Chapter 452: Divine Power and Divine Office

Murphy didn't seem surprised by the other party's appearance. He sighed, "You said the gods took away his voice?"

"Yes." Apollo showed a sorrowful expression, "That great long poem made the gods fear. My father worried that its spread would bring evil omens, so he used a cup of nectar mixed with poison to make him lose his voice."

"But you don't seem to think so?" Murphy asked.

"You may have heard our legends. My father killed his father and thus ascended the throne of Mount Olympus, and his father killed his father's father to obtain the authority." Apollo said.

"In the oldest prophecies, the throne of the Olympian gods will also be passed down like this."

"But this prophecy was stopped. My father has sat on the throne for too long."

Murphy understood. He smiled, "Apollo, son of Zeus, King of Gods. God of Light, God of the Sun, God of Prophecy, God of Art, God of Archery, the deity most loved and supported by people on Olympus. You certainly have the qualifications to take over that authority."

"Then what do you want me to do?"

Apollo waved his hand, and a pale golden halo spread from around him until it covered the entire area near the mausoleum.

Murphy didn't stop him; he knew this was a means to isolate others from observing and probing.

"Where did you hear the name Wotan?" Apollo asked.

The prototype of the Nibelungen story is Norse mythology. In the story, the main god who built the Valhalla temple and kept messing around behind the scenes, trying to prevent the Twilight of the Gods, but eventually led to the arrival of the Twilight of the Gods through a series of operations, is named Wotan, who is actually Odin.

However, now, Norse mythology has not spread on a large scale, and this god name only exists in that small area of Iceland.

"Just hearsay."

"God Wotan is actually an incarnation of my father." Apollo said, "A long time ago, when my grandfather Cronus was killed by him, he made a prophecy that Zeus would inevitably suffer betrayal by his own children. Father inherited Cronus's divinity, and this curse must be fulfilled, so he started making responses long ago."

"On one hand, he controls important authority through his brothers to prevent rebellion. On the other hand, to ensure the worst-case scenario, he created this incarnation for himself. He did it very covertly, swallowing a part of the power of the original local gods of Iceland, so the other party looks different from him. He even deceived many of my brothers and sisters, but divine power is hard to fake."

"He poured too much divine power into this incarnation. As long as it is eliminated and swallowed, the throne of Mount Olympus will change hands."

"However, directly eliminating the main god of a pantheon is very difficult. This means a change to the entire faith system. If you want to achieve the goal by eliminating believers, you have to kill at least more than a hundred thousand people. Even war and plague are difficult to do."

"But you made me see the power of poetry."

Murphy was noncommittal, "Since that's the case, why don't you let your believers spread this story? As the God of Art and God of Music, you shouldn't lack such believers, right?"

"That would first mean a direct confrontation with my father," Apollo said, "I haven't prepared for such a confrontation yet, and my brothers and sisters won't sit idly by. During the Trojan War, we tested each other many times. Whether it's Athena or Ares, they have power no less than mine. If my intentions are exposed, I will be besieged by them."

"So, you need me, an outsider, to stand in front." Murphy said.

"I don't know where you come from, nor do I care why you want to spread such legends," Apollo said, "As long as you spread this story, I can use some means to eliminate God Wotan. You don't even need to do too much. Protecting a few poets with your power should be easy. As long as the story is sung to the court and spreads to three or four city-states, even Zeus will find it difficult to stop its spread."

Spreading the Nibelungen Ring was Murphy's original plan, so he didn't intend to refuse, but there was no reason not to slaughter a fat sheep that came to his door. So Murphy said: "By doing this, I have to bear the risk of being an enemy of Zeus for you."

Apollo was silent for a moment, "Tell me, what do you want?"

He certainly knew that Murphy was deliberately holding him, but as the Sun God, he had always considered himself generous. Besides, what could a little price compare to the position of King of the Olympian Gods?

"Divine power." Murphy said, "I need a large amount of divine power. Give me one-third of your divine power."

It will become the core material of that god-imprisoning cage.

Divine power is closely related to faith. The total amount of faith determines the upper limit of divine power. Wanting to take away one-third of his divine power would probably require giving the other party several divine offices he possesses. This is simply cutting his own flesh. How could Apollo not be angry?

Murphy knew the other party had misunderstood, but he didn't immediately explain, instead smiling faintly. His vast magic suddenly surged, then contracted, only shallowly covering a layer on the surface of his body.

However, within that layer of magic, it seemed that all matter had been controlled by magic, it seemed that all rules were included under his will, and it seemed that within that layer of magic was a universe that belonged entirely to the other party.

The concentration and quality of his magic made Apollo terrified.

He even had an absurd feeling that the divine power he had condensed by relying on various divine offices was as fragile as an egg in front of that magic, which was like a copper wall and an iron fortress.

But he couldn't understand.

How is this possible?

Even Zeus, even Cronus, and even the first King of Gods, Uranus—the incarnation of the sky, the most primitive and powerful god—could not possess such divine power!

You know, the quality of a god's divine power is usually related to their divine office.

The more singular and narrow the divine office, the more limited the range of concepts the god can touch and phenomena they can interpret, and the lower the quality of their magic.

And if the divine office itself belongs to more basic and primitive concepts, such as the sun, sky, thunder, war, fertility, etc., or if the god possesses enough divine offices, then the god can form a set of rules explaining the operation of the world based on concepts related to their own divine office. Their divine power can be more smooth, natural, round, and flawless, and the quality will be higher.

Because Apollo holds more than a dozen divine offices, and many of them are very important and basic, his divine power is already extremely condensed. The quality of his divine power is very prominent among the gods, even not much worse than Zeus.

But clearly, Murphy's total magic compared to a real god is at most middle-to-low level. Compared to main-god-level deities like him or Zeus, it is even more like a firefly. But the quality of that magic is enough to be terrifying.

He really couldn't imagine what kind of divine office could convert such condensed and terrifying divine power from faith?!

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 453 =====