Vol.5 Ch.11.1 – Strange Tastes I

Chapter 11: Strange Tastes

The first sign we had that Athena's scouting was coming to an end was that the owls trickled back into the tholos one by one until all twelve had returned. When they had, Athena finally opened her eyes and sat up.

“Welcome back,” I said softly.

“Thanks,” she said, her voice just a little disoriented but growing firmer as she continued: “Please gather around, I have things to share.”

Immediately we crowded around her.

“Things are... less awful than I had anticipated,” she said once we were all gathered. “Though that does not mean things are well. Of the three tholoi left for us, all three are heavily guarded. The one belonging to Aphrodite and Hephaestus is surrounded by a massive group of goblins.”

I winced. I did not wish the attentions of a group of goblins of any size on those two. Not on anyone, really, but I liked Hephaestus and Aphrodite wasn't that bad either.

“Poseidon's tholos is guarded by a group of grotesque creatures,” Athena continued. “They look like orcs corrupted by the Black Goat, though much further along in their corruption than any I have seen before. Before anyone asks, Poseidon, or at least someone I presume to be Poseidon, is being held captive inside his tholos, which I believe would rule him out as our traitor.”

That was a relief and it made it yet more likely that our traitor was Oceanus. Having to fight any god was bad enough. Having to fight one of the three strongest Olympians would be far, far worse.

“And Hades' tholos is positively brimming over with foes. There are cultists of the Black Goat, there are goblins and there are what look to me like trolls corrupted by the Black Goat.”

I had never seen them corrupt trolls before but I had a feeling that wouldn't be good. Trolls already had prodigious regenerative capabilities. Having those amplified by the Black Goat's corruption would likely make for something truly awful to face.

But instead of saying any of that out loud I said: “What about the rest of Olympus?”

“Ares and the traitor are still fighting, though their fight as moved over to the main plateau. Neither of them seems to be at a disadvantage so I believe the best thing we can hope for is that Ares keeps the traitor busy for a while longer. Artemis is chained up in the central square and a group of goblins is doing horrid things to her. If at all possible I would like to save her from that, even if we have to take a detour. The rest of the realm isn't so much overrun by foes as foes are patrolling through the streets. They have garrisoned some of the houses but overall I feel like the presence of foes is much lighter than what I feared. Between us, the Royal Guard and the Heroes of Elysium we shouldn't be at too big a disadvantage, at least numerically.”

“What about Zeus' throne?” Hestia asked.

“The Holy Maiden is there, sitting atop what I presume is father fused to his throne, a congregation of cultists by her side. And as Ares said, Prince Wilhelm is there as well,” Athena replied.

“What about the other guy?” I asked. “The one the goblins listen to?”

“I've never seen him so I can't be sure it's him but I did see a cloaked person with the group of goblins tormenting Artemis.”

“Well that settles it,” I said. “We'll open the gate to Hades' realm, then we go save Artemis and then we march on the Holy Maiden.”

“I won't oppose the idea of saving Artemis but are we sure the detour is wise?” Hermes asked.

“The way I see it, someone in the Holy Maiden's inner circle is isolated and outside of her protection,” I said. “This is our opportunity to pick off what might be a major player.”

Hermes gave me a dirty little smile. “As I said, you're the right bastard for this job.”

“Anything else of note?” I asked Athena.

“I'm not entirely sure and this might be speculation but I think I saw something like a writhing mass of tentacles surrounding father's tholos. They seemed inert but that might just be because she doesn't know she's under attack yet.”

“That's alright,” I said. “By the time we get there we should have the Heroes along.” Out of the corner of my eye I saw Hestia finally realize why we were so focused on Hades' tholos and realized that nobody had mentioned it to her yet. I would have to apologize for that. There really had been no good reason not to tell her. At the same time though, there had been no good reason or opportunity to tell her.

**

And surely enough, we had only just started hopping to the next tholos on our list when Hestia approached me.

“So, the Heroes of Elysium?” she asked.

“Yes,” I said. “That's our plan.”

“It's a good plan,” she said. “But why didn't anyone tell me?”

“Sorry,” I said. “We weren't keeping it from you or anything, it just never came up.”

She seemed relieved. “I'd been worried you didn't trust me.”

“Why would I not trust you?”

“Lot of treachery going around right now, isn't there?” she said. “At least one traitor among the gods, a traitor in the royal family, and who knows who that last person in her entourage ends up being.”

I pressed my lips together. I was worried about that as well. Just because Ares didn't recognize him didn't mean we wouldn't. But that wasn't the only thing I was worried about. The Holy Maiden. Or rather, the body she was puppeteering. I took a deep breath and then decided to place a bit of trust in the goddess of the hearth. “In the spirit of not keeping anything from you, there's something you need to know about this Holy Maiden.”

“I'm all ears,” Hestia said.

