8 Chase of Apollo

Narrator pov:

After graduating from Chiron, Eschios began to travel around to find the perfect land for him to live in and also saved lots of people who were in danger from beasts along the way.

If his mother knew, she would cry a lot, but Eschios' decision stood firm in his mind.

In order to find the perfect land, communicating with people was a necessity. Therefore, he created a mask and a robe to hide and conceal his beauty.

The mask was made up of a pike tree, with the robe made from the leather of a beast.

The two clothing and object could not hide his beauty completely, but they hid some parts of it, which helped out Eschios.

Eschios began to think of how he'll fit into society with his beauty.

He cannot beg his mother to change his face. She takes pride in it as a mother, and would not accept his request to change a part of him.

Also, given how requests to gods in mythologies always end up in a bad way, Eschios couldn't help but be worried about that possibility.

Eschios then suddenly felt the most stickiest sight of lust staring at him.

It was the worst he's ever felt in his life. With no time to look out for his surroundings, a handsome man radiating light came down near him, riding a cloud.

The man gave a sight of overwhelming lust to Eschios. The man's pupils seemed to be changing into a heart shape, and he was drooling saliva from his mouth, his breath unstable.

Eschios knew right away that the man was a god. The divine essence was coming off of him hard.

Eschios carefully asked the man while slowly backing away.

"Who... are you?"

"Ahhh, I forgot to introduce myself."

The man, saying that he forgot, introduced himself. After hearing his name, all Eschios could think was 'crap'.

"My name is Apollo, the sun god whom humans respect and worship, and the one who loves his sister and beautiful ones the most!"

In his past life, Eschios was a big fan of Greek Mythology, so he knew a lot of things, including Apollo.

Apollo is not only proficient in his work of being the sun god, but he's also known for his medical skills and abilities, musical skills, controls of plaugues, and prophesizing abilities.

And now, the god is sending Eschios the sickest sight of lust he's ever felt before.

"So, you're Eschios."

"...Yes, why do you... ask...?"

"This is sudden, but Eschios! Don't you want to spend every night with m-"

*Boom*

The only sound Apollo heard was the sound of a sonic boom and the dropping sound of Eschios' mask. Eschios already left the place using his speed.

If Eschios was young when he met Apollo, he wouldn't have been able to resist at all, but now, with his speed and skills, he can run away.

"WAIT, ESCHIOS!!!"

"AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!"

The situation was the worst that could have been for Eschios. All Eschios could do, was scream and run. He didn't look back for once, he just ran as fast as he could to get away from Apollo.

The first actual fear of his becoming true. Eschios had to run from it. He can't fight a god, let alone one of the Twelve gods of olympus.

"Wait! Wait for a moment, my love!!!"

"AAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!"

The chase begins.

_________________________________________

Six months later

"ESCHIOS?! WHERE ARE YOU?! MY LOVE? ESCHIOS!"

""""KYAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!""""

In a sunny morning, the nymphs where taking bathe inside a stream and talking. But when a horny, excited god came in there while shouting, they screamed and were filled with fear.

The nymphs couldn't do anything to him. It's a god they're talking about. If they try anything harmsful against him, surely their fate wouldn't be nice.

"You there, have you seen Eschios?!"

"E, Eschios? Who's that?"

"W-we don't know..."

Those beauties called nymphs love handsome men like Apollo, but Apollo didn't care about any of that and was searching for Eschios.

If any other gods saw this, then they would think that Apollo is now doing a romantic approach to his new love, like he did to Daphne, and would take it as normal.

However the feeling of the one being chased is-

'He's still following me...?!'

-Absolute fear and disgust. Nothing more, nothing less.

Ever since he started running from Apollo, Eschios' whole schedule of the day was: Hide in the shadows, run away when Apollo finds him, and eat on mushrooms, steal food from adventurers, and eat tree barks.

He haven't slept for six months now, and it was only thanks to his mental strength and physical strength as a demigod.

His mother, Selene, couldn't help him, as she was a god in lower ranking than Apollo.

He can't let down his guard in all times. It's Apollo, the god who never lets go of someone who he falls in love with.

