Quick Fate Chain Jump 3: Fate/Legends - Empires of Antiquity Starting Time: The Roman Emperors - 753BCE - 48CE Origin: Creator Age: 24 Gender: Female Perks >Roman Holiday -Free >Her Majesty's Majesty -100 ** >Rome Is Beautiful -200 ** >Divinely Charming -200 ** >Witch In Training -Free >Once Every Century (Singing) -Free >Medical Mage -Free >Little Echidna -100 ** >Formulation -200 ** >Tool Creation -300 ** >Top Five -300 ** >Omnipotence, So They Say -300 ** >Grecian Idol (Female) -200 ** Items >House of the Witch -Free Companions >Canon Companion: Nero -50 ** >Canon Companion: Medea -50 ** Drawbacks >Born Artist +100 ** >Largesse of an Emperor +100 ** >Lose Your Way +100 ** >Young Herackles +200 ** >Hero Hunted +200 ** >Greek Tragedy +300 ** Scenarios >Twelve Labours --------------------- For some decades, the Goddess journeyed-first heading back to visit the lands she first called her home. There she met the Little Shadow and her pet Sphinx, who still lived on that mountain, guiding and building a sect of assassins who helped work towards peace. She spent some years with her adopted daughter, but eventually moved on once again; wanderlust had taken root in her soul, and she wished to see more of the world. She traveled northwest, seeking something new...and she found it, in the lands of Greece, fading. The goddess tasted the still-powerful yet fading auras of the Greek Gods in the air, the mana of the world, and saw the tales and wills of the land. This, she decided, was where she would spend her time for the next few centuries. Drawing upon both her Enlightenment and her Authority of Humanity, she drank deep of the Legends of this land, the Human spirit and will that suffused this place, and allowed her body to be remade and reborn once more. It was more than she was expecting, more than she had taken last time...in an aurora of light that stained the sky from one end of the Mediterranean to the other, the Goddess's previous form was obliterated in a wave of light and joyful life-leaving naught but a glowing pearl that was her immortal, unbreakable Divine Core buried deep underground. Years, then decades would pass as the Goddess's Divine Core slumbered, changes and powers twisting and developing within. Perhaps if left alone, the Goddess would have been reborn swiftly and with greater power than ever. Yet, the native Deities of the Mediterranean were slighted by a foreign Deity intruding on their land and doing...SOMETHING that nobody could quite figure out. They excavated her Divine Core and attempted to shatter it...but no matter what they did, it could not be so much as scratched. Growing frustrated, the Gods began to layer curse upon curse onto the Divine Core in hopes that SOMETHING would stick. From the greatest curses of tragedy and grand trials that could be mustered to minor curses of poor artistic skills and a corpulent frame, they threw everything at the wall in hopes of getting something to stick. When they could only get a few such curses to stick, the gods finally decided that if they could not destroy it or curse it into oblivion, then they would seal it away. A grand labyrinth was constructed in the land where the Goddess's Divine Core was first found, warded to Hades and back to prevent escape save for through the entrance itself-and only that so that it was possible for the gods to leave and enter mid-construct to continue their work. A grand guardian beast, no lesser to the Minotaur, was created specifically to guard the labyrinth and ensure that the Goddess would never leave it. Finally the Divine Core was placed in the deepest point of the labyrinth, as far from the entrance as possible. All this assured the gods that the foreign deity would remain trapped and helpless forever. After the gods' many efforts, it would be deeply distressing for them to realize that the Foreign Goddess had recorporated a mere year after they completed their labyrinth. In the year 753 BCE, the Goddess awoke in a strange labyrinth, deep underground. Calling up a bit of light with a flex of magic, the Goddess paused and considered her nearly unconscious action. She investigated the glowing orb of light, and could mentally break down the exact mathematical formula that allowed for such a phenomenon at the highest posible efficiency...and the Goddess smiled. Though it came with a few...complications, her ad-hoc ritual worked. Then she frowned, feeling the mass of curses that were also infesting her form. Her corpulence was honestly the least of them; she had learned well from Jinako how to make decadence look good, and it was even rather enjoyable in its own way every now and again. Combined with her own natural beauty and abilities, it was hardly a footnote. The curse of misfortune and trials, though...those were far greater. And then...there was also her reincarnated state. Though she had recorporated, she had done so in an immature state; it would take her decades to grow back to her full power. If she was lucky, that was. Deeply annoying, that. Sighing to herself, the Goddess decided that the only thing there really was to do was to get out of this underground dungeon she'd found herself in and work on redeveloping herself. Merely getting out of the first room was a chore-it was locked up with divine sealing magics, with just a singular weakpoint in its "exit" that had obviously been all but boarded up to the gods best abilities. If the Goddess had her full power she could've torn through these defenses in an instant, she felt...but alas, she was barely running on fractions. It took her hours to work up a proper force-multiplying spell matrix with her newfound formulation knowledge and magical skill in order to muster the force necessary to burst open the door...opening the way to the rest of the labyrinth, and awakening the labyrinth's guardian. For weeks, the Goddess wandered the labyrinth with nothing but her own voice and magicks for company. She had no need for food or drink-it was effortless for her to conjure these things if she desired, but simply didn't require them in the first place. Company would have been nice, but she was a Deity; unlike a genuine human, she could stand as