[Third Person's PoV]
Soon after their little tour, they were led to what appeared to be a banquet hall. There was a large, long golden table in the middle, laden with plates and plates of food of various kinds.
"Now come, children, eat to your heart's content," Zeus said with a smile on his face.
'Ew,' Lucian thought to himself. 'Ah, I see what's going on. He wants to satisfy his ego, wants to see us do the offering thing right in front of his face…' Lucian concluded as he studied Zeus' expression.
Lucian just played along with it, rolling his eyes. As they finished the offering, the gods and demigods began to interact ever so slightly but not all.
Athena calmly walked toward Lucian, who was happily eating chocolate cake. Sensing someone behind him, he turned with the spoon in his mouth.
Seeing Athena, he tilted his head in confusion. "I'm going to be honest, I don't support your relationship with my daughter."
Lucian still had the spoon in his mouth as he gave her a 'What' expression.
"Not only does it appear that you have a relationship with Annabeth, but you also seem to have one with Thalia. I do not condone such a relationship. Either choose one or the other. You know what, I'll make that decision for you: break up with Annabeth."
Lucian slowly pulled the spoon from his mouth and just stared Athena in the eye. "Listen, lady, I don't know what your deal is–"
"My deal is that I have never met a demigod with so many fatal flaws. Because of them, the people around you will suffer. I don't want my Annabeth to be among them."
"First of all, like I said once before, I didn't choose the harem life; the harem life chose me. And second, it's not like I'm holding them hostage. If they want to break up with me or not, it's up to them to decide. And since they haven't, that means they are happy with the way things are. Which also means, it's our relationship, not yours to meddle in," Lucian said, pointing a spoon of cake towards her and then eating it.
Athena felt her eye twitch. "Do you want to know your greatest flaw of them all... one flaw that is greater than any other...?"
Lucian looked at her, waiting for a response, his spoon back in his mouth.
"It is your avarice and cupidity…"
"Oi, I'm a very smart individual, I'll have you know, or at least my mommy says so," Lucian said as he wagged his spoon at her with an offended look.
"What?" Athena asked. There was a short pause as Lucian saw the gears in Athena's head turning.
Athena covered her face and sighed. "I said cupidity, not stupidity… but at this point, I'm not so sure if there is really such a difference with you."
Lucian rolled his eyes. "I was joking, I know what it means. It's another word for greed, more towards wanting to possess a multitude of things," Lucian said, raising an eyebrow.
Athena nodded. "Your greed doesn't know when enough is enough, and one day your greed will be directed towards something you have no hope of possessing, which will result in your destruction and in the destruction of those around you…"
"Can I ask you something?" Lucian asked with a serious expression.
Athena stared at him for a bit and then nodded.
"Does one of your divinities that I do not know about involve seeing into the future or something of a similar nature?"
Athena raised a brow and shook her head. "That's more Apollo's forte."
"Then stop speaking as if you know what the future has in store for me. I know your thing has to do with strategy, anticipating your opponent's next moves based on what you know, but one, you don't know me that well to guess what I'm going to do next. For that, you would need to know all the variables about me, which is something you currently don't possess. What you see and know is what I allow others to see and know.
And two, you more than anyone should know, that no matter how much you strategize, you can never anticipate the unpredictable. And I'm as unpredictable as anyone can get, not even I know what I'm going to do next.
Anyways, it was nice meeting you, mother-in-law, but I can't say that I enjoyed our little chat… you should work on that," Lucian said as he gave her the peace sign and began walking away.
"This cake is very good; I need to ask for the recipe before I leave," Athena heard Lucian mutter.
Athena just stared at Lucian's back with a shocked look.
Athena then felt someone patting her back. When she turned to see who it was, she found Hestia with a large smile looking at her sympathetically. "I'm sorry, my little niece, but he just ate you up. I think this is the first time I have seen a mortal leave you so speechless," Hestia happily giggled.
"I'm glad you find this so amusing," Athena rolled her eyes. "He's going to have an early grave."
Hestia had her hands on her hips as she wore a proud expression. "I wouldn't be so sure. Lucy is very strong, and I'm not talking about strength-wise. He's a good boy who secretly cares for others. He wouldn't do something dangerous if those he cares about would be in danger."
"Lucy?" Athena asked, looking at Hestia amused.
"Yeah, he only allows those close to him and people he cares about to call him that. So if he hasn't given you permission, don't you go calling him that," Hestia advised with a waggle of her finger.
"Whatever," Athena rolled her eyes before walking away.
Meanwhile, little by little, Lucian started lowering his presence before walking out of the banquet hall.
…
Luke walked through an empty hallway with his hands in his toga pockets. His steps didn't have a single ounce of hesitation.
He secretly snuck his way into the throne room, causing him to smirk once inside. He walked straight toward Zeus's throne, ignoring all the others.
He saw Zeus's master bolt in the armrest. As Luke reached over to grab it, a hand suddenly appeared and grabbed his wrist.
He felt his heart drop to his stomach, his head snapping toward the owner, and found Lucian at the other end.
"My god, Lucian… you almost gave me a heart attack," Luke said, holding his thumping chest. Luke then snatched his hand away. "So what are you doing here?"
"I should be asking you the same. What were you planning on doing?" Lucian asked.
"It's none of your business," Luke scoffed.
"Ya, it is my business when I want to make it my business. And would you look at that, I'm making it my business," Lucian smiled joyfully.
Luke stared at Lucian for a while before exhaling sharply. "What do you think I was doing?"
"Once you do this, Luke, there is no going back. I hope you know that. You would be walking on a path of no return."
"Are you seriously giving me a speech right now and trying to stop me?" Luke asked with an annoyed expression.
"I wouldn't really be your friend now if I didn't at least try. You are going to be betraying a lot of people who care about you and whom you care about by doing this."
Luke developed a small smile. "Thanks, Lucian, I truly mean it when I say you are a good friend." His expression then turned serious. "But you're wrong about one thing: it's already too late. There is no going back."
Luke immediately grabbed the thunderbolt, which crackled slightly in his hands.
Lucian closed his eyes and sighed. Luke turned his back and began walking away. He stopped briefly. "I'm really sorry, Lucian. I truly am," he said before continuing. As he closed his eyes, he felt half of the betrayer potion being digested.
With that, Luke walked out of the throne room, his steps not once faltering.
As Luke left, Lucian felt something watery run down his nose. As he checked it with his finger, he saw red. "I guess that's what I get for tracing all three divine items," he smirked.
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