On the land, the contest between Poseidon and Athena had begun.
Poseidon made the first move, throwing his divine trident towards the mountain wall behind the Athens plain. The divine weapon, imbued with the Sea God's power, pierced the mountain wall, and immediately a clear spring burst forth. From these white waves, the neighing of steeds could be heard.
A group of snow-white horses galloped out from the waves, coming before the Athenians, shaking their heads.
"How about that, mortals!"
After doing all this, Poseidon raised his hand, retrieved his trident, and then loudly proclaimed to the Athenians below:
"This is the gift bestowed upon you by the great Poseidon! Hurry and accept my grace!"
As mentioned before, due to certain reasons not to be explicitly stated, horses held a divine nature in Greece. It was no exaggeration to describe a horse in Greece as "worth a thousand gold pieces."
These Athenians were all poor people; how could they have ever seen such high-class livestock? Looking at the steeds, many mortals showed expressions of envy and longing. Seeing their reactions, Poseidon nodded with satisfaction.
"It's my turn."
Seeing the reactions of her followers, Athena stepped forward with a calm expression. She, too, mimicked Poseidon, throwing her spear. The spear flew in an arc and landed on a patch of grass outside Athens.
After her spear landed, the earth was immediately imbued with divine power. Seedlings broke through the soil, growing at a visible rate into trees. The trees formed a forest, and their branches quickly bore heavy fruits—olives, which could be used for oil.
These trees were directly created by Athena using the agricultural divine authority that Zeus had originally granted her from Demeter.
For the Greeks, olive oil was almost a necessity of life, used in preparing various foods, medicine, and even for beauty. It was needed in all aspects of life. With this, the Athenians would no longer have to worry about their city-state being unable to trade with others, because olives were a necessity throughout the Greek World and would never lack a market.
Poseidon gave a luxury for the few, while Athena gave wealth for the many. These poor people were originally Athena's followers, and now seeing their goddess produce a gift that was in no way inferior to the Sea God's, they immediately sided with Athena.
Anyway, with their goddess protecting them, they weren't worried about being directly destroyed by the enraged Sea God.
And upon seeing the expressions of the Athenians, the gods also understood. Apollo patted Ares's shoulder and said to him with a smile, "Haha, Ares, it seems you're going to lose money."
"Damn it, Second Uncle is such a noob." Ares showed a dejected expression, saying resentfully, "Can't carry, just can't carry."
Having said that, he turned to Apollo and said, "Give the bow I lost to you to your sister. This bow was made for women anyway; it's too odd for you to use."
"Why would you make bows for women?" Apollo was a bit puzzled.
"I've recently been thinking about whether to create a group of women who only know how to fight, and let them go confront the male city-states on the land to see who is stronger and who is weaker."
Ares unhesitatingly stated a reason that seemed absurd to other main gods but perfectly logical when applied to the God of War.
"Alright, whatever makes you happy." Hearing Ares's words, Apollo also felt that he really had nothing in common with him, so he somewhat awkwardly rubbed his nose and then continued to watch the competition between Poseidon and Athena below with renewed interest.
Meanwhile, in the deep sea on the other side, Ares, controlling Halirrhothius, found the eldest of the Son of the Sea God, Triton, who, besides Poseidon and the old gods, held the most power in the sea.
After finding this elder brother, he immediately put forth a request for him to send troops.
"Send troops?" Triton, who had the upper body of a muscular man and the lower body of a blue mermaid-like fish tail, looked at Halirrhothius, played by Ares, with some confusion after hearing this, and asked, "Halirrhothius, you haven't caused us any more trouble outside and are now trying to trick me into sending troops, have you?"
"Of course it's not about me, Triton, don't you know? Athena allowed her followers to build a city by the sea, but she's unwilling to share even an iota of that city's divine authority with our father, Poseidon. Poseidon has already gone to Olympus to reason with Athena, and according to the gods' discussion, he is now competing with Athena by the sea to decide the ownership of Athens."
Ares, manipulating Halirrhothius, spoke eloquently:
"But as you know, Zeus's side has always looked down on our oceanic divine lineage. To them, we gods of the sea are outsiders. Therefore, in the competition between Father and Athena, the King of Gods will definitely favor his daughter. But our oceanic divine lineage cannot repeatedly back down before the sky gods. Otherwise, they'll truly think we sea dwellers are easy to bully. I'm asking you to send troops not for war, but to have our Four Seas Army go together to bolster Father's momentum! What do you think?"
Hearing what Halirrhothius said, Triton lowered his head and thought for a moment, then called a servant and inquired about Poseidon's current whereabouts.
He wasn't unwilling to help his father; after all, the Son of the Sea God gained prestige through their father, and they were all firm supporters of Poseidon. However, considering his brother Halirrhothius usually only led Poseidon to cause trouble and womanize, Triton couldn't simply believe his words.
After a while, the servant Triton had sent to inquire returned and reported to the Sea God's eldest son that everything Halirrhothius had said was true. So, upon learning this, Triton immediately blew his conch, summoning all the oceanic armies that followed Poseidon and were under his command, to get ready and depart for Athens, to boost Poseidon's morale.
At the command of the Sea God's eldest son, the Four Seas Army immediately sprang into action. These oceanic armies naturally could not consist of humans; they were all fantastical races living in the ocean, such as mermaids, sirens, and sea demons.
They all rode atop massive sea beasts obedient to the Sea God's authority, wielding weapons like harpoons and tridents, and clad in excellent armor, possessing terrifying power capable of sweeping away almost any mortal army.
After these armies had assembled under Triton's command, this Sea God's eldest son personally led them, majestically heading towards the bay of Athens, and Ares, controlling Halirrhothius, rode on a great white shark, following this grand army to Athens.