TRUCE

"YOU DARE SHOW YOURSELF BEFORE ME!!!", Zeus roared.

White-hot lightning swirled around the Master bolt that was pointed directly at the two beings before him.

One was a Gigas, the same race as Thoon. He was thirty feet tall and was humanoid from the waist up. His metallic bronze skin faintly reflected the bluish-white lightning and looked fused to his similar bronze armour. Like Thoon, his legs were of a dragon, scaled and ending in claws, but instead of being bone-white, it was emerald green. His marble-white eyes looked down at the King of the Theonites with mild amusement as though he was watching a kid throwing a tantrum. He was Enceladus, the Bane of Athena.

He gave Zeus a small bow that was meant to show his respect but his eyes showed otherwise, "Greetings. I come on the behalf of the Alliance. We wish to propose a tru-

BOOM!

A lightning bolt the size of a bus exploded forward with enough force to raze Mount Everest. It was absolutely nowhere near Zeus' full power - a tiny, tiny fraction of it, yet it was enough to atomize a Minor God on the level of Janus. It screamed toward Enceladus with enough speed to match instantaneous teleportation, but just as it was close to incinerating the Gigas its trajectory shifted ever so slightly - enough to make the bolt miss its target.

"I was wondering when you'd show up", Zeus growled, looking to the side at a familiar goddess.

She had dark red hair - almost black, and pasty white skin that looked as though she were dead. Small scars littered her biceps while two metal armguards adorned her forearms. Pitch-black gloves that were made of Stygian Iron covered her wrists and scaled armour wrapped around her valiant figure.

Two large, shiny, near-transparent, crystal wings stretched out from behind her, every feather an intricately cut diamond. They were spread wide - their majesty blinding. The innumerable glimmers akin to the very stars. She was Bia, daughter of Pallas and Styx, Goddess of Might and Force, and the former leader of Olympus' four enforcers.

Her golden orange pupils which were usually suffused with pride were now faintly trembling. Beads of sweat trickled down her pale face as she stared at her former master in quiet defiance. Manipulating the direction and velocity of objects and energies or vector manipulation was her whole shtick given her soul property of Force, but shifting the direction of an attack from the Master Bolt in such close range took a lot out of her.

"The Alliance would like to offer a truce. A temporary one of course.", Enceladus spoke once more, interrupting the stare-down, acting as though he wasn't attacked by the most powerful weapon in the Greek Mythos a second ago. Perhaps he was confident in his conditional invincibility and Bia's ability to escape. Those wings that were each twice her size did look useful.

"I do not need to hear the words of a monster and a traitor", Zeus answered, lightning dancing around him. His feet hovered above the earth and faint cracks began spreading along his skin, implying that he was ready to unleash his Divine Form.

"I'm afraid you do, unless you wish to ignore the fact that we, the Gigantes, are frighteningly close to capturing the monster you fear the most", Enceladus shot back, clasping his hands behind his back, looking more relaxed than ever.

Zeus froze and the cracks on his skin receded. If there was one thing he feared, it was this. It was one of his many mistakes that could come back to bite the arse of Olympus itself.

'Is what he says true?', Zeus asked internally, his eyebrows furrowing.

"We do not know. Thoon's protection is still present in the Gigantes. Unless Thoon is truly atomised, his blessings shall not wane", the Moirai replied.

It was impossible to fuse their Fate strings into the Gigantes as Thoon's blessing was still with them. The Titans were easier and Primordials impossible. Gaea was the only exception as they could only manage to fuse their strings into her subconscious which she left exposed by greatly interfering with the world, not her main body. Thus, if she ever woke, she was completely out of their reach and influence.

'Fuck. Instruct Zelus to infiltrate the Alliance too. Bia is not trusted enough by the Gigantes to gain enough information', Zeus thought angrily.

"Is he really the best one to do so? He-"

'That's an order'

"As you wish", the Moirai said, disgruntled.

"So, do you wish to listen to our proposition?", Enceladus asked, smiling happily. He was Athena's Bane and was the cleverest among the Titans and Gigantes alike. He was the current mastermind behind the Alliance and had predicted exactly what would occur when meeting Zeus.

He had brought Bia to reinstil the fact that traitors could still be present within Olympus which would make Zeus more likely to accept the truce to weed out the betrayers. He also knew Zeus wouldn't put much effort into his attack as it wouldn't kill him anyway. On the off chance that it could hurt him, Bia could redirect a minimum of one attack after which he could mention Zeus' worst fear as a way to initiate the truce.

