Myth: The Spiritual Dominator

Acropolis, the center of the meeting place outside the city.

Under the gaze of the audience, debater after debater expressed their views and explained their opinions from different perspectives.

However, as expected, no one denied the decision made by the Olympian gods.

No one in the fourth generation of humans had ever seen Prometheus, and only a few legends were spread on the sea. It was said that the fleet lost in the whirlpool might be guided by the captives and return to the world, but rumors were just rumors after all.

The same is true for bronze humans. It is obviously unrealistic to expect modern mortals to empathize with the previous generation of humans who have no blood connection. Most people are just standing from the perspective of a bystander and looking at this issue rationally.

"…So as I said, in the legend, Pandora, the woman who brought disaster, opened the magic box and once again disobeyed the order of the gods. She also proved with facts that in the Bronze Age, not only men broke their oaths, but women did the same, and it was even their nature."

"Humans like this deserve to be destroyed, and compared to cutting sacrifices and stealing the sacred fire, this was the final straw that led to the end of the Bronze Age. The existence of Pandora completely proves that this generation of people is useless, and destruction is their only fate."

"…I am so sorry, Miss Leah, I made a mistake."

"Dear audience, contestants on the same stage with me, commoners or nobles, gods or elves, I am honored to be here to discuss this old history with you. Just now, your views have been explained very clearly, and your recognition of the gods has been very clear. However, please forgive me for making fair remarks under the gaze of the goddess - I dare not agree with your views."

Andrea looked politely at the hundreds of thousands of spectators present, her voice neither hurried nor slow.

Now she was openly cheating at a conference dedicated to the goddess. If Ryan hadn't promised her that she wouldn't be discovered, and she actually wanted Athens to win, she wouldn't have come here.

"Now, let's go back to my original point. Odysseus, Prince of Ithaca, the wisest hero among humans, please tell me: if you, I, and everyone present cannot understand the 'justice of God,' then from a human perspective, do you agree that the destruction of the Bronze Age is in line with 'human justice'?"

The voice was not loud, but it spread throughout the venue with the help of the alchemy array. As a princess, Andrea was still quite capable. At least from her demeanor and tone, she didn't sound like she was reading a script at all.

"Everything you said is a war between kingdoms and between people. So when human kingdoms fight each other, they don't kill all the enemy kingdoms; when people fight each other, they don't fight to destroy an entire race. But I heard that humans can't understand the behavior of animals, so fish in the water eat their own children, but humans think it's evil; humans can't understand the behavior of insects, so mantises eat their own husbands, but humans can't accept this atrocity."

"Mr. Noyes from Olympia, during the opening stage, you are not allowed to ask questions or debate each other. You have to wait until the last contestant has stated his or her position before it is your turn to speak freely."

What followed was the calm voice of the previous host.

Andrea nodded at this, and on the other platform, Odysseus' voice remained steady.

This is how a debate works. Many times there is no right or wrong in the topics debated by both sides, and sometimes there is right or wrong. But what really determines the outcome is whether the views of each party are rigorous, whether they can form their own logic, and whether they can seize the loopholes in the other party's words.

She didn't expect to convince the wise men present with just one sentence, this was just the beginning. Next, she would have to witness the wisdom of the others.

"Madam, may I take it that you just mean to say that you think the gods acted unjustly in the Bronze Age?"

Tens of thousands of eyes were focused on her, and many people recognized her. This was not only because the "Liya's Game" was becoming more and more popular, but also because of her appearance.

"My beautiful lady, just now you compared Prometheus to the king who started the war, the students and priests who obeyed his orders to the nobles, the bronze humans to the people, and the Gods to another country that responded. This is certainly a good metaphor for the fire thief's instigation of the priests at that time to break the agreement and deceive the gods, but there is a loophole that cannot be concealed."

