[Greek mythology] Born to be arrogant

"Phoenix (φο?νιξ)."

The "phoenix" in Diana's mouth, also known as "phoenix", is one and only one in the world. It feeds on frankincense, perches on palm tree branches, and sings to Apollo every day.Every 500 years, the aging phoenix will gather all the palm branches with aroma, light a fire and give birth to a young phoenix from the fire.Then, the little phoenix would put the ashes into the eggshell, coat it with spices, and offer it to Apollo as a token of loyalty.This goes on and on and on, endlessly. [1]

It is said that in the far east, there is also a kind of phoenix that "does not drink from a clear spring, and does not live in a sycamore tree".The male is a phoenix, and the female is a phoenix. The phoenix is ​​good at writing, and the phoenix is ​​good at dancing. There are a large number of them, forming a family of their own.What was born from the raging fire was not the phoenix, but the Suzaku, an offshoot of the phoenix.

"Phoenix?"

Orion looked at Diana in surprise, "There are at least [-] or [-] kinds of divine birds that are 'neither live nor die, live and die, live forever, live and die'. Are you so sure that it is a phoenix?"

Diana nodded: "It said, 'There is a bird in the world'. Although there are twenty or thirty kinds of divine birds that are 'neither live nor die, live and die, live forever, live and die', there is only one phoenix in the world. Only." And the only phoenix in the world, with a very violent temper, ignored everyone except Apollo, including Diana, who was the goddess of hunting and ruled all beasts.

Sure enough, as soon as Diana finished speaking, the sphinx whimpered, lowered its head, and sank deep into the bottom of the Nile River. No matter how much the high priest roared and chanted spells to drive him away, he would not show up again.

A crisp beep sounded.

Everyone looked in the direction where the sound came from, and a colorful bird full of flames grabbed a gray egg and flew towards the sun in the middle of the sky.In a place invisible to human beings, in the middle of the scorching sun, Apollo took the egg in the heart of the colorful bird's claw, and said in a low voice, "I will put it on the highest altar of Olympus", his eyes were a little bit Sadly.

He thought of Diana's countless attempts to tame this awkward little phoenix, but she was always defeated by the little phoenix's angry screams; her favorite thing was to put the phoenix eggs on the side of the altar, and she wanted to hatch another one. She was a little phoenix, but she couldn't figure it out; in the end, she piled up hundreds of gray phoenix eggs...

The pegasus neighed loudly.

Apollo's heart was shocked, and he closed his eyes hard. With the rolling heat waves of the sun god's chariot, tears evaporated, and he steadily steered six violent golden Pegasus horses, along the rugged sky track, to the west coast.

The little phoenix chirped happily again, stood in the middle of the sun, and sang a joyful hymn to Apollo.

The world, the Red Coast, the mouth of the Nile.

The two huge fleets faced each other quietly, with the flags on the masts fluttering.The soldiers lined up neatly on the ship, but most of them were listless and dared not speak out.

Originally, the weapons were supposed to be directed at the outside world, but now they are all aimed at their own people, what is this called?

Looking at the deep vortex created by the Sphinx in the Nile River, Diana couldn't help being a little dazed.

She had seen this ferocious beast before.

When she was very young, Zeus went to the world to seduce a princess named Io.Hera fueled her jealousy and directly turned Io into a cow, allowing Zeus to play with the love of beasts to his heart's content.Eventually, Io bore Zeus a son, Epaphos, who later became king of Egypt. [2]

And the sphinx was thrown into Egypt by Zeus at that time to help Epaphos guard Nero.

That eccentric lion has an eccentric temperament, and likes to catch people and guess riddles. If he fails to guess correctly, he will welcome its huge sharp claws and bloody maw.If you guessed right... Depending on how shy the strange lion is, you will get various strange reactions, and sinking to the bottom of the Nile is one of them.

She secretly estimated the possibility of the lion resurfaced, and concluded that it was zero.

