Arc: 2 [Chapter 14]
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The residents of the Blessed Field start to leave the courtyard, Joan extends her hand to me. I reach it and she pulls me up off the ground and helps me find my footings. After letting go of her hand, I brush the dust off my butt. The sore from getting hit aches all over my body as I stretch my left arm upward.

"Hector, what happened?" Achilles asked as he looks around the courtyard.

Hector place his arm over the confused man's shoulder, turning him around and guide him to the Partheon.

"Don't worry, I'll tell you all about it, over lunch, old friend."

Achilles let out a sigh as he walks side by side along with Hector.

I lower my left arm and turn to look at Joan, "Lead the way to Rhea."

"Hmm? Ah, well...we are already here."

I glance around her and spot no one near or around us except for Helen. Turning my gaze at her, I raise my left eyebrow.

"Everyone already left except for us."

"You're looking at her."

"Who? You?"

"No silly, behind her." Helen let out a smile as she looks passed Joan.

I lean to the right slightly and gaze passed the French woman. All that I could see is the half-buried face of the massive statue laying on the ground. Then it just struck a chord inside my mind, the statue is Rhea. I widen my eyes as I look back at Helen for confirmation, and she nods her head.

"Are you serious? That massive statue is her?"

Helen turns her gaze on the statue's face, "That is correct, she been here even before us."

Joan raises a finger, and whisper close to me, "My theory is that she's been dead for a long time, and nobody realizes it, except for me."

A worry expression dawn over my face, Helen let out a small giggle, and say, "She's not dead, believe me. She's... in a deep slumber, that's all."

"Are you sure?" I rest my gaze on Helen for confirmation.

"I'm certain of it." She said with so much confidence that it dissipate any doubt I have.

The fresh air enters through my nose and into my lung, then I release it all out in a long sigh. I take a couples of steps closer to Rhea's face.

Raising my hand, I extend it closer to Rhea's cheek and press my palm against it. The surface feels hard while smooth like river stone and feel slightly cold to the touch, well that is what to be expected, judging by the exterior look. However, when I close my eyes, I could feel faint pulses coming from deep inside of her, like rippling water or multiple tiny bursts of energy.

"Does Zeus ever come here?" I ask Helen while keeping my hand on Rhea's cheek.

"Unfortunately no, I never saw him come here before."

"Hm, why? Isn't she, his mother?"

"Do you know about the war between the Titans and the Olympian Gods?"

"I've heard of it"

"It started because of a prophecy, that Kronos will fall by the hands of his own son, the same as how he dethroned his own father Uranus."

"The fear from the prophecy turns Kronos paranoid. So when the time came for his sons and daughters to be born, Zeus, Hades, Poseidon, Hera, Demeter, and Hestia. He swallowed all of them to prevent the prophecy from being fulfilled."

"However, Rhea, the mother of the six children couldn't stand and watched as her own children being eaten, but she couldn't go against Kronos. So she managed to hide one of her child in a cave on Mount Ida while tricking Kronos by disguising a stone swaddled with a cloth and gave it to her husband to be eaten."

"After Zeus become full grown, he forced Kronos to vomit all of his siblings and led a battle against the Titans and won."

I mutter to myself, "With the help of the monster kind."

"Rhea had to leave her child alond to protected him..." Helen voice trail off.

I glance at Helen, there is a sublime sadness on her eyes as she let out a small sigh.

I turn my gaze on Rhea once more, "She's just like Adrestia in a way. Both of them have a few unresolved issues, guilt or regret maybe?"

"It seems that way, doesn't it?" Helen's shoulders droop slightly.

"Lady Rhea...wake up please, I need you to wake up. It's about your son, Zeus... He has done so many bad things in the past that hurt a lot of people including to a person that I cared the most"

"I need you to punish him or at least talk to him. His actions need to be reprimand."

Rhea lies dormant, unmoving, and unresponsive. I lower my hand away from her cheek.

"Oi, giant woman! Wake up!"

"Your son been a bad boy, please do something about it!"

"Aaaaahhhh!" I scream at the top of my lungs.

"Wake up! Please..."

I slam the bottom of my clenched hand against her cheek, and yet, no response whatsoever. "This can't be it..."

Joan let out a sigh, "Andre, she hasn't woken for ages even before we came here. I don't think she will wake up now."

Helen places a hand on my left shoulder. "I believe in you." I turn my gaze over to her and let out an energized smile.

Helen doesn't even know what I'm here for, but she still gives her blind support. I take a long breath in and move closer to the vines draping over Rhea's neck. Grabbing one of those vines, I use it as a rope to climb up and try to reach her ear.

Her ear is covered with growing vines, I take a couple of breath in to sweep my fatigue away.

"Don't you miss him? Don't you miss how warm he felt when you cradle him for the first time? Don't you miss how his voice sounds like, and how his first smile filled your beating heart with joy?"

A sudden stiffness plague all over my body, I couldn't move my eyelids or any single part of my body as if a curse of stone been casted on me.

A blanket of white light overwhelms my sight and dissipate away any view I had.

Laughter.

Scream.

The noise of a burning fire.

The noise of several tiny explosion going off around me. All of the noises in fast rapid succession cause a tiny headache.

However as sudden as the noise came, silence became the end.

With a blink of my eyes, I am in a different place than I was and able to move my body again. I turn my body and see a two-story house. A familiar feeling washes over me when I gaze at the house, but I couldn't recall any memories of me being here.

Yet there something amiss about this house, it should be more rundown than it is right now.

"How dare you disturb my slumber." A stern voice greets me.

I turn my body to face the source of the voice, I'm surprised to see the same woman that resembles the giant statue standing before me while in my heights.

