What the hell do you say when the Goddess of Strife and Discord wants to join your secret group, that's kinda, maybe against the pantheon she's from? Or rather, not really an enemy, but something that will fuck with the pantheon she's from.

"What the hell do you mean by that?" I finally asked as I regained my bearings.

"Exactly, what I said. I wish to join you in your endeavor to reshape the world, and redefine fate." Eris cackled. "Oh, this is gonna be so much fun."

"Lady Eris," Pasiphaë spoke up. "While we understand that you wish to join us, I can't help but ask why? Even if our goals aren't directly antagonistic to Olympus, they could pose a threat as a byproduct. So please excuse our hesitance, but why should we accept or trust you?"

"Oh?" Eris tilted her head, looking amused. "You mean besides running interference for you all this time?" Shock went through the three of us. "I told you~. Hades hasn't played the game yet, because his daughter rubbed enough brain cells to push through the horny, and realize how much of a bad idea it was for him to play that game, and tried not to mention it, or get him a copy." She said with a chuckle, and I froze. "And I've been subtly distracting him here and there, making him focus on managing the dead. He probably wants to take time dedicated to sitting down and play the game from start to finish. He's a completionist like that. So once he gets to it, you're shit outta luck. Of course, I can delay that as long as I can if you accept my help and partnership."

"Wait," I felt dread at her basically saying Hades finding out is an inevitable countdown, but for now I couldn't help but focus on something else. "What you said about Bianca... what are you insinuating?"

"Oh?" She grinned, with a gleam in her eye. "Did you not figure out who it was the put the Byanka sex scenes back into the game?" Eris wiggled her eyebrows.

"Wait, you're saying that the daughter of Hades is..." Daedalus spoke up, the shock pushing him out of his silence.

"Hot for horny teacher? Oh yeah." Eris cackled. Again.

"My, Asterios. I didn't realize my boy had already became such a heartthrob to capture many a maidens' hearts so quickly." Pasiphaë said with an impressed note in her tone.

"That is not what happened and she's twelve, mom, and she's like a little sister to me." I quickly said back.

"So? She's of marriageable age, and such emotions can easily evolve. You already feel protective of her? Then that can easily grow into intimate affection." My mom said casually.

"Mother, no!"

"Just be sure to discuss this with your eventual paramour, so it is clear who will be the wife, and who will be the mistress." Pasiphaë added.

"Mom!" I cried out in shock.

"So it is only Hades you've distracted?" Daedalus asks, looking for all the angles our future threats might come from.

"Haven't you heard me? There's also Apollo, he's enjoyed the game and all, but hasn't yet realized it belongs to an American company. Who do you think pushes away that flashy scatterbrain's thoughts from focusing on Delta Maze Gaming? Or would give him 'insider' information about later game releases in the forums."

"Wait, you can influence the thoughts of gods?" I blinked and stepped back, as I asked with dread. If she can affect the thoughts of fucking gods, then what chance do we have.

"Oh? Starting to realize how out of your league you are right now?" Eris grinned and spread her arms.

"Lady Eris, with all due respect, if you were powerful enough to control the gods, you'd be ruling Olympus." Pasiphaë stated.

"Aagh," Eris... flinched and looked away. What? Wait, was she just trying to act big? "I-I mean..." She composed herself instantly, as if the last few moments didn't happen. "You know what my domains are, right? Conflict, Strife and Chaos. The thing is, while yes I can sow strife between between people that grow into full on conflict, I can also," she tilted her head, growing a small conspiratory grin. "Halt conflict. Let it simmer in the background for longer, so it would have a bigger bang once it finally goes off. The chaos of little acts that can snowball into an avalanche." She explained. "I can't control the gods, obviously." Eris scoffed. "If they notice me, they can instantly rebuff me. But if they have no reason to suspect me, I can simply nudge them towards or away from conflict. Although obviously, I'd prefer not to do the latter." She paused and crossed her arms, regaining her relaxed confidence of earlier.

"How?" I somehow felt confident enough to press her. Dunno why, but I just didn't want her to bullshit us. She is technically in the stronger position, but... she wants to work with us. So at the very least I want to know what she's like.

"You know when you have random thoughts like 'did I leave the stove on'? Basically that." Oh. So she's literally the cause of anxiety and intrusive thoughts. Not really sure on this partnership anymore. "Mainly however? I just set up the board for conflict to arise. People in the end make their own choices, no matter what whispers came to their mind, they're the ones that still decide. Although, most are too set in their path, to truly make an interest choice. It's why my cousins have everyone fooled that they are omniscient."

