As Fang Yu opened his eyes, a surge of information mysteriously appeared in his mind. It only took him a couple of seconds to decipher the content.
"I have somehow temporarily traversed back to a mythological era and I'm occupying the body of an innate god, Hermes?" Fang Yu was shocked.
That wasn't even the most surprising thing. In his present state, all of Hermes' memories were accessible. The latter was not human but belonged to another race of native lifeforms spawned by the Shadow Hive, an heavenly treasure unique to the planet Mercury.
"It can't be, right?" After knowing about the identity of the body he was occupying, Fang Yu became suspicious. The name, Hermes, carried a lot of significance in mythological context.
Back when he was on Earth, he had read several myths about an ancient civilization of nine ancient gods that once governed the solar system. Each one corresponded to a planet's sovereign and possessed corresponding innate authority of rules.
From what he remembered, Hermes corresponded to the Mercury Sovereign and was known as the Shadowed Messenger. In the Ancient Pantheon Era, he was titled the god of communication, trade, and shadows.
"The memories of this Hermes have nothing about him being an ancient god though!" Fang Yu shuffled through more memories, slightly disappointed to discover that the bulk of it were related to training and more training. The former was more physical, involving rigorous practice of innate abilities while the latter involved erudite sessions with aged elders of the race imparting mystical knowledge and secrets. Fang Yu suddenly remembered another detail.
"Hermes was the youngest but the most cunning of the gods, mostly because of his deep grasp of psychology and the wide stock of secrets he knew. It would make sense if he was groomed this way from birth, and I suppose a young Hermes' life before becoming a titled ancient god matches the Hermes I'm possessing right now!"
Subconsciously, Fang Yu's breath quickened. He had a sudden impulse to rifle through the memories more carefully this time to confirm his conjecture.
However, a wave of psychic power was transmitted into his mind at that moment. As Young Hermes, Fang Yu automatically deciphered the message.
"The date of the Red Horizon is close? What's that?" This didn't make much sense to Fang Yu until he referenced Hermes' memories.
The Red Horizon was a celestial phenomenon that occurred on the planet once every sixteen millennia. Mercury, despite being the closest planet to the sun, had more regions cloaked in darkness than light. This was partially because, in the concentric orbit of all nine planets, Mercury formed a looped node with the dwarf planet Pluto, from which the Underworld River from the latter flowed through to the other planets. As a matter of fact, the origin of the Shadow Hive on planet Mercury from which the native lifeform were spawned was closely linked to this unique channel.
On the day of the Red Horizon, the entire planet would be engulfed in darkness. Thus, it was a special day for these native residents. Customarily, it also signified the end of a generation and the start of a new one.
As a favoured of the Shadow Hive, Hermes could compete with others on the day of the Red Horizon to clinch the title of Mercury Sovereign. In the younger generation, he had no opponents except another prodigy, his twin Rhemes!
"Now, this is quite troublesome!" Fang Yu raised a hand to stroke his temples before realizing he had a horny bump there.
Twins Hermes and Rhemes were spawned at the same time and shared a telepathic connection. Fang Yu was actually more worried about Themes discovering something was up with his twin once they were face to face.
"Well, it's not like I'm stuck in this state permanently. In some days, the effect of this unknown magic should end and I'll return to my physical body in the present. But what if I unknowingly change something in this timeline that I shouldn't?" This line of thought brought about more questions; how was this even possible in the first place? If the trigger of his present state was the planet he condensed in his solar universe like he suspected, did his temporal travel also require hidden conditions to be fulfilled before he could return? Also, where was Hermes' consciousness at the moment? Was he presently in Fang Yu's body in the future just as Fang Yu was in his in this past? It took Fang Yu a while to stabilize his mental state before resuming his analysis.
"It's a pity that there's very little mythological history to reference. But logically, Hermes gaining the title of Mercury Sovereign should be the precursor to his future role as the Messenger of the Gods and ninth member of the Ancient Pantheon."
Hermes, like every spawn of the Shadow Hive, had innate abilities to manipulate and move through shadow dimensions. In the future, he would hone his traversal ability to perfection, and his pure speed alone would rank at the top of the Pantheon. "Even though Hermes is far from his peak, if I can find a way to inherit or copy his abilities to use with my own body when I return...."
Just as Fang Yu was lost in his whimsical thinking, a divine thought was relayed to his mind. This time, it was from a teacher of his, Elder Zeno.
Same with every organization, the Shadow Spawns had some power struggles. One faction believed in competing for power with the ancient gods from other planets while the other believed in neutrality and maintaining balance. Hermes belonged to the latter while Rhemes belonged to the former.
"Since the day of the Red Horizon is near, the elders of my faction will do everything they can to guide me to win the title. Hehe, this is simply perfect; I'll take the opportunity to learn as much as I can!" Wearing Hermes' face made Fang Yu's sinister smile look several grades more malevolent than it should.
Fang Yu took some time to reply to the summons, secretly rifling through Hermes' memory to grasp his mannerisms, aura and mindset first. When he perfected the persona, he melded into the shadows.
Shadow Blink.
This was a short-range traversal ability that dispersed the physical body into shadow form to roam the Hollow, another name for the umbra dimension underlapping the physically world. In this state, one's speed was multiplied several times over.
In his heart, Fang Yu was very excited. This was his first time executing a divine technique, although it was an innate ability of Hermes' body in this case.
Following some coordinates in his mind, Fang Yu quickly arrived in front of Elder Zeno's residence. As Shadow Spawns had humanoid builds, the architecture of their living space was not much different from what Fang Yu imagined it would be. He secretly mused that the sets of Dracula must have gotten their inspiration from the sight before him.
Elder Zeno flashed into view beside him without warning. His looks were identical to Hermes, the major difference being the length of the horn protruding from his temples.
"Follow me!" Elder Zeno's divine thoughts rippled into Fang Yu's, no, Hermes' mind. The Shadow Race communicated this way.
'Hermes' reacted in character and executed Shadow Blink, following closely behind the elder as they moved to another location, the Yellow River Ravine which was the meeting abode of the Shadow Hive's Peace Faction.
There, fifty-six more elders were gathered, waiting to commence vigorous training for their representative, Hermes. They had no way of knowing that the latter wasn't presently himself but was actually an opportunistic human from the future fishing for benefits.
Upon seeing them, 'Hermes' stifled his excitement and bowed deeply, paying his respects. The aged fossils relaxed and gestured for him to move to the middle.
In an instant, their divine thoughts rippled in a steady stream into 'Hermes' as they began the impartation.