The throne room did not look like a place of government. It looked like a museum where the exhibits were still screaming. Gold-leafed columns rose hundreds of feet into a ceiling painted with the constellations of a dead world. Every inch of the floor was paved with white marble so polished it reflected the group like a silver mirror.
Ares stood in the center of the hall. He was no longer the brawling giant from the arena. He wore ceremonial bronze armor that hummed with the souls of a million fallen soldiers. To his right stood a woman who seemed to be made of cold logic and sharpened steel. She wore a grey chiton that fell perfectly to her ankles, her eyes the color of a storm-tossed sea.
"You took my shield," Athena said. Her voice was a flat, terrifying monotone. It didn't carry the heat of Ares or the charm of Hermes. It was the sound of a falling guillotine. "You took the shame I buried in the dark and you brought it into the light of my father's house."
I didn't stop walking until I was twenty feet away. The [Shattered Aegis] on my back grew hot, the metal beginning to weep black ichor. "It wasn't doing much good in a hole, Athena. Truth has a way of wanting to breathe."
Medusa stepped forward from my shadow. She didn't hide. She didn't lower her head. She held the Caduceus like a scepter, her green eyes locked onto the Goddess who had destroyed her life. "Look at me, daughter of Zeus. See the failure you couldn't kill."
Athena's expression didn't flicker. She didn't show guilt or rage. She simply raised a hand, and the air in the hall turned into a solid wall of pressure.
[Warning: Divine Wisdom Field active.]
[Effect: Logic-based suppression. Your 'Indecency' rating is being calculated as an error.]
[Notice: The system is struggling to maintain your buffs.]
"You are a variable that does not belong in the equation," Athena stated. "Ares wants to break you. Hermes wants to outrun you. I simply want to delete you."
Ares laughed, the sound like shields clashing. "Delete him? No. I want to see how he handles a real war. The arena was a playground. This is the heart of the world." He leveled his spear at my chest. "You have my soldiers. You have my son's dignity. I want them back in blood."
I felt So-Hee move to my left, the temperature in the room plummeting as she manifested a jagged blade of violet ice. Yuna vanished entirely, her presence a cold itch on the back of the gods' necks. Leticia hovered behind me, her white hair flowing upward as she prepared to judge the judges.
"We're not giving anything back," I said. I reached back and unslung the [Shattered Aegis]. I didn't hold it like a shield. I held it like a mirror, pointing the jagged, weeping crack directly at Athena. "You want to talk about equations? Let's talk about the remainder. The part you couldn't solve."
[Skill Activation: Mirror of the Remainder.]
[Target: Athena.]
[Cost: 200 Million EXP.]
The crack in the shield erupted. It didn't release light; it released a flood of grey, suffocating memories. The images splashed against the golden walls of the throne room. Every mistake Athena had ever made, every "logical" sacrifice that had resulted in a massacre, and the raw, unedited moment she had cursed Medusa out of pure, unrefined jealousy.
The polished marble floor cracked. The golden statues of heroes began to weep.
Athena stumbled back, her hand flying to her throat. For the first time, her eyes weren't a storm; they were wide with a very human panic. "Stop it. This is... this is an illusion. A corruption."
"It's your biography," I said, stepping through the grey mist.
Ares roared, lunging forward with his spear. He didn't care about wisdom or truth; he only cared about the target. But as the spear-tip neared my throat, Medusa struck the Caduceus against the floor.
A wave of petrifying energy, refined by the Sovereign's power, slammed into the God of War. His bronze armor didn't turn to stone, but his movements did. He became a slow-motion statue, his roar stretching into a low, distorted groan.
"This is the end of the myth," I whispered, standing inches from Athena. I pressed the cold, weeping edge of the broken shield against her chest. "You're not a goddess of wisdom. You're just a girl who's afraid of being wrong."
[Objective Achieved: Humiliate the Goddess of Wisdom.]
[EXP Gained: 800 Million.]
[Notice: The Throne of Zeus is opening.]
A thunderclap shook the mountain, one so powerful it silenced the echoing screams of the shield. The grey mist was blown away by a gust of ozone. At the far end of the hall, the massive curtains of lightning parted.
A man sat there. He didn't look like a god. He looked like an old king tired of his bickering children. His beard was white, his skin was scarred, and a master bolt lay casually across his knees, sparking with the power to unmake a continent.
"Enough," Zeus said. The word wasn't loud, but it felt like a physical weight on my shoulders. "The mortal has made his point. Athena, leave us. Ares, find your dignity."
The two gods vanished in a blur of light and shadow, leaving me alone in the center of the hall with my harem and a very bored King of the Gods.
Zeus looked at the [Shattered Aegis] in my hand, then at Medusa, and finally at me.
"You've caused a lot of trouble for a man who's only been in my country for three days," Zeus remarked. "The God of Chastity wants your head on a spike. Aphrodite wants you in her bed. I just want to know why you haven't tried to seduce me yet."
I grinned, despite the pressure of the master bolt. "I have a policy against grandfathers, Zeus. But I'm willing to make an exception for a deal."
Zeus leaned forward, his eyes flickering with lightning. "A deal? You're standing in the heart of Olympus with my daughter's shame in your hand. What could you possibly offer the King of the World?"
"I can offer you the one thing you don't have," I said, feeling the system pulse with a final, massive quest. "I can offer you a way to win the war against the Heavens."