Hex and I arrived at the village and saw a bunch of panicked people wandering around and looking toward New Olympia.
"There's Hex! Miss Hex! Are our belongings okay? What about our homes?" They asked her.
She was unsure, but she seemed like she desperately wanted to answer them. I pushed her forward to not stop and talk about such pointless things when their lives are at risk.
I forgot most of the people in New Olympia are all very rich, and probably shallow people. My first bout of evidence arose as a man who was saved from Zeus only cared about his material items.
"Hex! There you are, honey. Hi Anima. Hey, is everything okay over there? The people are growing restless." Dex told her after walking up to his wife.
"I'm not sure what to tell them! Nothing is certain, so I'm not sure what they want to hear! I don't know if their stuff is going to be okay..." She said while leaning her head into her husband's shoulder.
"It's alright... sorry Anima, I know this might be stressful, but do you know anything about the state of their belongings?" Dex asked me.
"I don't care about the shit they own. I want to talk to them though, so I'll lie if you want me to." I said, looking into the crowd.
I was looking for the best person to consider interrogating. Who knew Zeus? Who knew his weakness?
Members of the army, probably my best bet, all stayed in New Olympia to fight with Zeus. First-hand sources were out of the question completely.
As for second-hand sources... I need to depend on them. And, I had a perfect idea for it.
"Hey! All people with military-related family, I need you to gather near me! I have a word about your families!" I yelled out. I even grabbed the attention of Hex and Dex, as multiple people gathered around me.
"I'll personally keep your stuff safe if you answer some questions for me," I told them. I pulled out a pen and paper and began my interrogation.
"Any disclosed information about Zeus needs to be reported. What do you know about him? What kind of guy is he? What kind of guy was he? What do you know about the name Ono? I'm taking answers one at a time, starting with you, on the left." I said, pointing to a skinny man.
"Well... I know that he doesn't like fire, but who does? Listen, I live on-" I put my hand over the man's mouth and looked at him with cold, dead eyes as I began to interrupt him.
"I wasn't finished, you stupid shithead. You tell me where your stuff is again and I'll burn everything you own to the goddamn ground. Do I make myself clear, Skeleton?" I yelled at him and he silently nodded.
"If you don't know any of my questions, tell me which member of your family is in the army," I demanded from him.
"My... um... my father is! And my brother!" He told me. And that's when I couldn't help but smile out of irritation. I decided to ask one more question to decide whether or not he was lying.
"Wow, if they're at work all the time, they probably don't remember you, do they?" I asked him. I sealed the proof once he declined and said that they remembered him.
He was lying. No member of Zeus's army has a history they remember.
"[Bullet]" I said, shooting the man in the foot and watching him fall to the ground. The people backed away from me out of fear. I threw the Skeleton a potion and turned back toward the crowd.
"I do not deal with liars. This is life or death, you tell me if you have family members, and if you have one more liar in that crowd, I'll murder all citizens of New Olympia and let Zeus destroy everything you've built. Do I make myself clear?" I asked everybody.
I obviously wasn't going to do that, but these sheep needed a little bit of extra direction.
Seven people left the crowd that formed around me and I began to gather information.
"He was right! Zeus doesn't like fire!" I gathered. Great, so Tama should join the final fight as well. Had I not come here, I couldn't have effectively positioned her. Maybe I should trade my place with hers in the final fight and launch attacks from the back... I'll have to store away that thought.
"Zeus is a really timid guy! He won't' ever sit down!" I heard somebody else shout. People agreed, so I took the information and processed it as efficiently as possible.
Somebody who doesn't sit down? What does that do for me?
Well, if he's timid, I guess that means he's always prepared for something bad to happen. Generally, those people always create a backup plan. I should consider the idea of a counter-strategy to anything predictable, such as splitting Fuki and me up.
"Ono? Hey, haven't we heard that name before?" I looked at an older couple in the back and realized something was off.
The older people in the crowd knew the name sounded familiar and couldn't place it, however, the younger people didn't know a thing about that name.
That can't be... Ono was only there around three months ago, at least that's what Soul explained. Why do the older people know Ono, but the younger doesn't? What am I missing here?
I looked back at the older couple and pestered them again.
"What else do you remember? What came before Ono, can you remember anything?" I asked them. They sat for a moment and shook their heads with worried looks in their eyes.
And bingo.
I found it.
Zeus is performing a city-wide memory wipe attack. That attack that was supposed to hit me, that wasn't going to kill me. It was supposed to wipe my memory again. Everybody else was hit by the blast around us, and it looked like this city had partial memory loss. That wasn't good, emotional and psychological warfare wasn't something I was well-versed in. And, now that I know Zeus's strongest attacks involve wiping memory, more than my life was at stake.
Who I was as a person was now on the line.