Chapter 7

Demeter appeared next to us again, covered in sweat.

"Huff, man you guys took forever." She panted.

"Thank you, Tree woman," a Hecatoncheires said.

She reached out her hand and gave a warm smile. "Name's Demeter. Nice to meet you."

"Likewise," he said, jiggling her arm with three hands.

"Thank you Demeter. You really saved us back there." Hades said, giving her an appreciative nod.

"Of course! Anytime. Well maybe not any time. That was actually really hard." We all laughed. "No I'm serious. Don't do that again."

I gave her a hug, "You really pulled through. Thanks."

"Uhhh, looks like we're here!" Demeter sprinted over to a series of white tents. The moment I got close, I could already feel a ton of someone's fear and worry weigh me down even more. We walked into one to see Metis pacing back and forth biting her finger. Hestia was sitting in a black and dark yellow campfire talking to Hera. Amalthia grooming and humming a soft song to the scared Gida.

"Guys you're ba-" Metis said before looking at us. The fire turned a bright yellow before turning black again as Hestia looked at us and then our condition. Hera put her hand over her mouth and Amalthia gave us a nod and a smile before tending to Gida again.

Hera, Metis, and Hestia immediately rushed up and hugged me.

"Hey we're here too you know." Hades said before coughing out ichor and falling on one knee. I could feel the energy leave my body as I slumped over to the girls. Metis caught me while Hestia and Hera got Hades and Poseidon.

"Lay down." Hestia said as we were laid onto wool mattresses. I smiled before losing consciousness.

When I came to, Metis was sleeping at my side. Her small face was still full of worry even in her sleep. I sat up and winced. There was still a burning pain in my side. My entire abdomen was wrapped in fresh bandages.

Hestia was sleeping in the fire, which was a soft blue with tinges of black and dark yellow. Hades slept alone and had bandages on his entire torso, arms, legs, and the crown of his head. Poseidon was on the other side and had bandages over his right arm, shoulder, and over his abdomen. Both of them were asleep, and it was the first time I saw Poseidon sleep without contorting his body.

Hera was sleeping in a sitting position at the side of my bed. I was lucky I didn't kick her. Amalthea, Gida, and Demeter were slumped against the wall together, sleeping.

I walked out of the tent. It was midnight and the sky smelled of pine and snow. I could see my breath when I exhaled. We had barely climbed the mountain and the ground was covered in white snow. The satisfying feeling and sound of the snow crunching beneath me soothed my heart. I looked up to see the moon, surrounded by the stars. The silver light shone on my face. "How beautiful… if only she wasn't out for me." I muttered to myself. Pine trees could be seen dotted around our elevation. I heard many orchestras of crickets, all synchronizing into a beautiful symphony. I continued walking, while looking around, enjoying the peace. I slowly zoned out as I continued looking. After walking a few feet, I was brought out of my little paradise as I heard voices. Curious, I started walking towards them.

"Uff, why didn't we ask Cottus to just help us. It would have been so much easier."

"Shut up Arges, we can't wake them for this."

"Oof. It's to help our nephews so I think they won't have a problem. That's all they could talk about."

"Just lift it higher idiot."

I walked over to the voices that disturbed me to see two Cyclopes struggling to carry an entire forge. The last one was carrying a workbench, slack tub, anvil, and a grindstone in his large hands. He also had various bags hanging off him. The cyclopes all had rosy skin and they wore nothing but skirts made of some dark brown animal fur and brown leather sandals.

I let them carry the forge next to the tent before I walked over. The panting Cyclopes noticed me and gave me a nod. "I see you're awake Zeus. I don't think you should be walking around." The blue eyed cyclops said before setting down the smaller items and bags."

I shrugged, "Where did you get this?"

The green eyed cyclops patted the side of the forge. "It's our old forge and our gear. We were going to use it to give you a legendary weapon like our brothers."

"Yup," the red eyed cyclops drank some snow. "A brand new spear. Brontes here was telling us how good you were with your old one, we thought we could make you a new one. Just much stronger." He winked. Or maybe blinked, I couldn't tell.

"Hey are your eyes okay?" Brontes, the green eyed cyclops asked. "Do your eyes hurt?"

