DA : Chapter 98: Angel's Warpath II

"Had to talk with Andy for a moment about the session," he explained quickly.

She gave him a stern look, probably taking joy in watching him sweat it out, before nodding. He wasn't sure whether to sigh in relief or not. Regardless they both turned their attention to the crystal again before he asked, "So … what am I looking at?"

...

Rhea started as he glanced at her. "You know how you've been having trouble coming up with a creature to safeguard the North and South Pole?"

"Yes."

"Well, since wolves weren't working out, I thought about a different creature that could survive in the regions and maintain the climate while also being strong enough to ward off potential human hunters and I came up with this," she said gesturing to the crystal.

At the wave of her hand the crystal started to crack and shudder, the figure inside starting to shudder slightly. Raven who had been studying the crystal from barely a foot away squeaked as a piece nearly hit her, making her dash around and hide behind him while peaking over his shoulder. He watched curiously as dust and mist started to billow up obscuring the sight.

It took a few seconds for it to clear and all the while Percy could hear the massive figure moving slightly, the ground shaking slightly with the careful steps taken. Once the dust settled Percy couldn't help but whistle while Raven gasped and Rhea smirked.

Before them was what Percy could only call a Woolly Mammoth on steroids. Standing a good seven meters at the shoulders, thick legs with densely coiled muscle that was barely hidden the thick, dusted grey coat.

Long, barely curved tusked that looked sharp enough to punch through a foot of steel and tipped with a familiar, light blue crust and similar icy blue eyes to his wolves. The creature literally radiated cold as the temperature slowly dropped around it, though none of the three were bothered by it.

"You so went to the Underworld and talked with my mother before this didn't you?" he asked as he walked forward, meeting the gaze of the newly awakened pre-historic creature, or did being newly created make it post-modern?

"Yep, how else was I supposed to know mammoths were one of your favorites?" she retorted, the amusement ringing clear in her voice as Raven approached as well looking at the woolly beast in awe.

"He's strong," Percy murmured as he rested a hand against the foreleg, still meeting his gaze, noticing the gleam of intelligence in his eyes one would expect from the likes of a chimp or dolphin, possibly smarter.

Raven walked up to the head, the mammoth looking away from Percy to Raven and eyeing the small woman curiously. Tentatively it used its trunk to poke Raven experimentally, his daughter giggling all the while before she hugged his trunk.

"And he's fluffy," she said with glee before the mammoth raised his trunk and her along with it much to her delight.

Percy smiled before he bent down and picked up a crystal fragment, recognizing the signature of his own ice within it.

"So this is why you asked me for all those chunks of ice," he said as he looked at her.

"Yeah. I have a decent grasp of your Cold domain being married and all but sometimes it's better to work from the source," she said as she walked up to Percy's side and watched as Raven and the mammoth continued to study each other much to their amusement. "It took a few tries but I finally got it right and this bull is the first to fully grow. I'll make him a few cows to start up a herd soon enough."

"But what about food?" Percy asked. "I can't imagine that being this big comes with a little appetite. They'll have the same problem I had with creating wolves to guard the artic regions."

"Follow me and see," she replied as she walked off to a small garden a slight distance away.

He followed, hearing the heavy steps behind him as the mammoth, and Raven riding atop, followed him. They walked for only a few minutes, approaching a large garden Rhea had formed. Within were an expanse of small shrubs and even small trees with odd, round white fruits hanging from the branches.

"Haven't really gotten around to naming them but after eight tries I finally figured out how to form these artic plants," Rhea explained as she picked one of the orange sized fruits and tossed it to Percy. He found it surprisingly cool to the touch and smelled somewhat like grapefruit.

"They'll grow best in nearly freezing weather and can absorb minerals from even the deep, frozen bedrocks of the Artic and Antarctic. If planted on an ice sheets, the roots will grow until it reaches the actual sea underneath which is also nutrient rich."

Percy gave his wife an impressed look as he took a tentative bite of the fruit, a nearly clear, blue-ish juice spilling out. Orange sized, smelling similar to grapefruit but its taste was closer to that of melon and biting it felt similar.

He enjoyed it but it wasn't really his take so he offered it to the mammoth who took it with his trunk and after eyeing it curiously, tossed it into his massive mouth.

Apparently the taste was just right to him as not a moment later he started to pick the fruits himself, even going as far as passing one to Raven before returning to his treats.

