Chapter 3

Time Skip: many years later

After being launched directly in an alternative version of World War II, Nathan or Etheryudan as he was now known as, or simply by Ether, as a symbolism of his new life, new body, and a new world.

For the last few years, he has traveled across the world, With his moral debt to Sir Durandal, a nickname he had heard from the members of the church, who have helped Vasco find the wounded and the survivors of the battlefield he had appeared from, Nathan's decision to travel across the map, was made from a simple wish to see the difference from this world to his.

On the journey, he realized quite soon that the Devils and the Fallen Angels of the Bible were not the only existences in this world, but also beings from all sorts of different mythologies in the world, from centaurs, to catgirls, to vampires, to every god imaginable, hell perhaps he'll even find an elf here.

Currently, Ether was in Italy, specifically in the Roman coliseum, deciding to visit what was once an arena of deadly combat from gladiators to beasts, prisoners, and to slaves in addition to, of course, any other gladiators, as he approached the coliseum, Ether felt the same sensation of his instincts that he once felt when he first arrived to the world.

Along the way to the coliseum, passing by building, and many modern day humans walking across the streets and paths, while hearing the usual when he comes to a city, from gossip, laughs to an occasionally a child throwing a tantrum, time passed as he passes

As soon as he put his feet up at the entrance of the coliseum, the surrounding landscape underwent a sudden change in appearance, the structures of the arena seemed to undergo a sudden restoration, rainbows were formed among the clouds of the sky and thunder sounded throughout the structure.

All the stands were utterly filled with probably the most diverse types of people, it was only when all the repairs to the colosseum were over that Nathan realized, the presence of everyone present in the arena exuded an aura, so to speak. From what he had deduced, this "aura" seemed to indicate certain inherent characteristics either them being biblical or other mythological bearers were.

However, at this current moment, he still has not managed to figure out a way to identify them solely by their aura, as he has not been close to that many deities from all over mythology of the supernatural world.

"What an interesting surprise," Said someone who looked incredibly like a circus ringleader, with a red coat, black pants, a cane to even a top hat to complete the look, "it seems like we have an extra participant in this year's competition, tell us young man, what is your name?".

"... I'm Etheryudan, but you may call me Ether,...participant? What form of entertainment do you do here... even better, are the Greek or Roman Gods responsible for this?", Ether spoke, with an indifferent tone, "W-what…what do you mean, you don't know?" the presenter asked shocked, going with the wide eye, open mouth expression along with the fact there was a drop of sweat falling down his head, he probably was never in this sort of situation, Ether's narrow slightly, "I mean if you are new, how did you even get here without being invited by the Greek-Roman deities?!,".

So he was right, he momentarily looked towards the stand at the, what he can only assume, are deities, and perhaps other guests they might've brought, he inspected the arena, now wondering if this was how the Colosseum looked like in the olden days when gladiators fought.

He froze at the thought at that moment,...this isn't an recreation of that barbaric roman entertainment where hundreds died daily for sick amusement, for what is likely exclusive just for gods...right?

He shoulders tensed up, though discreetly since he didn't want this...ringleader, to be prepared if he needed to fight his way out of this at this very moment.

Ether raised on eyebrow, and if you looked closely a slight frown can be seen, as he asked, "...as far as I'm aware I have not received any invite," the presenter hearing this predicament, stated through his confusion, "...this was an unexpected occurrence, but welcome?" ether knew that he had joined from all the people surrounding him "aura" so he just simply shook his head in agreement.

The presenter just simply smiled and with a pat on the back to ether, he said " good luck out there!" from the corner of his left eye he saw multiple people gesturing for him to come over to what looks to be a room filled with other people wearing armor, from leather to iron and to what looks like bronze, shields and weapons ranging from swords, battle axes, spears, to even one having a mace.

For a moment, he just stood there, it was obvious that the room over to the man who waved at him were probably the fighters, as of now...he can either turn around and walk out...or join them.

The room...was large, that was the best he could describe it, in the middle was a flowing fountain, with a statue of ares, the walls were decorated with numerous, what he assumed were, greek gods and sorts of myths involving them, in the center above the fountain close to the ceiling was a glowing golden orb of what looked like magic.

In addition to the previously mentioned people he has seen before he came in, was a now more seeable room he could all of them carry ancient weapons, and some of these people had extra limbs, such as a pair of animal ears or some other mythological creatures, some had wings, others had feline ears and some even had tails.

As he was still inner monologuing to himself, he then heard an announcement with a female coming through from the golden ball of arcane magic, as he was moving along with the other participant, they got back out to the glaring sun and once again in the arena one more, and this time far more people van be seen.

"Ladies, gentlemen, gods and deities alike, this is your favorite messenger, hermes, speaking here as a guest commentator for the last of the Olympian games, our latest hot spot for classic entertainment, "said the humanoid being with bronze wings carved in his boots and helmet, from what Ether can see, he had dirty blonde hair, hazel eyes, and a mischievous smirk he wore gav me goosebumps.

"As all for those returning now know, after the rise of the era known as, the Age of Man, the Olympian games were created, which are basically the same thing as the Olympic Games, only replacing the mortals with the half-blood and supernatural, like us.

"And it is with pride that I present to you our latest competition...a real battle of gladiators...the only competition open even for the non-registered ones," the traveler god commented with enthusiasm, so far doing on amazing job at riling the crowd up based on they screams and shouting as well as the clapping.

