her, Hermes.
As soon as dawn broke, the priests in the temple began cleaning and preparing offerings.
When they saw the true God descend, they all rushed over and bowed their heads in reverence.
"Welcome, Your Majesty, the Goddess Hermes! We love you!"
Hermes returned the greeting gently to the lovely silver humans.
She has always upheld the concept of living in harmony and equality with human beings, and has never looked down on or made things difficult for them since she secured her power. Therefore, they love and respect her very much.
She asked the priests if anything unusual had happened while she was away from Arcadia, and they looked at each other for a moment before shaking their heads.
“No, our land is safe, Your Majesty,” said a young man with a short beard.
"Liar!" someone else spoke up. "We should tell the goddess the truth; that's the most important thing!"
"Yes, Kritos, who can guarantee we'll always be safe?"
Seeing that they were fighting amongst themselves, Hermes frowned and her eyes sharpened.
Could it be... related to Perius?
The bearded man said helplessly, "Well, there's one unexpected thing we're unsure whether we should include it..."
Another man with thick eyebrows and large eyes chimed in, "I'm sorry, Your Highness, even though Apistoni and Tokei asked us to keep this a secret from you, it's not a very safe approach. We should let you handle this matter."
“During these days, Periope has been going mad day and night, and sometimes even the two divine serpents you left behind cannot stop her.”
Upon hearing this, Hermes' heart sank—it really was related to Pereopatra.
The nymph fairy's inexplicable pregnancy had already given her a headache.
“Poriope will scream and laugh hysterically, and she'll scratch and bite anything or anyone she sees, even…” The man paused, blushing, “even wanting to do…that kind of thing with us humans and animals…”
Not only him, but the other priests also seemed a little embarrassed, as if they were also innocent members who had been chased and driven mad by Periopo.
Hermes, however, found it increasingly strange the more she listened.
Periopo's manic behavior is very much like that of a creature without reason, driven only by its own desires, but even the most ferocious wolf or lion knows how to control itself when necessary.
What's more, she was carrying a little life inside her.
Hermes suddenly realized.
Yes, the old Peripera was gentle, restrained, lively, and kind. Her abnormality appeared after she became pregnant.
On the day Hermes left Arcadia, Peripera also acted erratically, like a madwoman, trying to kill the child in her womb.
This was foreshadowed.
Her heart ached, and she felt as if something important had left her.
“Take me to Periusper.” Hermes regretted not helping the poor nymph from the beginning. “There’s no time to lose; she’s in danger.”
But before the human priests could lead the way, Hermes took off and flew at top speed into the depths of the temple's inner hall. She crossed the brightly lit corridor and, relying on her senses of the serpent spirits, quickly found the room with its door tightly shut.
She pushed open the door and entered, finding the room completely dark.
But she could still clearly see that on the stone bed covered with soft tiger skin, a nymph was bound hand and foot.
Taking a step closer, she saw two green snakes tightly coiled around Ningfu's abdomen, and her swollen belly had expanded to an unimaginable size. She could almost see the uterus, a mixture of blood and flesh, shimmering with a faint, dim light under the restraint of the snake spirits, as if the life being conceived was cursed and not expected by the world.
The nymph stared wide-eyed at the ceiling, her body covered in dense, purplish-red wounds, her face deathly pale. She remained motionless, not even breathing, simply trapped there silently, devoid of any trace of life.
Hermes noticed that Periope was indeed lifeless at this moment.
She couldn't even sense any signs of life in her body.
Apistoni and Toke noticed Hermes' arrival; they flicked their scarlet tongues, and their yellow vertical pupils contracted sharply for a moment.
[Your Highness, close the door!]
They mustn't be allowed to see her!
The door behind Hermes then closed automatically, and even when the human priests followed, they were unable to open the door that was controlled by divine power.
"What on earth is going on?" Hermes walked over to the bedside. "Sister Periuse... what happened?"
Hermes wanted to reach out and touch the nymph's body on the bed, but when her fingertips touched the scorching heat, like hellfire, she felt a pang of fear.
She always felt that perhaps it was her own fault.
That day, she shouldn't have irresponsibly abandoned Peyope, just to tease Apollo, just for her own selfish desires. Even though Peyope's unexplained pregnancy was already suspicious, she still didn't truly care.
She is a selfish and deserving goddess.
But this thought was indeed as fleeting as smoke; it appeared for only a moment before completely disappearing from my mind.
