"...Master, you never said that you had a sister!" Hippolyta said with a somewhat annoyed tone. The redhead can't believe he never mentioned anything about his family member!
"What for? She is a regular human being. Doing her thing. She doesn't belong with the supernatural neither my parents belong there." He said with a shrug. Marcus wants to keep them far away from the other side.
"Even so. You are about to open your...mundane company with Leviathan's and that Astaroth help. They are bound to be exposed to some of the things you do." Artemis pointed out the obvious.
This new information about Marcus being in contact with more devils made Athena even more curious.
'So, he is close to Leviathan… and an Astaroth? Who is she?' The Goddess of Wisdom was very much curious about the inventors life by this point. Oh, yes. She doesn't mind playing the mundane side of things if she can get several important approvals from his family.
"Indeed. That's is why we taking our time to prepare. Latia and Sera are making sure the shock is controlled to a certain extent. Once the company is revealed my parents will be receiving a portion of the money without even working there. In other words, they will be retiring from any sort of work.
And once the medical side of my company opens I will be introducing DNA and body treatments." Marcus explained to them.
He indeed decided to open that side too. Medical treatments. With some rework on Bio-Chambers, he will be able to make them for public use.
Of course, he is not planning to go through any sort of regulations. Like hell, he is going to show what is under the hood. So the world's health association can go fuck itself.
He is either going to make Latia's people take over the government or they going to brainwash the health association and make them sign papers that it's 'approved' by the 'experts'.
"When that part is open then I will give my parents the treatment they will be able to enjoy healthy bodies and prolonged lifespan."
The maids nodded at him. To a certain extent, they can understand him. Sorta? Neither Athena nor Artemis had what is considered childhood. While Atalanta is even worse she was abandoned and then forced to marry because of her parent. While Hippolyta was raised by her mother to be a strong warrior.
So, they don't have what is considered proper childhood and deep affection for their parental figure.
Especially the pair of Goddesses… so, they can't truly understand why Marcus is going out of his way to do some stuff to his parents…
"Not eternal youth?" Artemis said from behind. She was confused.
"Nope. Not unless one has a drive and a regular human lifespan is not enough. Otherwise, there is no point in immortality and eternal youth.
Boredom will consume that individual and he will eventually grow insane by constantly trying new things. That is why many call it a blessing and a curse.
I doubt as a Goddess you can understand that." Marcus said the last part with a pained smile. It's like talking to a billionaire who had money all of his life about the woes of having too much money.
"If you say so…" The silver head could only nod with a frown. She disliked the fact that she can't grasp what he meant.
While Athena watched the interaction between those two. She wanted to know how close they are. The Goddess already noticed the diminished power of Artemis. Which only means one thing.
The Silver-haired Goddess lost one of her powers over a specific domain… in other words… the Goddess of Moon and Hunt lost her maiden status.
Unlike Athena however, Artemis does lose power when she loses her maidenhood because the Goddess of Hunt was the Goddess of Maidens too.
While Goddess of Wisdom doesn't have this kind of issue.
Even if it was amusing in a way, Athena is more interested in their relationship level.
She was quite a bit impressed to what level the silver head was subdued. There was no over the top arrogant woman she used to see. While Artemis was still holding her head high, there was no high and mighty look there anymore.
Whatever Marcus did truly has taken her half-sister down from her high horse.
Which impressed her further. Now she wants to know how he did it!
In more details!
~~~
"We are at the epicentre of the barrier system… but I don't see anything…" Athena said that while taking off her glasses. There was no point in having them when magic was so potent and it was everywhere…
She is more blind with them on than off…
Even with her regular vision, all she could see is a suburban area of houses built close to 50 years ago…
There is nothing there just regular houses, the road is quite bad as well… One would never believe that this area is special in any way!
"Because it's underground. Follow me." Marcus clarified to her as they entered into what she most likely guess is his house's yard.
But instead of going to the house, they walked towards the garage…
Which is not unexpected. The amount of time she heard him mentioning the garage she shouldn't be surprised that he will take her there.
However, she was more baffled that they went behind it and then she saw the ground open and she could see stairs going down.
Sure enough, she saw a room similar to a living room. With couches, a black glass tea table, a large extremely thin TV on the wall. On her left, she saw another room which looks like a kitchen and a corridor, behind her she saw another flight of stairs going down. Meaning another level…
However, what got her attention was the things in front. A large workshop with a car under repairs… or is it upgrades? There was alot of magic there as well… in fact… there is alot of magic everywhere…
"This is my first workshop and now a garage… let me show you." Marcus gently pulled the Goddess of Wisdom into the workshop.
