Repost of The Game Of Divinity By ChildeOfWar

by Boundless Scholar

This is not a story by me, but strictly a story that I want to listen to while at work to avoid dealing with all the people crying or asking for sentenceing appeals. - "Our unfortunate MC get offed by truck-kun and is offered the gamer system as compensation. Unfortunately for him the system is kind of a dick. Now changed to M for gore and foul language. GenBend - femMC"

19. Chapter 19 - The Dungeon of Kinslaying

The Dungeon of Kinslaying

ENJOY!

THE GAME OF DIVINITY

CHAPTER 19: The Winter Solstice

(Interlude Athena)

The day of the Winter Solstice has arrived and I am not all that excited about it. My fellow Gods enjoy these celebrations but I always found them tedious. The debauchery and inebriation is distasteful dulling their minds and ensnaring their senses causing them to make lapses in judgment and creating problems that most often than not I have to be consulted in order to resolve them.

I will never forget 10 years ago when Hermes and Apollo were found in bed with Khione of all Goddesses and Boreas threw a hissy fit about the "defilement" of his daughter (eyeroll). Honestly, that vapid snow Goddess has been sleeping around with everything with a pulse (and a few without one) since time immemorial. Boreas used the situation is his advantage in order to gain some extra benefits through the council and everyone knew it.

Thankfully, (and I never expected such thought to ever come from me) through Ares intimidation and my prompting of Aeolus to discipline his sidekick put a stop to the ambitiousness of the Wind God.

Talking about Ares he has been acting strange these last few years. In the last couple of decades wars in general have taken a lower intensity and he hasn't started a single fight between himself and another God since Woodstock 69'(by the void was that a day I would rather forget). This silence is as welcome as it is alarming.

Ares has always been both a hothead and a bloodthirsty monster. The amount of bloodbaths and unnecessary wars caused by him are uncountable and we all thought him as a simple brute that has a position in the council mostly as a way to keep him in our sight and hence in line than someone who has anything to offer.

Recent data contradict that statement though. The all encompassing bloodthirsty aura that always caused everyone to be on edge and ready for a fight has ceased to surround him. Also, after the battle in Muspelheim he has been spending an increasing amount of time with Hestia of all people, sitting near the Hearth and just talking which is all kinds of unbelievable considering how much of a pacifist our most terrifying aunt is. I could not think of a reason why my most war loving sibling would behave so differently than his usual self. I at least couldn't until he visited me in my temple a few weeks ago.

He told me about his trepidation(read:fear) of war coming to us. Of old enemies rising throughout the pantheons causing problems and furthering their agendas and the same happening here and considering the terrifying situation with Surtr I was inclined to believe him. I had never felt such fear, not even when we fought Typhoon had we been stricken with such hopelessness and considering the special properties of his flaming sword, the feeling of death coming to us.

The very idea that monsters near the caliber of the flaming giant would start awakening or the Titans and start causing problems made the ichor to freeze in my veins. We were not ready for these kinds of conflicts. Unlike in the past most of our greatest combatants have become lazy and complacent and Zeus doesn't help matters either.

His paranoia and viciousness has alienated almost all non - Olympian members of the Greek pantheon and if what Freyja had related to me about the real reason that Hades started World War 2 is truth then things had truly taken a turn for the worst. If it ever gets out that Zeus is capable and most importantly willing to entrap and weaken his own (even if estranged) brother like that, then there will be none to help us when we need it.

Furthermore our demigods are weak and through no fault of their own. The censorship of knowledge on how to truly train their gifts and that idiotic law about the contact of the Immortals with their mortal children has made them even more so.

Alexandra Bellum is a very good example of what a properly trained demigod can really achieve and considering that Thalia, a child of one of the Big Three and most importantly, the child of the Great Prophecy wouldn't last even 1 minute against her is a good example of how far the standards have fallen. And all that because one capricious and power hungry God is too insecure of his ability to keep his moronic Throne and he makes himself feel secure only by threatening the livelihood of everyone around him with his small-mindedness and cruel disposition.

Talking about Alexandra, she is most likely going to be here tonight and I am looking forward to see how far she has come since the time she walked inside my Dracaena Dungeon. The child had shown her prodigious nature and at such a young age as well and her use of the Flames Of War are nothing sort of a miracle considering that most War Deities (me included, to my charging) couldn't freely use them. Without burning a few states in exchange at least.

I had seen her in Muspelheim of course and I noticed her skill with a bow but I couldn't do a true gauging of her abilities considering how chaotic the battlefield was. The stories I had heard both from Freyja, as well as her own recollection of her fight with Sinmara speaks of how fortunate it was her accidental trip to the Norse pantheon. If she had managed to stay here then she would have stagnated like all others of her brethren and it would have been a terrible outcome considering how talented she is.

I have become kind fond of the child to be truthful. When I first learned of her, it was through Cernnunos challenge and I was pleasantly surprised by her ingenuity and her nerve. You don't see a child of Ares use her head and intelligence in order to defeat their adversaries. No matter how talented in battle, the children of my brother lack in the brain department. They are good soldiers but make for bad commanders and intellectuals. Their hotheadedness doesn't help matters either.

Alexandra though is different. She truly honors her namesake with her intelligence and ability to think outside of the box and her accomplishment both in her first dungeon and on my own later when I saved her from Zeus stupidity consolidated that opinion.

Here is a child who has faced hardships since she was 6 years old and after every challenge became stronger and better for it. She hasn't let the difficulties make her bitter and cruel or excessively arrogant. I am truly looking forward on how far she will go in the years to come.

If she manages to survive the King's schemes at least. The paranoid imbecile has been entirely too happy these last few days and the couple of times Alexandra's name has been mentioned I noticed him smiling instead of the usual scowl of rage he has when he hears of her.

After the visit to Asgard he was apoplectic in rage at both the power of his granddaughter, as well as her snubbing of him when she chose to sit with the Vanir delegation. Not that I blame her, the more time you can spend away from my idiotic father the better and if I could I would have sat somewhere else too.

I only hope that whatever he has cooked up I will be able to help her with because if she perishes then we will lose our strongest mortal demigod and most likely the allegiance of Thalia Grace as well considering their close friendship and that is unacceptable. If we kill one of the best friends of the one destined to save or doom us then we might as well jump into the void ourselves to spare our enemies the trouble.

That is why I have already talked with many others in the council, gathering allies in order to prevent the Royal filths idiotic plans. Artemis was the first I explained the situation to and she was immediately on board. My huntress sister had been more than happy to assist a maiden in need. Hermes was easy as well. From what I was able to deduce, Alexandra has been able to prevent the horrible fate of his son Luke Castellan and as a result he feels indebted to her. Apollo even if reluctant will follow his twin's decision so he also joined.

Lastly I managed to persuade Poseidon. He was the most difficult of all. The butchering Alexandra inflicted on his Cyclops children that he donated to Hades army a few years back didn't endear her to him but the barnacle beard if everything else is a pragmatic God and the possibility of Thalia Grace choosing to raze Olympus to the ground was not something he could allow.

Ares naturally will help of course and as a result Aphrodite will assist him as well (those two are near inseparable) so most of the Olympians are on our side. I can only hope it will be enough.

(End of interlude)

Alex POV

There were around 50 of us demigods plus Chiron as we headed for the Empire State Building on the afternoon of the 25th of December of 2005. According to Annabeth the Camp has around 150 demigods all in all but the ones not in Camp are the ones that stay there only for the summer months and choose to stay with their mortal parents the rest of the year.

We all got in a bus that has been expanded internally and was driven by one of Hermes assistants. The trip there only took us 20 minutes with no traffic at all and we didn't encounter even one red light. Considering that Hermes is the God of travelers I am not surprised.

Once there, we were led by Chiron inside and after he took a passage card from the receptionist we were led to the elevators. There, he used the mist to obscure the sight of mortals and pressed a button that caused the elevator to expand into a size fit for all of us to hop in.

The ascendance took us 10 minutes and honestly Percy was right, Apollo must really change the music, it is atrocious.

The moment the elevator was opened we gazed upon the city of Olympus beyond a golden hardlight bridge and I got to say that while beautiful, it had nothing on Asgard.

The city looked like what and ancient Greek city must have looked like but cleaner and more imposing. Everything was made from white marble and gold. It was also separated in two areas, the inner and the outer one.

The outer area was separated in three parts. The commercial district that was positioned on the main road towards the inner section of the city. There was the market were satyrs and nymphs sold their wares which consisted of anything and everything, from nectar and ambrosia to replicas of the Golden Fleece and even weapons and magic books written by even the Gods themselves.

Second at the left side of the main road was the residential district and there is where the immortal satyrs, heroes, nymphs, the servants responsible for the upkeep of the city, the handmaidens of the Goddesses lived and some very minor Gods like Psyche and Ariadne had their temples.

On the right side of the main road was the crafting district and this is where all the wares that were sold on the market as well as the main forge of Hephaestus resided that also served as his temple.

The inner sanctum was surrounded by a moat that many multi colored fish swam inside and you could get there by crossing three beautiful golden (eyeroll, they must really love their gold) bridges that had intricate images of the most glorious (eyeroll again) moments of the Gods according to Chiron.

Inside was the place where all the Olympians as well as most of the minor Gods had their temples and the whole place was decorated by parks filled with flowers and greenery, as well as statutes of Gods and heroes of old.

At the upper most point of the inner sanctum was the council of the pantheon as well as our final destination. It was gigantic and made to be both admired by its beauty as well as intimidate.

As we passed through the open bronze gates of the council room we met the Gods.

Their seats were positioned in a u shape with the King and Queen at the head. At the left side of Zeus was Poseidon dressed in a Hawaiian shirt and looking more like a beach bum than an actual Lord of the Seas. After him was my father and an extremely beautiful Goddess that could only be Aphrodite, followed by a very muscled and tanned God that considering all his hair and beard were on fire could only be Hephaestus and last was the annoyance himself, Dionysus.

On the right side of Hera, was the asshole, Hades himself since he was allowed only today to be here on Olympus and was trying to catch my eyes but I ignored him. After him was seated a beautiful but intimidating Goddess with black long hair and stormy grey eyes that were identical to Annabeth, meaning that this could only be Athena. After her was a blonde and green eyed woman dressed in a traditional Greek chiton and sheathed at the side of her throne was a golden sword, the symbol of power of Demeter and according to the legends, the reforged scythe of her father Kronos. Following her were the twins of Leto, Artemis and Apollo talking to each other and considering her annoyed face, the Goddess of the Hunt didn't really enjoy that conversation. Last was a blonde guy with a mischievous smile and a caduceus positioned at the side of his throne marking him as Hermes, messenger of the Gods.

On the left and right sides behind the Olympians were many thrones occupied by other Gods and Goddesses and I recognized some of them. Hecate with her torch and polecat, Phobos and Deimos who I had briefly seen in Muspelheim and even a woman with golden wings that could only be Nike amongst many others had come to attend this important event.

