Praetor Warship, 99.000 light-years from Earth
Athena has planned countless strategies over the centuries, and she has witnessed so many battles that even she can’t remember them all.
But she can’t remember many battles that started with such a disadvantage.
The crew of her own ship is deserting her, with only Nike deciding to fight by her side.
Although considering they are facing the entire Vanguard and Zeus himself, and that the ship is completely surrounded by a fleet of enemy ships, even the Goddess of Victory has doubts about their chances of success.
<Get her.> Noriko orders, her voice altered by the Genesis Armor. Her anger still comes through.
Quantum and Torn are the first to rush into action, respectively turning into a laser and summoning swords made of Aether. Kari powers up, with an aura surrounding her body signaling that she’s amping her own strength to divine levels.
Vesta also prepares to take flight, only to be stopped by Zeus grabbing her arm.
<Don’t worry about her. We have more important things to take care of.> he tells her.
<What could possibly be more important than this!?> Vesta protests, pointing at her teammates attempting to break through Athena’s defensive forcefield.
The answer comes from a roar generated from outside, where the raging screams of a monster are so loud that even outer space has no choice but to carry its message.
<I FEEL YOUR PRESENCE, ZEUS, YOU COWARD!!! I WILL BREAK THIS GALAXY IN HALF IF THAT’S WHAT I NEED TO KILL YOU!!!> Typhon shouts, with the energy emanating from his body being so strong that it’s actively damaging the ship’s shields.
<I can’t fight that thing! I’m not as strong as you!> Vesta protests to her brother.
<You still have no idea what you’re capable of?> Zeus wonders, teleporting the siblings away.
The last thing Vesta notices before vanishing is that, despite wearing a fully powered Genesis Armor, Noriko has not joined the fight yet.
<You just lost the only god who could’ve defeated us.> Nike mocks Kari, using her wings to strike at the Myridian. Kari dodges the attack, creating a duplicate right behind her and sharing the power of her Shadow Breaker technique between the two bodies.
<We don’t need help kicking down gods. We’re the Vanguard.> she reminds her, using her position to immobilize Nike in a chokehold while the other Kari punches her in the stomach with the strength of several billion mortals.
<Care to join us? Hello?> she tells Noriko, who is still just spectating.
<You don’t need to worry about me. I remember the plan.> Noriko answers.
Outside the ship
When Typhon attacked Olympus hundreds of thousands of years ago, Vesta had little interest in fighting. However, being the greatest treat to Olympus since Zeus took power (and by a considerable margin), Vesta did see what he was capable of when she witnessed the atrocities and carnages and devastation he left behind.
She still had nightmares about it as recently as the first Trojan War.
And that now she’s watching this planet-sized mockery of the idea of a god stand in all his glory, summoning a blast that she can taste has enough force behind it to vaporize a thousand solar systems… she freezes.
Zeus has to move in front of her, gather so much of his own power that the struggle is visible on his face, and counteract by throwing an impossibly high-energy thunderbolt at Typhon.
If the difference between the two opposing energy blasts were off even by a tiny percentage, the resulting fallout would obliterate everything in this sector.
But while his intellect has been put into question by whole galaxies for a million years, Zeus is nothing if not the greatest authority in the universe when it comes to raw energy.
The two blasts are balanced perfectly, annihilating each other and releasing only a relatively minor amount of radiation. Still enough to instantly kill anything organic within a light-year without the protection of a warship’s forcefields, but given the alternative, it’s acceptable.
<What am I even doing here!? You could barely hold him off with Hades and Poseidon, and I’m not anywhere near as powerful as them!> Vesta complains.
<They might have been stronger, yes, but you can do something nobody else in our family can: you’re the only one who…> Zeus explains, caught off-guard by the mass of twisted tentacles that is Typhon’s hand: he just caught the god, squeezing it with enough pressure to crush a black hole.
<YOU NEVER LEARN!!! YOU CAN’T BEAT ME THE SAME WAY TWICE!!!>
Something stirs within Vesta when she hears Zeus screaming in pain. Something that she has worked very hard to keep away from her life.
Rage.
<Leave my little brother alone!!! HELLFIRE INFERNO!!!> she screams, releasing the power of a supernova focused on a single attack.
