Hera continued to slowly levitate in the sky of Olympus, at that moment she was not nearly as concerned about Zeus' anger as she should have been, instead, she was more focused on the changes happening inside her.
She fixed her hands, the superficial injuries caused by the attack of Zeus.
'Last time I stopped one of his attacks like that, I sustained much more damage,' she reminisced.
'I can feel my control over my powers grow as I fight,'
'Like I said,' the voice of Maeron sounded in her head, Hera was so surprised that she nearly lost her composure
'What are you doing in my head this isn't the moment, what if someone notices' she reprimanded
'No need to panic I'm using our bond to communicate with you, no one will notice and even if they do what will they do, this isn't like they know me, now focus on the fight if need be I will support you,' he said in a reassuring tone and it was enough to calm Hera down
By the time the conversation ended, Hera's injuries had already healed as she looked at Zeus
"Not bad," He said looking at her "But I hope you don't expect to beat me like that," he said, and from the cloud, a thunderbolt fell toward Hera only to be stopped by her invisible shield.
She didn't get any respite as another followed it that she deflected.
"Beat you!? Why would I do that you are the one attacking me," she replied looking above.
'He is upping his game, he is trying to tire you, dodge,' the voice of Maeron in her said
She realized the truth of those words.
"Thunder shower!" she heard Zeus say as a literal shower of thunderbolts descended toward her.
"Whoosh," Using her gravity to reduce her weight to that of a feather she speeds through the sky of Olympus avoiding most of the ultra-fast thunderbolts at a speed rarely seen and deflecting and stopping the few that fell upon her.
The attack of Zeus even though they were principally directed toward Hera covered a great part of Olympus and he didn't seem to care if he was injuring his subjects, forcing everyone to seek refuge in their temples and residence.
Of course, it didn't take long for a lot of the temples of the lesser gods to be damaged, forcing them to seek refuge in the temples of gods such as Athena, Ares, Hermes, and others like Hera's temple in where her subordinated brought their captives remain standing.
"Argh,"
"Damn,"
Now in a safe environment, the gods that had been injured could be healed by the others.
The temples became immediately more animated with some complaining of the behavior of the king while others just wanted to observe the fight that was taking place.
In Zeus' palace in the throne room, everyone observes the fight closely taking note of everything.
In the midst of all that the voice of Dionysos was heard
"Someone wants a drink," he proposed in a lighthearted tone
"How can you think about drinking at a time like that?"
"Why wouldn't I?!" he asked "This isn't like I can intervene, I would be killed the moment I step outside," he answered and everyone nodded at that.
"So does anyone want a drink," he asked again and at the same moment the doors opened revealing Ares cladded in his dark armors, he walked inside bringing with him a few goddesses that were making themself as little as possible while clinging onto him as they as he used his massive frame to shield them from the thunders.
He walked to his brothers while now ignoring the goddesses as they thanked him profusely.
"How can you just endure those attacks as if they are nothing," Asked Artemis
"hum, after all the punishment that I took from father, I'm starting to get used to it," he said casually taking the dring that his brother provided him.
"Soo, another dispute huh it's been a while, how do you think this is going to end this time," he asked.
"I don't know, Hera seems really in a bad mood this time and she angered him pretty bad but so I don't know,"
Hearing her brother Artemis smile "Well I bet they will end up reaching an agreement later, like always,"
"Yeah, but who will end up o)n top this time,"
"I bet my sword on," Father said Ares
"I thought that you would be on your mother's side," said Gaia a little surprise
"Well, this is just a bet,"
"Well I bet my staff on Hera," said Athena surprising even more people
"She is much more prepared and from what I see, she isn't ready to back down," she said as she saw everyone looking at her in surprise
In the end, the other gods following their example started to bet as well, on how long the fight would last, how much damage they would do this time, and more.
No one took that fight that seriously as the most experienced warriors saw that even though they were causing much destruction neither Zeus nor Hera were tempted to inflict real lasting damage.
Outside Hera was flying around while at the same time attacking Zeus by using the debris around to relentlessly attack him from all sides using gravity to amplify their destructive power and forcing him to constantly move around.
All that was happening while the two of them were cursing at each other.
'Should I be jealous,' Maeron asked Hera in her mind from the comfort of his room, after from his and everyone else point of view it was a couple of fights.
'Do I need to remind you that it was your idea!' she complained and he had to concede that to her, it was the plan he had himself put in place.
'You know how much I hate him.' she said
'I know, I know,'
'I'm putting an end to that now! Don't be angry I make it up to you later,' she said in her mind before flying back toward Zeus to stand in front of him.
"Are you done with that episode of madness now," he asked with his usual arrogance and pride,
Hera looked at him with hidden disgust, she had to recognize that he had the right to be that cocky, during that fight even though he didn't try his best and she also used that confrontation mostly to train herself the result was obvious.
She was sweating more than him and had much more bruises than him, from a glance she could see that she had also wasted more energy.
"I already I'm perfectly sane," she responded defiantly
"Whatever frees my kids and I will let it go now,"
"There is no way I will do that,"
"What!"
"You think that after making me lose about twenty of my subordinates, insult, humiliate manipulate me, I'm going to just let it go you are wrong," She said and Zeus could see in her eyes that she was serious about not letting the matter go like that.
'She wanted the matter resolved maybe as much as me so,'
"So what do you want?!" he asked
"I am keeping them under my watch, your offspring, and if you ever make something like that to me again they will crush them like vulgar insects,"
The people looking at the confrontation realized that she was using them as hostages.
"I am ready to..."
"I'm not done," she interrupted he was irritated by that but just let her continue.
"You made me lose twenty-two subordinates, so you will replace them with twenty-two of your own, this is only fair don't you think,"
Zeus already had a frown on his face when he heard Hera's words but she wasn't done as she continued with a smile on her beautiful lips.
"And finally you will be the one who punishes them, those twenty-two traitors, for their transgression against me, and I want them to suffer i know you can be as creative as me,"
"Do you think that, I will agree, those conditions are outrageous!" he said indignantly he and everyone present knew what she had in mind at one glance.
"I have already put a curse on your offspring, from now on one of them will die at each passing minute, we can resume our fight and you can be serious this time we will see how many of them will die before you beat me," she said
"Those conditions are reasonable but cruel," Leto said
"Very insidious, hundreds of hostage humans and gods in case he fuck up again they would be the ones to be punished for his mistake, no one likes to be punished particularly for faults that are not their own, it would make people hesitate to follow him," Athena said
"Since when is he a just ruler, most people are already dissatisfied with our father, but that last request, put a smile on my face, I wonder if he will agree," Ares said snarkily
"That's true that the last condition is quite the dark twist, I never thought that I would even think that but maybe I have a few things to learn from Hera," said Artemis
"Letting them die would lessen his prestige even more"