Chapter 21 - I'm Still Standing

She was so glad, that she and others could learn so many new things from Lady Arachne. She might have not understood everything at first, but now she was not alone, and together they could understand. Together all of them were able to piece together different clues and the most clever of them helped everyone to decipher their lady's teachings.

The best on this was, that the ones, who stayed on the island, were able to learn together with everyone as they were somehow connected no matter the distance. This helped because those on the island were able to record the decoded knowledge, for future generations.

But then, the evil enemy struck them. Their lady was doing her utmost best to protect most of them, fighting valiantly, and killing most of the enemies, with magics they all hoped to learn one day. It was glorious as much as it was terrifying.

Sadly, the enemy took a number of them and then their lady bled herself just to keep alive everyone she could. Many would have protested from having their lady hurt herself, in order to save them, but none were given the chance as their lady acted way too quickly. Everyone just humbly accepted.

But her dead comrades were not so dead. It was hard to describe to anyone else, but all of them knew that their comrades somewhat lived among them. They might have lost their bodies and their own thoughts, but they still lived among all of the living ones. It was confusing even, for herself and everyone else, but that was their new reality.

They decided though not to tell their lady, as she seemed sad from the loss. Some were against it, they wanted to tell their lady, that even the loss of one's body did not mean an end for them. Yet, as none completely understood, what was in reality going on, they decided not to sad their lady any more than was necessary.

Which proved to be a good decision, because then the monstrous enemy struck again. And even more of her comrades partially departed this world. At least their bodies did, their minds continued living in their collective. But Lady Arachne was extremely saddened by the more losses, which just confirmed their decision. Yet at the same time strengthened their resolve to figure out, how all of this worked, so they could make their lady happy once again.

She had raced with the wind, or rather the ship she was on, was racing with the wind. And Arago was truly a fast ship, perhaps too fast if it had to be. She as an Olympian had the authority to make it go unnaturally fast. Most of the Argonauts were clinging for their dear lives, just not to fall off of the ship. They would end up slightly shaken and probably seasick, but that was a sacrifice she was willing to take.

And the city of Athens was not that far in the first place. The plan was to go there for resupply, just in a few days instead of a few hours the trip took them on the hastened Argo. Landing in the harbor Nike did not see any kind of damage on the Athens as was reported by Athena. If it was this would be the best place to do so. But of course, the Amazonias were children of Ares, they probably did not follow the most efficient path.

So Nike ordered the Argonauts to arm up and to go to defend Athens, while she flew into the air, to look for the location where Athens needed to be defended. Hopefully, the Argonauts would be able to keep their mind on the objective this time, since it was going to be a battle this time around, which they were restlessly waiting for.

Flying over the city, many people saw her and looked at her in fear. This was not surprising, she was not known among the common folk, since she was a relatively new Olympian and had done nothing noteworthy so far, while the Amazonias were attacking their city. It was thus easy to conclude that the people who saw her mistaken her for an enemy. And that would not do. It was one thing to fight the enemy, but fighting the enemy with panicked people all around sounded like a recipe for disaster.

"I'm Nike, the goddess of victory, sent here to save you from the Amazonians, by Lady Athena," she proclaimed in such a way that all the people of Athens could hear her.

That turned many of the heads and overall calmed the panic of the population. While some might have still looked skeptical, the overall panic caused by her arrival had dissipated. Good. With panic averted, she would have an easier time dealing with those thugs of Ares.

But the calmness did not last long. It was disrupted by an explosion in the northern part of Athens. Thanks to that, Nike now knew from where the Amazonias were attacking the city. Of course, Ares's offsprings would come from that direction, where they would cause the maximum destruction.

And so, Nike flew there to engage them. Her hopes were, that her authority as an Olympian, would allow her to resolve the whole thing without fighting. But she did not count on that, readying her weapon.

"Immediately cease your attack!" she ordered the Amazonies when she got nearby, using her most authoritative voice.

