Her teacher was furious because the Olympian did manage to escape. Or rather, had a help escaping. And because of that her teacher was left empty-handed, with nothing to snack on. Which resulted in her taking her rage on the closest surroundings. But the outburst did not last long, since her teacher was nothing, but a nice person.
"How foolish of me to fall for such a simple trick, wouldn't you say my dear student?" her teacher asked.
"The illusion was exceptionally well crafted," she answered.
"As it seems. These new Olympians are full of surprises, even if they are not as strong as their parents," contemplated Lady Hecate.
"They are no match for you, my teacher," she said, stating the fact she observed just a few minutes ago.
"They might seem weak, but I would not underestimate them, my dear student, as that is the only reason, why I lived this long," explained her teacher.
"What now then, lady Hecate?" she asked.
"Now, we will need to establish a cult of followers for ourselves. Without an Olympian, I will require a constant supply of humans, to feed on," her teacher explained her plan.
She was glad that she managed to avoid the fight with Golden Fleece. She had no intention of getting wrecked as badly as Nike did. Also because of exactly the fact that Nike was injured, she had to hurry and bring her to the primordial, who requested her.
"Sir, I brought Nike as you required, she is..." she wanted to explain her situation.
"Good, now leave," he said.
"But sir, my brother!"
"Yes, that foolish creature. Take him and do not disrupt me anymore," the primordial said as her brother Ares manifested, in front of her, wounds still wide open.
"Thank you, sir," she said, grabbed her idiotic brother and left.
Evidently, she was lucky, that she managed to get hold of this primordial in time he was merciful, or at least uncaring enough, that he fulfilled his end of the deal so swiftly. Needless to say, when dealing with him, she always painfully realized that she was a lesser creature.
But was not like the deal with Primordial was not good, in exchange for knowledge about the world, humans and others, he provided them with knowledge of his own, sadly most of it went right over Ares's head, and thus it fell on her to make use of it.
Moreover, he did save her brother from torture, even if it was only after she did a job for him.
"Ares, you fool, what were you thinking creating such monsters?" she asked her brother, once he appeared no longer unconscious.
"I'm no fool! Neither did I create any monsters. If I did would have long ago used them against father!" her brother spat curses.
But certainly did not lie in his statement of not creating the monsters. Since patience was not one of his qualities.
"If not you, then who?" she asked.
"I don't know and I don't care! They are all going down! Damn IT!" Ares shouted not being able to contain his anger and frustration any longer.
"Calm down brother. We are now in a better position than ever before. Hephaestus still has yet to regenerate his body, and while you were being punished Athena confronted the spider monster and lost again, this time losing most of her body. Hades sent a message, the other day, that he is extremely busy and I just delivered Nike to our "friend" as a payment for freeing you," explained Eris as calmly as she could.
"Nike? Wasn't she supposed to be on a mission with the Argonauts? Or did they finally recover the Golden Fleece?" queried Ares, surprised that so many things had changed in a few short days.
"She was on a mission with the Argonauts and they did recover the Golden Fleece, but have not returned yet, because the Golden Fleece did wake up and pummelled Nike to the ground. I sneakily took her, before the fleece could finish her," said Eris.
"The fleece is awake... That is actually good news," said Ares, his turning into a vicious grin.
That evening was just like any other, find a well-defendable place to start a temporary encampment, procure fresh water and refill supplies. Those were all tasks for my troops, while I tended to Medusa, while also discussing various topics with Persephone. I had two main reasons for doing so. One of them was to discern any discrepancies in her various statements, thus finding out if she was lying. The second was, in case she was not lying, to learn as much as possible about the workings of the world, and how to best counter various monsters. And Persephone did certainly talk, quite a lot in fact, often going on tangents in an attempt to explain various underlying details, and necessary concepts for the given topic. A lot of this would have been new to me if I were an average bronze-age person, but as a modern-day individual and imperial soldier, I had an easy time connecting these seemingly new concepts, with knowledge gained in my previous lives. So far Persephone proved not to be lying, which was good.
A fascinating observation was though, that Medusa's daughters, her hair snakes, seem to be giving the two-headed dog sneaky looks. Staring at him, when they thought that no one else noticed it. But more than anything negative, they seem to be genuinely curious, and so was Medusa, acting the exact same way as her daughters. I expected that she would, in the near future, attempt to pet the giant dog, or more likely have me ask Persephone, about being allowed to do so, since she still did not speak. If Persephone was truthful, it should not be a problem, since she offered to myself and Medusa, to be allowed to pet the dog, and made him listen to our commands. However, it would be more appropriate to ask her for permission, as she was the owner.
But then the attack happened, this time without any warning. One moment me and my group were preparing for the night, and the next moment we were under attack. There was no spotting the enemy approach, my troops would have noticed any monstrosity going our way. I, myself would have noticed if the enemy was closing on us. There was just no approach. One moment the enemy was far enough, for no one to realize their presence and right after that, a small group of my troops turned into bloody gore. Their death was so quick that the enemy managed to brutalize another group of my troops before anyone could react, even myself.