"During the competition, some of the most famous mythical creatures in our pantheon will be randomly selected to be summoned on the battlefield….a little stress relief for new participants and possible activists in the audience and in the gladiators...while the creatures summoned are not by any means a magical simulation, all their breathe attack, physical attack, and even their magical damage will all be nullified to the point it won't be lethal all thanks to our lovely resident magic goddess,".

Ether let out his breath he didnt notice he was holding, while the prospect of seeing monsters such as hydra, nemean lion, or even something like a typhon was exhilarating, he was very happy that death was not expected here.

Suddenly, Ether heard what sounded like iron groaning in strain, he looked and saw an enormous pair of golden gates, he didn't know how he didn't notice it beforehand and as it moved in motion a sound not unlike a squeaky door, opened.

Getting for any possible breakage to a fight he swiftly summoned his quiver of arrows, and created an improvised spear out of one of his giant arrows, when the doors have finally finished being opened, leaving the same squeaky noise, Ether could identify that there were four teams color coded by their symbols.

His own team wore white clothes with symbols shaped like lightning, the other teams had red clothes with a flaming sword, blue clothes with a bluish-green trident, and last but not least a gray shirted team with diadems.

Another thing he noticed was the fact each team had an enormous crystal behind them, turning back back he can clearly see his own team's crystal, he can only assume this was what each team would be fighting to save his own team who was doing their best to get the other team's crystal.

When Ether and the other members of the white team left, he noticed a huge crystal of the same color as your team's clothes hovering above a circle of stones, using his enhanced vision, he noticed that there were three other crystals, probably matching the color of the other teams.

"And that's the start of the gladiator battle, the doors are open, and when the gong sounds, our game shall officially begin," announced the commentator, and seconds later, a huge gong materialized in front of him, followed by a huge drumstick, which probably on his command, immediately moved towards the gong.

"Now the goal of this game is quite simple, take the crystal of any crystal other than your own, if you lose your crystal then it is game over for you" hermes said, and just in time as the drumstick swung at the gong.

As soon as the signal was given, a huge maze labyrinth of leaves and trees suddenly sprouted from the ground. The various sections of it are filled with water, lava, and other obstacles such as pits and classic net traps, as well as some monsters in between.

As he did not know the exact rules of the game, Ether decided to simply do the same as his teammates are doing, which at the moment was simply trying to cross the maze, reach the crystal of the other teams, and, at the same time, prevent others from the other teams from doing the same.

A few minutes have passed, and Ether, along with a small group of six other members of his team, were currently at a crossroads in the labyrinth, the group leader saw two groups of people approaching, one on the left and one on the right, the first group were members of the blue team, the second group were members of the red team.

The members of the blue team carried a blue-tipped spear, red handle, a huge stone club, an ax, and shields with the face of what looked like a gorgon drawn over them. The members of the red team carried a trident each, in addition to shoulder protectors and helmets made with quite large sized skulls, obviously from some sort of supernatural beasts.

"Hey, new guy, come with me, Atreus, you too, we will take care of the red team," said the one who seemed to be leader of this group, Lamus, Polycaste and Vladimiros you deal with the blue team," he said before removing his sword from its sheath, revealing a long, uneven sword that strangely resembled lightning.

Deciding now was not the time to monologue about this, he took his make-shift arrow/spear in two hands, and gripped it, as soon as he got an idea of how to swing this, using his enhanced speed to sped towards his opponents.

Advancing towards one of the members of the red team, Ether saw his opponent hurl a trident at him, thinning fast, he started to twirl his makeshift spear at an absurd amount of speed, creating a sort of windshield...even though it looked like a normal trident, he didn't want to risk being hit by that thing, after all, it could have any sort of curse, blessing or anything in between.

The trident hit the wind, and got shot up spinning in the air, until the metal trident landed on the ground with the razor edge embedded into the soft ground.

The one that threw his trident, blinked in surprise, "good reflexes boy, now, let's see how well you do against a magical attack…," as soon as he said that, the same member of the red team recovered his trident and started making rotating movements with it.

Suddenly, the trident darkened, and its edge merged into a spiral, and its size quite literally doubled, "get ready, boy," energizing his trident-turned-spear, the red team member, made a horizontal slash, from its edges a blast of fire burst forth and came running towards Ether.

Ether, not exactly keen an being burnt with fire, took a leap to avoid the blow, unfortunately he did not expect his opponent to make a second attack, while Ether had not yet returned to the ground, his opponent gave a particularly painful blow to his sternum, in the loss of balance he fell to the ground in an nasty landing to say about it. while lying on the ground, Ether was impaled on the shoulder by the opponent's weapon, and almost instantly was teleported back to where he began.

While he was still disoriented from a sudden transfer a figure dressed in one with heavier armor with a symbol of a staff with a snake coiled around on his clothes, indicating that he belonged to some group of doctors for the game, he noticed a little late that his arm was glowing green, and his arm being fixed.

"Aaand done, your arm is now good as new and ready for the next time you get on the battlefield," he said quite cheerfully, he had snow white hair, a slightly tan look and he had dark brown eyes.

