No More Olympus

Chapter 23

Twenty Minutes ago...

"Where was I in World War Two?" Athena asked herself as she laid back onthe bar counter, looking up at the ceiling, spinning a knife between herfingers as casually as if she were fiddling around with a yoyo.
"Let me guess," Aphrodite interjected as she leaned back against the wall whilesitting on the same bar, drinking directly from the last bottle of Dionysus's'special stuff,' "A war goddess like you was on the front lines."
"Actually, no," Athena corrected, "I was a secretary in a general's office."
"Why were you a secretary?" Aphrodite asked.
"Because I had two X chromosomes in 1941," Athena answered, "And because you'dbe surprised how easy it is to win a battle with a well-placed single malt anda forged signature."
"Oh, I get it," Aphrodite grinned, "You clever little minx."
She passed what was left of the bottle to Athena, who promptly took a swig fromit.
"What about you?" Athena began, "Where were you during the war?"
"I was in Germany, actually," Aphroditeanswered.
"Really," Athena replied, "That must have been odd."
"Not really," Aphrodite admitted, "I was quite popular over there. I got manycompliments for my blonde hair and fair skin. I didn't figure out why untillater."
"That must've been a shock," Athena sympathized, "How'd you find out?"
"Well, one day, I was handed a pamphlet forsomething called 'Lebensborn,'"Aphrodite cringed.
"Oh shit," Athena remarked, sobering up for only a moment.
"You know, I think the real reason they had a breeding program is becauseGerman is the hardest language to seduce someone in," Aphrodite ranted, "Evenif the lines can be kinda clever, they still sound like, hold on... ich hab meine Telefonnummer verloren.Leihst du mir deine?"
"I lost my telephone number. Can I borrow yours?" Athenatranslated, "That's not horrible."
"What about you?" Aphrodite asked, "I'm sure guys have hit on you plenty. What haveyou got?"
"Well, let's see," Athena thought, "A good chunk of them I can't repeat, andneither can they when I was done with them."
Aphrodite giggled.
"I was in Russia for a bit," She continued, "The Russians are a very bluntpeople. They don't really do puns, so their pick-up lines are verystraightforward."
"What were you doing in Russia?" Aphrodite asked.
"I was a spy during the Cold War," Athena explained.
"Well, we're coming back to that later," Aphrodite insisted, "I demand you tellme everything about that."
"It was actually kinda boring," Athena shrugged, "I was mostly just swipingfinancial documents and disrupting 'Manhattan Project' rip-offs."
"How in Hades is that boring?" Aphrodite said in disbelief, "Whatever, pick uplines come on now."
"Right," Athena reminded herself, "The best one I heard was... 'Are you anangle under ninety degrees? Because you're a cutie."
"Of course, you would like a math one," Aphrodite said as Athena handed herback the bottle.
"It was funny," Athena defended.
"Where'd you hear that one anyway?" Aphrodite asked before coming to arealization, "Was it Jacob?"
"No," Athena said unconvincingly.
Aphrodite stared at her.
"It was part of his wedding vows," Athena submitted.
"Again," Aphrodite repeated, "He's a keeper."
"Yep..." Athena solemnly agreed.
She grew silent for a few moments.
"Hey, I'm sorry," Aphrodite began, "I shouldn't have-,"
"No, don't be," Athena said, "You shouldn't have to walk on eggshells over mystupid mistake."
Athena brought her hand up to her face and rubbed the bridge of her nose.
For the first time ever in her long life, Aphrodite personally witnessed smalltears welling up in Athena's eyes.
"I'm sorry," she said, wiping her face clean, "For everything, I'm sorry fordestroying your home back on Olympus. I'm sorry for uprooting your life rightnow, I'm sorry that I caused you to question yourself or your relationshipswith people."
"You heard that, huh?" Aphrodite cringed.
"Yeah," Athena nodded, "I misplaced anger and spit it out at you."
"Who were you angry at?" Aphrodite asked.
"Me, I guess," Athena admitted, "I was angry at Athena the goddess. The one whowould turn a poor girl into a gorgon or another into a spider. The one whowould lie to her family about what she was, and I guess to push her away Isnapped at you guys."
"I don't think you need to be worried about turning into that old Athena,"Aphrodite assured her.
"What makes you say that?" Athena questioned.
"The old Athena was a real... cow," Aphrodite said, struggling not to laugh.
"Wow, thanks," Athena responded dryly.
"What I mean," Aphrodite began defensively, "Is that you practically inventedthe term 'stick up the ass'."
"Thank you for the clarification," Athena smiled stiffly.
