Chapter 174
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 174
Chapter Title: A Punishment One Cannot Refuse
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Athena to deal with. If I had to sum up what I felt facing her, one word would suffice: not easy.
Artemis, Ares, Poseidon, Amphitrite, Hera, and so on.
She had clashed with countless gods and goddesses up to now, but Athena was somehow different in essence.
Facing Poseidon and Amphitrite felt like confronting the sea itself.
Hera seemed like a manifestation of the mystery humans had forgotten, taking the form of a beauty.
Artemis resembled the madness induced by the moon's magic,
and Ares embodied the barbarity of war itself, marching forward with violence and ferocity as his weapons.
Yet even though Athena shared the domain of war with Ares, she displayed an entirely different aspect.
Each of her attacks was razor-sharp, her stance flowing as naturally as water.
Even wielding a shield and spear—arms suited for mass battles—her movements showed not a hint of disruption.
Since I was using a crescent blade that was at a disadvantage in terms of weapon matchup, I had no choice but to gradually fall back.
'No, this isn't just about matchups.'
Once engaged in battle, I couldn't make excuses about weapon advantages.
From the start, as I mastered the Twelve Demon Arts, not a single one had failed to reach great completion, and right now, I was even employing the Asura Manifestation.
Yet despite that, the reason I was pushed back while trading even blows with Athena was because she operated on a completely different level from a typical Greek warrior.
"Well, she is the goddess of tactics!"
"What was that?"
-Clang!
Athena charged with her shield forward, so I withdrew my crescent blade and leaped back to create distance.
Even if I held the shaft upright to block the shield, the impact would stiffen my body, leaving me open for that golden spear to pierce me.
"Heh, striking while chatting? That's a pretty underhanded tactic for a goddess."
"Hehe, call it strategic."
She countered my light jest with a smile, and we took a moment to catch our breath.
Athena was not a warrior.
Well, by Greek standards, she certainly qualified as one.
But by my standards, she didn't fit the mold of a typical warrior.
Her attacks were simple.
When she swung her spear, it didn't rain down like Ares's strikes.
When her shield roared, it didn't overwhelm me with the same divine authority as Poseidon's trident.
Yet every time that shield barreled toward me like a battering ram, I had to swing my crescent blade with exquisite timing.
Every time that golden spear gleamed, it targeted my vital points with lightning speed, deadly even if it merely grazed me.
And there was zero waste in that sequence of movements—utterly masterful, clean yet swift and precise attacks that made me break out in cold sweats countless times.
'Chiron said something like that. After Olympus's conquest, no warrior has ever surpassed Pallas Athena, nor will any in the future.'
He was right.
The Goddess of War, Athena.
Her basic martial techniques evoked the Eighteen General Arts, wielded with divine subtlety, and her method of channeling pure divine power like internal energy was undoubtedly a supreme art worthy of the divine age.
"You're definitely different from Brother Ares."
Ares was violence on the battlefield incarnate.
The embodiment of burning savagery and humanity's primal ferocity.
But Athena moved with strategy and efficiency befitting her domain.
As expected, simulations of the most efficient ways to counter me were likely running nonstop in that head of hers.
And among those tactics, one that avoided wasting divine power—channeling it like martial arts—had emerged.
That was probably why Ares kept losing to her.
'If Athena's a sharp female warrior, Ares is honestly closer to a massive wild boar.'
In comparison, it was like the difference between me and Heracles.
No matter how mighty the beast, human wisdom prevails.
"Ares? Ha! You dare compare me to that hotheaded boar?!"
But the moment I mentioned Ares, Athena let out a roar.
Ares would fly into a rage at the mention of Athena too, vowing someday to grind that sly face into the dirt...
"Calm down. I'm speaking from experience, having crossed blades with both of you."
Both were renowned gods of war, after all.
Atalanta's newly formed unit of female warriors had taken Athena as their patron deity, using a training ground with her statue as their base.
And Ares was an object of worship for male heroes like Heracles.
Especially Heracles and most warriors, who called themselves Ares's attendants and prayed for his blessings before battle.
So it was only natural for me to compare the two.
"Hoo... I see. My blood must have rushed to my head."
Seeming convinced by my words, Athena nodded and quelled her anger.
'They really do take after each other...'
Is she a living testament that history repeats?