"Scientists are going to go bonkers when they find these," Percy commented getting an agreeing nod form Rhea as the pair continued to move while Raven stayed with the mammoth.

Once a slight distance away Percy glanced at the mammoth again before asking, "What about population control?"

"Your wolves will do nicely from time to time just to keep the future herds in check," Rhea replied as they both watched the kids, from their view, continue to eat and play making Percy frown slightly as he watched his daughter smile. Rhea glanced at him before asking in a near whisper. "Percy, how are you and Andromeda feeling about Raven?"

He sighed as his shoulders slumped while looking at his wife. "Honestly, neither of us want her to start her duties as Andy's guardian. Even if she's more or less come into an adult mentality, though she sure doesn't act like it when alone with us."

"The domains are a mess, aren't they?" Rhea asked with her own frown.

"Aphrodite's relationship with Ares did so much more than she realized. Her confusion between love and lust for a violent and abusive disgrace of a man has left deep marks in human society.

Sure, it's not like she is the reason certain tendencies in regards to sex and love exist because of her but she did unknowingly, or possibly knowingly, spread and ingrain them. Hell, even the regions that haven't had contact with Greek culture and religion can show traces of that influence."

"And now Raven is meant to be Andy's direct hand in the affairs of mortals which entitles being a killer … even if those cases are little more than rabid dogs," Rhea said as she absentmindedly looked up at the mountain overhead.

Percy gave a mirthless chuckle as he followed her gaze. "You know, I used to wonder where gods got off in the way they judged for mortals.

Even if most in not all have abused that authority for petty reasons at times, but now I find it hard to criticize them. Here we are, demigods turned gods and we're already casting judgement on the mortals, deciding who dies and how they should progress." He then looked at his own trembling hands.

"I'm a hypocrite too … I want to make Artemis and Poseidon suffer just as much as I did. I want to rip apart everything they have and only end them when they have nothing left to live for. I even started a fucking war for it and now hundreds of lives will be dragged into it."

He then looked at his wife, searching within her eyes for the answers to his troubled thoughts ever since his encounter with Persephone.

"Who's to say down the line in a decade, a century, maybe even millennia away that we won't become worse than the Olympians and the Titans ever were? Who will-"

"Percy," Rhea interrupted in a stern voice as she cupped his cheek. "Calm down and listen to me carefully." She waited for him to nod slowly, her free hand moving up to rest against his chest, right over his heart.

"You are a primordial god, the highest tier of power possible and only answerable to Lady Chaos herself … but you are not infallible, you are not omnipotent, you are not perfect.

None of us are so you are bound to make mistakes but you know what makes you so different from the previous ruling councils? That you question yourself, that you doubt, that you remember where you came from and how you started out."

She glanced down softly at her hand still resting over his chest before looking at him with a fire in her eyes.

"So what if the start of all this was for revenge after the murder of your parents? I don't think anyone could judge you for it and regardless, if not you, then who?

You have lived it, you know how demigods and many a monster alike were created and later made to suffer from the injustice of the Olympians just like the Titans were betrayed by many who sided with the six Olympians during the first war.

Again the oppressed rise against the tyrants as history knows it, you were simply the first to take a stand and Nyx offered you the chance. And yet you're still trying to be the hero and save as many as possible.

You've gone and done the illogical thing and instead of forming an army or using your power to crush everything representing the Olympians, you're trying to spare those who follow and support them because it is the only thing they know."

Rhea paused to take a breath, glancing over her shoulder to check and make sure Raven was still thoroughly entertained before returning her attention to Percy.

"You could have covered the world in pitch darkness and frozen everything until it is a wasteland. The last dregs of the labyrinth and the impressive cavern base of the Amazons? Gone, crushed and entombed with a wave of my hand.

Mount Olympus and the camps? Jason and Thalia could blow it all to bits within hours from our house above the planet. Nico and Styx could unleash literal hell on the mortal world, Hestia could cause eruptions and infernos to scorch the land while stripping humanity of Hope itself.

Just one of us assuming our divine forms in the mortal plane would cause as much devastation, not to mention radiation, as the entire US's stockpile of nuclear weapons set off at once. We could have won already … but instead of taking it easy, we're trying to spare the world for the crimes of the few."

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Don't forget to throw some power Stones, to keep the story going.

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