“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 in to the room as the tense atmosphere became thicker than Aphrodite’s thighs.

Hades and Hestia who were in the room and they hadn’t uttered a word since the meeting began, the both of them had mixed feelings about the whole thing, Hestia had wanted to diffuse the situation however Hades to stopped her, any words that indicated that they were backing down would make Olympus seem weak and thus making Nyx push further with their demands.

*crack*

A bite from a biscuit caused everyone to turn their attention towards Styx who in turn tried to chew slowly without further disrupting the atmosphere, unfortunately Nike burst out in laughter seeing her mother’s antics. Nyx shook her head and let out a sigh, her daughter has her own children yet is still childish like this.

“Oh well, obviously we aren’t going to destroy Olympus, as a Good mother, I give my daughters whatever they need, Bia doesn’t need to Have Olympus destroyed”

She waved away the situation, she wasn’t serious about that threat and regardless of how much power she may possess she can’t just destroy Olympus for absolutely no reason, she is not that uncouth and Besides its better to make your enemies suffer than simply killing them.

“Mother! I thought–“

“remember what I said before coming here?” 

“You said you’ll do as I say if my siblings agreed”

“Did they agree?”

It wasnt that they didn't agree but more like they weren't present to agree, Kratos just disappeared and no one knows where he is. Zelus is in a deep depressive state and refuses to say anything to anyone, he's entire life has been a lie so it's understandable why he's be depressed and Nike didn't really care as much as she should, if she was brainwashed then she needs to be strong enough for that to not happen again.

“No”

“there you go, at least we can get you some compensation this way”

Nyx settled the argument causing Bia to deflate in disappointment, Although Nyx herself doesn’t like the idea of seeing her daughters unhappy, destroying Olympus wouldn’t be ideal, after all she’s seen things that are yet to be in Erebus and she wishes to experience them, Aphrodite’s clothes were exceptionally well made and beautiful, Nyx wanted something similar.

“Alright then lady Nyx what compensation do you want, I’ll try my best to provide it”

Hephaestus didn’t particularly like that he suddenly had to pay Nyx Compensation however he can’t afford to get on her bad side not when he has yet to gain the necessary power to do so, plus the Hogyoku is still somewhat busy, trying to find a way to gain the ability to be invisible to Chronos and that was actually a great undertaking that the device couldn’t create in Just a few hours.

Hephaestus had began using his mystic eyes of death perception when Nyx delivered that threat of hers and while he definitely can see her lines of death, it wasn’t helpful because, there seemed to be numerous lines that extended from her and then branched out all over the place some extending underground, others higher than the sky, some even mixing with the Death line of other things and people, like Styx, Bia, Nike and Even Hades, which confused Hephaestus quite a bit.

“it’s not exactly compensation but more like you letting me stay within Olympus for a bit, I wish to experience all the things we don’t have in Erebus.

Olympus is the God version of a human settlement”

“if that’s the case I don’t see why you wouldn’t just go to a human settlement”

“I don’t hate humans but you can hardly call their dwellings a place for me to even visit, mingling with humans will give them the mistake of thinking they’re our equal”

She stated before leaning further back and getting much more comfortable in the couch, it’s softness was far superior to any chair she has ever sat on and it was definitely something she wanted to have.

“I see, I suppose that makes sense, very well. You may stay here, though you’ll need some coin to buy and experience some of the things but my wife will be your companion during your stay so it should be no problem, is that alright with you Aphrodite?”

“of course, it would be an honour”

Aphrodite clasped her Hands and smiled happily, as the queen part of her duties involved placating important guests, plus she understood that she couldn’t let anyone be the one to guide Nyx throughout Olympus, not mention she can keep an eye on Nyx for Hephaestus in case there’s some sort of ploy.

“was that all you came here for”

“Actually I have a request”

Nike spoke up, truthfully speaking, the only reason she left Olympus was to process the information that she had been Brainwashed, plus she had wanted to go back to her home but ended up losing track of time.

“Okay, what is it”

That sounded a bit rude but he wasn’t trying to be, he was in a bit of a hurry considering that there’s a problem he needed to deal with.

“I’d like my role as enforcer back”

“Huh? Why?”

“It was one reason at first but now it’s two reasons, the first being since you have that sword with you, you now are one of the few people that I can fight using my full power excluding grandmother”

“Nike I’m not a grandmother”

Nyx retorted to Nike referring to her as a grandmother, Nike was among the only one in her family who occasionally switched between calling her grandmother and Mother. Ignoring Nyx’s retort Nike carried on.

“the second reason is because I learned that you created–“

“NIKE!”

With at glare at her grand daughter Nyx spoke, letting out a stern voice. Everyone in the room was startled by the sudden mood change, although Styx and Hestia were hardly effected, with both of them eating the food in the table. Hestia thought it was best to eat for everyone on her side considering that neither Hephaestus, Hades and Aphrodite had touched the food.

“okay, okay. mother”

Although Nyx was immortal and never aging, she will retain her Youthful appearance indefinitely however the idea of a Grandmother made her realize that she was indeed an ancient being and that in turn made her feel old which she was but she didn’t like it, of course this was mostly just a phase of hers that she’ll let go off in a few years.

“as I was saying, I heard that you employed the guards to be ‘peace keeper’ what does that entail exactly?”

Hephaestus raised a brow at her question, that was something he hardly expected to come out of her mouth or rather she didn’t seem like the type to care about such things.

