Chapter 14: The Goddess of the Magic, Hecate

[3rd POV]

The goddess who emerged from the treehouse-like palace appeared to be a little girl, around eleven or twelve years old.

She wore a long purple dress, the same style many Greek goddesses wore, and had long purple hair that reached down to her ankles. 

She was wearing slippers, and her face looked very tired, her eyes appeared dazed, with tears at the corners, and even as she walked out of the palace, she scratched her hair and yawned.

After reaching the door, she glanced at Leto and Ares and said, "Ah, it's Aunt Leto. Hmm, is this person the son of Zeus?"

She looked at Ares for a moment before she continued, "Based on your divine power and appearance, you must be the son of Zeus and Hera, the God of War, Ares?"

"Yes, this is Ares, the God of War." 

Leto looked at Hecate's tired appearance with a hint of helplessness, "Hecate, did you stay up all night again?"

"It's nothing, just a little experiment. I'm not going to die from it." 

Hecate said as she walked over to Cerberus, casually patting the fierce three-headed dog. 

She then looked up at Leto and asked, "So, what brings you here today? Why aren't Apollo and Artemis with you?"

"They're both very busy right now." 

Leto smiled and then said to Hecate, "Actually, I'm here today to bring someone who wishes to become your apprentice to learn magic from you."

"An apprentice? Who?" 

Hecate looked around, and then her gaze settled on Ares. 

"Could it be him?"

"Yes, that's right." 

Leto nodded with a smile.

"Huh? Is something wrong with your brain?" 

Hecate jogged over, walking around Ares with her hands behind her back, and asked, "You, a God of War, want to learn magic from me?"

"What? Can't I learn?" 

Ares crossed his arms and retorted.

Hecate looked at him in surprise and muttered, "Even when a Cyclops comes to learn magic, I'd think that's more believable than a God of War learning magic. Hey, why do you want to learn magic?"

"I want to get revenge on Athena!" 

Ares declared confidently, "As long as I learn magic, I'll definitely be able to defeat her!"

"Magic is not something you should use to satisfy your pride." 

Hecate sighed upon hearing this.

"Hecate, Ares has helped us and also helped your mother, Asteria. For the sake of us and your mother, please let him try here." 

Leto stepped forward and pleaded on Ares' behalf.

"Fine—" 

Hecate looked at Ares and said, "Anyway, as the son of Zeus, your talent for magic should be fine. It's just whether you have the patience and wisdom to learn... However, I'll say this first, I don't care if you're the God of War or the son of Zeus. If you don't follow my rules, I'll kick you out, understood?"

"Yes!" 

Ares nodded firmly and said, "To defeat Athena, I'll follow your rules for now!"

"Then I'll leave now." 

Seeing that Hecate had agreed to Ares' request, Leto felt relieved and looked at Ares and said:

"You don't have to worry, Ares. During this time, Zeus plans to create something new on Earth. He was originally going to have you stop fighting wars for a while. So for now, stay here and learn from Hecate."

"Alright."

Ares nodded at Leto.

After that, Leto rode a cloud and flew back to Mount Olympus. 

Hecate watched as Leto disappeared into the distance, then sighed, "Sigh, what a great aunt she is. Too bad she's stuck with that bastard, Zeus."

Hearing her words, Ares nodded thoughtfully.

"Huh, aren't you angry that I'm badmouthing your father behind his back?"

Hecate asked, a bit surprised by Ares' calmness.

"Hera has also been unhappy with Zeus for a long time."

Ares replied, "Besides, the daughter of Zeus and the goddess Metis recently took my divine authority."

"No wonder." 

Hecate laughed heartily, "It seems nobody likes him. It's no surprise that he'll eventually be killed by his own son one day.

Ares felt something stir inside him. 

It seemed that this Goddess of the Magic had foreseen Zeus' future, but on the surface, Ares pretended to be greatly surprised and asked, "What do you mean by that?"

"It's nothing." 

Hecate waved her hand, "If you can learn even one-tenth of my magic, you'll understand what I mean."

"Come in with me." 

Ares followed the Goddess of the Underworld into her palace. Inside the tree-like palace, there was only one huge room. 

It didn't have the typical divine features, such as thrones, baths, or star-gazing platforms, that were common in the temples of the Greek gods. 

Instead, the room was full of books with five tall bookshelves lined up in rows, filled with stone tablets and papyrus scrolls that recorded mystery knowledge.

Hecate herself lived here as well with her bed was a simple hammock woven from vines, with a few warm animal skins placed on it as blankets and scattered around the hammock were some unfinished papyrus scrolls.

However, Hecate didn't seem to mind letting Ares see her casual living conditions. 

After leading him into her palace, she walked and said, "Although I agreed to take you as an apprentice for Leto's sake, I don't have the patience to teach you word by word like I would feed a baby. You're the son of Zeus, as long as your brain hasn't been hit too hard, you should be able to understand the basic magic books. I'll give you a few books to start with. After you read them, and if there's anything you don't understand, come ask me. Got it?"

"Got it."

Ares nodded.

Then, Hecate led him to a bookshelf at the farthest end of the palace. 

She pulled a few stone tablets from the first and second rows. Then, she stood on tiptoe, trying to reach a stone tablet placed on the fourth row, but her height was too short. 

She gritted her teeth and tried hard but still couldn't reach it.

Just as he was about to step forward to help, Ares suddenly saw her turn on the spot. 

In a swirl of her flowing skirt, she suddenly transformed into a sixteen or seventeen-year-old girl with purple hair. She then easily retrieved the stone tablet from the shelf.

Seeing this, Ares was momentarily stunned. In that brief moment, he hadn't felt any magical energy at all and asked curiously, "Is this also magic?"

"Hmm?" 

Hecate looked down at herself and then answered, "No, this is just one of my appearances."

She then stacked the stone tablets together and handed them to Ares. 

"Here, take these. Once you finish reading these tablets, you should be ready to start learning."

To be continued...

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A/N: please drop some powerstone and i will release bonus chapter when we reach 200 powerstone by the end of the day.