There was a burst of laughter from around.

Diana turned her head to look, and Orion was holding on to the mast, smiling exaggeratedly.She endured it for a while, but she couldn't hold it back after all, and asked Orion very seriously: "Can't you become a normal person?" With such a tall figure, she raised her head and her neck ached.

Orion glanced at her: "Don't you think there is a giant on board, which is very intimidating?"

Diana couldn't bear it anymore: "There is a giant who obviously has the blood of the Titans, and the sphinx may swallow people and boats at any time!"

Orion choked, shrunk his body helplessly, and became as tall as Ramses.

"Okay, I'll take your word for it for now, Goddess of the Hunt."

"Goddess of hunting?" Ramesses repeated this strange syllable, looked at Diana in surprise, but wisely did not ask.

The sound of incantations was already floating intermittently from the boat on the opposite side, and the silt in the Nile River increased.Ramses frowned in displeasure. Many of his soldiers had their legs weak and knelt on the deck to pray for forgiveness from the sun god.

Diana waited for a while, but she didn't wait for the other side's sun god to express her opinion; looking up at the sky, Apollo was still driving his chariot on the sky track, and a colorful bird was singing happily in the middle of the sun. singing hymns.

Since the high priest of the other party was already so sincere, she had to be well prepared to say what she said.

After all, Ramses is her ally, isn't he?

She thought for a moment, and said to Ramses: "Bring the crystals, red sapphires, colored glaze... in short, all the translucent things on the ship. The bigger the better, I will summon the sun god for you."

Ramses complied immediately.

Diana took a blank piece of papyrus and buried herself in writing and calculating.After turning into a human, her eyesight was no longer as good as before, and she could only roughly estimate how far the two fleets were apart.Orion watched beside her with great interest, and asked a few questions from time to time, but Diana ignored them all.

Please, don't be distracted when doing calculations, Mr. Giant? !

"Bring the boat closer."

Ramses immediately ordered the sail to be hoisted.

"Another three thousand cubits (cubit: ancient Egyptian unit of measurement) to the west."

Ramses immediately ordered the sailors to turn the rudder, and by the way, glanced at the papyrus in Diana's hand, and found that it was so densely written with formulas that it was almost incomprehensible.

"Fan your ships and align them..."

Ramses interrupted her: "What is a 'fan'?"

Diana was taken aback.Why, the current geometry is not enough to support the shape of "fan"?

She suddenly remembered Athena's long series of extremely complicated derivation formulas in the Temple of Order that day.

However, now is not the time to be distracted.

Diana froze for a moment, then immediately drew a fan on another blank piece of papyrus.

Ramses grabbed the blueprint and ordered his generals to do so.

"Carve these clear crystals, gems, and glazes... into lenses... in the shape of eyes, and tie them to the top of the mast. I'll adjust the focus again... Forget it, maybe you don't understand what 'focusing' is. ..." Diana rested her chin, tapped lightly on the low table with two slender and white fingers, once and again.

Focusing is a cumbersome act.

Waiting for the sun to shift is also a troublesome move.

The only good thing is that the sun is strong enough today...

By the way, she looked up at the huge white crystals on the top of the mast, and decided not to think about what kind of crystal mine Ramses had dug, or where the treasures had been stolen.

The blazing sunlight converged into a beam on the countless lenses, and the countless beams of lenses converged into a strand on the large lens at the front...

Diana ordered the sailors to adjust their positions again, focusing the beam of light on the largest ship opposite.

To be precise, they gathered on the mast and king's flag.

Black smoke gradually rose from the wooden mast, and the black smoke gradually gathered into a small flame, which gradually engulfed the sailboat and the mast...

Ramses' eyes widened.

Diana chanted the incantation in a serious manner, thanking Apollo, the sun god, for his care.

This time, there was no need for Diana to remind, Ramses immediately ordered the sailors to adjust the position of the sailboat and focus the light beam on the second sailboat opposite...