"Shield!" I shouted at Persephone, who looked absolutely terrified and surprised at the same time, as I quite literally threw Medusa at her while activating the protective film around me.
And since Persephone was an Olympian, she quickly understood what was needed of her and activated her shield formula around herself and Medusa. I unreasonably hated this situation, but there was no other choice, but to do what I just did, since my troops, were barely scrambling for weapons. This would not be an easy enemy to deal with, and with how fast my living troops were turning into casualties, I had to ensure, that Medusa was protected by the best measure there was available. Which at this time, was to trust Persephone and her magical shield. This proved to be the right choice, as a small group of my troops, nearby me and the shield formulae, turned into bloodied pieces, and there stood the enemy in front of me.
"Target Alpha, located," said the enemy's deep monotone voice and moved nearly instantaneously towards me.
The moment the enemy moved, a strong strike hit me in the stomach, while the protective film took the brunt of the unreasonable force and dissipated. This meant that the enemy needed just one more hit to end me, which I did not allow, and kicked the enemy away, probably with enough strength to kill an average person. Yet, the enemy was anything but an average person, if the form of a tall musclebound man, was anything to go by. But it was also a form which I was familiar with, and which I was certain I destroyed a year ago. The enemy was none other than the berserker, who unwittingly helped me to drive away Athena on the island of Lemnos.
But unlike a year ago, this time, the enemy was not a complete berserker, as proved by his previous short speech. Yet, his tactics did not seem to change much, as he charged in a straight line at me, once he got into the position. This time, I was able to avoid the strike, since the adrenaline was already coursing through my veins.
Despite, being able to avoid him now, I was in a worse predicament than a year ago. Back then, I could use the environment to my advantage, which allowed me to win. But I had no such luxury this time, since the place we found, was designed to be easily defensible from outward offensive, not from inside. Moreover, the enemy was more than sane this time, as observed by his moves being calculated before each strike.
This way, he would be eventually able to outmaneuver me. But also unlike the last time we fought, I was not alone in the fight. While sadly my troops would be useless against this monstrosity in the form of a man, I still had at least two allies that could do something against my enemy. Alas with Persephone guarding Medusa, it left me with only the giant two-headed dog as a possible ally.
And since the situation demanded it, now it was as good time as any to find out if Orthrus would prove to be useful. It was a gamble I had no choice but to take or waste my troops' lives in a makeshift attempt at delay action. The muscled man measured his leap, his face blank not showing any sign of frustration with my continuous avoidance of his attacks.
I let him land in front of me, activating protective film, right in time for him to strike. The protective film was destroyed instantaneously, and I was certain that it did not absorb all of the force behind my enemy's strike. With no other choice, but to tough it up this time, I applied all the physical strength, I could muster, into the single kick of my front spiderly limb, along with propelling myself forward, by using a bastardized flight formula. And the results were just as expected, the giant of the man was hurled forward towards Orthrus, just barely off the course. While the leg I used to kick the man, was broken by the force, it could be healed afterward.
"Orthrus! Fetch!" I shouted at the monstrous dog.
He was still under orders from Persephone to listen to my commands, and intelligent enough to listen to understand what was the intended fetching target. And so once the muscled man finished his tumble, he was immediately made immobile by Orthrus. The giant dog bit, the man, each head holding one of the enemy's arms immobile. What a brilliant dog, this way, I would have no problem dealing with the enemy. Just one optical formulae at full power fired in such direction as to not hurt Orthrus, and then second to erase the remnants of the enemy.
"Kronus core, activate at full release," the man looking not less comfortable than a minute before stated in a monotone voice.
And then it happened. He spasmed in the unwavering hold of a two-headed dog, shredding skin off of his arms, revealing a metallic construct underneath. Orthrus's bite tightened at that, but it was not much of a help, at most a few seconds delay. Of course, that bastard enemy would get hidden powers out of nowhere! This has clearly Being X fingerprints all over it! Just when I thought, that I started to understand the rules, when I thought that maybe Being X was not interfering, an overpowered enemy appeared!
"Damn you Being X!" I cursed that bastard preemptively!
Alas, it was for nothing, the muscled man, tore himself free, revealing more of the metallic skeleton that lay under the mask of humanity. His movements now became so erratic, that they could be barely registered as continuous movement. It almost seemed that he was sporadically shifting from one place to another, but still in my general direction.
A blink of eyes later, he was upon me, more specifically over me, pinning me down to the ground, ready to deliver one final punch. Undoubtedly, at this very moment would Being X stop the time, while condemning me for not praying to him. But neither did the punch ever come, nor did Being X miraculously stop time. The muscled man's torso was opened by optical formulae, or rather a spectrum beam, as Persephone, who fired it, called the attack.
