Aphrodite's Choice

Chapter 51 – Old Memories

The reason the remnant of a dead god had been floating on the sea for so long was simply because it amounted to nothing. It didn’t belong anywhere, couldn’t be accepted anywhere. However, the power left behind by the dead god was much too strong for it to remain drifting as trash on the sea forever. The power of its divinity slowly but surely changed the state of its matter, and eventually it reached the point where it morphed into a new creation.

A nameless girl—the daughter of the heavenly gods. Of course, she was unaware of her own origins, unaware of the fact that she was a god.

The first emotion she ever experienced was loneliness. It may have been because it was the last emotion that the Celestial God Uranus felt just before dying. It was quite unfair to the girl, who had no way of understanding something that had happened before she was even born. Anyhow, the next feeling after realizing her loneliness, was the desire to escape from it.

The girl looked around her, but all she could see was dark blue waves everywhere, not a single living entity in her sight other than herself. This wasn’t inexplicable; as the sea she was currently floating in was ‘The Great Sea of the Void’. Compared to land, it was like a desert, and it was a completely unexplored area which not only humans but even creatures serving Poseidon avoided entering.

‘Why is there no one here? Where am I?’

The girl was filled with a sense of helplessness. She hated being alone, but no matter how much she struggled, it didn’t change. So, she decided to leave. Leave what? She wasn’t simply visiting another place, as she had no plans to return here. But she also wasn’t necessarily migrating, since she had no destination in mind. She was going away in order to find something, but she didn’t know where it was, so it wasn’t really an adventure either.

She started out, not knowing what trajectory she would take and took a hold of her own fate. She ceased to be nothing and desired to be something.

By the time she entered the Aegean Sea, the girl had grown. If she were human, she looked like she would be in her late teens, but as a god, she was still in the phase of metamorphosis and awakening to experience. Since she had no way of knowing this, she simply marveled at her changing body and face. She didn’t know much, such as the fact that her current state was her most dangerous phase, that she didn’t yet have the power of immortality, or that in order to move on to the next stage, she needed to find a sanctuary that had no owner.

At this time, the girl only had one thought on her mind.

‘Where would I find someone who will be with me?’

Humans had been out of her consideration from the very beginning, and the few sirens whom she had accidentally come across had run away, trembling, as soon as they saw her. Although the sea creatures, such as dolphins, were cute, she could not fill her loneliness with them.

‘How long must I be alone like this?’

Overcome with frustration, she kicked her feet. The seawater around her swirled and created strong waves that pushed wildly over each other even in the distant waterways. Had her frustration continued, it would have been a day of disaster and destruction, the likes of which can rarely be found in human history. The calm sea, which suddenly raged with a powerful force, would have swallowed all the sailing ships.

But thankfully, something else happened instead. Just as the planets in their respective orbits align at an unexpected moment, destiny has a way of manifesting without any warning.

The girl was distracted by the sudden and strange feeling. In her amazement, she stopped her kicking. Her head seemed to turn on its own, like the needle of a compass pointing towards north, the direction from which she felt as if something was pulling at her. And she saw.

The sky seemed to stain with red, and something shimmered with light and catapulted across it. It fell with a dark red trajectory, as if burning the sky, and the moment it hit the ground it caused a huge roar and explosion. Bang! The ground shook and flames flared up. She heard screaming and people yelling.

“A star has fallen!”

Something had fallen from the sky and caused havoc. Their assumption that it must be a star was not completely baseless.  But the girl thought that whoever was shouting was probably wrong.

‘Is that what a star looks like?’

She tilted her head as she watched the burning flames engulfing the edges of the forest.

‘I think not.’

Because it had been quite far away, and the flames had been so strong even as it was falling, she had not been able to see it in great detail. However, the thing that fell through the darkened sky did not look like a star at all. Actually, it had been a human shape, arms and legs and all, with its hair fluttering in the wind.

But she couldn’t reveal herself to the humans to ask if they had indeed seen it correctly or not. She had not learned this from anyone nor could she explain why, but she knew that she was very different from the humans. She knew she should not approach them. Much later, she would learn that humans who witnessed the true form of a god would not be able to endure it and would die; but currently, she instinctively avoided them.

Instead, the girl chose a different method.

‘Well, why don’t I go and see for myself? I should just go in that direction.’

She hid herself in the waves and went along the edge of the island, wading to the other side of the bank. There were no homes on the other side of the island. This was because there was very little farmable land among the rugged stone mountains. Thanks to this, she was able to get close to the land without worrying about being seen by anyone.

There was not much grass here, the land mostly consisting of stone. The flames had already been extinguished a while ago and there was only thick smoke, but fortunately what the girl was looking for was not very far. The smoke burned her lungs and eyes. Even while coughing, the girl stepped onto the land. The stone ground radiated heat, and her white feet moved carefully over it.

Finally, she reached what she had been looking for: a boy lying down on a wide rock with one arm hanging down. The boy’s hair was black as a starless night. Because he was unconscious, she could not see the color of his eyes. Just like herself, he looked to be in his late teens, but it was difficult to be certain of his age as his face and limbs were all covered with blood.