Darius was satisfied with how things had gone with Pyrrha, happy that the forr Goddess had so easily acquiesced to his demands. Manipulating her had been extrely easy, but given her nature, it would have been extrely embarrassing for him to fail.
A normal person might feel bad about tricking such an honest and upright person, but believe it or not, Darius was actually quite noncommittal about it.
That did not an that he felt nothing. Perhaps because of his own innate character, Darius actually respected people like Pyrrha that most would describe as foolish and naive.
His personal view on them was that if only the world could be filled with more people like them, it would be a much better place.
Alas, the world, be it Earth or Faust, was filled with bad people, leaving those like Pyrrha with no other choice but to adapt like Darius had or get exploited until they died.
If everyone would be like Pyrrha, nobody would have to constantly keep up their guard, afraid that soone was trying to harm them or take advantage of them in so way.
Essentially, Darius regarded Pyrrha the sa way Batman saw Superman, as the best of them.
However, this was only referring to those with honest characters and naivety based on opinion. This did not cover those who were simply plain stupid and those who were naive based on ignorance.
The difference between the two was that the forr were like Pyrrha, aware of the good and bad, as well as the fact that people were likely abusing her, but whose character was too good-natured to go against it as long as the actions they were forced to do didn't conflict with their nature.
The latter though, were completely ignorant of good and bad, doing whatever they felt to be 'right'. They would get abused by people and had no clue, actually believing that they would be benefiting from it.
They also assud the actions they were doing were good, but never actually investigated the effects or understood them.
Finally, Darius ca to dea's cell.
This was the last of them, and the most isolated. After all, this prisoner was soone he deed exceedingly dangerous in more ways than one.
dea was lying on the bed of her cell calmly, gazing towards the bars like she was expecting Darius. When he appeared, she smiled and adopted a sensual position.
"A visit from my captor, huh? What do you intend to do with , Esteed Sir?"
Darius smirked. "I didn't take a witch of Hecate for a whore. Yes, you used your body as a tool when you were alive because you had to survive Jason's wrath, but at least you had standards."
"King Augeus was a good choice, but ? A random captor, who you can't even be sure is soone with any say in this place? "
dea's eyes narrowed but she still retained her smile. "That might be true, but how could you just be a 'random' captor without any say? It's impossible for soone with the bloodline of the Dragon Ancestor, a True Lord, to be just a nobody, no matter where he goes."
The temperature dropped greatly as Darius' soft smile disappeared, replaced with a frosty glance. His eyes narrowed greatly as he understood that a lot of things had changed with this single revelation.
Darius thought back to Theseus' warning, and understood that the Demi-God had not warned him because of her so-called madness and cruel nature alone, but sothing more.
It was likely that Theseus had understood sothing after receiving enlightennt from Darius, but didn't understand exactly what.
Now that dea had revealed knowledge of the True Lords, it garnered many anings.
The most likely scenario... was that dea had the backing of a True Lord herself!
Only those affiliated with a True Lord should be privy to their existence. Not to ntion, to know the identity of other True Lords, the one backing dea had either taken her to see them or had educated her about them, as a precaution so she wouldn't cross them.
Unless it was so super-secret True Lord that Darius had no idea of, he thought of one person who could qualify for that title and be obscure enough that others would not know.
Hecate!
The Witch Goddess!
'Well, well.' Darius thought as he rubbed his chin, regaining his soft smile.
If the God of Knowledge could be a True Lord, why not the Outcast Witch Goddess?
Now that he thought about it, it did make so sense, while Krona was affiliated with the 'Light side' of Gods such as Zeus and Odin, Hecate was affiliated with the 'Dark side' Gods like Hades and Hel.
Another theory was that dea might have had a way to connect with the minds of others, allowing her to pilfer this information from Theseus', Achilles', or Hercules' minds.
However, this theory didn't seem as likely compared to the first given that dea was far weaker than any of her companions. Any ability she had with her Divine Energy would pale compared to what those three possessed, not to ntion her cell prevented her from using it.
Of course, Darius hadn't forgotten that Divine Power was not all that dea could use. No, she had another power to draw from, witchcraft.
In the earlier battle, she had not resorted to it, simply because it did not have a divine presence and would not have been able to affect the robot warriors made from Holy Silver and infused with Source Energy.
Nevertheless, the Miranda subroutine had logged a single mont at which point dea had tried to use it out of desperation, yet she had been stopped and knocked unconscious. Darius wondered what she had tried to do at that mont and what would have happened, had she succeeded.
Still, there was an easy way to find out. Darius simply snapped his fingers, and two Guard Androids entered the cell. They approached dea who was still lying down casually, grabbing her and holding her down.
dea did not panic and only smiled seductively.
"There is no need to hold down. I won't resist if a True Lords' protégé wants to give his seed."
Darius paid her pitiful attempts of seductions or mockery no mind as he snapped a finger. Imdiately, a third Guard Android walked into the room holding sothing on a tray.
It was a golden HoloBrace!
Darius watched as the Guard Android casually placed the HoloBrace onto dea's right wrist, which made the Demi-Goddess frown as she wondered what the heck this was.
Her expression changed to surprise when she felt it connect with her mind. This was a marvel for her, the idea that a piece of tal could host such a function with such a great range of functions.
However, Darius had not co here to bring so enjoynt into the life of the millennia-old woman. He snapped his fingers once more, and right at that mont, dea's expression changed greatly.
She grabbed her head and began thrashing, shrieking at the top of her voice in agony that very few would be able to understand. The Guard Androids stoically held her down, preventing her from moving even as she shuddered violently in their hold.
Darius watched on coldly, his expression pensive as he contemplated his next moves. He did not care that dea was beginning to bleed golden blood from her eyes, nose, ears, and mouth.
Her eyes rolled back into her head as the whites began to show, her body twitching and shaking like a person being electrocuted to death.
This went on for about three hours, within which Martin ca up on Darius' HoloBrace and reported that the mory extraction had succeeded without a hitch.
Darius smiled and inford Miranda to parse through what Martin had collected and to send over the important bits to him while keeping the rest in the Supre Portal.
As for dea, she remained slumped over on the bed, completely out of commission and incapacitated. Darius did not even bother to heal her or restore her functionality yet.
As a Demi-God, she would likely recover from this. If not, then she wasn't much of an impressive being and Darius could bring her back if he absolutely needed to.
Right now, until he digested everything she knew and learned her weakness and thods, he would rather not empower her in any way. Who knew if she had so ans to escape and was only biding her ti to bait Darius into a trap?
Better to be safe than sorry.
Darius left the building where the five Demi-Gods were kept and pondered. He then spoke to Miranda calmly.
"Send out an artillery group to destroy the ship that they used to co over to Pokterr."
Miranda made a salute, but asked with confusion. "What about the mortals on the ship?"
Darius shook his head. "I don't care what happens to them. While you're at it, send our parties over the continent and slaughter anyone still on it, regardless of their background. Pay special heed to those who are exploring Polito Vaults, those are to be exterminated."
"Speed up the take over of the continent as well. We need to lay claim to Pokterr and begin fortifying it greatly." Darius finished while folding his arms behind his back.
"Aye, aye, Papa! But won't it make everyone aware of our presence here?" Miranda could help but ask.
Darius nodded. "Those who have the ans to find out, will and I want them to feel threatened. However, it should only be the Gods who are likely to act as your army will show no intention to expand outside the continent."
Darius smiled softly. "Right now, an open war is the best option for us.. Let tell you why."
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