After an unknown amount of time, the darkness receded and the glowstones lit up again.
Artemis, having finished a full meal, wiped her mouth and rose to her feet with deep satisfaction.
And just before leaving, the Hunting Goddess did not forget to wave her arm, disperse her God power, and deftly and carefully erase all traces of the earlier intense battle.
This alone was enough to prove that Artemis's experience in secret encounters and preventing discovery far surpassed a certain Queen of Heaven who only thought of her own satisfaction and completely disregarded the consequences.
After everything was taken care of, the Hunting Goddess took one last look at her lover before reluctantly departing.
Lorne in the corner maintained his stiff smile and gave a mechanical wave of farewell.
Only after Artemis had been gone for some time did he belatedly lower his somewhat aching arm.
Right then.
After enduring two consecutive high-intensity ordeals, a certain victim's mind was already somewhat dazed.
"Creak..."
Before he had much time to lie there recovering, the dreaded sound of the cell door being pushed open came again.
Lorne was startled and immediately leapt to his feet like a carp jumping out of water, standing ramrod straight.
"It is me."
A clear and pleasant voice came from the darkness as a graceful goddess with silver hair and violet eyes in a plain long dress walked into the cell.
Seeing who it was, Lorne almost broke into tears.
'Sister Na!'
The entering Athena felt an inexplicable chill for no apparent reason as goosebumps broke out layer by layer on her arms. "Why are you looking at me like that? It feels strange."
"Excitement. Pure excitement! I am so happy to see you!" Lorne answered repeatedly, then attentively pulled out the stone stool and invited Athena to sit.
The tense anxiety in him eased considerably.
Whatever else was going on, at least for the moment he did not need to worry about being mistreated again.
Athena on the other hand mistook this excitement for anxiety and offered calm reassurance. "Do not worry. Thetis is fine. Everything that needed to be arranged in the sanctuary has been arranged. I have also made private contact with Poseidon and Apollo. Everything is proceeding according to plan."
"You are not actually planning to make a move, are you?"
Lorne caught the implication beneath those words and could not help furrowing his brow slightly.
Athena nodded and explained in a measured voice. "According to the original plan, the idea was only to have them lead the charge and probe that God king's foundations while we waited for the right moment.
But the way things developed seems to have gone a bit beyond what I expected..."
She then told Lorne about the current situation in detail.
First, the three Hecatoncheires (Hundred-Handed Ones) had just finished disciplining Poseidon.
Although this successfully broke the sea Gods' fighting spirit, it also went too far and led to that two-faced God king ordering them to stand guard in the primordial ocean, forbidden from going out without a divine decree.
This way, these three powerful bodyguards were temporarily stripped of activity and cut off from Zeus himself, greatly weakening the protective power around that God king.
Second, Zeus's schemes and underhanded tactics pushed to the extreme, combined with his continuous wrongdoings, finally completely ignited the Gods' accumulated dissatisfaction.
Quite a few had already begun secretly choosing sides and declaring their positions.
As of now, Queen of Heaven Hera had started making contact with Apollo and Poseidon and officially joined the conspiracy.
Hestia, the Goddess of the Hearth; Artemis, the Goddess of the Hunt; and Hephaestus, the God of Crafts, expressed their support.
Together with Athena the Goddess of Wisdom herself, the chief Gods participating in the rebellion had reached a terrifying seven in number, more than half of the twelve chief Gods.
Beyond this, Demeter, the goddess harvest maintained her consistent neutrality and helped neither side.
Aphrodite, the Goddess of Love, was nowhere to be found and presumably would not intervene.
Ares, the War God, had been in a rage lately, constantly stirring up wars in the mortal world and fighting warriors.
Given his level of intelligence he was more or less out of this conspiracy.
Hermes the messenger God was clever but more skilled at reading the wind and going with it.
When it came to actually fighting for his life, he ran faster than anyone...
In this way, seven chief Gods participating in the rebellion held an overwhelming numerical advantage.
With a prepared side catching the unprepared, it might not be impossible to match that God king.
Hearing this result, Lorne could not help feeling a jolt of astonishment. "How did so many get involved?"
"You and Thetis have quite a bit to do with that." Athena shot a sideways glance at the clueless chief culprit, her eyes carrying a smile that was not quite a smile.
The brazen coercion of Thetis angered even the normally mild-mannered Hephaestus into choosing the rebel side.
Hera on the surface used this as her excuse to stand up for her foster daughter, but behind the scenes, was it not also because she saw her little lover get arrested and could not bear it?
As for Hestia and Artemis, those two hardly needed saying.
One had completely lost trust in that God king and been coaxed thoroughly dizzy by her own attendant God.
The other's brother was a rebel, so she could not stay uninvolved, and now her little lover was arrested too.
Naturally she had to throw everything into the fight.
Hearing all of this, Lorne finally understood what Hera and Artemis's expressions of hesitating as though wanting to say something actually meant.
After going around in such a great circle, they were planning to topple Zeus first and then rescue him from the cell.
'Good heavens. That was quite a wild way to go about rescuing someone.'
Athena, Hestia, Poseidon, Apollo, Hera, Artemis, Hephaestus... More than half of the twelve chief Gods were turning against their king.
At this point, never mind Zeus not being prepared.
Even if he were prepared, he would have his work cut out for him.
No wonder Athena suddenly changed her mind and shifted from a feint to a full charge, choosing to bet big and join this rebellion.
Only, their assumed enemy was Zeus.
But if...
Lorne narrowed his eyes and asked quietly.
