After the Sicily Island incident, as all clues converged toward a single target, and given the Greek gods' long-standing tradition of repaying grudges with grudges and doing so in an extremely petty manner the thoroughly enraged group showed no intention of holding back.
Thus, the god of light Apollo, the goddess of the hunt Artemis, and the goddess of wisdom Athena, three Olympian chief gods with utterly terrifying combat power, each led a large retinue of subordinate gods.
Under the pretext of purging calamities and reopening maritime routes for their respective city-states, they rode their chariots and swept through the outer seas in a massive hunting campaign.
With such an extravagant lineup and an intentionally broadened strike radius, the entire Oceanus Sea was instantly thrown into chaos.
The sea beasts and ocean-bloodline divine kin living across the oceanic islands and various sea regions were utterly unlucky.
—Some were blasted apart and disemboweled, dying on the spot;
—Some had their tendons ripped out and skins flayed, reduced to trophies;
—Some had their homes destroyed and territories shattered, forcing entire clans into migration…
After all, under this kind of deliberate fault-finding, even a gentle seal merely passing by could get slapped twice for no reason, let alone sea beasts and monsters that were naturally violent and bloodthirsty.
After seven consecutive days of such devastation, not only did the population of sea beasts in the outer seas plummet, but even the notorious monsters with names and reputations were nearly wiped out.
It even seemed that, due to the excessive slaughter, the tides pushed toward the shore carried a faint reddish hue.
For sea beasts and divine monsters that had run rampant across the seas for countless years, facing this dimension-crushing assault from the Olympian villain trio for the first time instilled genuine fear as they fled in droves toward the inner seas, hoping to seek refuge from the supreme ruler who sheltered them.
However, after traveling hundreds of miles into the inner seas, not only were the Atlantis patrol forces, which were normally seen moving in organized groups, were nowhere to be found, but even the native divine-blood clans were almost entirely gone.
Left with no choice, the sea beasts continued retreating further inland, or simply headed toward the deeper, more primitive regions of the ocean.
The three chief gods pursued relentlessly for several more days, but could only glare helplessly at a bunch of barely sentient sea beasts.
Not a single Atlantis figure was seen, let alone that sea king who supposedly ruled them.
—Legend had it that the continent of Atlantis and its affiliated islands were hidden deep beneath the sea and among the stars, a marine holy land that even Zeus might not easily discover.
—As long as they wished to remain concealed, almost no outsider could find the gateway within.
With the true culprit refusing to show himself, and the Oceanus Sea nearly being slaughtered through, the faces of the three chief gods darkened in unison.
Finally, on the night of the ninth day.
A visitor arrived at Sicily Island from the sea, but it was not the sea god Poseidon.
Instead, it was an elderly man clad in coarse linen robes, with a kind face and gentle demeanor.
Perhaps drawn by his warm and benevolent aura, a white seabird perched on his shoulder, lightly preening its tail feathers.
The Old Man of the Sea—Nereus.
He was the product of the mingling divinity of the ancient sea god Pontus and the earth mother goddess Gaia.
In Hesiod's Theogony, he was described as "trustworthy, gentle, never forgetting justice, righteous and kind," and thus people called him "the Elder."
Hence the honorific, "Old Man of the Sea."
But honorifics concerned status and character....not strength.
Even his own father, the ancient sea god Pontus, had once been beaten until coins spilled everywhere, so there was no need to mention Nereus, this bargain son.
When Mount Othrys ruled, he was suppressed by the Titan river god Oceanus and the sea goddess Tethys, barely able to raise his head;
When Mount Olympus rose to power, he was driven by the new sea god Poseidon, living obediently under the shadow of that ocean tyrant.
Even in the Age of Heroes, Heracles once seized him with brute force and compelled him to use his prophetic ability to help locate the Garden of the Golden Apples, completing one of his labors.
Thus, he was someone who almost never provoked conflict and treated everyone with kindness.
