The scenery on the Invisible Island remained the same. The tree nymphs came up and chatted with the Rainbow Goddesses. They hadn't seen each other for a long time.
Tyche left some time for her attendants to relax and went to the pool alone.
The lily fields were still thriving under the care of the tree nymphs. The familiar fragrance stirred up memories of the past. This island had witnessed too many moments. The laughter of Krenos and Zeus seemed to still echo in the forest. Now, they had both grown into towering trees.
Everything had changed, yet it seemed as if nothing had changed.
Ripples appeared on the water surface. Looking at her reflection in the water, Tyche suddenly felt a bit dazed. As a goddess, time had passed so long. Unconsciously, the memories of being human had become so distant that they seemed like a dream. The palpitations in her heart had also faded away over time, and she was no longer that naive and innocent girl.
The call of Philyra disturbed Tyche, who was lost in thought. The beautiful linden tree nymph conveyed a message to the chief goddess - the divinity of Prometheus had been fully cultivated and was about to be born.
"Take him to the earth. Prometheus has always hoped to lead humans towards a bright future. Let him witness it with his own eyes."
The touched causal line suddenly sent a warning to the goddess of fate. Tyche's eyes looked at the image emerging on the water surface and followed the causal line to find the source of the anomaly.
Human footsteps were expanding their boundaries on the earth. With the support of different gods, new countries were emerging like new shoots after rain.
Tyche's gaze stopped on a closed high tower. This beautiful high tower was built by the king of Argos. The hard - working old king devoutly worshipped Hera, the goddess of marriage and childbirth, and her son, Hephaestus, the god of fire and craftsmanship.
The goddess made the country's population abundant, and the god of fire brought them superb forging techniques. Under the king's leadership, the people of Argos lived a wealthy life. The old king had a beautiful daughter, Danaë. This princess was extremely beautiful, like a flower in spring.
The old king doted on his daughter very much. When Danaë came of age, the king went to Apollo's temple in person to ask the priests to give a good prophecy about his daughter.
Unfortunately, what the priests said was that the old king would die at the hands of Danaë's son!
This made King Acrisius extremely painful. This father didn't want to harm his daughter, so he asked the craftsmen to build this high tower and locked Danaë in it, preventing her from contacting men.
As a princess, Danaë wasn't poorly treated in terms of food and clothing. But a bird in a cage wouldn't be happy. The dull life in the high tower made Danaë melancholy. Whenever this happened, the princess would always stand on the terrace, looking at the scenery in the distance and humming the lullaby her mother sang to her in the wind.
The depressed Danaë's eyes were full of longing for freedom. She longed to run freely on the grassland like an ordinary girl. A wealthy life couldn't make her feel happy and fulfilled.
The princess Danaë liked rainy days the most. She would stand on the terrace, watching the crowds returning home, hoping that the vines under the tower would spread and grow in the rain and come to the terrace to bloom. Danaë often strolled in the rain, enjoying the feeling of the rain wetting her skin. The cool rain extinguished the fiery restlessness in her heart. This was the only pleasure of the lonely young princess in her lonely life.
Suddenly, a gap opened in the clouds covering the sky, and golden sunlight shone on the high tower. This made the rain falling on the terrace also stained with a golden color.
Danaë was overjoyed. The girl laughed and hugged these beautiful golden rains, allowing the raindrops to wet her clothes.
After the laughter, there was endless loneliness. Such a beautiful surprise had no one to share with. Danaë's loneliness also surged like this heavy rain. She sincerely prayed to the god who brought the rain to relieve her from the endless loneliness. Her prayer reached Zeus, who was in charge of the rain.
Zeus, who had taken over the climate divinity from her mother and brought the rain necessary for plant growth to the earth, was in a good mood after obtaining the divinity of life and being promoted to a primordial god. Danaë's sincere prayer received Zeus' favor. The king of gods appeared in the sunlight piercing through the clouds and said to Danaë, "Devout believer, tell me, how can I free you from the embrace of loneliness?"
