Chapter 203
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 203
Chapter Title: Athena's Call
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Even with nearly unlimited stamina, crossing three or four cities and several mountains—no matter how small—inevitably built up fatigue.
On top of that, agonizing over how to handle Arcadia and Tegea was enough to give me a slight fever in my head.
Honestly, in my previous life, I was called a sage god, but I was really more like the final decision-maker and living nuke.
Setting up the board like this and plotting schemes wasn't my specialty.
It felt like precariously stacking a house of cards.
The thrill when it all went up as planned was indescribable, but if it collapsed even slightly and turned to mud, nothing could be more deflating.
At first, I'd just charged ahead thinking it'd work out somehow, but now, looking back from a distance, it felt like I'd only caused massive chaos. My head throbbed.
In the end, I slightly overshot the schedule and camped just a day's journey from Corinth, collapsing into sleep like I was fainting.
'As expected, a silkworm has to live on mulberry leaves.'
Next time, no more diving into ridiculous schemes and plots.
With that resolve, I was about to sink into deep, dreamless sleep.
-Hoot!
"...."
[Hoot! Hoot!]
Through my drooping eyelids, a pure white owl suddenly perched on a tree branch ahead.
As I felt an odd sense of familiarity from those bulging gray eyes, a resolute voice echoed in my mind.
Rise, my apostle. My regent.
....Ah, damn it.
The majestic voice yanked my consciousness back just as I was drifting off.
At the same time, feeling divine power in my wrist, I opened my eyes to see the owl on the tree glaring down at me, wings flared.
"...Athena."
Indeed. You have duties to fulfill as my regent. Come at once.
Leaving those words, the owl took off silently and vanished toward the Acrocorinth walls in an instant.
"....Hah."
Having already caused one massive mess and taken on another big incident, now the goddess was piling on an errand too...
Glancing resentfully at the owl bracelet on my wrist for the perfect timing, my course of action was set anyway.
"Heracles, Atalanta."
"Zzz... Huh?!"
"Mm... Dianes? You called?"
The three huddled around the campfire, roughly wrapped in blankets.
With their senses, even dead drunk in a gutter, they could've detected a sniper shot from a hundred miles away.
So without setting a watch, they'd been sleeping soundly until my call made them stagger up and look at me.
"I'll be right back. If I'm late, head into Corinth first."
"W-Wait. What?"
Atalanta stammered in confusion at my sudden words.
-Hoot! Hoot!
'...Got it. I'm going.'
No time to dawdle with the owl urging from afar.
"It's nothing. Just checking out a weird vibe."
-Smack!
I kissed Atalanta's worried forehead and left the campsite, gradually picking up speed.
The owl circling under the bright full moon spotted me and slowly crossed the sky ahead.
Chasing it tree to tree, she came into view atop the distant cliff.
The goddess of war gazed down majestically, facing the cool night breeze.
Like the North Star guiding ships lost at sea, she stared straight at me crossing the floodplains, drawing me in with her presence—Athena.
If I were a painter, I'd have stopped in my tracks and poured my soul into capturing her form on canvas.
But even then, no brush could capture half of her beauty; I'd have wept in frustration.
'Honestly, my taste leans more toward her than Aphrodite.'
Was it because of my life?
A simple beauty would go to Aphrodite without question, but over her decadent allure, my heart tilted toward this battle-hardened warrior armed with resolve and fighting spirit.
Not because her chest is small.
Way too small.
Truly regrettable.
'Have I been starving too long? What nonsense.'
-Thud!
I smirked, kicked off the branch, and rocketed upward like a launching missile, fresh wind whipping past my ears.
-Whoooosh!
The exhilarating speed and chill of flight shivered down my spine, and soon I locked eyes with Athena's guiding owl.
"Hoot?"
"Catch you later~"
The owl's eyes bulged—it clearly hadn't expected a human to outpace it in the sky—as I waved hello.
Leaping over the churning floodwaters, I closed in on the cliff where my North Star, Athena, stood.
Athena drew nearer by the second.
Her flowing steel-silver hair and wide gray eyes—slightly surprised?—reminded me of our heated clash in her divine realm recently, stirring mischief.
