Athena paused her combat practice and approached Bolos with a puzzled look.
Bolos smiled faintly and sighed. "You know Zeus had lovers besides your mother, right?"
Athena nodded. "Mother told me about them—Themis, the Goddess of Justice; Mnemosyne, the Goddess of Memory, both sisters of the former King of the Gods; and even my mother's sister, Eurynome."
"She also said that they bore Zeus children—Fates, Horae, Muses, and Graces."
"Quite the daughter-maker," Bolos muttered. "The voice we just heard belongs to another of Zeus's lovers."
"She's the daughter of Coeus, Lord of the Stars, and Phoebe, Goddess of Light. She's currently pregnant with Zeus's child."
"However, Hera, Zeus's Queen of the Gods, doesn't want the child to be born. She's hunting her down."
"Hera?"
Athena now learned who held the title Queen of the Gods, and her eyes gleamed with unwillingness. That position, after all, should have belonged to her mother, Metis.
"Why her? Why is she the Queen of the Gods?"
Athena knew that Hera was a daughter of the previous King of the Gods, Cronus, and Zeus's older sister.
She, too, must have felt resentment.
Her mother, Metis, had gone to great lengths to support Zeus—pulling strings, recruiting allies, even encouraging him to seduce Themis and Mnemosyne, breaking up the powerful Titans and securing help from the Cyclopes and Hundred-Handed Giants.
That's what led Zeus to ultimate victory.
Yet Metis never got to enjoy any of it. On the very day Zeus became King of the Gods, he swallowed her and her unborn child whole.
Bolos laughed when he heard Athena's indignation. "Maybe she was Zeus's true love. Your mother—and the others—may have just been political tools, or fleeting interests."
"Hmph. True love?"
Athena was clearly displeased. "If that's true, she should watch her true love better instead of punishing other goddesses."
Perhaps seeing similarities with her own mother, she felt sympathy for this unseen Goddess Leto.
Bolos nodded in agreement. "Exactly. If Hera had the strength, she'd discipline Zeus himself—instead, she vents her anger on the mistresses."
"She clearly doesn't," he continued. "So, should we help Leto?"
"Of course we help!" Athena replied without hesitation. "Her child is our sibling, isn't it? Maybe they'll help us overthrow Zeus one day."
Bolos gave her a surprised look. He hadn't expected this sharp girl to already be thinking along those lines.
Athena met his gaze calmly. "Whatever your origins are, you've acknowledged the name and identity of Bolos."
"So why shouldn't we, like Zeus once did against Cronus, gather our siblings and overthrow Zeus together?"
Bolos chuckled, "In that case, one day it'll be me who gets overthrown by my own kid."
In Greek Myths, sons overthrowing fathers almost seemed like a divine tradition.
Polo thought to himself: if not for the later rise of angelic armies dominating all myth worlds—including this one—Zeus would likely have been replaced by one of his sons eventually.
"Then the solution's simple: don't have kids. I don't understand why Divine Beings, who can live forever, even need children."
Bolos gave her a thumbs-up. That made a lot of sense.
"Well, since you agree, I'm going to help her now."
Bolos took hold of the Tree of Life, preparing to follow the guidance that would lead him to the goddess Leto.
But before that, he handed Athena the green leaf representing Victory.
"If you ever feel there's no hope of getting out, swallow this leaf and recite the contract. I'll come and take you out."
Athena didn't refuse. She clutched the leaf tightly and gave Bolos—now in his teenage form—an embrace.
"When I get out, we'll overthrow Zeus together!"
"Deal."
With that promise, Bolos disappeared before her eyes, taking the Tree of Life with him.
Athena looked toward where he vanished and sighed softly. "Now I'm all alone again."
…
By the shores of the Aegean Sea, a pregnant goddess fled desperately through the skies.
Behind her, a dozen terrifying beasts chased relentlessly, refusing to let her land even for a moment.
These monsters were the children of Typhon, the hundred-headed dragon. Under Hera's orders, they pursued Leto to prevent the birth of her child.
Leto was never a powerful goddess, and now, pregnant, she had no strength left to resist.
She fled from mountain peaks to the coastline, unable to touch the ground, her heart filled with despair.
The father and mother she longed for hadn't come. The King of the Gods, Zeus, the one who caused all this, didn't appear to save her.
Flying in the sky, she grew slower and slower. At last, she took out a withered branch.
Her face sorrowful, she began pouring her divine blood into the branch while muttering:
"Mysterious foreign Divine Being, you are the keeper of the ancient Tree of Life, the guardian of futures to come. I offer all that I am to you—please protect my children. Let them be born in peace and grow up safely."
This branch was given to her long ago by a foreign god, before she ever met Zeus.
That foreign god, seemingly able to see the future, had warned her that if she became pregnant, great danger would follow—not just for her, but for the unborn children as well.
Back then, the young and innocent Leto had treated it as a joke, taking the branch but thinking little of it.
She never expected those words would one day come true.
Now, she faced death, and her children were at risk too.
Dressed in a dark robe, serene and gentle Leto placed all her hopes in the withered branch at her most desperate hour.
Her divine blood poured in endlessly as she weakened, and the beasts behind her drew closer.
Once. Twice. Thrice. Until the ninth time, Leto had already fled high above the sea when the branch suddenly changed.
Stained with her divine blood, the branch flew from her hand, halted mid-air, and slowly transformed-
into a Divine Being she had only met once.
This book is provided by FunNovel Novel Book | Fan Fiction Novel [Beautiful Free Novel Book]