Chapter 25

"Greetings, fellow Daoist!" Ocean Song began again after he finally got her undivided attention. "I'm seeking to recruit for my sect. Do you want to learn to go against the Heavens and cultivate to immortality?"

Medusa stared at him silently.

"..." Ocean Song didn't know what to say next. That was the entirety of his sales pitch. He didn't put much thought into this. "My name is Ocean Song –"

"I know who you are." Medusa cut him off. "I wouldn't be surprised if every monster on the East Coast knows who you are at this point." She added with a snort.

Ocean Song was giddy.

A proper Cultivator should have a certain renown spread by word of mouth due to his deeds!

"Wonderful! Do you want to join my sect?"

"I have no idea what that is." She said dryly. "And since you aren't here to kill me, I assume you want something from me since you offered to…turn me back to normal."

To Medusa, that was a bold claim. She was personally cursed by Athena, one of the Olympians; the curse couldn't be undone by anyone other than a god; no other gods would cross her for a monster's sake.

Even the gods that hated Athena didn't see it worth the hassle just to spite her without any tangible benefit.

"I would teach you to cultivate; you can change yourself!" Ocean Song smiled.

".....farming?" Medusa said in confusion. "How does farming fix me?"

Ocean Song pursed his lips because he realized there was a bit of a misunderstanding going on. 

"Not that type of cultivation, the type of cultivation where you become immortal." Ocean Song corrected.

".....I'm already immortal." Medusa pointed out.

"That's the wrong kind of immortal."

"There are wrong kinds of immortal?" 

"Well, do you like respawning in Tartarus after you die?" Ocean Song retorted.

Medusa gave that a simple thought, and she felt like he had a point. No monster enjoyed dying, then coming back to life in Tartarus, then having to climb their way back out and sneak out of the underworld.

It's why, despite them being 'immortal,' they treated their lives rather valuably, even if they could come back.

"I still have no idea what you're talking about."

"I'm offering you the chance to be something more."

"More." She repeated rather expressionlessly. 

"Is this how you want to keep living your life? Hiding in a secluded and hidden residence? Worried about when the next hero is going to come, dictated by fate, to take your head from some inflated sense of purpose and honor?"

Medusa felt her hands tighten. It wasn't a fear of death; it was a fear of certainty. It wasn't a matter of if, but when, a 'hero' came and killed her. 

That's how it was; that's how it always was.

"The hero slays the monster; that's how it's always been." She said quietly, knowing her own 'place' in life. "That's been the fate of us since our 'births.' The only solace I have is that I can take some with me before I die again. And the cycle will repeat, over and over."

"Do you want to keep living this pitiful life?"

She finally showed more emotion, scowling in anger with arms crossed. "What am I supposed to do? What can I do? How many thousands of years old am I at this point, and nothing has ever changed?"

"I'll teach you." Ocean Song's tone softened. "I'll teach you to take your fate into your own hands. Your destiny will be of your own choosing."

She let out a self-deprecating laugh. "It's that easy, is it?"

"No, it won't be easy. You may die a more excruciating death than you ever had before. You may run afoul of the heavens and be erased in your entirety. But I can promise you that I will stand at your side and weather any storm together." Ocean Song, said solemnly. 

Medusa didn't know why she was feeling these emotions in her heart. She wasn't swooning or having her heart beat faster; it wasn't any sort of attraction of that sort. No, it was something she hadn't felt in a long time that made it just a little bit harder for her to breathe.

The idea that someone would care for her again.

This monster she didn't know came here and started spouting those nonsensical words right to her, and for some reason, she was willing to believe him. For some reason, she could feel the genuineness in each of the words he spoke.

This feeling she hadn't felt since her sister had faded long ago.

For Ocean Song, he wasn't oblivious to her existence. That is to say, he knew that the statues that littered her property were not simply artistic renditions. At the same time, he was also away, so she didn't go out and hunt. She didn't leave her home; all the ones she turned to stone had come to her.

Ocean Song walked the Righteous Path.

And the most righteous action he could take, would it not be for him to offer the demon a chance to turn away from the demonic Dao?

She didn't immediately take his hand, despite the impulse to do so.

She was hardened and disillusioned with the world enough to keep her apathy even with all the promises he made.

".....You said I could look normal again." She fidgeted with the snakes that were her hair. They hissed lightly, keeping to behind the veil she wore.

