Chapter 2

After all, she didn't want to miss the chance to compete and gain fame. Plus, she was curious about the man who was coming to watch her fight.

As she waited, she read a little more about the rules. It appeared that every year, two demigods would meet somewhere in the city and fight each other. A victor would receive a prize which she was going to be given in two weeks. Eurydice sighed. No matter what the rules stated, she didn't care that much. She had gotten bored with life long ago and was ready to get into the contest to put some excitement into her otherwise boring existence. Still, there was no harm in doing what she was told anyway.

When the man finally arrived, she smiled and up. "Hey there. Name's Eurydice."

"Apollo. Pleased to meet you." Apollo said with a smile.

Well then, let's get started!" Eurydice exclaimed as she took her place in the middle of the room.

Carmen

Carmen had been living among humans for the better part of her life. Since birth, she had lived in the mortal world, helping to maintain order and to spread knowledge amongst the population. However, the constant stress caused her mind to break down. She became depressed. Even though she was married to the king of the gods, she had no one.

She was completely dependent on him for everything and even worse, he did nothing but abuse her.

Carmen spent her day crying. Sometimes she cried herself to sleep, but mostly she stayed awake all night and stared at her ceiling.

Then one day, she heard a loud crash from downstairs. It sounded like it came from someone's bedroom. Curious, Carmen walked down the stairs and looked into the living room.

There she saw an empty wine bottle sitting on the floor. She thought maybe it had fallen and broken. Carmen picked it up and examined it closely, hoping to find some blood or fingerprints, but none of those were evident. Instead, she noticed something unusual: a note. She picked it up and turned it over and over to try to figure out what it was written in, but the message was too messy to read. After reading the message twice, Carmen got frustrated and threw the note across the room. It flew right in front of her husband. Before he could react, Carmen grabbed the note and quickly scanned it.

Dear Carmen,

Please come see me today. Something important needs to be discussed. Come as soon as possible. -A.P.

A.P.S. Please wear the dress that you used to wear for our wedding. The red one.

Carmen stared blankly at the paper. She had forgotten about the stupid wedding that happened almost a month ago. Not that she cared about it, it just annoyed her because she knew she had to go anyways. With a sigh, she picked up the note again and began pacing the room. This was probably some trick to get rid of her. Just to make sure, Carmen opened the door and peeked outside. Luckily for her, nobody was there. Satisfied, she made her way down the hallway to the kitchen and started washing up.

Meanwhile, in Olympus, Dionysus was having a hard time keeping up with the chaos in his kingdom.

All day long people were complaining about a strange phenomenon called a rainstorm. Everyone was affected except for the few gods that were on Earth. He couldn't believe it. It wasn't supposed to storm until tonight, but apparently, he had interrupted whatever it was.

"You can't possibly expect to defeat the enemy if you're busy worrying about your problems!" Dionysus shouted angrily as he threw another piece of bread at the table.

Well...maybe we shouldn't lose hope yet," Amphion said quietly. "Just because a storm does' happen does mean that it's going to end."

The God of Wine and Dreams nodded his head. Amphion was right; after all, the clouds that usually covered the sky didn't move for the past three days, nor had the sun shown itself for a week.

And besides, I still have plans for tomorrow."

Dionysus gave Amphion a puzzled look.

"You still have plans for tomorrow?"

"Yes. So why are you complaining?"

Dionysus thought for a few moments. He still had a lot of work to do in his palace and he wanted to be well-rested so that he could perform his tasks well the following day. If he could convince Poseidon and Athena to join him, that would be great. But that was not enough. He had a plan that he had to execute, a battle plan, and a prophecy to fulfill. Unfortunately, he didn't feel that his friends would be up to it.

After thinking about it for a while, the god decided to ask a favor.

Aphion, please ask my wife to come and help me with this issue."

Are you sure? I'm afraid that she isn't very fond of me, especially since I was the reason you lost your throne to the Titans in the first place," Amphion chuckled nervously.

She already agreed to help. As for the rest of my court, tell them that I'll have dinner in the banquet hall tonight and they may leave early," Dionysus responded, smiling slightly.

Great! Thank you so much! I promise that it'll be worth it!"

"Of course, you'll deserve it. Now go. Go and prepare for dinner."

Once Amphion left, the god slumped back down on the chair. He had failed to stop the war between himself and Poseidon, but he refused to give up until he defeated him. He had to prove that he could defeat his brother by winning the upcoming war and becoming king. He sighed deeply, deciding that he would spend the rest of the day working. His thoughts drifted off to his beautiful wife whom he missed greatly. He felt guilty because he didn't realize that they were running low on money until it was too late. While he was busy trying to deal with the situation, his queen had begun to worry about him, and he was forced to return home to her side.

