“Father, do you wish for us to join the battle?” Dionysus asked as he bowed before Zeus.
The god of wine, Dionysus, was a very beautiful androgynous young man, with his lips and eyes painted red. His eyes were scarlet as well; his skin was pale, and his dark-violet hair was quite long. The god’s head was adorned with a crown of grapevine leaves, and in his left hand he carried a vine staff. Like all the gods, he wore a white tunic and a violet toga.
After recovering from his surprise, Zeus calmed himself and raised his hand to deny his son’s request. The other gods—Hephaestus, Aphrodite, Demeter, and Poseidon—watched the supreme god of Olympus uneasily, as though waiting for him to tell them something so they could act.
“Hermes and the armies of Heroes and Amazons have already defeated them once,” Zeus replied. “Let them handle this situation.”
“Even though that blond girl was able to stop your mighty thunderbolt?” Poseidon asked, puzzled.
Zeus nodded and turned toward his son Hephaestus.
“My son, activate contingency plan,” the father of the gods said.
Hephaestus nodded.
The god of the forge, Hephaestus, had reddish hair and a thick beard. The god wore no tunic, leaving his chest bare. However, from the waist down, he used a mechanism made of steam-powered machinery and gears in order to walk, shaped like a mechanical donkey. The god had an appearance similar to a centaur or mounted rider, since the mechanical face of his animal was visible.
“At once, Father,” the Greek god of the forge said as he removed what appeared to be a remote control from his mechanical mount.
Hephaestus pressed a button, and a dimensional shield covered the mountains where the gods’ palaces were located.
Upon seeing this, Zeus turned around and entered his palace through a golden door leading from the balcony, leaving the other gods behind to watch the spectacle.
Freyja, seeing the shield beginning to separate the entrance to Tartarus from the palaces of Olympus, quickly turned toward where she saw the Pantheon Palace. But an attack stopped her, though the goddess managed to evade the charge before it struck her.
“You have no right to set your filthy feet upon the most sacred place in Olympus, barbarian,” a woman’s voice was heard saying.
She was the person who had attacked Freyja with a spear.
But Freyja seized the spear the woman held and hurled her far away. However, instead of falling, the Amazon stopped herself in midair and launched herself at Freyja once again.
The Norse goddess crossed both arms and stopped the tip of the golden spear.
“You will not rid yourself of me so easily, barbarian from the northern lands,” the Amazon declared.
Then the woman moved away from Freyja and struck her chest.
She was clearly a warrior wearing golden Mycenaean armor, and her long blond hair flowed from beneath her helmet. Beautiful green eyes could be seen within the darkness cast by the warrior’s helm.
“You are visibly the strongest one here, just as I am—Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons,” the woman said with a smile.
But Freyja, with a swift movement of her spear, cut across the Amazon queen’s face, knocking her helmet to the ground and revealing Hippolyta’s nearly perfect face. Although her eyes were small and beautiful, they showed tremendous aggression.
“If yer the meow-ghtiest one here, then I ain’t gonna have any purr-oblem beatin’ all of ya,” Freyja said with a mocking smile.
Then Hephaestus said:
“Contingency plan number two.”
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Immediately, golden spheres of energy began emanating from the castles and rising into the atmosphere, where they gathered together and created a golden sphere floating in the firmament.
This sphere was inside the dimensional shield, making it inaccessible.
“Oh, I see,” Pidray said with a smile, filled with surprise. “You used the Hikaptha we gave you to create a sun that’ll give superhuman powers to everyone in this world!”
Hephaestus nodded.
“Furthermore, this sphere has no time limit,” the god said. “Until I deactivate it or it is destroyed, it shall continue feeding our warriors overwhelming power.”
The Greek Heroes, including Hermes, began glowing gold, as though an aura covered them.
Their powers then increased tremendously, causing all of Olympus to tremble.
“They are using their power enhancement again,” Horus said.
He had managed to knock Hermes down, but the Greek god now rose again with a smile.
Hermes then moved at an astonishing speed that Horus could not follow and struck him hundreds of times before hurling him into one of the walls of the dimensional shield.