“well the police are there just to maintain order and keep the other gods from destroying public property, as you know both my battle with Ares and Zeus’s battle with Athena cause some property damage, so the police are there to keep that from happening again, many complaints were made by the citizens” 

“what happens if a person destroys some else’s property then?”

“well they either have to pay for property damage and if they refuse I put them in prison”

“so are you saying that people shouldn’t express their grievances with each other even if it’s a physical fight?”

“a dispute between two individuals should not involve the destruction of someone else’s property, if people want to express their grievances then they should fight somewhere else to express them, after all you wouldn’t want someone to destroy your home would you?”

“huh, That makes sense I sense”

“I don’t see how that was related to you becoming an enforcer again but if you still want to be one the sure, Themis can focus on the law part and you can be the Police chief or something similar”

Nike responded with a hum to his words, it seemed she misunderstood what was being said by the guard earlier when she arrived, basically the job was the same as being an enforcer and the differences were miniscule. She had thought he was going to be a similar tyrant as his predecessors who did not like having their authority questioned.

“Alrighty then with that settled, I believe this meeting is over”

Hephaestus sounded before standing up along with Hades, the two of them had something important to do. 

…….

[Ocean]

Within the depths of the ocean, deep where no light can reach, a golden light illuminated the space, the space was devoid of anything that was alive or rather there was no large fish or seas creatures only tint little organisms that roamed aimlessly in the water, the mist was not interested anything that small.

As this golden light illuminated, the mist of darkness tried to consume and break it down but unfortunately that seemed to be a much more difficult task than it had initially realized. The arm of Apollo was different type of matter compared that of humans, it was much harder to dissolved, the darkness could taste the power within the arm itself, a God’s arm was filled to the brim with divine energy and it would be damned to discard such a treasure.

The black mist swallowed the arm covering its entirety and condensing itself as hard at it could, until it turned from it’s mist form to a solid spherical shape, the now black sphere was using its entire being to break down and consume the arm little by little over the course of days, slowly but surely the power within the arm would belong to it.

………

[Thessaly]

It was night-time in the city of Thessaly and the a mob of people entered a entered a rather large house or more specifically a mansion like building that had a large hall, this was the house of city lord, the person who governed the land. The mob had just finished its search for the Heretic that was found days ago.

“drat there’s no sign of him anywhere”

One member spoke as kicked the air, it has been two days since the incident and a few are beginning to realize that this search was ridiculous and useless, in fact the mob had decreased greatly in number, people had families and work as such spending time looking for heretics was nonsensical.

“He might have already left the city, I don’t we need to keep doing this, it has been two days already” 

Another one spoke out, he himself particularly didn’t care as he just needed an excuse to avoid his wife for the evening, she was quite the sex crazed maniac and he needed a break.

“How could he have left? We told everyone at the port to not let anyone leave”

“yeah but we just told them, we didn’t pay them, they can be bribed”

The man raised a point that the rest couldn’t refute, all they did was tell the fishermen not to let anyone leave but money held more weight than words. 

“then we should punish the fishermen it would their fault that they let a Heretic escape judgment”

“Was he a Heretic though?”

Everyone’s heads suddenly snapped toward his direction, what was he implying by his question? Another Heretic in their midst?

“what do you mean by that”

A man with a white hair and a full black beard asked, the man wore clothing that looked much finer than the ones worn by the commoners and he stood on the interior balcony and overlooked the meeting taking place.

“I apologize I didn’t mean anything by it lord Erysichthon, just an honest question”

The man quickly back peddled fearing that he might be punished should he speak his doubts about the gods.

“No, no you will not be punished for this, I myself harbour doubts about whether that man was a Heretic as you all have claimed, so please continue” 

Sensing the genuineness in the city lord’s word the man felt at ease, he darted around his eyes seeing that everyone was in silent shock, the city lord expressing his doubts about the gods so openly was madness.

“Well my lord, is a blessing to the land truly enough to bring back those who died in the conflict between Zeus and Hephaestus? I have family that live in Olympia, they had to come here because they had lost their homes when the blessing from the gods started to show they went back to try and reclaim their land but they couldn’t, new people had taken it and now they have no home go back to, there are many other families like that”

“so are you saying blessings are not enough to fix such problems?”

“I’m saying it’s the gods themselves that created these problems, they did not bring the ones that died back when the stadium collapsed leaving many families grieving, children losing mothers and fathers, wives losing husbands and husbands losing wives and gods did not bring them back, simply giving something as measly as a blessing is not enough to make up for the loss”

The few faithful believers of the gods found themselves in deep thought at the man’s words, he wasn’t wrong, simply blessing the land doesn’t bring back the dead nor does it help one deal with the loss of a loved ones and giving away blessings was something that is easy for the gods to do. It was the equivalent of someone taking away your food and giving you a single coin as thanks even though you were hungry, a slap to the face, a sign that your aren’t valued.

“He’s right!”

One man Shouted as he came out of his silence, the words spoken by the other man made sense, a lot of sense.

“yeah he’s right plus I heard that recently Arcadia was destroyed no doubt the gods had another conflict with each other”

Nods all around the room, with a few feelings unsure about what’s happening, they could not deny the facts being spoken to them and their faith wavered.

“Now, now, let’s not jump to conclusions. I’m sure the gods had reasons–“

“what reasons would there be for destroying the lively hood of us humans, other than the fact that the gods don’t care, that Heretic was right, the gods don’t care about us”

Everyone chimed in as various other began to change their minds and agreed with the man they thought to be a Heretic.

..........

JJK HYPE is real gang, sukuna is him

Next chapter Friday, though faster updates equal short word count.