"Superior enemy recognized, designate Persephone as the temporary primary target," the monotone voice left the metallic monstrosity's mouth.
Her shield was down, and she and Medusa were unprotected, as the man turned his head towards them, she was now also his target. Without as much as trying to finish me, he changed direction and leaped against Persephone, who managed to barely avoid his strike, leading him away from Medusa.
By all means, I had to use this opportunity the dread queen created. Since I now had a bit of a breathing room, I should be able to fire optical formula at the enemy, at full power, destroying him in the process. And I would not get another chance, since Persephone was not as good at avoiding him as I was, seeing as was now laying the pool of her own blood after the muscled man landed a solid hit on her.
Without hesitation, I fired a continuous beam of Optical formulae, something that all mages were tough not to do, during my second life, as it would have inadvertently bad consequences on the mage's health. But this was something I could discard at this point since I was not human, but a monster and none of my troops were close enough to get caught in the crossfire.
I did not know how many seconds passed since I started my attack, but it abruptly ended, when the magnifying glass, I was using as a focus for optical formulae, melted in my hand. This was it, he must have been dead, nothing in this world could possibly survive such an intense stream of different charged particles.
But of course, the enemy did survive it, I could clearly see him walking, once the light from my attack dissipated. There was not much left of the muscled man, rather, there was what appeared like a nightmare robot, slowly waking towards me. His metallic skeleton shone brightly from the amount of heat it absorbed.
How ridiculous! How I was supposed to fight this? At this point, I might as well praise Being X and hope he appears. Except I would never step so low, he did not get me in my past life and he would not get me in this one! I will once again fight till the end.
Pulling out my sling, I decided to go for explosive formulae, their effect would be minuscule, but if I managed to bend the right point in the heated metal skeleton, I should be at least able to disable my enemy's movement.
With each step he took towards me, I sent another exploding pebble his way, but it barely slowed him down, while his metal skeleton was cooling down, my window of opportunity shortening.
"Hey!" I suddenly heard a familiar voice.
It was Medusa, who was hiding behind Orthrus. Quite frankly, admits the heat of the combat, I barely noticed that the dog came to protect her. But it was not a time to pay attention to any other details but the enemy.
"Target Beta recognized," the metal skeleton said in a more artificial voice than before, when he still had a mask of human skin, turning his head temporarily towards Medusa.
And that seemed to prove to be a grave mistake on his part. All of the still-heated metal, instantly cooled down, freezing in its place, gaining a stone-like structure on its surface. The enemy's movements immediately stopped as if he had become a statue. I did not know what Medusa did, but I was not going to look the gift horse in the mouth. The enemy was stopped for now, therefore it was impervious, to clear the battlefield as fast as possible since no one had any means to continue fighting.
The first order of business was to check in what sort of state was Persephone. From what she told me about Olympians she should be still well and alive, or at least unhurt enough for her body to continue existing. In the worst case, I would have to harvest her blood to revive my troops. But that option never came to pass, since I could clearly see her in pain holding her open stomach, from which a pool of golden liquid was forming. Whatever wound she sustained from the enemy, clearly prevented her golden blood from closing it as it was supposed to do. But the same was not true for me, as I quickly checked my own wounds, which were already healing.
"I'm going to attempt to heal you now, Persephone," I told to the Olympian, once I reached her.
"There is no need... Miss Arachne. I can just regenerate new... Body!" she answered with some difficulty, through the pain.
"I'm afraid that I cannot allow that since you are the only one who can revive my troops," I said to the dread queen, before healing her the only way I knew would certainly result in success - by using my own silvery blood.
Laughing at Zeus's plight has been cathartic. She quite frankly did not have such a good laugh in a while. And she had to thank, for such a good laugh to her lover's child, Arachne. Since she well and nicely put Zeus into his place, when he was one of his excursions. Just remembering the boy's face, when he accused her of creating a monster, that could easily hurt him, brought her chuckles. He looked so much like a baby throwing a tantrum. Because of this, she just wasted several days of time laughing, when she could have done very important research.
Ultimately, in the end, she was glad that she took a few days' break from her research into what exactly was Arachne, because an idea occurred to her. She, Aphrodite, or back then Gaia, as a primordial formed all at once. Simply put, one moment she was not and then suddenly, she was Gaia. The same was the truth for the rest of her kind. That was why, none of them were ever at the stage that would be an equivalent of a human infant. But that was not true for Arachne. Arachne was once a human and then she was turned into a monster, yet she kept her sanity, unlike the rest of the humans who were turned. Meaning that there must have been something different about her.
This difference would nicely coincide with Nike's testimony of her daughter acting more like an adult than a child. This would mean that either Arachne was highly intelligent, or that she was in fact, an adult in the form of a child. This means that a soul that went into Arachne, was able to hold on to its memories of previous life, without damaging the body, meaning that it already had the form of a shell, not dissimilar to that of an uplifted human. The question was, how did this shell come to be?