“It is unfortunate that this is the full extent of your power, Horus,” Hermes said. “I wished to use my new toys against you, but I believe it will not be necessary.”
Meanwhile, Hippolyta shouted with all her strength:
“Polémos kraugé (War cry)!”
The Amazon’s body became surrounded by a reddish aura, and before Freyja could avoid it, the Amazon queen made a cut across her cheek.
“I can increase my combat power infinitely in the heat of battle,” the Amazon queen said with a smile. “No matter how many times I must do it, eventually I will reach your level, barbarian of the north.”
Freyja then smiled while the wound on her cheek healed with her ichor.
“That purr-fectly fine by me. Otherwise this fight would’ve been meow-ghty boring,” the Norse goddess replied.
“Contingency plan number three,” Hephaestus said as he pressed another button on his remote control.
At that moment, gates opened inside the walls surrounding Olympus, while an army of giants made of steel and steam-powered machinery began walking slowly toward where the battle was taking place.
Alongside them came armies of horrific creatures, such as chimeras, hydras, harpies, two-headed dogs, sphinxes, serpent beings, minotaurs, cyclopes, and Hecatoncheires.
In truth, all these beasts looked as though they were robotic creatures made of steel and gold.
The steel giants resembled enormous Mycenaean warriors clad in plate armor. They had two wings on their backs, though these appeared to be merely decorative. Their height seemed to exceed fifty meters. They were armed with curved swords and shields bearing monstrous faces.
The chimeras were beasts with the heads of a lion and a goat, the body of a dragon, and a serpent for a tail. The monster was enormous, twice the size of a horse.
The hydras were gigantic serpents around ten meters tall, with dog-like heads. They were reddish, and highly dangerous venom dripped from their mouths, cracking the ground merely by touching it. If someone cut off one of their heads, two more would appear.
The harpies were smaller than an ordinary human, but they were extremely fast winged beings with eagle legs and steel hooks coated in poison. The upper bodies of these creatures resembled grotesque elderly women.
The dogs were slightly smaller than the chimeras, but even more intimidating. Their faces resembled those of wolves, yet they were dark as night. Venomous snakes also emerged from their fur. Their paws had golden claws that tore apart everything they touched, as did their teeth.
The sphinxes had the upper bodies of beautiful naked women and the lower bodies of lionesses with brown wings. The creatures advanced slowly and elegantly.
The serpent beings were enormous humanoids with snakes instead of feet. They were naked, and their dark hair was wild and disheveled.
Others among them, the female versions, had the upper bodies of women, while from the waist down they possessed the body of a snake. Their hair was made of serpents as well.
The cyclopes were three times the height of an ordinary human. They had a single small eye on their faces and carried clubs and hammers. For clothing, they wore only the hides of wild animals. Two dangerous fangs protruded from their mouths.
The minotaurs, as their name suggested, were humans with the faces and chests of bulls. Their size was similar to that of the giants. They also carried double-bladed axes. They entered the combat zone completely naked.
Finally, the Hecatoncheires were bizarre abominations.
They stood roughly twenty meters tall, and only arms and hands could be seen emerging from their bodies. Since they possessed one hundred arms, their bodies and faces were hidden beneath their countless limbs. They were greenish and extremely hairy.
The monstrous creatures began rushing toward where Orniskem and the heroes were fighting.
However, the situation looked grim, since with enemies of such behemoth proportions, the difference in strength was overwhelming.
Tallay, who stood beside Pidray on the balcony of Zeus’s castle, watched everything happening with great excitement.
“I’m not gonna be left out either,” the Phoenician goddess said with a laugh. “I’m sending my four newest acquisitions onto the battlefield.”
Four shadows appeared behind the goddess and, like ghosts, escaped from her before turning into water and disappearing.
“Damn, they’re really throwing everything they got at us,” Loki said while standing before his companions.
At that moment, Menrva made her golden armor appear, and bolts of electricity emanated from her body.
“All right, Bellona. It’s time to start fighting the way you’ve been waiting for,” Menrva said with a smile, while even more static electricity emanated from her body.