Apollo stood still in the empty land that used to be Arcadia, his form was deflated and an expression of sadness had marred his face, he had initially thought of Daphne as a momentary amusement something to occupy his time, she was certainly beautiful woman and he was taken by her beauty however for the year he spent with her, he forgot himself, forgot about Olympus. Even when he heard the news of the battle between Zeus and Hephaestus he didn't feel the need to go back nor did he feel the need to avenge his father after his defeat, the simple life of living with her has been satisfactory, in fact he wondered what he had been doing the years before meeting her.

"l'm sorry for your loss"

Hermes suddenly appeared beside him and patted him on the shoulder as a form of comfort. Apollo, not appreciating the gesture, shrugged off the hand on his shoulder and asked.

"what do you want?"

"Can I not come to my brother whenever without ever wanting something from him?"

He asked Rhetorically whilst lamenting the fact he found him at he most inopportune time, he had seen the incident happened from afar but Hades and Hephaestus arrived soon after and thus he had to flee since he cannot be in the same place a Hephaestus.

"I'm in no mood to entertain anything at this moment, so state your business or leave me be" 

Apollo voiced, he wasn't in the mood to talk to anyone at the moment and would much rather be left in silence, not to mention that Hermes has never once addressed him as brother or anything of the sort, as such Apollo was sure that Hermes came for something.

"I simply came here to offer my condolences brother, with father gone for the next hundred years I realised that as a family we need to spend time together because we might not be able to see each other for a long time"

"I suppose that's sensible, but I'm in no mood to talk to anyone at this moment"

Apollo stated, if he genuinely came to him out of concern then, that at least meant something, although he doesn't see the need after all a hundred years is not a long time, Zeus will be back in no time, funnily enough no one was even thinking about the possible eventual return of Ares.

"I understand, but do you think if father was still alive, something like this would have happened?"

"what do you mean?"

"father was hardly a good father and he wasn't best of kings however, he took care of business, any threat that showed itself was dealt with, not only that but why did Hephaestus and Hades show up right after the Blackness swallowed every"

"What are…"

It dawned on Apollo. It was literally seconds after the Blackness swallowed Arcadia that Hephaestus and Hades showed up, this meant that they were aware of its existence yet still completely did nothing to stop it.

"Exactly as you're thinking, Hephaestus knew but chose to do nothing, he chose to let your lover die and he let that thing getting away, this is all his fault, can you accept such a king? Are you willing to?" 

He was right. If Hades and Hephaestus had arrived sooner, they could have destroyed that thing before it could do any more damage, Daphne would still be alive. Apollo's face morphed into face of anger.

"that Bastard I'll tear him to shreds!!!!"

Apollo was ready to fight and fly all the way back to Olympus, but Hermes quickly held him down.

"wait, wait, wait, hold on, you can't just attack him" 

"why are you stopping me?"

"I'm stopping you because attacking Hephaestus in Olympus is suicide trust me, I know"

Hermes stated and pointed at his missing eye, a price paid for being reckless, although Apollo's willingness is something to be admired and is exactly what he's looking for, attacking Hephaestus wasn't what he needed, rather than attack it's better to do things diplomatically, he was certain some Olympians weren't happy with him as king.

"We need to have him removed from the seat of king"

"how does that help me?"

"you lost your lover, so we need to have him experience loss as well"

"are you suggesting I kill Aphrodite?"

He was certainly not above that suggestion, and Hephaestus and Aphrodite have been together for a long as he and Daphne were so the loss to Hephaestus would be equal to his loss it would be an equivalent exchange.

"You can do that if it's what you want but that should come after Hephaestus is no longer king, having lost the seat of king and his lover would make an excellent revenge don't you think?"

He asked, paying careful attention to his wording so that he won't be implicated later. 

... 

[Olympus]

Accompanied by both Nike and Bia along with her Daughter Styx, Nyx arrived in Olympus, in a rather abrupt fashion, landing on the clouds that served as the ground Nike proceeded to lead the way towards the Royal palace. Due to her abrupt arrival, none of the citizens recognized her and seemed to be looking at her group due to the arrival of Nike and Bia.

All of them were quite confused, they had landed a few ways away from the royal castle and found themselves in a very human like environment, Bia found herself doubting if this was truly Olympus, the difference from a year ago was staggering. The way the citizens were dressed reminded Nike of Aphrodite.

"Lady Nike!"

One of man called out to Nike, the man was one of the guards that used to serve as the guards of the Royal palace however since they were simply just taking up space in the castle Hephaestus reused them to be part of the police force in order to Keep the peace within Olympus, as such people like him were spread out across Olympus patrolling or just watching out for any trouble.

"do I know you?"

"Of course not, my lady I'm nothing but a humble guard. However, as part of Olympus's peace keepers, I must ask you questions regarding your return"

He explained. although he was talking to Nike,he felt great presence from the two women he didn't know both were. Beautiful for sure, but their presence made him feel uneasy. In fact, all his friends he was patrolling with were on edge as they watched his interaction with Nike from afar.

"peace keepers? what do you mean by that"

"as it says, my lady, me, and my comrades are now tasked with keeping the other gods from engaging in physical disputes in in public"

He explained, and Nike found herself unsure if she liked what he was saying. Did that mean that people could not express their grievances with one another? She decided not to ask any further instead she'll ask Hephaestus about it. The idea seemed a bit oppressive to her. 

