THEOS

Luke looked at the goddess before his gaze wandered back towards the Hero tier giant. Just in time too, as another bolt of lightning fell from the heavens and sheared off two of its arms. The upper and middle limbs on the left side of its body fell to the ground. Its flesh glowed orange and red from where the Emperor’s lightning had severed them.

Not that monster seemed to care, it still had four amrs left. Of which, it brought two to its stomach and began rubbing it in slow circles. Another hand moved to cover half its eyes. Then it lifted one foot off the earth, and a seam opened up between its eyes.

What the–

“HA. HA. HA. HA. HA,” it laughed deeply and loudly. The bass in its voice was so strong, it made everything not secured to the ground vibrate.

Then with two of its four remaining arms, it grabbed the limbs Cyzicus had blasted off its body and began using them to haphazardly beat on the barrier like it was a drum even as its stubs wriggled and new limbs grew to replace what it had lost.

Golden ripples reverberated through the barrier making it flicker and distort. For a moment, Luke thought that the only line of defense between the city and it was going to shatter and kill everyone inside at the same time.

Instinctively, Luke pulled a Hero tier protective talisman from his ring and prepared to rip the tab clean off. He didn’t think it was anywhere near enough to actually protect him from the monster should its attention fall on him, but maybe it would be enough to make it to the Argo or failing that, allow him to escape through one of the teleportation platforms seeded throughout the city.

His panic turned out to be unwarranted though, as the shield surrounding the city suddenly solidified and hardened against the monster's attacks, its color shifting from a translucent gold to an electric blue as it drew on another power reserve.

What that was, Luke didn’t know, but he was glad that Cyzicus had made arrangements in advance.

Beside him, Cybele cackled in amusement at his antics. As if he was silly for being scared of a skyscraper sized creature that could flatten him like a pancake with only the barest hint of effort.

Luke bit back a retort, and silently returned the talisman to his ring. Suddenly reminded of the much bigger threat that was only feet away from him. Unlike the giant though, Luke knew there was nothing he could do against Cybele unless the Seed offered him the use of a charge. Something he didn’t think was likely. He didn’t know what she wanted, but Luke suspected that whatever it was, wouldn’t be quite as easy as a quick death.

And she definitely wants something. The question is from who, and what?

A wide grin stretched across Cybele’s face, and she pulled a snack from somewhere. The smell of popcorn and butter hit Luke’s nose as she unscrewed a metal container. Then noticing him looking at it, she tilted it towards him, a mocking glint in her eyes.

It took everything Luke had not to slam it out of her hands. What about this was funny to her, he didn’t know, but he did know that anyone willing to go to the lengths she was to make Cyzicus miserable was not a person he liked. Remembering the look of rage on the emperor's face when he had mentioned her, he had no doubt that's what thiswas. Or at the least a part of it.

“Are you controlling it?” He asked, ignoring the food, and doing his best to keep his voice neutral. Controlling himself was of the utmost importance. Letting the anger, fear, and disgust he was feeling leak into his tone would neither endear him to the stronger cultivator nor would it make the conversation fruitful. Cussing her out might feel good, but making her angry would just put him on her bad side. He might already be on it for all he knew, but being on it even harder wouldn’t do him any good. Arke was more than enough in that department.

Still, just because being rude is a bad idea, doesn’t mean I gotta brownnose. Just keep it professional Luke.

“Obviously.” She pulled her back, and reaching into the container, scooped out a handful of kernels and one by one dropped them in her mouth. “What do you think the crown did?”

I didn’t get the chance to find out. Luke thought sarcastically.

“I put it out of my mind once you took it,” he lied.

“Mhmn. Smart boy, most in your position would rage and seethe, thinking I stole from them.” She shook her head. “I don’t steal.”

Sure you don’t.

“The pomegranate seed did save my life so as far as I’m concerned we’re square.”

“Perhaps. Yet, it was a paltry sum, nothing compared to the Earth Mother’s Crown,” she said.

“The what?” Luke thought incredulously. Unable to help himself, he found his gaze drawn back to the circlet of twine on her head. He had known it was something good, considering she had seen fit to take it from him and because the Seed wanted him to have it, but Gaia’s Crown? That was quite a lot more than he was expecting. He would have expected something belonging to one of the first gods would be more… fancy.

“It’s not as impressive as it sounds.” Cybele said, shaking her head even as she stuffed her face with another fistfull of the popped kernels. “Much of its magic has faded over the ages. Now it’s just good for controlling these things,” she nodded to her pet.

“I– Why are you doing this? If you can control it, why att–”

“As I said before, I don’t think I paid you what you were due. Don’t worry, I’ll feed you another few Hero tiers, maybe even a Saint tier later. This one should be enough to let you win the tournament though. We’ll see.”

What the fuck?

No, seriously. What the fuck?

“The Tournament?”