Lastly, at the center of the u formation was a huge hearth and near sat a single child looking Goddess that was poking the flames with an iron rod. Hestia, Goddess of the Hearth.

We stood in perfect formation before the whole council with Chiron at the head and we all kneeled before the Gods. A couple of minutes of that was enough it seems for Zeus to satisfy his megalomaniac jollies by having a bunch of kids kneel before him and he commenced the council meeting with a sound of thunder.

The whole thing was a bore of epic proportions. After Zeus wasted a whole half an hour of our lifespan with a long winded speech about another year of prosperity under his rule and the glory of the Gods and bla bla bla, it was time for the rest of the Gods both major and minor if they wanted to, to petition the council to help them either to resolve disputes they had with another God or to request assistance with whatever problems they may had encountered in their own domains.

After that was over with, Zeus made a nod toward Hecate and I detected the Mist trying to ensnare my senses. I managed to resist the spell but the rest of the demigods aside from Thalia and also Chiron were caught in the haze. I was ready to pull out my spear and die in blazing glory a prayer of Odin on my lips but my father stopped me.

'Stop Alexandra, there is no threat yet. There is delicate information that demigods are not allowed to hear and the Mist will just stop them from noticing for a few minutes until we are done. Stand down there is no threat.' He telepathically spoke in my mind.

"The last issue of this council meeting has to do with the great prophecy. Thalia my daughter step forward." said Zeus and causing Thalia to stand before the whole council her face very white in trepidation.

"In order to be succinct I will recite the Great Prophesy.

A half-blood of the Eldest Gods,

Shall reach sixteen against all odds,

And find the world in endless sleep,

The heroes cursed blade shall reap,

A single choice shall end his days,

Olympus to preserve or raze."

The moment the prophecy was fully uttered I could see Thalia's face had changed through many emotions. Fear, anger, betrayal but horror was the most prominent. I couldn't blame her either. It wasn't everyday you heard that you were destined to die and your choice would save or doom a whole pantheon in the process. Of course she was definitely NOT the child of the prophecy but she didn't know that and most importantly the trigger happy Gods didn't know it either.

"Tonight when midnight comes my daughter will reach her sixteen birthday and the prophecy will begin. We must find a way to stop this from occurring. Thoughts"

"Just kill the brat and be done with it. No brat no prophecy easy peasy." said the hateful and uncaring voice of the Wine God and it was this moment that I made a promise to myself that if I ever get strong enough I would fade this son of a bitch once and for all.

"That would be quite dishonorable don't you think? The girl is one of our soldiers and has served adequately until now. Furthermore she is the current leader of the demigod camp. Are you prepared to strike such a powerful blow to the morale of our mortal subjects? In addition, the demigods are barely tolerating us at this point, are you prepared for the consequences of killing one of their own just because we didn't bother to find another way?"

The speech came from none other than my father Ares and left everyone with their mouths open in astonishment. They didn't expect such a stance from the usually bloodthirsty God.

'You are welcome brat. Never say I didn't do anything nice for you' he said in my mind and I couldn't help the small grin that appeared on my lips. The great sap cares about his children after all.

"Are you saying that the demigods are capable of being a threat to us boy?" replied Zeus his masterbolt in hand ready to incinerate us all at the very notion of being a threat.

"Not at all father. What Ares meant was that if we kill the leader of the demigods like that just because her existence inconvenienced us then they will stop worshipping and believing in us at all. Their prayers and sacrifices are at the bare minimum already. If we carry on with Dionysus suggestion then you can all be sure that by summer's end there will not be enough demigods to make a 5 man squad." replied Athena in a no nonsense voice and if her glare towards the drunk fucker is any indication

A scoff sounded besides her drawing the attention of everyone. "And where would they go niece. If they leave their silly little camp, most of them won't last a year before they become monster food. The women could possibly join Artemis Hunt on a pinch but the men have no such option.

"Couldn't Thalia join the Hunt then? If she becomes immortal now, then she will never become sixteen and as a result she won't become eligible for the prophecy." said Demeter a curious look on her face.

"Not possible." piped in Aphrodite and Artemis at the same time. The first had a grin of a cat that caught the canary and the latter a cold expression.

Instantly Thalia became beet red and I was gobsmacked at that little revelation. Luke's super charming smile of panty dropping was not a complete boast after all. Teasing material detected.

"The there is no choice, we can't allow this prop-" Zeus spoke with finality pissing me off something fierce and I couldn't be silent anymore.

"She is not the child of the prophecy." I said making everyone freeze in place.

"Impossible, how are you able to function through my spell?" said Hecate in astonishment.

"I may be young milady but I am a certified sorceress. I even got the tattoo. The spell you used was not strong enough to affect me. Though it was very awesome. A perception spell that causes the mind to freeze until the caster lifts it, causing the victim to think that no time has passed. Very inventive, I will have to try to recreate it." I praised the Goddess

"And who is your master child because I definitely didn't christen you as a sorceress"

"Why Lady Freyja of course. I served as her apprentice for 5 years and then I spent another 5 in the Valkyrie order." I replied getting curious looks from everyone at me declaration.

"Enough with the posturing. Speak child. What did you mean when you said that the girl is not the child in the prophecy?" said Hera, Queen of the Gods looking at me with an unreadable expression and stopping her husband from making a fuss.

"It says so in the prophecies words your majesty. A single choice shall end HIS days. Not HER days pointing at a female demigod or THEIR days making the gender ambiguous. The destined child is male." I replied making everyone pause. All except of Poseidon that the only indication that something was wrong was the tighter grip on his trident.

"Even so Alexandra. The use of "his" determiner could be gender ambiguous in this case. After all prophecies are meant to be confusing." said Athena playing the devil's advocate.

"If that was the case milady then the first line could be differently interpreted as well couldn't it? After all, it could be speaking about an Elder divine not the Big Three specifically but the six original Olympians or even and older deity like Lord Thanatos or Lady Hecate." I countered getting a nod from the Wisdom Goddess.

"However the greatest indicator is right before our eyes." I paused letting some suspense roll in.

"And that would be?" asked Hades with a raised eyebrow.

"That would be the fact that there is no army or an apocalyptic monster in our doorstep ready to kill you all."

My words caused some nervous look to pass around the audience and Zeus eyes to harden in rage at the mere thought of a threat. 'The guy has some serious insecurities' I thought.

"After all the child of a prophecy at HIS 16 birthday is meant to see the world on endless sleep and make a choice for or against Olympus with a 'blade' in hand. There is no enemy here to cause some type of conflict and unless in the next 2 hours some terrible calamity befalls us all, I don't see it happening. Ergo Thalia would be disqualified from the prophecy" I finished getting a grateful smile from my friend for defending her before the Gods.

"You speak logically child. Thalia's death wouldn't serve anything after all and I would have said so if no one had but it seems you got to do it first. I commend your intelligence." I was complimented by Athena, making me blush a little at the beautiful immortal.

"I have heard enough." thundered the asshole. "I will put the vote before the council in order to decide how we should act. Since Thalia is my daughter, I will not vote."

"Those voting for death" he said and Immediately Dionysus, Hera, Hades and Hephaestus raised their hands drawing some negative looks from the rest.

"Those voting against" The rest rose their hands with Demeter choosing to abstain.

The result was obvious with 4 voting for death and 7 against, saving Thalia from a death sentence and me from having to make an impromptu kidnapping/escaping for more snowy pastures.

"The council has decided and Thalia Grace will be allowed to live."

His words made me bite my own tongue literally in order to stop myself from cursing him. The sheer gal of the bastard. 'Allowing her to live' as if he had any right on someone else life like that. Oh how I longed to run him through with my spear and watch as the light left his eyes. Then he would know what is like for someone else to have his life on his hands and deciding to end it. I wanted him to know true despair.

Due to acquiring the required state of mind one of your skills has been upgraded.

Tyrant's Spirit Emergence(Lv1): Unlocking this skill you can sense the auras of everyone around you in a 16 meter radius. Actively using this skill, the user can generate an aura of fear that can amplify/induce terror on beings inside their aura and lower the status of the enemies that are affected. If the feeling of fear is big enough then the victim can freeze in terror, fall unconscious or even die. -2% to all enemies' stats that have been inflicted by fear status. Active use cost 350 MP

The alert made me snap out of my murderous thoughts and after a quick look at my upgraded skill I focused back on the proceedings.

"And with this last issue out of the way then I declare this meeting adjourned and the celebration to begin." said Zeus and the attendants started cheering and Hecate with a snap of her fingers released the demigods from her spell.

I didn't pay any mind to them though. I headed straight to Thalia in order to comfort her. This was not a fun situation to be in. Watching your own father callously and with no remorse putting to a fucking vote whether to deserve to live or to die because he couldn't keep it in his fucking pants would be traumatizing to even the most thick skinned of people.

So, when I reached her I took her by her arm ignoring her protests and led her to one of the gardens outside the council room. When we sat on one of the benches I let her get ahold of herself in silence but after 10 minutes I couldn't keep it in anymore.

"So you and Luke eh." I said a shit eating grin on my face causing her to turn red and sputter a bit.

"He is handsome I guess but I didn't expect you to let him in your panties so soon. Is his silver tongue as good as he bragged about or was it all hot air?" I continued wiggling my eyebrows suggestively and making her invent a new shade of red color, causing me to laugh loudly.

"Oh fuck you, you bitch" said the daughter of Zeus both in mortification and anger at my teasing but I couldn't really fault her. I wouldn't be all that comfortable having my sex life discussed in front of the whole pantheon and my own father as well.

"Oh love, I didn't know you liked me that way. Though I expect at least one dinner if you want to have some fun with me." I replied with a smirk while wiggling my eyebrows suggestively and causing her to gap at me in mortification. It was at this point that I gave her the final blow.

"You can invite Luke as well if you want I don't mind. Only, you have to arrange for a bigger bed because the Camp's are simply not big enough for three people you know."

If she was embarrassed before, now she went into supernova and for a moment I worried for her blood pressure, but before she could reply, probably with her spear if her look was anything to go by we were interrupted by an awkward cough and a giggle.

"Oh dear, what an interesting conversation we stumbled upon. They grow up so fast don't they love?" said a voice from behind us.

When I turned around I saw Aphrodite with a very amused smile on her face and beside her was my father with a dead look, his eyes barely showing any fire at all.

I didn't know how to react to my father hearing me propositioning someone for a threesome so I decided to act like it never happened for both my sanity and from the look of him, his as well.

"Lady Aphrodite, Old man. What can we do for you?"

"You can leave your friend here with Dite and come with me brat. I want to have some words."

After getting a nod from Thalia I shrugged and started walking besides the God. A couple of minutes later he started talking.

