Mountain of the Immortals

“It is a great pleasure to have you join us,” Aphrodite said. I couldn’t tell whether she was just being polite or flirting with her again.

“Have you ever been part of a guild before?” I asked, knowing that she would be unlikely to reply to the niceties.

“I haven’t,” she admitted. “Is there anything I need to know?”

“I will show you everything you need to know, dear,” Aphrodite said.

“Alright, let me see if I can activate the Real Time Communication passive skill now that there are three of us,” I said.

I ran through the options in the guild interface and it turned out to be fairly simple and very similar to what I had used when I was part of my father’s... part of Cronus’ guild. I enabled it and sent a short telepathic message to the others.

“You should be hearing me inside your heads now,” I said.

Aphrodite nodded in acknowledgment, but Artemis—who obviously wasn’t expecting something like this—jumped back in surprise and looked at me furiously.

“Why are you inside my head?” she said angrily. “Is this what being part of your guild means?”

“No, it’s not,” I said out loud, bringing my palms forward defensively. “It’s just a very efficient way to communicate with each other.”

“You can turn it off if you don’t like accepting messages from others in the guild in real time,” Aphrodite said, trying to calm her down. “Here, I’ll show you how.”

“Does this mean that you know what I’m thinking too?” she asked, while Aphrodite showed her what she needed to change in order to mute certain aspects of this guild ability.

I realized then that Aphrodite somehow knew about these guild functions, which meant she must have had a certain history she hadn’t shared with me yet. I had to start making a list of things I would need to find out once I was out of danger of being found by Cronus.

“No, I don’t have access to your thoughts,” I reassured Artemis, and sent the whole skill for her to look over. “This is just a handy way of communicating without speaking. You know, in case you’re on a stealthy hunt or can’t otherwise communicate out loud.”

“That’s why you use hand gestures,” she retorted, but she was visibly less annoyed.

“You can also use it to talk to specific guild members one on one,” Aphrodite added, “even from long distances.”

“That’s right,” I agreed. “Or you can ask questions to the whole guild. I know it doesn’t make much sense while there are only three of us but imagine having a hundred people, all of them with different skills and expertise, who you can contact all at once.”

“This would be very useful indeed,” Artemis finally agreed. “Discussing tactics and coordinating attacks would be much more efficient. I will leave the skill available for now, but do not abuse it.”

“I wasn’t planning to,” I replied honestly.

“What now?” Aphrodite asked.

“Artemis, we were planning to rest for the night,” I said. “Would it be safe to do so here?”

“Sleep so early in the night?” she said, surprised. “This is when the hunting begins.”

“For us, this is when the day ends,” I said, slightly irritated with her tying everything to hunting. “We need to rest and have our Divinity Points restored before we go to that cavern complex and investigate the source of the corruption.”

“Would you say it’s safe for us to rest here with the protection of your wolf pack?” Aphrodite asked, and touched Artemis’s elbow.

“It is,” she said, without pulling away from her. “I will keep watch while you rest.”

“That is awfully kind of you,” Aphrodite purred, “but I’m sure the wolves will warn us if anything happens. That is, if you feel the need to... rest.”

“I should scout the perimeter,” Artemis said hurriedly, obviously not used to overt flirting like this. “You have nothing to worry about, and you can reach me in the guild chat if you need something.” She immediately strode off between the trees.

“You done chased her away,” I said, once the powerful goddess of the hunt was out of earshot, and we were alone in the middle of the dark forest.

“Who said that’s not what I wanted?” she said with a wicked smile on her face.

“You have to be kidding…” I teased, but returned the smile as she climbed on top of me.

“There’s a reason why I’m the goddess of sex,” she whispered, gently biting my earlobe before making her way to my neck and then mouth.

* * *

I woke up to a repeated, high-pitched whistling sound. I had never heard anything like it before, though it reminded me a lot of the sound arrows made when they rushed by, albeit amplified. I opened my eyes to see Aphrodite still sleeping on a pile of furs next to me, somehow wearing a completely different outfit than the one she’d been wearing when we finally fell asleep the previous night.

I looked around for the source of the sound that had woken me up and realized it was indeed arrows. Artemis, who couldn’t have slept a single minute all night and was probably bored out of her mind, was firing three to five arrows into the air, one after the other. The she was waiting for each of the arrows to fall and catching them in the quiver on her back.

I sat there watching silently for a couple of rounds, stunned at the accuracy of her shots, her amazing ability to correct for the wind direction and speed, and her incredible agility to move into place so that the arrows fell back into place in her quiver. She was nothing short of an amazing warrior, and I was more than happy that she had become part of my guild. If I was going to succeed in fighting against my father, I would need people like her.

“You’re really good with the bow,” I said, and she immediately snapped her head to look at me.

“It comes with the territory,” she said, a sense of pride in her voice. “Being the goddess of the hunt and all. What’s your domain?”

“I am the god of thunder,” I said. I was sure I had introduced myself as such the day before.

“That is not a domain,” she said, emphasizing the last word. She pointed at the sleeping beauty that was Aphrodite. “Look at her. She oozes sexuality. You can tell by looking at her that she is the goddess of beauty and sex. And look at me.”

She ran her hands from the top of her head down to her hips, ending by retrieving her bow out of her inventory with a flourish.

“I am the personification of the hunt,” she continued. “I am the ultimate predator. What are you? Who are you?”

“I...” I started, realizing the god of thunder was not going to cut it. Then I found my confidence. “I am the All-father. I am the king of gods. All Greek deities will bow before me.”

“Now, do you see it?” Aphrodite said behind me, and I felt her finger run over my shoulder.

“I do,” Artemis replied, smiling at her.

“See what?” I asked.

I had no idea when they’d become a team, ganging up on me and all, but I couldn’t say I didn’t like it. They looked like they would make a fierce duo, both in battle and—

“Is he actually this vain?” Artemis sighed, bringing me out of my daydream.

“We should get going,” I said, after clearing my throat. “Would you show us the way to the cavern you mentioned?”

“This way,” she said and started to walk away, Aphrodite following right behind her.