I told her. Everything. About how powerful the Holy Maiden had to be and about whose body she was occupying. Hestia just listened, not interrupting, and only when I finished did she speak up.

“Thank you for confiding in me,” she said. “I will do my best to repay that trust. I'll make sure not to harm her body if I can help it. Shame, too, because I really want to immolate someone for what happened here.”

“You can go wild on her entourage,” I suggested.

“I'm planning to,” she said.

We hopped a bit longer in companionable silence before I said: “So I was a little impressed with how you talked to Demeter. Your scolding actually gave her a bit of pause.”

“We're sisters,” Hestia said. “I'm one of the very few people who can get away with talking to her like that without causing her to think up some sort of blood feud. I'm still annoyed at how petty she was, though. The world is at stake and she won't help because the wrong people are trying to save it.”

“Welcome to my life,” I said. “I've been dealing with that for ten years.”

“We truly haven't been treating you fairly, have we?” she said and I waved it off.

“Too late to start now for most of you,” I said. “Her especially.”

“Considering what happened between you and Athena I would say it's never too late,” she said, “but yes, Demeter will never budge. Thankfully it doesn't really matter if Demeter hates you because she hates most everybody.”

I snorted.

“So, what about Melinoe?” she asked.

“Huh?” I answered eloquently.

“What are your intentions with her?”

“What kinds of intentions are you talking about?” I asked. “When we're done here I'm going to confront her about why I keep finding her cuddled up to my girls, that's my intention.”

“So it's like that, huh?” Hestia said cryptically.

“What's that supposed to mean?”

Instead of answering Hestia pointed forward and said: “Eyes up front.”

I turned my gaze back toward the tholos and saw what Hestia wanted me to see. It wasn't so much that there were goblins in the tholos. It wasn't even that the rock plateau the tholos was on was teeming with goblins. All around the rock plateau was a veritable horde of goblins, all babbling in their strange nonsense tongue, shoving and pushing each other in an attempt to get closer to the stairs leading up the plateau.

“Gods above,” I breathed. I absolutely did not want to know what all these goblins were doing with Aphrodite and Hephaestus. A small group of goblins was bad enough but this was practically an army of the little shits.

“Yeah,” Alisha said as we all slowed down to look at the spectacle.

“So Hestia,” I said, loud enough that everyone could hear me, “you said you wanted to immolate something?”

Hestia chuckled. “Leave this to me.”

And so the cute shortstack goddess stepped up. It was a good thing I'd discovered the hopping technique when I did because Hestia trudging through these clouds looked positively ridiculous, her legs so short they damn near disappeared in the sea of clouds.

But that aura of cuteness faded away with every step and by the time she was in a position to unleash her power she felt like a completely different entity. For all of her cuteness, for all of her antics and her short stature and her frankly ridiculous boobs this woman was still sister to Zeus, Hades and Poseidon and she had powers to match. A heat mirage surrounded her body, not an aura but a sheer expression of her Qi, and her voice reverberated with power as she spoke: “Drive out the invaders, Purify!”

A circle of flame snapped into existence around the goblins, the flames red and orange and glittering in the most bizarre but beautiful way. The circle shrank slowly, engulfing more and more of the goblins as it went, leaving piles of white ash in its wake that scattered across the clouds. The ring of fire only stopped when it hit the rock plateau but by that time the clouds were completely free of goblins.

The goddess of the hearth turned around, her eyes shimmering with the flames she had conjured up. At that moment she didn't look cute or silly. She looked like a deity of vengeance, swift and terrible. And that was what she was. She was a silly little girl at times, she was a virgin with ridiculous curves, but she was also the goddess of the hearth, and Fates save you if you violated the sanctity of another's hearth.

And then the illusion shattered. Her eyes went back to their normal blue color and she asked: “Pretty cool, huh?”, before her knees wobbled and I rushed to catch her.

**

Hestia's miracle had not only cleared the goblins that had been waiting on the clouds but also the goblins on the stairs, leaving our way up to the tholos completely free. Of course we knew we'd be in for another fight up there but most of the work was already done.

As we ascended the stairs we heard the sounds of sex, the slapping of flesh, the groans and grunts, all punctuated by the jabbering of goblins, the rattling of chains and also the voices of a man and a woman. After what had been done to Demeter I was terrified of what we would find up there but we couldn't delay for such a stupid reason.

And then we found out exactly what had been done to Aphrodite and Hephaestus.

Their tholos was a single structure for two completely different deities and it showed. Unlike every other tholos this one actually had a solid stone wall on one side, the outside of which held Hephaestus' smithy. It made perfect sense as you wouldn't want that inside your living structure. As his smithy was located outside the tholos, most of the interior had clearly been decorated by Aphrodite. An absolutely enormous bed took up almost half of the interior, with a large recliner angled to have a perfect view of the bed. What little space there was left in the tholos was taken up by racks of weapons on one side and a large armoire and wardrobe on the other. And then there were the occupants of the structure.

