CHAPTER 151(Goal VS Loyalty)

Please read the author's notes. (Examples and explanation of moves and appearance+ Monster Sources)

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CHAPTER START---

"I still think we should at least have Airmid here," Tsubaki says.

Standing in Hephaestus's bedroom, the goddess was wearing her usual white button-up shirt and black pants, her bare feet on the cool tile floor. Tsubaki was leaning on her dresser, arms crossed as she gave the woman a disapproving frown.

"It will work, I made it myself remember," Hephaestus insists, holding up a small vial of bright white liquid, pure distilled Arcanum, the will of the gods which allows them to manipulate the world itself.

"What about this one?" Thalie asks, sitting on the woman's bed holding a small jewelry box, another identical vial restrained and cushioned neatly within.

"This is a one-time thing, using one alerts heaven, using two will have me summoned back to heaven and locked in forever, that's why I need to make this one count," Hephaestus takes a deep breath as she uncaps the vial.

Biting her lip Tsubaki had cold sweat forming on her forehead. Nervous like never before, Hephaestus spoke as if this wasn't a risk but her captain knew otherwise.

"We're here if anything happens, we'll drag Airmid out of bed in no time," Thalie says, closing the box and gently placing it on the bed as she walks past the tightly shut curtains to stand closer to Hephaestus.

"Right, just need to focus on what I want," Hephaestus says as she takes the potion like a shot of whiskey.

"Wow..." Tsubaki says, raising a hand to shield her eyes from the blinding bright light radiating from Hephaestus's entire body.

"Arggghhhh!" Hephaestus groans, gritting her teeth as she tries to focus her mind, enduring what felt like white-hot steel flowing through her body.

'Focus your mind, just focus Hephaestus!' she mentally chants. Her inner voice screaming, trying and trying to envision what she wants. 'Think about the future, think about what you need, you're the god of creation damn it... you need to be able to create anything, you need the right tool to create them, to create your future...' she repeats over and over.

For almost a full minute her body burns, Arcanum seething through the mortal vessel she's forced to use, an imperfect and incomplete vessel. A problem she wants to rectify.

Before Hephaestus can collapse to the floor as the Arcanum stops Tsubaki catches her. The goddess having all her energy taxed, unable to support herself as she stares at the ceiling in a daze.

"Did it work?" Thalie asks as Tsubaki carries Hephaestus and gently rests her down on the bed. The slick sweaty skin of the goddess, her drenched clothes leaving her glistening on the mattress.

Seeing Hephaestus struggling to breathe Tsubaki isn't sure what to do.

"Look away," she says. Thalie doesn't hesitate and immediately turns around.

As Tsubaki reaches down to remove the eyepatch she sees fear in the goddess. Her one exposed eye widens, pupils narrowing as she tries to turn her head, the woman stops reaching for the eyepatch.

"Huh...it didn't work?" Tsubaki asks with a sad frown, feeling only pity for the goddess. All that work, after wanting this for so long, to get so close and still fail.

"It worked," Hephaestus struggles to say. Barely lifting a hand the goddess plops it down onto her belly, tapping her midsection with one weak finger. "The...greatest...creation," she says before completely blacking out, leaving both the women in shock.

"Did...did she seriously do that, this was her one chance to fix her eye right?" Thalie asks in disbelief, her mind unable to comprehend the stupidity of what she just witnessed.

"Yeah, this was it. Only gods can use that potion and it's one use each, so she bet it all on...Welf?" Tsubaki says with uncertainty.

"But why do that now, why not after he proves himself?" Thalie asks, still trying to make sense of this.

"Faith, she has faith... it's honestly all she's been running on since he came to Orario," Tsubaki says. What she wouldn't tell Thalie was that Hephaestus was simply waiting for Welf's adventure to settle so she can pounce on the oblivious smith.

Thalie shakes her head at the thought, with a deep sigh she speaks, "you know, before I met other gods I thought they were all so...wise and brutal."

"Mhm, and what changed?" Tsubaki asks.

"I came to Orario, they're all a bunch of horny teenagers... well apparently Hephaestus and Freya are, definitely Loki," Thalie says.

