Chapter 146: Hera, My Beloved Hera
Facing Zeus’s such pleading words, facing this ultimate tenderness and doting that she had longed for countless times in her dreams, the resilient Hera ultimately could no longer hold back and shed crystalline tears.
At this moment, the fragile Goddess Hera, her tears finally soaked the broad chest of this promiscuous Heavenly Father.
Her ethereal and broken murmur echoed in the silent Divine Palace: “Zeus, oh Zeus, why can you be so cruel?”
“You speak of the pain you cannot endure, yet why must you inflict it on me a thousandfold?”
“Zeus, do you know how much pain I endure staying in Olympus? Every moment, seeing your intimacy with Metis, that feeling of divinity being torn apart alive, envelops me every instant.”
“Zeus, oh Zeus, you already have Metis who loves you so deeply, but why… why do you still come to provoke me?”
“Metis loves you deeply! She is the beloved you publicly declared before the gods!”
“She… she is my closest beloved friend. How could I betray her? How could I harm her?”
The resilient Great Mother Goddess Hera, at this moment, was so vulnerable.
Her shattered heart could no longer be concealed.
Before Zeus, all her dignity, all her persistence, was like a dam built of quicksand, easily washed away by Zeus’s words.
She endured the heart-wrenching pain in her heart, gazing up at Zeus’s handsome face with a pair of dazed eyes brimming with tears.
She pleaded in a voice nearly begging: “Zeus, please, let me go. Please do not make me bear that unbearable pain between you and my closest beloved friend, the harm that my fragile divinity cannot bear.”
Zeus paid no heed, hugging her even tighter and more forcefully in his embrace, with such strength that Hera felt real pain, as if her perfect divine body was about to be crushed by Him and fused into one with His divine body.
His voice sounded by her ear: “My beloved Hera, how I wish not to let you suffer even the slightest harm. But even as God King, even with the power to destroy the universe, how can I control my heart?”
“The spiritual Heavenly Father granted free consciousness to all spirits, and since then, the consciousness of all spirits is no longer under any control, not even their own.”
“You are all so excellent, powerful, beautiful, wise, gentle, loving-kindness… all the beautiful words in this world are simply insufficient to describe your ineffable beauty.”
“Perhaps I am too greedy. But you, who are so excellent, bear an inescapable responsibility.”
“It is you, you radiant goddesses who embody the most beautiful essence of the universe, who make me utterly unable to restrain my love for you from the depths of my divine soul.”
“Especially you, my Hera. My beloved Hera, look at yourself—across this vast universe, no goddess is more beautiful than you, no goddess more tender and loving-kindness, more dignified and majestic.”
“Do you know? Hera, from the first moment I saw you, all my divinity roared most fiercely, telling me most strongly: You must be mine! We are predestined beloved destined to unite! We can never be separated forever!”
Zeus slightly loosened his hold on the quietly weeping Hera, though his arms still encircled her delicate body, as if afraid she would flee.
The amorous Great Father God gazed into his beloved Hera’s eyes with an utterly serious, utterly deep gaze.
Those eyes that should have been bright as the stars in heaven were now blurred into a hazy, shattered nebula by endless tears.
He said in the gentlest voice: “I want to tell my beloved Goddess Hera that Hera is equally the goddess I love most, my love for her in no way inferior to my love for that wise Wisdom. She resides deep in my divinity, the beloved I can never relinquish.”
“So, Hera, my love, now please tell me with your own lips: Do you also love me most? Are you the goddess in this universe who loves me most?”
Hera gazed dazedly into Zeus’s golden eyes deep as the sea, their equally brilliant golden eyes meeting in this moment.
As if molten gold had turned into scalding liquid within, her divinity trembled, and she could not utter any words against her heart.
Yet she also could not voice the truest words in her heart.
If she did, she would no longer be able to face her beloved friend, nor her own divine principles.
Finally, in endless struggle and conflict, she could only lightly, almost imperceptibly, nod her noble head.
Immediately after, as if exhausting all her strength, she buried her face deeply into Zeus’s broad chest, tears once again uncontrollably falling like a breached flood.
Her tears were the tears of sorrow from the Great Mother Goddess.
These tears silently drifted to the earth of the mortal world, transforming into vast seas of salty bitterness, her deep sorrow fully contained within.
Across the Three Realms and Three Domains, all spirits of the universe who drink this seawater will involuntarily weep for it in heartache.
And in the God King’s embrace, her heart was constantly repenting, blaming herself.
Why? Why could she not muster even a shred more resolve before Zeus?
Why? Why could she never truly, firmly refuse Him?
In the future, how would she face her beloved friend Metis’s pure, bright eyes?
Although Zeus did not hear the words He most longed for, this tiny gesture from the goddess in His arms was enough.
Today was sufficient; He knew He could not press further.
After all, this was Hera.
Her divinity was so persistent in purity and sole love; she would never stoop to actively vying for another goddess’s love.
Today, forcing her to nod in admission was already a hard-won victory.
Take it slow.
He thought, He absolutely could not truly drive this gentle and loving-kindness Great Mother Goddess into the ruthless shrew of later legends.
That would be too cruel for her, for Him.
Hera was destined to be His sole, eternal Queen of Heaven.
However
Today’s victory still needed the final, sweetest seal of certification!
He must seize this moment when her heart’s defenses were wide open and emotions surging to thoroughly, eternally brand her with His unique mark!
Thus, this most loyal goddess of love would absolutely have no further doubts!
Zeus, stirring like spring thunder, gently stroked his beloved Hera’s long hair smooth as a golden waterfall, silently comforting her struggling and pained heart.