Nike made sure to show her wings, to make herself look bigger while flying over the Amazonians' heads, weapon in hand. Any of the Ares creations should acknowledge the superior strength, or at least be tricked into thinking that someone was stronger than them. And the Amazonias did indeed stop their destruction of Athens, at least for the moment.

"Who are you, to order us around?" asked the presumed leader, who stepped forward.

"Nike, the goddess of victory. Under Lady Athena's authority I order you to stop your invasion," she said.

"We cannot! A man from Athens kidnapped our princess, we must retrieve her!" said the leader.

Of course, Nike knew that it was a typical trick Aphrodite used when she needed to distract someone. But at this moment her lover's schemes were not exactly helping her.

"Then, why are you destroying the city, if you only need to retrieve one person?" she asked not understanding the needless destruction.

"We are bared from entering Athens as children of Ares!" the Amazonian leader explained.

That did make an awfully lot of sense, that Athena would prohibit Ares and any of his offsprings from the entrance to her city. But then the resolution was quite easy, all she had to do was to grant access to Athens to the Amazonians or maybe only a few of them to have an easier time making sure that these thugs of Ares did not destroy anything.

"Should I grant you access to the city, would you retrieve your princess without any further destruction and bloodshed?" she asked, wanting to confirm the real intention of the Amazonians.

The daughters of Ares, looked at each other silently discussing what should be their next actions. And Nike hoped that if not Ares, then at least some of his offsprings could be reasonable. And from their actions and the fact that their discussion was not so heated, she was optimistic about a positive decision.

Only for the demigods of the Argonauts to arrive at that very moment and attack the Amazonians without as much as a warning. Three of the thugs of Ares fell dead to the ground that instant and the rest with hatred in their eyes, immediately attacked, as Furies unleashed. Nike cursed Pollux what was the one to strike first

The following battle was short but brutal. The demigods of the Argonauts had a hard time fighting the Amazonians. Which surprised them greatly, as none of them had ever fought seriously in their lives. But the Amazonians proved to be more than the demigods' equals, after all the thugs of Ares were, in a sense, demigods in their own right.

Because of that and the fact that she was ordered to protect the Argonauts, Nike suffered numerous injuries. Cuts and stabs and plucked feathers, but in the end, the Amazonians were not her equals and one by one they fell. In minutes or maybe it was hours, the battle was over, none of the Argonauts suffered significant injury, they could not heal from and all the attacking Amazonians lay dead.

"What a waste," thought Nike as the darkness claimed her.

She, unlike the Argonauts, did suffer such injuries that would take some time to heal.

"See! The Amazonias are great at inspiring fear in those humans! Cool right?"

"Fear?"

"Yes my dude, that is exactly what you wanted,"

"I have no need for these little beings to fear me you idiotic creature,"

"Hey!"

"I needed these Amazonias of yours to inspire faith in humans, not fear,"

"Fear, faith? That is the same thing!"

"It seems that I expected too much from a lowly creature like you,"

"You f*cking barstar!"

"Ares, calm down! And apologies to you sir,"

"Hm, you seem to know your place. What do they call you?"

"Eris, sir,"

"Well then Eris, what about the one with wings, that thing seems to inspire faith in people,"

"That is Nike, first successful case of uplifted human,"

"Uplifted human?"

"Yes, sir, the other Olympians have been trying to bring humans into our ranks for hundreds of years. Nike was the first example of a successful procedure,"

"And how did they do that?"

"I do not know sir as I was not involved in the process,"

"Useless creatures... Anyway, you seem to be less useless than that idiot. Bring me a sample from this Nike, anything will do as long as it is part of her,"

"I won't disappoint, sir,"

"Good,"

Ares has been a disappointment for him. A great disappointment, but what did he expect from these disgusting creatures, shaped in mockery to his own greatness? The Amazonians, that one called Ares promised, were highly disappointing, great for the destruction they might be. But he had no need for destruction since it lowered the number of available humans and consequently their faith. But that other thing, Nike they called it. It inspired faith in people quite a lot.

