The Villain of Ancient Greece

In Greek mythology, the Underworld can roughly be divided into three regions: ”Asphodel Meadows”, where the souls of ordinary people reside after death; ”Elysium”, the blessed land where heroes and innocent, pure souls dwell; and ”Tartarus”, the place of punishment for guilty souls.

Aside from all deceased souls, a portion of the Titan gods who were overthrown by Zeus were also imprisoned in the Underworld.

Meanwhile, the poet Dante, in The Divine Comedy, described three great realms awaiting the dead—”[Purgatory]”, ”[Hell]”, and ”[Heaven]”.

Between the two, wasn’t there a strangely familiar sense of déjà vu?

That’s right.

As a future ultimate patchwork monster, Christian mythology very likely borrowed the three-layered structure of the afterlife from Greek mythology.

So, since the Dionysian cult had already been established, it was time to hurry up and bring out the legendary ”[Final Judgment]”, along with ”[Purgatory]”, ”[Hell]”, and ”[Heaven]”, step by step, perfecting a theological worldview independent of the Olympian pantheon, further strengthening its influence over believers and their cohesion within the faith.

Once this move was played, Lorne could already foresee another major surge in the faith power he would gain.

And at the same time, he could plant a few of his own hidden pieces within the Underworld.

—He didn’t trust Zeus, well..off course, because he tried to kill him... but he also didn’t fully trust the goddess before him, who seemed to be helping him so generously.

It seemed like he was just a chess piece in a bigger game.

”What are you thinking about?”

Hecate asked curiously, resting her chin on her hand.

Lorne raised his head and gazed quietly at the mist-like, illusory figure before him, speaking in a meaningful tone.

”I’m wondering, since you personally set the fate of this world, why do you now want me to break it?”

”...!”

In an instant, Hecate’s smile froze.

Her pitch-black eyes stared deeply at him, like an abyss capable of swallowing all light and darkness.

Yet under the goddess’s scrutiny and overwhelming pressure, Lorne remained unmoved, instead revealing a playful smile.

”Did I guess right?

Then let me keep guessing, are you the part that was abandoned by ’[Necessity]’?”

”Half a step forward makes a genius. One full step makes a madman.

Being too smart isn’t always a good thing.”

Hecate lifted her wine cup and took a light sip, her reminder low and eerie.

But the more she spoke like this, the brighter Lorne’s smile became.

In the original scriptures of Orphism (the precursor to the Dionysian cult), Nyx was regarded as the supreme deity of the triple-aspected goddess, possessing three different transcendent identities.

She could be the goddess of necessity Ananke, the goddess of retribution Adrasteia, or the goddess of causality Heimarmene, representing all inevitable fate, and serving as the ”mother” of the Three Fates.

Yet although Hecate was also a triple-aspected goddess and the closest to Nyx, she possessed a completely different divinity, representing ”[Game]”, ”[Chance]”, and ”[Possibility]”…

So Lorne suspected that something must have happened here.

—For example, Nyx, as the original entity, may have split for some reason, forming the Three Fates who represented ”[Necessity]” and ”[Determinism]”, and Hecate, who represented ”[Chance]” and ”[Opportunity]”.

Put in a way more familiar to Eastern thinking: The Dao is fifty; Heaven derives forty-nine; one is left behind.

If Nyx were the ”[Great Dao]”, then the Three Fates would be the ”[Heavenly Dao]” that governs the world’s operation, while the one that slipped away would be Hecate, representing the possibility of ”[Change]” and ”[Subversion]”.

Perhaps all divergence began the moment Zeus devoured Metis and transcended his own fate.

That was precisely why the King of the Olympians both respected and feared Hecate.

Because, like the Three Fates, she too was a part of Nyx.

Only then could it be explained why Hecate could turn the wheel of fate and make everything uncertain!

Lorne smiled and gently released his hand as the serpentine twelve-sided die rolled briskly between them.

—God plays dice.

Though Einstein famously opposed this idea, more and more evidence later showed that humanity’s future exists in a world governed by ”[Randomness]”—whether it’s today’s big data, artificial intelligence, biomedicine, gene editing, or even our own lives, all inseparable from the ”dice of God”.

In other words, ”[Randomness]” and ”[Chance]” might actually be the world’s inherent norm...its true underlying color.

”So you want to use my hand to overturn inevitable fate and reclaim your original authority?”

Lorne looked at the triple-aspected goddess before him and asked thoughtfully.

”And that so-called divergence point… is Zeus?”

Hecate didn’t answer.

Instead, she quietly stared at the tabletop, lost in thought.

”Don’t worry. I pose no threat to you, nor do I intend to oppose you.

There’s no need to be so guarded.”

Lorne spoke frankly, then continued calmly.

”Since we both belong to the variables rejected by ’[Fate]’, shouldn’t some things be discussed openly?”

As if recalling something, Hecate raised her head again, a playful smile appearing on her face.

”What do you want to know?”

”Why me?”

”Chance and possibility exist everywhere. They can exist in the past, the present, or the future; they can be the never-born Poros, the resurrected Zagreus, or Dionysus, born only to die again…”

Lorne pondered, his gaze flickering darkly.

”Or they can be me—a ’[Variable]’ from outside fate?”

Then he let out a self-mocking chuckle, meeting those abyss-like eyes.

”So? You planned it all along?”

”Chance is also inevitability.”

Hecate murmured meaningfully, likewise releasing her fingers and tossing her own twelve-sided die onto the table.

As it rolled briskly, the die finally landed on a symbol formed of several petals.

—The emblem of Aphrodite.

Lorne looked down, his expression subtle.

—So was his own.

Dice often came in pairs, and the goddess of determinism, Ananke, also had a corresponding consort, the god of chance, Chronos.

However, Chronos and his consort Ananke existed only in Orphic (Dionysian) doctrine; other sects did not include them.

Early Orphism believed Phanes to be the first god, the creator of the universe.

Only later did The Twenty-Four Hymns and other versions add Chronos as a deity, portraying him as the primordial origin who created all things.

Likewise, Ananke, who created the world together with Chronos, was merely one aspect of the triple-aspected goddess Nyx.

”The stakes are down. The game has officially begun. Show me your value.

I will turn the wheel of fate for you, let’s see whether, by wagering everything, you can walk through death and be reborn.”

The low voice gradually became ethereal, eventually fading into nothingness.

The figure seated there vanished without a trace, leaving behind only a lingering, playful echo.

Lorne looked at the die on the table, spinning once more in place, his expression shifting between light and dark.