The number of Olympus soldiers closing in on the temple wasn't large, only twenty or thirty at most.
They had no idea anyone was already inside, and against Shiomi's sudden strike they were utterly helpless. They didn't even have ti to react before they fell to his red spear.
"How strange…" Shiomi muttered.
He pulled the red spear from the last Olympus soldier's neck, and the mont he noticed sothing off, the words slipped out again under his breath.
"Sothing wrong?" Skadi asked, coming up behind him and carefully stepping around the bodies sprawled across the ground.
"Compared to the soldiers from Odysseus's fleet, sothing about the feel is… odd," Shiomi said, scanning the corpses around them.
"I didn't even get a chance to act," Skadi said with a shake of her head, unable to answer his unease. "Were these soldiers simply too weak, or…"
Suddenly, a powerful Mana reaction swept over them, and both Shiomi and Skadi looked up at the sa ti.
It wasn't just Mana.
That sudden sensation was sothing Shiomi, who had faced gods before, and Skadi, a goddess herself, both recognized.
It was the presence of a god.
Tap… tap… tap…
Slow footsteps climbed the stone stairs outside the temple, rising one step at a ti.
The one who appeared before Shiomi and Skadi was a blonde woman dressed primarily in erald green. Her expression was gentle, her figure full, and she carried the soft, maternal warmth of soone who made others think of a kind mother.
And yet, the scythe in her hand made it clear she was not as fragile as she looked.
"A divine spirit?" Shiomi said quietly, then shook his head.
"It seems that for so reason, an Olympian goddess has appeared before us," Skadi said, drawing closer to Shiomi and readying herself alongside him.
"Oh my…" The scythe-bearing woman spoke in a mournful, tender tone, lanting the deaths of the soldiers as she looked over them. "I thought this was only a routine inspection, and yet it's co to this… The ones who killed the Olympus soldiers—my precious children—were you, weren't you?"
"Yes," Shiomi replied. "So what?"
His eyes narrowed, and the ink-black of his gaze slowly brightened, transforming into Star Eyes.
"Wait… you two…" The woman's expression shifted in surprise. "You're not human?"
"We're certainly not human," Skadi said, staring at the blonde woman without emotion. "So… who are you? A god from Olympus?"
"My na is Deter," the woman answered calmly, giving it without hesitation. "I am the elder sister of the great god Zeus, the earth goddess who governs fertility and life."
At her na, Shiomi's brow knit even tighter.
Skadi's grip on her staff also tightened.
"On one side, a strange goddess. On the other, an unfinished god," Deter said, seeing through them at a glance. "So you are the foreign invaders Zeus's friend spoke of?"
"If that's the interpretation that's easiest for you, then believe it," Shiomi said. "Goddess Deter."
He didn't know why Deter had appeared here, but an unpleasant feeling crept up his spine.
As soone who inherited the nature of the mother goddess Gaia, she was undeniably a true earth mother goddess.
Even with that, there was still an unnaable sorrow clinging to her.
But it was obvious Deter hadn't truly listened to Shiomi's answer. She simply continued on, pressing forward with her own line of conversation.
"Those eyes… Star Eyes," Deter said, noticing it with a hint of surprise.
"To possess even sothing like that… an unknown child who stirs pity in one's heart. Who are you, and why have you co to the holand of us Olympian gods?"
Her voice was filled with an indescribable tenderness, yet carried an unquestionable, overbearing authority.
This was the true nature of most gods.
Before them, only beings of comparable power were deed worthy of dialogue.
If Shiomi were still rely human, he was certain Deter would never have asked such questions.
"My na is Tenkei Shiomi. I'm with Chaldea—"
Out of courtesy, and also as a probe, Shiomi started to give his na, only for Deter to interrupt him.
"What a strange child. I didn't ask for your na. I asked about your origin. Whose child are you? Are you my child?"
At that mont, Skadi spoke up to remind him, "It seems this goddess is asking about your lineage…"
"The Mother, the Sea of Life, the great Earth Mother Tiamat!"
"Tiamat?" Deter looked startled, then her expression softened into an even warr smile.
"If that is so, then you are my child."
"What?" Shiomi froze, completely unable to follow her logic.
He could feel Skadi's gaze turn subtle, and she muttered in a low, lingering tone, "Is there sothing strange about you that makes every goddess get drawn to you?"
"Do you really think so?" Shiomi imdiately felt sweat bead on his back. "Do you honestly think you just fell for for no reason at all?"
"…"
Skadi's face flushed faintly, and she said nothing more.
Calling it inexplicable wasn't quite accurate.
Ever since the Nordic gods vanished thousands of years ago, after Odin left behind his prophecy, Skadi had often wondered what kind of man the great god had promised her as a partner.
If he turned out to be too awful, she would have erased him without hesitation.
With nothing to do but maintain the Nordic world, Skadi spent her idle hours dwelling on such thoughts. Without realizing it herself, her anticipation for the prophesied one had reached its peak.
Even so, Shiomi hadn't disappointed her. Falling for this unfamiliar man during their brief yet profound ti together wasn't an unexpected turn for soone who had always been alone.
More than that, it was an outco she herself had hoped for.
"Since you are my child, you should not be wandering here," Deter said, extending her hand toward Shiomi as she issued her invitation.
"The matter of killing other children can be settled after you return to Olympus with . Is the goddess beside you your partner? Then bring her along as well. Co—"
Cold sweat seeped down Shiomi's cheek as he finally realized just how wrong this situation was.
"This goddess… sothing about her isn't right," Shiomi whispered to Skadi.
It wasn't simply a difference in values between gods and humans. Sothing had been off from the very beginning.
"I feel the sa," Skadi replied quietly.
Even as a goddess herself, she couldn't understand what Deter was thinking.
"I refuse," Shiomi said firmly. "I am not your child, and you are not my mother, the goddess Tiamat."
Even if this presented a chance to infiltrate Olympus, Shiomi didn't consider it a good one.
And so, he flatly rejected Deter's words.
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