"Ahh you the new guy, you did well there even if it was a little quick, let's try the other way now," said the one who was the leader of his small group, he looked around the room, and saw it was the typical white that infirmary usually are, at this very moment he was on the bed he spawned over, looking ahead he could a large glass orb with images of where he just was at.

"Right then, but first you could explain the specifics of this game, I kind of joined at the last second, so i didn't exactly have enough time to get a close look at the rules" said Ether, sitting up and rolling his arm in a rotation to test out any problems, they did a good job seeing as how he felt no problems.

Though he was sure he got the general feeling on how the game is played, he really wanted to know if there was anything more in case of there being...complications.

"Really now?...Well in this case, each team has their own base and their crystal, each team has to protect their bases's crystal and attack those of the other teams, all weapons are allowed,...with exceptions that are especially lethal, magic attacks are also viable," the leader said, "speaking of which, my name is Atreus, i myself have been playing these games for quite some time now,".

Atreus held out his hand, quickly figuring this was a handshake he took it, taking note of his strong grip as well as calluses on his hand, most likely have gained both as the result of his training and these games.

Now that they had returned to base, Ether realized that there was a map of the arena in a table, outside of the infirmary, which showed all the paths they could take, and noticed that two of the 4 crystals were already extinguished, so they only needed to go to the gray team's crystal, already that was the only other one left.

The amazing part was that he could physically see miniature versions of people fighting in it, taking one final look he has decided he has taken enough time as it is, and walk through the door, and back into the labyrinth.

Meanwhile in a VIP stand

In this room, where two people were sitting, a man and a woman, both obviously from the Greek fashion based on the fact on what they were wearing,

"oh? how interesting, I haven't felt anything like this since the rise of the era of man," said a figure next to an old man with a white beard despite the fact his other older siblings did not look anywhere near that old...with the exception of hades, who got annoyingly more powerful in these years.

"This, this magical energy, cannot be...while it most definitely lacks divinity, as well as it is quite a bit darker, it feels exactly like it, but i know for a fact Heracles isn't even in Greece at this very moment," thought the old man, his eyebrows raised up, as his head is leaning into the palm of his hand.

And it seems like he wasn't the only one who notice...to bad it was the one person he didn't want to notice, his wife as much as he loves her, qas very much vocal when he did one of his...activities down on earth, though he could swear, he didn't sleep with anyone, not anyone he remembers,...which could potentially be very much bad if he didn't remember things like that.

The woman, was for a better word, angry, while there could be numerous reasons for this, while she indeed wanted to blame zeus with her first assumption of him sleeping with another...again, oh how miffed she was for HOW MUCH she had to go though to leash zeus in.

But...this felt exactly like...heracles, no divinity, as well as it felt colder,...it still felt like...him, now many would assume that since he felt the same, they immediately think that he is their descendant,...but the thing is that that is completely inaccurate, while it CAN influence the feeling of a magic signature it will never be completely same.

If she had to simplify it, it would be like this, if you are the son of a father would the son look exactly like the father?, no you wouldn't no matter how much you try, now imagine if heracles looked like a blonde pale man, when she felt no divinity, it's like the blonde pale man lost all of his hair, and this colder presence, in the example instead of pale skin it now looked scorch black.

Even if this signature had no divinity as well as it felt far colder,...this man still felt like heracles, or if you are using the given example,... he had the exact same face as heracles.

"Zeus, you are not hiding anything from me, right ?," Asked the female figure, she didn't know how this was possible, did someone clone him?, but how, there was no one with such equipment necessary to attempt to clone a god, as well as the fact there were no known successes.

"No, I'm not, Hera, but it is intriguing that this person has the same magical signature as my son, perhaps I should notify him of this development," Zeus said, his name earlier revealed as well as Hera's, as his other hand was currently smoothing his beard, "Well, let's see how much this Heracles is to the real thing," said Hera, while using his magic to conjure a hydra in the middle of the playing field.

Zeus' left eye twitched, while once again he did love hera, he very much wished she would stop giving his bastard son and daughters so much trouble.

As soon as Ether, and the other team members had arrived at the opposing team's crystal, a dense mist formed around the crystal, the floating violet gem, glowed ever so slightly, as they were about to reach the designated area, something went wrong.

The growth of the mist shot up, every second becoming denser and denser getting bigger and bigger, and grew several feet tall with a silhouette of a large beast can be seen, and then...it stopped, it then suddenly burst out from all sides, revealing what was within it other than the crystal

and was swallowed up by a monster.

The First thing you will notice from the beasts is the head, correction, heads, as it had three of them, it was dark brown, scales covering its entirety of its body, it had no harms, just a pair of legs, as well as a tail, , it had razor-sharp teeth sticking out of its mouth, he could see one of the heads tongue sticking out.

With the stunt on eating the crystal, the brown scales, gained a violet coloring as well as cracks of golden light broke through it, felt the power pulsing out of it's chest, and roared, as the creature gained a crystal coating on its entire skin.

"Damn, shit, I'm not Emiya, but after that my luck is certainly an E Rank, as I didn't want to attract attention in this place," said Ether, while anime tears streamed down his eyes, "right o can't hide anymore, unless i feel like fighting a...i'm gonna assume a hydra, then i best get out my bow," Thought Ether, summoning her bow as well as pulling out one of his arrows.

