A long silence followed.
When the vast sea, stirred by Poseidon's power, finally cald, and the blinding light faded away, Athena finally appeared before the gods who had been waiting for a long ti.
At that mont, expressions of shock crossed the faces of every deity present-Hera, Zeus, and even Nyx, who watched from the shadows of the night.
Because the goddess who had shown strength, wisdom, and seed perfect since her birth, now appeared before them in a miserable state that she had never shown before, the state that even the gods could not imagine!
Her once pristine white gown was tattered, her body bruised and wounded.
Though she stood tall, barely managing to maintain her composure, golden ichor(the blood of the gods) trickled from the corner of her lips.
The gods were all stunned.
Ti seed to freeze as they tried to process what they were seeing and when they finally snapped out of their shock, their eyes instinctively shifted toward the sky, toward the boy who had released this world-shaking arrow.
Unfortunately, Promise did not see this scene that shocked the gods.
Because the mont the arrow was shot, he had fainted.
Not only him, Pegasus, too, had collapsed from exhaustion, both of them falling from the sky like spent shooting stars.
Fortunately, Hecate, who had been focused on watching Promise the entire ti, managed to catch them both before they could crash into the sea and drown.
Holding the unconscious boy in her arms, with Pegasus lying beside them in midair, Hecate's anger boiled over.
She was so frustrated that she could barely stop herself from biting him a few tis to vent her anger.
After all, not did the divine power she had accumulated over centuries got drained in an instant, but her two manifested forms were so damaged that it was unknown whether she'd be able to call them forth again.
Even if she had gone down to battle Athena herself, she would definitely not be as miserable as she was now... Athena wouldn't have gone all out against her, after all.
And yet, she had to protect this guy, as delicate as a flower, as he unleashed an arrow infused with the power of two major gods.
She had to ensure that he survived, preferably without too many injuries.
The difficulty of such a task was almost beyond comprehension.
It was roughly equivalent to taking the first blood of Promise, and then stop the goddesses, who adored this guy like flowers of the divine era, from hunting her down to the ends of the earth.
After checking Promise's condition with her remaining divine power and confirming he wasn't in any mortal danger, Hecate finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Only then did she have the ti to look up at Athena.
Looking at the flawless goddess, now in such a state of disgrace...
Wow, that was a hard slap!
Hecate thought about it, the frustration in her heart finally began to ease.
After taking a few more glances at Athena's disheveled state, she even started to feel like maybe this whole ordeal wasn't such a loss after all.
Athena, on the other hand, paid no mind to the gods around her who were staring at her disheveled appearance.
She stood there with raised eyebrows for a while, and soon recovered.
Then Athena relaxed her brows, took a deep breath, spat the divine blood in her mouth on the ground, took a step forward, and ca in front of Hecate, who was still holding the
unconscious Promise.
Despite her torn white dress, the Goddess of Wisdom appeared as flawless as ever, and standing next to Hecate in her all-black attire, the two goddesses seed like perfect opposites-black and white, light and shadow.
Athena's golden eyes softened as she looked at Promise, still unconscious in Hecate's arms.
"Is he alright?" Athena asked softly, as if afraid of disturbing him.
"He's fine," Hecate replied, her tone dripping with exasperation. "I think he'll probably wake up soon."
Saying this, Hecate couldn't hide the frustration in her voice.
"Good," Athena breathed a sigh of relief, then looked at Hecate with her golden eyes and said, "Thank you."
Before Hecate could respond, Athena turned and walked back to her previous spot.
In an instant, her tattered dress repaired itself, once again appearing pristine.
She picked up her spear and shield, her gaze sweeping over the gathered gods. Finally, her eyes locked onto Ares, the God of War.
And then-
Athena picked up her gun and raised her shield, and charged towards Ares decisively!
A thunderous crash echoed through the divine realm.
Whether Ares had ti to react or not didn't matter, she had already tackled him to the ground anyway.
Then the sound of "dong dong dong" resounded throughout the entire divine realm.
Athena waved her fist wildly, hitting Ares in the face.
"You wanted to fight, didn't you?" Yelling between punches.
"Co on, don't just lie there-fight back!"
"Hit , you idiot!"
The other gods, watching from a distance, exchanged glances as the sound of Athena's fists colliding with Ares' face echoed throughout the realm.
Sowhere in the background, Hers had picked up a stone and casually tossed it at Apollo, striking him square in the face.
"Hers, you're asking for it!" Apollo yelled, imdiately chasing after Hers in a rage.
The moon goddess Artemis tilted her head, and just as she looked at Apollo running away, her
face full of hesitation.
"Not going after them?" a voice asked from beside her.
Hestia, who was dressed in pink and black, said to him with a smile, "Hey, I rember that
kid Promise seed to have told you to catch Apollo, didn't he?"
"Oh, right! Catch and beat him!" Artemis ca back to her senses, looked at Hestia with gratitude, and then imdiately sprinted after Apollo.
