It was almost midnight when Menrva, together with Epona and Anpiel, teleported to the Taurica Peninsula, known today as Crimea.
Menrva had made a follow-up teleportation outside Tuscania in order to throw off any enemy that might be spying on their movements. But when they arrived, they could not detect anything or anyone.
The full moon illuminated the hill where the three deities appeared. It was a hill full of trees and plants, where the salty smell of the sea could be felt in a soft but warm marine breeze.
Below them, a seaside town could be seen, surrounded by a frail stone wall. Its houses were white with reddish roofs, and it did not appear to be paved. On its pier, the moon could be seen reflected together with the countless stars shining from the sky. Some ships that looked Greek could also be seen.
Inside the town, a few ruins of Greek temples stood jealously, though they were eaten away. The villagers used them as quarries for materials to build their houses and churches.
“What a pretty little town! So picturesque!” Epona said excitedly as she looked at the city beneath her.
“It seems time never passes in Korsún. It remains identical to when I visited it at least a century ago,” Menrva said with a smile.
“Are we staying here to spend the night?” Epona asked with a broad smile.
Then Anpiel lightly knocked Epona on the head.
“Mare, we have come to find Prometheus, not to rest. You already rested yesterday in Tula,” the malak said to the equine goddess.
Epona covered the top of her head with a pained gesture, then turned to look at the angel angrily while puffing out her cheeks.
“Excuse me for needing eight hours of sleep a day,” she replied, annoyed.
“Epona, remember that we must return to Tuscania as soon as possible,” Menrva replied. “Besides, remember that we must remain attentive in case Tania or Freyja return, since they are outside.”
Epona lowered her hands and sighed.
“I suppose you are right,” she said, disappointed.
Menrva then pointed south of the town.
“We must advance about three or four hours toward the mountains of this region to reach Ai-Petri,” the Etruscan goddess said. “Unfortunately, I cannot take you there by teleportation because I have never been to those mountains.”
“Four hours!” Epona shouted furiously. “We just came from walking across a whole damn continent, then you made us walk an hour to Tuscania. And now you want us to walk four more hours?!”
“By god, Epona, I thought you had already stopped complaining about everything,” Anpiel said, annoyed.
“But it is, like, midnight here,” the equine goddess replied. “If we are lucky and arrive at four in the morning, how long will it take us to find a man not even all of Olympus has found in centuries?”
“Well, my parents wish to celebrate my return tomorrow, Epona. I do not know what to tell you,” Menrva replied, a little annoyed.
“But they are not even your parents!” Epona answered angrily. “They are just two old people you surely manipulated so they would believe you are their daughter!”
Menrva gave her an irritated look at those words and looked at Epona with disdain.
Anpiel once again knocked Epona on the head.
“You had told me you had changed, that Rodrigo had made you a better person. But here she is again, the classic Epona, throwing tantrums like a little girl over any nonsense,” Anpiel said, annoyed. “If you wish to stay in Tuscania, go ahead. But stop bothering Menrva. Remember that she must also bear the task of rescuing Athena.”
Epona rubbed her head again with an angry gesture.
“As for the conditions of how I live in that fief,” Menrva replied angrily, “what the hell does it matter to you?”
“Of course it matters to me,” the Celtic goddess answered angrily. “You are deceiving two old people who surely do not know where their real daughter is right now.”
Anpiel, feeling the friction between the two goddesses, stepped between them and tried to calm them down.
“Epona, I will take you back to Tuscania,” Menrva said, trying to calm her. “Forgive me for not telling you that the distance to reach the mountains was considerable.”
Epona said nothing as she closed her eyes and crossed her arms.
“What if we fly?” Anpiel asked then.
“That would be like telling Lel we are here, do you not think?” Menrva replied, confused.
“Well, I believe none of us has any duty left to obey their orders,” Anpiel said. “We shall do it so quickly that humans will not be able to see us.”
“I agree with Anpiel,” Epona said then. “If Ana could defeat Artemis, then we can defeat this region’s grigori without trouble.”
“Lel must know we are on this continent because of the battle they had with Artemis and the one they saw as Empress Irene,” Anpiel said.
Menrva fell thoughtful then.
“Yes, and while we are arguing, Lel even has a zombie empress in Constantinople. Of course, we are the idiots,” Epona added with an indifferent gesture.
Seeing that she had run out of arguments, the Etruscan goddess sighed and closed her eyes.
“Very well. Let us fly,” she said in a defeated tone.
The three gods then wore their totemas and, following Menrva, flew south at a fantastic speed.