“Mhmm. I placed a good bet on you, and this,” she pointed to the giant, “should let you harness enough mana to hold your own against some of your competitors. I looked at the roster, you’re not in for an easy time. Watch out for the Aresson, his father has trained him well. The child of Poseidon is strong too I suppose, but he lacks determination.”

“I– thanks?” Luke scratched the back of his head. “Helping me like this though… It’s not against the rules?”

“Don’t be silly. Of course it isn’t. Hephaestus shared his little recordings with all of Olympus. The other gods will be doing the same with their children, so they can hardly complain about me aiding you here.”

For the sake of his sanity, Luke decided to take that at face value.

“I still don’t get why you’re doing all this. I’m not–”

“Prometheus. He may have mentioned it when you awoke your bloodline, but his… insight, is what allowed the gods of this age to topple those of mine and claim Theos as their domain.”

Not new news but, still mind blown. Luke thought to himself, as he wondered what she meant by her Age. Was she a titan?

What is a titan anyway? Is it just another, older, word for god or something different altogether?

“So is that what you want, revenge for something?” He asked randomly. That’s what the titans would want, right?

“Pshh. Of course not, good riddance to the old coots. The way they were going, reality itself may have shattered. No, I was one of the first to turn against the Titan King at great personal risk, and it is with my blessing that Zeus became the God King. Alas it was also me, who convinced Prometheus to aid them. So you can imagine I was disappointed when the reward he got was eternal imprisonment. Of course, he did go mad and rip a tear in reality, the exact sort of thing we were trying to stop, and the hole still floods this world with creatures from the beyond, but–”

She shrugged and tilted the metal canister over her lips, downing the rest of the popcorn in one go. Her entire head increased in size to accommodate the vast amount of the food inside. Eerily, it reminded Luke of snakes eating prey that was much too large for them, and that she wasn’t the little girl she was pretending to be either.

Turning away, Luke took a deep breath and tried to sort out his thoughts. It was hard.

I knew she knew I had a bloodline inherited from Prometheus. Don’t know how she knew, but she did. Now that I think about it though, the Seed seemed pretty confident that the Mask of a Thousand Faces alone would be enough to protect me from identification. So either that was wrong, or Cybele knows and talked to Prometheus after he talked to me. He was half crazed, but he did ‘see’ me and maybe he can feel where I am too. I guess it’s not a stretch that she actually knows him, and he sent her my way. Except, she said she was drawn by the fact that Heracles created a portal through the Aether.

That could be a lie though. It's not like being immortal and insanely powerful stops you from lying.

And, even though she took the crown, which might be the key to stopping the giant tide– if it can spawn and control one giant, there’s no saying it can’t control all of them. Anyway, she took the crown, but she also gave me the tools to kill the Rebel.

I may have been able to do it without the pomegranate seed, Rex and Blinky were able to break down the barrier around her castle afterall, and the Argo was there too, but her help sure did make it a lot easier. If nothing else, it let me kill the Rebel instead of Heracles.

I don’t buy the stuff about the bet though. She’s making me stronger, but it’s not for the Tournament. Or atleast, not entirely for the tournament. That could just be a favor for Prometheus. What he might want from me though, I don’t have the slightest clue. Unless he wants me to break him out, but the guy’s also insane, so that’s definitely not a good idea. I think.

It might be worth having him around if Arke comes sniffing, but then he’d know that I’m a body snatcher… Yeah, I better hope those two don’t compare notes anytime soon. Or ever.

Still, there’s so much I don’t know, I can’t even tell if I’m thinking in the right direction.

Feeding me mana or not though, she’s definitely fucking with Cyzicus. He got angry when I mentioned her, so they have some sort of past, but where do I fit in with all of this?

“Send your sword to the center of its chest.” She said urgently, pulling Luke out of his thoughts. Eyeing her with suspicion, he did as she asked anyway. His sword slipped out of its sheath with a satisfying shink, and darted out of the barrier surrounding the city and seconds later, embedded itself deep into the monster's flesh. The effortless action proved once again that Maximus was more than it seemed. Even Luke’s Hero tier bow had struggled against one of the monster's random boulders, but his sword sank into it with barely any effort.

Not that the monster itself seemed bothered by the fact that there was a golden sword a half way through its body. So focused was it on wailing on the city’s barrier, it didn’t even care about the bolts of thunder relentlessly falling from the heavens and sloughing off chunks of its flesh. Compared to those, the sword impaling it was negligible.

I should have stuck a few explosive talismans onto Maximus, it would have dinged up my sword a little, but the mana from killing the giant would have repaired it anyway.

And she did go out of her way to tell me that this is just her paying back what she owes me, so it’s not like I’m taking some Faustian Deal here. I did that–

Cyzicus dropped from the sky, and in his hands was a bolt of lightning, as thick and as tall as the giant itself.

The world went white.

Mana of the Hero tier once again burned through Luke.