"Well, well, well... I cannot say I am shocked to see you in such a place," Damien said.
He turned to Loki, gave her a kiss on the cheek, and spoke. "Let me talk to dear Freya here for a few moments. I will be back. Okay?"
Loki grinned, looking at Freya as she placed her hand on his chest. "See you soon... darling."
Damien walked toward Freya.
"So... what? Not enough dicks in the Freya Familia that you needed..." He glanced at Aphrodite in the distance. "A pink pussy?"
"Fuck you." Freya's voice was sharp. "I do not have relations with my children. Never!"
She turned to look out the balcony, staring down at the vast city of Orario below.
Damien smiled and joined her at the balcony. "Oh... did I hurt your feelings? My bad. It is just... well, you are kind of infamous in that regard. You feel me?"
"I was... back in heaven. On earth, I have only ever had a few relations. I could count them on my fingers." Her voice was quieter now. "I have taken steps to achieve that. To stop myself and my divinity from devouring me."
"Is that so? My bad, then."
"You are not sorry." Freya's eyes narrowed. "You are here to pretend to have some moral high ground, mocking my past. What of you? Are you somehow different from me? How many girls have spread their legs for you? And you have taken them all. Do not toy with me. You are as much of a sex god as I am. I am just not hiding it behind morals."
Damien was quiet for a moment. "Oh... I really did hurt you there. Truly, my fault. I am no sex god, though. If anything, I would say I am a love god. Because I truly do love and care for my own people. You, though... I am not so sure."
Freya turned to him with anger. "HOW DARE YOU! Question my love for my children!"
"Oh... does that mean you love them? Is the manipulative, alluring Freya who can get anything she wants with her beauty truly different?"
"GO TO HELL!"
"So you do care?"
"Yes... I do." Her voice cracked. "They are my children. I care for them more than you can ever imagine."
Damien slammed her into the wall. His hand placed on her neck.
"Then why the fuck are you not making the right decision for their safety and protection?" His voice was cold, angry. "I gave you a way to change your life. No one has, and no one will, in this life. Just like you defeated and kicked Hera and Zeus, your time will come. But not if I am there." His grip tightened. "All you have to do is take me as your king. Simple as that. Accept what I offer you. Join the alliance. Be there."
She turned her head away from him. Even as he pinned her, she looked down at Orario. At her possessions. She was obsessed with it. She needed to take it all. After all, that was what she was. She got anything she desired.
She turned back to Damien.
She questioned herself. What did she desire more? The city she had run for years, manipulated and controlled? Or this young man? This young mortal who had come out of nowhere. His soul was brighter than any mortal she had ever seen. His vision. His power. All he had done since he arrived less than a year ago had changed this city more than once.
She was not the first to want him. And she would not be the last.
So what was her choice? Him... or everything?
She stuttered. "Will..."
She looked at his eyes. His anger. His rage.
She looked down at herself. At the struggle she had to fight every day. But did she really need to fight it?
"Will... you love me like you love them?"
She looked at him. Vulnerable. More than she had ever been. What was looking at him now was not the goddess of sex, beauty, obsession, and all that came with it. No. That was Freya. Simply Freya. Weaker than a mortal. Emotionally afraid of rejection. Shaking. Nothing more than a girl in love.
The anger faded from Damien's eyes. He instantly released her. Even he was shaking...not from fear or anything similar, but from shock. He had been about to go far. Maybe fight her. Declare war on her Familia. Even send her back to heaven if she continued to resist him and stand in his way.
Yet... in front of him was Freya. Merely asking to be loved.
What was the right answer?
"I will try."
That was what he came up with. He could not promise love to someone he had not spent time with. Nor could he lie. But he could not hate her either. She had never really done anything bad to him. Not really. His only grievance with her Familia was a child who had tried his best to impress her.
"Okay." Freya's voice was soft. "I accept that."
"Fuck..." Damien looked at her red neck. "Sorry about the...."
"I do not mind." She smiled. "I liked it. It shows you are decisive and smart. Taking what you want."
"This is not how I expected my day to go."
"Neither have I. But here we are." She stepped closer. "You with your new lovely goddess to serve you. And me, with a mortal master who will grant me all."
"Life, eh." Damien shook his head. "Surprising."
As if life was responding, an alarm sounded. The city's drums and magical warning signs released into the air.
Damien turned. "What the fuck?"
The goddesses inside and Loki all came to the balcony where he and Freya had been talking.
Loki looked out at the city. "Sheesh. An invasion."
Damien's eyes narrowed. "An invasion? You are serious? Who is stupid enough to try and invade Orario?"
"That idiot Ares is attacking us. Again."
Damien looked at her. "And you seem... to not care much?"
"Of course. This is like his hundredth invasion. It always fails."
Freya crossed her arms. "That fool does not even realize how Falna works. The strongest member in his Familia is a Level Four. And it is the king of Rakia."
Loki nodded. "The Guild will send a few Level Twos and Level Ones to handle it. The war will end in a few hours."
Damien stared at the distant army. Five thousand soldiers. Led by Ares himself.
He smiled.
"Is that so? But I do not like that." He looked at the approaching forces. "Let us make a statement here."
Loki raised an eyebrow. "What do you have in mind?"
Damien looked at the army. At the city below. At the goddesses watching him.
"This."
He raised his hand.
"Arise."
In front of Orario's buildings, shadows emerged. His soldiers rose from the ground. Hundreds of them. Dark. Silent. Deadly.
"Kill them all," Damien said. "Spare only the ones who surrender."
...
Freya and Loki watched in stunned silence as the shadows moved.
They descended upon Ares's army with terrifying speed. Each shadow was the equivalent of at least a Level Two now—some higher, much higher. The leaders among them moved like forces of nature, cutting through ranks of soldiers who had no hope of fighting back.
To call this a war was an overstatement.
It was a massacre. A one-sided slaughter.
Not a single shadow fell to Ares's army. Swords broke on impact. Arrows missed their marks. Spears shattered against their dark forms. And in return, the shadows dismantled the invaders with cold, mechanical efficiency. Arms were severed. Legs were broken. Shields were torn away. Every soldier who faced them was defeated within seconds.
The ones who surrendered lost limbs before they could even raise their hands.
Never had Ares experienced such a defeat. Orario had never hit back hard before. The city had never treated his invasions seriously because they had never needed to. His forces were weak. His tactics were outdated. His ambition was laughable.
But Damien was changing that.
He was making a statement.
'Orario is mine now. And I do not forgive easily.'
...
In less than an hour, the entire army was in chains.
Three thousand dead. Two thousand prisoners.
Damien released the regular soldiers....the conscripts, the farmers, the men who had been dragged into Ares's foolish war. They fled back to the Rakia Kingdom, broken and terrified, carrying stories of the dark army that had devoured their comrades.
The generals were not so lucky.
Diana and Igris walked slowly through the streets of Orario, dragging Ares and his captured generals in heavy cuffs. The shadows moved in formation around them...a dark procession that wound through the city, past stunned citizens and open windows, past the Guild headquarters where officials watched in disbelief.
They stopped at the entrance of the Guild.
A paper was tied to Ares's neck with thin wires. Written on it, in clear, bold letters:
"A gift from the Hestia Familia Captain, Damien Ardent, to the Guild."
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