The moment she was there she saw the car properly… apart from exterior… there was nothing else of regular human. Her senses were telling her that.
The engine or what suppose to be the engine is not an engine at all. It was a box of some sort of magic fit in place of the engine.
While the car interior was much more familiar to what humans use now. at least for the seats part. As the dashboard, it was more or less a screen and on the side, there was an even bigger screen.
"What are you going to use this... car?" She asked softly while looking at the car more closely, is this car anymore?
"It has all-terrain usage. Space and underwater included. While this is not the end model. It will be finished once it can travel back and forth in time." Marcus explained to her as he looked at his silver and blue BMW.
"Based... on Back to Future?" Athena said with some sweat rolling down her forehead. More than anyone she knows how much math one needs to do to time travel properly!
"Indeed. Still have some kinks to do before it's properly usable." He said that while thinking about what he needed to do. Like summoning certain someone, as well solving a few riddles, then adjusting a few technomancy based systems.
Once those are done his car will be ready.
"You do know… that even Gods of Time don't mess with time? Sure they can use it a few minutes into the future and back. Gives them an incredible advantage in battle but nothing like time travel shown in Back to Future." Athena explained quite seriously. There was some sweat rolling down her forehead. She truly does hope that this man knows what he is doing!
"Oh, I know. Let me explain what I discovered and what kind of calculations I have been doing." He said that while pulling her towards him and gently leading them to the back of the workshop towards where the maglev train is waiting for them.
The brown-haired Goddess with some satisfaction smile. Seeing his action. The distance between them is shrinking by the minute.
She can't wait for it to be even smaller. Like for example sitting on his lap like how that Lion girl does!
Once the pair went down the stairs the trio of maids looked at them. Atalanta was most relaxed about this. She would be nervous if Marcus had another catgirl of some sort… but Athena is gunning for a different spot. So the blonde lion girl is relaxed. While Hippolyta and Artemis on other hand…
Hippolyta feels threatened, double so for Artemis. The silver-haired never thought she will see Athena as a threat. Not only she is a fellow Goddess but she has much more in common with him!
The Goddess of Hunt always had that superiority to other girls for being the only Goddess around, and Marcus would always look at her with that heated look.
Now it has diminished with the arrival of Athena.
"What should we do?" Hippolyta asked the Moon Goddess.
Artemis only shook her head, she has no idea how to progress and counter the Goddess of Wisdom influence.
"Nothing. There is no need to do anything. Just because Goddess Athena getting along so well with our Master it doesn't mean she will be his wife.
You two forgot that he can create life and could easily create a perfect wife for himself. He already created Quinella, who by all means fits even better than Goddess Athena." Atalanta said with a sigh. She started walking right after those two.
The lion girl simply started to think from a different angle and started to think how would Marcus think…
Honestly… it's hard to think like him. But as a hunter… she did something similar before. Three thousand years of hunting experience made her quite capable of thinking from the shoes of different beings.
Especially from the shoes of her prey. Well, the concept is similar only that she needed to watch and observe him for an extended amount of time.
All she came up with doesn't quite make sense… While Marcus is no doubt a genius. Only someone like Big G can compete with his talent.
Even so, what she found baffling is that he has too much experience… his recent tale she heard only solidified that Marcus is NOT a teenager. No amount of talent can cover several decades of life experience.
Not even once did she see some sort of teenager naivete from him.
And he even speak as if he had a lot of life experience… which should not make any sense because from what she understands he never left his Workshop for an extended amount of time.
In the end, Atalanta concluded that he is either reincarnation or some sort of big shot. Like Solomon or even original Lucifer because some of his contracts are worthy of a seasoned devil. Serafall Leviathan herself noted that.
'Oh...maybe Biblical God himself, if rumours of being dead are true.' The lion girl frowned for a second. This sounds much more plausible. Because it would make more sense. The Biblical God created Heaven himself from the scratch. As well as Angels and of course... Lucifer…
With that thought, the girl descended the stairs after Marcus and Athena leaving Artemis and Hippolyta behind.
The redhead thought more about what Atalanta just said. It made alot of sense. Marcus could easily create a girl of his desires if he would want.
So, if he wanted a wife he would create one…
"She is right. Let's go. You don't want to lose points for being a bad maid!" The Queen of Amazons teased her old boss for a bit. It was refreshing…
The Silver-haired Goddess nodded at her words, her eyes were narrowed, she doesn't like this kind of tease one bit!
Especially now, when her old hunt members can tease her without any sort of repercussion.
~~~
When Athena went down those stairs behind the garage never in her very long life expected to end up in some sort of underground system!
However, she immediately realised that it made the most sense.