As they were flying, they heard the imperative voice of a woman ordering them to stop.
“Well, here we have this region’s grigori,” Epona said jocularly.
“Stop, Orniskem!” the woman shouted. “We know you are the ones who wounded Lady Artemis and Empress Irene!”
The grigori of the Eastern Roman Empire began catching up to them while flying at full speed. She was a winged woman with bluish hair tipped in red. Her eyes suffered from heterochromia, varying from blue to red. The most curious thing was that she wore a beautiful dress with the colors of the rainbow. In her hand, she carried a bow with arrows made of multicolored light.
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“It must be Iris, the messenger of Olympus,” Anpiel said.
“I said stop right now!” the winged goddess shouted furiously.
Then the Greek grigori began firing several arrows of light. The shots did not fall to the ground, but instead chased the gods, who surpassed the speed of the attacks without trouble.
Epona then smiled.
“She is making too much noise. Let me quiet her down,” the equine goddess said.
Then Epona stopped, and at that moment, adopted her transformation as a death deity. When the shots reached her body, they did not even faze her.
The winged goddess then stopped.
“Who the heck are you?” the Greek goddess asked, frightened. “Why do you give off such gloomy energy?”
Epona then made her gigantic scythe appear and smiled macabrely at the deity.
“Go and tell your friends in Olympus that we have come to rescue Athena, and that none of you will be able to stop us anymore,” Epona said.
When the Greek goddess realized Epona was about to attack, she quickly made a circular shield with the colors of the rainbow appear while shouting:
“Aspis poikilē (Shield of Colors)!”
But before she could defend herself with her shield, it split in half while the winged goddess fell from the sky with a broken wing and her chest torn open from Epona’s scythe attack.
The equine goddess said quietly:
“Bíthu’éithra servath (Infernal Scythe).”
Then she made her weapon and transformation disappear.
Epona quickly flew to catch up with her companions, leaving the dying Greek goddess to fall from the heights.
“You did not kill her, correct?” Menrva asked.
Epona shook her head as she removed her death goddess transformation and returned to her usual equine goddess form.
“I swore, ever since we were blessed by Tawa, that I would not kill anyone,” Epona said.
“The problem is that there will now be an entire army from Olympus here to capture us,” Anpiel replied, annoyed. “At times, one must make burdensome decisions in order to escape trouble.”
Epona shook her head again.
“If that is the case, let them come. We will defeat them!” the equine goddess shouted, full of energy.
Menrva then began to laugh.
“How strange to see you so optimistic about the future, Epona,” the goddess said with a smile.
“I am always optimistic!” the equine goddess shouted cheerfully again.
Those words made both Menrva and Anpiel begin to laugh.
Epona puffed out her cheeks again and turned away.
“I do not see what is funny,” she said.
Menrva stopped laughing and smiled at Epona.
“I am glad you were angry with me… This was a better option than walking for four hours,” she said.
Epona grew embarrassed as well.
“Forgive me for saying those things to you… Sometimes I say foolish things without thinking,” the equine goddess replied, ashamed.
Menrva fell silent and looked forward.
“I did not deceive anyone, Epona,” Menrva said in a quiet, calm way. “They lost their daughter to a plague.”
Epona turned to look at the Etruscan goddess with curiosity.
“I was in the area when that happened, and although I tried to help them, there is little a Jupiter goddess can do under those conditions,” the Etruscan goddess replied. “Then, after the mourning, her mother began visiting me and speaking to me about her daughter. And one thing led to another.”
“So they know you are not their biological daughter?” Anpiel asked.
Menrva nodded.
“I told them I had nowhere to live and that my father had expelled me. So they decided to adopt me,” Menrva replied. “They said my blue eyes were very similar to those of their deceased daughter.”
Menrva smiled while blushing.
“They said I had very beautiful eyes… No one had ever said something so lovely about my appearance,” the goddess added.
“I think… you are very beautiful, Menrva,” Epona replied to the Etruscan goddess’s comment.
“Although, of course, coming from your mouth, it has no value. I will only appreciate it if my master Athena says it to me,” the goddess replied, trying to put on an arrogant expression.
The three of them laughed as they continued flying toward the enormous mountains located southwest of the Crimean Peninsula.
After flying for half an hour according to their perception, since in human time less than a millionth of a second had passed, Menrva pointed to a group of mountains before them.
“It is there. Those are the Ai-Petri mountains,” she said.
The group of mountains was very curious, since unlike normal mountains, these looked like gigantic grayish stone stalagmites. It seemed like a creation caused by erosion or by the whim of a deity.