Perhaps it was precisely this harmless and docile nature that allowed him to survive the brutal struggles for divine authority and continue to live comfortably in the now-stabilized Oceanus Sea.
Of course, it might also be because he was now Poseidon's father-in-law.
—In the deep sea stood the splendid palace of Zeus's great brother, Poseidon the Earth-Shaker.
Poseidon ruled the seas, holding his trident; with the slightest movement of his hand, the waves obeyed.
Living with Poseidon in the depths was his wife Amphitrite, daughter of the prophetic old sea god Nereus, whom Poseidon seized from her father's side…
Yes....according to myth, Amphitrite, the Queen of the Sea, was indeed the daughter of Nereus.
By the flickering firelight, Lorne watched the kindly old sea god standing before the three Olympian chief gods.
Dressed in coarse cloth, holding a vine staff, Nereus stood somewhat awkwardly, eyes lowered, his flickering gaze thoughtful.
The negotiator… had arrived.
At the same time, before the campfire.
"Nereus, Grandpa, what brings you here?" Athena smiled brightly, taking the initiative to hold Nereus's hand, appearing warm and familiar. "I was just planning to visit you soon, and to check on Aunt Thetis as well. How has she been lately? Is she doing well?"
With a suitable topic opened, the benevolent elder visibly relaxed as he sat down by the fire with Athena and nodded gently with a smile.
"She is well. She often thinks of you."
The name Thetis occupied a significant place in Greek mythology.
She was one of Nereus's fifty daughters, a sister to Amphitrite, Poseidon's wife, and the future second wife of the Greek hero Peleus.
—That is, the mother of the great hero Achilles of the Trojan War.
At the same time, when Hephaestus was thrown from Mount Olympus as an infant, it was Thetis who raised him, making her the foster mother he respected most.
With such remarkable sons, obscurity was never an option.
Of course, Thetis herself was famed for her wisdom and beauty, the wisest among Nereus's fifty daughters.
Because of this astonishing beauty and intelligence, she shared many common topics with another sea goddess, the primordial wisdom goddess Metis, and thus became close friends with her.
Legend even claimed that the god king of Olympus once pursued her passionately.
But in the end, Zeus, whose seed never failed, chose to withdraw.
Because the king of the gods had heard a prophecy from somewhere.
—Thetis was destined to bear a son who would surpass his father, no matter how great that father might be.
As a being of pure authority, Zeus feared nothing more than a son overthrowing his throne, and thus naturally kept his distance from Thetis.
Because of this, Thetis did not meet the same fate as her close friend Metis, nor that of her younger sister, the Queen of the Sea.
Later, as divine authority shifted, Metis was swallowed by Zeus.
And on her list of close companions, two more names were added.
—The Queen of Heaven Hera, and the new goddess of wisdom, Athena.
Adding Amphitrite, the Sea Queen, as her sister, this sea nymph could truly be said to have an extensive network of connections and a deep understanding of the wisdom of self-preservation.
Lorne watched Athena chatting casually with Nereus beneath the firelight.
However as he heard that repeatedly mentioned name from the goddess of wisdom, his thoughts began to churn.
—Even though this sea nymph, likewise renowned for her wisdom, had endured humiliation and compromise to successfully avoid walking the same path as her sister and close friend, after all those efforts, she still failed to escape being toyed with by fate in the end.
Not only was she, under the arbitration of Zeus, forced into marriage with the demigod hero Peleus, but even her son, destined to surpass his father, was unable to escape the fate of an early death.
And as recorded in the Iliad, Thetis once grasped Zeus's knee with her left hand and touched his chin with her right, begging the god-king to restore glory to her son Achilles.
But the outcome…was self-evident.
So really, if one wants to live well in this world, one must rely on their own strength.
Enduring humiliation and compromise may allow one to scrape by for a time, but in the end, it does not necessarily lead to a good conclusion.
Lorne looked at the Old Man of the Sea, who under the firelight appeared meek and submissive before a group of juniors, and quietly shook his head, further solidifying his resolve to seize authority for himself.
.
.