"Oooh, you were here, Eschios!"

"Fine... Try to catch me if you can....! I won't be caught....!"

To run away again, Eschios quietly got out of the stream and ran away, but the chase continued after Apollo saw him.

Apollo chased Eschios at the speed of a god, and Eschios used all his strength to run away.

_________________________________________

Seven months later

It's been about seven months since Apollo began chasing Eschios. Apollo used his strength and speed to catch Eschios, but couldn't even get one touch of his hands nor clothing.

Apollo thought that he wouldn't be able to catch Eschios at all with him alone, so he abused his authority to hand down a prophecy to the Delphi Temple, where they worship him.

[To the one who captures Eschios and brings him to me, I will give them a reward bigger and better than you can imagine. When you find Eschios, call my name to the sky.]

Apollo used his worshippers and greedy humans to capture Eschios. After months of using his worshippers to try to catch Eschios, the result was a good one for Apollo.

He found out where Eschios was hiding. However, even though Apollo could find where Eschios was more faster, Eschios' speed, agility, presence concealment, and sneakiness had him unable to grasp Eschios.

Even though he had not been able to grasp Eschios, Apollo didn't get disappointed. He grabbed his lyre and came down to the forest where Eschios was.

"Fufufu...! It's been over nine months since since out chase of love began. I see you're yet again hiding from me out of embarassment, Eschios. Yes, love only gets hotter when it's like this."

"....(Embarassment, my ass. I'm hiding because of my disgust for you.)"

"Hahahahahaha! I can already imagine all the lovely things we're going to do together when I catch you... Heheheheh..."

Apollo's obsession for Eschios went over what human mind could imagine. Like a train that doesn't stop, Apollo only triggered Eschios' fear.

Ignoring his fear, Eschios observed Apollo and looked for way of escaping while hiding.

But, Eschios looked at Apollo, who was holding a lyre. that's unusual. he knew that Apollo was also a god of poetry and music, but why did he bring it here?

"Eschios, listen! This is the song that I created only for you, and the song I have created to share my love with you! This is the song of the love between us!"

"What...?"

Even though he would have prefered not to know, Eschios found out the reason for the lyre.

Apollo came to the forest to not only find him, but to sing the vomit-triggering song to him.

Apollo held the lyre with one hand, and began strumming the strings with his other hand, and started playing the instrument and sang.

Apollo's singing was great as well as the lyre's playing. He wasn't the god of music for nothung.

However, the hiding Eschios' facial expression became worse as the song went on.

[When I was crying sadly, I found your beautiful presence.

It's fate I met you, and I fell in love. My heart was beating after looking at you in the eye.

Your beauty made me a captive of your love.

I became more excited than I ever was when drinking wine, and a fire was set on my heart!

This fire I can't control burned up and birthed a flower called love~!

Ah-Why are you this beautiful? How are you this beautiful?

Your beauty makes me burn up more than the sun itself~!

I wish to grab your hand and-]

(A/N: I need a moment to recover from my cringing after writing this, and I think you all need to as well. Why did I write this.)

"AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH-!!!!!!!"

After listening to the song, Eschios was cringing so hard that time and space seemed to be twisting out of cringe and disgust as well. The melody actually being enjoyable made it even worse, and Eschios, forgetting to even breathe, rolled around and let out a pained scream.

However, as Eschios rolled around and screamed, Apollo stopped playing the lyre and turned to the direction where Eschios was hiding in.

Eschios, sensing Apollo's sight, got up quickly, his face pale as snow.

"OOOHHH!!! You were there, Eschios! To think you're so embarassed... How adorable!!"

"Hik...!"

Eschios ran away again, leaving a sonic boom and a burst of wind. Grabbing his lyre, Apollo began chasing him again.

_________________________________________

Eschios pov:

It's gross! Gross! So fucking gross!!! More disgusting than organic waste!!!!!

I feel like there are not only goosebumps appearing on my skin, but my hand was twisting out of cringe as well.

After I heard Apollo's song, I naturally screamed out of the feeling of disgust.