This nymph is about to give birth to a creature born of inherent evil.
But she is already dead. I'm so sorry, Your Highness.
This matter is complicated, but please trust us!
Hermes still touched Periope's body, the scarred, naked body of a mother who had been forced into pregnancy and died in agony.
As her fingers traced the now cracked and no longer tender skin, she blinked, tears welling in her eyes and blurring her vision as she gazed at the nymph.
Tears fell incessantly, like beads from a broken chain, or like a river flowing freely without rocks to stop it.
"How could this be?" Hermes murmured to herself, "How could a woman who was so lively just a short while ago now lie here so quietly..."
Even though she could control the power of the Winter God at will, she still felt as if her throat was frozen by frost and snow, so cold that her teeth chattered and her body trembled.
In an instant, her heart seemed to turn into ice, into a lifeless object.
Crystalline tears fell drop by drop onto the face of the dead nymph, as if she had come back to life and was also crying silently.
Hermes never imagined that Periope would actually encounter such an unfortunate event—giving birth to a child at the cost of death.
If she had known it would end this way, she would never have agreed to let Periuse keep this bastard child.
Seeing this, Apistoni and Tokei felt a pang of sadness, but they could not let go of the already dead Periope at this moment.
Because once the constraints and restrictions on her uterus are relaxed, an unavoidable catastrophe will descend once again, and everything will be beyond redemption.
【Your Highness, although this is indeed a painful matter, now is not the time to wallow in sorrow!】
This child's birth must be stopped! It will bring us disaster!
Only you can do this! Please!
At that moment, the voices of human priests could be heard outside the door. They kept banging on the door and anxiously asking what was going on inside.
But Hermes has no time to worry about them right now.
Her hands stroked the nymph's belly, which was tightly coiled by the green snakes, her face still beaming with a smile.
Her eyes were filled with tears, yet she still gazed tenderly at the outline of the uterus visible through her cracked belly.
The delicate womb was glowing, and the tiny baby inside could be faintly seen curled up, looking so adorable.
—And hateful.
Hermes inherited the power and will of Gaia, the Earth Mother. She should have been born with a maternal aura, but this maternal love was not excessive; instead, she possessed a more self-aware consciousness.
So she chose to insert her fingers into the nymph's belly, slowly touching the womb that shimmered with a faint light.
Amidst the fiery, scalding blood and flesh, Hermes firmly developed a new belief.
—She wanted to kill the child.
—She wants to get rid of this scourge.
But just as Hermes was about to crush the baby who had killed Periope with her bare hands, a dazzling light flashed in the room.
A powerful divine force swept over Hermes, completely enveloping her limbs and body, rendering her unable to move or take any further action.
It was the golden Apollo who appeared out of nowhere and stopped Hermes's cruel killings.
Your Highness!
[Damn it, it's that bastard Apollo again!]
"..."
"..."
Hermes turned her head and saw the God of Light standing beside her. He even panicked and grabbed her wrist while using his divine power.
"What are you doing here?" Hermes asked, her tone flat and indifferent, as if it were just an ordinary greeting.
Even those emerald green eyes, which should have been clear and clean, became murky and filled with darkness.
Apollo felt a lump in his throat. He had come because she had stolen his things again. He should have taught this despicable little bastard a lesson, but he just happened to witness the scene he had foreseen.
He knew she was wrong to do that, so he instinctively chose to stop her.
“You shouldn’t have killed this child,” Apollo said. “He has his own destiny.”
Hermes looked at her strangely: "Him?"
Apollo stared intently at her, as high and mighty as a statue sculpted by humankind, making her instinctively uncomfortable.
He has always been so cold and indifferent, Hermes thought.
Hermes knew that Apollo had deliberately used that pronoun, indicating that he had foreseen everything about the child.
Apollo knew everything from the very beginning.
But he only told her now.
"This is no ordinary child; he killed his sister Peripera!"
Hermes shook off Apollo's hand, her green eyes widening as she glared at him uncontrollably.
"So what if you foresaw the future? Can you know everything that will happen in the future? For example, if you stop me from getting rid of this child, I will hate you every moment from now on, and I will wish I could murder you too!"
Hermes felt increasingly unable to control her anger. She had intended to calm down and ask Apollo what he had foreseen, but now she even had the urge to kill him.
"You knew everything, yet you never told me." Hermes' eyes welled up with tears again, her tears never ceasing. "Did you already know that Sister Periope would die? Just because of this unborn child!"