The reports with the spies in the Tepes faction reported that the Airship was several hundred metres long. It means it needs enormous space for maintenance.
Now it made sense that it's underground. With the amount forests and empty fields this nation has one could easily build such facilities without worry.
However… where does the manpower come from?
"My theory so far is that time is similar to space. It started when the big bang happened. While it's not quite solid theory alot of calculations I did come to it.
It's like it's ever-expanding, moving forward. From there I realised that travelling back in time cost more energy than going to the future.
It's like fighting a river current. It's better to flow with it, instead of fighting it."
Athena nodded hearing that. It's so...fascinating with someone who is not just talking about ego measurement…
"I came with the same conclusion some time ago. When I said that to fellow Olympians they laughed at me. Telling that it was Cronos who started time." The brown-haired Goddess said with a sigh.
"If it's true... then time should have stopped when Zeus chopped him to bits?" Marcus said with raised eyebrow.
The Goddess of Wisdom shrugged her shoulders.
"According to him, It can't be stopped once it starts flowing." She said that with a deadpan voice.
The teen inventor looked back at her with a deadpan look.
"Then it makes Cronos a Time user not a God of Time…" The black-haired teen said while shaking his head from disappointment.
"Don't tell that to Zeus' face otherwise he is going to get angry. He doesn't want his achievement of defeating Cronos to be lessened in any way." Athena said with an amused tone.
"In will keep that as ammunition."
The Goddess giggled for a bit before looking forward… seeing a... railway station.
"You...have a Railway under...your house?"
"Maglev more specifically, I am thinking of upgrading them to the next level. Adding some 'firepower'." He said that, as bronze and white coloured maglev arrived just on time.
The doors slide to the sides, Marcus motioned for her to enter.
Athena happily did so, she likes his gentlemen like behaviour with her so far. It's refreshing. No fear, no awe, only friendly attitude which she likes quite a bit.
No over the top Goddess treatment. Honestly...if she showed some animosity by arriving here she most likely would have ended up as his maid…
Which she would have loved quite a bit perfectly honest. No more dull meetings. No more politics, she would only have Marcus to serve that's about it… oh, and she would have a proper person to talk to…
Delve into interesting things as his research assistant … now that dream life...
The problem with that is… her Greek Pantheon would most likely cease to exist…
This is what she understood from their chess game. In the end, she decided to make the best of both sides to make sure her home is safe from him and same time spend some time with him.
"Let me guess… you going to make them into some sort of transformers?" She asked with an amused tone.
She remembered that the man has jet fighters that can transform into robots based on transformers.
*Sigh*
"Now that is boring. You got it right from the first try." Marcus said with a fake disappointed tone.
"Hmm, I think it was obvious. As the maglev is already good. So, the most obvious upgrade would be the transformer route."
The teen could only nod after hearing such a reasonable answer.
"True… I suppose. Anyway! We have around 15 minutes to talk. Why don't we take turns while asking questions?" The black-haired teen asked with a huge smile.
Now he can finally learn some stuff from the past! Especially from Athena as she is a very good and reliable source of information!
"Hmm...very well." She easily nodded at his request.
"Well, ladies first." Marcus motioned for her to start.
The Goddess of Wisdom nodded happily. She was satisfied that he sees her woman first then Goddess. Even though it should be reversed. But, she likes this much more.
"Very well. Let's start with manpower. From where did you get this much manpower to build this much, this quick?" She asked with a very curious tone.
"Robot labour. At the moment there are close to a hundred thousand robots. Also known as Aurora Bots, they are working tirelessly ever since they were created.
Maintenance is easy, and the OS is constantly monitored. To make sure they don't develop self-awareness or anything related to that." The teen answered her question, to which… Athena has more questions…
"I see… makes sense… you already have robots as fighting force…very well, you may ask me anything you want." She said that with a very serious tone.
"Hmm...I will start with an easy one. Trojan war. Was Helen worth it? Her beauty great enough for war?" His question earned him a deadpan stare from Athena.
"...You have a Goddess sitting next to you and you asking about another woman? Are you sure you are not related to my illustrious father?" She asked in turn with a snappy tone but she controlled herself.
"No… I checked my genes. Traced them back many generations. I don't even have Greek blood in the first place." Marcus answered with a shrug. Nope! He is not related to Zeus in any way…
This was not the answer she was expecting. Still, it amused her greatly!
*Sigh*
"Fine, I will answer that. Since we had a deal."
The teen got on edge, honestly, it's a silly question! but, he wants to learn the truth!
"Back in the day, Ares had a little project going on..."
"Sparta. I know. Artemis told me about it."
Athena smiled for a bit. It's so nice that she doesn't need to explain everything!
