Now, when the fight was finally over, I needed to immediately inspect my injury. See how much it was bleeding, what could be done about it and how should I treat it. In the worst case, I would have to cauterize it, because I highly doubted that the hard spider skin or exoskeleton could be strangulated. What worried me though, was the fact that I did not feel my limb being torn from my body. Whether it was because I was a monster or because of the effect of adrenaline coursing through my veins. But since I was a monster, as it was my monstrous part that was hurt I should expect the unexpected.
Yet, I could not expect what I observed. There, beneath me, was a pool of silvery metallic liquid. Its viscosity and its reflexivity would suggest that I was somehow standing in the pool of mercury. Which was not good as mercury was toxic and, therefore incompatible with life. I instantly backed out of it, hopefully, my endoskeleton would not let anything into my bloodstream.
But it seemed that the quicksilver was following my steps. Initially, it drew a continuous line, until only small droplets followed my path. It was not until then that I realized, that it was not some mysterious mercury pool following me, but rather it must have been my own blood. As embarrassing as it was, to be afraid of my blood, I did not expect it to be such unnatural color. Not to mention the aforementioned toxic effects on living organisms, that mercury had.
"What had that god-pretender done to me?!" I cursed Athena for turning me into this highly unusual monster, as the last few droplets fell from my wound.
At least my silver blood had great coagulation properties, probably thanks to its viscosity. The wound would have to be observed for any other anomaly. Thinking about the anomaly, it seemed that my blood had a similarly odd shine to its metallic color as that of Athena's. Except unlike Athena's my blood was not evaporating at such quick rate as the god-pretender's, if it was evaporating at all.
As much as I wanted to solve this riddle, I had to leave the island as soon as possible. With one leg missing my balance was off, but I would have to get used to walking on only seven legs. Though I was probably still lucky, unlike in my previous life, whereas a regular human being I had only two legs, losing a single leg as a spider monster did not hinder my walking ability all that much, just the balance. Maybe having a crutch would help to some extent. And seeing that the Athena's spear did survive being hit by my optical formula, I would use it.
With the wound self-sealed and a crutch to help me keep balance, I hurried to leave this island. Hopefully, the rewarded boat would still be in the harbor and the people of the island still hiding away from the attack. But suddenly, my way had been obstructed by numerous armed women.
"It is all your fault!" seethed the queen's voice, full of unreasonable emotions.
They were dying, they knew that. All of them knew that, as they lay on the ground weakly moving their heads and looking at each other. The goddess Athena truly forsaken them. At least this way, they would not have to suffer living any longer. Most of them were crushed by the pieces of the temple instantly, some were not so lucky. The rest were all dying, in pain, and they cursed this goddess in hatred. Because she took everything.
So witnessing Athena having to defend herself from a beam of light was vindicating. Some hearths might have stopped when the cursed goddess attacked the champion of Aphrodite, by throwing her spear. That woman did nothing but help them, yet Athena went and ruined it all. Another flash of light and the horizon turned fiery. It was nice warm light, so beautiful.
A roar of a beast blasted loudly and then a monster of a man striked at that accursed goddess. Athena had no choice, but to defend herself. Yet they would never witness the goddess squashed, just like so many of them were, because soon the darkness would take them. One by one. Some might have already been claimed.
And as fast as the darkness was creeping, it was gone! A short flash of light and then it burst like a geyser all over the place. On so many of them. The ruptured organs were inflating and stitching themselves. The broken bones and slashes were mending. The death went emptyhanded, as she had no longer the right to any of them. But none was healed yet enough, to stop a monster from attacking, what many saw as their island's savior.
They knew they had to free themselves, from beneath the pieces of temple that crushed them. To be at least a bit of a help to their savior. They all knew the same, it was strange. Like talking to someone without saying any words. Instantly knowing what the others planned. And like that, they were able to coordinate until one of them was free. And the free one helped others and so on.
Ready for the battle, they armed themselves, while looking for the enemy. But the battle was already over. Or maybe it was just beginning. They saw their queen accusing their savior, of the tragedy that occurred. But that was not true at all! It was Athena's fault, not Lady Nike's! They had to stop it before the other women did something unforgivable!
In a single nod, the decision was made unanimously. With spears ready, they went forward, with a resolution.
Dear Diary,
F*ck! F*ck! F*ck! F*ck!
F*CK!
I completely forgot about that b*tch! What was her name anyway? Arachnophobia, or something? Why did she have to rear out her ugly head now, or ever at all? Why couldn't she just die like all other monsters? Or at least stay hidden in some dark hole, where she belongs!
