Greece.
- "You've outdone yourself," I said, nodding my head as I moved over to Archer, who was standing in the middle of the ashes. "I take it you used Muramasa's skills?"
- "You asked me not to hold back," Archer shrugged.
After that single attack, the competition was obviously over. The Huntresses were blown away in the first few seconds, and Artemis and Apollo's bodies took so much damage that Hestia went to them almost immediately, although there was no particular need to do so. Killing a god required something more specific than brute force. However, in this world, strength is the foundation of everything. Heh.
This little experiment also gave me a clear understanding of the level of power the local gods possessed. Of course, there were exceptions, such as Indra, Ophir, and others, but it was nice to know that one Servant was more than enough to crush them. Gilgamesh, Enkidu, or even Grandpa, hiding in the shadows, would have easily killed someone at the level of Artemis and Apollo without even noticing them.
After about a minute, the three gods appeared on the horizon and moved toward us. Artemis and Apollo's bodies were badly damaged, some of their clothes were destroyed, golden blood trickled from their wounds, and Hestia healed them on the go with her flames. And their mood? Well, it was pretty obvious.
- "Where are my hunters?" Artemis asked through clenched teeth as soon as they reached us. "If you killed them, I..."
- "Oh? I somehow forgot about them. How silly of me," I said, taking on the appearance of a silly anime girl again, at which point she began to gather her divinity into her body. "Here they are."
With a snap of his fingers, eleven bodies of young girls fell right on top of Artemis. Apollo and Hestia managed to step aside, but the goddess of the hunt found herself buried under a pile of practically naked, unconscious bodies, their hair and quite impressive curves visible.
- "Before the competition began, I showed kindness and care so that your followers would remain alive and well. My Archer's attack was strong, and if it weren't for me, they could have died, and it would have been your fault," I said with an extremely haughty expression and my chin raised, pacing back and forth. "Don't you want to thank me, your benefactor, Lady Artemis?"
- "You..." She slowly crawled out from under the pile of bodies and grinned.
- "Enough," Hestia intervened. "That's enough. There's no need to rub salt in their wounds."
- "I don't hear any thanks," I sang, completely ignoring Hestia. "Come on, you can do it."
- "My aunt is right. My sister didn't deserve that treatment," Apollo joined the conversation, still a little unsteady on his feet, then turned to Archer, who was standing silently. "And you... You're good. Not like me, but good nonetheless. For a mortal, your strength and skill are impressive. And although the taste of defeat remains in my mouth, I cannot help but express my congratulations and admiration to you."
- "I'm flattered," Archer nodded briefly.
- "Come on. I just want to receive the gratitude I deserve," I said, waving my hand and glancing at Artemis. "Well, you..."
I didn't have time to finish my sentence, as I was interrupted by a burst of divinity right next to us. And it wasn't just one god who arrived, but two. When I saw and felt the aura emanating from them, I couldn't help but smile. These two were perfect for continuing the banquet, and I would have been ashamed to miss such an opportunity.
- "What is going on here?" the goddess asked in a cold tone, looking around, then her gaze stopped on me and changed to one of extreme dissatisfaction. "So you are the mortal with whom 'he' came? Do you have the courtesy to explain why our lands have been turned into this?"
The goddess had cold, refined features, long brown hair, and green eyes, as well as the rather attractive appearance of a mature woman in the prime of her beauty, but her character definitely spoiled everything. She was dressed in the usual toga, but on her head was a wreath resembling a crown. The goddess's aura resembled that of a demanding and cold mother, and only one person fit that description.
- "Wait, Hera," Hestia interrupted. "You can't..."
- "It's obvious, mother. There was a battle, I can feel it. A mixture of resentment, strength, and pride. I wouldn't mistake that smell for anything else," interrupted the second god, looking at me with burning eyes. "Is this your doing, mortal?
This god had short, tousled black hair, blue eyes, prominent cheekbones, a chin, and muscles as if his body had been carved from stone. His clothes resembled the leather 'armor' worn by Spartans in movies and other works of art, that is, he had a long scarlet cloak, an open chest, and two-thirds of his limbs exposed. I didn't even have to think to understand who was standing in front of me.
- "Oh? What if it is?" I grinned.
- "I want to fight you!" declared Ares, and a sword and shield of the Greco-Roman style appeared in his hands. "If you were able to crush those pussies, then you definitely have something to show me."
- "Pussies?!" Apollo exclaimed indignantly, and Artemis clenched her teeth in anger.