The goddess of agriculture Deter also ca back to her senses at this ti and glanced at Poseidon, the god of the sea who was watching the show nearby.
Looking at him, she couldn't help but recall the vision of her future-being turned into a
horse.
The more she thought about it, the angrier she got.
Without a second thought, Deter sneaked up behind Poseidon and delivered a swift,
vengeful kick, sending him crashing into the sea.
"Hades, why are you just standing there? Get in there and beat him up if you want my
daughter!"
"...Mother, I've tolerated you long enough. You're not even hiding it anymore. You've literally
sold out, haven't you?"
And so, just as the realm had briefly quieted down following Promise's collapse, it was soon filled with commotion once again.
For a mont, Queen Hera, God of Forging Hephaestus, and Goddess of Beauty Aphrodite suddenly felt that they seed to be a little bit out of place.
"How about... let's fight too?" Hers ran away, and the responsibility of adding fuel to the
fire naturally fell on Hestia.
Looking at Hestia who was smiling unscrupulously in front of them, the three goddesses
rolled their eyes at her.
"Well, we're already here, might as well." Hephaestus, seated in his wheelchair, said with a serious expression, and then with a sharp snap, he pulled out an iron chain, stretching it taut
between his hands.
Her face was serious, but with an uncontrollable smile in her eyes, she looked at Hera, whose expression changed instantly when she saw what it was.
"Wait, wait! What is that? Put that down! Put it down, I say!" Hera scread, her dignified composure vanishing as mories of past incidents flashed through her mind. anwhile, Aphrodite pondered for a mont, her mind drifting to the vision she had seen through the magic of fate-the little girl she had glimpsed there.
In the end, Aphrodite turned away and quietly moved behind Hephaestus, lowering her head
to avoid looking at him.
Then, without a word, she began pushing her wheelchair, chasing after the screaming Hera as they raced around the divine realm.
anwhile, high above in the night sky, Nyx, the Goddess of Night, could barely contain
herself.
She was laughing so hard at the scene below that she nearly lost her breath.
The chaos continued for so ti, with gods settling their grudges and brawling, until
finally, Promise stirred and opened his eyes.
As soon as he opened his eyes, he took a deep breath,
The pain coursing through his body felt like he had suffered a full-body fracture, so overwhelming that he almost passed out again.
Gritting his teeth and enduring the pain, Promise managed to sit up.
As he took in his surroundings, he realized he was lying right outside Athena's temple. On the
steps nearby, Hecate was on the steps, watching the show with her cheek propped up.
"You're awake," Hecate said, without turning to look at him. "When you're ready, just walk in
on your own."
Upon hearing her words, a confused Promise was about to ask what was going on when he
noticed the ground shaking slightly and the sound of sothing pounding, almost like tal
being hamred.
He instinctively turned his head in the direction of the noise, only to see Athena still pumling Ares into the ground, punched Ares in the face one after another, like a relentless
blacksmith.
Promise blinked, then retracted his gaze, looking at Hecate again, he was subconsciously preparing to ask hee about the details..
"I'd advise you not to ask any questions right now," Hecate said in a warning tone. "Just go into the room and put an end to this madness. Otherwise... that 'calm' goddess over there might really catch you and give you a spanking. Who knows, she might even lock you up for
good." Hecate said sothing so horrible that Promise felt a chill run down his spine, especially since Athena didn't even deny her terrifying words.
"Cough," At this mont, the gentle goddess Thetis also ca over, gently touched his head,
hesitated for a long ti, clenched her fist to cheer Promise up, and said "You can do it!"
...Don't do this, I'm scared!
With Thetis' assistance, Promise struggled to his feet, wincing from the pain. Gritting his teeth, he slowly made his way toward the temple's grand doors, each step feeling
heavier than the last.
As he approached the door, all the gods who had been brawling outside fell silent.
It was as though ti had stopped as the entire divine realm seed to hold its breath,
watching as the boy stepped up to the temple doors.
Taking a deep breath, he braced himself, then pushed the doors open with a forceful shove.
The mont he entered the room and the doors closed behind him, ti seem seed to pass again, and the divine realm fell into chaos once again.
Inside, Promise had imagined countless ways his first encounter with this particular god might go.
The most important God in the Greek Mythology.
The King of gods-Zeus.
He had thought of every possible scenario, but none of them had prepared him for the sight
before him.
There, standing by the large floor-to-ceiling window, completely free from his previous
bonds, was Zeus-the King of the Olympian gods.
The window offered a view of the gods' fight outside under the night sky, and in front of him,
was a dining table with candles lighting the room.
There, he stood, with a glass of fine wine in his hand, smiling as he turned to face Promise,
the boy he had been waiting for.
"Would you like a drink?"
And raised his glass, sending an invitation invitation for the stiff boy to join him at the
candlelight dinner in the heart of the night.
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