The next few days were a joyous event for Olympus.
The old Zeus was back, not completely, of course, but at least he no longer flew in rage over the slightest thing.
The feeling of oppression and death hanging above their head had lessened, and they were all grateful for it.
Hermes was slowly recovering while being informed of all the changes that had happened while he was in the coma.
Like the fact that the war had been going on for months now.
Due to their long lives, the war between gods tends to last decades to centuries. .it was the case in the titanomachy, and it is the same now.
Adding to that the fact that Zeus's eyes were more focused on making sure that his sons' recovery and on the kingdom of Argus, Hera and the remaining members of his children were the ones who were leading the resistance against Tartarus.
Hera's force had control of about sixty percent of the territory still under their control.
The other children of Zeus control the remaining fourth percent; everything was divided into sectors protected by a leader, a high-level god.
"So the situation between you and Hera is dead! And the monsters of Tartarus are running rampant in the world," Hermes sitting on a table with his parents and siblings said, he had just been briefed on what happened during his coma
"It seems so, yes," There was biterness in Zeus' tone when he said that, no matter what he had been with Hera for centuries.
"That's, maybe I should have tried to stop your escapade,"
"Huh, He has been doing that since long before your birth, if you think that you would have changed anything," Leto said "a lot of us have encouraged it due to our dislike of Hera, that's how it is, it's not going to change it,"
"Still, you manage to make even Hephaestus go to her side with all the resentment he has for her..."
Zeus just remained silent at that; he didn't know that Hephaestus was on Hera's side, firstly due to Maeron.
"She didn't make him stop supplying us that's what's important,"
"She knows that despite our issue she needs us, like we need her,"
"Alright enough, even if we don't like her, she has done a good job maintaining order here on Olympus and below in the human world, we have tried our best but even with all of us matching her was tough," Artemis said recognizing that she was a tough opponent to handle
"What do we do now,"
"Now we need you to get better we have a supremely hard time getting in contact with the other territories since you decided to go to sleep," Apollo said
Hermes is the messenger of the gods for a reason, he is the fastest god and therefore could reach other gods ' kingdoms faster than even the gods with space abilities, which is very rare and costly in energy.
Plus, the space around a god's territory was often closed, or it would allow anyone to enter as they pleased, and no self-respecting god would allow that. It was even more since they realized that MAeron was a space user with more control than any other.
"I'm regaining my strength, but it will take more time, I just need to go back a few more times to make sure that everything is well and good,"
"Alright,"
Everyone rejoiced at hearing that
...
Demeter's garden
The light of the sun shines brightly in the beautiful and perpetually green garden of the goddess of Harvest.
Letting out a soft yawn as she stretched her sensual body Persephone used the sheets to cover her body.
"What time is it?
She wondered, looking at the sun shining through the windows of the tree.
After a few minutes of preparation, she walked down in a beautiful white toga, adorned with gold and precious gems of the underworld, showing her statue as queen of the underworld.
"Good morning, Mom, Aunt Hestia..."
She greeted the two goddesses, seated on a table, eating a hearty meal.
"Morning sweetheart," Demeter said
"Hello there, come join us." Hestia with the cute appearance of a child added
"It looks delicious as always,"
Persephone said sitting with the two goddesses, and started to fill her plate.
There was everything on the table, delicious fruits, milk tea, coffee, juices, meat of different animals, and more.
Some people think that Demeter didn't eat meat, due to her role as goddess of harvest, but they couldn't be more wrong.
With her powers, Demeter's table was always full; she could have everything on her table the moment she craved it.
They made small talk and ate warmly, the sun illuminated the breathtaking beauty of those three goddesses.
"Seeing you eat so well fills my heart with warmth, how you let that idiot Hades where he is and you stay here with mom, huh,"
The radiant smile and determined light in Demeter's eyes showed that she was serious. People underestimate her because she is a goddess, not a god, and that Zeus was able to force himself on her, but even among gods, she is at the top.
Few are capable of resisting her as she is only weaker than people like Zeus and Hades.
At that time, it was normal to use force to claim a woman, and throughout the years, people, men, giants, and gods tried to sleep with her, and only Zeus had succeeded.
So with the power that she has, if it includes Hestia and her daughter, she was sure that she could force him to back off.