"Definitely Loki, but the others...they never got the chance for one reason or another, can't blame them for taking the chance. Now I need to stay here to make sure she's ok, you mind locking that in the vault," Tsubaki says, pointing to the box with the remaining vial.

"Yeah no problem," Thalie says as she takes the box, seeing Tsubaki opening the curtains for the light of the full moon the peer into the bedroom.

"Hey one more thing," Tsubaki calls out. "Don't tell the guys about this, it could complicate things," she says.

Giving her captain a nod Thalie makes her way out of Hephaestus's quarters.

Making her way over to Hephaestus's office, Thalie casually unlocks the door and enters. Walking behind the desk and activating a small button on the underside of the desk.

A second later the wall behind the desk swings inward, revealing a short hallway with a large vault.

"Never gets old," she mutters while walking up to the door. A large 10ft tall, square-shaped door, she places a hand on the smooth and blank metal vault. There were no keyholes or combination locks, only a powerful enchantment that only opens for three people. Hephaestus, Tsubaki, and Thalie. The goddess herself and her two most trusted confidants.

As she places her hands on the door the seal immediately shows itself and the metal wall swings open.

Stepping into the vault she was once again graced with the sight of raw materials, a few weapons, namely the small dagger Tsubaki managed to make with the Breath property. A small and rather unassuming blade on its own, but enough to qualify her to be Hephaestus's captain.

Most of the space was occupied with materials left behind by Zeus and Hera familias, things that couldn't be resupplied before the Trifecta entered the lower floors.

Placing the box carefully between ingots of deep floor Mythril, Thalie doesn't even bat an eye at anything in the vault as she exits, quickly sealing the doors behind her as she moves to Hephaestus's desk.

Taking a knee at the desk she reaches up and withdraws her 'hairpin'. The ever-useful lockpick.

"And...just...one more," she says just before the final click is heard and the drawer opens up.

Hephaestus's confidential files, everything Thalie needed.

Reaching in she carefully observes how the files are places, sorting through the contacts from other gods and even entire countries.

"Mhm, Altena, Empire, Loki familia, Aphrodite," Thalie quickly skims the name on Hephaestus's files. "Ganesha, Athena, Astraea...Ares?" she raises a brow at this file. Hesitating for a moment before moving past it, that wasn't her problem.

Looking past Hephaestus's contracts she sees what she was looking for, "Adrestria," she narrows her eyes at the file. Quickly opening it to look at the contents.

Flipping through what were obviously offers, dating back almost 8 years, not very long after she first joined Hephaestus familia. Even back then Hephaestus was constantly making offers to keep her here and away from Adrestria.

"Denied, denied, denied, denied," she moves page after page. Adrestria's answer stamped across the page in bright red. Her eyes flicker across the offers for barely a moment, the offers becoming more and more absurd. Easily reaching into the billions as of two years ago.

Finally arriving at the end of the file she sees one anomaly. "Approved," the word was stamped across an offer in bright green. Her eyes jump to the bottom of the page to see the offer. "5 Billion and a full battalion worth of equipment," Thalie mutters in disbelief. "That doesn't make sense, what the hell is she planning?" Thalie asks no one in particular as she looks at the final page.

"Ugh," she groans, seeing the instruction for their trade written in the glyphs gods use to communicate, a language she couldn't read.

Taking the page she sets everything back just as she found it, quickly making her way up to the Trifecta's floor of Babel.

'How do I get someone to translate. Riveria should be able to read some of that, but this is a lot to read... I need a god,' she ponders while walking up the stairs.

Entering their floor she walks through the hallway toward their doors. 'A god I can trust,' she stops walking in front of her door. 'No... A god who I have leverage against,' she turns around to look at Yang's door, a devious smile forming on her face.

---15 Minutes Later...

"Do you even realize what time it is?" Freya asks, her purple robe loosely wrapped around her as she lazily plops down onto the couch opposite Thalie. Ottar was dutifully standing guard behind her guest, the woman making an obvious effort not to look out the large window on this top floor of Babel.

"It's important," Thalie says.

