Moments earlier, inside the Ai-Petri mountains, Menrva, Epona, and Anpiel were inside Prometheus’s house, which was a small room carved into the mountains of that range. It was a very simple house that only had a straw bed, a table, a small kitchen, and a bucket of water. The four gods were seated on the floor while two men protected the entrance to the white dwelling.
“As you can see, we have no great luxuries here,” Prometheus said as he offered two glasses of water to Menrva and Epona.
“What is this place?” Menrva asked upon seeing the guards, who were dressed similarly to how the Scythians had once dressed. Pointed leather hats, vests, reddish fur trousers, and furry boots. Many of them also rode horses and carried bows and arrows. All of them had long reddish and dark beards.
“The last refuge of the Tauri, a small group of Cimmerian people who lived in this region before the arrival of the Scythians, and later, the Goths and Alans.”
“I see. I believed they had gone extinct long ago,” Anpiel said, surprised.
Prometheus extended a glass of water to the angel and nodded.
“Indeed, outside this alternate dimension I created, they have already disappeared; but here they keep their traditions and religions alive,” the Greek Titan said.
Then the Greek god scratched his long white beard.
“But I am certain you have not come to speak of the people who live here, but rather to seek an entrance to Olympus, correct?” Prometheus asked.
Menrva shook her head.
“In truth, we wish to enter Tartarus, Lord Prometheus,” the Etruscan goddess replied.
“Our friends have been kidnapped and thrown in there!” Epona also explained.
Prometheus then began to ramble and walk through the house obsessively.
“Is it impossible?” Epona asked nervously.
Prometheus turned and looked at his three guests seated on the floor.
“Tell me, young ones, can you destroy dimensional walls?” the old man asked.
The three looked at one another and made a gesture of denial.
“Then it will be a very difficult feat to achieve,” the Greek Titan replied.
“Very difficult? What must be done?” Menrva asked.
“I remember that there used to be entrances to Tartarus from Italy,” Menrva continued explaining. “If you tell us where they are, we will see how to enter.”
Prometheus then shook his head.
“That is the problem, young lady,” he replied. “Lel has closed all the entrances in Italy and the Hellenic Peninsula.”
Menrva snapped her fingers in frustration.
“Does that mean we can only enter from Olympus?” she asked.
“Not exactly,” Prometheus replied. “There is only one entrance left, one to which neither Lel nor Olympus gave any importance.”
Then the Greek Titan approached Menrva and looked at her obsessively, to the point that the goddess felt uncomfortable.
“Young lady, you are an Etruscan goddess, correct?” Prometheus asked.
Menrva nodded while discreetly moving away from the Greek god’s obsessive gaze.
“Then you must be familiar with the city of Neapolis, correct?” the Greek god continued inquiring.
“Yes, I have heard of it,” Menrva replied, and then she fell thoughtful.
“You are referring to Lake Avernus, correct?” the Etruscan goddess asked.
Anpiel and Epona looked at the Etruscan goddess in surprise at that word.
“Indeed. It is an entrance that was never used in antiquity,” Prometheus replied. “I was the only one who knew it was an access point.”
“Then we are in luck!” Menrva said cheerfully. “It is in Italy, not too far from Tuscania if we fly.”
But Prometheus shook his head.
“What is the matter, Lord Prometheus?” Anpiel asked, confused.
“The ancient Romans believed that lake might have some connection to the realm of Hades, so Lel, to avoid taking risks, raised a dimensional wall at the bottom of that lake,” Prometheus replied. “If you cannot break dimensional walls, you will never be able to enter.”
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“Damn it!” Menrva shouted in frustration, realizing that entering would be impossible.
Epona then raised her hand.
“What if we bring Rodrigo from the New World?” the equine goddess suggested. “I’m sure he must already have a high enough level to break those walls after what he showed us in his fight against Huitzilopochtli.”
“That’s true!” Menrva said excitedly. “Surely he can do it. His power must be similar to Anat’s right now.”
But Anpiel shook his head.
“Tell me, you two. How would you enter Tula at this moment?” the angel replied.
“I will fly there,” Menrva said. “The barrier will not be able to stop me if I enter from the ocean.”
“But do you not remember what Tezcatlipoca told us? That the whereabouts of the Feathered Serpent of Mayapán were secret, and that not even they knew where he was?” Anpiel replied.
Those words discouraged Menrva, and she sat down again. The Etruscan goddess looked frustrated.
“Do not worry,” Prometheus interrupted. “There is a way you can break that dimensional wall, but you will need the help of the nine Muses.”
“The nine Muses?” Anpiel asked, confused.
“Indeed. They were nine daughters of Zeus who represented art and science,” the Greek god replied. “But the nine of them died long ago, and left their idols in the human world.”
Then Prometheus stood and raised his hands toward the sky.
“The nine gave their lives in the face of the cultural destruction Christianity brought upon the Roman and Hellenic world. They swore that, in this way, whoever could gather the nine would be granted a miracle,” the Greek Titan declaimed as though narrating a poem.