"I didn't always look this handsome." Ocean Song, said smoothly.

Medusa raised an eyebrow, inspecting him again. She could freely admit he was, in fact, rather handsome. If it were a different situation, less emotional or stressful, she may have paid a bit more attention to it as well.

She still had almost no idea what he was talking about, but she did believe him. She believed that she could change her looks; she was just confused on how to do it so far.

"I have something for you to consider." Ocean Song raised a finger.

"What? What could you possibly say that's so convincing?" She crossed her arms, still having trouble humoring his nonsense despite her own turbulent emotions.

"What is there to lose by accepting?"

Medusa wanted to retort, but no words could come out of her mouth.

What did she have to lose?

Family? She no longer had any.

Friends, lovers?

There was no one.

She was utterly alone.

…pride?

She didn't say it out loud, but what pride did she have left?

She had been stomped into the ground so many times over the years that she held no pride in her own existence.

As if reading her mind, Ocean Song spoke up again. "I will make it so you can proudly announce your name again."

Another crack formed in her hesitation, in her reluctance.

It was enough that all of it began to come crumbling down.

"What is it you want from me? Some sort of eternal servitude, a willing servant?" She spoke rather sarcastically, but…even if he said yes, she wasn't sure she would reject him at this point.

"A sect is about mutual support." Ocean Song smiled. "Sect members are family. I want your loyalty, but in return, I will give you mine as well."

Medusa cursed in her mind because his stupid smile was so…sincere, and it made her have trouble giving a rebuttal.

She forced herself to once more act contradictory to some of her own internal desires. "I want something; if you can give it to me, I'll agree to whatever nonsense you want."

"What do you want?" Ocean Song tilted his head.

"Something I've wanted for thousands of years." Medusa took a deep breath. It was something she dreamed about for a long time; it was both simple and impossibly unreachable. "You are a son of Poseidon. I want… I want Poseidon to apologize to me for what happened to me." 

It was partly a heartfelt desire from her and partly a test. 

She wanted to see what lengths he would go to if he truly was to hold to his words.

To get a god, even his own father, to apologize? You would be better off asking him for his trident.

Gods don't apologize.

Medusa saw Ocean Song's silent expression, and in her heart, she sighed, knowing it was too good to be true.

"Okay." 

"Excuse me?" Medusa blurted back out.

"Give me a moment; I got an idea." Ocean Song hushed her and began building a makeshift shrine.

Medusa watched in confusion until it was constructed, and her eyes widened.

"Stepmother!" Ocean Song called out across the world, and he felt the presence on the other end answer.

"You're alive?" The voice came through. "Hang on, let me come over there."

Before Ocean Song could respond, the Queen of Atlantis appeared in a projected body above the makeshift shrine, stepping down onto the land next to him.

She put a hand on his cheek and hummed. "Your father will be happy to know you're alive."

"It will take more than Death to stop me!" Ocean Song said proudly.

Amphitrite blinked, looking at him strangely before just patting his head helplessly.

She already knew her stepson was… strange.

"Where is Father, Stepmother?" Ocean Song, asked.

Amphitrite turned and pointed towards the commotion still happening on Olympus.

"Oh, right." Ocean Song nodded.

"What did you call me for, dear?" She, truthfully, was sort of fond of this weird Cyclops. He was a big change from her husband's usual indiscretions, a breath of fresh air. His usual spawn were always so…arrogant, just because they came from his loins. She often had to let them understand where they truly stood. But this stepson of hers was polite and entertaining without her having to do anything.

Ocean Song raised his hand, pointing at Medusa. "This is—"

"I know who she is." Amphitrite kept her loose smile, but her tone was noticeably icy. "Why did you bring me to one of my husband's indiscretions? I know you wouldn't do that just to insult me." She patted Ocean Song's cheek again, but it was a bit less…affectionate.

"I want her to join my sect."

"What's a sect?"

"A…mutually supportive group with the purpose of cultivating!" Ocean Song did his best to explain.

She understood some of that. She could vaguely guess that he meant it as some sort of group that would be loyal to him.

The concept wasn't new to her.

"And?" She wanted to know why he called her.

"She wants an apology from Father before joining." Ocean Song, said helplessly. 

"And why did you call me, my dear stepson?" She narrowed her eyes.

"Because Stepmother is much scarier than Father." Ocean Song replied without missing a beat.

