- Did you not know?
Her eyes stared calmly at her opponent.
She knew no hesitation. No fear.
Despite being surrounded by all sorts of creatures of the bronze era, she did not back down.
Not even a millimeter.
-The era of the Theos is over. Mankind is to rule over this realm. – She continued -And I shall guarantee their safety. You will NOT drag them to destruction under your rule, as it has happened with the men of bronze. This time, I am here for them.
- And who, dare I ask, shall protect YOU, my little Athena?
His grin grew. With a slight movement of his hand, Hades commands his horde forward. All of the creatures answered swiftly to that, and charged forward in a monstrous charge against the city walls.
And she still didn't move.
Why didn't she move? Foolish girl. I pity Athena for this fool of an incarnation she was born into…
Her glare intensified.
Hades felt a human sensation. One that he has not felt since very long…
Fear!?
And then the horde stopped.
They could not move anymore.
They could not trespass the metallic light that surrounded her.
And with a flash of golden light…
The sea was calm. After a long journey, the smell of the sea reminded him of home, a memory he thought he could no longer recall. How long was he pursuing his mission? He had lost count of the years already. But his mission was nearly complete, and he was returning home.
He looked at the kids sleeping. The night sky was clear, and the moonlight was more than enough to let him contemplate their faces. The Oracle had entrusted the task of retrieving these kids and bring them. The Oracle's face was ominous at the time, and urged him to hurry. Which was no easy task.
He had been among tribes of the barbarians of the north, living on horses and surviving on cold lands. He had been all over the Eastern Kingdoms, the Egyptian lands, And even beyond. Lands with massive rivers, and strange gods. Across the largest mountains he had ever seen, surpassing even Olympus itself. Peoples living among that mountains, and further beyond.
And beyond the mountainous lands that are the homeland of his comrade, he found yet stranger peoples and lands.
But he made it.
One of the boys was a survivor of a massacre on the frozen northern barbaric lands. Had he not been there, the invading tribe would not have spared him. He was the first, as the oracle predicted.
The second one was a girl. She was being guarded in a temple, and the priests recognized him, even though he had never been there before, and told her to go with him, to fulfill her destiny. They handed over a scroll to her, to
The third kid was a boy on the easternmost island he could find, even beyond the Shang lands where the girl was. He found him on his knees, crying over what was probably his dead mother. Even though he didn't understand a word, the boy agreed to come with him.
But what really surprised the Warrior was the wooden carving in the possession of the boy.
The wooden carving attached to a cord resembled a horse.
A winged horse.
The legendary Pegasus, of the Hellenic stories. How could such a isolated people know of it?
But it didn't matter. It only proves that the Oracle was right once again.
From the Birreme, it was already possible to see the light of the city on the Egyptian shore, where he would be able to find the last one. And then he would go home.