After a day and night of travel, the Knossos scribe who had been wandering outside for several months finally returned to his loyal War God Mountain.
"You got it?"
Athena, who came out to receive him, looked Lorne over for a moment and spoke with playful curiosity, her perceptiveness as sharp as ever.
Lorne gave a helpless nod, and at the same time, the sense of achievement from deceiving various chief Gods dissolved completely.
It had to be said that having such an exceptionally brilliant leader pressing down from above inevitably left one feeling somewhat deflated.
If he never toppled her, he might never have his day in the sun.
A flash of meaningful color passed through the depths of Lorne's eyes before he quickly gathered his thoughts and asked in a measured voice.
"Where are the things and the place I asked for?"
"Don't worry. As you said, everything is prepared."
After saying this, Athena led Lorne up to the top of the War God Mountain, looked around among the jagged rocks and dry yellowed grass, then raised her hand to brush aside a blue-grey massive boulder, revealing the magical formation diagram buried beneath.
Within it, starlight flickered and shone, reflecting the stellar patterns of the sky.
The base seemed to be founded on the Greek astrolabe.
Athena thought for a moment, reached her hand into the astrolabe, deftly captured several drifting stars, and turned them to their correct positions.
HMM!
In an instant, the astrolabe blazed with light as surging golden light streamed straight up into the clouds, bringing with it intense ether vibrations.
The War God Mountain beneath their feet continuously trembled as one after another marble-built staircase extended upward, leading toward a gate-shaped curtain of light.
Seeing this magnificent and awe-inspiring scene, Lorne could not help showing a face of astonishment.
'The War God Mountain had a place like this? I never knew!'
Athena caught the surprise on that face and a trace of smugness passed through her eyes before she grabbed the still-stunned Lorne and stepped forward, offering an unhurried reminder. "Prepare yourself. We are entering the true sanctuary."
As her words faded, Athena stepped forward and pulled Lorne into that surging golden light.
Very quickly Lorne understood what her "prepare yourself" referred to.
The instant both stepped through the light gate, the ground vanished beneath their feet, wind howled in their ears, and a powerful sensation of weightlessness crashed over them.
'This was... high altitude!'
The sudden change caught the unprepared Lorne off guard as he stumbled and plummeted rapidly.
A moment later he hurriedly stabilized himself and landed on a floating rocky outcrop, turning to complain to the grinning Athena.
"Setting the teleportation array's exit point in mid-air. That was really underhanded."
"It works perfectly for guarding against outside threats and providing advance warning.
Besides, almost no one knows about this place except for a select few. It basically eliminates the possibility of accidental intrusion."
Athena explained with righteous assurance, then spread the golden wings on her back, flew across the hollow abyss before the light gate, lightly touched down on a small floating island with connecting staircases not far away, and waved to Lorne.
"Follow me. This way."
Having learned from the previous example, Lorne did not rush forward but instead raised his eyes and looked around, his pupils gradually widening as an expression of profound shock spread across his face.
'This is the true [Sanctuary]?!'
Looking out in all directions, countless stars shone brilliantly across the boundless sky, their radiant starlight like gems adorning the heavens, close enough to touch.
Beneath the starlight lay a sweeping, vast world that stretched out with the primal chaos and expansiveness of the world's earliest days.
Floating islands of all sizes appeared and disappeared among the clouds, distributed in an orderly scattered arrangement, like a palace of stars reflecting celestial patterns on the ground.
And on those floating islands, some were lush with red flowers, green willows and thriving vegetation.
Some had murmuring streams and undulating mountain terrain.
Some had open flat plains with flourishing fruits and vegetables. Some sparkled with crystal stones radiating brilliant light.
Some had soaring columned halls and dense clusters of palaces...
The interconnected group of islands looked like an independent paradise of the Gods.
Lorne counted carefully.