On the Praetor Warship
Both Quantum and Torn share the same thought: Athena is one of the most frustrating opponents they have ever faced. Her master over energy allows her to either deviate any attack from Quantum or transmute him herself into different particles, no matter what shape he takes.
And while she’s only had one brief encounter with Aether before this, Torn is surprised to see that she has already developed a way to defend herself from it: every time his blade attempts to cut through her body, Aether itself weakens and melts before it can even touch her.
<A little help here!?> Quantum calls for Noriko, still spectating.
Athena grabs one of Torn’s Aether blades, managing to wrestle control over it; it slips from the control of the Demon’s soul for a moment, but it’s enough to stab him with it.
Quantum’s energy is then trapped in a sphere of divine power. Kari attempts to intervene, but Athena throws the sphere into the wall behind her, creating a hole in the ship’s hull.
The decompression sucks Kari into space before the emergency forcefields repair the hole.
<You are a disappointment, Noriko. You should have known better than challenging me in a battle of wisdom and wits.> Athena boasts.
<You’re the one who decided to go a second round against someone who already beat you into a pulp once. God mode activated.> Noriko replies, and the Genesis Armor hums.
Athena smiles.
The armor immediately powers down, with its energy levels dropping at zero.
<You know, a part of me was hoping that you’d notice the design flaw of your power supply… that the enriched divine blood you carry around could be destabilized by a focused virtual particle beam. It took me a couple of hours to figure out that weakness, but you couldn’t come up with a patch?> Athena mocks her, then she moves towards Noriko faster than the human eye can track.
She rips off the armor’s chest plate, then removes the helmet and crushes it in her hands.
<I guess you are not as smart as your followers believe.> Athena shrugs.
Outside the ship
Typhon is more of a sentient weapon than a true god. He was created with a single purpose: to destroy Olympus. He takes immense pleasure at the sound of Zeus being in pain, and he barely notices the supernova-level attacks bouncing off his monstrous face.
<Leave Zeus alone! He’s not the one you want!!!> Vesta insists.
<I WAS BORN TO KILL HIM.>
<No, you were born to destroy the reign of Olympus. Zeus no longer sits on the throne.>
<HE DOES NOT?> Typhon replies, letting Zeus go and paying attention only to his sister.
Only now does Vesta realize what Zeus was telling her. Nobody else in her family could do this… talking sense into another god.
<Listen, we have a plan that I think you’re going to really like…>
On the Praetor Warship
The Genesis Armor breaks like tissue paper against Athena’s strength; the goddess holds her former protégé by the throat, and only the urge to have the last word prevents her from crushing her.
<You may not believe me, Noriko, but for a while I considered you the closest thing to a daughter I could ever conceive of having. Had you accepted my guidance, you would have been the greatest mortal who ever lived, and I would have inherited your empire upon your death. But you couldn’t live with that, couldn’t you Noriko? No… the delusion of being smarter than me was something you loved too much.> Athena tells her, now putting real strength into her grip.
But Noriko’s throat survives. She even replies:
<No, that’s not what she loves most.>
<“She”?>
Noriko breaks free from the hold when her body transforms, from a flesh and blood woman to an androgynous pink silhouette with wings.
<Eros!? But you… fled when Typhon…> Athena says, struggling to understand.
At least until Hermes suddenly appears, patting Eros in the back.
<Yeah, your first mistake was thinking I also left… I’m way more complex than you give me credit for! Second mistake was not expecting Sunshine to rally her allies.> Hermes says, and in the blink of an eye someone else appears in front of Athena.
An extremely angry and fully healed Enyo, who unleashes the full power of her war cry right into Athena’s face. It’s far more than even a Praetor Warship can withstand: like a house of card caught in a tornado, it’s completely destroyed from the inside out.
Without time to prepare herself, Athena has to withstand the rage of a furious war goddess… one that she had previously and repeatedly humiliated.
Athena could potentially figure out a way to defend herself, if this wasn’t also a rallying cry from the Vanguard: Quantum’s energy, Torn’s swords, Vesta’s fire and even the plasma blasts coming from the resistance fleet hit Athena.