"Huh? Oh no, it's just an ability I have. Keeping them closed just puts less stress on me. I can still see perfectly fine."

"Well, I'm Steropes," The blue eyed cyclops said while putting coal into the forge. He grabbed a vile of green liquid and poured it on top. The entire thing lit aflame with purple flames. All the snow around the forge instantly melted but I only felt the temperature rise a little. He set down the anvil next to the forge and the slack tub next to that. He then pulled out an assortment of hammers and a hardy.

The red eyed one got up and stretched. "I'm Arges the coolest of the Cyclopes.

The green eye Cyclops snorted. "Must have just been the snow. I'm Brontes, the oldest of us three."

I nodded. "And you guys already know who I am. I'm looking forward to working with you." I reached out my hand and they took it in turn to shake it. "I'm going back to sleep. You?"

"We're going to work on blueprints, you can sleep." Brontes said as Steropes pulled out a smooth wooden board and sheets of papyrus and a few bronze styli. I walked back to the tent to find everyone still asleep. I laid back down next to Metis and closed my eyes.

I woke up to the smell of bread being baked. I sat up and stretched.

"Hey what do you think you're doing!" Hera rushed over to me and put my arms down. "What if you reopen your wounds?" She began checking the bandages. "First thing you do when you wake up is try to hurt yourself. You're so dumb." She flicked my forehead.

I rubbed the red spot on my head which stung more than I expected it to. "I'm fine. I was up and about last night."

"Oh it looks like mister dramatic is finally awake." Hades, still in bed, rolled his eyes. "How did I probably take the most damage and yet you wake up after six days to my two. Learn to take a hit."

"I'd prefer not to get hit at all, punching bag." Poseidon sneered over my shoulder.

Hades just shrugged. "I didn't think she'd be so powerful. Hey Zeus. Tell this woman to take off these wretched bandages. I can't move and I'm already fine!"

"I'm telling you! You need more time to heal." Hera protested. And I stood up. Hades craned his neck to look at me. "Thanks, this was getting annoying." I chuckled.

"No you stay in bed, doctor's orders. Where's Metis?"

Hera frowned."She's in the tent to the left." I nodded and left the tent.

It was already about three in the afternoon and somehow, the tent blocked out the banging. I turned to the right to see Brotes sitting on a rock while hammering a piece of red hot metal on the anvil. His large muscles bulged as he put two hundred percent of his body into shaping the metal.

Steropes tempered what was obviously a trident. It was seven and a half foot long rod of what looked like silver with three prongs. The center shot straight up and ended at an arrow point. The side prongs first slanted down and out, forming a W, before going straight up and resting only a little under the center prong.

Argus was busy polishing a pitch black helmet that seemed to absorb light. It had the exact shape of a spartan helmet but instead of a red plume, it had a black plume that ended with a bit of a tail at the back. I smiled seeing them work on our gear.

I looked past them and almost laughed. The Hecatoncheires were bench pressing multiple pine trees. To my left Demeter was talking with Amalthea and Gida while walking through a small wheat field. I turned to the tent and walked in.

Inside, Metis was sitting in front of an oven, watching it. "Hey, I've awoken." I said while giving a wave. Metis almost fell out of her chair. She stood up and ran to me, giving me a big hug. I hugged her back. We stayed like that for a few minutes.

"My, my? Did you get bigger while lazing about in bed?" She asked playfully before getting on her toes to give me a kiss. I bent down to lock our lips. I did notice that when I woke up, I felt even stronger than before. It must have been from defeating Campe. We parted and stared at each other.

Metis had her light blue hair tied down into a ponytail. She had her hands on her wide hips and smiled up at me. Her soft lips had tasted sweet like sugar.

"I don't know. I'm special."

"You really are. Forgive me please, but I did have many doubts about you beating Campe. Even Cronus had an annoying fight with her. But I heard from Poesidon that you defeated her brutally."

"She was playing around like an idiot. I had to finesse a bit." I sat down and she sat on my lap, closing her blue eyes and resting her head on my chest.

"Do you like Hera? Intimately, I mean."

"Why do you ask?"