Aphrodite was usually a gorgeous creature, easily the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. Even with how incredible all my women were, there was no comparison. Aphrodite was the epitome of beauty. There were a few beings that could take on forms of pure, perfect, heart-stopping beauty but none of them could hold a candle to Aphrodite either. All of those creatures were too perfect, too pure. They looked like statues, like someone had tried to capture the essence of beauty in a lifeless medium. Aphrodite was just as beautiful as those but infinitely more alive and vibrant, more sensual than any of them.

She had curly red hair all the way down to her navel and her eyes were the most vibrant shade of green. Everything else about her I can barely describe. Her face was perfect, gorgeous and expressive, her nose slightly upturned, her lips full and inviting. Her curves were perfect, her breasts just the right size, her hips just wide enough, her waist just thin enough. Her skin was flawless and her complexion just a shade pinker than alabaster. At least, that's what she usually looked like.

She had clearly been tortured, cuts and whip marks all over her body, black and blue and green bruises adorning her flawless skin. Around her neck was a massive iron collar, looking so solid that I had to wonder if it had been forged around her neck like that. The collar connected to four massive chains haphazardly embedded into the floor of the tholos, shards of marble scattered around where they had been hammered into the ground. This contraption held Aphrodite in place at the center of the massive bed, and a dozen goblins was using her immobilized state to torment her, rutting into her body and poking her wounds. But the most prominent feature about her was that she was heavily, heavily pregnant, her belly swollen and her bellybutton bulging out.

I idly wondered why she even had a bellybutton in the first place when she had been born from Ouranous' severed manhood being tossed into the ocean but this really wasn't the time for that question. Right now Aphrodite was bouncing up and down on a goblin's tiny prick while another rutted into her ass and two more were forcing her to work their shafts with her hands. And the goblins seemed to be slightly bemused by the fact that Aphrodite wasn't broken or horrified at the treatment. Instead she seemed at least somewhat into it, moving her body with as much sensuality as she was capable of with her belly as swollen as it was.

Several feet away from the bed was Hephaestus, wrapped in dozens of loops of heavy chains and then bound to a pillory for good measure.

Under normal circumstances Hephaestus was a good-looking man, tall and muscular. There was a rumor floating around about Hephaestus being a hideous hunchback but even before I had first met the guy I had always thought those were rumors strewn by Ares to discredit the man who had landed the woman he had fancied. After meeting him I'd had to adjust my opinion a little bit. Hephaestus was ugly... for an Olympian. All of the Olympians had a level of beauty that mortals simply couldn't match, some quality that made them look just a little more perfect than mortals were capable of. Compared to that Hephaestus was indeed not the most handsome guy but compared to most mortals he was still a handsome bastard. His muscles were less perfectly sculpted than those of Zeus, Hades or Ares, looking more like the muscles gained from physical labor. He also had a bit of a squint, caused by his work as a blacksmith. But other than that the man was handsome. He had long brown hair and an equally long beard, his eyes a shade of brown that would have been unremarkable if not for the inexplicable vibrancy that was unique to the gods, that vibrancy absent from the eye that had the squint. But as handsome as he was, right now he, too, was looking quite a bit worse for wear.

A group of goblins was taking turns jabbing him with spears or using metal rods heated in his own forge to brand nonsensical scribbles into his flesh. But just like Aphrodite he didn't seem too bothered by it.

Both deities only had eyes for each other.

“How do their little pricks feel?” Hephaestus asked in his deep, rumbling voice. He didn't sound upset. He sounded like a man talking dirty with his wife.

“Mmhh...” Aphrodite moaned, clearly playing it up for his benefit. “Nowhere near as good as yours. I wish you were fucking me instead...”

“Don't worry, baby. Once I'm out of here I'm going to fuck you so good. You'll forget all about these tiny little shits.”

“Oh yes!” she shrieked, coming on the goblin cocks jabbing into her.

Well, this was certainly a state to find them in. But it made sense. Another rumor mostly strewn by Ares stated that Aphrodite had nothing but scorn for Hephaestus but that rumor was so much bullshit. While it was true that she slept around on him, this was by mutual consent. He slept around as well because this was their way of keeping their marriage fresh. No matter how many mortal dalliances they had they always ended up back in each other's arms.

But someone had clearly believed those rumors. This had clearly been meant as a way to break both of them, to force Hephaestus to watch as his beautiful bride was violated in front of him over and over again, to force Aphrodite to have an audience while the goblins did unspeakable things to her, but clearly whoever had thought this up hadn't expected the two of them to turn this into a bizarre kind of foreplay, to be each other's rocks while they were being tortured.

Still, though, even if these two had found a way to withstand this torture without it breaking them, there was no way I would let them suffer the tender mercy of these goblins a moment longer.

I drew Helios Edge and advanced on the goblins.