The goddess put a hand on his cheek again and smiled brightly. "Good answer." She turned to look at Medusa, who nearly recoiled under her gaze. She stared for a long time before finally letting out a small sigh. "I'll have him apologize, but you'll owe me a favor in the future." She returned to a more good-natured tone, speaking to Ocean Song.

"As long as it doesn't go against my Dao heart, Stepmother, I will walk through fire and ice for you!"

Amphitrite shook her head with a small laugh before disappearing.

"Well, that settles that." Ocean Song clapped his hands. "Anything else?" He looked at Medusa.

".....no." She was still not over the shock of the goddess suddenly appearing in front of her.

"Wonderful, welcome to our sect! I don't have a name for it yet, but I'll think of something."

"And where is this 'sect' you speak of?"

"I haven't made it yet!" Ocean Song replied jovially. "We need to find a mountain to set up on."

"Why a mountain?"

"Because all proper cultivators set their sects up on mountains." He said it as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

And Medusa suddenly had certain thoughts about this whole matter.

"And we'll need to get you a sword too."

"Why…?" She dared to ask.

"Because…we're a Sword Sect." Ocean Song nodded to himself as he awkwardly stumbled into an answer.

"I don't know how to use a sword." Medusa said dryly.

"It's okay, I can teach you. Is there anything you are knowledgeable about? Any weapons you've used before?"

"I used to use a whip, but I lost it some centuries ago and never bothered with it again."

Ocean Song's eyes lit up. "Have you ever heard of a whipsword?"

Medusa let out a soft groan.

But in her mind, she admitted, things could certainly be much worse.

At the very least, this time, she felt like she wouldn't be lonely when she died.

(Line Break)

Hades had his hands behind his back as he walked up the steps of Mount Olympus.

He was far from unfamiliar with this place, but he also doesn't come all too often.

As his nephew put it, he doesn't have a throne here, so why bother?

Part of the mountain erupted, and he noticed Hephaestus go flying out of it, rubble and all. He hit the steps, tumbling down a few times before finally stopping. 

The God of the Forge met Hades' eyes, nodded, and jumped back up.

Hades tilted his head upwards, and if you listen closely, you could hear the thunderous roars and godly might being thrown around haphazardly.

But in particular, you could hear something very specific.

"Where's your lightning bolt, huh? Where's your lightning bolt!" A taunting voice was only barely heard amidst the crackles of lightning that accompanied Zeus's distinct annoyed shout.

Hades recognized the one doing the taunting; it was almost certainly Indra, the Hindu god of lightning.

Hades didn't know why, but it seemed like Lightning Gods never got along. Hades had almost no problems with fellow deities of the same domain in comparison, so he couldn't understand it.

There was plenty of shouting and arguing going on.

If a mortal saw this, they might think that there was a war raging, but truthfully, this was pretty common godly politics.

That's not to say Zeus wasn't getting a good smacking, because Hades could see that much, but this was a fairly common thing that happened with various pantheons that came together.

Casually, Hades continued to stroll upwards until he reached the throne room itself.

Everyone noticed Hades' presence, but they were all mostly too busy with their own matters.

Athena was arguing with about a dozen gods, doing her best to keep this amicable and the fighting to a minimum.

Zeus and Indra were raging at each other in the sky.

Susanoo and Poseidon were throwing storms at each other, though he noticed that his brother was 'winning.'.

He saw Apollo being pressed down by a different sun and traced the source to an elegantly dressed lady sitting next to Hestia at the hearth.

Amaterasu was here too.

A large feathered serpent threw Hephaestus through the mountain again before turning into a humanoid shape and joining Hestia and Amaterasu at the Hearth.

Quetzalcoatl had given him quite the thrashing.

Ares was currently fighting several war gods, and Aphrodite was keeping her own against several deities with similar domains as well.

Hades hummed to himself as he noticed The Morrigan slapping Artemis across the throne room as another deity joined in, and they double-teamed her.

Frankly, it was chaos.

However, it hadn't crossed the line.

There was no strict place for this proverbial line, but everyone kept things just underneath what was acceptable, or what would escalate things beyond repair.

That isn't to say none of them were pissed off.

The majority of the Olympians involved were utterly furious. Zeus, while Hades called it a spat in his head, was fully raging and getting his pride trampled on.

However, no one wanted a full-scale Pantheon War.

Even Zeus, at his most paranoid, and his pride trampled, was smart enough to avoid that unless things reached a breaking point.