"Because, she always seems a little jealous when I'm around you. I just wanted to know if you share her feelings for you. Don't worry I won't get mad."

"I do actually."

"I figured. If you're to be king, it's only natural for you to have more women. If this is true then I have a request for you."

"What is it?"

She got up and took the bread rolls out of the oven before lathering butter on top. She sighed. "Make her queen instead of me."

"Huh? What, why would you ask that?"

"I'm not like the rest of you. I'm a whole different species. The king and queen should both be Olympians."

"Olympians? Where did you get that from." Metis grabbed one before tasting it. "That's what Poseidon voted to call you guys, and the others agreed." She shrugged and sighed.

"If you want to be queen you can just say so. I'm perfectly fine with it and I'm sure the others will be too."

Metis rolled her eyes. "When have I ever tried to indirectly ask for something. I said what I mean. Yo-"

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Loud explosions cut her off and I jumped out of the tent and reached for a sword that wasn't there.

Brotes' hammer was overflowing with electricity as he hammered the weapon into completion. He and Arges took all three weapons and walked over to one of the Hecatoncheires, who promptly threw them to the top of the mountain. Steropes waved me over and poked his head into the tent with Hades, Poseidon and Hera. Hades walked out after a moment. Finally free of his restraints and Poesidon followed, barely able to contain his excitement.

As I joined them we gave each other only a nod and followed the Cyclops up the mountain. After a few minutes of climbing and wondering when we were going to make stairs, we reached a flat platform at the top to see Brontes and Arges waiting with the weapons of power covered in cloth. Steropes hurried over and took a weapon and they each got on a knee and held out the weapons.

"For Hades!" Arges said, his voice bellowing over the mountain. "Infused with the power of Erebus, it will make you undetectable! A shadow in the Night!"

Hades uncovered the helm and stood there for a few moments, admiring it. He finally put it on and immediately all the shadows on the mountain engulfed him, and swirled around his body and finally entered the helm. He turned to us and we couldn't see anything under the helm, just a black void. The helm was a matte black spartan helmet with diamond shaped eyeholes. The nose guard fit perfectly on his pointy nose and ended in a leaf shaped point. The side plates rode down, slanting down when it went past his nose guard, leaving only a small slit in between. It continued down and stopped at points at the top of his sternum. The plume was black and faded into grey mist at the top. He activated it and his entire body turned pitch black before disappearing. He took it off and reappeared giving us a smile and a wink with his now deep purple eyes.

He held it under his arm as Steropes pushed forward his weapon. "For Poseidon! Infused with the power of Gaea, it will call upon powerful earthquakes that will split the land and create continents!"

Poseidon uncovered the trident and smiled. The moment he put it in his hand, the mountain began to shake and rumble, as if it was a volcano going to erupt. The trident was seven and a half feet tall. The rod was made of a silver metal that stopped at three spikes at the base of the prongs. The prongs were now golden and ended in leaf shaped blades. On the center of the middle prong, To silver rods slanted down and connected to the centers of the side prongs. He flipped it over and stabbed the trident into the ground, causing fractures to run down the mountain. He pulled out the trident, satisfied. He turned back to us, looking at us with now brown eyes. "Hell yeah! Can't wait to use this bad boy."

Brontes presented his weapon. "For Zeus! Infused with the power of Ouranos, it will shatter the sky and call upon lightning and storms to smite those foolish enough to cross you!"

I unwrapped my weapon. Immediately, thunder boomed, as dark clouds gathered. It was an eight foot long golden spear. Running up either side, were two silver zig zags that connected to the blade. The spearhead slanted down a bit before shooting back up to a dangerously sharp point. At the butt of the spear, the zig zag faded into purple and made a lightning bolt. I smiled and shot my arm up, raising the spear into the air. The clouds flashed with thunder and a stream of lightning blasted down and onto the tip of the spear. The silver began to glow as the electricity flowed through it and into me. I never felt this much energy before! It was, well, electrifying! My muscles bulged as I let the lighting course through my veins and into my very core.

I finally put the spear back down and the lightning stopped and the clouds disappeared, letting the sun shine again.

The Cyclopes got onto both knees and put their hands out in front of them.

"Hail the Olympians!"