"When faced with an unjust war launched by an enemy country, those who only defeat the enemy's army, capture the king and nobles, and spare the soldiers and servants are benevolent monarchs. They use virtue to win over the people of the enemy country and use their character to stop the war in the world; while those who defeat the enemy's army, kill the king and nobles, and pile up the heads of the enemy soldiers into hills to deter rebellion are tyrannical monarchs. They use the corpses of the invaders to subdue the bandits, and use the swords in their hands to intimidate the nations, so that the heroes of the world will restrain their ambitions and dare not start wars in the world."

The voice echoed over the conference hall. At first, Andrea was just reading from the script, but gradually, she was somewhat convinced.

On the stage, another contestant talked about his philosophy. Unlike the previous contestants, he chose to start from Pandora.

Odysseus' words were sharp and powerful. He did not refute whether the king of gods was cruel or not, but instead used the gap between gods and humans to show that there was no point in comparing the two sides.

With a smile on his face, Odysseus' words were blunt.

No matter what era it is, there are always people whose values ​​are based on their appearance. Being beautiful is an advantage in itself.

"If you judge right and wrong from the perspective of an individual, it is fair to the individual, but others will refute it; if you judge right and wrong from the perspective of a city, it is fair to the people of this city, but people in other city-states will not agree. If you judge right and wrong from the perspective of a country, the result is fair to this country, but other countries will question it; and if you judge right and wrong from the perspective of mankind, then this evaluation is fair to mankind. As for life outside of humans, since they cannot understand it, why bother?"

Taking a deep breath and looking calm, the little princess took a step forward, and the floating platform she was on moved to the center.

The contestant named Noyes bowed slightly and apologized in the direction of Andrea, and Andrea nodded in agreement.

"This is how humans view animals, and how gods view humans. What humans consider to be cruel may not necessarily be what gods consider to be cruel. These are not objects that can be compared together. They are conclusions drawn from different perspectives. A wrong premise will inevitably lead to a wrong result. If you cannot face up to the essential gap between gods and humans, you will naturally be unable to judge the fairness and injustice between them. Therefore, Miss Leah, your previous remarks are probably meaningless."

"...Mr. Iros, I hope you are as good as you say."

Andrea prayed in her heart, but she immediately remembered that in Athena's teachings, cheating was not a behavior that Athena praised.

The first woman created by the gods opened the magic box and brought chaos, turmoil and disease to the earth. Three months later, the gods sent a flood to destroy the world. This is undoubtedly a different perspective, but it is a well-argued point of view, which has also been widely recognized by the audience.

Standing in the center of the venue with her head held high and her chest puffed out, Andrea looked at the gradually becoming restless audience seats, the runes in her heart flickering continuously.

"Yes."

Suddenly, another voice came from the contestant seats, but the next moment, a red light lit up from the platform where he was.

"Today, this grand meeting is held in Athens, where heroes from all over the world gather to pay tribute to the gods with their wisdom. This is a competition that reflects human wisdom, not God's; this is a debate between humans, not a debate between humans and gods. If you don't use human standards to measure justice, but require it to be evaluated from a non-human standpoint, doesn't that go against the original intention of this conference?"

The voice was calm. At this moment, a breeze blew from the clear sky and the clouds blocked the sunlight, but Andrea's eyes were still bright.

Although he did have a good impression of the "Miss Leah" in front of him, for Odysseus, he never believed that love could be obtained through prayer and concession.

Facing the opponent's counterattack, Andrea wanted to refute it, but she hadn't thought of how to refute the gap between gods and humans. After all, no matter how much she said, the opponent could always drag it back to "As a human, how can you understand the thinking of God?"

"Even if the gods were angry and gave them famine, plague and heavy rain, this could be considered something a 'cruel king' would do. However, the flood poured down on the earth from east to west for seven days and nights. All life on earth was destroyed; even the birds in the sky fell into the ocean because they had no place to land. The gods deprived mortals of their lives, whether they were pious or unfaithful, whether they were birds, beasts or insects. So can such behavior be called fair?"

I don't know why, but from those paragraphs, Andrea seemed to feel a little helpless and angry. Those were not emotions that were expressed, but those hidden in her heart.