Then came the third ship...the fourth ship...

Ramses stood on the bow of the boat, his dark skin shining with sweat in the sun, holding up the pharaoh's scepter high, and shouting at the opposite side: "If you don't want to die, jump into the river!"

Immediately there was the sound of jumping into the river from the opposite side.

Egyptian soldiers grew up on the banks of the Nile, and the water is extremely good.It is safer to sink to the bottom of the water than to be burned alive by the fire.

"Hey, Diana." Orion suddenly lowered his head and put one hand on the table, "The expression of the high priest opposite is really... distorted, incomparably distorted."

Diana let out a "huh" and didn't care much.

Her eyesight is not as good as it used to be.Even though Orion described to her in detail how distorted the high priest's expression was, she still couldn't see it.

On the opposite side suddenly raised yellow sand all over the sky.

Ramses' face changed drastically, and he murmured, "Oops...he wants to summon the undead..."

Huang Sha gradually distorted into the shape of a skeleton, with a toothless mouth open, and rushed towards this side fiercely.

Diana subconsciously glanced at Orion.She couldn't mobilize her divine power, and Ramses and his subordinates were ordinary humans.The only one on board who can compete with the other party is Orion, who is of demigod blood.

Orion shrugged, still with the expression of "this matter has nothing to do with me".

Forget it, relying on him is better than relying on yourself.

Diana stood up, wrote a few lines on a piece of paper, handed it to Ramses, and said in a low voice: "Call your soldiers and read these words to me neatly, loudly, and full of grief. come out."

Ramses glanced at the beautiful handwriting on the paper, and decided not to ask her when she learned Egyptian.

About half an hour later, the voices of the Egyptian soldiers rang out neatly, with a sad and angry tone.

"Soldiers on the other side, my brothers.

Are you just watching him, watching that cruel man dumping muddy sand into the flooded Nile River?

Don't forget that it is the Nile that brings us fertile soil.

Don't forget that we have been multiplied for generations because of the gift of the Nile!

A sinner who dares to defile the Nile River, what qualifications does he have to support the king of Egypt?

sinner!sinner!sinner!

He destroyed the flooding of the Nile, which means the whole of Egypt! ..."

The voices of the soldiers were full of grief and indignation, and they floated far to the Nile River.

Orion, who had the best eyesight, suddenly spoke: "There is a commotion on the opposite side."

Diana gave a soft "hmm".

Orion became more and more curious: "But I still don't understand why. The high priest represents the will of God, but the Nile River..."

It was Ramses who answered him: "The Nile is the life of Egypt."

If the Nile no longer floods, Egypt will forever lose its fertile soil and lush oases.

If the Nile is polluted...

Believe her, when the source of life is threatened, even the spokesperson of God's position may not be so safe.

Orion still scratched his head in distress: "I don't understand."

Diana finally gave him a generous look and asked, "Do you remember Atlantis?"

Orion nodded.

"Suppose the high priest of Atlantis, um, the priest who served Poseidon cut off the source of fresh water in Atlantis, what would happen?"

Orion blurted out: "He dares?! Even my father wouldn't dare to do that! Atlantis is surrounded by the sea, and it's completely an island in the sea..." Suddenly, he stopped talking and understood. .

Diana and Ramses looked at him together with a "really not easy" expression.

"But..." Ramses glanced at Diana casually and asked her, "How did you come up with this idea?"

Diana replied: "Scheming on the battlefield..." Before she finished speaking, her pupils shrank suddenly.

The blazing sun in the sky suddenly split into two, the smaller one trembled twice, and continued to move forward along the established rules of the sky.And the big one... the big one landed on the sea like a golden stream of fire, engulfed Diana like a gust of wind, and disappeared on the Nile River.

Amidst the raging fire and the yellow sand all over the sky, there came a faintly frightened and angry voice:

"Where did you learn how to light a fire with crystals and the sun?"