But no! She appears after a few hundred years out of nowhere and f*cks up everything! All of the freaking Argonauts are dead! If they were just humans it would not be a problem at all. We'd just send more idiots seeking glory or something!
But several demigods, all f*cking dead! Dad's favorite child, little Herc went berserker and killed everyone! Sh*t!
Not to say anything about how much damage she had done! My side is still stitching together, as I write this. I don't think I could handle the pain without a titan dose of analgetics! And worst of all, the armor is done for! I'll have to talk with that ugly nerd Hephaustus, to make me a new one. Oh, and the spear too. No idea where I left it.
It feels like I'm forgetting something.
Probably was not important, if I can't remember.
Analgetics are sure good stuff.
Her date for tonight's stargazing has been late. Incredibly late. And she knew that Athena was not such a person, who would just miss their meetings without apology. She would never do that. She might cancel the date if something of utmost importance came up, but she would not ditch her last minute, not even letting her know. This was not like Athena. As such Artemis was sure that something dire must have happened to her partner.
And she was proven right, when she discovered Athena lying on the table, armor broken, or rather completely destroyed and skin on her stomach still too pale, from recent healing. Whoever or whatever did this to her partner would pay! She would stab them, boil them, skin them, kill them! But first Artemis would need to know who dared to do something like this to her Athena.
"Athena! Athena!" she tried to get the attention of the other goddess.
But that proved to be more difficult than she thought. Athena was barely continuous and whenever Artemis managed to get her attention, she slipped back into unconsciousness or mumbled incoherently. Even shaking her would not help much. Athena was out of it.
Yet Artemis had no idea what to do with her partner in such a state. It was obvious, that Athena was delirious because of her injury. Knowing Athena she would probably try to hide it in the future, say it was nothing. In an attempt to not worry anyone. But clearly, the injury must have been severe.
Artemis pushed back her hatred for an unknown assailant, that hurt her most beloved. And carried Athena to the Olympian throne room. Zeus would know what to do in this situation, or if he did not, then he would know someone who knew what to do. If nothing else this must be investigated.
And once she knew who was responsible, she would hunt them down.
His father called for him. Apparently, something urgent came up, which required his presence. And so he went, as fast as he could. Wasn't his fault, that his legs did not exactly work the way they were intended to. A flaw in his father's design. Not that he could criticize Zeus, he would not take that well. He never did. And he himself had no intention of getting punished for something stupid, someone else most likely that idiot Ares, did.
Once Hephaestus arrived at the throne room of Olympus, he saw quite a gathering. Most of the other Olympians were already there and most of those present were grouped around what must have been Athena and Artemis. Did those two useless deities finally figure it out? Whatever. If he must congratulate them, then sure he would. Throw some piece of scrap of an invention at them as a gift, in the hope they leave him finally alone.
The only one who stood away was his "wife" Aphrodite. Not that he agreed to marry that woman, he did not even have time for marriage, but his stongheaded father decided otherwise. So he did as he was told, to avoid any retribution from his father. Zeus dealt only the stupidest punishments. And he would much rather invent new things than have to deal with whatever his father could come up with this time.
"Is this your work?!" asked Zeus angrily pushing broken armor into Hephaestus's hands.
"Yes, I've made the armor," he answered carefully because his father had been clearly angry for some reason.
And seeing the armor being broken, it was a no-brainer to guess, that Zeus's anger stemmed from it. And appearently also from drunken Athena, who looked barely coherent, to the point Artemis had to support her to stand. He would not guess his sister to be such a funny drinker.
"That is not what I asked," said Zeus.
His anger was seemingly gone for a moment, replaced with a cold hard emotionless voice. But Hephaestus was just purely confused. What was his father even asking for? Was he supposed to somehow miraculously figure out what he wanted from him? Perhaps repair the armor? That would take time and a lot of materials. It would be easier to just build a new one, instead.
"He means the hole, nerd," quipped Ares mockingly.
"Hight yield laser, most likely. It's used for cutting precise shapes into the hard materials," answered Hephaestus once he analyzed the broken Athena's armor.
But anyone could figure that out. Well maybe not Ares, but everyone else was at least somewhat intelligent. And Hephaestus did present his newest inventions to other Olympians regularly. So they would have to know that he had at least one of such devices.
"So you are admitting you did it," continued in his cold demeanor Zeus, but bits of boiling rage seeped through his cold exterior.
"What?! No! Why would I..." tried to say Hephaestus once he finally figured out what was going on here.
"Stop f*cking lieing! Who else could do such a thing!" shouted psychotically Artemis, striking Hephaestus down with her bow.
"Hey! I didn't!" tried to defend himself Hephaestus
"You disappointed me greatly!" fumed Zeus.