"You have done a good job with your siblings, super brat. It was high-time they learned some discipline."

"Well they never had anyone show them the correct way to act you know. Chiron for all the accolades he has as a trainer is at best a sub-par teacher, which considering how arrogant all his well known students were and their fates should have been a very strong indication on his competency" I said with an aggravated voice.

"Not fond of the horse eh?"

"Fuck no. He is annoyingly cryptic to any question you ask him and he focuses exclusively to the physical side of training. I have to teach the brats how to unlock their mana consciously and most of them have been in the accursed Camp for years. What the fuck is his deal? We are demigods, our whole gig is the divine energy we got from our divine parent making us superior to normal mortals. Why isn't he helping the kids to grow stronger?" I stated barely keeping my help from shouting.

"He is not allowed to kid. The King" he said the word 'King' like it was a pile of shit that he stepped on.

"Doesn't want the demigods to learn about 'dangerous abilities that they are not capable to wield responsibly'." he finished with a roll in his eyes and his tone was dryer than an old woman's cunt.

"So it comes back to him again doesn't it?"

"Yes it does and he has been spitting mad since he heard about your interaction with the Norse which I am really proud of your deeds by the way. You have become a war veteran, accomplishing great deeds in battle and even assisting in the death of both Surtr and his bitch of a wife."

"Father I-"

"That's why I must both warn you and help you." he said in a very serious tone, the flames of his eyes becoming an inferno from the rage within.

"What do you mean?"

"The asshole has planned to make an event today and I am pretty sure that his most hated brother has helped as well. I would have been impressed of watching the two of them work together after millennia of bitter hatred if they didn't plan to get you shafted."

"What exactly are they planning?" I asked, not at all surprised that these two Gods would be so against me. Though for Hades to even contemplate to work together with Zeus after what he did to him. I shook my head in disappointment. If I didn't think him petty before, now I surely do.

"A challenge for those who would volunteer. Giving some bullshit excuse about how entertaining it was last time we did that and wanting to turn it into a tradition. Making demigods fight for the audience's entertainment and proving themselves before the Gods, promising honor and some kind of reward in exchange or other such crap."

"I won't volunteer then, simple as that. Let some other poor smack get chosen" I replied uncaring. If some random demigod wants to risk life and limb in order to gain some dubious honor from the Gods then he is free to do so.

"Good. I am all for a good fight any day but sometimes you have to choose your battles. However I am going to give you a little help in case the shit hits the fan and also as a personal trial from me slash reward for your veteran status." he said and touched my head a red glow engulfing me.

Perk Revised: BLESSING OF ARES(1/2): PERMANENT +10 TO ALL STATS EXCEPT LUCK. ACTIVE +10.000 STR, +5000 VIT, +8000 DEX. It can only be granted by Ares to his children. When active the user is lost in rage and as chosen by Ares himself you can activate it once every 25 days on your own.

I goggled at the revised perk like an idiot, completely stupefied. Seeing my reaction he laughed at me, the dick.

"You like brat? This is something I have granted twice in all my lifetime as a God. Both times your siblings were lost in rage and died from the overload of power, unable to gain true control."

"Then why give me something like this?"

"Because you are my strongest child ever and more. I have seen you brat. The way you fight is not like your fellow siblings. All my children aside from incredible strength gain my recklessness and bloodthirst from my domains and never think before they act.

You are different though. You fight smart, you use tactics and you don't let your anger consume you. Well mostly. If there is anyone that can master this, it is you." he said with a grin and rubbed my head, completely ruining my hair and making me glare at him, though I was happy that my father believed in me.

"Let's go brat. It's almost time for Zeus surprise event" he finished, starting to walk back into the council room and I followed.

We had just reached the gates of the council room turned ball room when the tinkling of a glass was heard all around.

"Ladies and gentlemen, your attention please." said the King of assholes with a smarmy smirk on his face, making everyone focus on him.

"With the gracious assistance of my brother Hades" pointing to the Underworld King and gaining shrewd looks from the most cunning of the room at such an oxymorous behavior from the two hated rivals and surprised ones from everyone else.

"I decided to begin a new tradition for the Winter and Summer Solstices in order to bring more life in the celebrations. I would like to honor and test one of the demigods in a challenge against dangerous odds in order for them to illustrate the fruits of their training and show us all their skills in real battle. Of course if they win they would be rewarded with a golden laurel and will be granted one reasonable boon from me in exchange for showing us their might against dangerous odds."

As the thunder farter was speaking I could see inside the room, his new 'tradition' was met with mixed results. The most stupid of the immortals as well as the naïve demigods were all smiles for the spectacle to come and the chance to prove themselves before their parents respectively. The rest were looking either in horror or in rage at the audacity of the King to turn their kids into gladiators for his entertainment.

"Now, I ask all the demigods in attendance to come before us and for the volunteers for the Solstice Games to raise their hands. Their names will written magically in a paper and put in the champion chalice-" summoning a big bronze and gem encrusted chalice with Greek runes around it. 'It seems it is not only Athena that is a fan of Harry Potter' I thought sarcastically.

"-and one of the volunteers will be randomly selected to be the 2005 Winter Solstice Champion."

Quickly all of us gathered in rows similar to a legion if front of Zeus and many started raising their hands. Thankfully we assembled together with our siblings and I ordered all of them to not volunteer. Those who tried to protest I silenced with a fiery look that promised unending suffering if I was disobeyed making them shiver in terror at the mere idea of disobeying me.

I observed the rest and from what I saw Thalia had no intention to risk her life to gain any honor from her deadbeat father and her rolling eyes look she send me enforced that. Luke followed his girlfriends lead. After all happy wife, happy life or the girlfriend equivalent at least and I made a mental note to tease them later.

Unfortunately no one gave Annie the memo and she volunteered herself making my blood run cold and the look that asshole Hades sent me gave me no delusion that the stupid goblet was random or that they would chose anyone but Annabeth if I didn't play ball and it pissed me off. If I hated anything in the world, it is being forced to do something against my will and these petty assholes where forcing me to either walk into their trap or watch as my dearest friend died before my eyes.

Looking at the Gods I could see my father understood the situation and he was griping his throne so hard that I could see small cracks on it and Athena was looking pleadingly at me.

I sighed. You owe me big time for this Athena. I prayed to the Goddess and she nodded in return, a grateful look in her eyes, and with a resigned scowl I made my best Katniss Everdeen impersonation and I volunteered myself as a tribute to Zeus 'I am a murderous asshole Games' name pending. Clarisse that was beside me saw the whole exchange and was looking at me with concern. I tried to reassure her with my eyes and a smile but from her look I was not all that successful.

I had really bonded with my youngest sister and from what her status info said these days she had acquired some type of hero worship and role model thing from me. I was fond of her as well. Aside from being one of the few girls in my cabin she was also the most skilled after me and the most intelligent of the lot.

"The time to join is over and now we will wait for the chalice to make its choice."

With an explosion of blue flames (I rolled my eyes at the blatant plagiarism) a piece of paper landed on the only hand of Zeus (I smirked at that because Ares explained to me how that came to be.) and everyone waited with a bated breath for the result.

"The champion is-" paused the Drama Queen.

"-Alexandra Bellum, daughter of Ares" he declared drawing an applause from the immortals with some pitying looks here and there that I expertly ignored and excited cheering from the demigods.

Annie was half disappointed for not being chosen but she gave me an encouraging smile which I returned. I didn't want to make her think that anything was wrong. She would figure out I volunteered in order to save her from whatever this cluster fuck is going to be and she didn't need the extra guilt if I died.

The thunder fucker gave the shadow prick a nod and with a raise of his hands summoned a Red Gate making me pause for a moment. 'It seems they really don't like me. Who would have thought?' I thought sarcastically.

"Before our champion enters the Gate I will offer some clues for the trials ahead." announced Zeus.

"The only way out of the Gate is by opening the Exit door inside the diamond room and as long as the monster lives the exit remains locked." so a simple defeat the boss in order to unlock the Gate.

Astral Gate detected. Scanning. Please wait.

Red dungeon discovered. Do you wish to enter?

YES/NO.

"Whenever you are ready. You may enter." said the asshole with a self-satisfied smirk. Oh bastard, it is so on right now. You want a spectacle. I will give you one you will never forget.

PING*

Legendary Quest: Royal Challenge

Main Objective: Kill the Final Boss and unlock the EXIT Gate.

Bonus 1: ?

Bonus 2: ?

Bonus 3: ?

Bonus 4: ?

Bonus 5: ?

Bonus 6: ?

Bonus 7: ?

Rewards:

Main Objective: 100m xp, 5k D, Title, Skill Book,?.

1: ?

2: ?

3: ?

4: ?

5: ?

6: ?

7: ?

Failure:

Death

YES/NO.

With a final look at my father I pressed YES and stepped through the Gate.

I found myself in circular room made out of a golden stone, the walls were depicting the 12 Olympians and the roof was open showing a cloudless blue sky. Right in front of me was a humongous Gate made out of pure diamond.

In a vertical line along the middle of the gate there were 5 seals with a sigil above them depicting the four basic elements and also a leaf that probably symbolised nature and two keyholes at the left and right most sides that had the depictions of a sun and a cresecent moon respectively above them. I would have observed it more but the sound of flapping wings made me turn to the origin of the disturbance and boy was it a treat.

She was bigger than a one story building. She had the body of a lioness, the talons and wings of an eagle and the head of a beautiful woman. Her eyes were golden and were full of knowledge and wisdom. She exuded power compareable to Sinmara and I knew that if I tried to fight her I wouldn't stand a chance in hell.

Ligeia „The Original"

Race: Sphinx

Gender: Female

Lv: ?

Status: ?

Info: Ligeia is the first sphinx of her kind and as a result the strongest. She was assigned the duty of testing the champion demigod and granting them the first key of the gate if they are victorious. If not, then she is free to devour them.

"Greetings half-ling, I am Ligeia, the first of the guardians. The only way for you to win is to answer correctly to my riddle. I will only say it once and you can only answer once. Answer wrong and I will attack. Delay too much and I will attack. Do you understand?"

"Yes Lady Ligeia",

Giving me a nod for my respectful tone, she started reciting the riddle.

Despised it is by knave and coward

After it the wise inquire

It rises above all death and fire

And is the bane it is of crook and traitor.

What is it?

" You have 5 minutes" she said and she summoned an hourglass with sand inside that started flowing.

It was a tricky one. At the beginning my mind went to honesty or maybe honor but both of those are not the bane of traitors or crooks. They show contempt for those qualities and usually manipulate such people in order to further their goals. I had been thinking about 4 minutes, trying to figure out what the answer could possibly be until I re-read the second verse and I figured it out.

"TRUTH." I shouted.

"The answer is truth, because it the wise people greatest desire to find the truth and all criminals and traitors hate the truth because they deal in lies and deceit." I finished receiving an impressed look by the Sphinx.

