(Apollo POV)

Following the blood and footprints, I easily came close to an entrance guarded by two Centaurs.

It wasn't too difficult to get here, as these guys simply couldn't be bothered to camouflage their footprints.

Making the trail of blood almost useless, perhaps the only function of the wounds on his body was to make the younger centaur flee to his bunch.

Turning to the centaurs who were on guard, they had a bow and quiver on their backs and held in their hands a great sword, which I wouldn't be surprised if it was made of stone.

At the entrance behind them, two trees blended into the environment, and a row of dense bushes practically formed a trail.

They still hadn't seen or felt me, although, from their bored expressions, they weren't even taking it seriously.

It was almost as if they were going to fall asleep standing up at any moment.

I thought with a wry grin and then used [Reflection].

By refracting the light around my body, I become invisible.

I walk towards the entrance with light steps. I could kill them, but they didn't do anything to me, any different from the other centaurs.

Besides, maybe this bad feeling of mine is just something I'm mistaken about. Even though I very much doubt it.

With that thought, I step between them.

At the same moment, I step between them, one of the centaurs turns his gaze toward me.

His gaze lasted only a few seconds, but in the next instant, he was looking straight ahead with his wild gaze.

Instinct! This guy has strong instincts; even if it was for a single second, he managed to notice something strange.

I give a slight smile and start walking along the trail. Next to it, there are dense bushes that emit a strange smell.

This probably keeps other types of animals, or even creatures, away.

I thought, walking along the trail where there were strong hoof prints on it.

In a short time, I had reached the end of the trail, and what I saw was something surprising.

A village!

In this village, several houses were crude but looked quite sturdy, and countless centaurs were walking back and forth.

Children, men, and the elderly.

But there wasn't a single woman among them, I only saw male centaurs.

And then my gaze went to a place that was like a square, and what I saw left me perplexed.

In this square, there was a young centaur with brown hair with a malnourished body, tied by chains. His body had several bruises.

However, it wasn't this that left me perplexed, but rather the six people who were tied to a stone pillar.

There are 6 women, 3 of whom, although they breathe, have a dead appearance and no spark of life in their eyes.

These three lifeless girls were naked, their bodies were covered in purple bruises, mainly in the groin area.

While the other three had clothes and seemed fine, apart from one of them, who had signs of aggression on her body but fortunately did not appear to have been abused.

Unfortunately, those three women who were naked looked like they had been through hell.

My gaze instantly turned cold.

I had naively forgotten that this type of abuse was the most normal thing in Ancient Greece, and worst of all, the gods themselves committed barbaric acts like these in their daily lives.

While I was thinking about this, a centaur came out of one of the huts, dragging a naked woman by her hair.

Arriving at one of the gates, he tied her up, as if he had just used a commodity.

And immediately after that, he takes his hand to one of the girls who was wearing the clothes.

"N-no…"

She tried to protest, but even that was taken from her, as the only thing the girl received was a punch to her stomach so hard that she crouched down, vomiting.

And the only thing women in clothes could do was close their eyes to it.

Just as I was about to move, a faint voice sounded.

"Please… stop… they don't deserve this." The young centaur with brown hair tied to one of the pillars said pleadingly.

But his response wasn't much different from the dark-skinned woman's.

A punch was given to the jaw of the young brown-haired centaur, breaking it and a loud crack sounded throughout the village, making all the other centaurs stop and look, but instead of revolting, they laughed heartily.

"Hahaha! He's still an idiot."

"Calling him an idiot would be an insult to idiots."

"Honestly, I still don't believe he's our breed."

More and more mockery like this went everywhere.

Several centaurs took a step toward the large centaur, who was holding the dark-skinned woman by her hair.

"Boss, after you use her, we can too, after all, she is new meat along with these two." The centaur said this, looking at a woman with red hair and squeezing one of her breasts so hard that it made the woman with red hair cry in pain.

The huge centaur, who looked like the boss, glared deadly at this Centaur that was abusing the girl, making him take his hand away and look down.

"If you lay your hand again on a woman I haven't used yet, I will kill you." The chief centaur said this, and everyone lowered their heads.

And then the boss lifted the dark-skinned woman by her hair.

"Let's enjoy our moment." He said it with lust as the young brown-haired centaur just futilely tried to stop him.

"Y-you're just a worm." The dark-skinned woman said scared but trying to sound strong.

And then the centaur just smiled and lowered his hand that was holding her hair tightly, making the dark-skinned woman hit her face on the ground with a big thud.

And the centaur lifts the dark-skinned woman to reveal her broken nose and tears streaming down her eyes.

"Look, boss, she pissed herself." One of the centaurs pointed down, where a yellowish liquid was flowing.

"Even better." The centaur chief said this, moving one of his hands towards her small breasts.

But before his hand touches her breasts, a pained expression forms on the centaur's face, along with him being sent flying to the side.

The dark-skinned girl falls to the ground, but I catch her without caring about her condition.

"You, all of you, are going to be okay now." I said deactivating my invisibility and revealing myself.