But Hephaestus had no time to protest anymore because Zeus struck him down with lightning.
"Ares, honey,"
"Hmm, yes?"
"Do you think you could do me... A little favor?"
"I can do you... A BIG favor!"
"Could you send some of yours, oiled, muscly men to find that monster that hurt Athena?"
"Sure! The boys are going love killing that thing!"
"No, not kill it. Capture it and bring it back alive,"
"But why, alive?"
"I reeealy want to know, how it was able to hurt Athena so badly. It could be useful,"
"Hm. Oh! I know of few!"
"Thank you, darling, you are so sweet,"
"Hehehe,"
"So? Will you send them to hunt the monster?"
"Yes, of course! I'll send the dudes! I'll be right back!"
"Don't worry, take your time, honey,"
Aphrodite watched Ares jog away, to wherever he would get any of his people, who would search for the monster that hurt Athena. It was certainly entertaining to see that arrogant child getting such an important life lesson. She would have to thank the monster and probably reward it, in one way or another. And given what people had Ares available, it would not be long before she would find that creature. Too bad that all of Ares's "dudes" would most likely die in an attempt to capture it. Alas, that was the plan, to begin with, their sacrifice would create quite a beacon to the monster's location.
She was interrupted from her musing by the presence of another person. Just about the time she expected her visitor to come to her.
"Ah! Drop that ugly guise, my love. I would love to see your real face," said Aphrodite towards her visitor.
"Shouldn't you be mourning? Your husband just died," said a soft woman's voice.
"Please, neither I nor Hephaestus were happy being forced to marry. And he is one of the Olympians, he will get better in time," answered Aphrodite to her companion.
"It is not strange then, me being here, with you?" asked the other woman.
"Of course not my love. You are the only one I want to spend my time with," said Aphrodite, cupping the other woman's face in her palm.
The other woman appreciated the gesture and leaned her head to Aphrodite's hand, with a contempt smile. The goddess of love, was truly for once, seeing her partner enjoying the moment.
"What of the monster?" asked the other woman.
"Oh, I send Ares to make a mess of the situation, like he always does. This should allow me to locate the creature," answered Aphrodite.
"But it could get hurt!" goddess' lover looked shocked.
"Do not worry, Ares doesn't have anyone who could hurt it too much," soothed Aphrodite.
"And once you find it?" continues her question the other person.
"Once WE, find it. We will uplift it and then..." said Aphrodite sweetly.
"Then we'll have OUR revenge on Athena,"
"Yes! Now come my love! The predatory look on your face makes me all excited!"
The Olympian throne room was almost empty, with the exception of two men. One was none other than their leader Zeus and the other, somewhat smaller was his brother Hades. The two of them had so much to discuss following the terrible disaster which was the death of the Argonauts.
"Did you finally calm down, brother?" asked the smaller one.
"I... Yes, I think I did," answered the taller younger brother.
"Good then," commented Hades.
"How is Heracles?" asked Zeus.
"Messed up. His memories became fractured. He will need some time to recover. And a new body on top of it," explained the older brother.
"How did it happen?" questioned the younger brother.
"Heracles must have been under the influence of something during the fight, given that I got mostly hallucinations out of him. But one thing seemed to be consistent: a woman riding a giant spider, that's all I managed to get," said Hades.
"Did some human, manage to get her hands on Hephaestus's monster? Or was it given to her?" pondered Zeus.
The silence ruled the throne room of Olympus for a while. Neither of the brothers uttered as much a word. But the silence was not to last forever as it was interrupted by a visitor making their way through the doors.
"Did I miss something?" asked the newly arrived man.
"An utter disaster brother," said solemnly a smaller man with dark hair.
"What happened?" he asked.
"Athena got hurt and Argonauts are dead, that's what happened Poseidon," answered Zeus.
"Wait, Argonauts, you mean all of them?!" asked Poseidon in shock.
"Yes," answered Hades.
"Sh*t... How did it happen?" said the lord of the seas.
"Someone managed to get Heracles to go berserker. He then pulverized all of the Argonauts. At that moment Athena intervened, but a third party joined the fight. A woman riding a giant unknown spider monster, at least according to Heracles's memories" Hades explained the events.
Poseidon looked like was deeply thinking something about it. Remembering things, putting clues together.
"Did it happen somewhere nearby Lemnos?" he finally asked.
"It happened on Lemnos, just a few hours ago," said Zeus.
"Hm... How accurate are Herc's memories?" continues Poseidon, his investigation.
"Not much. He was mostly hallucinating," said Hades.