Despite Arriving at Mount Athos a week ago, finding Medusa was not as straightforward as I expected. I knew that her general location was supposed to be on the south-eastern side of the mountain. Alas, the problem was that her hideout had been well camouflaged. Therefore it was essential to establish a well-defended encampment for my trainees, before looking for my new potential conversation partner, and that took some time.

Find a good spot, that could be defended from all known monsters, people and other potential and hypothetical dangers. While also leaving an escape route, should the encampment be overrun.

On the second day since our arrival, a scout team of my trainees found a perfect location for a semi-permanent camp. It was a rock overhang with a cavern behind it, which surprisingly could be passed through to the nearby waterfall. A perfect location for extended inhabitation, which was also well protected.

Orders were passed and the building of the palisade and other accommodations started, that very same day. Part of my remaining trainees worked on the construction project, while others scouted the area for potential danger. Their leader and instructor I might be, but not even that exempt me from participating in doing something useful. Quite the other way in fact. I could not afford to openly slack in front of my new meatshields, lest I wanted to lose their respect. As such I did what I could do best, which was to procure a stable food supply. While transplanting shrubs nearby the base might take some time, the thing I could do right away was to spread my webs to set up the same system for trapping the big game as I did back on Lesbos.

The less useless creature, called Eris, did return shortly after her departure. She brought him several feathers and looked proud of herself for doing so. It was slightly amusing to him, how such a little task could make her feel proud. Maybe he could keep her around, for amusement.

For now, though, he dismissed the creature, she was not needed at the moment. But he promised to call for her when needed, her chest rose with pride and he had to chuckle once she left. Certainly, an amusing creature.

The analysis of the feathers did take but a short moment for him. His eyebrow rose as he recognized the pattern.

"Well, Gaia. It seems that I will be copying your homework once again,"

"I do not think that this a good idea, brother," said the older but smaller of two brothers.

"Why so, Hades?" asked the other one.

"Zeus, look. Heracles suffered a lot of damage in that fight, and I'm not talking about his body, but rather his spirit," explained Hades.

"His soul was damaged?! Why didn't you tell me sooner?!" shoutingly asked agitated Zeus.

"Calm down. His soul is not damaged, but his mental state leaves much to be desired," explained the older brother.

"Then don't scare me needlessly! If he is one piece then it is good," said the younger of the brothers.

"That is what I'm trying to explain here to you! Putting Heracles in this thing will do him no good!" said Hades slowly losing patience with his moron of a brother.

"How come? It is better than the normal human body! Stronger, faster, almost indestructible and if damaged it will repair itself! Almost as good as outright uplifting him," said Zeus, not understanding what his brother meant.

"That is not the point! If you lock Heracles in this thing, he will become dysphoric with his new body, which could result in depression at best!" almost shouted the smaller brother.

"So it could hurt his feelings?" questioned the king of Olympus.

Hades decided not to answer such a stupid question. Heracles went through a very traumatic event, that deteriorated his already damaged mental health. But if Zeus decided not to listen to his advice, there was nothing he could do anyway, he could not hold Heracles' soul forever.

"I take that as yes. Well, Herc can man up and suck it! It's not like Hephaestus is currently available to make something "less dysphoric"," snarled Zeus.

"Yes and whose fault it is?" could not help himself Hades, but to be sarcastic.

Now it was Zeus's time to stay silent. He knew himself well enough to know that his reaction was excessive, not that he could help himself at that very moment. At least death was not permanent for the Olympians.

"You should put some meat on it. To make it look more like a human and less like a metal skeleton thing," said Hades.

"That is the plan," nodded Zeus.

"Good," said Hades and left.

It took well over a month, for him and his fellow believers to get to the position, where they could organize. The women of Lemnos would not let them go for more than a few minutes, and most of them were usually too tired after, to be able to do anything.