A sense of shame wash over me, I drop to one knee, "Lady Rhea! Forgive my rudeness, but I need to wake you up."

"Such warm and humble home for a family to live in." She turns her gaze toward the house.

"Where are we?"

She let out a small laugh, "That is the question you should ask yourself. This image, this location, this house and everything in here is from your mind, more precisely your memories."

I look at her with widened eyes, "Mine? But I don't remember all of this."

Her burning gaze bore through me, "Enough! We are not here you to discuss your inability."

"How dare you?! Do you think I'm blind to your ulterior motives? I know there is another reason for you to wake me up, rather than simply to ask me to scold my son for his bad deeds."

"Excuse me, but me having an ulterior motive isn't it a good excuse for you."

I can feel her gaze becoming direr, but with a hardened heart, I stand up and look her in eyes.

"I want him to feel at least the shred of the consequence from his action against my goddess. That's what I wanted. That's why I came here."

"How hubris of you to think that." I can see the full anger in her eyes as she scowls at me.

"Bow!" With a single word, I can feel a sudden immense force pulling my body down to the ground. I drop onto both of my knees, but I keep my torso straight up with every ounce of my strength.

"LET ME TAKE ALL OF THE RESPONSIBILITIES ON WHAT HAPPENED NEXT!"

"BLAME ME! ANDRE OF ADRESTIA!"

I shout through my gritted teeth. However after I mentioned those words, I feel her angry gaze dissipate slowly, and the force that was pulling me to the ground begin to disappear.

"I know that you miss seeing your son, I don't know why you won't see him, but I do know one thing."

"You need a reason, or an excuse, or something to use. However, it needs to be more than simple words, you need someone to blame. You don't want him to be angry at you, or hate you for barging in suddenly into his life."

"Use my name! Pretend that I trick you. Go! And see him!"

Her gaze rests onto the ground in front of her, "It's not that simple."

"It is that simple, you are his mother. It is one of your perks of being a mother to bother your kids, whenever and wherever they are," I said with a smile on my face as I stand up again.

Lady Rhea looks at me with hopeful eyes and smile. "You are one of the strangest people I ever met."

My smile widens, "I get that a lot."

Just the same as before, with a blink of an eye, I'm back at the blessed field while standing on the side of Rhea's head. Her entire body grumbles beneath me as the vines and pebbles slip off her. She is going deeper into the ground rather than rising up.

All the rumbling cause me to lose my footing and fall onto my butt. However, I can see from where I am, Joan and the other residents shocked faces while Helen simply waves her goodbye at me with a loving smile on her face. I wave my hand at them while Rhea wraps her palm and fingers around me as we go deeper into the ground.

Darkness then comes light.

The annoying disorienting feeling that I had comes again, Rhea opens her fingers slightly, and I find myself outside of the Underworld. I look down into the hole that Rhea leave, and I can see the Underworld skies.

The Underworld was upside down the entire time, "So that's why I was feeling disoriented when I step into it."

The hole that Rhea left in the ground starts to close up with rocks and dirt, separating the Underworld and the surface once more.

Another good news arises as my old strength and energy flow throughout my body. The tiredness and soreness simply go away. I look around and find the cave entrance where I parked my motorcycle.

"Lady Rhea, can you drop me at the cave entrance? I have my own ride, I'll have to meet you at Mount Olympus."

She takes a glance at me, then slowly lowering me at the cave entrance. I can see Agnes and Kraus shocked faces as they stare at the massive woman that is lowering me to the ground.

I jump and land near Agnes with an arrogant smirk on my face, his expression still stuck in awe as I wave my hand in front of his face. I turn around and wave goodbye at Rhea, "Tell Lord Zeus that I said hello."

Rhea nods her head slightly while a giant bright portal opens above her, and she hovers up into it. After she leaves, Agnes sense come back to her, "Is that Rhea?"

"Yep," I said nonchalantly as I get on the bike.

Kraus let out a laugh while Agnes looks at me with wide eyes, "You did it!"

"What do you mean me? We did it! Even though I will be the one that is taking all the blame on what happens next."

Agnes rushes to me and hugs me with his soft wings. The embrace surprises me, but I reply by brushing the top of his head, "What's with the sudden embrace?"

"You promise me to come back and I'm happy that you keep it." I can see the hidden smile underneath as he plants his face into my chest.

"Of course, I keep it..." Agnes moves his head away from my chest and gazes at me with a happy smile. "Anyway, Where that delicious fruit? I'm starving."

His eyebrows raise while his gaze moves away from me, "aaahhh...."

"Agnes?" An annoyed smile appears on my face.

"You were in the Underworld for a long time, and I got worried, so I ate it..."

I pinch both of his cheeks, "ouch... that's hurt."

"You do know that I wanted to eat that?"

Kraus let out another laugh, "I warned him that he shouldn't eat it, but he didn't listen."

"Just a warning?" I said sarcastically.

"Did you forget that I'm hurt?" The minotaur reply with his own sarcasm.

"Oh yeah." I look at the minotaur broken arm and feel the guilt once more.

Agnes massages his swollen cheeks with his wings, "So... where are we heading next?"

"Back to Mount Olympus, but first I need to deliver a message."

A tiny hummingbird appears before me like magic, Agnes glare and bares his sharp teeth toward it, while the hummingbird whistles as it flies around his head.

"I hate them, always got in my way when I'm flying," Agnes try to take a bite on it, but it flies close to me for protection.

It makes several tweets sounds at me, I couldn't explain what it said in common tongue, but I understand it fully. "So this tiny cuteness is the famous Hermes Little Helper."

It flies around me in happiness after it heard my compliment.

"Can you deliver a message to Lord Hades?"

It nods it's tiny head energetically, then a smile appears on my face.

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