“Then they can destroy the barrier that protects Tartarus?” Menrva asked.
Prometheus nodded.
“They did not become idols so they could be used as brute force, but rather to create artists and sages. But, to hell with that; they can also be used in that manner,” Prometheus replied.
“Well, it is worth trying,” Menrva said. “But nine idols? It would take us years to find them.”
Prometheus then made a map appear, showing Europe, North Africa—called Libya here—and the Middle East.
The god then marked nine regions on the map with an inked quill.
The selected points were:
· The island of Crete.
· The ruins of Mycenae.
· The ruins of Troy, in Anatolia. Present-day Turkey.
· The island of Cyprus.
· The coasts of Ethiopia.
· The ruins of Aea in ancient Colchis, present-day Kingdom of Georgia.
· The city of Taressos in Spain.
· The island of Sicily.
· And the last, in the city of Thebes, within Egypt.
“These are the locations of those idols,” the Greek god replied. “But be careful, for they are protected by nine different guardians.”
Menrva rubbed her head, filled with frustration.
“Will Athena be able to survive until we find those keys?” she asked, frustrated.
“Yes, even with the directions, it will be a titanic task,” Epona said.
Then Anpiel interrupted his companions.
“Girls, you forget that we are nine as well,” the malak said. “If we wait for Freyja and Loki to return, and you go look for Tania and Tul, each of us will be able to go to those places and recover the idols.”
Menrva struck her palm with her fist, her expression surprised.
“You’re right, Anpiel!” she replied.
“But even so, will we be able to arrive by midday at Menrva’s father’s party?” the equine goddess asked.
Menrva shook her head.
“This is more important now, Epona,” she said. “When I return, I will speak with my father so he changes the party to another day.”
Then Menrva smiled.
“My master Athena… She will be the one celebrated at that party when we defeat Olympus!” the goddess said with a confident expression.
At that moment, the four gods felt an enormously powerful impact in the world, created by a tremendous divine force. Despite being protected inside an alternate dimension, the rumble felt as if they had been in the real world. The soldiers looked everywhere upon feeling the powerful earthquake, while people came out of their houses in fear.
Prometheus then bit his lips.
“That was Heracles,” he said, frightened. “Olympus must have begun making its move.”
“Damn it!” Menrva shouted angrily. “Just when things were starting to improve.”
“It must have been in Tuscania or Ibiza, where our friends were,” Epona added nervously.
Anpiel shook his head.
“It is impossible for it to have been Tuscania, since they do not know we are there,” the malak added. “Most likely, it was in Ibiza.”
Menrva approached Prometheus and grabbed him by his tunic.
“Lord Prometheus, can I teleport from your dimension?” she asked.
“No, you must leave here first,” the Greek Titan replied. “But do not worry. I will accompany you to the exit right now.”
The three gods nodded. Anpiel took the map and stored it in his pocket dimension, and they flew out of Prometheus’s room while he escorted them to the exit of his small village.
Prometheus then made a movement with his hands, and a black hole opened in the sky of the small city.
“Go on. Leave this place and help your friends,” Prometheus said.
The three gods nodded and approached the dimensional entrance, just as they felt a powerful shove that hurled them to the ground.
“Too late. They found the hideout,” Prometheus said, frustrated, as he watched several women dressed in Mycenaean armor fly in through the entrance. Behind the women soldiers, three female figures also floated through the hole.
“So this is where you were hiding like a cockroach, Prometheus?” one of the women said. “Hidden in the very place where you were tortured. My, you truly are a masochist!”
Prometheus then smiled.
“You are wasting your time. Behold, here is the group of people who will put an end to you!” the Greek Titan shouted excitedly.
Menrva, Epona, and Anpiel stood and entered fighting stances. The malak then made his golden macuahuitl appear.
“It seems we will have to fight our way out of here before we can help our friends,” Anpiel said.
Menrva then turned to look at Prometheus, but to her surprise, he had turned into a pig.
“No, no, no, no,” said the woman floating on the right. She was holding a small wand in her hands, with which she lightly tapped her palm.
Epona and Menrva turned to see that everyone in the village had been turned into pigs. The woman with the magic wand laughed discreetly.
“That woman… must be the sorceress Circe,” Menrva said. “She had the power to turn people into pigs.”
But the woman did not reply. She only kept laughing.
Epona was preparing to fight when she quickly dodged a surprise attack. When the goddess realized what had happened, she discovered that it was Anpiel who had attacked her with his golden macuahuitl.
“What the fuck, Anpiel?” the equine goddess said, surprised and incredulous.
“Go on, my darling. Kill those two women,” said the woman floating on the left.
“Yes, Lady Medea. I shall carry out your orders with all due haste,” Anpiel said in a monotone voice without emotion. His pupils had disappeared completely.
“This is bad. It will not be as easy as we believed at first,” Epona said nervously to Menrva.