The Record of Unusual Creatures

Hao Ren studied Vivian’s statue in a daze, wondering about that sentence on the pedestal beneath it. Lily’s idea seemed to be the most likely. He turned to her and asked, “Did the Olympian Gods worship you back then?”

“Not to this extent…” Vivian looked just as confused as him. “I was only slightly closer to them than the rest. Besides, Zeus and his big happy family thought of themselves as Gods, why would they think of worshipping someone else?”

“I think it’s a bit of a stretch too,” Lily mumbled. “Batty’s like a magnet of bad luck. Imagine how desperate they must be to trust her to keep them safe. Make her a statue today, lose your entire realm in the next… Zeus and his merry band had to be crazy to worship this God of bad luck.”

Vivian glared at Lily and spoke through her teeth, “No one’s calling you a mute if you keep your mouth shut!”

“Maybe the Greece ‘Gods’ knew something.” Hao Ren frowned as his attention lingered on Vivian’s statue. “Perhaps it’s got something to do with Vivian’s position?”

“You mean… My relationship with the Goddess of Creation?” Vivian raised a brow. “The Olympian Gods wanted to take advantage of that relation?”

Hao Ren nodded as he slowly elaborated his idea. “The only plausible thing that could be this ‘calamity’ they spoke of must be the demon hunters. Your statue was probably used to avoid the disaster. Perhaps the Greece Gods realized something about the Goddess of Creation, and then of your relationship with Her. Perhaps they thought that by worshipping you, they could reach out to the Goddess of Creation and defeat the demon hunters with Her help.”

Lily thought that sounded reasonable. “Sounds logical, do you think it worked?”

Hao Ren curled his lips. “What do you think? They were all killed in just a few hours by the demon hunters. Obviously they got something wrong. Maybe their intel was incomplete, or maybe they were only acting out of desperation. In any case, Vivian’s life size statue cannot possibly protect them all. She can’t even protect herself…”

Vivian’s arms went akimbo. “Hey, can’t you just talk without insulting me for a sec?”

Ayesha and Nangong Wudi were following their discussion. Ayesha asked, “It doesn’t matter if they lost their minds or something. More importantly, why didn’t they just ask Vivian? Athena seemed to be making these statues in secret, hiding it even from Vivian herself.”

Hao Ren nodded in agreement. “That is a mystery. I’ve never heard of someone worshipping a God but keeping it a secret from said God. Say, Vivian, when you were with those Olympian people, did you not see any signs of their research in this matter?”

Vivian shook her head confidently. “No. I remember they were very friendly. Oh, and they always treat me to a good meal, they’re super generous.”

Hao Ren immediately had a feeling that this generosity belied some ulterior motive. The Olympian Gods had a plan, but what it was was not exactly clear. In the end, Lily raised a very important question. “Hey, isn’t there something very suspicious that you all haven’t realized yet?”

“What?” Everyone asked in unison.

Lily pointed at Vivian. “Batty was notorious, but someone still thought it was a good idea to invite her over for dinner! That is highly unusual in and of itself. The Olympian Gods must be quite daring to invite her into their home!”

That struck a chord with everyone. Only Vivian was left with a heavily scowling face. “Who am I offending now…”

Hao Ren patted Vivian kindly by her shoulder. “Don’t take this to heart. It’s in your nature to bring misfortune. We are now focusing on the boldness of the Olympian Gods…”

Vivian’s expression turned even darker at that.

In any case, Lily made a valid point. Back then, Vivian’s reputation spread far and wide. She was the bringer of poverty, and the occasional crazy amnesiac mass murderer. For Otherwordlings, who lived long lives, having the “Countess of the Crimson Moon” strike every few centuries was a continuous source of suffering. Hence, from the beginning of time, all Otherworldlings kept a wide berth from Vivian, including her loyal vampires. The latter would rather worship their ancestor from afar than risk getting a beating. The Olympians were an entirely different matter. They socialized with Vivian, and even invite her to dine together! It must be a great risk to maintain a close relationship with the disaster magnet.

“They treated you well and tried to get close to you. They made statues of you and even built a secret temple without letting you know. The friendship was a facade.” Lily stroked her chin, her eyes narrowing in confusion. “I don’t understand.”

Katrein had listened quietly to the group’s discussion, and could not quite understand them. When she saw that all of them fell into quiet puzzlement, she interrupted, “Why are you discussing about this? The Olympians are all dead.”

“There are actually a few of them who survived… Unfortunately, they did not know anything.” Vivian smiled bitterly with her arms wide. “I’d like to think that they were not being malicious. After all, they were my only friends back in those days. Besides, even today… Hesperides and I are getting along quite well.”

“Yeah, they are dead, it’s no use investigating it further.” Hao Ren clicked his tongue and looked at Katreina. “Is it alright if we stay here a bit longer?”

“As long as you please.” Katreina smiled and waved her tail. “You are honoured guests of the sirens. Make yourselves at home.”

Hao Ren and his group lingered in the collection gallery, a wonderful treasure trove of historical records, for most of the day. They glanced through every piece of historical artifact that were symbolic during its time, including some interesting or even bizarre objects. There were solar ship debris from Ancient Egypt; that longsword used to kill the nine-headed sea monster, Hydra; parts of the metal chain that was once used to tie down the giant wolf, Fenrir — only a few links were left, still strong but devoid of magic. These objects once shaped history and sent tremors throughout the world, but now they were all reduced to damaged artifacts, lying quietly in the depths of the ocean in the sirens’ collection gallery, losing all traces of their former glory.

It was regretful for Hao Ren that these things served only as novelties. With the exception of the rock pedestal left by the Olympian Gods, he found nothing else of great interest.

Hao Ren and his group stayed in Nasaton for three days, until the sirens’ Halloween celebration ended. They also made contact with Lorenz, who had been waiting for news on the ark. Hao Ren also succeeded in requesting from Raven 12345 the authority for a large enough dimensional storage space to move the massive ark out of the Plane of Dreams.

To his surprise, the request went through smoothly. Raven 12345 did not even ask him why he needed that much space — the goddess simply confirmed with him that he was moving an inanimate object, and then swiftly gave him an assist code. All he needed to do was key in the code into Petrachelys’ mainframe.

Usually, he would expect some pestering from the annoying goddess. The prompt approval of his request was too unexpected.

Hao Ren recalled that when Raven 12345 was not at her place in Heaven when he went to find her. Now that she did not even bother to question his request, Hao Ren could not help but feel that the goddess was uncharacteristically busy.

Nevertheless, Raven 12345 had her duties, and Hao Ren was not interested in finding out more about them. He was only a tad curious. Once Petrachelys was successfully upgraded with the assist code, he would not have to think the matter further.

On the afternoon of their third day, the Queen of the Sirens visited Hao Ren, as she was now ready to leave with them.

“Just the three of you?” Hao Ren saw that the Queen had only two escorts with her, and they looked more like secretaries than anything. “This is, in essence, the meeting between the highest authorities from two different civilizations. Aren’t you worried about decorum?”

Katreina shook her head. “Sirens do not care for it. The people on the arks cannot afford it. There is no need to waste unnecessary effort.”

She took a curious glance at Hao Ren. “Do you think it’s necessary?”

Hao Ren considered the issue, and realized that he himself had signed a contract with god using just a few A4 papers…

He decided to avoid further delays, and brought the Queen and the other two unfamiliar siren secretaries to the Plane of Dreams. On the fourth day, Petrachelys arrived at the ark fleet, which was parked near the Drone Nest.