Chapter 28

The giant bronze colossus was even more impressive up close. It looked like a towering icon for the entire city, like a personal guardian to all the people here. On the platform it was standing on it said, 'The Colossus: warrior, worker and protector'.

"The entire thing was designed and built by Hephaestus himself," Ajax said. "Wow this thing must be at least fifty feet tall. It must be impossible to build something bigger," Hedger said.

"It's seventy feet actually, and you would be surprised –they say that the original Colossus was bigger than this," Ajax said. "The actual colossus, you mean there's another one?" Rex asked.

Ajax nodded. "Not a lot of people know about it really. It's a piece of history that goes back to the Titan war."

If the story was as old as the Titan War then it really was ancient history. That war happened almost a thousand years ago, the one which the Great Emperor Zeus fought along with his two brothers against their tyrant father Cronus. Their victory was what started the current chapter of the world.

"Well, a long time ago there was an island kingdom called Rhodes. It was ruled by a Titan and he was ruling it well until several hundred years ago," Ajax said. "Wait, weren't all the Titans put into the great prison Tartarus when the war ended, and that was almost a thousand years ago?" Rex asked.

"Most did. But not all the Titans were on Cronus's side during the war. A few remained neutral, and this particular Titan actually sided with the gods in this War. So even when the War ended he was allowed to keep his kingdom by Emperor Zeus. Now on this island of Rhodes there was said to be a Colossus that was nearly a hundred feet tall," Ajax said.

Hedger let out a whistle and said, "That is one big hood ornament. So if it's so big, how come none of us have heard of it?"

"That's because like I said before, the Titan only ruled hundreds of years ago. After that the Titan disappeared without a trace. And the strange thing was the Colossus of Rhodes disappeared with it. The kingdom didn't last much after that either. The entire island was ransacked within another fifty years without the Titans protection," Ajax said. Maximus thought about the story he just heard and it sounded more like fiction to him, but then again he had heard some weirder stories about gods and Titans. "So why do you guys have a Colossus here?" Achilles asked. Ajax lifted up his finger and said, "Ah well, that's because the original Colossus was ol' Hephaestus' favourite structure and he was already around when it went missing. He built this one as a tribute to the old one. But he refused to make it as big as the old one because he had too much respect for the original."

After that, they decided to return to the castle. It was late and Daedalus would wake soon, which also meant that it was time to meet Lord Hephaestus.

On their way back in Ajax's pickup truck, Maximus got lost in his own thought again. He had almost forgotten how old the gods really were. All of the twelve Olympian gods were at least over five hundred years old. If memory served him correctly the youngest of the twelve Olympians was the great Dionysus, the god of wine. He was called so because he invented the drink. Now he ruled over the land of Bacchus, which was the largest producer of wine and alcohol in the world. It was also famous for its casinos and other forms of entertainment. And the parties, they lasted for weeks sometimes. He knew all this because it was Rex's dream vacation spot. And it was not just the gods, even his new companions Achilles and Ajax were both also about a hundred years old. The Trojan War had happened a century ago. In this world, if you turned powerful enough the rate at which you aged slowed down. Some people like the gods were so powerful that they were practically immortals. And this was not just measured in battle power. Sometimes, if you excel in a something to such an extent the same thing happens and your life span increases. This is probably what happened in the case of Daedalus due to his unimaginable intelligence. Also some gods were even capable of bestowing immortality onto others. But you had to be at another level of power to do so. In fact, Maximus was only sure of one god who could do so. The great and magnificent Emperor Zeus, the most powerful living thing in the world.

They finally returned to the castle and went inside. But before they took the elevator to their rooms, Achilles pulled Maximus aside to talk to him privately. "It seems you managed to activate your blade again," Achilles said.

Maximus nodded, "It just seemed to happen when I pulled it from that dwarf." "In other words it happened when you got angry," Achilles said.

Maximus was reluctant to agree to this but he had to. It was true.

"It seems that training you with that sword might be more important than I thought. We could start tomorrow if you're up to it," Achilles said, and Maximus agreed to it. Then they went up to their rooms and had just enough time to freshen up before dinner. Maximus was a bit nervous now, after all, they were going to have dinner with a god.