"Your cousins?" I blinked and tried to think on who.

"The three grumpy hags with their threadwork." Eris said, making a shiver run down my spine. "I was born of the Night, they were born of Necessity. I throw whatever twist into their designs whenever I can but," she sighs. "They tend to see how things play out, and make their prophecies align with all possibilities they want. For example, you could have a line that says 'And you shall fail to save what matters most, in the end.' That? It could mean that someone you love will die, or that you won't save them, but surprise someone else saved them. Why? Because saving the person you care about was never the point, but that you specifically wouldn't have been the one to save them."

I blinked at that, as I recalled that line from the prophecy Percy got in the Lightning Thief.

"Okay, okay. That's... a lot to take in." I sighed and rubbed my temples.

"So Hades, Apollo and Ariadne, is that all?" Daedalus asked, wondering if there were more gods we should have been worried about.

"No, not even close." Eris smirked. "Ariadne for all that she's the Goddess of Labyrinths and Puzzles isn't actually a big deal. She's a minor goddess after all." She shrugged. "And to clarify, I do mean minor goddess. Not in political power like someone such as Hecate, but in actual power. Her only claim to power is to be the wife of the drunkard, whose ear she has." She grinned. "She senses something off and investigate? She won't confront you, but you'll have a full blown Olympian on your front door."

A nervous shiver went through all of us, as I sighed at the thought, and the relief that, that isn't an issue for now.

"Is that all?" I asked, a bit hesitant.

"Oh not even close!" Eris cheered, much to my disappointment. "There's Aphrodite," she growled here, much to our surprise. "She's really going in on the internet shipping wars, especially when she realized Percival and Annabelle are based on two demigods with suspiciously similar names." She grinned maliciously here, as if delighting in this next part. "That there is no canonical route were Percy and Annabelle get together is driving her crazy, so good job on that." She laughed sounding like echoes of an argument vocalized. "Hestia, whom you directly contacted for some fucking reason," she frowned at me, but I crossed my arms and stood my ground. "She is likely to hear about your game, once she sends your gift to Nico di Angelo, since he'd likely gush about you at the smallest inquiry." I smiled fondly at that.

"Well, that is the reason." I shrugged.

Eris sighed. "Honestly, I like that you're more rational, but you're too human at time." She blinked at that, as if in conflict with herself. "No, wait, that's a good thing." She was all smiles again. "Let's see, there are also all the monsters you directly mentioned in the game. For the ones related to foreign pantheons, you're lucky the non-interaction pact still holds, even if the Norse Trickster is loving your game." Three different winces sounded at that. "And then there are the monsters of our own side. You're lucky you didn't mention any of the ones that know how to use a computer. And finally there are the Mousai..." She paused at mentioning the nine Muses, to build up tension. "They are satisfied and want you to continue your work." Eris nodded.

"...Okay." I said and we all took a while to digest everything the Goddess of Discord had told us.

Yet I couldn't trust her. Because despite all the help she says she gave us, there is still two final things she had yet to answer.

"When did you notice?" Daedalus asked one of the questions for me. "I mean, how long have you been following us to be able to be part of a mod team with us none the wiser?"

Eris looked straight at me. "From the very start." My back stiffened. "Come on now. You made a game where my symbol of power was the driving focus on it. I heard my apple being discussed so many times, how could I not be interested enough to take a peek?"

...Oh. Shit. That makes sense.

Fuck, I really didn't think about this.

"Okay but..." I began, as she's been really elusive on this. "Why did you help us? Why do you want to join us? What do you get out of us succeeding?" I asked her directly.

Eris' slowly lose her smile and just quietly met my gaze. It was unnerving compared to the energetic Eris she's been so far, yet I preserved, not looking away and waited for her answer.

"Did you know that I can see the designs of those three crones?" She finally said, her words throwing us off. "Not completely of course. Once the hag trio make a prophecy I can more or less see the overarching design related to that prophecy. I can't interfere in the big moments, but all the little thing in-between? I can play with the details however I want." Eris explained. "And you know what I saw? Always, constantly, ever since the Flames of the West moved from Greece to around Europe, before going to Britain and finally landing here in America, I saw the same thing." Eris looked the most serious I've ever seen her since she arrived here unannounced. "There. Are. No. New. Stories."

"...What?" I asked, not immediately following, yet having an idea of what she's talking about.

"What does that mean?" Daedalus asked, eyes narrowed, concern shining in his gaze. "The world has changed significantly since Ancient Greece."