"What if the three Moirai intervene?"
"Are you not still here?"
Athena looked steadily at Lorne before her and laughed with easy confidence.
"You want me to fight the three Moirai?" Hearing the task falling on his own head, Lorne put on a dark face and complained. "You really do think a lot of me..."
"Just counterbalancing them.
I'm not asking you to actually fight to the death." Athena gave a light laugh of reassurance, then looked quietly at Lorne with a meaningful expression. "Besides, isn't there still a trump card that can counterbalance the three Moirai? If the previously agreed plan went smoothly, that thing will fall into your hands."
"That is just a guess." Lorne rolled his eyes and reminded with impatience. "Whether we can actually get that thing, and whether it will even be useful, are still two entirely separate questions."
"It does not matter. I have confidence in you!" Athena's smile remained, her conviction absolute.
Being praised and valued in this way by the legendary Goddess of Wisdom, Lorne felt genuinely moved.
However, immediately after, a teasing smile spread across Athena's face as she added quietly.
"After all, with a personality as self-preserving and calculating as yours, daring to come here and walk into Zeus's trap, risking yourself for that final piece of God-nature, you must certainly have a complete strategy prepared for the aftermath."
"...."
Lorne found nothing to say, his expression as dark as the bottom of a pot.
This was why he disliked clever people.
Especially people cleverer than him.
"It seems I guessed correctly again." Athena pressed her lips into a teasing smile, not asking whether she was right or wrong but stating it as fact.
Lorne looked at the Goddess of Wisdom who perpetually stayed one step ahead of him and gave a light hum.
"So what if you guessed correctly?
You can guess the beginning.
That does not mean you can guess the ending."
"Oh? What do you mean? Tell me."
Athena's interest sparked immediately as she asked with curiosity.
Lorne narrowed his eyes and spoke quietly.
"What if the one who wins in the end is me?"
Athena paused slightly, then burst into quiet laughter.
"Is that so? Then I look very much forward to it."
Then the Goddess of Wisdom in the cell pointed at the shackles and fetters on Lorne, a teasing smile spreading across her face.
"Though looking at the current situation, you seem to need to work a little harder. Start by figuring out how to get out of here first."
With everything arranged, Athena waved her hand and turned to walk out of the cell. "Right then. There is still a great deal I need to do before the game begins. I will not keep you company chatting here."
Watching the Goddess of Wisdom push open the prison door and her figure disappear into a flood of light, Lorne sat in the darkness and shook his head with a quiet scoff.
Actually, there was something he never said outright.
Like two sides of a mirror, the flaws he had were also flaws Athena had.
All the things Athena once lectured him about could in truth equally be applied to Athena herself.
The same proud self-assurance.
The same self-important cleverness. Always believing she would be the one who kept winning.
But no one could win forever.
It was only that she had never truly lost yet.
She never even lost in myths.
But...
"Perhaps this time, you will get to experience what that feels like..."
Just as Lorne was murmuring this quietly to himself, the familiar sound of the cell door being pushed open rang out once more.
"Hestia?"
Seeing the furtive figure outside the iron bars, Lorne felt equal amusement and helplessness.
'This Olympus prison was like a public restroom. Any God could come and go as they pleased.'
"Shh. Keep your voice down!"
Hestia outside the door hurriedly made a hushing gesture, then under Lorne's amused and curious gaze, clumsily picked the secret-inscription lock that had already been fiddled with who knew how many times.
After successfully picking the lock, the Hearthfire Goddess crouched low, tiptoed her way into the cell, and looked for all the world like an adorable groundhog.
Lorne found this scene impossible not to laugh at.
Realizing her own conduct was perhaps not entirely dignified, the somewhat embarrassed Hestia flushed red and shot her attendant God a fierce glare.
"What are you laughing at? Close your eyes!"
"What for?"
"I said close them so close them!"
Hestia abandoned her usual gentle manner, put both hands on her hips, appearing somewhat flustered.
Intimidated by his chief goddess's authority, Lorne raised both hands, obediently closed his eyes, and stood quietly in place to wait.
A moment passed. Not a single sound.
He could not help asking.
"What's happening? Are you done..."
"...Mm!" The clear words cut off abruptly, replaced by a muffled swallowing motion.
Lorne opened his eyes and stared at the lovely face right before him in astonishment, while simultaneously feeling something like a burning ember slide through his throat and down into his abdomen.
Boundless light. Boundless warmth. Boundless God-nature flowed forth from within it.
"Pop!"
Accompanied by a clear bubble-like sound, Hestia lifted her head, raised her hand to dab at her slightly reddened lips, and gave a light hum.
"Right. Nothing else. Take care of yourself. I am leaving first."
Having said this, before Lorne could say a word to keep her, the guilty-looking Hearthfire Goddess fled the prison at top speed.
But her footsteps seemed to be quite unsteady and weak.
'This foolish woman...'
Lorne watched his chief goddess's departing figure, pressing his hand against his abdomen that continuously radiated heat and warmth, and felt boundless gratitude well up in his heart.
He had a rough idea of what the extra thing in his body was.
"Creak..."
Just as Lorne's thoughts swirled, the familiar sound of the cell door being pushed open came again.
'Still more? Fine. Whoever it is, it does not matter anymore.'
He was already numb. He could lie down in any position at any time.'
However, the instant he looked up and saw who it was, a shudder ran through him as he folded both arms across his chest and backed into the corner on alert.
"Apollo? What are you here for?"
(End of Chapter)