"You are correct child. It seems you will not become my dinner today. Maybe another time." she said with a smirk drawing a deadpanned look from me.

"Gee thanks"

"Here take the golden key as a reward for your wisdom. My job is done." she finished and flew away to places unknown while I inspected the key.

Sun Gold Key

Info: One of the 2 keys needed to open the Boss Gate. It is made from Imperial Gold. A metal created by Roman alchemists/priests on the heights of the Roman Empire's power and t is capable of harming the supernatural

Putting the key in my inventory for safekeeping I gazed at a drawbridge that connected to an island with a river below. Shrugging I started walking on top of it and when I reached the island which was filled with trees found in the Mediterranean, I followed a path that led me to a brown gate with the symbol of a rock on top of it. There was an inscription as well.

" Through the Gate of Earth strength is the only quality that matters"

Strength eh? My specialty is strength, this is going to be a piece of cake. With a grin I pushed the door open and stepped through.

You are walking into a pocket dimension .

As I walked inside I saw a rocky area that was similar to the outside but even more wild looking. It was twilight in the dimension and the visibility was slowly deeming. There were boulders all around for an ambush and the ground was muddy enough to be slightly slippery. The biggest problem though became apparent the moment that the door I entered through closed behind me.

PING*

Due to the special conditions of the Earth Gate, all external mana based abilities are negated.

I wanted to swear but the heavy footsteps of something approaching gave me pause. When it showed itself behind one of the boulders I was surprised. But not at the monsters identity.

Minotaur "MOORDEROUS"

Race: Monster

Gender Male

Level: 35

HP: 30.300 (+20.000)

MP: 630

STR: 300 (350)

VIT: 200

DEX: 50

INT: 15

WIS: 8

LUC: 5

Info: The Minotaur is a monster with the head and tail of a bull and the body of a man. He dwelt at the center of the Labyrinth on the command of King Minos of Crete. He was the son of Minos wife Pasiphae that was cursed to mate with a white bull by the God Poseidon. He was eventually killed by the Athenian hero Theseus, son of Poseidon.

Percy Jackson when he first fought the beast he described him naked aside from a fruit of the looms underwear (though I am pretty sure that was just added from Rick cause of PG and to raise the comedy aspect).

Right now before me, the fucking thing is wearing a gold full plate armor with helmet and everything that covers all its body except of his horns and is wielding a humongous golden axe.

If I was any other demigod and I include even the Big Three here then they wouldn't stand a chance against this menace. The armor covered everything and without any speck of magic it would be useless to fight the literal juggernaut before me. Unfortunately for it, I am not a normal demigod.

I instantly pulled out my bow and fired twice at the chinks of the armor on the shoulders but it seems they gave him some high quality chainmail as well because they were completely ineffective. The only thing my attack accomplished was to enrage the monster and have it charge at me, its axe above its head.

Thankfully it was very slow and I easily jumped on the scattered boulders and I jumped around gaining distance and kept on firing my arrows at him to keep its attention.

As I was running around I carved runes on top of the boulders while escaping the idiotic things charges. Twice he hit his head on the rocks injuring itself and causing one of its horns to break of.

HP: 29.800/30.300

A few minutes later I had created a circle shaped runic array about 20 meters wide in radius and a smaller one outside the bigger one. The room may have negated the external mana use but it didn't stop the ambient magic from charging runes or myself from using blood, one of the richest mediums and carriers of magic from helping along.

As I hid behind one of the many boulders of our arena, I threw a small rock in the middle of the bigger array drawing the attention of the huge brute and causing it to get in the right position. 'Excellent'.

Bathing the runes of the smaller array with a few drops of blood I focused all my strength on my fists and used concussive force (one of my perks and hence not mana reliant abilities kukukuuku) to hit the array with a hammer blow.

The result was immediate. The array I created was basically an amplifying and sympathetic one. The closest thing that is similar in use is the voodoo dolls, but instead of using it on living beings, it is used directly on the environment.

The whole area circled by the bigger array exploded with the power of the concussive force and created a crater that was 3 meters deep at the centermost point. This is where the Minotaur was, having collapsed on its front. It wasn't truly injured though because the damage was made on the ground and not to it. His condition was mostly because of the surprise and the loss of its balance.

HP: 28.000/30.300

That's why I didn't give it time to reorient itself. I jumped high from a boulder outside the crater and I drop kicked the brute a la Tsunade (Tsutenkyaku FTW), making sure to use concussive force to bypass its armor.

The force of my kick buried the monster deeper in the earth and I could clearly hear the snapping of its bones. Considering that there was an indent in the shape of my foot right in the middle of its armored back, I am sure that it won't be walking anytime soon.

HP: 4.000/30.300, Critical Hit

I gripped its remaining horn and lifted it from the ground throwing the half conscious monster on its back. After I ripped the helmet for its body and inventoried it I drew my spear and put it between its eyes.

"Game Over"

And I plunged it with all my strength killing it.

It became golden dust leaving behind its armor and weapon as well as the horn that had broken earlier and was still imbedded on a boulder a few meters away.

Cretan Golden Axe

+1500 DMG

+ 50% DMG against monsters

Special: Strength Specialist: None that has STR lower than 200 will be able to lift this weapon, but for those who are strong enough the weapon will weight like a feather on their hands.

Info: A weapon made in the shape of an ancient double headed axe of the Minoan Era. It is made from Imperial Gold, a metal capable of hurting the supernatural and is particularly good against monsters.

Bull Zodiac Armor

+5% HP Regeneration

+50 STR

Special: Strength Specialist: None that has STR lower than 200 will be able to wear this armor, but for those who are strong enough it will weight like a feather on their body.

Info: A heavy plate armor made from Imperial Gold. It grants the user great strength and vitality and is superior to any armor made by mortal hands, granting excellent protection against physical attacks to a point.

Wow the terrible duo seems pulled out all the stops in order to make it as hard for me as possible. Well the jokes on them though because now these babies are mine. I will have to reforge them though because they were not made for my body type in mind.

Putting them in my inventory together with the horn I was about to search for the exit but I didn't need to because one of the boulders started moving revealing a passage that probably led to my next challenge.

The whole path was a narrow catacomb and if I didn't have my ability to use mana, I wouldn't be able to see my own nose but thankfully my flashlight spell solved that problem.

After walking for a while I found myself in a larger room with a gate that had the symbol of a water drop on top.

I had my spear in hand and my bow strapped across my torso because I didn't know if they could figure out a way to negate my inventory and I didn't fancy fighting whatever monster was inside without a weapon.

The moment I entered the door closed behind me and a new alert appeared in front of my eyes.

Due to the special conditions of the Water Gate, all external mana based abilities except of normal fire magic are negated.

So now they left me with at least one element, though they made sure to deny me my Flames of War and considering the Gate I am in they left me with an elemental disadvantage. Hopefully my great mastery of the element will reduce the handicap some.

The area looked like a huge swamp. There were trees all around obscuring most of the sun rays and the ground was filled with weeds and ankle deep mud.

As I trudged along, I had to make sure I stepped carefully because the ground was extremely slippery and I almost gotten bitten twice by snakes camouflaged amongst the trees and weeds. Gods how I hated snakes. Those crawling disgusting things always gave me the heebie-jeebies ugh.

After twenty minutes of muddy walking through the swamp (and I really needed to give my armor a very thorough cleaning after this) I found my way to a lake. It was big enough I suppose and the water was so dark that you couldn't see the depths even at the banks of it.

Obviously the monster I had to face resided inside the lake and I wasn't in the mood to wait for it until it decides to grace me with its presence. So after I made sure to collect a few big enough piles of rocks and boulders in case I needed a heavy projectile for whatever aquatic monster I had to face, I started skipping stones on the lake, trying to draw its attention.

It didn't take long. I could see a huge body starting to rise from the deep and I instantly jumped back to gain some distance. The moment the monster reached the surface I wanted to laugh. Not because it was weak.

On the contrary, it was one of the most powerful and famous monsters in Greek Mythology. The fact was though that I was an expert in fire magic which was its greatest weakness and I always wanted to fight this monster and as a result I had thought up various strategies in order to defeat it. This is going to be fun.

Hydra "Lernaian"

Race: Monster

Gender: Female

Level: 45

HP: 25.700

MP: 1040

STR: 150

VIT: 400

DEX: 200

INT: 10

WIS: 5

LUC: 15

Info: The original Hydra that was killed by Herakles. A daughter of Echidna and Typhoon, she is capable firing projectiles of acid from her many mouths and if you cut any of her head two more instantly replace it.

She had the body of a drakon and nine heads that looked like snakes. She was about 20 meters long from heads to tail and was looking at me like I was the tastiest thing since strawberry cheesecake.

As she sent one of her heads on a head on strike I cut it off with my spear. I knew what it was going to happen but I wanted to test what would happen HP wise because if she lost HP then I would just cut her heads until she hit 0 but I wasn't so lucky.

HP: 22.000/25.700

HP: 27.000/27.000

Damn the head sprouting took only 5 seconds and she even raised her health bar by almost 2k. Talk about a broken ability. No wonder Herk the jerk needed the help of Iolaous to defeat the monster. If you try to cut a head you don't have enough time to pick a bow light it on fire and then hit the stump. I have to get creative.

Seeing that my first theory was a big bust I tried a different approach. As she attacked me again with more of her heads now, I rolled underneath them and stabbed the main body 3 times before I had to block one of the heads mouths with the shaft of my spear. The force of the hit threw me 10 meters onto the air and I crushed on one of the piles of rocks I had made a while back.

HP: 29.100/29.100 (+8000)

FF: 0/5000 FFReg= 1000/min (when outside battle)

HP: 21.000/27.000

HP: 27.000/27.000

Damn, that regeneration is insane. It seems cauterizing the wounds is the only way to go and I have to be very careful because my force field is gone and one bite is all it needs to kill me. That poison is no joke.

I had to jump to the side and roll behind another pile of rocks because she spit at me a glob of acid as big as a cow and I winced a little when I saw the rocks actually melting and becoming slag.

So now I am going to test theory number three. As I drew its attention and made all the heads turn towards me I used Great Flame Wave. A literal tidal wave of orange and red fire came out of my hands and I overloaded it with double the mana required in order to make it bigger.

MP: 20.400/23.425 (+5000)

The result was a big fat nothing. The fucking snake's skin is extremely fire resistant on the outside it seems. Only the inside is vulnerable to fire. I have one more plan and if it doesn't work either then I will just charge in with fire imbuement and hopefully I will kill it before she melts my inside with her acid bite.

I picked one of the stones from the piles I made before and after imbuing it with fire I chucked it at one of the heads.

The screech of pain was an indication that it worked. The force of my throw pulverized the head and the acid caught fire instantly cauterizing the stump and preventing the sprouting of more heads. One down, nine more to go.