"Let's have some fun."
-Boom!
-Hooooot~~!
I gathered power in my legs and kicked the air, the shockwave sending the owl tumbling far away.
I hurtled like a missile toward the flower atop the cliff.
"Such...!"
But the flower I'd targeted wasn't some frail, delicate bloom.
She embodied the pinnacle of martial arts in ancient Greece.
Opposite Ares, who ruled battle's savagery and violence, she mastered the arts and tactics of the battlefield—this era's supreme warrior.
In an instant, she manifested her shield, assuming a stance to minimize the impact while eyeing me steadily.
With the goddess of war drawing her divine artifact Aegis in defense, it was only right to meet her properly.
Accelerating further, I spun midair, channeling all power into my toes.
Faster than a fleeting thought, the distance between me and the goddess shrank to zero...
"Citybreaker Chain Hammer Strike!"
"Aegis!"
The devastating downward hammer surpassing City-Smashing Drop clashed with the goddess's impenetrable shield.
-Boom!
"Ho?"
Unlike my expectation of a deafening explosion ripping the air, our collision produced only a small burst, the aftermath quickly fading.
Just a puff of dust and the night breeze rustling.
"As expected of Aegis! I don't use shields, but damn, I want it."
The divine purity of Aegis nullified all attacks.
True to its reputation, Athena's Aegis reduced my strike to near zero.
I flipped gracefully to land and praised it; Athena lowered her shield with a smirk.
"Of course. It holds the divine seat of the giant Pallas, crafted by my own hands."
"Not mad, huh?"
In the martial world, high-level experts often exchanged light blows as greeting.
But in honor-obsessed Greece, even more so than in the martial world of the Central Plains, it seemed like an insult.
I knew that, but venting my interrupted sleep and craving the thrill of facing her after our last bout, I couldn't hold back.
"Heh, I'm in a similar mood myself."
Athena shook her head with a faint smile, as if even she couldn't help it.
"Anyway, enough chatter. The matter I'm entrusting to you is as grave as your journey to Corinth."
"A task from Olympus's crown princess..."
-Flinch!
As I murmured with admiration and anticipation, her shoulders twitched slightly at "crown princess."
'Oh...?'
A tiny reaction, but the term directly highlighting her power and position had exposed a gap.
"Ahem! Thank you. Then, let me explain the situation."
Athena cleared her throat awkwardly to shift topics, but I firmly noted her response in the back of my mind and listened intently.
"Recently, Corinth's prince Oedipus rushed back to the palace and performed a strange ritual."
"...!"
"I can only guess its meaning. But he performed it with utmost sincerity.
Afterward, as if relieved of a burden, he returned to princely duties and adeptly managed the chaos in Corinth."
However, something even he hadn't foreseen occurred.
Someone had witnessed his ritual.
"Right here, Acrocorinth's high priestess of Aphrodite and sorceress, Desiepina. She saw Oedipus's ritual and replicated it in Acrocorinth's temple. The result is this."
As Athena finished, she stomped infused with divine power, and a familiar eerie sensation swept over me.
As if space inverted, I blinked, and suddenly we were in another realm—not her beautiful divine domain, but the exact vista of Acrocorinth I'd seen earlier.
Except the scenery had flipped 180 degrees.
"...Oh boy."
-Kweeeh!
-Kyahak!
The floodplains that once rippled with clarity and purity, and the grand avenue to the majestic gateway, now crawled with familiar horrors below the cliffs.
Yes, wraiths.
The undead neither living nor dying that once haunted the River of Three Paths rampaged against the Acropolis backdrop.
Why were these exhausting sparring partners from the underworld—alongside grim reapers—here now?
"As you see, starting from Acrocorinth, this bizarre pocket dimension has appeared.
Know anything about it?"
"...."
Athena's gaze pierced my face intensely, nearly convinced from the incident's cause and my reaction.
But I was just as flustered.
'The ritual I taught Oedipus could trigger a mythic disaster like this?'
Some massive variable I didn't know was at play.
"Desiepina. What the hell is that thing?"