Before taking his archer stance, he had an idea appear in his head, digging into his backpack he took out a 50 foot rope from one of his teammates, took out his arrow and tied it with a sailor knot he learned some time back in his previous life, and infused silver energy into it.

Suddenly a burst of magic shot out of his body, a ghostly blue flowing around him as he spoke, his voice rumbled in its power, as a weight of the word was given out of his mouth.

"Stymphalian birds,"he pronounced, when again shot a set of arrows in the air, these soon became birds made of steel, one turned into two turning into dozens and dozens into hundreds carried the ropes on their feet. The birds then wrapped the strings around the head of the hydra and became arrows again.

Shortly thereafter, the hydra died of breathlessness, destroying the crystal along with it, giving the white team victory, as it had numerous holes in its body, an almost unrecognizable pile of meat stood in its place.

Many people were staring, not exactly sure what they saw, his own teammates were lost an what the hell happened right in from of them, since while it wasn't the real thing that still took SOMETHING to destroy a hydra.

"...hhhaaaaa that went well wasn't it guys." Ether said, trying to break the tension he has found himself when he shot that arrow at the hydra.

"Indeed, new guy, indeed it did." said the team leader not trusting himself not to say anything.

Flashback

2 years ago

To be honest….he hates the gods, 90% of them are jackasses, with the 8% being decent, and the remaining 2% actually being quite likable,...Poseidon counts as the former…

...Not that big of a surprise, but still, he had believed he was hiding quite well and not drawing that much attention…well in hindsight maybe insta-killing a hydra would do just that… not fully developed but the point still stands.

The gods noticed him, and that was bad, when they first approached him, he was wary, like I was 'looking for a way out' wary, gaining attention from deities will 95% land you death, with 4% something worse with just 1% actually working out.

…I don't want to test my luck, not when that hydra appeared when it was my first time arriving at that game in the arena for the gods of different pantheons, for entertainment.

Why was he going on this mission?, why do you think, the gods have used the only method their idiotic arragont minds can comprehend,...tell them to do something if they don't like the answer they threaten you because they felt their pathetic and useless pride damaged.

And it wasn't like I could refuse it, Greek dirties were especially know to be petty, childish, and arrogant beyond belief with the exception of perhaps two, Hestia and Hephaestus.

To be perfectly honest, he has a feeling that finding every given chance to make every greek deity's day a living hell will soon be his favorite hobby, though he will need to make sure any and all of these chances will not be linked back to him.

And where was he going?, to a city known as yes, to those of you who live there, it is located near the country Greece, The Sea Rapist told me to go find a woman named Thetis,...now he is not sure if this is the same person as the one in the myth, but he won't exactly figure it out until he meets and even then it might not be enough seeing as i don't know how she looks like.

He has traveled for several days now, and he should be near the location of where he can find her in the background you can hear the sea roaring as they crash into the sandy and rocky shore, several hours ago he felt a strong pulse of magic as he passed by a sign written in ancient greek, wearing a bag on his back.

He has passed several forests, and as soon as he passed that mentioned sign which read "Supernatural" he was minutes later attacked by monsters back to back and the farther he went the more dangerous they became.

At that point, he wondered if it was even worth it crossing several miles of forests, but as soon as he saw the ocean, they suspiciously stopped coming, which does suggest that she might be close...or a big monster nearby

...ya not a happy thought, let's hope that is not the case and it is the former, he looked up at the sky and saw that the sun was already setting, he best start making camp, though he will need a good location to set it up, don't exactly want to be attacked when asleep.

He spent the last hours of daylight searching for a place to sleep, no need to look for wood and other things for it, as he has camping equipment from the modern world, and by the end, he found a small cave where it will suit his needs.

Using the materials he had stored in his bag, he pulled out his remaining wood from last week, placed them in a cone shape and lit them on fire, he wouldn't have to worry about putting the fire out seeing as the very fact he was in a cave filled with nothing but rocks.

He looked at his cloth, that was made from nemean lion skin,...for some odd reason, its effects never activated, not even once, he was still just as vulnerable to human weapons as ever, just not even near close as he was when he was still human, though...in these past few days, it has started to warm up ever since he started getting close to this ocean.

As he laid down on his sleeping bag, having a perfect view of the entrance/exit of the cave he had the perfect view of the silvery white full moon, as he laid there, he felt his eyes close, as the memory of why he went on this journey in the first place, his eyes closed as sleep claimed him.

Timeskip 5 years later

"I need you to do a quest for me boy a simple take out mission, the little fucker that has gotten in our way so you gotta take him out, you get it?" A divine being uddered he felt strong but gave this friendly vibe like an ex-gangster.