"You remember when Hermes first came to Olympus, right?" Aphrodite continued, "Tenyears old, running around like the world's fastest tornado."
"I still think I have some green dye on myscalp," Athena added.
"Exactly," Aphrodite nodded, "And no one cared enough to do anything about him,not even Zeus, and then there was that one day where you just grabbed him bythe ear and chewed him out for a full hour, in the middle of the council room."
"Right," Athena cringed, "In my defence, he did dye my hair green, it looked like a bush was growing on my head."
"I also remember you kept an eye on him after that," Aphrodite said, "Youtaught him how to do this and that, the rules of hospitality, basic manners,what a god should and shouldn't do, and as you toughened him up he softened youdown. I think the first time I heard you actually laugh was at one of his jokes."
Aphrodite climbed down from the bar and sat next to Athena on one of the stools.
"I'm not exactly sure where I'm going with this," she hesitated, "I liked thatAthena, the gentler Athena, and I think I'm speaking to that Athena now."
Athena sat up.
"How can you be sure?" she asked unusually self-consciously.
"I don't think in a million years the old Athena would ever find 'a cutie pie'charming," Aphrodite grinned, "Much less marry the man who said it."
"In my defence," Athena interjected, "It was very funny when he said it."
"Isn't it always," Aphrodite smiled.
Aphrodite reached up and grabbed Athena's hand.
"Thank you," Athena said gratefully, "And not to sound like I'm justpiggybacking on what you're saying. But I like this new Aphrodite as well,she's more reserved, independent, or maybe she was always like that and I was too much of a 'cow' to see it then."
"You mean it?" Aphrodite asked.
"I do," Athena nodded, "And when this is all over and done with, I'd like tokeep in touch if we could. That is if I haven't closed that door too tight."
"I could add you to the Facebook group," Aphrodite offered, sounding veryexcited, "You might even be able to get in contact with some of the old gang, Ido have to warn you, Hestia does post a lot ofironic Minion memes and nothing else. But as I understand that's typical of alot of people's aunts, and as usual Thanatos is his old grim self. But you'reused to that, I'm sure that they'll be thrilled to see the new Athena."
Aphrodite paused for a moment.
"Do you smell something?" she asked, gently sniffing the air, "Is that sulphur?"
Athena quickly looked up to see a deadly glow shining from outside.
"Look out!" she shouted, grabbing Aphrodite by the collar and throwing both ofthem over the bar for cover.
Not a second later a massive plume of fire roared through the room, decimatingthe shelves on the back wall, dropping various glass bottles to the floor nextto the goddesses who were lying flat on the floor, the fire only inches awayfrom scorching them alive.
Eventually, the fire stopped revealing what was left of the bar to be ablackened pile of stone rubble barely remaining upright.
Aphrodite went to stand up to face their attacker before Athena grabbed her wrist and motioned for her to remainsilent.
"It couldn't have been that easy," said the voice of Wallace King from thesmoking mouth of the monster who just attacked. "Are you there, Lady Athena? I can stillsmell your breath in the air. There's someoneelse with you, isn't there, behind what's left of that bar? This one hasunique, more powerful pheromones. I suppose that makes her Aphrodite."
"I would say it's a pleasure to meet you," Aphrodite responded, shouting overthe bar, "But even I'm not that convincing."
"Cute," King sneered, "Now do us both a favour and die quickly like good littlegoddesses."
Another smaller plume of fire erupted from King's mouth, shaking the bar as itslowly crumbled away.
"Stay here," Athena ordered, spinning around and with both her feet kicking ahuge chunk of the bar out of the ground and flying into King's face, stopping the fire and causing him to cough and gagas some of the rubble fell down his throat.
Using her newfound opening, she summoned threespears in the air and telekinetically flung them toward his stomach, which hefoolishly had left unprotected by the Nemean lion's hide.
King howled in pain as the three blades pierced his abdomen,
Athena leapt to her feet and charged at the beast summoning a great sword inher hand as King pulled the spears from his stomach and quickly repaired themthrough an unidentifiable monster's healingpowers.
She swung her sword down onto King, who blocked it with the lion hide on hisforearm.
"And to think I was once in awe at you," King grinned as the two struggledagainst each other, "How foolish of me."
A large prehensile tail shot out of his backside, whipped around and grabbedAthena by the ankle, flinging her onto the ground before throwing her out ontothe open street.
After she had come to a full stop, Athenaslowly climbed to her feet before summoning both her Aegis Shield and the Owl'stalon, raising both at the ready as King walked out onto the street to face her.
"The problem with you old gods is you only have so many tricks," King gloatedas he extended his massive harpy wings, "No matter how many spears you canpluck out of thin air, you still have nothing, now this..."
