At night, on War God Mountain.
Inside the great temple, the returned shepherd sat in the empty seat that had previously belonged to the goddess Athena as he flipped through the scrolls in his hands and patiently reviewed them.
There were revisions to poems, reviews of cases, requests from citizens, and all sorts of miscellaneous and varied content.
After finally processing a large stack, Lorne stretched his somewhat stiff neck.
Looking at the huge pile of pending documents behind him that was almost drowning him, he could not help but smile bitterly.
Previously, this work had been shared by Themis, Mnemosyne, and Athena.
But now Themis was still slumbering due to her shattered divinity.
Mnemosyne, as a main god, had also been temporarily excluded back to her holy land of Mount Helicon due to the [Order] written by the Three Fates.
It would probably take some time before she could return to War God Mountain in the form of a descended or divided spirit.
The work belonging to them naturally fell onto Lorne, the culprit.
As for the goddess Athena who used to shoulder the heavy burden...
Lorne stopped his pen tip and looked up toward the door.
A figure with purple hair draped over her shoulders walked in under the bright moonlight.
Her graceful curves exuded mature beauty, and her golden pupils carried traces of playfulness.
"How is it? Is my seat easy to sit in?"
"With this workload that can tire a cow to death, what do you think?"
Lorne grumbled irritably, then looked Athena up and down, his face full of surprise at her greatly changed appearance.
"Is this the descended spirit body you prepared for yourself?"
In order to limit excessive interference by the gods in the mortal world, the main bodies of god-king Zeus and all the main gods had been restricted to slumber in the heavenly realm or their respective holy lands.
They could only walk on the earth in the form of divided spirits or descended spirits.
A divided spirit was a portion of divinity and divine power condensed into an avatar, moving with the same appearance and abilities as the main body.
A descended spirit involved preparing a physical container in advance and injecting a portion of one's will and divinity into it, thereby obtaining another spare body.
However, the two methods each had their advantages and disadvantages.
The former was flexible and convenient to use at any time but less stable.
The latter could guarantee long-term activity but, being limited to a fresh flesh-and-blood body, fatigue, pain, battle damage, and so on would all feed back to the soul in real time.
Now, Athena's main body had already entered slumber in the holy domain.
What she was using was the [descended spirit] method.
At this moment, Athena spread her arms and turned in a circle, asking.
"How is it? This new body of mine?"
Lorne's gaze swept over the flowing purple hair, the elegant yet alluring features, and the fair, smooth skin of her collarbones... then continued downward.
His eyes lingered for a long moment on the deep, captivating valley between her full breasts, barely contained by the white dress and accentuated by the golden corset, before he sincerely praised.
"Very nice!"
Athena was very satisfied with Lorne's reaction.
She subconsciously straightened her posture even more.
The two large mounds that almost burst through her thin white fabric, rose and fell, nearly dazzling Lorne.
"Cough cough. Speaking of which, this body is quite different from your original appearance."
Athena answered casually,
"This one was a new container
I created using the blood of the three Gorgon sisters and my own divinity.
It is convenient for walking outside in the future and hiding my identity."
Lorne carefully examined the Athena before him for a while, a thoughtful look in his eyes.
No wonder, he had always felt this face looked somewhat familiar, as if he had seen it somewhere.
After all this, the one who provided the sample was Medusa.
As for why it was Medusa and not the three Gorgon sisters Athena had mentioned, Lorne's gaze moved downward and landed faintly on the two large mounds on Athena's chest as he secretly laughed wickedly in his heart.
She directly gave herself this figure.
'So you also have things you care about, Sister Na.'
Just as Lorne's thoughts wandered, a faint whisper came to his ear.
"You seem to be thinking about something impolite..."
"How could that be?" Lorne denied it outright, then offered a high-sounding reason. "I was thinking that if you want to use this body to hide your identity and walk outside, shouldn't you give your current appearance a new name?"
Athena nodded in agreement upon hearing this. "That makes sense. Do you have any ideas?"
"How about 'Sasha'?" Lorne suggested with a smile as he looked at the purple-haired, golden-eyed Athena before him.
Athena readily agreed. "Sounds good. Let's go with that."
So now both the Saint Seiya and the goddess Athena are complete?
In the future they can shout the slogan "Fight for Athena."
Lorne felt a burst of amusement in his heart, then some regret.
It was a pity, the previous Athena from the LC side story, who slaughtered through the underworld with explosive combat power, did not have her name mentioned.
Otherwise using her title would have been even more appropriate.
"Speaking of which, before the divine war even started, you had me prepare a spare body in advance..."
Athena thought of the various traces from before and narrowed her eyes slightly, looking at the guy on the seat.
"Could it be that from the very beginning you decided to restrict all the main gods including us?"
"Without excessive interference from the gods, it is important for humans."
Lorne smiled and nodded, stating his true intention all along.
"You have held power for too long. It is time to loosen the chains and let humans learn to walk on their own."
"What about you?"
Athena looked at the person before her who was still emitting main god pressure and could not help grinding her silver teeth.
How come all these main gods were sealed while this guy still retained main god strength!
"As the shepherd, I have the duty of supervision. This is all to prevent anyone from overstepping and abusing power!"
Lorne answered righteously, then defended himself eloquently.
"Moreover, the Three Fates did not pick on me.
Since they do not object, does that not mean they agree?"
Although he said this, Lorne did not mention a single word about his characteristic of being outside of fate.
This was actually the real reason why a certain variable had not been sealed.
And Athena was no fool either.
Looking at the guy before her, she snorted coldly through gritted teeth.
"Using us to divide the great power of Olympus, using Zeus to check and balance us.
Using Hecate and that group of old gods to negotiate conditions with the Three Fates, then using the Three Fates to establish the new order, making the gods withdraw and opening a new era for humans.
You really calculated everyone!"
"So what?"
Lorne smiled and countered, then looked at Athena candidly.
"Hera gained freedom, Poseidon regained sea authority, Apollo completed his revenge, and your Athens no longer needs to worry about following in the footsteps of Crete...
After a rebellion, not only were you not purged, but you basically all got what you wanted. Isn't that good?
And because of this the gods' conflicts have ceased, and humans can rest and recuperate.
This is the best script I could think of."
Athena rolled her eyes at Lorne and asked with a dark face.
"Then should I still thank you?"
"No need for that. Just accept the loss gracefully."
Lorne waved his hand and, using the same tone Athena had once used to lecture him, spoke teasingly.
"No one can keep winning forever.
It seems you are the same."
However, unexpectedly, that proud wisdom goddess actually nodded slightly and frankly accepted her defeat.
"You are right. This time you really won. Calculating to this extent, even
I feel ashamed of my inferiority."
However, this sudden change made Lorne feel inexplicably uneasy.
After all, how could Athena admit defeat.
Something's not right.
He quickly stood up from Athena's seat. "Cough cough, just luck, just luck. In the future the overall situation in Athens will still need you to preside over!"
But before he could fully stand,
Athena pushed him down onto the table.
The goddess narrowed her golden eyes as she looked at the victor beneath her and snorted faintly.
"You want to leave right after winning against me? There is no such cheap thing!"
Facing this overwhelmingly oppressive figure, Lorne could not help swallow his saliva and asked cautiously.
"So..."
The white skirt slid down from her fragrant shoulder as Athena looked down at the opponent beneath her claws.
Her golden eyes sparkled with cunning as she declared arrogantly.
"This time, I will be on top!"
(End of this chapter)