ANGELS

Athos climbed up to the terrace of his hotel to get some fresh air.

He had just got back from suplexing a God and he needed to clear his thoughts.

Nereus had hinted at the fact that his quest to achieve Godhood would be akin to tying down the Giant wolf Fenrir, which was in actuality impossible, for the wolf had boundless strength. Yet, the Aesir had done it, So, he too had a chance....right?

He sighed and sat down with his backpack next to him, looking at the full moon, which glowed a faint white in the sky. He had managed to strike a deal with the sea god which required him to get the cornucopia, the horn of plenty, and he knew just where to get it. It was on the island he had called home for 12 years.

The cornucopia was the horn of the River God Achelous, whose river was present on the island and who had quite a bit of history with his father, Herakles. The quest to fetch the cornucopia was the same one his father had given Jason and Piper when the seven entered the Mediterranean. It was a quest which almost got the two killed, and Jason was a son of the Big Three. A son of Zeus, who was presumably the strongest Olympian.

A God was a God, after all, and he didn't have charmspeak, like Piper, to subtly manipulate the river God. All he had was his fists, and he doubted it would be enough to go against an entity that had the ability to drown him via flooding. Thus, He needed more strength and he needed it now.

He reached into his backpack and pulled out the bronze medal he'd gotten after killing the manticore. Perhaps the God of Blacksmiths could help boost his insufficient strength.

But he was a little apprehensive about using the medal as its appearance was not as he remembered. The one Percy and Annabeth used was ordinary silver, while his was celestial bronze. So, he didn't know what exactly it would transform into when he used it and whether it would be too fast for him to follow, like the mechanical spider in the books. Without Tyson's superhuman hearing, they would've never reached the forges.

All his things were always in his backpack so he was as ready as he could be. So, he took a deep breath and pressed the slight depression at the middle of the medal.

For a few seconds, nothing happened, but with no warning whatsoever, the medal rumbled, and with a sharp sound, sent out a large pulse of translucent energy that travelled off far into the distance, as though acting like a beacon. He instantly dropped the contraption and created some distance between it and himself with a surprised look on his face. This was not what he expected. He had assumed that the medal was an automaton, but after looking at the periodic bursts of energy the disk seemed to be giving off, it looked more in line with...magic. Not very Hephaestus of it.

A few minutes passed, and he wondered whether he should be doing something at this point, but his thoughts were interrupted when the moonlight was suddenly cut off, and two large shadows engulfed his being. He looked up in shock to find two large 9-foot bronze statues of dudes wearing chitons with bladed wings that made them look similar to biblical angels, bearing down on him.

"Sup, Kid. You're the one Hephaestus told us about?", the statue to the right spoke, his voice sounding akin to a blade being dragged across a steel wall.

"'Course he is, dimwit. He has the medal", the other statue interjected, both intently staring at Athos.

"I dunno about that Chump. Little half-blood could've stolen the thing", The first statue rebutted.

"Who are you two?", Athos muttered, taken completely off-guard by the two statues. And why were their toes so shiny compared to their bodies?

"Don't wanna tell. Currently just errand boys for the God who made us. Now we got to move. We've got things to do", the statues replied in sync, both crossing their arms while their bronze wings flapped in the air.

"Uh-huh. I assume you're taking me to Hephaestus then?", Athos asked.

"Nope. That's Bob's job", Chump, the statue to the left replied.

"Bob?"

"The mechanical spider. The disk that you've thrown to the ground. That's quite barbaric I say! We automatons have rights you know! You really have to apologise to Bob, for he may lead you to a deathtrap instead of the God's lair if he's not happy."

Athos' eyebrows twitched and he immediately picked up the disk that had ceased its energy bursts and dusted it off carefully.

"Where are you taking me then", he asked after putting away the medal with great care. He didn't want to be impaled on a spike due to a pissed of spider.

"Somewhere here or somewhere there. You'll find out when we get there. Get a move on kid, they've brought a marble lady statue to the warehouse, and-

"OI! Chump!", the statue to the right interrupted a Chump's sentence and dreamy look.

"What?!"

"Shut up."

***

Athos never realised how cold it really was this high up in the air. Chump had grabbed him and his backpack and had taken to the air with a few giant flaps of his equally giant wings. A few hours had passed and they were still flying.

Just being this high up would've been cold enough, but the fact that the wind was pushing up against his face every time Chump flapped his wings made it almost unbearable. Yet, he forced himself to get some shut-eye during the flight as he didn't know whether he would get the time to rest when they landed. For all he knew the metal angels would drop him in the middle of a forest and take off chasing after marble lady statues....How did that even work?...No! He didn't need to know.

"Yo kid! Whatcha do to make that grumpy old guy so happy? Never seen him so cheerful unless he completed some particularly difficult project", said Chump, his voice somehow magically reaching Athos' ears despite the howling wind.

"Huh? Who? Hephaestus?" Athos yelled, trying to make his voice louder than the strong gales. Hephaestus was happy? But he'd thought that the God didn't give two fucks about their children most of the time. Were those two kids special in some way?

He did know for certain that if he hadn't reincarnated, those kids would've landed in the clutches of Kronos. Whether that would have some unknown ramifications, he didn't know...nor did he care. He truly didn't bother about whether he messed up the original timeline as long as he benefited from it. If he didn't, he wouldn't interfere as much, as the information he had would only then be of value.

"Who else ya dingus? Did you earn the favor of any other God? Damn, I'm jealous. Let me tell you, I would've made good use of those wishes! I would've asked for more marb-

"We're here!", the other statue suddenly said, cutting off Chump's fantasy yet again. Thankfully.

They dived down into the clouds and the land underneath came into view. It was a fairly large clearing with trees all around. Seeing that, Athos hoped he wasn't being abandoned.

They touched down and Athos wiggled out of the statue's grasp, landing on the brown soil. He had never thought having solid ground underneath your feet would be such a pleasant experience.

"We're off then!", Chump said, waving a bladed wing.

"Whoa whoa! Hold your horses! Where am I and where should I go?", Athos said loudly, slightly panicking.

Chump merely smirked and pointed behind Athos and said, "The doorway's right there."

He turned around finding a large tree with a peculiar symbol carved onto it. He slowly walked closer and it became slightly clearer. It was the Greek Delta symbol which started to glow a bright blue as though reacting to his presence.

'You've got to be fucking kidding me!'