"Yes, so… as you may know Aphrodite and Ares have a 'thing' going on for centuries. So to help with his little project as a good lover she is Aphrodite found a beautiful woman and blessed her with beauty, making this girl even more beautiful. Simply put she was an 8.5 out of 10 and with the blessing of the Goddess of Beauty and Sex...Helen became 10 out of 10.
The Spartan King was so mesmerised by her that he immediately took her as his wife. Aphrodite's goal was to make sure that the next Spartan rulers have extra beauty to their martial prowess...
To put it in simple perspective. Helen was very beautiful, was she worth the war? No. Not to me. Apart from being beautiful, she didn't have any other talents above average. She was just a beautiful girl Aphrodite selected for her lover's project.
But since she is easily swayed, she got pulled in that little argument we had. And to make sure she would win she offered to the teenager Paris her little girl Helen… regardless of the consequences.
As you can guess… when a teenager teen sees a hot girl… well… you know the rest." Athena explained with a shrug.
Marcus nodded several times as he heard about it. Yes, this sounds like classic Gods playing with humans stuff.
Well more like a family playing their games only on the scale of Gods. Since the Greek Pantheon in the end is a family. And when they bicker it affects regular people.
Even when they do not bicker, instead have a simple argument even then it will involve humans living under them.
"Hmm, thought so. Now it's your turn." The teen motioned for her to ask her a question.
Honestly, the pair by this point forgot that they were not alone…
~~~~~~Space Centre~~~~~~
Once they arrived at the centre the Goddess of Wisdom mouth slightly opened in shock. She quickly hid it.
It's hard to accept that less than an hour ago they were in some borderline rural town talking in front of a simple statue and now they were here…
Sure...she could accept this from another pantheon where few gods working on something big and Divine energy pouring without restrain.
But this was a pure human thing… done in less than a decade. Even here the amount of magic is overflowing! Yet, It's not used… instead, the robots are using their in build magic to construct this large thing.
Wasteful… so much magic just wasted…
"You...dont care that this place has this much magic is in the air? You could do something with it." Athena said while massaging her forehead.
Should she advertise herself as project overseer? To fix the wastefulness of this… Whatever he is building…
"Oh, that? Don't worry it will be used soon. The saturation is on purpose." Marcus clarified for her. He can see the frustration from her behaviour.
"Oh? Okay. So what is this?" She asked him now that she got over the idea of wasted magic energy…
A holographic window appeared in front of her with pictures of what this is…
The Goddess mouth slightly opened again. What she saw is a massive gun… and if her hunch is right… it's a space gun…
"Apsos-class station. It's for all purposes. From assault to healing, to general observation to simple deterrent against other nations, pantheons…
This is only the core and it will be launched… now." As he said that the ceiling started to open… the magic in the air started rushing… to form huge magic circles above the core of the future space station.
"Have you ever seen someone launch a hundred-metre long object into space? I didn't, today I will rectify that." He said with some giddiness.
As Marcus said that, his body got surrounded by purple energy. Athena paled… like really paled sensing the amount of power this man has!
What level of control over his power he has? And what is this power! She can sense magic… and is that Touki? What is the third energy!?
Most of them all the amount of energy he had was enormous! Hell! He doesn't need a faction or minions! With this much power, he could rule everything just with his energy alone!
Yet...he does all these side things?
…
…
Thinking for a bit… it did make sense to her… he was similar to her.
She quickly calmed.
Moments later a platform appeared underneath them. Marcus didn't forget about his three maids who followed him...even though they were slightly annoyed that he behaved like he didn't see them!
Slowly the platform on which they were standing started to raise. Going up towards the outside.
Athena saw how many massive magic circles were appearing one above another.
"Won't people going to see this?" The Goddess of Wisdom asked him.
"Such eye-catchy circle would be visible from kilometres away." She said that as she looked at the circles going several hundred metres up.
"Just look in that direction." Marcus pointed for her.
"It's the closest town from this location."
The brown-haired Goddess did so.
"I see… so you used that reality-warping technique there too…"
"It's called Realitus. And it's not technique. More like a particle that interferes with human senses." He clarified for her as they returned to look at the massive core of a station to be launched to the space.
It was shaped like a classic football ball with those hexagons in it.
"There are five stages to this. First is the core. Once the core is in space the deflectors will come online and will form barriers around it. Allowing the Aurora bots to work in piece.
The second part is the boosters, hangars and the assembly line. The third part is the command centre and the habitable areas.
The fourth is the barrel, and the last one is the addition of areas where the extensions could be built for future attachments.
In total it will be 370 metres long. And around 120 metres wide.
