Chapter 24: Dispute

Zeus was taken aback for a few seconds and looked at Hera with surprise.

He was not surprised by her knowledge of his actions but by the power she displays today. 

'What strength!' he thought looking at how far from the palace he had been blown away before looking at Hera again

"What is that power!" he murmured to himself as he analyzed her power 

'When did she get this powerful, she is nearly as strong as us,' he mused before comparing her to himself and his two brothers.

The power difference between him and his brother is not large, what often made the difference is his lightning bolts, however, the difference between his sisters has always been quite substantial, adding to that the fact that they preferred to play a more supportive role in fight widen the gap between them, but,

'This attack, that aura around her, no doubt about that she has grown substantially stronger... is that due to anger,' he analyzed before regaining his cool and 

"Do you realize what you are doing?!" he questions in anger

surprise by that power that he didn't know she possessed, it made him momentary forget the reason he came here 

"Of course, I know what I'm doing!" she responded with a dark smile 

"I'm responding to your treachery, as you wanted," and she saw his eyes widen as his mind started to race so she continued 

"This is what you wanted right? Didn't you let Serea follow you so that she can report to me her findings or rather those that you were disposed to let die to satisfy my wrath, are you angry that I went outside your little list," she continued 

At that point, all the gods were observing the confrontation from a good and safe distance what was happening and by now most had already pieced up together what was happening from the conversation

"How do you know about your subordinate..."

"That I let Serea follow me and..." he questions 

"Serea is a good spy, but she overestimates herself sometimes, seriously she wouldn't be able to spy on Athena for a week, I know I try so how could she manage to follow you for a week without you noticing it..." Hera said and everyone listening couldn't help but nod in agreement 

"I decided to do what you wanted! You let her follow you right so that she could report to me while you hid the ones you like, I'm doing what you wanted taking my anger out on those that you don't care about,"

Hearing that Zeus couldn't help but lower his head there was a mix of shame pride disbelief and anger before looking at Hera for a few seconds, there was disbelief in his eyes 

On the side everyone looked in disbelief at what was happening, they weren't accustomed to seeing Hera like that, it was more terrifying than her usual episode of rage. 

Standing with her sibling in Zeus' throne room Athena looked at Hermes 

"And you thought that you had everything under control," 

"This is worse than everything she ever did in the past," said Maia

"What were you expecting, you turn her subordinates against her," responded another one

Zeus was looking at her in a new light 

"How did you find out?! This, this isn't like you,"

"How did I find out, well maybe someone from your little group told me about the subordinates thing or maybe one of my little birds told me, but then everything suddenly made sense about why I didn't receive any rapport from them," she said choosing to ignore the second part of his question 

Since the begining of the conversation she had lied and misled him about what she knew, and it worked, she saw it in his eyes, when she said that someone from his camp had talked to her, 

'There it is, he is about to lose it, the seed of mistrust!' 

"Who? Who told you? Is it how you..." his anger was palpable and the dark sky was the manifestation of that 

"Do you really think that one of us told her," Leto asked 

"It would explain how she learned what we did,"

"Who knows, maybe she is lying and is just trying to get a reaction out of him,"

"Well she succeeded!" said Artemis looking at the thunderous sky

"Do you really think that I'm going to respond to that question, why don't you guess," with that she ignored him and just cast her gaze below 

"Looks like they are back," she said and Zeus then finally remembered why he had flown here in the first place and looked where she was looking to see Hera's warriors riding chariot toward her palace. 

He didn't have to look twice to see and feel that the prisoners inside those chariots were his descendants. 

The men and women were all very fit and physically attractive and just a look into their eyes and you could see that there was a lot of intelligence in their scared eyes 

"The blood of a god particularly yours is very strong even after many generations, you can see it right!" 

Zeus and all the gods present had to agree with that statement 

"Easily recognizable, most of them are bound to stand above their kind"

From the side, the gods started to understand, that finding the descendent of the king of Olympus is not a very hard task, as she said they tend to distinguish themself from the mass. 

"I see the people that she sent to spy on the king can't really find out if he is determined, this was mostly how to say..." 

"lower the frequency of his escapade," one of the gods said

"Yes, but now that she realized the length that he went through she decided to do the same as him," 

The gods discussed what was happening as they looked at the royal couple 

Zeus looked at the humans that were brought in the chariot and his angry blue eyes turned white as thunder could be seen coursing through them 

"Free them all at once," he ordered his voiced 

In response, Hera lifted her palm in front of her before closing it in front of him 

"crutch," a sickening sound resounded in Olympus, and in front of every one of the many chariots transporting those unfortunate men and women was turned into a massive round ball. 

Everyone took a deep breath when they saw what she had done, they expected something from her but that move took everyone by surprise 

It happened so fast, that suddenly no one could react and now they were looking at the ball of metal whose fresh blood was dripping onto the ground with bewilderment 

"Now she has done," a lone voice carried by the wind was heard 

"Crack, Broom," 

"In an instant, a massive lightning bolt fell onto Hera's body, creating a massive explosion.

"How could you! How DARE YOU," Zeus shouted looking at the cloud of dust surrounding the spot where Hera was standing 

"fuu," a gentle force pushed away the cloud of dust to reveal Hera as intact as the ground she was standing 

"Vroom," Zeus felt saw coming toward him a massive force destroying everything on its path 

"Crack," 

After enveloping himself with his lightning he move nearly instantaneously a few meters aside 

"You have indeed gotten stronger, is that why you dare to defy me, do I need to remind you that..." 

"Bam," Zeus was hit by an invisible force that pushed him away

'My gravity manipulation has greatly evolved, I didn't even know that I could use my powers like that,' Hera thought with glee before focusing her attention back on Zeus 

"We are in this situation because of you, so don't try to..." 

"Crack, boom" she was interrupted by multiple lightning attacks from multiple sides 

'Gravity shield,' she thought before covering herself with her power to repel the attacks from Zeus 

"You have made remarkable progress with your telekinetic abilities," said Zeus 

"I would have been happy for you if you weren't using them against me your husband and king, this is on you!" Zeus said while gathering in the palm of his hand a massive ball of lightning in front of him

"Lightning discharge," he said releasing on Hera a wave of energy that destroyed everything on its path 

'Gravity field,' she thought before creating a protection around herself

"Speaking like a true narcissist," he said while speaking her hand 

"Bam," the lightning power crashed on the defense of Hera, and against all odds the dome of protection was strong enough to resist

"She is stronger than I thought..." The gods were surprised that she was capable of holding that attack back 

Seeing that made Zeus frown in displeasure as he augmented his attack output and slowly pushed Hera back. 

Step by step Zeus advanced while Hera floating in her transparent dome was pushed back.

'I am still much stronger than me, I shouldn't be surprised, after all, I barely started to get the hang of that,' she thought before closing her eyes 

"Focus," she said letting out a deep sigh

"Huh!" 

And canalized more power toward the gravity shield and stopped being push back, and slowly and surely she pulled back her left hand, before 

"swing," with a wave of their hand she destabilized him with a horizontal gravitational attack sending his attack sky allowing her a little room to breathe. 

"Ahh fuck, this is harder than I thought.