Chapter 141 – Mistress Aphrodite
Aphrodite brings her hand to her mouth with a gasp hearing the girl's bold request and notices Nuwa’s peculiarities at the same time. She senses that Nuwa’s soul emits the sound of the Dao of Sex, one which she has brushed against occasionally due to its similarities with her Divinities. As the Goddess of Love and Beauty, Aphrodite holds Authority over those facets of life. This means she encounters sex most frequently out of the Olympian or Chthonic Gods, besides maybe Dionysus, the God of Wine and Ecstasy.
Goddess Aphrodite has a great deal of experience and expertise in sex, but despite all the current and former lovers she has, she rations actual sex to the extreme, only having it once a month. Sex is not technically included in her Authority. Those who obtain Authority are changed irrevocably. As much as Authority is a power, it is also a duty.
Her job is to make mortals fall in love and keep them appreciative of beauty. She often delivers blessings to mortals of high renown, past examples being Helen, the queen of Sparta, and Theseus, the great hero-king of Athens, both famous for their attractiveness. It is in Aphrodite’s nature and part of her duty to constantly seek to love and be loved in return. The same applies for her seeking out beauty in others and having others appreciate her own beauty.
As a result, she rarely puts out. Love and Beauty can only be fully appreciated if just barely out of reach most of the time, similar to Sadboy simping over Ty Li. Aphrodite has never once slept with her husband, Hephaestus, but she has bedded Ares, Dionysus, and a series of very beautiful mortal men, notable examples being Anchises and Adonis, who now reside in Elysium, the most luxurious place in the Underworld. She treats sex like a fine wine tasting. She does it mainly to increase the love and appreciation of her beauty that Ares, Dionysus, and other mortals have. They have to earn her time with adequate gifts, affection, and worship!
Daoists like Nuwa are rare in the Hades Record. Mortals who show promise in specific Daos are given blessings by Gods and eventually tend to rely on those blessings to the detriment of their own personal spiritual growth. Mortals in the Hades Record view Daos unfavorably, preferring the safe option of blessings. Some scholars even believe that the Titanomachia, the War between the Gods and the Titans, had occurred because the Titans had studied Dao too deeply and fell to Dao corruption.
“Stand up, doll! Look at you, so utterly beautiful even with that head of snakes. Hmm.. your mother must be Medusa. It was absolutely unjust of Athena to go so far on that poor mortal and to no wrong of her own! Of course I’ll take you as a disciple, Nuwa dearie. It would be my honor. You show such great promise at your age that I think you might even rise to godhood and be assigned an Authority a few centuries down the line!”
After declaring, “Thanks!” and rising from her bow, Nuwa has several things to process from those lines.
First, she knows that Dusa is her mother, but she had never drawn the connection between the obvious wordplay of Maid Dusa and Medusa. Moreover, with Dusa so focused on her maid duties, treating her like a princess, and being vastly different from her in appearance, she had never considered the possibility that her real mother had not always been this way.
In the Greek mythology that she is familiar with, Medusa’s fate is tragic. Nuwa is not sure how aligned the Hades Record is with that story of how Medusa ended up bodiless with only a head. Come to think of it, how do other gorgons even give birth if they are only heads with snakes for hair? Nuwa shelves this confusing topic to ask her Mother Nyx about it later.
Secondly, she is happy to be Aprodite’s disciple. Without her [System], she has been shooting in the dark with regards to how to improve her skills in the past day that her memories have returned. She keeps crying and feeling overwhelmed by every little situation! It is a large departure from the previous world where she had most everything under her control or at least could maintain her composure in stressful situations.
Thirdly, spending centuries in this Record is way too long for her. She needs to become more powerful quickly so she can find a way to bring Azula along with her and spend quality time with her children. She does not know how long their current lifespans are, but she doubts that Azula has the ability to increase their lifespans to the extent that her [Shop] can.
Fourthly, she learns that Authority is assigned to Gods, meaning it is not something they are born with or own. It does not exist in the Avatar Record, so she figures it is something that only applies locally within this Record, meaning it is useless to her. She realizes that she could have learned a lot of the above information from Nyx, but she would feel bad going to her for help on everything when she already helped her so much. She imagines adopted children of billionaires from Earth-0 might feel the same way.
While Nuwa sinks deep into thought, Aphrodite continues without pause, “First though, let me have a word with your brother. You know, we Olympians do not speak with those of the Underworld much, but you, my little godling, are so cute that I cannot resist! Have my messages and Boons helped, dearest?”
Zagreus replies suavely, “Of course, Lady Aphrodite. Your beauty is the brightest point of my day and your blessings keep me safe when I run into trouble.”
Aphrodite smiles gently and says bashfully, “Oh dearest, you warm my heart with your words.” Her life-size projection floats to the ground. She presents the back of her hand to Zagreus, who seems confused and looks over to his sister.
Nuwa has returned her attention to the proceedings and looking between Aphrodite and Zagreus, she rapidly gestures to him to kiss her hand by making the motions of grabbing a hand, lifting it, and kissing it. The exchange is not subtle. Aphrodite giggles at the naivety of her ‘dearest’ who follows Nuwa’s motions and kisses the back of her hand awkwardly.