On eighty-eight of the larger islands, magnificent palaces had been built commanding every critical position, their surfaces flickering with different lights of blue, silver and gold, seemingly corresponding to the stellar patterns of the Greek astrolabe.
Among them, the twelve most magnificent golden halls occupied the central axis of the entire starry sky, like a brilliant ring of stars, arrayed before three enormous goddess statues.
The goddess on the left wore a laurel crown and was armored in a battle dress.
One hand raised a shield in protection of the weak while the other held a spear to resist powerful enemies.
Her soaring fighting spirit was like the thunder of the heavens and the fury of the deep sea, fully displaying the primal vitality and resistance of life.
The goddess on the right wore a light veil over her eyes.
One hand held scales and the other gripped a holy sword, symbolizing judgment and punishment, unbiased and impartial, representing the order from the starry sky and the morality within the heart.
The central goddess wore a simple long dress that fell to the ground.
Both hands were clasped before her chest, nurturing the eternal flame within her embrace, driving away darkness and bringing light, an expression of loving kindness toward all people and delight in life flowing through her eyes.
The three statues with their distinctive features clearly represented the Goddess of Wisdom and War, Athena, the Goddess of Justice and Law, Themis, and the Goddess of Hearth and Home, Hestia.
Lorne turned to look at Athena, asking the question in his heart with surprise.
"When did you arrange all of this?"
"While you were out fooling around."
Athena gave a light hum with a pointed remark, and a trace of unmistakable pride showed on her face.
'This undertaking was outrageous. And it was completed right under Zeus's nose!'
Lorne automatically filtered out the sarcasm in those words, and while appreciating this architectural complex that combined classical artistic beauty with magical defensive capability, he glanced sideways at Athena beside him and muttered privately.
'Elder sister, with construction skills this impressive, perhaps you should take over the God domain of overseeing construction sites in the future?'
"The entire sanctuary's space has been specially processed by my authority. Without guidance it is very easy to get lost. Stay close to me!"
Athena's voice broke through Lorne's thoughts, and she immediately led him toward the enormous floating island and temple connected like petals at the foot of the three goddess statues in the starry sky.
The sacred temple was their destination.
And to pass through the entire sanctuary after its space underwent special processing and reach the endpoint, in theory there was only one path.
"According to my design, those from outside need to pass through the twelve zodiac star palaces that form the main body of the sanctuary.
In theory each star palace will have a golden saint of at least demigod level standing guard, corresponding to the stellar patterns in order. They are Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, and Pisces."
"Once they reach the endpoint, what awaits them is the Altar Seat responsible for guarding the [Sacred Temple] and coordinating from the center. It will assess the severity of the situation and decide whether to awaken the attendant Gods of the three goddesses, or the three goddesses themselves."
"Additionally, drawing on the experience of the previous Battle of Crete, the entire [Sanctuary] is actually a unified offensive and defensive whole. The twelve zodiac palaces form the axis.
The silver and bronze saints dispersed throughout the other star palaces are interconnected with them and can converge through the eighty-eight star palaces' connections at the first moment to the zodiac palaces or the [Sacred Temple] for support..."
Along the way, Athena couldn't help showing off her masterwork, telling Lorne about her careful design in full.
The latter listened quietly, sometimes nodding in admiration at certain features, sometimes asking for more details and offering his own suggestions and thoughts.
He didn't show slightest hint of perfunctory behavior or impatience from start to finish.
As the Goddess of Wisdom, whether in cunning or in vision, very few people could stand on equal footing with her.
She was too lonely.
However, her heart was too closed, suppressed by the rationality that no one could touch it.
Now that he had the opportunity to walk together and touch the heart hidden beneath her armored shell,
Lorne naturally did his best to oblige.
After all, this stretch of road was not long.
And the road ahead would be very long.
"Pity. With that father God watching, hardly any heroes could be recruited, and I also did not want to expose the secrets of the [Sanctuary] to them.
So right now this is just a magnificent empty shell."