Funnily enough, what was salvaging this entire situation was that the Olympians were being teamed up against.

It was the fact that after everything settled, they could claim they were teamed up against to retain their own bruised pride and egos.

"Hello, Sister." Hades said with a rare affection in his tone.

"Hades." Hestia smiled despite the utter chaos happening. "I'm happy to see you come up and join us."

"And Amaterasu and Quetzalcoatl. I can't remember the last time we met."

"It wasn't that long ago, Hades." Amaterasu glared at him.

"Ah, are you still holding a grudge over the war? Did I not apologize for that already?" Hades sighed. 

Amaterasu harrumphed and said nothing further.

She most certainly held a grudge that Athena was the one who secretly coaxed the mortals into developing a certain weapon that was dropped on Japan.

Obviously this was at Zeus's order.

Though, her annoyance with Hades was to a much lesser extent. Her annoyance came from the fact that her people followed along with his child in the stupid war in the first place.

It was no secret that a certain German leader during the Second World War was actually Hades' child.

What was kept out of the history books for the ones under the Greeks and Romans was that the oaths to swear off demigod children for the big three was partly due to pressure from outside.

The Second World War was almost entirely because the demigod children of the Greeks initiated conflict with each other and went wild, and everyone had enough because that wasn't the first time it happened.

"It's been over a thousand years for me." Quetzalcoatl rubbed his chin. "I seldom leave our lands. But I too dislike those Nazis that came over and made themselves at home."

Hades let out a sigh, knowing this was a losing argument.

As if a cue to stop, all the gods seemed to settle down.

Zeus and Indra hit the ground, respectively, with Zeus scowling furiously, lightning crackling around him. The sun pressing down on Apollo dissipated, and likewise, the others gathered, but a tension hung in the air.

Now, it was as if the two sides were glaring at one another.

Even Odin made his appearance; he wasn't directly fighting with everyone, but he had been egging them on in the background.

Despite him not projecting his presence out, he wasn't someone they could all ignore.

"Zeus, you know why we're here." Odin spoke up, and everyone listened.

Of course they didn't start immediately fighting without any proper talking done beforehand; it's just a matter of inevitability that the chaos started.

Zeus and, by extension, the Olympian gods were aware of their anger and why they had come. The Lotus Eaters, the stealing of demigods, they knew those details at this point.

"As I said earlier, the actions of a group of monsters cannot be attributed to us. If you are going to lay the blame at our feet, I have a list of our own who have died to monsters from your parts of the world." Athena was the first to retort.

It was a sensible and well-reasoned response.

Unfortunately, most of them there weren't caring about being reasonable.

Of course they knew that in truth, the Olympians weren't 'responsible' in the full breadth of the term. But they all seemingly agreed, even broaching the subject, to come and give them a proverbial black eye.

It was rare that they could usher justification to put the Greeks in their place, and they had been getting rather bold and arrogant over the years since they attached to Western civilization.

The Greeks knew they were doing this; the other gods knew that the Greeks knew, but what could be said?

They all also knew that if the positions were reversed, the Greeks would be doing the same exact thing.

"We're willing to retreat on the condition of an apology and one demand." Odin stated.

Athena narrowed her eyes. "What demand?"

"Give us the Cyclops boy, and we'll walk away without any problems."

"Odin." Amaterasu frowned. "You can't just decide that yourself."

"I agree." Indra spoke up.

Quetzalcoatl laughed. "You're getting greedy there, old man."

Athena was confused. "What cyclops?"

There was confusion amidst them, but Poseidon seemingly widened his eyes.

"He should come with us." Amaterasu said pridefully. "His eloquence and heroism would fit in well with Takamagahara."

"Ganesha spoke well of him; he would fit in better over with us." Indra crossed his arms.

Very quickly, the foreign gods began to argue between themselves, leaving a baffled and confused Greece.

Well, all except Poseidon, who ran a hand down his face.

"Dammit, Ocean Song." He realized who was most likely responsible for all of this happening.

Hades, though, he couldn't help but smile.

For the first time, he was glad he didn't have a throne up here and just sat back and watched.

(Line Break)

A/N

Just a little peek at what's happening on Olympus with the Gods 'arguing.' Also, Ocean Song gets his first sect member! Now he just needs a sect.

If you want to read 1 chapter ahead or support me, visit my p.a.t.r.e.o.n.c.o.m / astoryforone

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