He motioned to his wings,
"Is real power, the power of nature itself, and unlike you, I'm not selfishenough to let the world burn while I have the opportunity to save it."
"By making yourself a god?" she asked.
"If need be," King shrugged, "I'm sure I would be a good god."
"My family thought that too," Athena reminded him, "And look where we ended up."
"The difference is I earned my power," King argued, "I earned my resolve,unlike the rest of you who were born with it, face the truth, Athena. First Kronos and his kind overthrew Ouranos, thenZeus and his kind overthrew Kronos. The next step of the succession cyclecontinues. Now I will overthrow your kind, all my life I didn't know it, but Iwas preparing for this moment, my destiny."
"Keep talking, you bloviating bastard," Athena hissed under her breath.
About half a mile away, back in Pedion tou Areos park where she had nearlykilled Ares, lay a bloody war hammer in thecenter of the destruction. It began to wiggle as Athena magically began to liftit up into the air and pull it back in the direction of its master.
Athena slowly began to pace forward toward King with her shield held in frontof her, picking up her speed little by little as her hammer did the same.
The beast that was once a man chuckles at her effort, readying himself forwhatever she had planned.
The hammer was now moving so quickly through the air that it began to whistleas it shot down the street.
With his newly enhanced hearing, King heard it coming long before it even gotclose to him.
The hammer was now meters away from the small of his back and closing in fast.
King smirked at his own tactic.
At the last possible moment, he stepped out of the way of the hammer.
Athena was anticipating this move, however. Shequickly dropped her spear and brought both hands to her shield as the hammerhit the direct center at maximum velocity, releasing a high-pitched sound that rang through the air.
King clutched his monstrous ears and howled in pain.
Athena picked the hammer off the ground and hit it against her shield again. Anotherpainful cry rang through the air.
"If you think you've seen all my tricks, you're sorely mistaken," she warnedhim, lifting her hammer to strike the back of his head.
However, King came to his senses much more quickly than Athena anticipated. Realizingwhat she was about to do, he extended his Harpy wings and flapped straightdown, sending a shockwave of air in all directions.
Athena was blown back by the force of the wind, and in the opening, King lungedforward, wrapping his massive bronze claws around the goddess's neck andslamming her into what was left of a nearby sedan.
Athenas looked up to King's blood-red pupils, who looked back down at her withhatred and murderous glee.
"Such beautiful eyes," King gloated wickedly, "They're wasted on you."
Athena felt her vision begin to fade as she struggled against his grip, herstrikes growing weaker with each blow, all the while, her vision began to fade.
Then a metal mailbox was thrown at his head.
His grip loosened, and oxygen was allowed back into her lungs.
"What the hell?" King questioned, turning to discover whoever threw themailbox, an ugly crumbling sound can't through the air.
Suddenly, King was smacked off of Athena and thrown down the road.
As her vision returned, she looked up to see Aphrodite, having since changedinto her pink Olympian dress, holding a light pole that she had apparentlyripped out of the ground that had a King shaped dent near the end.
"What the hell is this?" King asked as he began to rise his feet and shake outhis wings.
"Stay...," Aphrodite grunted as she took another swing with her makeshiftweapon, knocking him into a bus down the street,
"Away...," she took another swing,
"From...," she swung again. Her lamp post wasnow looking worse for wear,
"My..." she struck once more. Athena began torealize what attracted Ares to her in the first place,
"Girl!" the pole snapped in half.
Aphrodite dropped what remained of her weapon on the street and ran to helppull Athena out of the hood of the car.
"Where did that come from?" Athena asked as she rested her feet back on theground.
"What, the ass-kicking?" Aphrodite asked.
"Quite the ass-kicking for someone we decided was not a war god," Athenachuckled.
"Well, I'm still a god,"Aphrodite reminded her, "And even we love gods can break shit with the best ofthem."
Both of their heads quickly whipped toward the sound of King climbing out ofthe bus.
"The mighty Athena," King began.
"He's been monologuing a lot," Athena whispered, "It's just getting annoying atthis point."
"Zeus's favourite and most powerful daughter," He continued.
"I heard," Aphrodite whispered back, "He sounds like Will when he got drunkduring rehearsals."
"Who's Will?" Athena asked.
"Needing to be saved by the love goddess," King mocked, "The one who fled frombattle after a simple hand wound."
"Will Shakespeare," Aphrodite clarified, "Did he just insult me?"
"I wasn't listening," Athena admitted, "What was it about?"
"The stories have done well to mask your failings," King blabbered on, unawarehe was speaking ultimately to no one.
"The Trojan War hand thing?" Aphrodite repeated, flexing her wrist.