"Oh sure, for you living in the thick of it, it does seem like the world is ever changing and all that. But me?" Eris replied. "No, I see how it really is." She said in a quieter tone. "The world goes through a phase, and then some Great Prophecy happens. The myth are repeated, dressed up differently of course." She waved her hand dismissively. "But ultimately its always the same type of stories, the same resolutions, and the status quo remains. The Olympians have been the same Olympians for over two thousand years. The monsters repeat the same actions they always did, without any true overall change, and on and on this cycle goes."

We were all quiet as we took in the goddess's word. Daedalus and Pasiphaë were introspective and subtly alarmed by this, while I was wondering about something else.

"Why does that happen? Why do they do that?" I asked.

Eris snorted and shrugged. "Who knows what the three hacks are thinking. Maybe because of the story Zeus perpetuated about them being his children from Themis, they have a fondness to keep Olympus' structure as it is, since that's how Zeus likes it. Maybe they just don't want the older beings and forces return to power, and so the Olympian Age of Status Quo is useful for that endeavor. Ultimately," Eris smiled... kindly at me. Huh? "Right here and now, for the first time, a true change has emerged."

"What?" I blinked as she gestured to me.

"Because of Asterios?" Pasiphaë asked with fondness and a proud smile.

"Yeah." Eris turned to me. "You're the Minotaur. You're suppose to be the infamous unrelenting, stubborn powerhouse of a monsters heroes use to forge their legends. You're suppose to hate everyone related to your myth." She grinned manically. "From your jailer, to your jail builder, to the one who commissioned it, to the helper of your killer, to your killer, to all children of Zeus, to all children of Poseidon, to those gods themselves." She said pointing at Daedalus and Pasiphaë as she went down her list. "You should be. Hating. Them. All." She panted, as if saying all that was exciting her too much, that she had somehow ran a marathon. "Yet that's not the case. Not one bit." She smiled sincerely. "To your jail builder, you feel a kinship, like a brother in arms. To your mother, you feel an awkward intimacy, yet familial affection. To your jailer and your killer? You feel nothing for them."

"What?" Pasiphaë asked alarmed. "My son, is that true?"

I gave a small glare to Eris for putting me on the spot, but she grin cheekily. I guess its just in her nature

"Mother..." I took a moment to answer. "No. No, I don't particularly care for them." I held a hand up before she went on a rant. "To Theseus I don't really feel anything."

"That's not true~." Eris interjected.

"Will you quit it?" I said back.

"Nope~!"

I sighed and addressed my mother again. "To me Theseus was just someone doing his heroic duty." I shook my head. "I don't care if he wasn't doing it for a noble cause. He stopped me from killing anymore children, that Minos threw into my Labyrinth to torture the Athenians after they lost a war with him." I looked at her sadden face, and gave her a small comforting smile. "He was a Hero, I was a Monster. There were no complications to that confrontation. It was clear and simple."

"It wasn't to me."

There was nothing I could say to ease her pain.

So I went and hugged her.

She leaned into my embrace, hiding her face.

It was a warm, tender moment.

"Awww, that's so sweet. By the way, you didn't say what you thought of Minos." Eris interjected again.

I felt my eyebrow twitch.

"Seriously? Seriously? I know you're the Goddess of Discord and all, but do you have to ruin moments like this too?" I asked, exasperated.

"YES!" She shouted, pumping both fists in the air.

"You're a dork." I said reflexively.

"GAAH!" She flinched as if struck. Huh, guess not taking her seriously, is her kryptonite.

"To answer your question about Minos," I sighed and looked up in thought. "I don't care about him." I finally said. Daedalus looked shocked, while I felt my mother stiffen in my arms from the surprise. "Oh sure, I'll help Daedalus and my mother get their revenge on him, but personally? He just doesn't matter to me. Too unimportant. He was a petty king, given a high position in the afterlife due to nepotism, and that's all he is. Nothing else."

"Well said." A muffled voice came from my front fur, before Pasiphaë finally let go of me and stepped back. "Asterios, I can not say I agree with your view, but if that bastard king doesn't have to darken your heart, then I will carry twice the hate on your behalf."

"Me too." Daedalus suddenly added, sounding determined.

"Don't. Seriously, he is not worth that much obsession. Just beat his ass and that's it." I said.

Eris laughter drew us back to her.

"Hahahahah, seriously, how in Hades is the giant bull-man the best one here at managing conflict." She laughed for a while. "So!" She said once she calmed down. "What's your decision?"

"It's not like we have much of a choice." Daedalus said with a resigned shrug, but he didn't seem that heartbroken about this whole situation.