She pokes him in the chest and says with an inscrutable expression, “However, dearest, I cannot imagine being the brightest point of your day when you have such a beautiful sister by your side, drenched in your fresh musk.. I must admit, the scent is absolutely scintillating, but bide well my warning: Lying to the Gods comes with harsh consequences.”
Zagreus’ pupils shrink as the room enters into a brief silence. A cold sweat drops down his back. There is something absolutely horrifying about someone who treats you with such affection suddenly delivering those lines with a stoic face. Nuwa is equally petrified. ‘What.. the fuck? Aphrodite is threatening us over something as minor as an exaggerated compliment? Did I make a mistake in entering her tutelage?’
“Hahaha! I got you there, didn’t I, dearest? And you, dearie. Your snakes shrunk inwards like sad little puppies! Hahahah..” jokes Aphrodite as she plays it off as a prank.
The siblings laughed along with moderate discomfort, still reeling from that overt threat which had definitely not been a joke. She approaches with a smile and wraps her arm around Zagreus’ arm like they are about to go on a carefree outing.. in a dreary room resembling a torture chamber.. amidst the fading corpses of shades. A very pleasant outing.
Her nipples and pussy are perpetually covered by her long dangling pink hair that goes down to her knees, but she is fully naked otherwise, besides some powerful looking jewelry on her arms and neck that do nothing to cover her modesty. The situation has both siblings feeling equal amounts of arousal and fear. Zagreus can feel the Goddess’ perfectly proportionate titties press against his elbow.
Aphrodite whines, "Tartarus is so unromantic.."
Nuwa feels a subtle sense of loss watching Aphrodite so close to her brother. One oddity about Nuwa is that she had never actually had to feel jealousy in her relationships, because she was confident that no one that loves her would ever stop loving her, even if they had sex with others or were angry at her for something she did wrong. In the end, she would always be able to please them best. But all of a sudden, Nuwa is not sure her appeal can outdo someone as sexy and experienced as Aphrodite.
Nuwa has built her identity and self-esteem as someone who prides herself on how good she is at sex. Now that she has met someone who vastly outstrips her in her own domain, she is slowly realizing the extent to which she must humble herself in order to improve her power. She plays devil’s advocate in her own head, ‘No! It is a good thing that I’m not the best, because Aphrodite’s experience will help me improve much more quickly than on my own. This way, I can find a way to bring my family together again sooner!’
Pushing down her anger and fear, Nuwa and her snakes unfreeze and leave their fight or flight mode. Whereas Aphrodite’s approach to love is strongly attuned to possessiveness and vanity in her beauty, Nuwa’s is more attuned to sexual pleasure and maternity. Her Dao even dulls the feelings of jealousy that had sprung up from within her. Her hand subconsciously finds its way down to her cunt and begins to stroke.
"Dearie, this is your first lesson. Do not succumb to your desires so soon. Inflict them upon others to retain your clarity of mind. Drive them crazy for you.. but do not give in to those desires until neither of you can resist any longer.”
Aphrodite steps behind Zagreus and squishes her tits against his back. She drags one hand along his pecs and the other hand along his butt. Nuwa tries to listen to her and refrain from succumbing to her desires, but the mood is so sultry that the fingers she already has inside her pussy feel stuck and her hand feels like lead. The siblings feel that their heads are cloudy.
Aphrodite continues amidst the vaguely pink fog that is spreading from her, “Men have simple desires.”
She points to Zagreus’ rock hard cock in his pants and strokes his lower abs as she narrates in a whisper, “Lovers like us cannot match up to fighters like them on the battlefield, but we need not do so.”
Aphrodite drags her hand up to his heart and circles it with her finger. “We need only satisfy those simple desires in their hearts, and they.. will do anything for us, for LOVE. If not, then they are not real men, and we can find another.”
“Do you see now? Our beauty is so great that it may bring many a nation to ruin.”
“By then, there will be no one left to love us..”
“..All will be dead, and we will be forcefully married off to be trophy wives in a loveless marriage.”
Aphrodite’s eyes grow moist and her voice returns to normal, “Apologies, dearie. You remind me of someone I knew when I was young, so I couldn’t help but recite a sorrowful old wives’ tale..”
The Goddess pushes Zagreus onto Nuwa and declares while looking at the ceiling, “My projection and blessing are almost exhausted. Let’s chat again, my little disciple and godling. I’ll see what I can do about convincing a few more Gods to come help out.”
“Wait, Mistress!” Nuwa shouts and she bows again, sincerely saying, “Thank you for the lesson.” while her hand is still in her pussy.
Aphrodite watches her disciples' nipples spring free as she completes her comical, obscene bow, which instantly improves her mood, causing her to giggle heartily as her projection bursts into dust and fades away without offering a blessing menu. The maintenance of the projection has consumed all the energy of the blessing and the pink fog also disperses when she disappears.
Her disappearance lightens the atmosphere considerably for the duo. They slump their shoulders with fatigue at how much their nerves had been frayed in her presence, rather than only watching a message. Nuwa transmits psychically, “Gods sure are scary, Big Bro Zag!”
Zagreus narrows his eyes with a slight smirk and transmits back, “And hot.”
“You idiot! Were you even listening to what she said?! Seriously, you’ve got cum all over the inside of your pants? Don’t give me that smug look! I’m the one who has to clean it with my tongues.”
(A/N: Aphrodite’s personality is highly unstable, so if you are confused, then that is intentional.)