Danaë, who had never seen a man since she became an adult, fell in love with the handsome god in front of her at first sight. She greedily looked at the valiant Zeus and said, "Rain - bringing god who has brought me comfort, please give me a child."
How could Zeus think that this girl was making a bold and straightforward love request? He just thought that this girl couldn't have a child with her husband. The god of life generously bestowed his life - giving power on this believer, allowing this pure princess to have a child.
Tyche was headache - ridden but had to keep watching. After the world was successfully promoted, the laws retracted all their power, and the offspring of the gods could no longer become gods as easily as before. One of the reasons was that the number of god - descendants was already too large. Under the indulgence of the gods, new babies kept emerging.
These creatures born out of impulse didn't receive the proper care they deserved. They were by - products of pleasure. The goddesses who gave birth to them were unwilling to pour too much effort into them. They would often abandon them after they grew up. Their weak divinity couldn't be favored by the source. In order to maintain the glory of being gods, they struggled desperately.
Tyche even saw more than a dozen god - descendants fighting for the meager divinity of the dew, just to get out of an awkward situation. There was a huge difference between walking on Mount Olympus as a nymph and appearing as a complete god with a divinity. Nymphs without support could be severely punished by the gods for no reason at all at any time. The competition among them was too fierce, even making the chief gods fight over it.
Danaë was just an ordinary human. Even with the gift of a primordial god, the laws wouldn't allow her unborn child to become a god. But the birth of this child marked the arrival of the Heroic Age, which had a profound impact on humanity.
Under Tyche's secret care, Danaë successfully gave birth to a baby boy. But her abnormal state after giving birth made the maid who served her food notice something was wrong. The maid who took care of the princess knew well that this was what the old king feared. But under Danaë's pleading, she still chose to hide this matter and secretly raised this boy with Danaë.
The old King Acrisius suddenly felt uneasy and came to visit his daughter locked in the high tower.
When he arrived at the tower and heard the laughter of a baby from inside, he immediately trembled all over. The fear of death dispelled his paternal love. The king ordered the soldiers to put his daughter and the baby in a large chest. As a father, Acrisius couldn't bear to kill his daughter and grandson, so he threw the chest into the sea and let fate decide the life and death of his daughter and grandson.
At the command of the Oceanid goddess of ocean currents, the dolphins lifted the large wooden chest. The gentle waves carried the chest to the beach of an island.
A fisherman discovered the chest. This devout believer received a revelation from the goddess of ocean currents and took the mother and son back to his home.
Princess Danaë lived in seclusion on this island from then on, using a false name. Her son was named Perseus, the beginning of the hero's epic.
The fisherman adopted Perseus and regarded him as a gift from the goddess of ocean currents, teaching him as his own son.
Tyche didn't want this accidentally - born child to become a rift between Zeus and Leto. She used the power of fate to erase that past, but she didn't intervene too much in Perseus' childhood. Perseus, with the divine blood flowing in his body, grew up as an ordinary child until the test of fate came to him.
The king of this island was Polydectes. Perseus' adoptive father was the king's brother. When the king came to visit his brother on one occasion, the beautiful Danaë attracted Polydectes' attention.
But Danaë had her heart set on someone else and refused the king repeatedly. Annoyed and embarrassed, Polydectes wanted to forcibly abduct Danaë while his brother went out to sea to fish. However, Perseus didn't take much effort to deal with the soldiers sent by the king.
Since the abduction didn't work, Polydectes came up with a new idea. He required each resident on the island to contribute a horse as a sacrifice to the sea gods. The island in the sea worshipped several sea goddesses, including Tyche, Eurynome, and Athena. The king bought all the horses. Perseus ran through all the markets but couldn't buy a horse. He had no choice but to promise the king that he could use any item as a substitute.
Seizing the opportunity, Polydectes asked Perseus to bring back the head of Medusa, the most beautiful of the three Gorgon sisters, as a substitute for the sacrifice. Ignorant but fearless, Perseus promised the king's request. After bidding farewell to his adoptive father and mother, he went to the temple of Athena for a regular prayer. To Perseus' surprise, the goddess of strategy and guardianship, Athena, actually appeared in the temple!