I continued like that for a while. I threw rocks at it and killed head after head until I run out of stones. The bloody monster got accustomed enough to my throws that it managed to dodge many of them.

By the time I run out only three heads were left on the monster. Seeing as I had no other choice I griped my spear tightly and I charged forward.

The hydra, desperate enough to kill the troublesome brat that killed so many of her heads made an all out attack by trying to hit me from both the front and the sides. She was prepared to sacrifice even more of her heads as long as she managed to land a fatal strike.

Unfortunately for her I was experienced enough to understand what she was trying to do. A few moments before our collision I pulled out the axe I had won from the Minotaur and used my spears second boon to telekinetically make it rotate ate my front, repelling the main head and with a backstep and a huge flaming swipe I cut the other two heads leaving the Hydra with only one left.

Seeing as she had no chance of winning now, she tried to return back inside the lake but I didn't let her. The many fallen bodies of the cut heads had made it difficult for her to move and I had plenty of time to run on top of her body and pike her with my spear in place.

HP: 2500/27.000

After that the last head just gave up and fell to the ground. As I was getting closer I could see it on the monsters eyes that she was resigned to her death and that was when I made a different call.

"Do you want to live?" I asked. I knew she was intelligent enough to understand me. Monstrous she may be but she is still a child of two intelligent beings.

She was looking at me curiously. She didn't expect me to show her mercy.

"I can save you and heal you but in exchange you will serve me from now on as my familiar. My goals will be your goals and your loyalty will be unwavering because once the contract is completed if you go back on it your very existence will be erased. There will be no respawning for you. Do we have an accord?"

I could see in her eyes that she understood what I was talking about and after a couple of minute of contemplation she nodded.

Smiling in triumph I painted with my blood a Greek Omega and recited the bonding spell.

" With a sacrifice of blood and magic and the consent of both of us I hereby declare you as my familiar in an accord that is bound by life and death. As your master I declare so. Rise Aristomache in your new life as my familiar. So mote it be."

When I finished the familiar ritual, great pressures of magic were released from both of us and I could see that the change became prevalent quickly.

She didn't gain back her heads, but instead she became bigger and now she had one head that was scalier and was black and crimson in color like my flames of war. She had a single horn sprouting from her forehead that was alight on crimson fire and instead of the two fangs that her previous snake shaped heads had, her mouth was full of razor sharp teeth more reminiscent of a dragon. The most prominent change though were the two humongous crimson wings coming out of her back and the four clawed legs, two on the front and two on the back. As she was now, she looked like a hybrid of an eastern and western dragon, which was so fucking cool.

Aristomache

Race: Drakon

Gender: Female

Level: 25

HP: 82.450

MP: 59.150

STR: 750

VIT: 450

DEX: 540

INT:260

WIS: 63

CHA: 100

LUC: 37

Info: The original Hydra turned Drakon by her defeat and subsequent bonding to Alexandra Bellum through a familiar contract. She is bound to her mistress for life and her lifespan is as long as hers. The stronger her mistress becomes the more power she gains and more skills and abilities she awakens.

Familiar Bond (MAX): Through your bond with Aristomache you gain a mental connection that allows you to communicate through feelings, images and even full blown telepathy. Your familiar gains bonus in her status depending on yours. (HPx2+VIT, MPx2+INT, STRx3, VITx3, DEXx3, INTx2, WIS/2, CHAx1, LUCx1)

Transform: Because of her heritage as a child of a divine being and your special bond with her, Aristomache has gained the ability to take a human form. However, the caveat of this skill is that she will appear as old as you are physically and all her physical stats and MP will be halved while in human form. Cost: 2.000 MP.

The Many-Headed One (Lv1): Because of her previous form as a many headed Hydra Aristomache is capable of conjuring heads made purely out of crimson flames and using them in conjunction. DMG: 500, Cost: 400, Number of heads: 1

Dragon's Breath(Lv1): Because of her change of race and the powerful fire affinity of her Mistress, Aristomache is capable of breathing fire from her mouth, both FOW and normal ones. WARNING: In human form she will be incapable of wielding the FOW in any shape or form . DMG: 2000, Cost: 1500 MP, Range: 5 meters

One with the Flames(Lv1): By sacrificing her ability to secrete poison and her water nature she gained a powerful skill in exchange. By devouring or diving into flames of others no matter their nature (Holy, demonic, divine etc.) she can heal from wounds and restore her stamina and mana. Exception to that are cold flames and immortal slaying flames like the Godslaying flames of Tartarus. HP/sec: 50, MP/sec: 25

I knew I was being watched by the whole pantheon right now but I couldn't help it. I started cackling like a full blown evil mastermind. My new minion was so badass and considering that she can take a human form I am going to have her be with me more often than Ruin.

"So, how do you like your new form Aristomache? Not to toot my own horn but I think that my magic made you way better than before." I said with a self satisfied grin.

" You are correct Mistress. I feel better than ever. The eternal hunger that made me seek out demigods in order to eat them is now gone and for the first time in my life I can have full coherent thoughts and actual full blown feelings aside from fear or rage. Gods I can use the word coherent in a sentence, how cool is that." said the Drakoness in my head all the while giggling like a schoolgirl.

" What are we going to do now Mistress?"

"Right now I am going to send you away from here because I need to finish this little challenge and we are going to discuss the particulars about our bond once I am finished. However I may have need of your fighting prowess in the Gates ahead so it is possible that I will re-summon you ok?"

" Alright Mistress, I will be waiting. Now please sent me away, I want to hunt for something to eat that isn't a two legged chicken tasting morsel. I am eager to try venison with my new taste buds."

Amused I raised my left hand and I noticed that the red Omega tattoo that used to symbolize my bond with Ruin gained a new addition. There was a red and black snake circling the Greek letter and eating its tail like an Ouroboros.

With a flex of my mana on the snake tattoo I watched my new dragon familiar turn into countless flaming sparks and vanished from the area. The moment the last spark disappeared the ground trembled and a new Gate came out of the center of the lake with small rocks making a path towards it. Considering that it had an ember as a symbol then the new challenge is the fire one. Pfft I am as fire proof as my hottest flames. Unless they brought an Elder Dragon or something I don't see this one being particularly difficult.

The landscape I found myself in was similar to the Earth challenge but instead of an arena full of boulders and muddy ground, here the sun was burning extremely hot and the ground was rock solid and hard as well as completely even. All in all, a barren hot empty plain.

Due to the special conditions of the Fire Gate, all external mana based abilities except of normal nature magic are negated.

Goodie and now the elemental disadvantage is truly prevalent. The ground is so infertile and rock solid that I am going to need double the amount of mana to use my only nature spell and it is going to be slower too.

As I was griping about the stupid rules of the challenge a few things appeared out of thin air behind me drawing my attention.

The first thing I noticed was an ancient Hesiod plough that farmers tied horses or oxen on it and was used in order to cultivate the earth. Beside it there was a small pouch and a bucket of blood. I didn't need to be an Athena child to understand what I must do here and if I know my myths as well as I think then I have to pull a Jason here. Luckily my new spear had the right boon to help me in this particular trial.

The only thing missing is the labor "animal" and speak of the devil, I felt the rumbling of mechanical feet hitting the earth in the distance.

Khalkotauros

Race: Automaton

Gender: N/A

Level: 30

HP: 25.200

MP: 11.040

STR: 250

DUR: 600

DEX: 35

INT: 15

Info: The Khalkotauros is the original one of the two mechanical Bulls that Hephaestus gifted to King Aeetes of Colchis and was used by Jason together with its sibling to plough a field in order to win the Golden Fleece. It is extremely strong and capable of breathing fire hot enough to melt steel.

Now, normally I would have to tame the Bulls, slowly manage to plough the very hard and unyielding ground and after putting the dragon blood inside the holes I make, I will have to douse them with the blood on the bucket in order for Spartoi to come. That would have been too troublesome and time consuming though and I have no intention to play on the Gods whims if I can help it so I will cheat.

First, I killed the bulls to get them out of my way. One thrust in the mechanical inside parts of one of them (thank you Percy) and a concussive force on the other and I got myself a shit ton of celestial bronze ready to be traded for favors with the Hephaestus Cabin or the dwarves in Nidavelir on a later date.

After that I used my nigh indestructible spear together with you guessed it concussive force and made many linear furrows on the ground in the shape of a ploughed field. Not as good or deep as my fissure spell but I didn't need to create small canyons here so no worries.

Lastly I put the Dragon's teeth inside the ground and after I covered them with the misplaced earth I doused them with blood right from the vain.

You see the special thing about spartoi is that except of being immune to all weapons outside of underworld metals or death aligned beings like say a daughter of Hades for example they own their allegiance on the person who fed them blood while in their tooth state. It is a very obscure trivia and something not known to many because Zeus doesn't like people knowing things but I was mentored for 5 years by a Goddess of magic and spend another 2 in a place with one of the most complete magical libraries in the cosmos so I made sure to learn a lot of things about many magical trivia.

As a result, instead of having to fight against a bunch of murderous skeletons that wouldn't be all that difficult considering my weapons Bane of Netherkind skill I have a half a dozen new skeletons that I can summon to do my bidding whenever I want. So I promptly ordered them to go back in their dragon tooth state and now whenever I need them I can just throw them on the ground and they will awaken again. Making sure I put my most innocent face, I looked somewhere on the sky and addressed one of my watchers.

"Thank you Lord Hades for such an awesome gift, you are most generous."

I knew that taunting the God was not a wise thing but if it was anyone else but me here then they would have never been able to win. Hell if I hadn't stumbled on a comprehensive guide about making spartoi and draugr in Odin's library or didn't have my spear with me then this challenge was a slow death sentence.

The whole trial was an insidious trap. I would have not been able to make the skeletons mine and without a proper weapon I would have to fight them without end, tiring myself and ultimately getting killed. And we are talking about me here. Any other demigod wouldn't be able to deal with these bulls unless he was a fire user child of Hephaestus or a very skilled child of Poseidon. Everyone else would be extra crispy in five seconds flat and even if they survived the bulls the spartoi will simply kill them after. I don't see anyone but a child of the Underworld wielding Stygian Iron after all.

So as you can understand I think I am justified for the cheek I showed the sore loser watching me.

My inner monologue was interrupted by a gate rising from the ground. It was pure white and had the symbol of a twister on it. The Air Gate.

As I stepped through I found myself on a mountain peak with clouds below me obscuring the ground.

Due to the special conditions of the Air Gate, all external mana based abilities except of normal water magic are negated.

And just like that my good mood went to shit. My water magic is my weakest skill out of all my current affinities and with good reason. It is the direct opposite of my strongest elemental affinity which is fire and the only reason I even studied it was because I need a certain level of competency on it together with earth to learn nature magic which I love.

