The Epic of Victor: Reborn as a Slave of a War Goddess.

2027-10-11 – Record 1025, Nineteenth Year of the Athena Mark I Project

• Subject 937 – Codename Archimedes: successfully infiltrated the United States Space Force.

• Subject 1058 – Codename Crassus: successfully infiltrated Mossad.

• Subject 1636 – Codename Tartarus: successfully released Pathogen Lazarus from CDC. 2027-10-12 – Record 1026, Nineteenth Year of the Athena Mark I Project

• Subject 1636 – Codename Tartarus: Reports confirm cases of Pathogen Lazarus in Atlanta, Georgia, USA.• Subject 303 – Codename Janus: reports that the White House is developing a quarantine plan to manage the situation. Immediate extraction of assets is requested.Request for the extraction of subjects 1636, 903, 543, 231, 90, and 21 from Atlanta.

***

 2027-10-13 – Record 1027, Nineteenth Year of the Athena Mark I Project

• Extraction completed: mission deemed unsuccessful. Extraction of Subject 1636 failed; original pathogen lost. Atlanta placed under quarantine, further extraction attempts deemed inadvisable. Subjects 903, 543, 231, 90, and 21 were successfully extracted. 

***

2027-10-20 – Record 1034, Nineteenth Year of the Athena Mark I Project

• Subject 1636 – Codename Tartarus: Satellite imagery confirms Atlanta is fully contaminated. Only "undead" roam the streets. Subject 1636 officially declared missing in action, presumed deceased.

• Subject 303 – Codename Janus: Reports that the White House decided to bomb the city. Containment operations are being prepared for other cities due to evidence of disease spread. China is advised to close its airports and implement containment measures. 

Adam's Lament

"How much time has passed? Days? Weeks? I can't think straight. I'm too weak now. They've left me here too long. All I can do is starve to death. This city is probably doomed already, and they left me locked up here to die, starving and tied up."

Mumbles and groans echoed beyond the door. Subject 1636, known as Tartarus—or Adam in American records—had been tied up for days, left behind after the fall of Atlanta.

His team had been ordered to hold the line until a rescue squad could extract them.

But what should have been a coordinated extraction turned into a disaster.

A clash between the Chinese and American extraction teams left both sides crippled.

The Chinese team managed to escape, while the Americans were abandoned to die at the hands of the zombies, their helicopter destroyed.

Adam, at the peak of misfortune, was presumed dead by both sides.

Ironically, he thought this might be a blessing in disguise. Starving to death, tied up, was grim, but perhaps less horrific than falling back into American hands and facing unspeakable horrors.

He thought back on his life and the choices that led him here. The Athena Mark I Project wasn't just a joke on the Western name of the goddess of wisdom but a program of indoctrination and espionage.

It trained agents to infiltrate Western pillars—scientists, journalists, congressmen, lawyers. Adam, a prodigy among his peers, had been assigned to sabotage Lazarus and send critical data back to China.

The Lazarus pathogen, born from madness and inspired by apocalyptic fiction, was a parasite that used the human body to reproduce and feed. While highly dangerous, it could be neutralized with a toxin harmless to humans.

But Adam's plan fell apart. An explosion during the clash of extraction teams burned his left side and destroyed the data he was carrying. Captured by the Americans, he was quickly identified as an enemy spy.

However with the city doomed, not much time was needed left before his captors were taken by the zombie horde too, leaving him on the cell locked and tied.

Now, alone and abandoned, Adam cursed his fate. He had failed to help his country or build a life of his own.

But as he resigned himself to despair, the distant roar of airplanes broke through the silence.

American bombers, carrying the nuclear weapon nicknamed the "Housekeeper Maid," soared above Atlanta.

And so, everything would end in ashes

***

My mind vanished so quickly as the light that crossed on the skies, it was swift with no pain, I am so grateful that the end was without pain, a bit of mercy of destiny. But as I was thinking suddenly, I felt another push to another place, this one pushing me like a river that dictates the way to an ocean, and I let it carry me as the countless souls besides me.

Some souls scream in anger, others as peaceful as a lake in the night, each one carrying some emotions on their deaths, sorrow, madness, kindness, fulfillment, despair and countless emotions, roaming through this endless river to somewhere, however, while I was rethinking my life and admiring the river of souls another push pull me out of the river.

A woman strides into my view like a tempest, a figure of undeniable power and elegance. Her eyes blaze like molten steel, sharp and unyielding, betraying a mind that calculates ten moves ahead in any battle. Her hair, dark as a raven's wing yet streaked with strands of silver, falls in loose waves that seem to ripple like a storm-tossed sea. Her presence is both magnetic and intimidating, a perfect fusion of wisdom and ferocity.

She is adorned in armor that is as much a work of art as it is a tool of war: dark obsidian plates, etched with ancient runes of power, are trimmed with gleaming gold and crimson accents.

A billowing cape of deep scarlet, the color of fresh blood, flows behind her, signifying her dominion over the chaos and strategy of war. In one hand, she wields a spear tipped with a blade so sharp it whispers through the air, and in the other, she carries a shield embossed with the snarling face of Medusa, a weapon of fear and protection alike.

Even without knowing her, by instinct I know her name as if the universe was presenting her to me to make a statement.

"Athena, The mother of War, Strategy and intellect"

Athena is not merely a goddess of intellect or a warrior of brute strength, she is a perfect synthesis of the two.

She possesses an unshakable strategic mind capable of orchestrating victory from even the direst situations, but when the time for words and plans has passed, her ferocity in combat is unmatched.

Every strike she delivers is precise, every step purposeful, as if she is an unstoppable force sculpted by centuries of war and wisdom.

Her voice carries the weight of command, low and resonant, capable of rallying armies or silencing dissent with a single word. To those she favors, she is a steadfast ally, offering guidance, protection, and the clarity to navigate even the most chaotic of struggles. But to those who stand against her, she is a harbinger of ruin, a storm incarnate that leaves no enemy standing.

Athena is the embodiment of calculated ferocity, a goddess who thrives at the intersection of logic and chaos, strategy and destruction. She is not merely a player in the game of war; she is its architect, its champion, and its fiercest enforcer.

And now, this powerful being was looking at me, her pressure making me feel oppressed, as if my soul was a open book to her, and then her voice, weighing as heavy as the word said:

- IT WILL SERVE… NOW MY SON… PITY LITTLE SOUL FULL OF KARMA AND DEBT, I SHALL CLAIM YOU AS MY SERVANT, LET'S PAY YOUR DEBT

And so a thought passed in my mind:

"Ahh, I think, I am in trouble"