What told me he wasn't actually apologetic was his eyes that looked more like he was trying not to strangle me for complaining at all.
"Good enough I suppose." I said ignoring that entirely.
"I assume you will need some time to prepare given the timing?" He asked and I shook my head.
"Nope! Just need to grab some potions and rations and i'll be good. If I don't have this giant pegged wrong it's all about physical violence, my favorite type of prey. Plus with a body that big I can try my hand at being a parasite. Such fun to be had." I said with a grin while all the gods paled and looked about ready to vomit at the image I painted.
Nobody ever likes my fun, sigh.
"Yes, well best deal with the beast as soon as possible so I won't keep you any longer." Ouranos said trying to maintain his stoic expression.
"Oh before I go what's your favorite organ?" I asked with a wide smile.
"I don't have one." he said with a slight falter in his expression.
"My how magnanimous! In that case i'll bring back the liver as a souvenir, just for you. No need to say anything, I know you'll love it!" I said with a cackle before leaving the god green faced on his throne.
"Did you have to go that far?" Hestia asked with an exasperated sigh as we left the guild.
"No but it was fun. It'll be even funner when I get back and actually deliver the thing to him. Teach him to treat me like a dog he can send fetching." I said with a scoff.
"You are literally the only option remember?" she said rolling her eyes.
"Yeah and you'd expect that would mean I'd be asked nicely and NOT all but commanded to go do it. I'm not a fucking nurse on-call twenty four seven damnit!" I vented in annoyance.
"Not sure what you are talking about but you do understand this is an emergency right?" she asked and I scoffed.
"Of course I do, that's why I'm doing it rather than just choosing to ignore it. In case you forget we aren't actually beholden to Ouranos or even Orario. If we don't want to do something that isn't illegal then we can choose not to do it, consequences be damned. Morally not a great look sure but when the fuck have I cared about my reputation?" I said casually.
"That's not right." she said shaking her head.
"It is what it is my petite goddess. Now then you'd best head back home while I grab my rations and potions. I'd like a nice meal before I set out again and i'll let you handle that." I say before veering off towards the market.
Much like before I checked for anything useful and not finding anything grabbed my fruits, veggies and jerky before heading home. Hestia didn't disappoint and had a small feast prepared courtesy of the hostess of fertility waiting. I ate with gusto and drank my fill before calling it a day. In the morning I stopped by the blue pharmacy and grabbed a few mana potions from Miach before heading out to the mountain range the beast resided in. Truthfully I had long since known where it was after piecing together the different iterations of the tale. There are after all only so many places that fit the description "Of many raised earths towering just below the clouds". -
There were only three mountain ranges in the entire world and only one of those had a bunch of superstitious nonsense attached to it, remnants from over a thousand years ago when the beast was sealed away by the spirits. An interesting fact by the way was that the spirits still roamed the world. They were rare and reclusive, tending to hide away in their elemental glades or in the hidden places of the world but they occasionally were seen. There were no "heroes" blessed by them anymore though. Not because they couldn't do it but because they saw no reason why they should with the gods themselves filling that role just fine.-
Getting blessed by a spirit wasn't a simple easy matter for either the person or spirit after all. It was binding life and death type stuff. There was a reason why the spirits who blessed the heroes of old vanished after the heroes died. It was almost a marriage vow for a spirit but much more severe. If the blessed died so too did the spirit, a steep cost. The payout was very much worth it for the few who gained that honor. It was like being blessed with a falna but on steroids.-
The reason for this was because unlike the gods who cannot put any of their own power into an adventurer without breaking a taboo the opposite applies to spirits. Their blessing gave the entirety of their being to the one receiving it so the growth rate of those with a spirits blessing was almost as fast innately as my own and i'm fucking cheating. Additionally there were no level ups for those who were blessed by spirits it was straight from one level of power to the next without any delays or need for achievements.-
Anyways the point is spirits still roamed the world so it was quite possible that one or more was actually keeping the giant in the location where it was sealed originally. It honestly wouldn't even be hard since according to the tales the beast was incredibly lazy. Yes I said lazy. It rarely moved for some reason but when it did it's sheer size alone made it incredibly destructive. Add on that like most other monsters it had this nasty habit of attacking anyone it spotted with it's many hands and you'd get a calamity of terraforming might walking about.