"You see, one of the Cetus was destroyed near the Lemnos, not even a day ago. It was destroyed by an arachnocentaur, half-woman half-spider," said Poseidon
"Half-woman?" "Half-spider?!"
"Hades???" asked both of his brothers at the same time, taken aback.
"What?" shrugged his shoulders Hades.
"It must be the legs," tried to whisper Poseidon to this other brother.
"I can hear you Poseidon... Ehm. Anyway, the idea of this arachnocentaur and person who hurt little Herc, being the same, has some merit to it. Do you have any pictures of her?" concluded Hades.
"Tsk! Yes, here!" pulled the image of the aforementioned arachnocentaur Poseidon, for his brothers to see.
"What a beauty!" exclaimed Zeus.
"Yes. That is exactly why I didn't want to show you," said Poseidon.
"Her features roughly match the image I managed to get out of Heracles. I suggest we get this beauty, preferably alive... So we can question her," explained Hades.
The only answer he received was his brother's raised eyebrows. But he had no intention to explain himself, especially to these two.
"That's actually a good idea, to get her alive... But, how are we gonna do that? I imagine that Artemis was not exactly happy about what happened to Athena, was she?" asked Poseidon.
"Artemis is out of the picture, but luckily I just know the very reliable person to track this beautiful arachnocentaur down," said Zeus with a grind.
"I would be more surprised if you didn't know someone for the job," deadpanned Hades.
"Where are you going, my love?" asked the most beautiful woman among the Olympians.
"Zeus called me, he has some urgent work for me," answered another beautiful woman to her lover.
"How annoying! Can't you just stay here with me?" whined the most beautiful of Olympians, while attempting to drag the other woman back to their shared bed.
"I'm sorry Aphrodite, but I have to go if I'm to keep my disguise," apologised the other woman, freeing herself from the goddesse's grasp.
"Can't be helped, then. But do come back soon," smiled sadly Aphrodite.
"I'll be fast as lightning," she said when leaving.
The woman, that just left the goddess of love, her lover, then masked herself in a guise, which she adopted sometime before the Olympians uplifted her. She used this disguise for a reason. As Aphrodite suggested to her, she did it to mislead all the other Olympians who might have met her, when she was still mortal human. This way, she could get close to Athena, find all of her weaknesses and exploit them, in order to have revenge on the goddess.
And now, a monster that could hurt one of the Olympians, has been found to exist. She could not wait, until the moment it was on hers and Aphrodite's side. Then finally she will have her revenge on the goddess of wisdom, who took everything from her! But she had to school her face, into an expressionless look. She could not allow anyone to see her like this.
"Zeus, sir," she said once she arrived in front of the leader of the Olympians.
"Just right on time, like usual, Nike!" the big boss answered.
"What is that you want me to do, sir?" asked Nike, the uplifted mortal.
"Poseidon brought some interesting information to me. Apparently, one of his Cetus was destroyed near the island of Lemnos," stated Zeus.
"Are all the incidents related, then?" asked Nike, when she was informed that the death of Argonauts, Athena's injury and the destroyed Cetus happened around the same island.
"Brilliant! You sure have a sharp mind, for an uplifted human," said Zeus sounding pleasantly surprised.
"Thank you, sir," the uplifted goddess played her par of obedient subordinate.
"To answer your question. I believe that the monster that hurt Athena, is the same monster that killed Cetus. The description of it, given to Poseidon, roughly matches what Heracles saw before his death," explained Zeus.
"What does the monster look like?" asked the uplifted minor goddess.
"Upper half of a woman, with the lower body a spider," answered the leader of the Olympians and showed her an image of the half-woman, half-spider monster, as it was recorded by the destroyed Cetus unit.
She was shocked! How could this be? Was it just a coincidence? Did perhaps Hephaestus create a monster of such a familiar design? She panicked for a little bit there. And could see Zeus raising his eyebrow. This was not good, her momentary lapse could give her away.
"Not a fan of spiders, I see. Must be remains of your humanity," hummed slightly disappointedly Zeus, scribing some notes.
"No, sir! I will deal with it as soon as possible!" said resolutely Nike.
"Wery well, then. You will have two tasks on the Lemnos. One, recover the bodies of all Argonauts and bring them to Olympus. And second, track this spider monster, and bring it back alive, by all means necessary," ordered the big boss.
"I won't disappoint you, sir," Nike said resolutely.
"Eager, are you? Very well then. You may go, Nike," Zeus said.
With that, Nike left the presence of the leader of the Olympians. Her heart was still beating way too fast, even minutes after she was let go by Zeus. But it was not because of fear. It was because of excitement and happiness.
"Arachne, you are still alive my child," Nike said to herself once she was sure that she was completely alone.