Fate: I Heard After Death, You Can Ascend to the Throne of Heroes?

At that moment, his fear dissipated.

Then he realized that everything before him was a blur of silver; he could see nothing.

Promise also noticed that he had been holding his breath all along, and now he was in a severe state.

Instinctively, he opened his mouth to breathe, but that only made things worse!

How could he possibly describe the feeling now enveloping him... It was as if he was not falling but climbing barehanded up a towering snow-covered mountain, hidden in clouds.

And the mountain was facing a blizzard.

His hands gripped the icy cliffs, his slender fingers exposed to the storm, bleeding continuously.

He couldn't breathe properly, and the wind and snow battered him, making him sway, as if he could plummet into an abyss at any moment.

Falling from the silver meteor was a good legend.

'Everything I've done so far has given me a C- Servant quality. 

Even if I were to fight in a regular Holy Grail War, I might be able to survive for a while.'

'But... I haven't avenged everything written in my little notebook yet.'

'And if I die, the next time I see Jason, he'll definitely laugh at me.'

'For sure, he won't let it go and will keep mocking me.'

'To be laughed at by someone like Jason... It's really annoying!'

In that instant, Promise noticed the scene before him change. 

He once again saw everything on the ground from a bird's-eye view.

If someone could see his eyes now, they'd find that his emerald green eyes had turned into brilliant gold...

The golden apple, a treasure of Hera, the queen of the gods in ancient Greek times, a fruit only gods could enjoy.

It also possessed the forbidden power of immortality.

The future god of medicine, Asclepius, a student of Chiron and one of Promise's friends.

Another child of Apollo, the god of light.

In the future, Asclepius would use the golden apple as a base, mixed with the blood of Goddess Athena and Goddess Artemis, to create a forbidden elixir.

The resurrection potion.

And he would be permanently imprisoned in the Underworld by a thunderbolt from Zeus.

This was also why Athena hadn't sought the sacred ointment from Helios, the sun god.

Those golden apples fed to Promise weren't for nothing!

The goddess of wisdom Athena, the mother of heroes in ancient Greece, never gave trials that couldn't be completed. 

If she gave a hero a trial, there would always be a path to victory.

But there was one condition.

'You had to keep moving forward on that path, never looking back, never giving up!'

So...

Grab it.

'Use your hands to grasp this silver meteor!'

In that moment, all the distractions in Promise's mind vanished.

Only one thought remained.

And in that instant, he realized,

The blizzard had stopped.

The true face of the mountain appeared before him.

Now he only needed a gentle leap to cross the bottomless chasm and reach the summit!

Then Promise let go of the silver reins. 

He extended his hands and hugged Pegasus tightly.

In that moment, he became one with the silver meteor.

From the vast starry sky under the night,

Under the gaze of countless people and gods who looked up at this scene,

They fell to the earth!

...

.

.

"Clotho, do you know why I couldn't help but feed him a golden apple the first time I saw him?"

Athena did not wait for the goddess of fate to respond and continued, "It's simple. Because the moment I saw him, the instant my eyes reflected him, I... actually saw his death."

The goddess Athena if wisdom, even among all the gods in Greek mythology, was undoubtedly one of the most special.

There were only two wisdom goddesses in the entire Greek mythology.

One was Athena herself, and the other was her mother, Metis, the primordial goddess of wisdom swallowed by Zeus.

Thus, her beautiful golden eyes could see through everything in the world.

The first time she saw Promise, she knew he was both abandoned and cherished by the goddess of fate.

She saw various futures for Promise, and most of those futures were filled with death.

After all, Promise was too weak; living one more day in this era could be considered a miracle.

So, death...

"I've seen too much of it."

"Whether it was Hera's incident in the beginning, Themis's matter later on, or recently with Artemis, every time I looked at him, that child showed me a different way of dying."

"And as time passed, not only did his deaths increase, but they also became stranger!"

Athena couldn't help but laugh at this point.