"We already talked about that, I'm queen of the underworld and married to him, stop bringing it up,"
"But you didn't love him, I can't support that you will live like that till the rest of your days. Just look at Hera and Zeus, they are literally enemies now, do you want to end up like them!"
"We are not like them, end of discussion,"
With that, Persephone walked to another part of the room, leaving her half-finished meal.
"You knew that it would end like that, why do you continue?"
Hestia, who had remained silent as the mother and daughter argued, said finishing her meal with delight.
It wasn't the first time that she had seen them argue about that subject, that was the only time they had argued.
"I'm thinking about her well-being! Should I speak to Zeus about that?"
Although he had taken her by force, even if she didn't like him, Demeter didn't harbor too much hatred for Zeus,
because in the culture it was not unheard off to take a woman by force if he succeed it was because the gods will, and for the gods it was more or less the same, what matter was strength, it was why Zeus could take advantage of so many, not only because because he was the king but also because he it was not frown upon.
Even though it is not as common, there are cases of Women or goddesses taking gods or men because they could; in those cases, the men often claimed that it was consent.
The reason that Demeter hated Hades so much is not because he had raped her daughter, but because he had taken her from her. Persephone herself didn't hate Hades; she just wasn't in love with him.
It is part of their culture.
"She is an adult, and queen of the Underworld, let her live her life, and by the way, are you going to give her the letter from the underworld,"
"Of course not, you really don't understand!!" Leaving those words behind she walked out in a huff.
With a resigned sigh, Hestia pulled the half-empty plates that the mother and daughter pair had left behind.
"Can't waste good food," Hestia said before starting to wolf it down like a starved beast.
Outside, everything was calm. The nymphs, goddesses, and Humans that Hestia and Demeter had welcomed when they built that garden were quietly going about their business.
This garden was a place that the two sister goddesses had built together. Here, people were living in harmony, they had food, beautiful clothes of all types and colors, and peace.
Even the people who were brought here when the war started weren't causing any issues. Those who tried to take control of that utopia, a few women but mostly men, thinking that the goddesses would be easy prey, were fed alive to the Demeter plants.
That Utopia was jointly created by the two Demeter and Hestia, and they defended it fiercely.
Booom
An explosion originating from the edge of the garden resounded, shaking the tree a little.
In an instant, Hestia was on her feet, ready to fight.
In the center of the tree, the multicolored flame quietly burning there flew to her side.
The goddesses and nymphs in this tree and around living in the garden appeared ready to fight.
It wasn't the first time that the barrier protecting the garden was breached, but all attackers were quickly repelled.
But before any of them moved Demeter's voice entered everyone's ears,
"You can rest I am just cleaning the surroundings,"
On the tree, Hestia returned to her meals
"Seriously, she is too on edge,"
At the edge of the garden, Demeter had created an opening and from there hordes of monsters were pouring in.
Slash, puff, puff
Before they could do anything, the horde of monsters big enough to swallow a city with sheer number found themself slaughtered by the Demeter forest.
The beautiful forest had changed into some kind of ferocious living beast.
The roots of trees were entangling the monsters from the ground as they moved, the leaves as sharp as blades were cutting threw flesh like the monsters' scales were butter, carnivorous trees were swallowing house-sized monsters with ease, while others were dragged underground to serve as fertilizer, all that while Demeter was bisecting the monsters coming at her with a whip of vines.
After a few minutes, the forest regained its calm, except for the blood everywhere. There was no trace of of the previous invasion, and a few minutes later, no traces of battle remained.
Finally, calm Demeter took a deep breath to calm herself; a sweet smell attracted her attention.
"Who is there?" she suddenly said turning around, a tree glided on the ground to reveal a very beautiful young man looking at her.
"Ha, huh, sorry my goddess, I was attracted by the sound of fighting, I wanted to fight too," the man said meekly
Coming closer she took in his sweet smell
'He smells great,' she thought
"What is your name?"
"I am Marcus, my goddess, your battle was breathtaking and spectacular, I didn't know you could fight like that my goddess,"
Marcus complimented sincerely
Seeing Demeter looking at him with a eyebrow raise he lowered his head
"Hum sorry to have bother you, I speak too much sometime. I'm going to leave now, sorry again,"
As he turned around to she once again caught that sweet smell,
"Who told you you could leave,"
Seeing his confuse expression she smile a little, she was in bad mood even after that fight and seeing an handsome man complimented her lifted her spirit a little.
"What did you think of that battle?"