Even she can’t find a way to defend herself from this onslaught coming from multiple directions… at least not in the short term. She has already come up with a couple of potential strategies when the barrage suddenly stops.
She finds herself stranded on a piece of the ship’s hull, her armor and her bones cracked in several places, and her beautiful skin charred with second degree burns.
<Also, third mistake? It’s not a delusion. I am smarter than you.> Noriko points out.
The mortal is standing in front of Athena, protected from the dangers of space by her personal Survival Field, but otherwise unprotected.
<I heard your… subjects… call for your help.> Athena comments, confused by the events.
<It’s called acting. I was hoping you wouldn’t think I’d sacrifice the Genesis Armor… I can always build another one… but I was certain you wouldn’t spot Eros. Because you never loved anyone.>
<Well… played. As impressive as that was, it won’t help you… you know I have ways to shield my mind. You won’t kill me like a normal goddess.>
<No, I won’t. Someone like you requires something special.> Noriko concedes, taking something from the inside pocket of her green leather jacket.
Athena’s scarred face pales when she sees the metallic cylinder she’s holding.
<The Infinite Abyss? But Rei stole it from me! You could never strike a deal with your doppelganger, and you didn’t have the time to do it!> Athena protests.
<No, but I did have the time to set up an entanglement scattering field that would prevent the teleportation of any Drylon technology: it never left your ship. And Hermes was too fast for you to notice he just brought it to me.>
<But… there is no technology capable of this! And you didn’t have the time to coordinate a strategy of this magnitude with…>
<There is if you can think quick enough. All I ever needed to defeat you were my allies and friends… and this, of course.> Noriko mocks her, tapping a finger on temple.
<I can lose a battle, but the war is far from over. The Infinite Abyss can only be used to lock me out of this universe, not to kill me. Even if it takes me an eternity, I will find a way to break free.> Athena swears.
<I thought so too, so I made some… adjustments to my plan. Thanks for activating this thing for me, by the way.> Noriko replies, and the Infinite Abyss begins to shine.
<You gave me the Nexus, Athena. Stood by my side in many battles. You could say that I owe you a kinder fate than what I reserved for other gods… but you also threatened and murdered my friends and allies. You don’t deserve my gratitude, my pity, or my mercy.>
<Enjoy your victory while it lasts, Noriko. Some day I will rise from the bones of your empire to finish what I started.>
<No, you won’t. Enjoy the company.>
The Infinite Abyss activates, creating a rectangular cage around Athena which rapidly disappears from the universe.
Inside the Abyss
Athena has had a long time to study the Infinite Abyss. She knows it creates a pocket universe that is completely inaccessible unless the device itself creates an opening.
But she is not worried. It’s just technology: it can be studied and ultimately mastered, like everything she puts her mind into.
If the Drylon were able to create it, she will control it. Even if it takes her a thousand, a million or a billion years. As an immortal goddess, time is on her side.
And time is all she truly needs: time to rest, time to scheme, time to think.
<I wonder what she meant by company?> Athena wonders, creating a light in her hands to illuminate the infinite darkness of a universe without stars.
But there is another source of light. The flames of two giant eyes, the size of continents, which are burning with the passion of a creature that exists to hate.
<THE ONCE FAVORED DAUGHTER OF ZEUS.> a monster in the darkness growls.
<Typhon!? How did she trap you here!?>
<I VOLUNTEERED. HESTIA OFFERED ME WHAT I DESIRE MOST.>
<You were created to destroy Zeus!!! If you’re trapped here, you can’t touch him! But if we work together, you and I could escape and…>
<I WAS CREATED TO DESTROY OLYMPUS. ZEUS DOES NOT SIT ON THE THRONE ANYMORE, DOESN’T HE?>
Athena has known defeat. She has known fear. But she just discovered pure terror.
<TELL ME, ATHENA. WHO SITS ON THE THRONE OF OLYMPUS NOW?>
The scourge of the cosmos, the so-called Father of All Monsters, opens its mouth to finally complete his task and devour the sole remaining Empress of Olympus.
Athena, born from the head of Zeus after he devoured her mother, appreciates the irony of her final moment as she admits:
<I am finally proud of you, Noriko. You were the one true Goddess of Wisdom after all.>