Athena looked back at the empty and desolate twelve zodiac palaces and the equally silent other star palaces and floating islands, her face full of regret.
"Don't worry. They will come.
All of them will come."
Lorne offered quiet comfort, his gaze carrying an indescribable quality of certainty and depth.
Athena nodded, brought him onto the final floating island, and came to the open plaza.
Suddenly, two altars before the statues of Hestia and Themis, one bearing a golden flame and one bearing a sheathed longsword, caught his attention.
"Those are..."
"That is right. As you are thinking." Athena gave a nod and answered quietly. "They are sleeping beneath those altars. One because her divine nature shattered, the other because her divine nature is incomplete..."
Hearing this, complex emotions surged and churned in Lorne's heart.
"Enough with that funeral expression. They are only temporarily sleeping. Things have not reached the point of life or death.
As long as enough faith is gathered for them in the future, they will wake sooner or later." Athena beside him waved her hand and then pointed at the void below the floating island where starlight gathered and flowed, adding with impatience.
"Besides, the sanctuary's own foundation can also provide some restorative power for them. It just takes a comparatively long time."
Lorne gave a nod and did not dwell too long on things that served no purpose.
Whether Themis or Hestia, they chose to place everything they had behind him.
As long as he was still alive.
As long as he could win.
Sooner or later he would wake them both and show them that their choice was not wrong.
And to dissolve the somewhat heavy atmosphere, Lorne pointed at the statue and altar belonging to Athena and asked teasingly.
"So. Yours is also prepared?"
Hearing that deliberate misdirection, Athena could not help shooting Lorne a sidelong glance. "I really cannot understand why you want me to prepare that kind of thing."
"You have moments when you cannot guess?" Lorne asked back with a grin, his face full of teasing.
"I simply do not wish to spend thought on such trivial matters." Athena gave a light hum and turned her head away proudly, and to maintain her dignity did not continue asking as she brought Lorne and officially stepped into the sacred temple.
In an instant, light vanished and darkness surged as an indescribable sense of confinement and isolation spread everywhere.
As though everything around had no time, no space, and no dimension.
As a thread of starlight lit up at Athena's fingertips, Lorne saw the full picture of the [Sacred Temple].
It was a manually excavated cave.
The pitch-black stone walls were entirely covered in dense incantation text without leaving a single gap.
Countless points of starlight flickered within the inscriptions, like a miniaturized universe.
Looking it over carefully, his fingertips sliding over the surrounding stone walls and inscriptions, Lorne came to a sudden understanding.
"Are we inside the belly of the War God Mountain?"
So what was called the [Sacred Temple] was only a cover story.
This place's true face was a [Prison] for confining Gods.
"That is correct. This is your main battlefield. At the critical moment, the full power of the entire sanctuary can be used by you."
Athena nodded and laughed with cold confidence.
"As long as she dares come, she will have more than enough to deal with!"
"That may be so, but for extra insurance, once my preparations here are done, help me call one more person in."
"Who?"
"Melinoe!"
Lorne gave his answer with unhurried ease, a scheming smile spreading across his face.
"Ask her. Whether she wants to play a big game with me and pull off a world-shaking conspiracy together."
Athena looked long and deep at Lorne, said nothing further, gave a gentle nod, then rose and left the [Sacred Temple] to go make preparations outside.
Watching that figure that radiated both security and pressure disappear into the starlight, Lorne shook his head, sat down where he was, and began absorbing the Zeus God nature within his body, consolidating the twelfth incarnation, and slowly bringing the [Fruit] on his body toward full ripeness.
---
.....
Several days later.
A clear eagle cry rang out in the dark space as a pair of violet eyes slowly opened, their divine light flashing like lightning!
At the same time, waves of faint fragrance drifted from his body, like a perfectly ripened peach.
For certain existences, succulent and ready to be savored.
The moment for harvest and tasting had arrived.
(End of Chapter)