"Griffith?" Several gazes within the temple noted Night's sudden movement as the false Athena issued a haughty, questioning demand.
She refused to believe that someone with Griffith's closeness to Athena would ever draw a weapon against her statue.
Especially since she possessed Athena's divine power, Athena's aura, and even Diomedes as her loyal dependent.
Who could dare claim she was not Athena?
Yet she wondered why he drew a blade, questioning whether he planned to strike down Hecuba.
Just as the deity instinctively entertained that thought, misjudging the situation and failing to command Diomedes to step in as a guard in time, Night made his move.
In the next instant, a sound like a thunderclap rang out.
With a strike powerful enough to shatter stone and heaven alike, he swung his sword down mercilessly and decisively against the statue.
A miserable shriek echoed from within the sculpture, and the entire divinity infused statue suddenly shattered into pieces.
Following the destruction, a roar of anger, reluctance, and bitter hatred echoed from the void.
"No! Griffith, why? Why treat me thus?
I loved you so deeply, forging a covenant with you, yet you have destroyed the statue housing my divine will and injured my divine soul!"
Yet Night, who should have shared an intimate bond with Athena, spoke instead. "You have gone and chopped up some more boring trash."
"You... what have you done?!
Gods above!" Hecuba had an expression of sheer horror, her chest heaving violently as a boundless rage welled up inside her. "Defying the divine! How could you..."
Even if the person before her was the grand hero Griffith, striking out like this against the revered Goddess Athena who had sheltered them was completely unforgivable.
Diomedes rose silently to his feet, drawing his weapon as though prepared to strike the moment a disagreement arose.
The eyes of Chryseis and Briseis widened, and they were stunned into silence by the terrifying and sudden turn of events.
Yet they still chose to place their absolute trust in Night.
The Lord Hero had to possess a reason for acting this way.
While Night seemed entirely unfazed by the tense atmosphere within the room, he stated with calm composure. "How much longer do you intend to pretend, you pathetic counterfeit? Even breathing the same air as you fills me with nausea right now.
What gave you the confidence to believe you could fool me by impersonating a high god right in front of a hero who has forged a covenant with the Goddess Athena herself?"
Night continued firmly.
"Your power stems from war itself. The outcome of a war holds zero relation to victory or defeat.
To you, the longer, the more agonizing, and the more chaotic a war is, the more meaning it holds. Chaos is the sole objective you wish to achieve.
Keeping the citizens of this city in a state of constant terror, bringing war and the battlefield from the outside straight to the inside, instilling the concept of endless war into the hearts of the people."
As he laid bare her manic nature in vivid detail, the space within the interior of the temple violently shuddered.
Stunned by Night's astonishing deductions, the few individuals present widened their eyes in disbelief.
Was the Goddess not actually the Goddess, but instead an impostor deity wearing a disguise, seeking to introduce the principle of eternal war?
The realization seemed impossible to grasp.
In the next instant, a brilliant humming sound filled the air.
A blinding radiance flooded the temple, and from the twisting light, a graceful figure adorned with black wings descended slowly from above.
That sacred posture instantly captured every gaze present.
When Night looked up and beheld features identical to Athena's, complete with the divine power, save for the addition of a pair of massive wings, the illusion achieved a degree of perfection that could easily pass for the real deal.
"Athena! There is no mistake, this is indeed our patron Goddess Athena!" Having once witnessed the descent of Athena with her own eyes in her youth, Hecuba cried out in joyous realization, her voice trembling and incoherent with excitement.
She believed she was right all along.
The Goddess who had sheltered them, safely returned Briseis to her side, and summoned the hero Diomedes to guard this place could never be a fake in her eyes.
On the opposing side, Hecuba remained incapable of telling true from false, dropping once more to her knees before the newly descended Goddess with tear filled eyes.
Night showed no emotion.
For those incapable of perceiving truth from falsehood, shouting explanations was utterly useless.
Rather than wasting time trying to convince them, he preferred solving problems directly at the source.
Without a doubt, the entity before him was a flesh and blood goddess.
"Goddess of Discord and Strife, Eris,"
He murmured softly, uttering her true name.
The moment Night spoke that name, everyone present felt their hearts tremble.
Of those who remained, Diomedes was clearly under someone else's control, so there was no chance that he words could shake him in the slightest.
Chryseis and Briseis, on the other hand, maintained an absolute, unconditional trust in Night
More importantly, they had personally met Athena before.
No matter how perfect the disguise of the goddess standing before them appeared, there was still something about her that felt wrong.
It was difficult to put into words.
She looked like Athena.
She carried herself like Athena.
Even her divine presence seemed almost identical.
And yet, somehow, something was off.
The last woman, who had originally come here with the sole desire of meeting a god, was now completely bewildered.
She no longer knew whose words she should believe.
At first, she had thought that Poseidon's minions were responsible for the disturbance, only to hear Griffith, the famous hero standing before her, make an even more astonishing claim.
The goddess before them was not Athena.
She was Eris, the goddess of strife and discord.
The woman was still struggling to process that revelation when Night made her choice for her.
The hero who, in this world, should have been one of the people closest to Athena suddenly reached behind himself and drew out a divine spear.
It was an enormous spear that seemed to radiate a bone-chilling cold, frost and mist curling around its crystalline surface. In reality, however, what appeared to be cold air was actually moonlight.
When the scattered sunlight pouring through the windows of the temple struck its surface, the spear shimmered with a magnificent, multicolored radiance.
It was so beautiful that it hardly looked like a weapon at all.
It looked more like a priceless work of art created by the gods.
This divine weapon was completely different from the Sun Spear that had become famous for defeating both the Sea God and the God of War.
If that weapon possessed the blazing majesty of the sun, then this one seemed to embody the cold and tranquil brilliance of the moon.
The contrast between them could hardly have been greater.
What was he going to do?
One pair of eyes after another turned toward Night, as he calmly reached for the bow strapped to his back.
At the same time, the enormous ice-like spear in his hand began to shrink.
Its shaft shortened and its crystalline body contracted.
In the blink of an eye, the divine spear had transformed into its original form.
An arrow.
It was a perfectly translucent arrow, crystalline and beautiful, with a faint radiance flowing through its body.
"...!"
High above them, the goddess, who was originally standing in the air, with her eyes peacefully closed as she maintained her solemn and divine appearance, looked at that familiar arrow and an ominous feeling suddenly rose in her heart.
That arrow...
She knew it.
And the memories associated with it were anything but pleasant.
The power of Artemis!
Wait.
It wasn't just the arrow.
That bow...
Her eyes opened.
The goddess finally recognized it.
The divine bow of Heracles!
.. . .