"Prometheus told me himself…"
Athena answered quietly, revealing a name Lorne had never expected.
Seeing the shock on his face, the Goddess of Wisdom waved her hand calmly.
"Strictly speaking, this isn't some great secret.
The previous generation of the Twelve Titans fell precisely because they failed to maintain balance within their own divine lineage."
Just like Olympus now, the Twelve Titans were also structured as male-female pairs.
The six male gods were:
Oceanus, god of great rivers and currents;
Coeus, god of celestial bodies;
Crius, god of atmospheric phenomena;
Hyperion, god of light;
Iapetus, god of souls and speech;
and Cronus, god of the sky and harvest.
Correspondingly, the six goddesses were:
Theia, goddess of sight and light;
Rhea, goddess of abundance and time;
Themis, goddess of law and justice;
Mnemosyne, goddess of memory, language, and writing;
Phoebe, goddess of the moon;
and Tethys, goddess of the sea.
However, they failed to complete their proper pairings, sowing the seeds for the collapse of Mount Othrys' divine authority.
Back then, the Olympians recognized this flaw and seized the opportunity.
Zeus employed his charms, seducing the unmarried Goddess of Justice Themis and the Memory Goddess Mnemosyne, pulling these two powerful Titanesses into his camp first.
After tasting success, Zeus repeated the strategy.
Coeus and the prophetic goddess Phoebe had two beloved daughters—Leto, goddess of nurturing, and Asteria, goddess of falling stars.
If he could win over even one of them, the celestial god and the prophetic goddess would likely support him as their son-in-law.
At first, Zeus pursued Asteria, but she evaded him.
In the end, it was the elder sister Leto who fell for his honeyed words, united with him, and bound her parents to the chariot of Olympus.
Thus, four Titan gods stood on Olympus' side.
Before all this, however, Zeus had already seduced Metis, the primordial goddess of wisdom, daughter of Oceanus and Tethys, in order to rescue the five siblings swallowed by their father Cronus.
Through Metis' wisdom and the potion she concocted, Hestia, Hades, Hera, Demeter, and Poseidon were freed from that lightless prison, becoming vital allies in Zeus' establishment of the new order.
Simply by exploiting the Titans' failure to follow proper life-pairing laws, the god-king had divided nearly one-third of them with almost no effort.
"So whose brilliant idea was that?"
Listening to these hidden truths of the Titan War, Lorne couldn't help asking, his expression caught somewhere between praise and sarcasm.
At that time, Metis was still Zeus' rightful queen.
Who would dare arrange affairs for Zeus right under the nose of the Goddess of Wisdom?
Did they not fear that once Metis freed up her hands, she would beat them to death?
According to Circe's account,
Metis' contributions during Olympus' founding were monumental.
At first, Olympus lacked weapons, divine power was insufficient, and supporters were few, so, their battles consistently went poorly.
Under Metis' guidance, Zeus visited the Earth Mother and was sent into Tartarus, the abyss overflowing with deathly laws.
There were imprisoned three Cyclopes, masters of forging divine weapons and grand constructions—and three Hecatoncheires, beings of immense strength and unmatched combat prowess.
They were ancient Titans created asexually by Gaia herself, terrifyingly powerful.
But the controlling and paranoid primordial god Uranus, fearing his throne, had imprisoned them in Tartarus under the excuse that they were "too noisy," placing the dragon Campe as their warden.
As the chosen one, Zeus lived up to expectations.
Leading his two brothers, he slew the dragon and personally freed the Cyclopes and Hecatoncheires, allowing them to dwell upon the surface.
Thus, the three Cyclopes forged for Zeus the Thunderbolt Scepter that commanded lightning, and the Aegis Shield that absorbed and reflected damage.
They also forged Poseidon's trident to rule the seas, and Hades' helm of invisibility.
The other gods also received weapons that greatly amplified their divine power.
With the Hecatoncheires joining them, their overall strength steadily closed the gap with the elder Titans.
Because Zeus personally freed them, and because after slaying Campe, Hades and Poseidon were left guarding the gate while Zeus ventured ahead alone under the pretext of danger...the six ancient monsters all swore allegiance to him.
Thus, he gained three main-god-level bodyguards and control over the divine weapon-smiths, making his leadership unshakable.
This strategy of strengthening the core while weakening the branches was undeniably Metis' handiwork.
Since all five siblings owed their freedom to her, even Poseidon and Hades, though displeased, ultimately swallowed their resentment.
Thus, with the Cyclopes, the Hecatoncheires, and Metis' wisdom, Olympus gained its footing in the early Titan War and gradually expanded.
Throughout this process, the Goddess of Wisdom never stopped.
Early on, she quietly implemented multiple strategies, systematically weakening and dividing the Twelve Titans.
First, Oceanus and Tethys, despite creating six thousand river and spring gods, cherished their daughter Metis above all else.
The Queen of the Gods personally persuaded her parents to side with Zeus, bringing five of their most outstanding children to assist.
Second, Metis promised the eastern lands of the Greek world to Hyperion and Theia, guaranteeing that their children, the gods of the Sun, Moon, and Dawn, would remain untouched by war.
They withdrew from the conflict and returned east to raise their children in peace.
Additionally, Rhea, the former queen placed under house arrest by Cronus for secretly releasing her children, also agreed, under Metis' counsel, not to participate in any assault on Mount Olympus.
As a result, only seven Titan main gods remained on Mount Othrys.
After Zeus' successful seductions brought in four more Titans, the numbers were further reduced.
In reality, Olympus only had to face three enemies: the former God King Cronus, Iapetus the Titan of souls and speech, and Crius the Titan of weather.
It was nearly a guaranteed victory.
So allowing Zeus to pursue other goddesses before the war even ended would directly undermine Metis' exclusive favor.