But Andrea was not discouraged by this situation. After all, she was not very familiar with debates from the beginning, and her real way to deal with it was the voice in her heart.

"This is not only true of human history, but also of God's history. In ancient times, the first God King ruled the world in this way, and he was eventually overthrown by his own descendants. As for humans, such monarchs were rare in ancient times, and none of them had a good end. This is already a rare atrocity in the world, but the destruction that occurred in the Bronze Age was even worse than this, even far beyond the former."

"Even if I search through history books, I have never heard of a king who killed the kings and nobles of the enemy country, buried all the invading soldiers, and massacred all their people. The blood dyed the rivers red and the civilization turned into ruins. This is something that no life can tolerate, but this is precisely the disaster sent by the gods and the suffering suffered by the people in the Bronze Age."

"Just now you said that humans cannot understand birds and beasts, so the habits of humans and birds and beasts are completely different; humans cannot understand God, so the behavior of humans and God can also be different."

"So Miss Leah, is this your point of view?"

"Before, you have said a lot about the 'justice' of Olympus. You mentioned that those who violate the agreement should be punished, and those who violate the law should be punished - there is nothing wrong with this, and it is recognized by people. But if the destruction of the bronze man is the so-called punishment, then this is probably not consistent with the justice you mentioned."

"In that case, I will speak frankly. Miss Leah, your speech just now was indeed brilliant, but it also had some loopholes."

"That's fine. This is not the time for a formal debate. But since you asked, I can answer you with certainty. I do think the gods were unfair in what happened during the Bronze Age. As for the reasons, please let me tell you one by one."

"Well, Prince of Ithaca, you avoided my question and tried to respond by saying 'this question shouldn't exist'. You think that humans cannot understand God, just as humans cannot understand birds, beasts, insects and fish. Although I don't agree with your statement, I will continue with your point of view."

"Every contestant is entitled to express his or her opinion independently and completely, so I'm warning you now. If you do something similar again, I'll announce that you're out and expel you from the venue."

"Deception is unjust, and breaking promises should be punished. But apart from the gods of foresight and the priests who did all this, what mistakes did the other bronze humans make?"

If the gods of Olympus did such a thing, it would be more tyrannical than the most brutal monarch on earth. How could such an act be called fair?

For a moment, the venue was somewhat quiet. The first phase of the conference was declared over, and the debate between contestants could begin. However, no one stood up on the stage to refute.

Yes, over the years, wars between city-states and kingdoms have been common, and brutal kings have appeared from time to time. However, killing all the lives of a country, from people to livestock, leaving no one alive is something that even the northern barbarians who use humans for blood sacrifices have never done.

At this moment, Andrea was the only one who hadn't spoken yet.

"Over the years, I have read history books and learned the wisdom of the ancients. In the thousands of years of history, I have seen many ancient heroes, wise and violent kings. And since ancient times, people's evaluation of kings has coincided with each other:"

After a round of warm applause, the middle-aged short-haired man who spoke bowed politely and returned to his original seat.

"But humans praise the diligence of bees and use their character to praise themselves; humans refute the atrocities of swallowing bees, so they despise the behavior of insects and jackals. Any evaluation in this world is a measurement of external things from one's own standpoint, and the so-called fairness is based on this."

For a moment, the atmosphere on the field seemed to have changed, and the disturbance caused by Andrea's blasphemous words subsided.

"As for killing the enemy's soldiers, allowing the city to be looted, killing three-tenths of the people in a city, and taking away all the food and property, that is something that only cruel kings can do. They use fear to subdue their subjects and use force to maintain their rule. As a result, rebellion continues despite repeated bans, and heroes from various countries rush to draw their swords to prove their martial arts."

It is meaningless to discuss justice outside of humans in a debate forum that belongs only to humans. Justice is relative. If humans want to think about the justice of God, then shouldn’t they also think about the justice of plants, insects, and fish?

Since he is a human being, he should think about things from a human perspective. In this case, Odysseus's previous doubts naturally failed.