The Mythical Detective Mayura

XX: Greed

Olympus was a land on the clouds, full of sparkling palaces that were the gods' homes. Unfortunately, with Hades' arrival, the dark palaces now rested on black dust.

Mayura, Koutarou, Yamino, Narugami, and Freyr stepped on the round globs of dust, making their way towards the home that had once belonged to Zeus. Hades was its current resident, as Zeus had been tied up and thrown down to the Underworld for safe keeping.

With the king of the gods trapped, his consort Hera had basically become Hades' lover. Persephone, the god of death's wife, was enraged but Hades ended her tantrum with a quick blow to the head and another soul joined the Styx's stream.

When they entered the grand hall, the queen of the gods was standing alone in the throneroom. "Welcome, Athena," she said spitefully. "Oh, look who else is here. Have you all come to die? Lovely, you can join your father."

"The old man is dead? I knew he was trapped in Hades but not dead..." Koutarou said, looking hurt despite himself. He had never gotten along well with Zeus.

"Daddy!" Mayura shouted, looking down at the floor as if he could hear her. "Daddy, I am so sorry..." She clenched a fist and turned back to her father's wife.

"Hera! I'm here to remove your sin and stop Hades," she announced.

Hera chuckled in reply. "You really think you can defeat me? How naive. I'm going to rule this world and all its inhabitants--nothing will stop me. I will not be just the queen of the gods, but the queen of everything."

"That's why your sin is greed. We're going to take that from you," the goddess of wisdom answered.

"We? Oh, your companions are going to be occupied..." Hera smirked, waving a hand. A dozen armed gods appeared and rushed at Narugami, Yamino, Freyr and Koutarou.

"Wonderful." Koutarou said, aiming his bow at the nearest targets as the others prepared their magic and weapons.

Mayura watched as the group began to fight before turning back to Hera. "You want it one on one?"

Hera answered by waving a hand. Immediately a dozen bursts of green energy headed towards Mayura.

The silver staff appeared and Mayura hit the bursts, sending them back at Hera, who managed to dodge them.

"Athena, why are you so against letting me have all those mortal lives? As long as you get your own mortals to play with, it shouldn't matter." Hera's voice was smooth.

"You have to rule fairly," Mayura whispered.

"You think your father ruled fairly?!" Hera hissed, stepping towards Mayura while the other gods fought in the background. "He always had time for other women...but never me! I wanted him all to myself. He should have been mine alone...I want him to only look at me--he should only look at me."

"Envy and pride..." Mayura closed her eyes. "You have them too but I see a sin that consumes you more."

"How dare you say I'm sinful?" Hera growled, snapping her fingers. More balls of energy headed towards the goddess of wisdom. A tiny object that looked like a pill also flew at her.

Mayura smacked them away with her staff again but the tiny capsule landed in her mouth and she swallowed it in shock. Fortunately, nothing happened.

Hera turned red. "You...you...when you're dead, Zeus will be mine again. He has always doted on you, but never me...he loves the mortal women but not me. I want his love! I want all of his love...none should be for such a rebellious child!" She raised her hands to the sky and a ball of green energy, larger than Hera herself, formed between her arms.

She sent the ball towards Mayura.

The pink-haired goddess gripped her staff and summoned her memories of baseball. She had seen it briefly on television while on Earth. Loki had to explain its rules to her but they made no sense. She had gotten one thing out of it, though...

She let her staff meet the ball of energy, like that bat and ball, and sent it whizzing back towards Hera.

It struck the goddess-queen, knocking her unconscious.

"Hera, you want all the power and all of Zeus' love. Though you are full of envy and pride, you cannot stop desiring things that are not yours. You always want more and more. I, Athena of Olympus, will free you from your sin." Mayura pointed her staff to Hera. "Hera, thy sin's name is greed!"

A giant yellow creature emerged from Hera and Mayura slashed through it with her staff. It vanished.

She turned around to see how her companions were doing but saw that they were all unconscious.

Every warrior who had been involved with the battle was on the ground. The bow and arrow were lying on top of Narugami, whose nose was bleeding. Yamino's foot was twisted at a grotesque angle and Koutarou was slumped over on top of Freyr.

The other gods were strewn around the room, all unconscious. Some were pierced with arrows and others were bloody.

She was about to shout to them but a voice interrupted her.

"Hello, Athena..."

X X X X

Sorry for the late update! One chapter then the epilogue--thanks for reading!