In a instant he threw our little hero a tome it gave off a strong feeling of pure unadulterated Ḩ̴͓̤̭̜̅̈̇̈̅͒̾͋͌̏́̓̕̚͜.̶̤̼͖̩͉̾̌̂̕̚ͅÁ̵̾̃̿̐̈̈́͂͂̿͌̿.̵̱͚̼͖̽̅̋͗̇̾̊̋̓Ṱ̸̨̧̭̘̺̇́̐̈́.̷̨̯̳͓̬̹̗̜̋R̷̢̟͎͎̪̖̩͓̪̤͒͘͝.̷̛̬͕͓͎̰̗͇̰̞͊̿̀̄̒̓͂͗̍͌͊̽́Ȩ̵̛̮̫̤͉̳̠͖̾̀̑̀͂͛̽̊̎̊͒̔͜.̵̨̲̖͙̠̗͙̈̈́͆͜ͅĎ̷̡̛̟̱̳̺̦̳̲̯͉̗̹̫̣͑͆̊̎̂͠ͅ and S̷̡͔̪̱̱͈̹͓̣̱͑̄̂̂̾̆̀̒̈́̚̚͠͝͠.̸̧͔͎̯̫̻͔̹̽̉͂̓̑͋͗̅̈́̆̿̌͠P̸̨̡̢̢̛͕͎͖̦͔̤̦̯̘͑̏͗̐̀͊̓́̓́́̋̒͝ͅ.̶̮̞̈̐̃̅̓̏̓̈́Ï̵̧͍̜̲̹̰̗̠̫̖͔͚̦̐͆̓̽͆̈́̈̊̋̑̌̀.̸̙̞̝̎͋͛̌͊͆̍̍̉͋́̿̌̔́Ţ̶̮̮̥̜̥͖̩͍̥̖͝ͅ.̷̢̪̥͙̠̦̘̲͉̦̇͆͊̇͂͒͆́̑́̅̎̑͘E̷̹͉͕̳͚̤̭̝͇͍̹̻͊̄̀́̇͒͗͋͊̒̈̉͘̚ͅ it was a simple book red cover but the symbals they shouted out S̷̡͔̪̱̱͈̹͓̣̱͑̄̂̂̾̆̀̒̈́̚̚͠͝͠.̸̧͔͎̯̫̻͔̹̽̉͂̓̑͋͗̅̈́̆̿̌͠P̸̨̡̢̢̛͕͎͖̦͔̤̦̯̘͑̏͗̐̀͊̓́̓́́̋̒͝ͅ.̶̮̞̈̐̃̅̓̏̓̈́Ï̵̧͍̜̲̹̰̗̠̫̖͔͚̦̐͆̓̽͆̈́̈̊̋̑̌̀.̸̙̞̝̎͋͛̌͊͆̍̍̉͋́̿̌̔́Ţ̶̮̮̥̜̥͖̩͍̥̖͝ͅ.̷̢̪̥͙̠̦̘̲͉̦̇͆͊̇͂͒͆́̑́̅̎̑͘E̷̹͉͕̳͚̤̭̝͇͍̹̻͊̄̀́̇͒͗͋͊̒̈̉͘̚ͅS̷̡͔̪̱̱͈̹͓̣̱͑̄̂̂̾̆̀̒̈́̚̚͠͝͠.̸̧͔͎̯̫̻͔̹̽̉͂̓̑͋͗̅̈́̆̿̌͠P̸̨̡̢̢̛͕͎͖̦͔̤̦̯̘͑̏͗̐̀͊̓́̓́́̋̒͝ͅ.̶̮̞̈̐̃̅̓̏̓̈́Ï̵̧͍̜̲̹̰̗̠̫̖͔͚̦̐͆̓̽͆̈́̈̊̋̑̌̀.̸̙̞̝̎͋͛̌͊͆̍̍̉͋́̿̌̔́Ţ̶̮̮̥̜̥͖̩͍̥̖͝ͅ.̷̢̪̥͙̠̦̘̲͉̦̇͆͊̇͂͒͆́̑́̅̎̑͘E̷̹͉͕̳͚̤̭̝͇͍̹̻͊̄̀́̇͒͗͋͊̒̈̉͘̚ͅS̷̡͔̪̱̱͈̹͓̣̱͑̄̂̂̾̆̀̒̈́̚̚͠͝͠.̸̧͔͎̯̫̻͔̹̽̉͂̓̑͋͗̅̈́̆̿̌͠P̸̨̡̢̢̛͕͎͖̦͔̤̦̯̘͑̏͗̐̀͊̓́̓́́̋̒͝ͅ.̶̮̞̈̐̃̅̓̏̓̈́Ï̵̧͍̜̲̹̰̗��̫̖͔͚̦̐͆̓̽͆̈́̈̊̋̑̌̀.̸̙̞̝̎͋͛̌͊͆̍̍̉͋́̿̌̔́Ţ̶̮̮̥̜̥͖̩͍̥̖͝ͅ.̷̢̪̥͙̠̦̘̲͉̦̇͆͊̇͂͒͆́̑́̅̎̑͘E̷̹͉͕̳͚̤̭̝͇͍̹̻͊̄̀́̇͒͗͋͊̒̈̉͘̚ͅS̷̡͔̪̱̱͈̹͓̣̱͑̄̂̂̾̆̀̒̈́̚̚͠͝͠.̸̧͔͎̯̫̻͔̹̽̉͂̓̑͋͗̅̈́̆̿̌͠P̸̨̡̢̢̛͕͎͖̦͔̤̦̯̘͑̏͗̐̀͊̓́̓́́̋̒͝ͅ.̶̮̞̈̐̃̅̓̏̓̈́Ï̵̧͍̜̲̹̰̗̠̫̖͔͚̦̐͆̓̽͆̈́̈̊̋̑̌̀.̸̙̞̝̎͋͛̌͊͆̍̍̉͋́̿̌̔́ you could feel the hatred just oosing out of those oh so small runes and symbals.