Even though the melody of the song was great, and the playing of the lyre was better than the skills of master Chiron, but the song only worked as a device of fear for me.

Because of the song, I was found and was put into many dangers. But as humans are creatures who adapt, I got used to Apollo's patterns of trying to catch me.

Morning, day, and night, Apollo sang three times everyday to try to get me to like him, but it only piles my disgust for him more.

"Hah... No one... is nearby... right...?"

After Apollo's chasing time was over, I caught a rabbit and cooked it. There's no spice and there is nothing to get rid of the stench, so the taste is horrible.

But I have to put my life in the line for cooking, too. If one of Apollo's followers see the smoke from the cooking and reports to Apollo, he'll come straight for me. So I keep my interactiobs with other people as minimal as possible, since there could be Apollo's followers anywhere...

"Eww... the stench is still there."

Since it's a meat, it is deliscious, but the stench is stil there. I can now understand why European countries in the future would go to war over the spices.

*slap*

I slapped myself to keep my eyelids from closing off. It's been so long since I haven't slept. The mental stress being put into me was too much for a fourteen-year old boy.

"Hk..."

*sob*

I hate Apollo. I detest him. He's one of the twelve gods of Olympus, I can't do anything against him. I can only run.

I've been holding it in, but this... this...

"If not for this... this... Hk! Face..."

As the days went by, my voice turned to that of an angel's, and my face became more beautiful. Looking at my beauty, I was afraid. And I hated it.

I have to be chased by Apollo because of this face. If... If I ruin this face, then... Apollo wouldn't chase me, right?

Mother told me that the only ones who can harm me are people with divinity... I can harm myself. I have divinity.

With that thought, I grabbed one of the woods in the fire.

"It's all or nothing."

_________________________________________

After hours of trying to fight against my own sleepiness, it was next morning.

I touched my face, and let out a pained groan.

"It hurts... and it's back to normal..."

It was a violent choice, but burned my face yesterday. However, my skin began to regenerate.

From the areas of the burn, to the hair which were burned... it was all coming back, as if it was being reset to the condition before the burning.

Fuck. I don't remember demigods having regeneration powers, is it because of the "Reincarnator's hax" things? Why is it regeneration? Why now? Why not a system?

"Regeneration, too? I have no choice but to hide my face with a mask now."

Now that I found out that harming myself doesn't work, I have to hide my face using an object.

I'm in my darkest times right now. I can ask mother to help... but I won't. She won't be able to do anything to Apollo.

I can't really rely on the other twelve gods of olympus. Even if they help me, there's a possibility of them too falling for my beauty and becoming the second Apollo. That's one of the worst which can happen.

"Eschios, my love, Eschios! Are you here~!?"

"...He's here with a boner again..."

-Alright, time to run. Today, let's run while eating meat. It could replendish my stamina when running.

Hearing Apollo's loud voice from the west, I quickly packed up my things and ran.

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A/N: Let me show you one of Eschios' skills.

*[The beauty of full moon]

Rank: EX (Cannot be measured)

The beauty Eschios got from Selene's blessing has the power to capture the heart of those who see it.

The beauty works on all genders and beings, but it can be resisted a bit with Rank A+ of Magic resistance. Even if you don't have A+ magic resistance, you can still resist it a bit if you have an ego which sometimes surpasses anyone (example: Gilgamesh and Jason).

The higher one's divinity is, the more hypnotized they will be by his beauty, with less chance of resistance.

His voice counts as his beauty, too. If he tries hard enough, he can hypnotize others to do what he wants them to do with his voice, sort of like the Sirens. As said up above, it can be resisted with Rank A+ of magic resistance skill. The hypnotized ones can wake up from it if they get hit with enough force.

Thanks to this skill/ability, Eschios will not age past the age of twenty-five, and his beauty cannot be destroyed in any ways (This is why his face regenerated this chapter. It healed his beauty, which was destroyed)

Another useful thing about this skill/ability is that it makes Eschios completely immune to any type of mental debuffs, like mind control. However, this doesn't make him immune to any physical debuffs.