Chapter 112: I'm Not a Virgin Goddess Anymore, Rowe!
Ereshkigal.
Athena knew that na.
When the Hero King of Uruk had first arrived in this world, Olympus had quietly begun watching that distant, unseen "neighbor."
They had studied Uruk's human civilization.
They had also studied that world's pantheon.
So Athena knew that Ereshkigal was the Queen of the Underworld among the gods of Uruk, an existence similar to Hades in Greece. She also knew that, when the gods and humans of that land had parted ways, the Queen of the Underworld had ultimately chosen to side with Rowe and the Three Kings of Uruk, joining them to drive the gods away.
But beyond myths and analysis, what really snared Athena's attention was, of course, the romance between Rowe and Ereshkigal.
Legends said that before Rowe had fallen into the Imaginary Number Space, he had descended to the Underworld countless tis, just to et the goddess who ruled there.
Legends said that she was the only goddess that Sage Rowe had ever clearly confessed his love to.
Legends.
Too many of those stories flashed through Athena’s mind all at once.
The passage to that other corner of the world had already flickered and vanished. The light and shadow in the depths of Tartarus had already gone dark again. Even so, countless tangled thoughts surged up in her heart.
"Norse, huh. I will rember that," Rowe murmured, then turned his eyes on Cronus, who was tightly bound. "Do you have a connection with them?"
"Puhahaha. This ti I admit defeat. There is no harm in telling you."
Cronus let out a booming laugh.
As the lowest layer of the Greek cosmology, as the planet's furnace, Tartarus naturally linked to every region of the world.
After Zeus had imprisoned the Titans here, he had left them to rot. The Titan gods did not dare reveal themselves again.
Yet here in Tartarus, they had never abandoned their desire, or their ambition, to return to the surface.
They feared Zeus and the Olympian gods, so through Tartarus they had reached outward instead, and ford an alliance with beings in another region.
"We discovered a race in the northern lands beyond Greece," Cronus said. "Their world is maintained by a World Tree and divided into nine strata. The highest layer is ho to the current gods. The lowest layer harbors beings who, like us, call themselves prival gods. They are also called Giants."
"I approached their progenitor, the Giant Ymir, and promised that if they helped us reclaim the lands above, we would in turn help them destroy the gods who dwell at the top of the World Tree."
"The Giants you just saw were created by us. We used the structural modules they provided and fused them with the power of our own Titan gods."
The Titan Giants were ford from the bodies of the Norse Giants, reinforced and reconfigured with Titan divinity.
They were, in a sense, siblings.
Rowe understood at once.
"You are telling this now because you want Olympus to turn their conflict outward, is that it?"
"Exactly." Cronus did not deny it.
External threats outweighed internal disputes.
The Olympian gods, who had already been scarred by the calamity of the Star Hunter, would think the sa way.
If they learned of the Norse Giants, a divine war between the two sides would almost certainly follow. In that chaos, Cronus could disappear again, draw back into the dark, and wait for another chance.
"Either way, neither you nor they can kill ."
"Because we Titans are already bound as one with Tartarus."
"Unless you truly devour Tartarus in its entirety, you will never erase us completely."
His wild laughter stirred the molten seas of Tartarus. Waves of fire crashed upward, like a tide smashing against stone, flinging sparks into the choking air.
Rowe watched him and, to his own surprise, felt only disappointnt.
Cronus had given up.
There was no will to resist, no will to kill Rowe. All he wanted was a way to slip back into the depths and continue storing power, waiting for so future mont.
That was precisely what Rowe found least interesting.
"It is a pity," he said softly.
"However."
"You co."
Rowe's voice echoed through the depths of Tartarus.
The Titan Giants, who had been smashed down and buried under the blazing torrents monts ago, suddenly rose again.
Under Rowe’s will, they slowly reached out from all directions and seized Cronus.
"You co," Rowe repeated.
The Chains of Heaven tightened and shone. The Gate of Babylon that anchored them blazed with even brighter light.
"You co."
"You co."
The brief, simple phrase rang again and again throughout Tartarus.
Cronus's sneering contempt slowly shifted into confusion, and from confusion into pure fear.
Though he was a machina god, his massive tal face twisted into an expression that could only be called human.
He was afraid.
Rowe was using the Titan Giants, empowered with Cronus’s own authority, to pin down his weakened body.
Rowe was using the Chains of Heaven as conduits, and the Gate of Babylon as a vortex, to drain away the power housed within him.
Most of all, Rowe was extending his primordial aura, vast and heavy as an ocean, and using it to devour him.
"To strike the shield with its own spear," Rowe said quietly.
"For alone, devouring Tartarus is indeed impossible. But what if I add you?" He smiled. "Since you refuse to die fighting , then I will devour you and Tartarus together."