Ether looked confused for a little "Excuse me sir but why would you give me such a murduos tome Mr. Ares?" As Ares smiled he simply said "haha well my boy that tome was made when me, hades gave pretty much everything in our domains and i do mean all into making a tome to get rid of the "annoyance" from our sights and now I owe that boney bastard a few favors."

His smile grew as he yelled "good luck killing the valstrax kid " he kicked our little hero into a portal "WAIT WHAT NOOOOOOOOOOOO!" ether yelled he could literally see zelretch replace the gangster god for a millisecond.

All around him was a bitter cold and he scanned the area around him, surrounding him or from what he could see was hundreds of snowy mountains he mumbled to himself "I'm probably in the alps… fucking Ares".

But something caught his eye, It was a mountain like the rest but it's top was scorched and charred up and there was something silver on it but he didn't know what it was, he had to get closer to it to see what it actually was.

As he climbed higher and higher, Ether noticed that there were traces from something toxic in the air, luckily, it was not in its original body, otherwise it would have died or from suffocation, due to the amount of smoke in the air, or from poisoning by silver particles.

Getting closer, he found what looked like a huge cathedral-shaped building, In this building there were huge, chimneys, which expelled a silver gas when using the hands, to remove some of the gas towards him, he slid the particles on his fingers, and came to the conclusion that they were the same silver particles as before.

Suddenly, he heard some screams of despair and agony coming from the "old cathedral" that looked like it had been converted into a factory for something involving silver, or that was his first impression before breaking down the doors.

"SOMEONE!…Someone! please, someone!…. Please Help us!" were the voices coming from the building, screaming quite heavily, loud, and sounding like children.

Upon entering the site, Ether saw a trio of wolves circumcised, almost as if they were after some prey to attack, Following the wolves, along with distress calls, he found several children encapsulated in some type of animation, some of their containers were broken.

It was then that Ether heard another call for help, and it came from the third floor, In order for the wolves not to bother, Ether knocked them out, hitting each other's necks hard enough, they slumped into the ground, the wolves not having anywhere near enough reaction speed to catch him.

After fainting the wolves, Ether went to the third floor, where he found an encapsulated boy, screaming as he was hitting the glass of the capsule to try and break it to no avail.

Seeing this, Ether went towards the boy, and used a splinter from one of his giant arrows, to make a cut in the glass of the capsule, and free the boy who was trapped in the place, "thank you… but can you help my friends too?".

"boy, I don't want to cause you distress, but...your friends can more than likely be dead by now," Ether spoke, his voice filled with sadness and firm, he could himself be lucky to find this one.

Turning to his right he can see several other containers, most were fogged up or hard to see in, while there was quite a few there that were broken.

"No, they are not, I know that…. I know that," Said the boy with determination, the brown haired was trying to assure him,...or perhaps himself they can't be dead, When running towards the capsule that was next to the one he was in, and press a button on the side of it. A white gas quickly invaded the entire capsule, before the capsule opened.

"Oh?," was all what Ether said, and the boy beside her heard, when they realized that the boy in the other capsule had taken a breath… " no, no no no-no-no ... please don't, stop it ... stop it stop do it stooooop," muttered the boy, without realizing that he was released from his capsule…

"Come on come on, no more despair, we are free…,"shouted the boy, while shaking his friend, so that he realized the reality of the situation, "T-Tosca, is it you..., Is it really you?" Asked the boy, who right now has great suspicious, having already gone through experiments that fed him with the hope of being able to leave the place but were nothing more than mere illusions.

"yes it is me, this time, it is truly, truly me...John," Tosca said to approach his friend and hug her, "no more illusions?" John asked as tears streamed into his eyes, "yes john, no more illusions…, "promises ...?" He asked John "promise," replied Tosca, "now let's rescue the others," he said as he headed for another capsule to release another of his friends, however, in his haste to do so, he did not realize that the capsule in question was empty.

"W-what ... E-empties, but ... but he was here…," Tosca wondered when some unhappy thoughts crossed his head, "Hey, Tosca, what happened, why did you suddenly stop," John asked, cautiously to his friend, "Ki, Ki, ki, Kibaaaaaaaa he, is not in his capsule," Replied the friend.

"if, if, it will be that he, es, esca-…. Did he escape…," while John shivered with cold. "I'm not sure ... maybe he escaped or maybe ..." Tosca said, avoiding speaking the last part so as not to further traumatize his friend.

Not exactly keen to deal with two even more traumatized children, he opened his mouth and Ether said, "you, will be wasting time there, or will check the other capsules," pretending to lose patience with the boys, should do the trick, "he's right, you two are arguing, when the time could be used to search, you know, the time that can make the difference between which of our friends will live and who...and who..and who won't," said a girl, who had just been decapsulated by Ether. Knowing that their friend was right, Tosca and John, immediately ran to decapitate the rest of their friends.

"Toshca, be careful", shouted the girl, watching her friend about to step on some unknown liquid, and seeing the nature of this place, this could either be as dangerous as 7.0+ acid or just colored water,...ok the second one is unlikely.

"What… arghhhh, ahhhh, gaaaa," Tosca shouted, stepping on some strange liquid and slipping straight into one of the capsules with broken glass, and to protect himself he used his arms as a shield to avoid the worst, Unfortunately, it left his arms full of wounds, and to make matters worse the foreign liquid splashed on his legs, causing second and third degree burns on them.