It's quite small, but that's is because it's just the first model of such a station. As we move to space we can build much bigger things later on." Marcus explained to them as he was looking at the core.
While Athena was nervous of such a thing hanging above everyone's heads… surprisingly Artemis had a dreamy look.
She remembered what the inventor drew for her. The bow-shaped station. The amount of awe it could generate towards her! The Goddess of Moon would have a large amount of believers once again!
However, the beauty snapped out of this delusion. As she knows that this happening is almost impossible. Marcus not fawning over her, and simple seductions are not bringing her anywhere near this dream station!
'Hmm...maybe once this one is done he could build bigger between Earth and the Moon?' The silver-haired Goddess thought to herself.
While she was in deep thoughts the teen Inventor looked at his phone. The last remaining preparations are nearly done.
The Aurora Bots moved away from the core, the section underneath the core started to open up… there was a circle there.
Meaning that it will use gravity to launch this thing into space. At least this is what Athena saw.
"Well...here it is!…3...2...1..." Marcus said as he looked at the timer.
Once it hit zero he quickly looked at the launch himself.
The core of the station first started falling into the opened section below. But, the moment it hit the circle below it started accelerating up.
The speed continued to increase with each circle it passed.
Soon enough it was at Marcus and his group eye level before rapidly going up.
The moment it reached the last circle it glowed for a moment before with a loud boom the whole core launched up into the sky…
"You used inertia… to launch 100 metres wide object into space!?" Athena said that while trying to fix her glasses as she just processed what she saw. The problem was she doesn't have any glasses at the moment. And the maids nearly laughed seeing that.
The trio of maids on other hand tried to forget what they saw… too much to process…
Only Artemis saw this as the first step towards her Bow shaped station. There was a small satisfying smirk on her lips. This was almost like a promise to herself to try harder.
"Impressive isn't it?" Marcus nodded at Athena's words. That's why he likes this Goddess! She didn't even check the accelerator circles! Yet, she already saw through their real purpose!
"There was so many things which could have gone wrong! Each of those circles need to calculate the force….and...and…" The brown-haired Goddess eyes were nearly spinning as she realised how many calculations needed to be done… on top of that, she realised that those circles were human-based magic ones… meaning it was pure math…
Eventually, she lost her balance and dropped on her ass…she tried to process this!
"Are you...sure… you not demi-god? Related to my divinity?" Athena asked as sweat started going down her forehead.
"So you understood? Fantastic! Honestly, you are the first person who saw through this! And saw it as not just some simple inertia launch!" Marcus exclaimed happily!
The Goddess just sweatdropped more after hearing this.
"The gravity, inertia itself, wind conditions, weight of the object… each of those factors come into play with every single circle… to put it simply… there are hundreds of thousands of calculations needed to do this! Even the slightest of miscalculations could mess the inertia effect slowing the speed of the launch! Worst case recoil!"
As Athena was explaining the maids sort of understood what she said, while Marcus simply nodded multiple times. What she said was almost like music to his ears.
This Goddess understood it perfectly!
"In other words, if that failed that thing would have smashed somewhere on Earth... most likely explode…"
The brown-haired Goddess said with a nervous look. She has no idea what was inside of it and how big the explosion would have been…
"While explosion happening is impossible because of the Diamond Core Heart inside of it. The construct integrity is way above something as casual as an explosion.
But... If it somehow...magically explode…
Well… my suggestion is to get some warm clothes for several decades." Marcus grimaced while saying that. He did some casual math in his head. If that thing would go boom it could rival Yellowstone Super Volcano in sheer force. His Diamond Core Hearts are not meant for explosions…
Especially the much larger than normal Diamond Core Heart inside that space station core.
"So an ice age. You are far too reckless…" The Goddess of Wisdom said while slowly getting up on her feet. Honestly… She was expecting some incredible stuff…
But! not something which could blow her off her feet! Literally!
"It's strange...hearing that from a Greek Goddess…" Marcus said while shaking his head in an amused fashion.
A Greek Goddess called him reckless! He should type that down somewhere. And make it into a poster…
Athena rolled her eyes. A huff escaped from her lips.
"What's that supposed to mean!?" She asked with narrowed eyes, even Artemis looked at him with a similar look.
"Nothing… I mean, I could pull a whole book of stuff you guys did in history." Marcus explained with a comical eye roll.
"..."
"..."
"None of those events had the potential to bring an ice age for the whole planet…" Athena defended herself with embarrassed blush.
"And neither this one had the potential to do anything…" Marcus pulled out his phone and showed to her the percentage of potential failure to launch.
It was below 0.01%
"In other words… it was a perfect launch."