The dark-skinned girl didn't say anything, she just cried and cuddled in my arms. Even though she was scared and distrustful of me, I was her hope at that moment.

The boss I had kicked quickly stood up.

"Who are you, little shit?" He shouts angrily.

"Worms like you don't need to know my name, but you need to know who it was that made you pay for your sins.

I am Apollo, the God of the Sun and Light." I said, with a cold look at all the centaurs.

I didn't act before because I wanted to see if there was at least one more of them that was worth not killing, but unfortunately, there was only one.

Every centaur present here laughed at the young centaur and looked at women as almost beautiful merchandise to be taken advantage of.

"A God?!"

"That should be impossible."

"It must be a lie, gods don't come down from Olympus."

"That's right, he's probably just trying to scare us."

"But I don't sense mana from him, his energy is something more sacred."

While the centaurs murmured amongst themselves, their chief trotted over to them.

"SHUT UP!" His scream sounds throughout this place, and the chief centaur takes his sword out of its sheath and points it at me.

"It doesn't matter if it's true or not, this is our territory, and these women are our objects. God or not, you will die today." With his screams, all the centaurs in this village picked up their weapons, no longer caring if I was a God or not.

Now facing me and surrounding me were about 100 centaurs, which made the women who still had life in their eyes choose each other, and the woman in my arms pressed herself against my body.

"I understand! At least this makes it easier for me." I said, holding the dark-skinned woman with just one arm.

"Easier!? You idiot, you are one, and we are over 100 centaurs." The boss said this, opening his arms.

"That's unfair." I said, raising my free right arm.

"Yes, it's unfair, what are you going to do about it?" His smile widened, and fear and hopelessness formed on the faces of the women and the tied young centaur.

"Please, this is unfair to you guys." With a sneer, I release my divine power that oppresses the vast majority of centaurs.

"Ugh!" The leader lets out a slight growl, but soon regains his composure and points at me with his sword.

"Kill him." With his words, arrows are taken from the quiver and placed on the bow; spears are wielded forward as they begin to gallop towards me; and swords are drawn with the echo of hoofs on the earth.

They all rushed madly towards me in a sea of centaurs.

But without concern for the release of my divine power, photons of light formed in the sky, and immediately the photons began to gather into a gigantic sphere of light.

The gigantic sphere of light continued to grow until, suddenly, with the closing of my hand… the sphere simply began to flatten and expand.

Almost immediately attracted the attention of the centaurs, who looked up at the sky but had their vision blocked by a huge, thick disc of light golden color that was expanding even more.

"W-what…"

Disbelief could be heard in the Centaur leader's tone of voice.

"Attack." It was a cry of despair, but it served to awaken the centaurs.

Who drew their bows while others galloped towards me again.

With a smile on my lips and the dark-skinned girl looking up in wonder as I just say:

"[Divine Judgment]."

And that same mass of light that expands and flattens begins to release a torrent of sheets of light.

And with the swing of my hand, this torrent was shot towards the centaurs.

"W-wait…"

Before the leader finished saying anything, he was flooded with blades that pierced his body as if it were nothing.

While this centaur's body was inundated with blades, the rain of blades continued uninterruptedly on top of all the centaurs.

Screams of pain were heard, along with the sounds of blades colliding with bodies.

"Aghhhh!"

Just a single centaur would have dozens of blades in his body, those who were lucky died quickly, as every second was another blade embedded in their bodies.

"Nooooo!"

The once green ground was now a putrid crimson, with a sea of luminescent swords embedded in the ground.

"Please forgive me…"

"Help."

I just ignored the countless screams as I continued to look coldly at the dying Centaurs.

Even because there was nowhere to run, whenever a blade hit its target, dozens were made by the mass of light being fired soon after.

However, as the flattened mass of light created more of the blade, it began to shorten and thin.

But there were only a few centaurs left alive, who used their companion's corpses as shields.

One of these centaurs had black hair and was missing an arm.

And the other one that caught my attention was a young man with wounds on his body.

"What a happy coincidence." I said with a swing of my hand.

And the disk, using all its remaining mass of light, turned into hundreds of blades and fell in all directions.

Blade after blade was stabbed into the bodies of the remaining centaurs so that no more limbs or skin were showing, there were only blades of light on their bodies.

"I told you it was unfair to you guys." I muttered as the smell of blood filled the air.

Looking at the side where the women were, I thought there would only be looks of fear, but what I saw was admiration, respect, and also... fear.

But the most surprising thing was that some of the women who didn't have lifeless looks, even though they still had a sad and hopeless look, deep down there was a tone of sated look.

As if this carnage made them feel good.

Meanwhile, the dark-skinned woman in my arms fell into the gaze category of pure admiration and respect.

With a gentle smile, I raised my hand and used [Pure Sunlight] on all the women and the centaur tied to the post.

The woman in my arms let out a soft moan of satisfaction as she felt her wound being treated in real-time.

"What is your name?" I asked, gently.

She looked at me, a few times she opened her mouth, as if she was going to speak and closed it until finally she said:

"Casca, my name is, Casca."