But now was their time, the women somewhat calmed down and did not ravage them so much anymore. As such they could finally introduce their cult to the islanders, spreading the influence of their teachings.

Once they started they found a little resistance among the populus. Given that all the women were highly disappointed with the well-known Olympian gods, most of them were skeptical towards Weaver's and his fellow cultists' beliefs.

Yet slowly, carefully and cherrypicking the most suitable parts of their teachings, the cultists managed to convince a bigger part of the islanders to follow Lady Arachne's creed.

He could not wait to establish the cult properly on the island of Lemnos, becoming a High Weaver here. However, that would have to wait for a while since they lacked the necessary workforce, and most of the women would not be really able to do much for for near future, given their state.

A few more weeks have passed since the base has been built. It was sturdy, nicely hidden and well-defended. So far, there was no bigger engagement other than a pack of wolves finding our base, which was dealt with swiftly from a distance by my trainees who picked up the sling quite well. And two bears, who might have used the cavern previously.

And finally two months after I departed from Lesbos, in order to find Medusa. an individual I've never met, but who suffered a similar affliction as me at the hands of a god-pretender called Athena and whom I hoped to make a long-term acquittance and potential conversation partner, was found.

In hindsight, I should have been prepared for this. While I knew the general location, I did not know the exact place. And of course, there was no GPS in the time of classical antiquity, nor was I to fly, in order to scout the area from the sky.

Or rather her presumed hideout was found by the scouting party. A cave, not so dissimilar to the one I occupied together with my trainees. Of course, it might not be her location, but rather someone else's, but without further investigation I would never know. All that was found were fresh ashes from a fire.

That was why, once I received the report, I went there myself to investigate. A group of guards went with me, it would be a great training exercise, should this not be the Medusa's location. Though, I would prefer for this to be her place. But knowing Being X, I was ready for another unreasonably to be thrown my way. For all I know there could be some more intelligent monster, which was capable of making fire, hiding in the cave.

I applied the protective film and led the group, serving as a vanguard, since my trainees were slightly more squishy than me. It would be a waste to have them die needlessly, falling into the trap. This way, they would also survive the potential initial attack and would be able to assist me.

Several paces into the cave there was indeed a monster. Not an unfriendly one though, but rather the one I was looking for, if the description provided by Sappho's student, which was passed to me, was accurate. There was a woman with the snakes for hair sitting on a rug with pillows next to the old-looking lady. While one of her hair snakes was wrapping itself around the old lady's neck. Although the old woman looked to be enjoying herself. Was that perhaps Sappho's student? Having a similarly unreasonable request as Sappho?

The two of them were in the middle of a conversation when me and my group arrived. I signaled my trainees to keep their weapons down for a moment, but to be prepared should something go awry.

"Apologies for the interruptions, my name is Arachne. Might you be Miss Medusa?" I asked politely trying to make a good first impression

That caught their attention and the presumed Medusa looked my way, uncoiling her snake hair from around the old woman. The old lady's face turned into a grimace similar to Sappho's when I refused some of her unreasonable requests. This just confirmed that she must have been the student, Sappho told me about.

"Yes, and you must be Arachne! I heard so much about you! Oh, but where are my manners? This is Levi, she likes to coil around things," explained the woman with snakes for hair, pointing to the snake which was just a moment ago wrapping itself around the old woman's neck.

"Levi?" I asked surprised that the snake had a name.

"Yes! She is a nice girl. And these are my other daughters, Fili, Geli, Avra, Effi, Heka, Peli, Seli, Koly, Nian," said Medusa, pointing to different snakes with each new name.

While I was confident in my ability to remember new names, all the snakes, Medusa had instead of hair, or her daughters, as she called them, looked exactly the same. This was going to be a nightmare, not to accidentally mistake them for one another. My best bet was to remember where each snake was positioned on her head and assign the names from there. At least the snakes seemed to be well-behaved as they bowed their head when each of them was introduced. Well, all except Levi, although it should be easier to remember that potential troublemaker.