* Screeeee*

The screech sounded like a bird of prey and I prepared myself for what was to come. I wasn't disappointed.

Golden Eagle

Race: Dios Eagle

Gender: Male

Level: 55

HP: 40.000

MP: 33.000

STR: 100

VIT: 250

DEX: 400

INT: 350

WIS: 50

LUC: 80

Info: The Golden Eagle is the familiar of Zeus, King of the Greek Pantheon and Lord of the Sky. He is the bird that was ordered to eat Prometheus intestines every day while leaving him to regenerate them by night in order to do it again the next day and also the one who stole the Ophiotaurus intestines from the Titans preventing them for achieving victory against the Gods. He is blessed by Zeus and is capable of wielding lightning as easy as breathing.

The Eagle was purely gold with a silver beak and talons. He was as big as a two seat aircraft and if the sparks that were flowing along his body were an indication then it could teaser my butt into extra crispiness very easily.

Damn and what a resume and those stats. There is no way I could take this thing head on. At least not without my full arsenal and even then I am not sure I would be able to win without some serious wounds at best. I had to cheat.

Thankfully I had comprehensive knowledge about the most versatile-please-nerf-too-OP branch of magic ever. I am talking of course about Runes.

So I hid behind the many boulders and indentions of the mountain all the while I started inscribing a shit ton of runes all around the peak. Unlike the first challenge though, I did something different. I used in conjunction with the normal Norse Runes I knew one of the five Elder ones I had been blessed by my trip through Yggdrasil.

From what I learned from Odin, with the Elder Runes unlike their younger counterparts (which you had to take into account all the different meanings they have under their sphere of influence when using them and as a result when you have to do something complicated you have to make a lot of countermeasures to negate the extra meanings you don't want to use) the user is able to use certain parts of their meanings through the wielders intent. For example, in my current array I used the Hagalaz.

It represents Hail and symbolizes Nature, Wrath, Being Tested and Overcoming Obstacles. I only used only part of the Nature symbolism and the Wrath one and discarded the rest. Also they are many times over more potent than the younger ones as well.

After I was done I went to the highest peak of the mountain and inscribed the rune one last time and bathed it in my blood. I was right on time as well because I could see the stupid bird coming at me with ferocity, ready to tear me to shreds.

Well the jokes on him because the moment he got near the mountain I used my Hydrokinesis to activate my rune assisted cheat to win strategy.

I used the runic array to gather the water from the clouds and condense it into liquid and then through the Elder Runes symbolisms of Nature and Wrath which can also be interpreted as Wrath of Nature, I created a CAT 4 hurricane on top of a mountain peak.

It was glorious. Tons upon tons of water fell on top of the flying chicken like an angry bull making it completely wet and as a result causing the lightning that was coursing through its skin to hurt it very seriously and semi-drowning it at the same time. After 10 minutes of glorious bird blender watching I let go of the spell and the eagle dropped near me and on top of the mountain like a ragdoll.

HP: 3.000/40.000

Through a very ingenious way of using water magic, your Hydromancy has leveled up

Hydromancy(Lv15-Lv20): Your ability to control water (-20MP to all water spells). Cost: 24 MP/sec.

I could have easily killed it with a single thrust and that would be the end of it but I wanted to make a point and also I really wanted to profit from this. After all I won against almost impossible odds, I deserved something extra for my labor so I plunged my fist into the Eagles chest making it scream in agony (not that I cared) and ripped out its heart.

Heart of the Golden Eagle

Info: The heart of the Golden Eagle, sacred animal of Zeus and blessed by him. It is a very rare ingredient that is capable of very potent results through its use in rituals and alchemy.

Oh it was very precious indeed and I planned to make the most of it right here by using it for one of the most ancient and powerful rituals I knew. It is called the Conqueror's Bounty and everyone capable of using this ritual can only do it 3 times in their lives irrespective if they are God or mortal.

Misuse of it according to Freyja leads to certain irreversible death for both immortals and mortals alike which shows how powerful it is.

This is my first time using this ritual so I didn't have anything to be afraid of so without further adieu I chanted the words needed in ancient Norse, thanking my fallen enemy for giving a part of him in order for me to become stronger and praising him for his prowess in battle.

After that I ate the heart. Yes you heard right, I ate the heart raw just like that. As I was chewing the very nasty treat I couldn't help but compare myself to Daenerys when she ate the horse heart in the first season of the series. Of course I had no horse lord rapist infect me with its sprog so I think I had the better deal all things considered but anyway I went on a tangent.

The moment I swallowed the last bite I felt a warm feeling inside me and an alert from the system.

Through the use of an ancient ritual you gained a new perk .

Golden Sky: By devouring the heart of Zeus Golden Eagle you gain:

+5.000 HP

+3.000 MP

Elemental Affinity: Air

New animal form: Golden Eagle

Ping*

Air Affinity: +20% xp when using air related spells and rituals.

Aeromancy(Lv1): Your ability to control the air and wind (-1 to all air spells). Cost: 30MP/sec

Shape shifting (Lv5-Lv10): Your ability to transform yourself into various animals. It needs an exceptional amount of knowledge about the physiology of the animal in order to transform. Current number of forms: 2, Form(s): Red-Tailed Hawk, Golden Eagle.

And just like that I boosted my health and magic pools decently enough, I got the final affinity for the 4 basic elements and a new "animagus" form as a cherry on top. Of course my new form wasn't actually the magical one I killed but its common normal counterpart but I didn't care. Free skill is free. All in all a good haul for 30 minutes work. Even better, the power I gained came directly from Zeus own magic. Talk about twisting the knife in the wound.

Humming a cheery tune I collected plenty of the eagle's feathers because it would be a shame to waste them and wiped the blood from my chin, the entire time my smile haven't left my face for a moment.

The particularly funny thing in the whole situation is that it took 10 minutes for the next Gate to appear. Ol' Zuzu must have been throwing a temper tantrum to end all tantrums because of the very permanent death of his favorite animal and considering that by the end of the night he is most likely going to be missing a symbol of power as well, I almost pitied the poor bastard. Almost but not quite.

One featherless giant dead eagle later and finally the next Gate appeared. It was Green with brown accents and there were flowers and vines sprouting around its borders.

Stepping through, I appeared in a forest. The trees were innumerable and very thick and consisted of mostly pines and oaks. There were sounds of wild life all around and with my Clairvoyance I was able to detect a herd of deer. It was quite beautiful all things considered and it reminded me of the forests of Vanaheim, with less snow and more insects at least.

Due to the special conditions of the Nature Gate, all external mana based abilities except of normal air magic are negated.

I didn't have any more time to admire the view because the next challenge reared its head.

Tree Goliath

Race: Dryad/Golem

Gender: N/A

Level: 65

HP: 500.000

MP: 1.000

STR: 3.000

VIT: 5.000

DEX: 60

INT: 10

WIS: 5

LUC: 50

Info: The Tree Goliath is a fusion of a Dryad and an Earth Golem made through a sacrificial ritual. They are barely sentient but they make up for their luck of intelligence for their overwhelming physical power. They were used in the old times as protectors of forests but their viciousness of anything trying to harm their territory made them unreliable after the supernatural hid from the mortal world. This particular one was made by Demeter 3 millennia ago but she forgot about it. It was found by Zeus in order to serve as a challenge to the trials.

It was big, around 20 feet tall and had a male buff body type. It was made out of rock and tree bark with vines and grass all around its body and its head was shaped like a human but with deer antlers made out of wood.

Well shit. I have fought many powerful beings but on all those times I had my full magic to help me. Being so limited is not going to help me here. I need a fucking army to defeat the bloody thing.

Instantly an idea came to me. I may not have an army, but I have 'Hulk'. Kinda.

I silently run away from the golem trying not to draw its attention and found a clearing that was hopefully far enough away from it to manage to summon 'Hulk'. Three drops of blood and five minutes later my newest minion was by my side once again.

" Mistress I am well fed and ready to serve. Venison was way better than I thought. Yummm. However they are so small, I had to eat many of them in order to become full." I heard a peppy voice in my head.

I deadpanned. My new gluttonous minion was really living it up in her new form and I made a mental note to restrict her deer hunting because I don't fancy to piss Artemis off enough to turn me into a deer.

"I am happy for you Ari (Aristomache for short) but I have a need for your fire breathing capabilities."

" Of course Mistress. Where do we go?"

After explaining the situation to her I rode on top of her back and we flew towards the overpowered golem, all the while I was humming the Game of Thrones intro song. Once we reached the golem I focused my magic on Ari in order to enhance her power and ordered her to strike.

"Light em Up!"

With a great roar a literal inferno came out of my dragon's mouth and completely engulfed the golem and a 10 meters radius around it.

I smirked at the devastation. I so wanted to shout Dracarys but I didn't want to confuse the familiar so I lamented a bit the missed opportunity.

Unfortunately, I underestimated the golem. Great emerald light shinned through the forest all around and coalesced on the forest guardian rapidly putting out the fire and healing it completely.

We both gaped at the fucking unfair ability like idiots and unfortunately gave it the opportunity to hit us with its fist.

Aristomache disappeared in red sparks, too wounded to continue and probably is going to be unavailable for the rest of the 'dungeon' ride but this was the least of my problems.

I wasn't spared from its strike and as I flew from the force of the hit and crushed on top of a tree hundreds of meters away I had to use all my will power to stay conscious.

HP: 500/34.100

MP: 15.000/26.425

FF: 0/5000

WARNING: The gamer is in critical condition.

You have been inflicted status effect: Crippling Wounds: -90% to all movement.

You have been inflicted with status effect: Bleeding: -10 HP/ min

My everything was broken and breathing was a misery to do so. I was bleeding from my head somewhere because my left eye was blinded by the flow of blood. If it wasn't for the force field tanking some of the damage I would have been a splatter of blood and viscera around the whole fucking forest.

I was angry. No, I was furious at fucking Zeus for using such an overpowered monster just because he can't understand that because someone doesn't lick his asshole doesn't mean they are interested on his throne. I was angry at Demeter for forgetting about such a menace and as a result allowing the shitty King to make use of it against me. But most of all I was pissed off at myself. My easy victories until now had made me arrogant. I sat in place like an idiot marveling at my familiar's spell instead of keeping my guard up and fucking gaining some distance. After all a forest guardian is obviously going to have some way to prevent forest fires from happening to a point.

Using gamer's mind to ignore the pain I pulled out ambrosia from my inventory and consumed them quickly. I could feel my wounds closing and my bones to set back on their place, but it wasn't instant nor painless.

Every laceration closing felt like liquid fire on my skin, every muscle putting itself together like a stab wound but the worse were the bones. As I said earlier most of my bones were broken so every snap of bone that was set back to its proper place was like a hammer blow. Especially my spine and ribs. Gods it felt I was being teared from the inside and I think I passed out a few times while healing.

