Releasing his hand from Perseus' crushed body, Crisaor didn't forget about the brilliant shield and the helmet that, upon touching his hand, seamlessly adapted to his size.
"Awesome self-adjusting weapons."
Storing the helmet, shield, and boots he had taken from Perseus' lifeless body in his inventory, the 12-meter giant crouched down to get a better look at his elder aunt holding their mother in her hands.
"So, she's my mother, huh?"
He didn't know whether to feel mortified by the death of a mother who had carried him in her womb for who knows how long or happy for finally being free.
"She is... We will keep her body in good condition and reunite it with her head. But Crisaor, as her son, it is your duty to go to the Underworld and retrieve your mother's soul. It is the only way to revive her without subjecting her and her soul to repeated tortures, turning her into a vile caricature of her own existence."
"Uh..."
Crisaor didn't know how to feel. Suddenly, he had a purpose in life, and it seemed he couldn't refuse it under the watchful eyes of his two aunts.
With complicated eyes, he nodded.
"Alright... I will search for her soul when I can. But Aunt... what about this place? It seems like the end of the world."
Stheno looked around before sighing.
"This is because of your mother... my younger sister, Medusa. Her presence in recent years, after being cursed by Athena for being violated in her temple, caused Medusa to gradually lose her sanity. As a goddess, albeit with a minor flaw, her state of being and mental condition determine how her dominion affects the world around her."
"This world without light and full of ashes... represents how her authority found a way to depict Medusa's inner mind. But since she is already dead, everything might return to normal after a decade."
Euryale let go of Medusa's body for a moment and looked at Crisaor. She hadn't spoken much with her Giant Nephew; she was more focused on adorable things like Pegasus. But she still cared for her big little nephew...
"Crisaor... your mother is dead, but not for long. I trust that you will manage to bring back her soul. And finally, when she revives, she will have the happy family that Athena denied you before your birth."
Athena... Crisaor knew that this goddess was quite complicated, but before pursuing revenge, he needed to know one thing.
"Can you tell me how my mother was cursed?"
He needed to know which version of the myth they were talking about.
[Mount Olympus]
[Temple of Athena]
The Olympian gods, known to humanity in the future as the true Greek gods... The Twelve Olympians...
Their mythology tells how they were born from the giant Cronus and their mother, Rhea... But the truth is not known by many.
They were "Aliens" with a central machine that granted them their powers... Their "Parents" were nothing more than local gods who were slain by this civilization's so-called "Central Machine," which bestowed upon them authority over reality. They came and colonized the planet Earth.
But the resistance of this planet was formidable. Not only Titans, Giants, and Primordials revolved around this small planet...
The Celestials, the oldest race in the universe, also played on this planet... gods, demons, and other races like the "Asgardians" were especially hard to subdue.
For this very reason, these twelve beings from an extinct world, possessing only the central machine that kept them alive and powerful, could only take dominion over the Greek territory.
These twelve survivors of another race, the Twelve Olympians, began to intermingle with the local creatures...
Creating offspring that served as cannon fodder against the Asgardian armies or the Egyptian hordes of the dead and insects.
But as beings from an advanced civilization, they had their own arrogance. They saw all mortals as mere inferior beings.
And anyone who surpassed them in any way was not something they could accept.
Athena was the worst of them all... She couldn't stand losing "Ever" in any sense.
"Step, step."
The sound of her wooden sandals, made from a divine tree, echoed against the high-quality marble floor...
A separate mountain in the "Real" space but connected to the peak of a mountain on planet Earth... It was the home of the 12 grand temples.
The third closest temple to the abyss was the Temple of Athena... which was currently empty except for the sounds of the footsteps of the goddess herself.
"Perseus has died prematurely... this... This is a minor inconvenience."
Athena enjoyed playing with Mortals, grabbing a talented mortal and crafting for them a heroic adventure with a tragic ending to conclude the grand tale.
The fate of Perseus had already been planned by her... unfortunately, it seems she miscalculated how cunning Perseus was and how complicated Medusa turned out to be.
That island was shrouded from all sides, preventing her divine eyes from seeing what was happening inside. Though she could still sense the death of her "Hero."
It was a tragedy, but not a huge one, really. Perseus was a hero she accepted because she was running out of "Heroic" material to use.
Hercules had just been promoted to godhood and connected to the great machine of divine authority. Achilles was already dead, and the only one who seemed particularly interesting at the moment
was the King returning from Troy to his small kingdom... Odysseus. That king was interesting and quite powerful.
"Perhaps I can use him to put an end to that bitch."
She despised the three Gorgon sisters, but even more so Medusa. That bitch, even with her defect, dared to come to her temple to show off. If it weren't for her uncle who, after violating her, gained affection,
Long ago, she would have gone to the island and sent that vile beast into the depths of Tartarus.
"No, Odysseus is a great king, but he doesn't have what it takes to defeat the Gorgon."
Sighing, Athena stopped in front of the large doors that led to the Planetary Observatory of her temple.
The two golden doors with their epics carved on each, depicting their incredible feats.
Pushing both doors, Athena entered. A hologram floated and rotated slowly in the center of the room, and not far away, a great White Throne awaited the goddess to whom it belonged.
Without hesitation, Athena took her seat and pointed her delicate hand toward the hologram. The planet spun rapidly until it came to a stop over one of the many dark spots on planet Earth.
"I will never cease to be amazed at how simple monkeys can survive on a planet of giants."
Shaking her head, she focused on the dark spot... one of the many islands in the seas of Greece.
Resting her hand on the armrest, Athena calmly gazed at that spot before sighing.
"Perseus really is useless. Even with copies of the symbols of the three greats, he couldn't defeat the bitch Medusa. But it doesn't matter. Let's see how long you can continue to protect your two equally bitchy sisters... filthy serpent."
Yes, Athena was truly ruthless. When she hated someone, she would seek every possible way to kill them, regardless of the consequences of such an act.
Moving her hand, the map spun rapidly until it pointed to a rather special ship... Jason, the one who had to find the Golden Fleece.
Recently, Medea had been recruited. She was quite the amusing little witch... Athena liked her a lot, which is why she sent the Son of Aphrodite to make Medea fall madly in love with Jason.
She had to admit, the job was splendid. Not only did she fall in love with Jason, but she became completely obsessed with him. To the point of killing her own brother and dismembering him when he refused to help in their journey.
It was amusing to see her father's face as he witnessed his daughter commit such an act. Even more so when he saw Medea trying to distract her father from his pursuit of the Argonauts by throwing her brother's remains into the sea. This forced her father to stop and collect the remains of his son, which were left floating in the sea amidst his tears.
"You will be responsible for killing that Medusa bitch."
She just had to make a few adjustments to their course... tweak the wind a bit, and voila, she would have the battle she wanted between the Argonauts and the Gorgon