"We have some conditions." Pasiphaë spoke.

"You absolutely can not sow discord within this group or between us and any future allies, if you want this whole thing to function and actually work." I continued for my mother, who smiled and nodded at my words. "That is the non-negotiable condition that you absolutely have to swear on the Styx to abide by."

"GAAAAH!" Eris cried out, as if in pain.

"No... conflict?" Eris said shocked, as if we told her to quit heroin or something. "Like, can't we at least have heated office arguments?"

"""NO!"""

We continued negotiating for the next two to three hours about Eris' conditions to join our group.

Mostly because she's way too much of a fucking contrarian, just because she could.

"You want to make a game named Hades?" Daedalus asked incredulously. "I mean, there's on the nose and then there's that."

"Well, I couldn't exactly name it 'Please don't smite me or give me a fate worse then death because of the ubiquitous porn of me plowing your daughter, because I swear I had no idea it was in the Fate game - The Game'." I deadpanned. "Honestly when I first thought of this, I was going to make a game based on Hestia, being in the stomach of the Crooked One, and how she survived while looking after her siblings. Made the story and designs and everything, but then I realized I need to do the Hades game first." I said. "In the best case scenario, he forgives me due to the fame he gets. Worst case I can put him in my debt and use that to bargain for my life."

Was I willing to steal the idea of a group of people that would have made an iconic rouge-like genre defining game in the future to save my own hide? Yes. Yes I was. Absolutely.

"I'm guess you're gonna want me to put working on the Fate/Extra sequel games on hold till this is done?" Daedalus asked.

"Yes, as soon as it's done and polished, we launch it. This would be completely separate from the Tsunoverse games. It will have its' own universe, so if we release it now, we can just say we're a company with many different plans, and not hedging everything on one franchise, and were actually working on both this and the Fate game at once." I explained. "It will also work as another layer of distraction between the gods and our goals, since they'd be too busy having their egos stroked by these games."

"How many games would be in the, what to call this, Hadesverse?" He asked.

"I wanna say, Olympusverse just to be on the safe side, but I don't want to make games for all twelve. Just the children of the Crooked One." I said. "So games. I'll send you the details for what each type of one will be."

"Six, not seven?" He said.

"Seven?" I counted on my hand if I missed any of the Elder Greek Gods.

"Chiron is also a son of the Crooked One." Daedalus pointed out.

"Wait he is?" I though for a moment, then remember how Chiron was replaced by Tantalus in the Sea of Monsters. "Oh yeah, he is!" I exclaimed. "I kinda forgot about him."

"He is one of the Titan King's children. Just not with Rhea." Daedalus paused in thought. "Although yeah, probably for the best not to make one, that would annoy the gods, or make them imagine we were insinuating something."

"Wise." I nodded, saying that in the same tone as someone cheeky saying 'smart'.

Daedalus gave me the driest look yet.

It happened on the day Hades The Game trailer was launched.

Due to Pasiphaë just divining the knowledge about the game from me, and copying everything onto Daedalus' machines for recording data from illusions, the game was made practically on the same week.

After that Daedalus starting working on polishing the game, its mechanics, and adding Minos to the story.

So that Zagarus utterly beat the shit outta of him.

Basically after meeting Minos the first time, where the king makes the worst first impression possible, and then doubles down in every meeting afterwards, Zagreus would sneakily send in the paperwork for Minos to prove his worth to continue his job. This opens up the Minos boss fight during the Temple of Styx section, thus rather than the Cerberus fight that never happens, its a Minos fight. And of course as the player wins Minos keeps challenging Zagreus to try and get his job back. If the player loses, Minos will gloat, but will discover that his job reapplication is under review by Hades finding some problems with Minos' ruling that cropped up over the years, thus he wouldn't be given his job back just yet, causing the mini-boss fights to continue.

We spent a month using the vast amount of profit money from previous games, that we never used for advertisement, building up hype for a new game of a new franchise. Then on December 18th we launched the trailer for Hades the Game.

A few hours later I felt it.

"ASTERIOS!" Bianca's voice blared in my mind.

"ASTERIOS! HELP ME!" She mentally shouted to me in clear panic and fright.

"ASTERIOS, PLEASE HELP ME! HELP ME, ASTERIOS! I'M IN TROUBLE! HELP ME! HELP ME! HELP ME! HELP ME—!"

I moved.

I knew her scent. I knew where she would be. At least I hoped so. I thought canon has changed?! Should have changed?

I commanded the Labyrinth and it threw itself into obeying and realizing my will.

I'm coming, kid. Stay alive!