"Yeah, that was a little humiliating," Athena said sympathetically.
"You know that really hurt," Aphrodite said defensively, "I think it left ascar."
"You're a goddess. You don't get scars," Athena reminded her.
"Are you listening!" King shouted, grabbing the attention of the two goddesses.
"Yeah, yeah," Aphrodite waved off, "You were bloviating, continue."
"Fine," King grunted, wiping his claws clean on what was left of his pant leg, "Enoughwith the talk."
Athena telekinetically picked the Aegis Shield and Owl's Talon to her hands andraised them for battle.
Aphrodite reached behind her back and pulled out a dagger.
"That won't be enough," Athena remarked, motioning to the short blade.
"It's all I have," Aphrodite shrugged, "It'll be fine."
Athena then focused carefully on Aphrodite's hip, and in the blink of an eye,she found a sword in its sheath secured to her hip.
Aphrodite removed the blade and quickly analyzed it; the sword was a basicdouble-edged short sword expertly carved with feather patterns, and a small decorative ruby in the golden handguard, thegoddess of love recognized her deceased ex-husband's handiwork.
"That'll do nicely," Aphrodite grinned, raising both her blades at the ready.
The two goddesses charged forward in unison, attacking from opposite sides,dodging claws, tails and fire almost constantly,
It had become clear that King continued to keep his focus on Athena, attackingher with both arms while keeping Aphrodite occupied with a new pair of bladedtails.
Aphrodite struggled to find a weak point in the Nemean lion's hide while contending with the two prehensile blades.
Athena noticed Aphrodite's struggles and quickly formulated a plan.
She then threw her shield into his stomach with the force of a speeding car,stabbed her spear into the ground and used it to fling debris into the air,creating a barrier of dust between them.
With this spare second, she quickly focused her attention on summoning amassive steel sword parallel to where the beast's tails met his body.
King used his wings to blow the dust clean, catching some in Athena's eyes.
Through her limited vision, she was able to see King was about two handfuls ofclaws straight down on her, and having no shield with no time to summon a newone. She had no other choice but to block the blow with her bare forearms,
The bronze claws sank into her flesh and stopped at her bones which wereluckily as hard as diamonds. They were able tostop the blades from cutting open her face and chest but it felt as if every nerve in her body was simultaneouslyburning like a wick.
Aphrodite quickly recognized the opportunity she had been given and leapt upinto the air, grabbing the massive sword handle and bringing the blade down onthe tails in one clean slice.
King screamed in pain, removing the blades from Athena's arms, providing almostinstant relief to the goddess.
Aphrodite then immediately climbed up King's back and put him in a headlock,positioning her mouth next to his ear.
"My dear Wallace," Aphrodite began. Her breathhad turned to a pink fog as it funnelled itself into King's nose, bringing newpower to Aphrodite's words.
He appeared to enter a trance and completely forgot about whatever pain he wasin.
"That's a good boy," she said, stroking his cheek with faux affection, "Youknow what would be even nicer? If I could see what you really looked likebefore you hid that handsome face behind the flesh of all these hideousmonsters, your smooth skin, those dazzling baby blues, those warm lips."
It was very odd for Athena to see a creature that looked like King giggle likea drunkard, but that's what he did, and soon after, Athena began to notice his horn get smaller, his wingsbegan to lose feathers and his skin grew pinker.
Athena wiped her arms clean and readied herself to knock him out in one blowonce he returned to his true form.
"Ew," Aphrodite remarked. Athena looked up in confusion, "I think there's aspider in his ear."
King's eyes then sparked back to lucidity for only a moment before a massiveburst of energy suddenly was released from him, surrounding the three of themin a massive storm of blood-red clouds.
Neither Athena nor Aphrodite could see a thing, the latter of which waspromptly thrown off of King and toward Athena, who was able to catch herdespite the clouds obscuring her vision.
"What in Hades is he doing?" Aphrodite shouted over the thunder and lightningthat had accumulated in the centre of the cloud.
"He's summoning a monster!" Athena shouted, recognizing the smoke whichappeared whenever he used the powers that he had acquired from Pandora's box.
"What kind of monster is this?" Aphrodite demanded.
They then heard a roar, a massive scream that shook the very air around them.Athena looked up, and through the clouds, she saw something. The shadow of abeast that towered over their heads, with four huge feet that would crushanything in their way into dust without a second thought, a massive tail thatcould sweep city blocks clean and had spikes at the end positioned like abident, and finally, she saw the heads. There were at least eight of them, eachattached to the body by a neck at least as long and as thick as the tail if notlarger.
"A big one," Athena said.