"as a certain Jojo said… Yare yare daze…,: said Ether seeing what just happened, not wasting anymore time, he ran towards the currently crying boy and pulled him out, while avoiding the acid.

John had already opened a total of five of the ten other capsules that were in place, Unfortunately, the bodies in three of the five open capsules were definitely dead and the remaining two, although alive, were practically in the last, Fortunately, he still had some rays of sun, which were given to the members of the winning team, in the strange competition that had participated in a pocket dimension accessible through the coliseum.

"arghhh, burn, burn bbbuuuurrrrnnnn. Cried Tosca, feeling that his body was burning, due to the unknown substance that had spattered on him earlier, "hey ... boy, drink this," Said Ether, taking a glass bottle with some luminescent golden substance and handing it to the boy.

Without thinking twice, the boy took the bottle from Ether's hands and drank all of its contents, and quickly after that, solar flares emerged from the boy, taking with him all the wounds and burns caused by the acid and the glass, "right, now give these to your friends in the capsules, and let's get out soon from here, because all that silver gas could kill you in a short time, I know you are concerned with rescuing others, however, if you do, you will die, and there is no guarantee that the others will be alive as well, I would even check if the others are alive, but I don't have any more rays of sunlight in my bag, in short, even if they are alive it may be too late when we find someone to help them survive," the other children while not happy, after a minute of hesitation thy listened and waited outside.

A few days later

"Thank you for saving us Ether-san," said the only girl from the group, "it was really nothing Sakura, i am happy to help. - Ether said in a soft tone to calm the girl, even though he knew that deep down he was just in the right place at the right time.

Although suspicious of why Ares sent him right to that location… well it didn't matter, he saved some people, and he found two swords with interesting magical properties, The first had the property of increasing his combat speed and the other he had not yet tested to know for sure.

"Hey Ether san, tell me where did you get these "magic remedies"?" asked Tosca taking Ether by surprise, after all he didn't know if this group of children was aware of the supernatural side of society, but suddenly a strange fog came over the place and quickly a man in Roman armor with a dark helmet appeared in front of them.

"Great, now I will have to tell them about the moonlit world," it was the thought of Ether,though he was annoyed to see that Ares decided to appear at what Ether considered the worst possible time, "You...You had to show up now?" Asked Ether, watching him with his poker face.

"ahh, don't be like that boy," said Ares teleporting to Ether's side, and giving the boy a little slap / playful push, "besides, I see great potential in you, by the way, skuld told me that although she is not able to see the future when it comes to you, she was able to see that, you have a big role in much of the futures of others, including one where biblical factions come into peace, as well as Greek, Nordic pantheons among others, But the main key to this future, as well as the most interesting, with a host of the red dragon emperor," Said Ares, with a cheerful tone, but his smile was off.

"Who?" he said, as he raised his eyebrow, though a sudden thought came to mind,",...wait, a war-related god talking about peace, and he is talking about peace, I feel something's not right here, there is definitely something wrong here." Ether said while thinking about what was potentially a giant genocidal plan.

"yes, yes boy I know this is weird, but I don't have to tell you what will happen if the whole human race becomes extinct, as without them we will basically be gods of nothing, we can survive of course, but how will we entertain ourselves?" Asked Ares, and he honestly can hear the dislike for the thought of not having any power.

"you see, even though we have our own secret society from most non-magical humans, many of us need humans to have some entertainment, otherwise we will simply stop existing after a few years, only a handful of old gods, like some of the Sumerian gods, continue to exist without human faith, Among them, the primordial beasts, biblical beings, and Gaia," Ares said thinking about everything what has happened in your past.

In my case, to other types of battles that I can use to strengthen myself, one example was that test in the games in which you participated in the coliseum yourself… incidentally, I didn't know that you owned two fragments of the legendary Excalibur," Said Ares, feeling the sacred energy that came from two swords leaning against a wall near Ether, "Ex...Calibur?... What do you mean "excalibur fragments"? - Ether asked confused to the god of war.

"You don't know?...ehhh I'll enlighten youthen, Excalibur is one of the two Holy Swords wielded by The Legendary King, King Arthur Pendragon, of Camelot, According to history, the Excalibur is a holy weapon that was created through means of magic and alchemy by those who reached the territory of God, the person who made it was the lady of the lake, At some point, the original Excalibur was broken, and the pieces were made into seven different swords with the name "Excalibur" in them and two of the blades were each stored by the Catholic Church, Protestant Church of England, and the Eastern Orthodox Church, There were rumors that there were experiments previously did human experiments to find people who were capable of using the pieces of Excalibur, so I decided to trick you into accepting this mission to investigate so far…looks like the rumors were true." Ares said, looking quite proud of himself, with his burning flames he calls eye showing quite an amount of it.

"...I see, I did rescue some of them but not all of them, well at least I did get two excalibur pieces for my efforts," seeing how excalibur broke, he can already deduce several things, this world's excalibur compared to the FATE's version is inferior in every way, well except that each shard apparently gives you an ability, but lets be honest, if that sword broke, then it isn't really worth looking at it if you nasurverse's excalibur.

"You sure did punk, by the way, I might send you more missions like these in the future, so look out," replied Ares, at this point just looking at him in boredom.