Then, He slowly, gently released the powerful arms that had confined Hera.
Hera thought Zeus was finally letting her go; her thoughts instantly grew even more complex.
She felt a sigh of relief, yet deep in her heart surged an indescribable, intense reluctance.
However, Zeus did not depart.
He gently, with infinite tenderness, cupped her tear-streaked, delicate face.
Hera was stunned, just meeting Zeus’s gaze burning like the sun, when Zeus lowered His head and, with utmost cherish, gently kissed her bright eyes wet with tears.
Hera clearly felt Zeus’s gentle action.
That numbing electric shock from the Origin of the Lord of Thunder instantly paralyzed all her divinity’s thoughts.
The wondrous, enchanting sensation swept through her entire divinity and divine body, making her involuntarily reach out her arms and tightly embrace Zeus.
Her slender fingers uncontrollably gripped Zeus’s clothes on His back, nearly tearing them apart.
Zeus moved downward, kissing the beautiful Goddess Hera with His lips, gently drawing into His mouth all the tears of endless heartache and sorrow on her delicate face.
The God Lord’s lips slowly descended to the beautifully contoured, slightly thin yet peerlessly radiant lips of Goddess Hera.
He kissed deeply without hesitation, naturally and smoothly.
The faint salty taste of tears, for the first time, slowly spread on the tips of the tongues of these two supreme gods.
That faint yet immensely heavy bitterness thus mingled with the sweet fragrance of divine nectar into an exquisitely complex flavor.
Ultimately transforming into a faintly salty clear spring, silently swallowed by the greedy, urgent, desirous other.
The pure Goddess Hera, in her eternal divine life, welcomed her first true intimate contact.
Yet this first intimate contact occurred amidst her heart’s ultimate pain and conflict, and love suppressed to the limit, thoroughly eroded and possessed by this deep yet promiscuous God Lord.
She would never forget this day. Nor this moment.
The devoted and loyal Hera, her tall and graceful delicate body completely limp in Zeus’s embrace.
Her consciousness had drifted beyond the ninth heaven, wandering aimlessly in the boundless Sea of Stars of the universe.
Only Zeus’s strong and powerful embrace supported her, preventing her from collapsing to the ground.
After a long, long time, Zeus’s magnetic, gentle words finally sounded slowly by her ear.
The warm breath called back her long-drifting, dazed mind.
“My love, my eternal love, promise me not to so ruthlessly think of leaving me. Alright?”
Hera’s lips, now even more radiant and plump, could not utter words of refusal no matter what.
Even though all her rationality screamed in her mind, urgently demanding she refuse, she simply could not.
Zeus’s pleading words continued: “My Hera~ My Hera~ My love~ Please take pity on me suffering the torment of true love. Do not let me endure that most bitter, painful agony. Stay by my side, forever by my side, alright?”
Hera lowered her noble head, and after a long while, said in an almost inaudible voice: “Let me go, Zeus. I promise you, I will not leave Olympus.”
“But… that is all. I too ask you not to harm me anymore.”
Zeus immediately beamed with joy. He rubbed His cheek affectionately against Hera’s jade-smooth face, saying in an extremely gentle tone: “My beloved, I could never bear to harm you. My love, you will always be the most beloved Hera in my heart.”
“Thank you for the mercy you have shown me. How fortunate I am to have you, to possess all the love of merciful Hera. Perhaps this is the greatest reward for my salvation of the entire universe.”
Hera felt somewhat uncomfortable with Zeus’s such intimate actions.
Her yin divine essence as Great Mother Goddess was being intensely stirred by Zeus’s extreme yang aura as Great Father God.
With an evasive mood, she hurriedly said in a low voice: “Zeus, please let me go first. My heart is truly in turmoil now. I promise you, I will not leave Olympus. Let me be quiet for a while; I… I want to be alone.”
Zeus pondered for a moment, then finally nodded gently: “Alright. My love, as long as you will not leave me, anything is fine.”
However, just as His words fell, He leaned down again, precisely pressing onto Hera’s radiant, plump red lips.
Hera could not react at all; she never imagined it would be so sudden.
But soon, she was once again immersed in it.
The Great Mother Goddess could never refuse the Greatest Father God.
Because Their divine essences were so perfectly compatible, the perfect harmony of yin and yang, the most perfect union in the universe.
However, Hera was Hera after all.
After enduring a divine storm that nearly shattered her mind, she still relied on the resilience from the Supreme Mother Goddess to control herself.
She pushed with slight force, forcibly shoving away the God King still immersed in the Great Mother Goddess’s beauty.
Zeus knew when to stop.
He gazed at Hera’s peerlessly beautiful face, tear-streaked yet even more radiant, unable to resist planting several light kisses on her jade-smooth, delicate face before departing reluctantly as a flash of electric light, with a satisfied smile.
Within the Divine Palace, only Hera remained dazed in place.
Her graceful, tall figure stood motionless for a long time in the center of the vast, cold hall, as if transformed into the world’s most beautiful statue, frozen with endless sorrow and joy.
While Zeus was using sweet talk to tease His beloved goddess, the sisters Leto and Asteria, upon returning to their own small Divine Palace, had faces filled with irresolvable gloom.
The gentle and soft Leto once again fell into melancholy sorrow.
She sighed softly, like the late autumn evening breeze stirring the last withered leaf, full of desolation and helplessness.
She said in a low voice: “Asteria, my younger sister, today we finally met His Majesty the God King and received His Majesty the God King’s forgiveness. But the merciful Goddess of Reproduction and Fertility, our only Mistress we can rely on, is leaving Olympus.”
“This”
“What are we to do from now on?”