"Important enough to wake me up just before midnight?" Freya asks, snapping her fingers for the curtains to block the windows, allowing Thalie's fear of heights to subside for the moment.

"Important enough for me to be willing to put in a good word for you with Yang, if you help me, and keep this between us," Thalie leans forward slightly and holds the folded paper up, earning a raised brow from the goddess.

"Deal," Freya doesn't even hesitate. "What is it?" she asks while reaching her hand out, only for Thalie to refuse to give it over.

"This is only for you and me to know," Thalie says. Gesturing to Ottar standing guard behind her.

"Ottar, leave us," Freya says.

Casting a harsh glare at the back of Thalie's head, Ottar is hesitant to leave who he knows is a very dangerous woman alone with his goddess. "Lady Freya, I don't believe it's w---"

"Get out, now!" Freya gives him a dangerous glare. Then man quietly exits the room and shuts the door to give the women privacy.

Handing the page over, Thalie sits back as she waits for Freya to read it.

"This is classified, and not meant for you, for Hephaestus," Freya looks up from the page to give Thalie an uneasy look. "What are you doing?"

"Do you want the help with Yang or not?" Thalie asks, the goddess immediately returns to reading the page.

"Adrestria, so you are part of that stupid bet then..." Freya says as she continues reading.

"You mentioned that before when we were in Yang's apartment, what bet. She never told me about any bet?"

"The bet between the war gods, well mostly Athena and Adrestria," Freya says.

"And I have a part to play because?"

"Because they want to make a champion, something about Adrestria believing champions are simply people who never lose, but Athena thought champions are formed through their devotion. So they descended to settle it," Freya says as she hands the page back to Thalie.

"So you're telling me, she put thousands of people through hell, because you gods wanted to settle a stupid bet..."

"Gods are assholes with no respect for life, I assumed Yang already gave you that speech," Freya says.

"All the time, so what did it say, where is she?" Thalie asks.

"It doesn't say anything like that. Hephaestus is supposed to meet with the contact after he acquires something for her at a black market sale in two days, then he sorts out the details," Freya says.

"Hmm, where is this sale?" Thalie asks.

"Well, I planned to send someone from my familia for a set of jewels that would be there so I know where it is, but you'll be trying to find one person in a swarm of dozens if not a hundred, it's impossible since they'll scatter...and I assume you're doing this alone considering this is treason," Freya says.

"Yeah...alone," Suddenly Thalie gets a risky idea, "alone doesn't mean outnumbered, I just need someone to catch and process everyone for me," she says. Getting up and putting the page away she leaves to formulate her plan.

"What about me?" Freya asks.

"When the time comes I'll help you get him to give you a chance, just once."

"Thank you, all I need is one chance," Freya says.

"Mhm, I'll get going before Hephaestus looks for this paper," Thalie says as she gets up to exit the penthouse.

---Apollo Familia Mansion...

Tossing and turning in her bed, with long dark blue hair and covered in a cold sweat, Cassandra Ilion is shaken awake by her best friend and roommate Daphne.

"Cassandra!" The girl yells, trying to stop what looks like a seizure.

"Ah!" the Oracle cries out, feeling the heat and some pain from her last vision. She folds her arms across her belly as if to make sure they're still there as she rocks back and forth in her bed.

"What's up with you?" Daphne asks, pushing her short red hair out of her face.

"I... I saw something, I need to warn him, Daphne I have to warn him, he'll get hurt," the girl says, trying to catch her breath.

"Can you just cut it out with this crap, just go back to bed," Daphne dismisses the Oracle, for that was her skill. To accurately predict the future but people would be skeptical at best. Not that anyone knew that, even the god couldn't decipher what was written on her Falna for this skill.

"But, we need to warn him. This felt important, if I don't stop him Yang Shen will get hurt. I saw a massive blue fire dwindle down to a torch," Cassandra says, hugging her pillow for dear life as she tries to recall more of the dream.

"Just go to bed Cassandra, nobody cares about your bad dreams," Daphne says as she lumbers across the room and drops back into her small bed. "Besides, what can even hurt a level-7?"

END CHAPTER---

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