"Later, it became so frequent that I didn't even want to look at him anymore... Although I can control my power, whenever I see him now, I can't suppress my curiosity.

I want to see what kind of death he'll show me today!"

Hearing this, Clotho was stunned.

Clearly, she hadn't expected such an answer from Athena!

"So, falling from that silver meteor is actually a pretty decent way to die. I remember the most maddening death I saw was when Artemis fed him a golden apple.

Because the strength wasn't controlled properly, she choked him to death as she stuffed it into his mouth..."

At this point, she couldn't hold back and burst into laughter, losing all goddess-like composure. 

Fortunately, only Clotho was there, and she couldn't see.

After laughing for a long time...

"And yet, this boy, time and again, showed miracles that even I, the goddess of wisdom, could only marvel at."

Athena, smiling gently, turned her head and looked at the petite goddess of fate before her.

She then approached her.

"So don't resist anymore, Clotho. Seriously... focus your gaze on him!"

Saying this, she reached out and lightly touched the crystal ball in Clotho's hand that contained the threads of Promise's fate.

In the next moment, Clotho looked up and saw the future she hadn't seen... no, more accurately, the future she hadn't captured, because she had always kept the boy's fate in that crystal ball.

And there was an image of a boy sitting on a silver Pegasus, running among the dazzling stars like a newly risen star!

.

.

.

The stars descended to earth,

When Pegasus fell from the night sky among the stars, under the watchful eyes of Atalanta, Artemis, Athena, and everyone else, it returned once again to the land of the gods and folded its wings.

The boy who conquered this silver meteor and once again defied fate now fell straight off its back.

Promise lay on the grass, arms spread wide, gasping for breath, feeling as if his entire body was being slashed by knives.

But even so, he was smiling.

He smiled with great joy, his clear emerald eyes gazing at the night sky, the vast expanse of stars above, knowing he had succeeded.

He had truly captured the silver meteor!

Pegasus crouched beside him, looking at the boy with a worried expression.

Promise wanted to get up and shake his head to indicate he was fine, but even such a simple action was impossible for him now.

After all, he had just exposed his fragile body to the open air, and to capture Pegasus, he had hugged it tightly, running with it, becoming one with the meteor as they fell from the stars to the earth!

Considering his frail body, he should have been dead... even if he wasn't, he should be severely injured and crippled for life.

Promise had eaten the golden apples, several of them in fact, which were indeed Hera's treasures, fruits only the gods could enjoy.

But their true effect was merely to restore physical strength and rejuvenate the spirit.

As for improving the body, it was a gradual process. 

In simple terms... an apple a day keeps the doctor away!

Each time he ate a golden apple, the unabsorbed power would seep into his body, gradually improving it over time.

Thus, when Promise's eyes turned golden, it was because he had exhausted all the accumulated power of the golden apples in his body.

After all, in a situation where he couldn't even breathe properly, climbing a snow-covered mountain in a blizzard barehanded and falling into an abyss was easy. 

But climbing to the top required a price comparable to life itself!

Even so, with the power of the golden apples and Promise's physical condition, he couldn't have lain there unscathed.

When the meteor fell from the stars to the earth, the most terrifying moment wasn't when it was in the air, but the instant it hit the ground!

In the end, a force protected him.

It was a reward from the goddess, a small gift for the hero who faced death, stared into the abyss, and still had the courage to leap and successfully captured the silver meteor.

Promise turned his head and looked at his wrist.

Once, when he presented the painting to the wise goddess Athena and she made that oath, she had tied a strand of her silver hair around his wrist.

Athena told him it would shield him from the gaze of all gods except her and... protect him in the most dangerous moments!

And now, that silver strand had dissipated.

Promise smiled again, turning his head back to gaze at the night sky until...

"Promise!"

Atalanta, who had run over at full speed, broke the silence.

When her sacred green eyes saw the boy lying beside Pegasus, eyes open, smiling at the night sky, she naturally let out a sigh of relief.

But then, after a moment of realization about what this meant, her eyes widened bit by bit.

"He... he... succeeded?!"