The Alliance wasn't in good shape and they desperately needed time. Gaea's subconscious had been forced into slumber due to her body facing too much backlash from the World, removing the one advantage they had over the Theonites.

Moreover, the infighting between the Titans and Gigantes had to be resolved as they both had just clawed their way out of Tartarus. Furthermore, Alcyoneus, the eldest Gigas, had to be fully resurrected as he and Kronos were the only ones to deny the deal Tartarus offered them. Unlike the rest of them, they wouldn't reform in Tartarus once killed. Alcyoneus's resurrection had to be partially halted in the 1900s due to some....complications.

"Speak", Zeus spat, his countenance as dark as a thundercloud. "And make it quick. I have a council to get to."

***

Athos was pissed.

Well, not pissed to be exact, more like annoyed. He had been looking forward to getting his hands on magic as he believed it would be an immediate boost to his power, but he had thought wrong. Just like Pantheons and power systems, magic was way more complicated than he'd thought.

There were multiple types of magic.

Most, if not all Pantheons had a branch of magic that specifically manipulated their version of the Mist. The Theonites manipulated the Mist, the Norse manipulated Glamour, the Egyptians manipulated the Duat, the Hindu Pantheon manipulated Maya, and so on and so forth. Each of them had its own little unique traits, but fundamentally they were all the same.

After the aforementioned branch of magic, came the specialised magic systems. Some Pantheons had their own unique Magic systems but some didn't. Some could only be practised by a specific group of people while others could be practised by anyone given they fulfilled certain conditions.

A good example would be the Norse Pantheon which leant heavily on magic.

Alf Seidr is a form of peaceful magic that can only be wielded by some elves, the God Frey and his children. On the other hand, Rune Magic was an extremely powerful magic system that could be used by anyone but at the same time had harsh conditions.

The only foreign magic system that the Library showed how to practice was Rune Magic and that too, in its most elementary form. In fact, the reason such a low number of books in the Library could contain so much information was due to Rune Magic.

The cover of every book, save for the ones in Circe's collection, was inscribed with the rune 'Anuz' which looked like the letter 'F', that is if a drunkard wrote it. It represented the Norse god Odin, a God of Wisdom and Knowledge. It helped the book hold far more pages than it seemed. The rune was, in reality, much much more useful and this was an extremely basic application but the complex version was not present in the Library.

He had thought that he could learn multiple Magic systems or at the very least one useful one, but to his dismay, reality was disappointing.

Every Magic system had conditions or certain drawbacks.

Rune Magic required the user to undergo great suffering. Odin hung from Yggdrasil for nine days with a spear at his side to learn and use it to its fullest extent.

The Greek Magic system which was the most detailed in the Library required the user to form a connection with any of the Protogeni to gain access to specific powers. Certain tattoos had to be carved into the user's body depending on the Protogenos, that is if they agreed to it. Most did, as it barely had any drawbacks on their end and they seemed to benefit from it. What said benefit was, was unknown.

The drawback was that the stronger the connection became, the more influence the Primordial had on the user. The user could even become something of an apostle if the connection became strong enough. Athos immediately disregarded the magic system the moment he looked at the drawbacks. He did not want his mind to be influenced by anything.

The manipulation of the Mist was a little unique. One had to have a specific kind of talent for it. An example would be Hazel Levesque in the HOO series. It was quite rare to have said talent - enough to have Hecate herself approach the person. If one didn't have the talent for it, the most they could do is convince a mortal that they were a dog. Not very useful in a fight.

He didn't know whether he had the talent for it, so he had to either ask Circe or Hecate when he met her.

The most depressing part was that the two most powerful Magic systems he read about were only mentioned and briefly described in the Library. There were no instructions on how to use or perform it. Probably because said Pantheon did not wish to part with it. It was the Rishi System in the Hindu Pantheon and the Cultivation System in the Chinese Pantheon. Both were stupendously strong but probably had their own drawbacks and conditions.

In desperation, he had turned to Dark Magic, or Khaos Magic, as a last resort but to his disappointment, the book merely described its uses and applications. It too did not have any instructions to begin practising it. Perhaps the greeks considered it a bit too unstable which, according to the book, it indeed was.

Just then, as he was about to complete reading [ Khaos Magic and its Applications ], he sensed Circe walking in.

Had it been a week already? Was the antidote ready?