Chapter 3052: The Mercury Record (49)

Hades's corpse had already become extremely stiff. It appeared he had faced off against some monster head-on, yet he had been completely powerless to resist. Regardless, he had fought until the very last moment; he was a respectable opponent. The Young Avengers chose not to move his body, instead bypassing him to reach the area behind the throne.

There was a portal there leading to the Temple of Mount Olympus. The good news was that the portal was still functional; the bad news was that it appeared to have been opened not long ago. If that mysterious eldest son had truly been released and had passed through the portal to the Temple of Mount Olympus, then the Olympian pantheon was in grave danger.

The group did not hesitate, passing through the portal at maximum speed. Mount Olympus was terrifyingly quiet at this moment.

Although it was called Mount Olympus, this place was not a mountain; it was more like a complex of temples—in Clark's words, a residential compound for gods.

The first things to come into view were the floating steps. The long stairs to godhood led straight into the clouds, where massive temples loomed in and out of sight. That was Zeus's residence. Surrounding the area behind it were Hera's temple and garden. Aside from Hades, the temples of the Twelve Olympians were lined up behind, all hidden within the clouds and holy light.

The team members ascended the long stairs at top speed, arriving before the gates of Zeus's temple. Zeus's figure had long since vanished from the throne, and the Queen of Gods, Hera, had also disappeared.

Dick and the others dared not be careless. They searched the area thoroughly and discovered some faint signs of a struggle, but it did not look like it had been left by the eldest son; it was distinctly different from the wounds on Hades's body.

Bypassing Zeus's temple and heading further back, they arrived at the temple of Ares, the God of War. The God of War's status was not low, but his temple was relatively remote because his duty was similar to Heimdall of Asgard: he needed to guard the entrances to Mount Olympus from various locations.

Before they even approached the temple, Dick had a very ominous premonition. Sure enough, there were many signs of destruction inside the God of War's temple, almost identical to those in the Underworld temple, appearing violent and wild.

The group bypassed the front hall, arrived at the rear of the temple, and saw the tragically dead body of Ares, the God of War.

It was the same: a strike to the chest, and the head had been taken by someone. Blood was splattered everywhere. It looked like he had exchanged a few blows with the eldest son, but unfortunately, he had ultimately been defeated.

With the investigation having reached this point, it was unwise to continue blindly. It was time to summarize the clues they had obtained.

They returned to Ares's temple and formed a circle in the center. Dick spoke first: "It seems Hades fought the eldest son to prevent him from leaving the Underworld, but unfortunately lost. And Ares, in order to prevent the eldest son from leaving Mount Olympus, also met a tragic end, just like Hades."

Jason, however, shook his head and said, "No, that's not it."

Everyone looked at him.

It was normal for Hades, the God of the Underworld, to want to stop the eldest son, because the eldest son had a grudge against the gods of Mount Olympus. Once he left the Underworld for Mount Olympus, Mount Olympus would inevitably be bathed in blood. As a member of the gods, he naturally had to stop him.

But Ares had absolutely no need to stop the eldest son from leaving. On the contrary, for him, the further away this terrifying trouble was, the better. As long as he didn't slaughter Mount Olympus, no one would care where he went.

Moreover, the eldest son had no motive to leave Mount Olympus. If it was truly Zeus and Hera who had imprisoned him back then, then his enemies were only his parents. Could it be that he would go to Earth for revenge?

Although such mythological creatures might not care about the lives of ordinary humans, he wasn't the kind of evil god who relied on absorbing human souls to gain power. He was already powerful enough to kill the God of the Underworld in one move; killing humans held no benefit for him. Why would he go to the trouble of coming all the way to Mount Olympus, only to use the Olympian portal to go to the human realm?

This statement made the others suddenly enlightened.

Indeed, from the perspective of motive, Hades's desperate resistance made sense. On one hand, if he didn't resist, the eldest son would definitely not let him go, so he might as well fight to the death. On the other hand, once the eldest son ascended Mount Olympus and killed Zeus, he would have no backer left. If he didn't kill Zeus, Zeus would definitely hold him accountable for his failure to supervise. Reasonably and emotionally, Hades had to fight to stop him.

But Ares was completely different. If he could let this monster leave directly through the portal, it would actually be a great achievement.

But the problem was that the eldest son wouldn't leave at all. His enemies were all here; where else could he go?

Jason spoke again: "So it is very abnormal for Ares to die here at the portal. Once the eldest son came to Mount Olympus, he would inevitably go to find trouble with Zeus first. How could Ares not go to support him?"

Everyone began to ponder this question. After thinking for a moment, Raven said, "Could it be that he felt he had a better chance of dealing with the eldest son, so he sealed the portal first to catch a turtle in a jar?"