“According to Greek tradition, Prometheus was imprisoned in these mountains,” Anpiel said. “It is ironic that he would hide in the place where he was held prisoner for so long.”
“Or it would be the last place Olympus would look,” Menrva added.
The three gods landed and stood upon the mountains.
“Very well. Let us split up to search this mountain range. If anyone finds something, inform the others telepathically,” Menrva said, to which Epona and Anpiel nodded.
The three searched for some secret entrance in the mountains, some cave, but there was nothing. There were no signs of life or of human or divine activity. After another thirty minutes, the three gods reunited at the same place where they had landed.
“Nothing!” Epona said, disappointed, while sitting on the ground with a sad look.
“Well, we knew that finding someone hidden would not be an easy task,” Anpiel said thoughtfully.
“If only Nabu had given us instructions on how to find him,” Menrva added, frustrated, while leaning against a rocky wall.
“Yes, it is frustrating.”
“Well, we shall achieve nothing by giving up,” Anpiel said. “I suggest we try again.”
Then Epona raised her hand.
“I have an idea. One of those ideas worth hundreds of talents of gold and wine,” she said.
“Oh no.”
“All right, Epona. Tell us what is going on,” Anpiel said with a look of disbelief.
“Maybe Prometheus hides from gods, so his lair can only be found without divine power,” Epona replied.
“That makes sense,” Menrva said.
“Even I had not thought of that.”
“But, Epona,” Anpiel protested. “It will take us months to search this without using our divine power.”
“He is right.”
“See? Menrva supports me,” Anpiel replied.
“Me?” the Etruscan goddess asked.
At that moment, the three gods fell silent and turned behind them. An old man dressed as a Christian monk, with a long white beard and holding a staff, was standing behind them.
“Who… who are you?!” Menrva asked nervously.
The man began to laugh and rubbed the back of his neck with an embarrassed gesture.
“Well now, goodness me! I thought y’all were never gonna see me,” the man said.
The monk then bowed his head slightly.
“I am Prometheus, the man you are looking for,” he finally said.
The three gods stared in disbelief that this man had been right under their noses for a while and they had not noticed.
“I know!” Epona said energetically as she stood. “He decided to appear just when I managed to figure out how to find his hiding place!”
“It was a good plan, but I do not have a technology that does anything like that,” the man replied. “I am sorry, young lady.”
“In truth, I came because Nabu spoke to me and told me that some individuals would arrive with a necklace bearing the image of a star. So I have come to receive you,” the old man added while looking at the pendant Menrva wore, which had been given by Nabu.
Epona lowered her head, filled with frustration.
Anpiel then bowed his head as well.
“Thank you for receiving us, Lord Prometheus. My name is Anpiel, and I am a malak in the service of Orniskem,” the angel said.
Then he pointed to his companions with his open palm.
“The woman with short dark hair is Menrva, while the barbarian with the horse face is named Epona.”
“You son of a bitch!” Epona shouted angrily.
Then Prometheus began to burst into laughter.
“My, you are very amusing. I am glad,” he replied.
Then he pointed at Epona.
“By the way, young lady. I saw how you brought down Iris with an evil power. What kind of goddess are you?” he asked.
Epona grew embarrassed at that moment and told the Greek god what had happened when she died in Haida Gwaii.
“I see. So you have also seen those mysterious creatures that live in the ether?” the Greek Titan asked.
Then the god approached and touched Epona’s shoulder.
“It would be best if you did not use that power, even if you exorcised that egg inside you. Its mere existence means some traces of it remained within you, and those traces can grow again,” Prometheus said to Epona.
The Celtic goddess turned white with fear.
“Do not worry. It may not happen immediately. But it is better that you seek a different way to increase your powers,” the Greek god said.
Then he turned around.
“Very well. Welcome to my dwelling,” Prometheus said, just as the access to another dimension opened, and a small city of white houses arranged along the rows of the mountains could be seen.
“Excuse me, Lord Prometheus,” Anpiel interrupted. “Do you believe it prudent to open your private space now that we were being pursued by a Greek deity?”
Prometheus made an indifferent gesture.
“Bah, let them find out,” he replied. “After all, you are going to put an end to those cretins.”
The three gods nodded and followed the Titan into his hiding place. However, in the distance, they were being spied on by Iris, who was still badly wounded with her broken wing.
“So that old man was hidden there,” she said, utterly frustrated. “I’ll tell Apollo so they can come arrest him along with those Orniskem dummies.”
Then the Greek goddess began to laugh playfully.
“Who will laugh last?” she said.