Houses were burning, and the screams of her people echoed in her ears.
But the Goddess was powerless to respond to the prayers of her followers; she knelt on the ground, looked up, and saw the person standing before her.
Clad in battle armor, armed with a divine shield, and wearing a winged helmet, her golden hair swayed in the hot wind, as if her very presence represented victory.
Athena, the Goddess of Athens, one of the twelve main Olympus Gods, the Goddess of War, now stood before Medusa.
Although the Gorgon Sisters, as the children of the Ocean Gods Phorcys and Ceto, were even a generation older than Athena, who was a fourth-generation Goddess, the disparity in their divinity was immense. Athena was the daughter of the current God King Zeus and the granddaughter of the former God King Cronus, while the parents of the Gorgon Sisters were merely two of the most marginalized among the many Ocean Gods.
Even though Medusa had fought with all her might, sword in hand, she was still no match for Athena.
Medusa slowly turned her head and saw her two less combative sisters already unconscious amidst the ruins of the collapsed temple. Then, as if having made up her mind, she slowly bowed her head to the Goddess of Wisdom and Victory.
"Athena," she pleaded, "I am willing to become your subordinate God. Please spare my people, and spare my sisters."
"No, the Pelasgians do not worship the Olympus Gods; they have forgotten their creators and must be punished," Athena said calmly. "And as for you, the Gorgon Sisters, daughters of the Ocean God Phorcys and the Goddess Ceto, I will arrange for you to enter Olympus and become one of us."
Upon hearing this, a look of despair appeared on Medusa's face. She lowered her head and choked out a plea to Athena, "Please, I am willing to be your subordinate God… No, I am willing to be your follower! At least, please do not harm my sisters."
Hearing her plea, Athena slowly removed her helmet, revealing her beautiful face that had been concealed. Her bright eyes stared at Medusa for a long time before she finally smiled:
"Alright, it's a deal."
...
Meanwhile, after a series of tribulations at sea, the Spartan fleet successfully arrived at Atlantis, the divine realm created by Poseidon in the ocean.
Ares, who had arrived with the fleet, naturally disembarked onto this isolated continent. After a period of various disguises, stealth, and investigation, Ares had a general understanding of the basic situation of Atlantis.
Like Athens, this nation also lacked the inheritance of the first humans. However, unlike Athena's method of directly selecting Athens residents from the common people, Poseidon was an absolute philanderer. Therefore, the first ten rulers of Atlantis were all descendants of the Sea God Poseidon, and from birth, they were brought to this isolated continent by the Sea God. Consequently, the legacy left by Ares did not spread to Atlantis.
Due to its unique environment and political ecosystem, Atlantis became one of the most remarkable nations in the world, possessing ten kings within its borders.
These ten kings, all of the Sea God Poseidon's bloodline, held equal status and took turns serving as the high priest in Poseidon's temple at the center of Atlantis. Every four years, they would gather in the Sea God's temple at the very heart of Atlantis to collectively discuss major affairs of Atlantis. If a resolution was reached, the kings would sacrifice a cow raised in the temple to Poseidon, then use its blood to record their agreed-upon covenant on the pillars within the Sea God's temple.
Within this nation, classes were rigidly divided into royalty, nobility, and commoners based on the concentration of the Sea King's bloodline, with virtually no possibility of upward mobility.
The technology of Atlantis was highly advanced, almost a generation ahead of the outside city-states. The architecture and city defenses of Atlantis were primarily focused on aesthetics. The scope of Atlantis was extremely vast, with the city being a regular concentric circle, separated by three city walls. The outermost ring was the commoner district, further in was the noble district, and the innermost layer was the royal district. Those in the inner layers could go to the outer layers at any time, but those in the outer layers could not enter the inner layers. At the very center of the city was Poseidon's temple, the most sacred place within all of Atlantis.
Atlantis, centered around Poseidon's temple, was equally divided into ten regions, each ruled by one of the ten kings. Furthermore, as subjects of the Sea King, Atlantis had highly developed ports and shipping, allowing them to reach almost every location within the current Greek World by ship.
However, despite Atlantis appearing incredibly glorious at this time, Ares keenly identified some areas where he could exert influence.
For example, the Atlantean army: their ships were indeed the strongest in the world, but the combat readiness of their soldiers was many times inferior. Atlantis's geographical location was too advantageous, meaning almost no city-state could attack them. As a result, the Atlantean army had never engaged in battle with outside forces. By now, their army had become a place for nobles and royalty to keep idlers; the soldiers were pampered gentlemen, and the generals were all good-for-nothings. Ares estimated that if his Spartan army were to clash with these Atlanteans, the Atlanteans would likely be scared to call for their mothers in front of the Spartans.
Ares had initially thought that Athena would have difficulty dealing with the Atlantean fleet, but after seeing the Atlantean army, he felt that Poseidon was nothing special after all.
As long as Athena could find a way to destroy the Atlantean ships and force them onto land, it would be a foregone conclusion that the Athenians would defeat them.
Besides the army, the contradictions between the social strata in Atlantis were also quite evident. While in outside city-states, everyone except slaves enjoyed citizenship, and even kings could not arbitrarily execute a citizen, in Atlantis, commoners were playthings for the nobles, and nobles were merely lackeys for the royalty.
To the Atlantean royalty, all other inhabitants of Atlantis were merely their possessions, with nobles being only slightly more valuable.
The commoners and nobles of Atlantis must have accumulated much resentment due to this situation, but they dared not resist because the great Sea God Poseidon stood behind the royalty.
In such a situation, if they were given a God they could rely on, a God who could grant them power equal to the royalty, then they would undoubtedly erupt in turmoil, overthrowing the Atlantean royalty from below.