Lucy Heartfillia looked around her room, half-expecting to see Natsu and Happy lurking at a corner, munching on her stash of candy. Fortunately, the place was empty without any new or weird additions (recently, Natsu had this ridiculous notion that Lucy would like hideous monsters as a form of decoration in her house). Except...
A key made of white marble laid on the floor, with a note attached to it. The key had a rather simple but nonetheless elegant design- patterns formed with owls and snakes was engraved on it. Lucy kneeled down to pick up the note
"I, one who is connect to the Gods of Olympus, summon thee. Goddess of Wisdom, Athena!"she read out loud.
Nothing happened. No dramatic music or whatsoever. Lucy huffed. So it was a dud.
Suddenly, a blinding light engulfed the entire room. The blonde raised her arm to cover her eyes, for she had a feeling that if she didn't, she would be instantly vaporized, leaving behind a scorch mark on the wall. A human figure started walk out of the light and-
The woman was beautiful. Her face was regal and unapproachably beautiful- like how an ideal ruler of a country would look like. She had long licorice-black hair tied up, piercing grey eyes and donned traditional Grecian amour, as if she was about to go for war. The powerful aura she gave off rivaled Aquarius'- or even more so. Lucy had to fight the temptation to bow down to her.
"Uh... Excuse me... Your Highness. Who exactly are you?" she asked timidly.
The lady turned around to look at her. "Athena, Goddess of Wisdom and Warfare, sixth Olympian, has come to answer your call," Athena answered and smiled. She seemed to enjoy the 'Your Highness' thing. "I'm surprised that you have attempted to summon a goddess. I thought the use of God Keys has been banned some 50 years ago."
"I don't know about that. I just found your key on the floor and-"
Athena narrowed her eyes at Lucy. "How daring of you, to place my key on the ground."
Lucy paled. "I swear it wasn't me who put the key on the ground!" she cried. Now, she wished she wished that she had not even touched the stupid key. This Athena reminded Lucy of a certain other Celestial Spirit.
"Never mind, then," Athena sighed. "You're lucky you've gotten my key. There are plenty of unreasonable Gods out there. If you had summoned Zeus or Ares with their key on the ground..." she shuddered. "You'll be sorry you ever lived."
The blonde paled. "I'm thankful. So... would you like to form a contract with me?" she asked hopefully. Such a powerful being would definitely be helpful in her quests and whatnot.
Athena looked at her distastefully, as if she had just belched loudly during a meal. "A Celestial Mage, are you? Celestial Spirits are naturally inclined to serve whoever that summoned them. However, we Gods are not. We are free beings who help whoever we want to help. We don't operate on 'contracts'." She crossed her arms. "Prove your worth, mortal, and we'll see." With that, she turned around and vanished into thin air.
Lucy clenched her fist around the key.
"First, I'll find out more about you 'gods'."