The Long Game

Winter Solstice, 4th Century

Olympus

Inside the Hall of Thrones of the Olympians, the major gods of the Greco-Roman Pantheon were sitting on their respective thrones. However, they weren't the only occupants in the Hall. There was Hades, the God of the Dead and Wealth. It was natural for him to be in Olympus during the Winter Solstice since during that time, the ancient, evil magic was at its strongest. Thus, Hades was there to help his siblings and other relatives in dealing with the problems.

That was not the only reason he was there though.

Besides him, there were also minor gods of the Greco-Roman Pantheon as well. There were Hebe, the Goddess of Youth, Hecate, the Goddess of Magic, Witchcraft, and Crossroads, Iris, the Goddess of the Rainbow, and many more other minor gods and goddesses.

It was a very rare event for minor gods to be involved, to the point that the number of such an event happening can be counted by one hand. As such, whatever caused this to happened must've been something that was very important.

On his throne, Zeus, the King of the Gods, looked at the mostly bickering Olympians with only few of them stay silent. There was Demeter "lecturing" Hades on how he should be a better husband for Persephone, which caused the Lord of Underworld to looked like he wanted to be anywhere but here. Then there was Artemis telling Apollo to stop flirting with her Hunters, who didn't listen and seemed to be more focused on his latest poem. There was also Athena and Poseidon having oral combat with each other, likely related to Athens or the Gorgons.

The entire hall went silent when the fire of the hearth in the room blazed upwards, nearly touching the ceiling. The occupants in the hall turned their attention to the eight-year-old girl near the hearth. She was Hestia, the Goddess of the Hearth, Home, and Family.

"My family, please be silent. The meeting is about to begin." Said Hestia calmly.

After saying that, Hestia looked at his brother, Zeus. He nodded his head in thanks and stood up from his throne, intending to officially begin of what could be the most important meeting in history of Olympus.

"With this, I, the Great King of the Gods, Zeus, shall begin this meeting that will decide the future of all of us!" Declared Zeus with a deep voice.

"As all of you know, a new religion has arisen in the land of the Roman Empire. A religion called Christianity, created by a Jew called Jesus Christ, who had been crucified more than three hundred years ago."

Zeus stopped talking for a while to let the words that he had spoke to be absorbed by other gods. So that they knew how precarious the situation was.

"Apollo, tell them about one of your prophecies!"

With that, Zeus sat down back to his throne. Few moments after that, Apollo, the God of Archery, Art, Music, Poetry, and Prophecy, stood up from his throne. His face no longer showed any playful mood that he had when he was bickering with Artemis.

"Thank you, Lord Zeus." Said Apollo first. "When I see into the future, I am unable to tell anyone future events, except through my Oracles, as then the information would become meaningless. However, I managed to see one future that is important enough that I can tell them without my Oracles."

This got the attentions of the gods in the room. For a prophecy to be so different from others that Apollo can informed it without speaking through his Oracles? What kind of prophecy was that?

"Tell the king; the fair wrought house has fallen

No shelter has Apollo, nor sacred laurel leaves

The fountains are now silent; the voice is stilled.

It is finished."

As Apollo took a seat on his throne, murmurs began to fill the hall. Not just among minor gods, but also the Olympians. No shelter has Apollo? Fountains were silent? Voice was stilled?

Finished?

Did that prophecy spoke about their incoming doom?

"Silence!" Stated Zeus sternly. "I know what all of you are thinking. Does the end of us imminent? I am sure it is not necessary to say the answer of the question."

"Huh, leave it to the mortals to forgot everything that we have did for them." Commented Ares, the God of War and Violence.

"Is it, brother?" Said Athena, the Goddess of Wisdom and Strategy. "Do I have to remind you how short the memory span of the mortals is? It is a miracle that they managed to survive to this day."

Athena turned her attention to her half-sister, Artemis, the Goddess of the Hunt.

"Artemis, how many men that peeked on you bathing despite the tale of Actaeon?" Asked Athena.

"He was not the first and the last." Replied Artemis as she grumbled.

She couldn't understand why the men decided to peek on her was a good idea. Did they have a death wish or something? At least there was that boy Sipriotes who begged for mercy when he realized his mistake.

Athena nodded her head and looked at her uncle, Hades.

"Lord Hades, do you remember Theseus and Pirithous?" Asked Athena.

"Oh, please! Don't remind me about them! They are so stupid that calling them fools would be an insult to all fool!" Said Hades as he facepalmed.

The Lord of the Underworld still could not believe that there were mortals that had the gals to tried to take Persephone away from him. He, Hades, one of the Big Three, the most powerful gods of all Olympus, and they decided that taking his wife was a good idea?! He was so shocked by that that the actual event was not of him being enraged but rather having his jaws wide-opened.

At least Persephone gained a good laugh from that.

"As all of you know, mortals require constant reminder that messing with us should be the last thing in their list of wishes. In fact, it should never be in their wish at all." Said Athena. "And yet, didn't we decided to no longer involve ourselves with the affairs of mortals after the Trojan War?"

The hall fell into silence after Athena reminded them about that fact. It was true that after the Trojan War, the gods decided to not be involved with the affairs of the mortals. While there were still demigods after the war and many of them have tales worthy to be inscribed in history, all of them didn't involve things like interacting the gods. At most they involved received a blessing or curse from the gods.