To swallow the Abyss, what he lacked was scale, a foundation large enough.
Cronus, who had once stood above even the chief gods, possessed that scale. Even if the titan’s power had hollowed out, the fra remained. As long as the vessel could bear it, that was enough.
And to devour Tartarus itself…
That was a path to death.
For any living being, it was a power they could not carry without breaking.
Rowe had always longed for that edge.
A self-sacrifice on the level of creation itself. One collapse, in exchange for an eternity.
How could Cronus possibly accept that.
An imnse pressure rose again, and the authority of Dominion flared.
The two forces locked, and for a mont the stalemate held.
"Human."
"For the cri of blasphemy, you will repay it a thousandfold."
"Kill him, Goddess of Olympus!"
Cronus struggled desperately, but he could already feel his own strength growing thinner, more fragile, as the tug of war continued.
There was no other route. Since he could not dominate Rowe himself…
"If I cannot dominate you, then I will dominate her."
Cronus’s Dominion shifted.
He directed it at Athena, the Goddess of War, who had been quiet behind Rowe all this ti.
Dominion was, at its core, a form of subconscious suggestion.
It guided a target to follow their own buried impulses, to recognize the dominator as the closest being in their world, and then to obey.
Cronus descended into Athena’s mind.
At once, he felt the chaos there.
He felt the agitation and unease that Ereshkigal’s brief appearance had stirred up.
What are you afraid of?
The low, alien voice rang in Athena’s heart.
What was she afraid of?
That Ereshkigal’s existence would push Rowe away from her forever?
That the wise one would step back from the Goddess of Wisdom?
What are you afraid of.
Why.
Because a goddess of war and wisdom is naturally drawn to a hero who carries both intellect and courage.
She had t many great heroes before.
She had remained unmoved by them.
Yet this ti, she had changed.
Face your true feelings.
Do not let your identity chain you.
My identity is the Goddess of War and Wisdom.
I am the patron of Athens.
I am a goddess who once swore to Zeus to remain a virgin.
A virgin goddess.
So that is what binds .
Now trust .
Cronus’s joy filled the echo in her mind. He felt Athena following the path he laid out.
Follow your will.
Go to the man in front of you.
Athena took a step.
Rowe looked toward her and watched her move.
The Goddess of Wisdom and War still wore the sa severe, dignified expression. Yet in the depths of her crimson eyes, there was a faint confusion, like soone walking out of a dream.
She had been dominated by Cronus.
Dominion had failed against Rowe, but remained effective on Athena.
"Kill him. Kill him. Kill him."
"Use your strongest ans."
Cronus’s excitent spiked.
Rowe, by contrast, rely considered it.
Dying at the hands of a controlled Athena was hardly glamorous, but it might still qualify as a proper death. It might be enough for the Throne.
That was acceptable.
He had just widened his eyes when a soft warmth brushed across his face.
Athena did not kill him.
Instead, she rose on her toes and pressed a kiss to his lips.
Cronus froze.
Was it him who was malfunctioning, or the world.
Rowe saw it clearly.
In the instant their faces drew close, clarity returned to Athena’s eyes.
She was awake.
She had faced her feelings and refused to let her "identity" dictate her answer.
"I like you," Athena said, smiling, her red lips curving upward. "In the way humans call love."
Her arms wrapped around Rowe.
The heavy armor that had covered her vanished, leaving only a light, fluttering gown between them. She pressed her body to his, slender waist arching, hips tilting as if seeking an answer, seeking solace.
Rowe, locked in the stalemate with Cronus, could not even move to react.
No more hiding. No more excuses.
She liked him, and that was all.
In that mont, she felt sothing fall away from her.
From that point onward, the future in her sight beca completely clear.
She saw her later self.
Not as Olympus’s chief deity.
Not as one of the three virgin goddesses.
Not as the patron of the Greek city-states.
She saw herself as the one nad in the oldest Greek prophecies, the one who would one day replace Zeus.
The Fourth King of the Greek Gods.
Athena.
At that sa instant, Rowe received a surge of power from the future Athena.
The flood of strength crushed what remained of Cronus’s resistance.
Szz.
Szzzz.
Szzzzzz.
The ancient machina god of Atlantis stuttered. His systems began to slip. His personality structure fluctuated like a person on the brink of unconsciousness.
His eyes opened a little wider.
He stared blankly at the human and goddess embracing before him, and finally managed to force out two words.
"What the."
On Mount Olympus, Zeus had just arrived back in his seat and had not yet swapped over his combat personality. His expression shifted, and he let out the sa words.
"What the."
"Damn it, how did Athena beco God King?"
Beside him, Queen Hera fell silent.
"Who is that big guy?" she finally muttered. "I have never seen him before."
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