Harry Potter: BE a GOD

Murphy did not seem surprised by the appearance of the other party. He sighed, "You say the gods took away his voice?"

"Yes," Apollo revealed a sorrowful expression. "That great epic made the gods fearful. My father worried that its spread would bring bad omens, so he made him lose his voice with a cup of nectar mixed with poison."

"But it seems you don't quite agree?" Murphy asked.

"You may have heard of our legends. My father killed his father to ascend to the throne of Mount Olympus, and his father had killed his own father to gain authority," Apollo explained.

"In the oldest prophecy, the throne of the Olympian gods is passed down in the same way."

"But this prophecy was thwarted, my father has been on the throne for too long."

Murphy understood and smiled, "Apollo, son of the god-king Zeus. God of light, the sun, prophecy, art, and archery, one of the most beloved and revered deities of Olympus. You certainly have the right to take over that authority."

"So what do you want me to do?"

Apollo waved his hand, and a pale golden halo spread from around him, covering the entire vicinity of the tomb.

Murphy did not interfere, knowing this was a method to block others from observing and probing.

"From where did you hear the name Wotan?" Apollo asked.

The story of the Nibelungen, originally based on Norse mythology, involves the chief god who set up Valhalla and has been behind the scenes trying to prevent Ragnarok, but through a series of maneuvers ultimately leads to its occurrence. This chief god, called Wotan, is actually Odin.

However, at this point, Norse mythology had not yet become widely known; this god's name was only known in a small region of Iceland.

"Just rumors."

"The god Wotan is actually one of my father's avatars," Apollo said. "A long time ago, when my grandfather Cronus was killed by him, he prophesied that Zeus would be betrayed by his own children. After inheriting Cronus's divinity, this curse was bound to come true, so he started to prepare."

"On one hand, he controlled important authorities through his brothers to prevent rebellion. On the other hand, to ensure his safety, he created this avatar. He was very secretive about it, siphoning some of the power from the native deities of Iceland, so the avatar doesn't look like him, and he even managed to deceive many of my siblings. But it's hard to fake divine power."

"He invested too much divine power in this avatar, and by destroying and absorbing it, the throne of Mount Olympus could change hands."

"However, directly eliminating a chief god of a pantheon is very difficult, as it involves changing an entire belief system. If you want to achieve this by killing followers, you would need to kill over a hundred thousand people, which is nearly impossible even with war and plagues."

"But you, you've shown me the power of poetry."

Murphy was non-committal, "If so, why don't you let your followers spread this story? As the god of art and music, you surely aren't lacking such followers?"

"That would mean a direct confrontation with my father," Apollo said. "I am not yet ready for that, and my siblings will not stand by idly. During the Trojan War, we have already tested each other many times. Both Athena and Ares have powers not inferior to mine, and if my intentions are exposed, I will be attacked by them."

"So, you need me, an outsider, to take the lead," Murphy said.

"I don't know where you come from or why you want to spread such a legend," Apollo said. "As long as you spread this story, I can use some methods to eliminate the god Wotan. You don't even need to do much; with your power, protecting a few poets should be easy. Just let this story be sung in the courts and spread through three or four city-states. Even Zeus would find it hard to stop its spread."

Spreading the story of the Nibelungen Ring was originally Murphy's plan, so he was not planning to refuse, but seeing a chance presented itself, Murphy said, "Doing so, I would be taking on the risk of being Zeus's enemy on your behalf."

Apollo was silent for a moment, "Tell me, what do you want?"

He knew Murphy was playing hardball, but as the sun god, he always prided himself on his generosity. Moreover, a small price to pay could not compare to the throne of the king of Olympus.

"Divine power," Murphy said. "I need a lot of divine power, give me a third of your power."

Apollo's eyes suddenly burst out with a fiery, piercing light, "Are you seeking death?!"

Divine power is closely related to faith, and the total amount of

 faith determines the upper limit of divine power. To take away a third of one's own divine power would likely require giving up several priesthoods to the other party, which was like cutting one's own flesh. How could Apollo not be furious?

Murphy knew the other had misunderstood, but he did not immediately explain, instead simply smiling. His magical power suddenly surged and then contracted, lightly covering just the surface of his body.

However, within that layer of magical power, it seemed as if all matter was controlled by magic, as if all rules were subjugated to his will, as if within that layer of magic was a universe entirely belonging to him.

The concentration and quality of his magical power made Apollo shudder.

He even felt a ludicrous notion that his divine power, formed by various priesthoods, was as fragile as an egg in front of that magical power, which seemed as solid as a copper wall and iron barrier.

But he couldn't understand.

How was this possible?

Even Zeus, even Cronus, even the original god-king Uranus—the embodiment of the sky, one of the most primal and powerful deities—could not possess such divine power!

You see, the quality of a deity's divine power is usually related to their priesthoods.

The more specific and narrow the priesthood, the more limited the range of concepts and phenomena a deity can interpret, and the lower the quality of their magical power.

Conversely, if a priesthood is related to more basic, primal concepts—like the sun, the sky, thunder, war, fertility, etc.—or if a deity holds many such priesthoods, they can form a set of rules that explain how the world works based on the concepts related to their priesthoods. Their divine power would then be more fluid and natural, of higher quality.

Because Apollo held more than a dozen priesthoods, many of which were significant and fundamental, his divine power was already highly concentrated and prominent among the gods, almost on par with Zeus.

But despite Murphy's magical power being of mediocre quantity at best compared to a real deity, and especially trivial compared to chief deities like Zeus or himself, the quality of that magic was terrifying.

He couldn't imagine what kind of priesthood could transform faith into such refined, terrifying divine power!

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