When I came to, the sun had moved a bit on the sky meaning that it took me a couple of hours to heal. Talking a sip from my special mead to boost my regeneration in order to relief the soreness of my body and restore my stamina, I contemplated on where to go from here.

Fighting the creature head on was suicide and even lighting it on fire was meaningless, it would just put out the fire and then it would smash me into a pulp. Not that I was able to create a fire now without Ari to help me.

There must be a way to win though, some trick or weakness I can exploit. As I was rethinking about my 'fight' with the beast I remembered a small detail. The creature drew power from the forest around it to put out the flame and as long as it is around its forest its power is technically limitless. That's when I had an idea.

After using Clairvoyance in order to pinpoint its location I summoned Ruin and I started galloping.

As we were running I stopped every few dozen meters and carved fire runes on the barks of the trees in a circle around the golem at first and after I was done I spread my marking even further away. I marked and I marked until I could create the fire rune in my sleep and hours later when I was done I had marked literal miles upon miles of forest with the runes.

I couldn't take out the guardian from the forest in order to depower him and make him vulnerable so I had only one option, Take out the forest root and stem instead. It would have been easier with Ari but Ruin could use fire as well though weaker, so I had to cheat through runes.

So I rode on my steed and used a subdued Power Wave to create small embers on the foliage and the forest ground. Every time the flames reached the runes on the barks of the trees there was an explosion of fire that consumed more trees around and I was counting on that.

I created a domino effect inside the whole area and by running and lighting fires in a wide circle around the golem, preventing it from focusing in one area. Rune by rune more explosions occurred and the flames spread far and wide.

It reached a point where the smoke was so thick that it obscured my vision completely and became almost impossible to breath. I signaled Ruin to start running towards the sky in order for us to escape and as I watched from up high I could see half the forest was on fire.

I didn't like what I had to do. The poor animals and trees had committed no sin to deserve such extinction but it was the only choice I had and I can't condemn myself here forever. This was one more of Zeus follies. The innocent had paid for his arrogance once more. I rationalized in my head in order to relieve myself some of the guilt I was feeling because I wasn't done yet. I had to make sure that the fire completely surrounded the golem so I carried on with my fire starting.

By the time I was done and the forest was completely engulfed in flames I could see stars appearing on the sky and by this point I was beyond tired. These kinds of dungeons are not meant to be done by one person alone. Usually they are taken on by whole teams. The fact that I had to drink nectar twice in order to finish with my plan was a good indication on how tiring it was. My reserves are humongous for a demigod after all. Anyone else would have died from exhaustion at this point and it was only my Divine Constitution perk that allowed me to do what I did without collapsing.

As I was thinking about using my whole reserves on a more powerful Power Wave I noticed a great emerald pillar reaching the sky from somewhere inside the flames and I braced myself. A few seconds later an Omni-directional wave of emerald energy spread around the whole forest taking out the fire with extreme prejudice.

By the time it was done I was scared that my plan had failed and that I had to do it all over again but I needn't have worried.

Sacred Tree

Level: 40

HP: 5000

MP: 1.000

STR: 0

VIT: 50

DEX: 0

INT: 0

WIS: 0

LUC: 0

Info: A holy tree that used to be a Forest Guardian. In order to save the forest it was protecting from an unrelenting fire, it sacrificed most of his power and his sentience to create a flame nullifying wave in order to save what it could. As a result it transformed into a sacred tree which magic slowly and with time will restore the damage done.

As I saw the description I wanted to cry and only the fact that I knew I was being watched by the Gods prevented me for doing so. If the guild was crushing before, now it was all consuming and I ignored the Gate that appeared behind me. I had to make amends for my actions. No matter the reason and how I justified it was, my actions brought misery to a whole ecosystem and I had to fix it even if a little.

I took the horn of the Minotaur and 7 feathers from the golden eagle as well my last harpy feather from my first monster and I cast two rituals.

The first was the Earth Rejuvenation Ritual that would help the land restore each self in a rapid rate.

The second was a more personal one and it was a small penance for my actions. I carved runes with my blood on the sacred tree, but not standard ones. I used the four of the five Elder Runes I knew.

First Berkana in the middle which symbolizes Femininity, Fertility, Healing, Regeneration, Birth. And after that in a triangle around the first Rune I used Eihwaz at the upper point of the triangle with the meanings of Balance and the World Tree and on the other two points I used Uruz for Strength, Tenacity and Untamed Potential and finally Hagalaz for Nature and Overcoming Obstacles.

My hope was that Berkana will help heal the land, give birth to new life, keep the ground fertile and finally the femininity aspect together with Eihwaz World Tree would bless the sacred tree with a dryad on nymph. The rest were used to enhance all the effects and to empower the ritual even more I sacrificed both the axe and the zodiac armor I gained on my Earth challenge.

I started the ritual by singing a song of asking forgiveness and penance I learned from Freyja and also a prayer to her. I had no intention to ask for help from Demeter or Artemis. This situation may have not been their fault directly, but half responsible for this crime was their King, who they let him do whatever he wanted, harming anyone in his way and they didn't stand up against him. I was not going to honor their inaction with sacrifice nor song.

When I finished my song I saw the results of my rituals. The whole dimension was glowing with a faint green light and the sacred tree had changed. Instead of the pine it was before it had transformed into an Ash tree, the same as Yggdrasil itself but its branches were golden in color and shining an ethereal light.

Sacred Ash Tree (Blessed)

Level 100

MP: 250.000

VIT: 100.000

Info: A sacred tree that through the use of Elder Runes and the heartfelt sacrifice of Alexandra Bellum has been granted a great blessing by the Goddess Freyja and ?. Its presence will quickly revitalize the forest and make it stronger than it ever was. As the time passes there is a possibility for a tree spirit to emerge.

Happy at the success of my ritual, I looked for the first time at the last gate before the Boss room. It was black with silver accents and it had a crescent moon as a symbol at its center. I didn't need to be a genius to figure out that I would be dealing with dark creatures or demons this time so I replaced my Vanir armor for the one I used in Muspelheim.

These kinds of creatures are known for transferring rot and curses through direct skin contact or blood and the full body armor will protect me better instead of the Vanir leather and helmet-less one.

Hopping on Ruin I passed through and I immediately ordered my horse to run as high to the sky as possible. On the ground everywhere I looked there were undead and demons ready to tear me apart and the realm looked like a milder copy of Muspelheim.

The sky was red and there were volcanoes in the distance slowly leaking rivers of magma. The air was dry and very hot but thankfully there was no smell of sulfur or rain of ashes because the sky was clear of black clouds. Thank Yggdrasil for small miracles.

The whole army because I can't call it anything else is at least 100 thousand strong and I felt myself falter for a moment before getting a hold of myself. I am curious how they are going to rationalize this particular challenge to the rest of the Gods because this has surpassed whatever should constitute as a test to demigods at this point. The only good thing about this, is that no demigod will ever volunteer in this new "tradition" that Zeus wants to implement. Not unless they really want to die at least.

Due to the special conditions of the Moon Gate, all Mist, Elemental and Runic magics are negated.

Well, took them long enough I suppose. I expected at some point to remove my ability to use Runes and they didn't disappoint but as a result normal mana skills and effects are open to me.

As I used observe to scan the power levels of the army I found out that the monsters may have been many but they were all weaker than me. It seems Hades believes that quantity is a quality of its own and normally he would be right but he made a terrible mistake at his choice of troops. The undead of course were a given but he also filled half his army with demons. Fire demons to be exact, all weaker than me and now because they focused so hard in negating my Runes, they left me free to use an ability none knew I had.

I wanted so bad to shout at the heavens "My trap card has been activated" but I held myself back. It was no time for jokes.

The army was separated by race. On the left were the demons and on the right the undead so I removed my helmet and put on my circlet that I had put on my inventory when I put my flaming spirit armor and I galloped on the air in front of the fire demons.

The moment they saw me all beings below started screaming for my blood but not for long.

I used my Tyrant's Aura on full making the demons cower(the dead feel no emotions hence they are immune), my Kingly Aura perk working in tandem and then after spreading my wings for even greater effect I focused my mana on the circlet on my brow and my voice reverberated through the whole realm.

"Children of the Flames! Your allegiance belongs to me. Destroy the undead filth that infect the world with their presence. Your Queen and Lady commands you. Obey the will of your true Ruler!"

My shout made every single being, alive or not freeze and instantly all the demons eyes started glowing. The spell worked. In order to move things along I flew on the side of the undead and swung twice my spear vertically while using Warlord's Fang, killing dozens of them in the process and creating and opening for my army of demons to cut through the undead formations like a hot knife through butter.

As the demons were decimating one side of the undead army I flew towards the flank and used my only available attack spell to kill as many as I could and by this point victory was assured.

About an hour later the last of the undead turned to dust and as I touched the ground on top of Ruin the demons started shouting.

" QUEEN OF FIRE! QUEEN OF FIRE!"

"Now that the filth have been destroyed by your might, this realm is yours!" I shouted making the cheers louder than before.

Warlord's Fang(Lv17-Lv20): + 540 dmg/per slash, cost: 57 mp.

As the demons dispersed a small light appeared in front of me and a small silver key with its butt having the shape of a crescent moon appeared on my hands.

Moon Silver Key

Info: One of the 2 keys needed to open the Boss Gate. It is made from blessed silver. The metal is favored by the Goddess Artemis and has purifying and anti-evil properties.

After putting it in my inventory I headed towards the Red Gate that had appeared and I found myself back to the starting area of the dungeon and before the diamond door that lead to the Boss room. The 5 seals on the gate were glowing, signifying my victory over the trials and now the only thing left is to put the keys inside.

Putting my helmet on for extra protection and with my spear in hand I inserted the keys and unlocked the door.

As I walked through an icy corridor, I reached a frozen arena twice as big as a football (American) stadium. There were 4 spires on the cardinal directions that reached high to the sky and were curved like snake fangs. The walls were as tall as a 5 story building and steep with an uneven surface that was sharp enough to cut deeply at the touch.

The moment I entered the arena the corridors gate closed behind me, preventing me from going back. Surprisingly enough there were no magical restrictions this time which was both a good and a bad thing.

Good because I was at full power and bad because the creators of the dungeons wanted to kill me, not help and the fact that they didn't care if I was at my 100% worried me about the power level of the monster I had to face.

An innocuous sound from behind me made the hair on the back of my head to rise in alarm and I instinctively jumped left dodging a spear of ice twice as tall as me that would have easily spiked me on the ground.

Turning back I gazed at the Final Boss that was standing on the walls of the arena.

She was huge, the size of a school bus and thrice as wide if you include her 6 spindly and very pointy black legs and two fangs in the front that could probably crash steel between them. The rest of her body was hairy and pure white contrasting with the black color of her limbs and she had numerous red eyes that were looking at me like I was the best treat ever. Internally I wondered if I tasted like chicken too but I immediately suppressed my brief ADHD tangent from occurring and focused on the enemy.