"Impossible," Faust said. "Ares was there when the eldest son was born. If he had been confident, he would have followed Zeus's orders and killed him directly, instead of causing a scene and only being able to seal him in the Underworld."

Raven thought about it and felt it made sense. After all, she didn't think Zeus and Hera had any familial affection for the eldest son. Sealing him in the Underworld definitely wasn't just to spare his life, but because they couldn't do anything about him and had no other choice. If Ares had been that confident, the eldest son couldn't have survived back then.

"Is that portal really the primary crime scene?" Aisha said, rubbing her chin. "I'll go back and take another look."

Aisha went back and circled around. After returning, she shook her head and said, "I didn't find any signs of the body being dragged, and the direction of the blood splatter is perfectly fine. I can't see any possibility of it being faked. It seems he truly died right there at the portal."

"Then there is only one possibility left," Dick said. "Ares knew he was no match and wanted to escape."

"Then he couldn't have used this portal," Faust said. "You all saw that there were no signs of a struggle in Zeus and Hera's palace, yet they have disappeared. It's impossible for the eldest son to have eaten them. It's more likely that the King and Queen of Gods received the news early and took the gods out to take refuge."

"So, in that case, Ares was the rear guard?"

"That's not right either," Dick shook his head. "If Zeus and Hera could run so quickly and so cleanly, it proves that the situation wasn't very critical at the time. There was no need to leave someone behind as a rear guard. Ares could have completely gone with them."

The deduction reached a stalemate again. It seemed that no situation was correct, but Jason suddenly had a flash of inspiration. He said, "What if Ares wasn't a victim, but the planner?"

Everyone cast curious gazes at him.

"Look, there must have been a period of time from when the eldest son escaped to when he entered the Underworld and killed Hades. Although Hades was defeated in one move, there was time between discovering the eldest son's tracks and facing him to send a message to Zeus."

The others nodded, feeling that Jason's point was valid. The Underworld was Hades's domain; even if someone had released the eldest son, such a major event couldn't have happened without alerting Hades. Before the eldest son truly sought him out, he would definitely have notified Zeus.

In other words, not long after the eldest son escaped, Zeus and Hera knew he might come looking for them. They had likely suffered a loss at the hands of this powerful monster before, so this time they chose to avoid the sharp edge and led all the gods to temporarily evacuate Mount Olympus.

Once Zeus left, Mount Olympus was almost completely in a state of no supervision. At this time, anyone remaining on the mountain could do anything without listening to Zeus's orders. This was something that was completely impossible under normal circumstances.

Dick thought for a moment and continued, "You mean Ares stayed behind on purpose to take advantage of Zeus's absence to do something? What would he want to do?"

"He wanted to go to the human realm," Jason said. "Just like Poseidon."

The others then remembered that there was a key link in this series of events, which was Poseidon's sudden appearance in Atlantis. This was very abnormal.

Although Poseidon was the Sea God and had a close relationship with Zeus, Zeus was the King of Gods after all. Without Zeus's permission, how would he dare to descend to the mortal world to stir up trouble?

And for Zeus, with the eldest son as a major enemy in front of them, although they had a place to run, what if this guy chased after them?

So for Zeus, the best approach was to keep all his strength in his hands to fight the eldest son. If the God of the Underworld couldn't be saved, so be it, but the God of War and the Sea God were top-tier combat forces on Mount Olympus. How could Zeus let them go to the human realm to stir up trouble at this time instead of keeping them by his side?

In other words, the God of War and the Sea God might not have followed Zeus's orders.

And as Jason proposed, turning them from victims into perpetrators could explain everything. The two of them were just waiting for Zeus to flee in a panic to take the opportunity to open the portal to the human realm and go down to stir up trouble.

It was also possible that they knew the eldest son would escape earlier than Zeus and had been waiting for this day for a long time. It was even possible that the eldest son's escape had something to do with them.

From beginning to end, they were forcing Zeus's family to give up control of Mount Olympus so they could take advantage of the situation.

Funa shook her head and said, "But I don't see what benefit they have in going to the lower realm. The grievances on Mount Olympus have nothing to do with humans, right?"

Jason also fell into thought, because he truly couldn't see it either. Why go to such lengths just to go to the lower realm? It didn't seem to have any obvious benefits. On the contrary, Ares messed up, ran a step too slow, fell before the portal, and lost his life.

At this moment, Aisha spoke up: "To know what they want to do, just look at Poseidon."

"Poseidon?" Jason whispered the name. Thinking about what Poseidon had done, he grasped the key.

"Poseidon wasn't trying to stir up the Atlantic. The thing he did that caused the most harm was attacking Atlantis!" Jason suddenly understood something. He said, "And once something happens to Atlantis, King Arthur of the Sea cannot just sit by and watch."

Everyone looked at each other and said a single word in unison: "Mercury!" ===== CHAPTER 3053 =====