Who would dare provoke the primordial Goddess of Wisdom like that?
"It was Iapetus' good son—the Seer, Prometheus."
Athena answered quietly, a trace of helplessness on her face.
"Back then, to prove himself and defect to Olympus, he proposed a power-balancing strategy to the God King.
And to ensure the seduction plan succeeded, he even suggested that Zeus seek help from the primordial ocean… from the Sky Father Uranus himself…"
"So that means… he brought back the God of Love and Beauty, Aphrodite?!"
Lorne suddenly understood, the scattered clues in his mind linking together into a complete chain of events.
Two Titan goddesses.
A large number of divine lovers.
And unions that were practically offered on a silver platter to Zeus.
The whole thing was far too strange…
Clearly, back then, Zeus had relied on Aphrodite's power to bypass Metis and successfully take those goddesses.
And perhaps it was precisely because he realized how terrifying Aphrodite truly was that, after failing to formally win her over....just as the war ended, the God King chose to marry her off to the fire god Hephaestus, keeping a deliberate distance from the Goddess of Love from that point onward.
If he hadn't been wary of the hidden danger lurking within her, how could a human-shaped seed-spreader with such broad tastes possibly let a peerless beauty like Aphrodite go?
"That's right. The general course of the Titan War back then was more or less like this…"
Seemingly satisfied with the man before her ability to grasp the essence of things from subtle details,
Athena nodded slightly in affirmation, then continued.
"All of this was told to me personally by Prometheus.
He foresaw that Olympus would replace the order of the Twelve Titans, so he followed fate and came to pledge his allegiance.
What he didn't expect was that, after gaining a new ally, His Majesty the God King would actually swallow another one of his allies, then turn around and marry his own sister Hera, publicly declaring that he was obeying destiny's guidance and safeguarding the authority of life's continuation."
Hearing this, Lorne frowned in confusion.
"Why didn't she resist?"
That goddess had been an absolute cornerstone in shaping the Olympian system.
With her intelligence and the debt Zeus owed her for rescuing the five siblings, even against him, she might not have lacked the chance to overturn the situation.
"Because…" The Goddess of Wisdom paused, her gaze growing complicated.
"…she was pregnant."
A woman carrying life was always foolish, blindly believing in love, her awareness of danger dulled by the budding of maternal instinct.
After a brief silence, Lorne sighed softly.
"So after seeing the God King's methods, even Prometheus became afraid?"
"And regretful as well…" Athena sighed quietly. "Because after Metis was swallowed, the number of sages who could influence Olympus' kingship was reduced to only one."
She paused again, then turned her gaze toward the direction of Crete, revealing an even deeper secret.
"So, after foreseeing that the God King would eventually make a move against him, he created a new form of life upon the earth."
—Humans?
Lorne sucked in a sharp breath, unable to hide his astonishment at the sheer scale of those high-intelligence players' planning.
"And as compensation, Prometheus entrusted humanity to me.
That is why I became the Great Mother Goddess worshipped by mankind," Athena replied calmly.
Looking at the Wisdom Goddess opposite him, her expression neither sad nor joyful—Lorne added quietly,
"Or perhaps… it was also a form of exploitation."
If he remembered correctly, that prophet had not only foreseen the downfall of the previous God King Cronus, but also predicted the fate of the current one.
—The Titan curse would continue.
Zeus would never escape the destiny of being overthrown by his own son.
"You really talk too much."
Pulled out of her memories, Athena shot a glare at a certain scheming little bastard who always assumed the worst, snorting unhappily.
"Relax. He's already suffered more than enough. He's still chained on the Caucasus Mountains, waiting for the day I can figure out how to fish him out."
Lorne laughed awkwardly and immediately stopped his subtle attempts at smearing the prophet.
After all, Athena already had one emotional attachment hanging off her leg, so, her capacity was currently full.
He couldn't be bothered worrying about what kind of grand chessboard that prophet was laying out next.
As she opened up further and poured out the deepest secrets of her heart, the Wisdom Goddess' expression gradually softened, her mood visibly improving.
Lorne wisely steered the conversation away from these heavy past events, choosing a lighter topic instead.
With an eager expression, he asked about the outcome of the hunt, clearly impatient to see the spoils of battle.
However, Athena's answer caught him completely off guard.
"Oh, you mean Charybdis? She got away."
Got away?
Lorne stared at her in disbelief.
You've got to be kidding.
Artemis and Apollo dealt with their targets with ease.
You're a chief god too, and a full-fledged war goddess at that—how could you miss?
—Wait.
In a daze, Lorne looked up, meeting those smiling, knowing eyes and immediately understood her thoughts.
Everyone knows that to fish, you first bait the spot, then cast the hook.
Fishing enforcement works the same way…
If he remembered correctly, the Charybdis who escaped was a blood relative of Poseidon.
Once he grasped the key point, Lorne couldn't help raising his thumb.
"That was truly far-sighted of you!"
Athena didn't appreciate the flattery at all.
She simply rolled her eyes and snorted.
"And whose fault do you think it is that everyone had their minds elsewhere?"
Hearing this, Lorne recalled the scene by the campfire earlier and could only laugh sheepishly.
She wasn't wrong…
Three summoned teammates, all busy flirting and falling in love.
Only Sister Athena still had her mind on the mission, hard-carrying at the front.
Dragging them all into the pit had been no easy task.
Just as the two external brains of the team...meeting secretly in the grove, saw the shared helplessness in each other's eyes, a ghastly white tidal wave surged in from the horizon.
Under the rolling sea, the entire island of Sicily began to tremble more violently.
"It's here."
Sensing the overwhelming momentum, Lorne and Athena looked at each other, then simultaneously revealed smiles filled with ill intent.
(End of Chapter)