Vetrar örvænting „Queen"

Race: Ice Spider

Gender: Female

Level: 80

HP: 412.000

MP: 119.200

STR: 800

VIT: 1.000

DEX: 1.500

INT: 200

WIS: 150

LUC: 30

Info: She is the Wintry Despair. A monster from the frozen realm of Jotunheim and one deadly enough for even the Jotnar to be wary of. She was imported from her home realm by Ares, God of War to keep as a pet on a lark. Used as a final boss in his daughter's dungeon in order to make things fair, instead of the Ice Dragon that was the original Boss.

I felt my eyebrow twitch. Those assholes wanted me to face a fucking dragon and kill it as well. They didn't even try to hide their real intentions at this point. How fucking disgraceful.

Sending a silent thank you to my father for the intervention I lifted my spear and threw it like a javelin, Warfyre full coated. Gods how glorious it felt to be able to use my flames once more.

The spear struck the wall completely missing the monster. For its size, it was unreasonably fast as it jumped with one leap on the opposite side of the arena wall, breathing a hail of ice spears that crushed everywhere on the arena floor and only my quick use of Gradation Mist by creating a dome of sword around and above me, protected me from becoming a pincushion.

Summoning my weapon back on my hands I sent an omni-directional Flame Wave to melt the ice pikes on the ground and as I was running toward the spider that remained unmoving, waiting for me to make a mistake for her to capitalize, I used the Earth Wall spell once I was in range to strike the center of her body and threw her off the wall.

My strategy bore fruit and as she crashed to the ground I created 20 Mist swords and after using Warfyre Napalm I let them fly, hitting her dead center.

MP: 18.000/26.425

When the dust settled the result was not what I was hoping. Instead of a mutilated spider, what I saw was a thick film of ice around the Bosses body with only a few cracks here and there.

I couldn't believe it. I used like one forth of my magic in a single attack and it didn't even faze her.

I had not time to gape in disbelief because the ice armor(?) started cracking and from within came a very pissed off Spider Queen.

I jumped back to dodge whatever attack she would release and I was ready to create another shield made of swords but she did something different.

She started glowing a pale icy blue color and with a great release of magic a fucking hailstorm appeared out of nowhere obscuring my sight and pelting me with razor sharp pieces of ice.

I tried to use Flame Wave to give me some breathing room but the cold and wind was so intense that drowned the flame in seconds.

At the last moment I blocked the fangs of the monster from skewering me and ripping me apart. Not that my current condition was any better. I was trying with all my strength to hold back the behemoth that was determined to eat me and I was losing ground fast.

For all my strength, she was stronger and the cold was numbing my body, weakening me more. I used normal fire to coat my whole body in order to stop the cold from damaging me further but the results were lackluster at best.

I didn't know what to do. Even if Aristomache was available, she would have become mince meat very quickly. The level disparity being exceedingly large even if she had a racial advantage.

In my desperation I decided to take a gamble. I was dead anyway so I would both emerge victorious here and survive or I will die trying.

I activated the Blessing of Ares and instantly an aurora of crimson energy came forth from my body and blasted the spider 10 meters away. The sheer pressure of power made the snow and hail to freeze on the air and the wind completely ceased.

I was still in control of my faculties though with great effort and I glared at the fucking spider with all my hate activating Tyrant's Aura and I made a mad grin at the sight of her numerous eyes dilating in terror. After that I remember nothing but a red haze.

When I came to, I was panting like a dog in exhaustion and my whole body felt like it was tenderized with warhammers. All around me the arena was completely gone. The walls have completely disappeared and only a spire was still standing. The ground was filled with gouges big enough to fit an elephant and the only thing I could still recognize as the Boss Spider was her two fangs that were imbedded to the ground. Sipping for the third time today the rejuvenation mead and internally wondering if I was becoming an alcoholic out of necessity, I picked the two fangs and put them in the inventory. The spoils go to the victor after all and maybe I could make some daggers out of them, you never know.

Tyrant's Spirit Emergence (Lv1-Lv2): -4% to all enemies' stats that have been inflicted by fear status. Active use cost 350 MP

+1 STR

+3 VIT

+2 DEX

Smiling a bit at the stats upgrade I sighed in utter exhaustion. The whole dungeon was a nightmare of epic proportions and I am so done with this shit. The moment I get out of here I am going back to camp and I am going to sleep for a weak straight.

Using the spear as a cane I walked towards the EXIT Gate that appeared but I didn't let myself lower my guard down. The shitty King was extremely determined to off me and I am sure that if he gets the chance he is going to try some underhanded bullshit to reach his goal.

That's why as I passed through the Gate I had my inventory open and the Styx water flask was ready to be used.

I appeared in a dark room illuminated by green torches on the walls and the floor was glistening obsidians. For a moment I thought I was in Hades Palace but the Goddess that appeared before me put a stop to that thought, however my situation wasn't any better.

A Goddess appeared between me and the final Gate. She was blonde and blue eyed, almost angelic you could say. She had a petite body and was dressed in a white dress that while it showed her feminine side, it covered all the good parts. She was also very beautiful and her whole virginal sweet girl gig made her very attractive for anyone that gazed upon her. At least until you learned a bit about her and then all the happy feelings jumped out of the window.

Prodosia "Royal Bitch"

Race: Goddess

Gender: Female

Affiliation: Herself, Zeus, Olympus.

Level: ?

Status: ?

Info: Prodosia is the daughter of Zeus and Apate and is the Goddess of BETRAYAL and GUILE. You are not strong enough to know more.

"Well hello there champion. What a pleasant surprise it was to see you emerge victorious against such impossible odds. I am a very big fan." a cutesy giggle on her lips.

"Thank you milady, for your kind words. Can I have your name please? I am afraid I don't recognize you."

"Oh no worries, I would be surprised if you would have. After all Daddy-dearest made sure to hide my existence from the rest of the Gods in order for me to help him handle his more ah sensitive work without the rest knowing. Politics you know."

And there it is. The fucker is simply incapable of giving up. I didn't let my wariness show on my face though. I pulled the Styx water flask behind me just enough for the cork to come out and used my hydrokinesis to control just a drop of the precious liquid inside. Putting it back in place I slowly moved the single drop a few centimeters away from my shoes and a bit above the ground to camouflage its black color with the floor.

"Where are my manners? My name is Prodosia, daughter of Zeus and Goddess of Betrayal. How do you do?"

"Nice to meet you milady and I will be well enough when I go back to my bed. I am tired from all the fighting."

"Understandable really but here lies the problem. Daddy wants you dead. Like really really dead and unfortunately for you, the job falls to me. It is nothing personal I assure you. Just business." she said getting in the crook of the matter with a sweet smile.

"Yes but as a Goddess you cannot attack me directly because of the Ancient Laws and I can assure you that no monster you are capable of summoning is good enough to beat me even in my current state. So why don't you go away and I will forget this conversation when I go to Olympus." I shot back a grin on my face all the while the drop of water was slowly nearing her position."

"You actually believe you can escape me, little girl? Me? A Goddess. Don't make me laugh."

"Well little minor Goddess I have pranked and sassed Loki the God of Mischief himself and even fought against Surtr and his armies of demons. Do you actually believe that a baby Goddess like you barely passed her half millennia is capable of actually beating me? You better step aside child, before you regret it." I said as I made my eyes go red in flames and put emphases on the words minor and child to mock her more thoroughly.

It worked like a charm because her whole face turned golden in embarrassment and rage and she predictably lashed out.

"You are mocking MEEE? An upstart mortal mocks me a princess and Goddess? You will regret this brat. I planned to give you a quick death but now you will suffer until I am satisfied. I cur-" that was as far as she got because the droplet of Styx water touched her naked ankle and instantly gave results.

Her scream of pain in having all but a drop of her divine energy ripped from her was admittedly very satisfying. There is nothing that I enjoy more than watching arrogant self important cunts get their ego deflated. I enjoy it even more when I am responsible for the deflating.

"What did you do to me? Why do I feel this weak?" she whimpered as she lied in a fetal position on the floor.

"Nothing too serious sweetheart, I just threw a droplet of water from the River Styx at you. For all intents and purposes you are now a demigod and a very weak one at that for the next month or so. Ain't that great?" I said with a sweet tone that turned into cackles all the while she became whiter and whiter and looked at me like I was the Devil himself.

"There is a silverlining to your situation though. Do you want to hear it?" I continued and getting a hopeful look in return.

"You won't have to experience a whole month as a demigod. Hell I can make this feeling go away right here right now." I didn't manage to say anymore because she jumped on me and started blabbering.

"Oh yes please I will do anything. I promise I won't try to hurt you ever again. I will not even go near you again. Please make this feeling of weakness stop." she started begging me and I felt disgusted with this miserable creature that until three minutes ago was so high and mighty. How pathetic.

I didn't give her any more time to beg, with a lightning fast movement I pulled my spear back and stabbed her right threw the sternum and out of her back. Ichor, the Golden blood of the Gods dyed my red blade and the ground and a few droplets of it fell on my face and clothes.

"W-hy, I-I-I pr-omi-sed." she asked me in horror at my deceit and Gods if I didn't feel the irony of the situation.

"Are you so naïve to think that I would trust the words of the Goddess of Guile and Betrayal?" I said mockingly

"A person like you who revels in causing misery and breaking bonds of love and trust so callously will get no mercy from me." I finished a hard look on my face while looking at her tearstained and bloody face all the while she begged for mercy.

"What about all the demigods you killed on the orders of Zeus? All the lives you ruined. Did you give them mercy? I will give you now as much mercy as you gave them. And if it means anything to you, it is nothing personal. Just business." and with that badass line I plunged my spear bellow her chin and into her brain killing her.

I was ready to release a breath of relief at managing to survive a hostile encounter with a Goddess even if a weak one when the shit hit the fan in a very spectacular manner.

When a God dies forcefully and doesn't quietly fade, all the energy and power they have explodes out at the place of their death and causes reality to distort for a few seconds. The stronger the God, the greater the distortion.

Considering that Prodosia was a very minor Goddess of very minor domains, the distortion normally would be negligible and there would be no harm done.

The key word here though is normally. When I killed her we were inside a very small and poorly made pocket dimension created hastily by the Goddess herself in order to do her dirty work and get out without getting noticed.

Her death destabilized the whole thing and the distortion created shattered the whole thing like a mirror getting hit by a grenade. The result?

I was swallowed by my old friend the great void together with the disintegrating body of the stupid immortal as my only escape was destroyed in front of my eyes.

As I was floating away in the nothingness I had only two thoughts.

First I lamented the fact that I died once again as a virgin which sucked royal ass.

Second.

Fuck my E-Rank Luck!

~ChildeOfWar