"But what about the kids sir?, they're too young to even be involved," Ether asked, not exactly happy to even think to bring this group of children into that mess.

"Don't worry, I'll send them to the orphanage where they will have PROPER care, not like this one, but for the girl I sense something inside of her that might be a Sacred Gear, what do you say girl, would you like to join the Greek Faction?"

"I…Will I get to see my friend mister Ares?"

"Maybe you will girl, really depends if he is still alive or not, though the choice is still yours to make," he answered, in an indifferent tone

"...go with him Tosca." said john, though he looked reluctant to say this

"John?! Why?! Didn't we promise to stick together?!"

"Don't worry about us Tosca, if mister Ares said that you can find Kiba if you join them, besides you can repay the favor of the guy who sent him to save us, Go with him Tosca."

"...Okay John…Alright mister flame eyes I'll join the Greek faction, but only if my friends get good care."

"Great and don't worry about your friend's girl, they will receive the proper care, now let's go."

*Flashback*

a week and three days ago Ether POV

After walking all around Asia, I think I deserve a nice long break after doing a mission on protecting the wood nymphs that a devil has been spotted on, I swear those Devils are going to get themself killed from being so arrogant, especially that…what was his name…Ahhh yes Naberius creepy guy,

I should've taken a picture when he realized that I was on the level of a Super devil when he tried to find out my strength, he just left after that which made my mission finally complete and also I get to hang out some wood nymphs, nice fellows if you get to know them... and not getting into their pants! Ugh! Now I see why the nymphs don't get out too much.

In reward on protecting them they taught me about connecting to the world's nature, ki or better known as Senjutsu, I already have some NP that can boost my technique and attacks but it does add more boost to my NP and connect with nature.

It is not hard to obtain when all you have to do is meditation by concentrating on their state of mind and to quietly release their own ki as well as to sense the natural ki of their surroundings, The evils tried to corrupt my mind, when you're in a body of a heroic spirit that has already been dipped to all the world's evil, and because of my Avenger it actually empowers me more.

They were impressed that no one has been able to get Senjutsu that fast which made them more…Affection to me. It still gives me shivers, I didn't like the way they were staring at me like a piece of meat. So once I got Senjutsu, they told me that I might get Touki in the future, not a bad idea when I am already strong but getting stronger?

Ehhhh who knows anyway I said my goodbyes to the nymphs as they were sad but understood when I had to leave, I told them I might visit them again if I have time and they agreed, So here I am taking a nice break in Asia while eating some of their foods.

'SLURP' 'SLURP' 'SLURP' 'RING!'

"Huh? A phone call?", who in the world could be calling him, he really didn't have many people rto call him especially since this phone is really new.

For those who don't know I have a phone that was given by Hephetaus, but a mobile phone since it's still the 19th century, anyway when in case they need to keep in contact with 'other gods', (SIGH) lets see who this is, I put down my chopsticks and answered the call.

"Hello?" picking up the phone, now wondering which annoying pain in the ass gods or goddesses is calling him now, hopefully this is just them being bored and simply them wanting to be annoying.

"Ahhh Ether it's good to see you again," a rough voice called out, you can hear it being full of pride and arrogance, in the phone he can hear some sort of crashing, something he recognises as waves.

…there was only one voice that he recognized, and he was far from happy to speak to the Sea Rapist, wonderful now he has to deal with him.

"... Poseidon how may I help you?" keeping my dislike and irritation out of my voice though my face is freely showcasing it through my face, seeing as there were no large bodies of water, this was fine.

"Straight to the point I see… alright I have a mission for you,"...wonderful, great, taking a big breath, briefly closing his eyes, he answered back to the god.

"...what kind of mission requires my attention Poseidon?" at this moment, he was wondering what kind of mission he is on about, capture?, Extermination?, goddamn Delivery?!

"It's simple someone has kidnaped some of the Nereids as well, you are the strongest warrior we have, find whoever kidnaped them, you are to either capture him or kill him if he is too dangerous, as far as we are aware the only ones who could have done this is someone...or something from greek/roman, in other words a traitor in our own faction".

"I see…. Alright I'll be on my way. But where can I even find the Nereids?"

"I have detected that their energy was in a country near our borders, right by the ocean, you are to go there and find a Nereid named Thetis, she has the ability to track down her sisters, the only reason she hasn't gone searching for them is the fact that the kidnapper might be incredibly powerful, alright I have to go, may you have safe travels Ether." and dropped the call.

*Flashback End*

A few hours later…

Snap!

His eyes shot open when he heard that noise, as well as accompanied with smaller crackles of it several feet away, he immediately shut them as he was blinded by fire,...that immediately set him on guard since the fire should've burnt out ages ago during the night.

He slowly opened up his eyes once more, and waited for his eyes to adjust, as he did, he saw a clearly feminine figure sitting near the fire, from the light in the flames he can see she had very long hair, with the color being the greenish-blue you might mistake it as it being part of the ocean.

He can make out that she had deep blue eyes, she looked impassively at the flames that burned in the middle, she wore no clothes to speak off, only seaweed and kelp that covered her breasts and groin.

She turned to face him and said, "I see you are finally awake, finally, I might add," she fully turned her quite generous body towards him and continued, "I am Thetis, and I am here to help track down my sisters,". She said, as she looked indifferent at him.