"What my daughter, Athena, has said, is right. Our decision to not interfering with the affairs of mortals has backfired. Without constant reminder of what will happen to those who defy us, the mortals start believe that we are powerless and flock themselves to the new religion of Christianity." Said Zeus.

"So, what will you do, dear husband?" Asked Hera, the Queen of Olympus. "Should we involve ourselves with their affairs once again and strike fear into their hearts?"

"No. In fact, let them join Christianity. By Hades – no offense, brother – let all of them become Christians."

This caused Zeus to received a stare from his wife. Not only her however, but all everyone in the room stared at the King of the Gods with a surprised expression.

"Father…?" Said Athena, rather unsure with what she had just heard.

"If we decide to invoke our wrath towards the mortals, they will believe that it's merely a test from their god and things will go better if they stay patient and loyal to him. Just like what Christian did during the Crisis of the Third Century. If we show ourselves for them, they will believe us as spawns of devil." Explained Zeus. "By this point, the rise of Christianity is irreversible."

"So…what? Are we going to just let this happen?" Asked Apollo.

"That, we do not. We require no worshipper to survive. And thus, we can be more than what they thought about us." Replied Zeus.

Seeing the confused faces among the gods, Zeus decided to explain what he had in mind.

"We are the lords and ladies of many dominions; sky, sea, underworld, family, home, agriculture, wisdom, art, war, wilderness, civilization, and more. The children that we have with mortals left their marks in history; Achilles, Heracles, Perseus, Daedalus, Hippolyta, Lityerses, and more."

There were murmurs of agreement among the gods. While there were demigods that some of them didn't like, like Hera and Heracles, they (very) begrudgingly agreed that even the demigods that they didn't like did deeds that were worthy to be remembered.

"And that is what we are going to use." Declared Zeus. "We might no longer has mortals worshipping us. We might no longer receive tributes from them. But venerated we will remain."

Realization started to dawned upon the gods. They started to look at each other.

"When people speak about heroes, they will tell the tales of our children. When they look at the constellations in the sky, they will be remembered about our tales." Said Zeus. "However, I believe that, perhaps what will be the most important is that Christianity itself will be influenced by us. That even their respected figures will be demigods, our children. Common mortals might not realize this, but those of the Church will."

"Lord Zeus, the last one sounds to be…very ambitious. You sure that can be done?" Asked Athena.

"I am sure about that, Athena. Do you know when Christmas happens?" Asked Zeus back.

"25 December." Athena was rather confused with the question.

"And what is Christmas?"

"Celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ."

"Good. Now, when is the date of Saturnalia?" Upon saying Saturnalia, Zeus and other gods temporarily turned into their Roman aspect before returning to their Greek aspect.

"17 – 23 December." Athena's voice was that of displeasure. Not because of Saturnalia, but the fact that she temporarily changed into Minerva, which she didn't like to put it simply.

"Do you find it funny how close Christmas is with Saturnalia?"

"I do not. Considering his birth was close to Saturnalia, it makes sense that the celebration of his birthday by Christians is close to Saturnalia."

"Ah, but that's the thing. Jesus was not born anywhere during winter."

"…what?"

It was not only Athena who was surprised. Other gods started to pay more attention to the conversation between the father and the daughter as well.

"I have asked Helios and Selene about whether they once saw Jesus as a baby. They had once. They also told me that there were shepherds in the field watching their flocks." Said Zeus. "And guess what? The holy book of the Christians also said the same thing. Luke 2:7-8 if I am not wrong."

"But that doesn't make any sense! Why do you celebrate the birthday of someone who is very important in your religion? The clues suggested that at the very least, Jesus was born during the transition between fall and winter." Said Athena before her eyes widened. "Unless…"

"They make Christmas close to Saturnalia so that the recent converts would feel…homey, since in their minds, they could just replace Saturnalia with Christmas." Finished Zeus.

More murmurs occurred among the gods. Some of them looked amused on how despite wanting to replace them with their own sole god, the Christians decided to absorb some of the cultures related to the pagans. In the end, Christians and pagans weren't that much different.

"So much for claiming to be better than us." That was the most common thought among the gods.

Zeus smiled at the sight. He knew that his plan would take a very long time to come to fruition. But he also knew that in the end, it would be worth it.

Two millennia later…

January 01, 2001

Olympus, New York City

In the feast hall of Olympus, the Olympians were sitting at their respective chairs, celebrating the New Year. The feast hall looked like something you saw in a palace of Enlightenment-era Western Europe. Made sense since the gods decided to made it like that when Olympus was at Paris.

In his seat, wearing his best tuxedo, Zeus looked at the celebrating Olympians with a smile. They were still bickering as usual, just like how it was during the ancient time. However, they were in a more powerful position than ever. All of those centuries having children, all of those centuries interacting with chosen mortals, all of those centuries giving blessings without tributes in return, had finally paid off.

The Greco-Roman Pantheon is now the Heart of the Western Civilization.

And the prologue is done.

For those wondering how the DxD Greek Mythology becomes as powerful as the Percy Jackson Greek Mythology, don't worry. There will be explanation for that.

If you have question or suggestion, feel free to tell me.

Review please!