2 Affinity

It had only been a day since that damn Goddess called me and now I'm standing before 12 of the most prominent figures in mythology.

The Olympians. I faced towards the throne that stood above all, the seat of the self proclaimed King of Gods; Zeus the Lightning Lord.

"What do I owe the pleasure of having me within this fine hall, my lord?" I cut straight to the point, uncaring of the fact that I may die, but who cares? If I die wouldn't that mean I can sleep for eternity?

Oh, unless I'm sent to the Fields of Punishment, otherwise I'd be surely doomed.

In fact I'm not even sure why I'm here in the first place. After all this was Olympus; home to the Greek Gods of myths and legends.

Then the thundering voice of Zeus broke me away from my useless thoughts, "I am sure that you were wondering why we have brought you here today and what the task that we have delegated to you is." He paused slightly, making me anticipate in nervosity.

Of course he had to crush my expectations with just a few lines, as expected of a God, "That will all come in good time, but for now my daughter Athena shall give you a rundown on our current situation."

He pointed towards to a woman on my left, clothed in reds and a fashionable red plumed silver helmet.

Her grey eyes cloudy and unpredictable. She appearance lived up to her name as a wise and militaristic Goddess.

Every move of hers was rigid yet calm. An exaggeration of her divine attributes. "Mr. Clyde, we have long warred against those so called immortals for the right to control the Heavens and now the current Mandate is in the hands of a Cultivator of the Eastern system."

She pulled out a whiteboard out of thin air, simply by waving her hand and in a flash of grey and a faint whiff of olives they were there.

My expression must have been hilarious as I saw some of the Olympians smirking at me. I blushed as I was not used to this much attention.

"So in order to deal with the troublesome Mandate we called you here. With the Tome Of Enigmas at your side you must create more heroes to do our bidding and to do so we need you to act as the villain." Her emotionless voice gave me the chills as I heard her technically say that I was being used.

"So, I basically have to create heroes somehow with this magical book of yours and you expect me to do it all by myself? You guys are Gods aren't you? Can't you just use your powers to zap that guy away?" I tried to reason with them since this was obviously a threat to my livelihood.

It may be good for exercising, just running around the world trying to look for possible candidates for heroes but no, I was literally too lazy for that.

"You make a good point." Athena deliberated for a while before glancing towards the others, as did I, my expression was dull as I saw the rest of the Olympians shaking their heads as a way of saying; 'I don't know.'

If they decided that I was useless, then they might just kill me and leave me in the underworld, which was not a feasible plan.

Then there was only one way out of this, and that was to agree with doing the task, but on my terms, "I have a suggestion." As the throne room had good acoustics they were able to hear my words easily.

"Oh? Well then let's hear it." The Sky Lord was very amused, which meant that I had to make my proposal sound good, no pressure though. "You say that this tome or whatever can create heroes right?"

The Olympians nodded in unity, "Well may I ask, can it summon the heroes it had created before?" As expected they were surprised by my question.

They must have only known of one of the functions of the Tome. "We.... We do not know." Athena was the first to speak, she, from what I remember was depicted as being strategical and logical.

And in this case my words were definitely within reason. "I mean if you think about it, if the book could create heroes wouldn't it be able to create villains as well? Whomever created it must have had a specific purpose for it, like creating a hero that could resurrect the dead."

My orating skills were rusty, but I sure knew remembered how to make someone paranoid. "If I was the creator I would have placed something on every hero in case they go wild, for example something that would let me exert full control over them."

At this point one God with long golden hair, laurel wreath in hand stood up abruptly. "You're right; Lord Zeus, his words make sense, I once saw Agnostos somehow killing a hero despite the fact that I felt no energy surge. It was soundless and invisible."

I widened my eyes in surprise. All I was doing was making myself sound reasonable, I never would have thought that it may actually be real.

"If what you say is true, and that there is such a function in the tome, then that would change everything." The Sky Lord seemed convinced, but it wasn't enough.

"You never let me finish." I spoke once more, this time in a confident and declarative tone. The other Gods narrowed their eyes.

They paid great attention to me this time, "Like I said before I can't do it myself. But that matter is settled so we shall go on to the next one. Power."

That one word made them all somewhat cautious, I could feel their suspicions of me weighing me down.

"Despite the fact that I have the backing of great deities, I am very sure that if the existence of the book is found out, I may be in loads of trouble. So I would like to receive an ability to protect myself. Or more rather just give me a bodyguard or something."

I gave some thought to it and realised that if they gave me a power I would surely have to learn how to use it and train it hard.

And I was too lazy to do something so strenuous. "Hm, that would be wise, and since we need you to live as much as you possibly can there is a way to."

My eyes sparkled, my excitement bursting forth. "Really?" I stared at Zeus with impassioned eyes.

My vigour renewed. "Yes, for the matter of having a bodyguard you can just create or summon one."

My expectations were not dulled as this meant that I could choose anyone as my guard. "As for the ability. You can choose any of us to grant you a gift."

The smile on my face faded a little, I now felt a little sad but I had to keep up my smile since it was good etiquette to do so.

"Anyone? Wait, what do you mean by gift?" To hide my disappointment I queried instead to cover my fading smile with a curious expression.

"A gift is a gift. But in this context it is something more of a blessing; down in the mortal world, those that had awakened abilities naturally rather than through cultivation or magic or known as Blessed Ones or more creatively, Children Of Gods."

Athena spoke softly and simplified the meaning to me. But it was still hard to grasp however.

I felt like I had gotten the gist of it, but it still felt a little strange to me. "Then does that mean that gods like you were the ones who gave them those powers?"

I questioned them once more, this time with an actual want for an answer. "No, we only stimulate their potential. Depending on which deity stimulates your latent power, the more potential is bought out. Of course there is a matter of affinity and your psychological state, but you need not worry about those."

The golden haired god was the one to speak this time, quenching my current thirst for knowledge.

"Then does that mean that the powers awakened are an extension of their skills and are affected by the persons mental state?" I was very interested in how they were developed.

"Weirdly enough you are sort of right. But you'll learn about it soon enough." Athena's words intensified my curiosity even more.

"Then what of affinity? Doesn't that mean that if a God has a sort of synergy with me they can then stimulate my potential?" My answer did not go unanswered and this time I was satisfied.

"Yes, that is undoubtedly correct." Athena was already surprised by my questions and I had a feeling that she had taken an interest in me.

"Well since that's all sorted. Choose wisely amongst us young mortal, for we have the greatest affinity with you."