- "He reminds me of a dog..." Archer muttered.
- "Enough!" Hestia raised her voice. "Let's just go back to Olympus and..."
- "We'll go back when we're done," Hera interrupted. "Zeus sent us to sort this out, and since this mortal has caused us so much trouble, he must be punished."
Yeah. What else did I expect? Typical arrogant bitch. Actually, it's pretty funny that the myths were accurate in this regard, and the characters of most of the Greek gods corresponded to reality. Of all the gods I met, only Ama-chan and Odin stood out, although with some adjustments for the theme of the world.
- "Sent?" I asked, looking extremely surprised. "Like a servant or a dog? Don't get me wrong, but that's exactly how it sounded."
Archer slapped himself on the face, realizing where this was going. Hestia gave me a disapproving look, Apollo and Artemis were horrified, Ares bared his teeth, and Hera...
- "How dare you?!"
- "Don't be angry, lady..."
- "Hera! Queen of the gods and..."
- "So you're 'Hera'?" I interrupted her. "Now I'm even more confused, I'm sorry. You seemed like some kind of ordinary servant nymph or mortal apostle, given your appearance. And your companion is a tame dog with masochistic and exhibitionist tendencies."
- "What did you say?!" Ares growled.
- "Romani, this is Ares!" Hestia intervened again.
- "Oh," I slapped my fist against my palm and feigned surprise. "Then it makes sense that he called you 'mother'. I just thought he was one of your illegitimate children, like Zeus. How silly of me. Heh heh."
Hera looked at me with eyes completely mad with rage, her face flushed so red that it resembled Sirzechs's hair. She paused for a few seconds, then glanced briefly at Ares.
- "Teach him a lesson. Zeus doesn't care what state he's in, as long as he stays alive."
- "Yes, mother," Ares said with a toothy grin and came up close to me. He was about a head taller than me, which allowed him to look down on me, but I didn't feel hot or cold. "Are you ready, mortal?"
In response, I activated my magic chains, then looked up and grinned insolently.
- "And you?"
In the next second, golden chains burst out from under my feet. Although Ares managed to put up a shield in front of him, which was commendable, the force of the chains continued to push the god away until he flew into a half-ruined mountain, causing a small explosion and a huge cloud of dust.
Of course, I decided not to stop there and snapped my fingers, causing a magical circle to light up directly above Ares' landing site, from which a huge sword of light the size of a skyscraper shot out. Upon reaching its target, it caused another explosion, as well as a force pulse that reached our group in the blink of an eye, ruffling the clothes and hair of those around us.
From our position, we couldn't see what was happening inside, but when the sword touched Ares' shield, it was immediately bound by my chains and pinned to the ground, completely immobilizing him and rendering him unable to speak.
Could he have escaped? Well, good luck with that. Even if they were just copies, Enkidu's abilities hadn't gone anywhere. Heh.
- "How dare you resist punishment, mortal?!" Hera exclaimed even louder, to which I rolled my eyes, put on a completely bored expression, and looked her straight in the eyes.
- "If you want, I can send you there too," I said, to which she chose to remain silent, but did not cease to feel all kinds of rage towards me. "Actually, please do. The queen of the gods can't be as weak and helpless as I imagined, can she?"
- "You..." she hissed, but at that moment we had another arrival. This time it was the familiar Hermes, who looked around and quickly came to the right conclusions.
- "I apologize for the delay, Mr. Archaman," he began diplomatically. "I hope you don't mind returning to Olympus to discuss what happened? Father has promised to compensate you for all the inconvenience caused, including that concerning Lady Hera and my brother."
- "Oh? Of course!" I smiled sweetly. "It would be extremely rude not to accept such an offer."
- "But what about..." Hera was about to say, but Hermes interrupted her.
- "Right now, father wants to see everyone except Aunt Hestia and our guests."
Oh? So Zeus really wants the deal between me and Olympus to go through, since he's ignoring all my antics and only punishing his own. However, that's unlikely to help him.
- "But..."
- "Right now, Lady Hera," Hermes cut her off. "You know what Father is like when you test his patience."
Hera didn't respond, but just gave me a very, VERY angry look and disappeared in a flash of light along with Artemis, Apollo, Hermes, and Ares, whom I immediately let go. Archer sighed wearily and began to rub his temples, I just smiled, and Hestia couldn't stop shaking her head in annoyance.
- "Why won't they listen to me..."
-0-
A/N: How's the chapter? Give us your opinion. You may well be able to influence future chapters.
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