While waiting for his beloved to arrive, he tried to his time by cleaning the palace, but to no avail. He kept thinking about the woman whose love he once had. When the woman was pregnant, she ran away with the child and never returned. He tried looking everywhere for her, but eventually gave up when he realized that the woman was gone forever. He felt terrible and cursed himself to never love anyone again, including his wife. The fact that he had been separated from her for four years was the only thing that stopped his tears from flowing.

Carmen, meanwhile, was walking through the streets, heading towards her destination. Once she reached the town square, she went around, making sure not to bump into anybody. She hated to admit it, but she liked the idea of meeting with this man. She hadn't seen him since their wedding and she wondered how he was doing. He seemed to be in good health, as far as she knew and his eyes always seemed kind. Despite being angry at him, she still hoped to meet him again.

Suddenly, a voice echoed from the crowd.

"Hello! Are you Carmen? You must be the daughter of Aphrodite! How lovely! What brings you here today?"

Carmen turned around and saw a young woman standing in front of her with a big smile plastered on her face. She was wearing a white dress with a yellow flower on top of it and had short brown hair.

Uhm...I'm meeting someone."

"Is that so? Well, I'm glad to meet you! I am Lady Aphrodite."

"Nice to meet you, Lady Aphrodite."

"Oh please, call me Aphrodite. Call me your friend."

Alright then, Aphrodite."

Aphrodite laughed lightly. "Come, follow me and I'll show you to where your guest is waiting."

She led Carmen to a small house at the other end of the village. The house had a large garden surrounding it and the walls of the house were surrounded by flowers and trees. On the ground floor was a huge wooden staircase leading upwards to two doors that had different symbols written on them.

"This is the guest room, and there is someone inside who will be delighted to meet you."

"Thank you, Aphrodite."

Lady Aphrodite bowed and smiled again before disappearing from sight. Carmen entered the house, feeling uneasy about meeting her mysterious new guest.

Inside, she met with a tall man sitting on a couch. His hair was blonde and he wore purple robes and golden sandals. His eyes shined brightly with intelligence, wisdom and cunningness. He was handsome and charismatic in every sense of the word. He sat calmly watching the scenery outside, admiring the colorful colors painted onto the trees and plants.

"What can I do for you?" the man asked, turning his attention towards Carmen. His voice sounded pleasant and calming, like the soft music coming from a violin.

"Uh...well… I was wondering if you were the person that wrote the note that my husband received a few hours ago?"

"That is indeed my name. And you are...?"

"Carmen. My husband told me to come here as fast as possible. He said that you wanted to talk with us."

"Indeed. And I would like to ask you a favor."

"Okay…"

"I know that you both live together, so I understand that you have a daughter and that your son has recently been born. Is that correct?"

"Um...yes, we do..."

"Then it won't be a problem to ask for a loan from you two. I need to borrow some gold coins, so I'd appreciate it if you would lend me two of your children."

"Borrow? From us?"

"Yes, I'm sorry if you are not comfortable with this request. However, I assure you that it won't cause any trouble."

"But…I don't know...I don't think that-"

Carmen's sentence was cut off by the sound of a loud explosion outside. The noise came from the direction of downtown. Everyone in the house froze. For a second, nobody said anything.

"Who could've done something so foolish," Lord Poseidon murmured as he stood up and grabbed a sword from a nearby wall.

"We have to see what happened."

Lord Poseidon, Lord Daedalus and Lord Zeus stepped out of the house and looked toward the destruction. They found themselves staring at a group of five warriors attacking the mortals who were fighting against them.

"It looks like we're going to have to use our weapons," Lord Poseidon said. "Everyone stay behind me."

The demigods did as their father asked and formed a protective circle around Lord Poseidon. As soon as his father raised his trident, the monsters immediately began to run in fear. Lord Poseidon and the others quickly moved forward and began to fight against them. Soon, the monsters surrendered. Lord Poseidon then took charge of capturing one of the monsters and brought him back to Olympus.

"My lord, thank you for saving us," the monster said, bowing down in respect. "Our names are Sisyphus, a messenger from Mount Othrys."

"Sisyphus, we need to get rid of those monsters before they hurt anyone else. Can you lead us to them?"

Sisyphus nodded.

"Very well."

He walked ahead and began to take them to where the monsters were hidden.