Athena's appearance wasn't unpredictable. The Rainbow Goddesses brought the chief god's greetings to the new leader of the Oceanid goddesses. The ambitious Athena also wanted to take this opportunity to strike at the gods of the Pontus family. She readily agreed to Tyche's request.
"Perseus, your adoptive father devoutly worships the goddess of ocean currents. The goddess of the sea, the mother of life, has heard that you are about to embark on an unknown journey. She has asked me to bring you Pegasus, the flying horse."
A gentle mist of water splashed up. A white horse with wings was born from the ocean current in the deep sea and nudged Perseus' cheek.
"The three Gorgon sisters are the daughters of Phorcys, the father of all sea monsters, and the dangerous Ceto. Their bloodline is powerful and far beyond that of mortals."
"The eldest sister, Stheno, has claws as hard as iron and golden wings. Her strength is sufficient to pierce through huge rocks. The second sister, Euryale, has the speed of the wind and tusks like a wild boar. She can tear apart all obstacles in front of her. These two sisters have inherited the blood of Pontus and cannot be killed by mortals!"
"And their most beloved younger sister, Medusa, is a mortal. But her talent is even higher than that of her two elder sisters. Anyone who sees her face will turn to stone. With your frail mortal body, you cannot defeat these snake - haired witches."
Perseus wasn't afraid. He looked directly into the goddess's eyes and said, "Goddess of strategy, I'm not a coward. I will keep my promise and bring back the head of Medusa. Even if I die in an unknown corner, I won't regret it!"
A golden light flickered in Perseus' eyes, and the blood of Zeus, the king of gods, began to awaken. The power from the primordial gods emanated from this human, and the incomplete but noble divinity made Athena take notice. The intelligent goddess guessed that this human was a descendant of the gods, and her attitude towards Perseus changed imperceptibly.
A dazzling light shimmered on Athena's body, and her beautiful figure disappeared from the temple. And in the place where the goddess of strategy and guardianship had stood, a beautiful shield was left. The shield was as shiny as a mirror, clearly reflecting Perseus' face.
Athena's oracle echoed in Perseus' ears, "Perseus, go to the place where the Graeae, the three witches, live and seek their help. These old witches, who have the same origin as the Gorgons, know the secrets of the Gorgons. Remember, the mightiest is also the weakest!"
Perseus set off on his journey. The speed of Pegasus far exceeded his imagination. The whistling wind made Perseus dizzy. In an instant, the witches' dwelling place at the edge where the sun set appeared in front of Perseus.
The rocks here were as sharp as blades, and a permanent gloom shrouded this land. The witches, who took it upon themselves to torture humans and spread terror, had violated the domain of the Furies. Under Tyche's instruction, the Furies severely punished these witches, took away their eyes and teeth, and only left one eye and one tooth for the three witches to fight over.
The earth loathed the Graeae and forbidden them from setting foot on it. The ocean also rejected them. The witches had to hide at the intersection of the far - off horizon and the sky. Daylight also took back the light that shone on them at the request of the sky, making them live in eternal darkness.
The shield in Perseus' hand reflected the sunlight, which panicked the three witches. Their only eye was injured by the sunlight and rolled out of their hands and onto Perseus' feet.
The three witches, having lost their eyes, hurriedly crawled on the ground to grope around. Perseus picked up the eye and said, "Old witches, your eye is in my hands."
The witches pleaded anxiously, "Young man, have pity on us old women. We who have seen the light cannot bear the darkness. Please return our eyes to us and let us keep the hope of being favored by the light."
Perseus was well - aware of the three witches' identities. He asked the witches, "Just tell me how to kill Medusa, the most beautiful of the three Gorgon sisters, and I'll return it to you."
The witches hesitated. The three Gorgon sisters had the same origin as them, and from what this young man said, he didn't seem to come with good intentions. The three witches fell silent again.
Unwilling to waste time, Perseus pretended to destroy the eye. His threat finally made the witches unable to sit still.