With that, the Olympian gods' thinking suddenly opened up. Don't be fooled by how the Titans threatened the legitimacy of Zeus's rule—it seemed unforgivable, but no matter how wildly the Titans thrashed, what they were fighting over was still control of the Greek world. Even if Kronos restored himself, he wouldn't necessarily purge all the Olympians.
Don't forget: Poseidon, Hades, and Demeter were Kronos's children. The rest of the Olympians are all blood-related to the second-generation Titans.
By contrast, the Aesir aimed to destroy the entire Greek world.
Who posed the greater threat was obvious at a glance.
Of course, that was the perspective of ordinary Olympians. From the viewpoint of Zeus and his two brothers, Kronos was definitely the bigger threat.
It looked like a council of Olympians, but in truth the final decision still rested with Zeus and his brothers.
Zeus's sons and daughters were a clear tier weaker in strength and had little say in major affairs.
Poseidon: "Are the Hecatoncheires all dead?"
Hades: "Seems like it."
Zeus: "And the Cyclopes?"
Poseidon: "Can't find them for the moment."
Hades: "Find them as soon as possible. With just us three plus the Cyclopes, we can just about hold."
Bottom line, the three brothers were unwilling to sally forth now.
Go out once and your home gets ransacked—who can stand that?
If the three of them didn't move, the rest, on principle, couldn't touch the Aesir.
But one report caught their attention.
Helios, the sun god, reminded them: "Your Majesty the God-Emperor, we can already observe the tail end of this segment of the spatial corridor. Three days at the fastest, five at most. Our link to the Ginnungagap world on the other side will be cut off again."
That made Zeus's eyes light up.
With the "Aesir" guillotine hanging over their heads, the Olympians could hardly do anything but fret all day long.
Thalos and the others weren't going to let their Major Gods cross in their true bodies while the link was cut—one misstep and they wouldn't get back. The next large-scale divine war could be a month away. If Zeus didn't seize this once-in-a-lifetime window, he'd be an idiot.
Poseidon: "Two Seas' waters have been diverted into the subordinate worlds."
Hades: "Souls from subordinate worlds are souls all the same."
Zeus: "And their skies are skies all the same."
The three brothers: "It's time those rebel slave-gods paid the price!"
Slave masters never care about the freedom slaves once had; they only know that slaves who dare rebel must pay the heaviest price.
So, who to hit next was obvious.
Sensing the shift in the air, Athena calmly added, "All the subordinate worlds conquered by the Aesir are now gathered under the rebel god-king Odin."
A murderous light flashed in Zeus's eyes; his face twisted. He spat savagely. "Odin should've been chopped to pieces ages ago! Can't even grasp his status as a slave and dares to incite my father to rebel against my rule?!"
Poor Odin—though he had never once declared submission to Zeus, in Zeus's eyes he had long since been a slave-god under his banner.
For Zeus, Odin's defection was rank treason and had to be punished severely.
Zeus turned his head. "Athena! Once the spatial corridor closes, you, Apollo, and Heracles will each take command—and pick twenty true gods—to go take down that traitor Odin and reassert control over all subordinate worlds."
"...Yes." Athena ultimately neither objected nor argued and accepted the task calmly.
In Zeus's eyes, that was more than enough force.
Back then, Athena had managed with Apollo and Ares—and Helios thrown in—to handle Odin and his lot, seizing the entire Rilanka world (Zeus ignored Artemis's contribution). With one huntress fewer and a few more true gods added, that ought to be enough to put Odin down.
With a heap of subordinate worlds gone, in the short term the divine power was sufficient; give it time for Odin to convert those little worlds' power into his own, and it would be a problem.
Strike Odin while he wasn't yet steady, rout him, and bring those fence-sitters back into line—perfect plan.
Having tossed Odin to Athena's detached force, Zeus went on discussing with Hades and Poseidon how to deal with his dear old dad.
Athena turned to Apollo and Heracles. "Let's discuss it in my temple."
"All right." The two god-kings replied.
As she left, Athena cast a glance at Zeus and, not far from him, the Ares who had been kept back. Finally her gaze met Hera's.
It wasn't her imagination—Athena felt Hera couldn't wait for her to get lost!
Once again, Athena's intuition proved right—Zeus wanted to bed her, and Hera, goddess of jealousy, had clearly sensed it and was trying to get Athena away from here, even if only for a while. Hera could not accept Athena becoming Zeus's lover; a goddess both martial and wise was too great a threat to Hera's position.
A wave of bleakness swept Athena's heart. All these years, she had schemed and labored for the Olympian pantheon—what had she received?
The God-Emperor wanted to mount her, the Queen of the Gods wanted to ruin her, she had little territory to speak of, and that idiot Ares targeted her at every turn… Once Zeus had stood on her side and she had just barely managed to muddle through; now in the pantheon it felt like enemies on every side.
It was unbearable.
Outwardly Zeus still favored her, giving her an independent command to reclaim the subordinate worlds.
And if she carried it out flawlessly—so what?
Never mind that the Aesir would stop attacking for these last three days and leave only an Odin on this side. Any god with eyes could see this so-called god-king Odin was just a target, a classic tough cut of meat. Odin was missing parts of his soul; most of it was likely still in the Ginnungagap world. Even if he were destroyed, it wouldn't hurt the root.
In Athena's view, this remnant-soul version of Odin was a trap meant to draw Olympus into attacking.
Even if she wiped out Odin and his tiny Maya pantheon and seized back all the subordinate worlds—so what?
The Greek world's source had been hollowed out too much; many of its elements had even been deliberately scattered into the cosmos—no collecting that back in less than a decade or two.
The real issue was the Olympian pantheon's precipitous decline.
Everyone had once assumed Zeus was this chaotic universe's sole master. Now, the God-Emperor Thalos on the other side had proved through a string of great wars that he was stronger and wiser than Zeus. Was there any point in lashing herself to Olympus's sinking ship?
Especially if, as it went under, she had to be ridden by that old bastard Zeus?
Dissatisfaction with the present, pessimism about the future, and fury at Zeus coveting her beauty—each was torturing Athena's heart to madness.
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