"I see. I'm only here to introduce my mother to Hephaestus. She has business with him, or rather she's here at Bia's request, but I assure you we won't be disrupting the peace if that was-"

"what's that?"

Styx asked while pointing towards one of the new clothing stores that had recently opened this year. Two women had exited it, wearing garments that had caught her eye. In fact, seeing such clothes had made her want to change clothes immediately, wearing simple dark cloth seemed out of place.

"that would be a clothing store, my lady. With enough coin, you can acquire whatever clothing you need"

"like how humans do ?"

This time, Nyx asked. Her voice caused shivers to run up his spine, beautiful as she maybe He could feel his back was drenched in sweat. She was dangerous.

"Y-yes my like humans do, the king thought it would be good for Olympus, and so far, nobody has complained"

Seeing the cute look of curiosity in her daughter Styx, Nyx found herself impatient about meeting Hephaestus.

"I see then take us to the castle we have thing to discuss with your king"

Nyx ordered and for some reason the man gave her a Salute and obeyed her words, the thought of disobeying her frightened him greatly, this wasn't because of anything Nyx was doing nor was it anything related to her divinity, the man simply knew from instinct that he was not to displease her in any way. Like the soldier he is, he led them towards the castle, on the way there they saw many things.

Various gods had decided to use their talents to earn money, gods with anything relating to crafting were artisans or carpenters, with Gods with food related divinity having restaurants and Styx curiously asked about whatever interesting things she saw with Nyx taking more interests in Olympus the more she saw.

….. 

Hephaestus, along with his wife and company(Hades and Hestia), were now seated with Nyx and her family across them. They were inside the lounging room that Hephaestus had specifically designed for important guests, his maids were serving them various sweets and cake along with drinks and tea.

"this was a rather abrupt surprise visit, lady Nyx, We hardly had time to prepare"

Hephaestus was the first to speak, breaking the momentary silence in the room.

"I suppose I should have announced my visit, but the matter was pressing for my daughter, so I had to come"

Nyx answered and Hephaestus's body suddenly tensed, the moment Nyx spoke, he realized the absolute threat that she was, He knew Primordials were powerful but he never got the same feeling from Neither Chronos nor Gaia. With Nyx now before him he knew that he needed to create EA.

"I was unaware that lady Styx had business with us"

"she's talking about my daughter, Bia, not me"

Styx answered as she took a sip from the glass of wine she was offered by the Maid. Incidentally, she was also the one who ate the most of the cakes that were served.

"Oh! Then, lady Bia what's seemed to be the problem, I believe you and the enforcers left on good terms with us"

He had thought the enforcers left because they didn't accept him as king and that was entirely fine, after all Hermes didn't accept him being king, people were allowed to voice their opinions so he didn't think ill of them if they decided to leave.

"we were on good terms, Bia here is just making a fuss over nothing. You see here's what happened. You are aware of Hypnos, right?"

Hephaestus nodded to Nike's questions and She proceeded to explain what happened, Hypnos was rather weak for a titan, in fact he hardly had any physical power to him as such it was easy to overpower him in a fight or use violence to coerce him in to doing something, it also didn't help that he was actually a coward as well.

"I see, so Zeus made him use his power to somewhat brainwash you into serving him, and Lady Bia is offended by this and wants compensation?"

Hephaestus recapped what Nike had told, apparently the different Enforcers had different reasons of why they were serving Zeus, Bia was made to be in love with him and thus was loyal to him, Both Kratos and Nike served him because they were made to think he was a great warrior and a mighty being and thus respected and served, of course the idea of fighting Zeus never crossed their minds and Zelus was made to worship Zeus using his own concept against him.

"That's the gist of it."

"Where's Hypnos, and where was he during all this?"

"Right under our noses, he was on Erebus. He was too much of a coward to report that he was being threatened and just stayed in Erebus as if nothing was going on"

"I see. Then what's the compensation Lady Bia wants?"

Hephaestus asked, Deciding not to dwell on the Matter of Hypnos. He did not believe that Hypnos was that much of a coward, but at the same time, he was thankful that He didn't say anything to Nyx because if he did, Olympus would have been destroyed.

'Mental note: don't forget about Hypnos '

"I want the destruction of Olympus, your king dared go taint my mind with disgusting thoughts of him, I don't want to see a single trace of his existence, including you"

"That seems unfair, Don't you think?"

Aphrodite spoke, this was hardly something that would be considered the fault of Olympus and Zeus was dead, Hephaestus had told her that when he kills someone they stay dead, so it's not like Zeus will come back.

"it's not about fairness. It's about giving my daughter what she wants"

Hephaestus frowned at her threatening words, He definitely wasn't ready to have a war with someone like Nyx, but he isn't about to let her believe that she had control here.

"was that a threat, Olympus doesn't appreciate Threats"

He answered, and Nyx smirked and leaned forward and stared straight into his eyes. She found it odd that they had suddenly changed from gold to a more rainbow like hue.

"and if I say it is a threat, what are you going to do?" 

Nyx pressed on amused by their resistance. 

"Like my husband said, we don't appreciate Threats"

Aphrodite spoke as she and Hephaestus both leaned forward. However, Hephaestus was in a bit of confusion at the moment, hence why Aphrodite spoke for him. Silence lingered into the room as the tense atmosphere became thicker than Aphrodite's thighs

...