There was a reason I stubbornly stuck with this crescent blade despite knowing its matchups were poor.
The master who taught it to me was a former imperial general... no, ex-military.
Athena's combat style—honed through military discipline into martial perfection—differed in flavor from his, but it evoked him, the famed reincarnation of Guan Yu in life.
A disciple always wants their master's acknowledgment at least once.
True to his marine drill instructor roots, he'd drilled me mercilessly, and seeing echoes of that in a goddess naturally made me want to face her with the arts he taught.
"Honestly, I offer my praise. This has been the most dangerous and artistic duel of any I've faced in Greece."
I didn't count Poseidon and Amphitrite.
Frankly, our deep-sea brawl was less a fight and more a one-sided beating—on my end, of course.
"F-Flattery won't change your position!"
"..."
For someone speaking so firmly, she sure blushed furiously just now...
"But since a warrior of your caliber says so, I, Athena, accept your praise."
Pursing her lips like that, Athena looked every bit the delighted child.
In any case, Athena and I had battled in a trance, losing track of time.
Even the Aegis she wore had lost much of its earlier golden brilliance, and my created crescent blade had dulled repeatedly, its shaft cracking and mending who knows how many times.
And that was just the start.
With the top warrior and the goddess of war raging fiercely, the surrounding terrain was a total wreck.
"This is weird. It felt like rugged mountains everywhere just moments ago."
"...If this weren't my divine realm, both you and I might have ended up buried by Demeter's hand."
Athena's barrier, once filled with soaring peaks on all sides, had become a barren wasteland.
"This is okay, right?"
"..."
"Not okay?"
Seeing Athena's expressionless face and silence, I swallowed dryly.
She wasn't planning to say this was my punishment and trap me here unless I restored everything, was she?
"...Hehe, just kidding."
"..."
Now it was my turn to go blank.
She just dropped that as a joke?
"Heh, hehehe."
As I slung my crescent blade over my shoulder and stared in disbelief, Athena struggled to hold back laughter, finding it hilarious.
"You really are a strange demigod, Hero Dianes."
"Well, I've lived my whole life far from anything normal."
"That's not what I meant."
With a casual wave, Athena returned us to the lofty mountaintop from before, amid the starry expanse.
Such divine powers always made me envious, no matter how many times I saw them.
If the secret technique I taught the Cosmic Squid Prince—who's probably escaped Messenia by now—worked, could I wield such godly manipulations too?
"That look again."
"What do you mean?"
"You've been eyeing me—or rather, the powers I display—with that gaze the whole time. Like a starving beast before its prey."
The lustful glints from foolish gods and humans were familiar, but she said even she had never seen a warrior hungering for her powers and martial prowess like I did.
"They say you see as much as you know, right?"
I grinned, holding up the crescent blade I'd forged by fusing Demon God's Armament and Reverse Heaven Ki.
Having created something from nothing and tasted the gods' powers a bit, it was only natural to crave more.
"As much as you know... you see. A fine saying."
Athena nodded, impressed, as if committing it to memory.
Then, inhaling deeply as if resolved, she met my eyes squarely.
"You're no fool, so you've realized it already. Your feats deserve praise even as a demigod. But they're still insufficient to defeat me, Athena."
"Urgh... right to the sore spot."
Up to now, we'd been evenly matched on a knife's edge, but if it went to the end like this, my defeat was obvious.
The opponent was a goddess whose martial arts had reached the divine pinnacle.
Plus, she had Ichor's ethereal body with virtually no physical limits, as an Olympian councilor.
In contrast, I was still bound to flesh.
Discarding the crescent blade for Nine Phantom Sword or Reverse Heaven Palm might force a draw, but the Aegis nullified most attacks, making it a desperate gamble.
Even so, I couldn't bow my head to that golden sun who wrecked my poor baby, my darling obsidian flute.
"But you won't bend your will."
Reading my thoughts, Athena continued briskly, as if to say listen quietly.
"I too believe sending a great hero like you across the Styx over such a trivial matter would be Olympus's great loss."
"...So?"
"Thus, the punishment I impose on you is..."
Her proposal was so outrageous—practically questionable—that my eyes went wide.
But Athena gazed at me calmly, as if it were nothing.
"...What do you think?"
"Honestly, better than any other punishment."
Frankly, it was a punishment(?) I'd never imagined.