Hermes was in a terrible mood. Both the snakes and Apollo could see that she was on the verge of completely losing control, just one spark away from igniting it.
It wasn't just Pereope's death that caused her pain; she also realized that she had been used all along, and that even Apollo, whom she trusted, had been deceiving her.
She shouldn't have let her guard down completely; she shouldn't have trusted anyone so easily.
—Gaia, the goddess.
Because all living things on earth belong to the beloved Mother Earth.
Hermes couldn't help but click her tongue as memories of visiting Gaia on Crete came flooding back.
This time she was quite certain that she had indeed been deceived.
Not only did Apollo know everything, but so did the goddess Gaia.
Just then, that bastard Apollo spoke up: "Excuse me, Hermes."
In an instant, frost froze the entire room.
Your Highness, you...?
Ice, snow? Is this... the power of the Winter God?
Apistoni and Tokei were incredulous. They had witnessed the terror of this power before, but they never imagined they would witness it again here today.
What's more, this time the one who possesses the divine status of winter is their princess—Hermes.
Apollo felt the icy temperature rapidly climbing up his tall body, as if it would freeze him into an ice sculpture in the next second.
A chilly mist filled the air, making it difficult for him to breathe.
Hermes was watching him indifferently.
Just like he used to be.
“…I’m sorry, Hermes.” Apollo’s throat was icy as he spoke, but he still spoke these words to her without hesitation: “None of us can defy His will.”
"It's fate."
Apollo's gaze drifted to the child still residing in Pereuper's womb.
Even when caught in Hermes's attack, the child was unharmed, whether due to her compassion or his own unparalleled power, it is unknown.
“So,” Apollo sighed, reaching out to touch Hermes’s eye, “we must change it together, little strategist.”
Even though her tears turned into extremely cold ice and snow in her eyes, he still gently wiped them away for her.
At that moment, the world seemed to fall silent.
Hermes trembled her eyelashes, which were covered with frost, and her murky, dark eyes finally returned to their clear state.
She ignored Apollo and turned to look at Apistoni and Tokei, whose vertical pupils were fixed on her, and their concern was genuine.
So she mustered her courage, reached out and closed Periope's eyelids, then stroked her swollen belly.
This poor nymph is frozen in ice, and will never age or perish.
“…I’m sorry, Sister Periope.” Hermes placed her hand into Periope’s belly, her fingers reaching into the still burning uterus. “I will do everything I can to bring you back to life.”
She could not accept her death; elves and gods were immortal, and Periop was not supposed to suffer such a cruel fate.
So Hermes gently grasped the child that Periusper was carrying and took the little monster out of the blood-red womb.
He was indeed a boy, very young, and very healthy.
But he had the legs, horns, and ears of a goat, and even his skin was as red as flames.
Hermes understood that this child also possessed natural attributes; he belonged to the earth.
She gazed at the baby in her arms with mixed feelings, fighting off her nausea, and held him close.
The child was born into the world before he could even open his eyes, and nestled in Hermes's arms, relying on his instinct to depend on his blood relatives.
He neither cried nor shouted.
He seemed to be a gentle and obedient child who could only sleep peacefully in his mother's arms.
But the mother who gave birth to him had been killed by him, and another mother hated his existence.
This monster was born by sucking the life force of its mother.
As the frost in the room melted into snow water, Hermes, carrying the child who had been a monster since before birth, passed Apollo and headed for the door.
Behind her, Apollo lowered his head expressionlessly, gazing at his still-cold body. The hand that had just held her wrist was also covered in bruises, inflicted by her.
The radiant God of Light was no longer bathed in dazzling light.
Apistoni and Tokei slowly climbed down from Periopo's corpse and followed their master's footsteps—their mission was complete.
But the poor nymph... could only rest in the goddess's love forever.
The human priests, who had been anxiously waiting outside, finally saw their goddess open the door.
But they were all astonished to find that the goddess was holding a tiny baby, a child who looked like a freak, because he looked like a goat, but his skin was blood red.
They wanted to look behind the goddess to see what was happening inside, but the goddess Hermes closed the door, hiding the sinful secrets in the darkness.
“This is Periuse and my child,” Hermes said softly, as two serpent spirits with scarlet forked tongues coiled around her shoulders and arms. “She is a great mother.”
With everyone watching, Hermes uttered her last words.
"And this child's name is Pan."
That means 'everything'.
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