an island and live entirely antisocially for all time if she desired. Left to her own devices, the Goddess simply continued to explore her new capabilities-such as she could when they were reduced to such levels with her form's immaturity. An innate talent for biomorphic powers...an in-born talent for learning and development...a whole new language that she had only mastered a few words of so far, which promised to massively enhance the speed of her magicks...hints of manifold systems of magic, lurking within her subconscious yet not fully integrated yet. Her attempts to explore and enhance her newfound abilities were interrupted by a strange and monstrous beast appearing in her path, which immediately sought to strike her down. Had she her full powers, she would have hardly given a second thought to the beast...but she didn't; she barely had fractions of her true strength to work with. Barely managing to deflect the beast's strikes and feeling the force passing through the dispersal defense that her enlightenment provided her, she grimaced. The truth of things was that, amongst legendary figures, she was honestly one of the least skilled fighters out there. Her forte was in crafting weapons, weaving magics, and overwhelming might...not actually /fighting/. With a growl she poured magical energy into her body, swelling her muscles grotesquely, and struck back at the beast in a single grand attack...knocking it back and stunning it for several seconds. Time that the Goddess used to realize what exactly she just did, and figure out how to take advantage of this new skill. Reverting the change, she swiftly began to weave energy into her body into new patterns. A moment later the beast got back up, and battle recommenced...except this time, the Goddess's body was shifting and changing almost chaotically as each second passed. Her ample frame provided plenty of mass to work with, and her great knowledge of biology and magic allowed her to weave great changes in practically no time at all; her form became less of a human and more of a shifting mass as she tried to refine and evolve a "combat form" that could defeat this beast. From sleek, serpentine forms, jabbing insectile forms, armored crablike forms, and more-the Goddess threw everything she could at the wall in an attempt to get /some/ sort of advantage against the inhuman monster she was battling. Some forms even synergized with her enlightenment, increasing its power of dispersion...yet oftentimes those forms were too cumbersome to actually make use of, leaving her open to many more attacks than she would have liked. Some changes were beneficial; many changes were detrimental. It wasn't a slow and steady mystical evolution, but a frantic and chaotic one that took what advantages it could and damned the rest...and of course, it did nothing for her mystical capabilities. But against this brute beast, it was enough. Hours of frantic combat, pushing her strength, speed, and durability up through evolutionary twists and turns, and finally the Goddess managed to defeat the labyrinth beast. Standing over its corpse and venting steam out of several holes in her body, the Goddess slowly consolidated her state and began to compress her evolutions back into a human form...only to pause when she saw the beast fade away in motes of blue light. This wouldn't be the last she saw of it, she realized. The labyrinth would bring it back again and again, and so long as she remained trapped within she'd have to fight it again and again. Annoying. For months, the Goddess travelled through the labyrinth. As she travelled she diligently worked to evolve her body and practice her magic; these two things were her greatest tools while in this immature state, and she would make as much use of them as she could. As her knowledge and skill with manipulating magic grew, the speed and skill with which she could manipulate her body grew as well...but it wasn't enough to easily match the labyrinth beast. It would take several encounters before she managed to defeat it in a way that wasn't simply death by a thousand cuts and barely managing to survive in the meanwhile, and several more before she could actively fight on equal grounds with it. Finally, after nearly two years of wandering and battling the eternally-reviving labyrinth beast, the Goddess managed to escape to the world above. Feeling the sun on her face for the first time since she was recorporated was a truly fantastic feeling. Of course the moment was ruined as divine lightning struck down before her. "I see you have escaped your imprisonment, Foreign Deity." A booming voice resounded. From the divine lightning emerged Zeus, the Chief God of the Greek Pantheon. Frowning, the Goddess glared at the albino deity before her. "So you're one of the ones who trapped me underground and cursed me." She stated, though Zeus nodded regardless. "You tresspass upon these lands, Foreign Deity. This is the least of punishments we could have dispensed upon you." Zeus thundered. "Big words for a guy who put all this time and effort into screwing over the life of a random traveller while they're indisposed." The Goddess answered back. "So, I'm going to say this once: remove your curses, and we can go our separate ways happily. I won't even retaliate against the bullshit you set on me, and didn't have any intention of messing with your pantheon anyways." "You dare to command ME!" Zeus roared, divine lightning crackling around him. "I had intended to spare you and make you my concubine, but now you must be punished!" With a roar, Zeus sent his divine lightning crashing towards the Goddess. The world burnt white for several seconds...and then the light faded, revealing the Goddess still standing there and wielding a strange shield of black and white. "Strike one." The Goddess stated. She reached through a mystic spatial fold and pulled out a massive golden spear, longer than a man. "I may be weakened, but don't you dare consider me a helpless toy." Eyeing the massive spear, which even Zeus could sense held unfathomable power within it, the Chief God forcibly calmed himself and returned to a more neutral glaring state. "Your curses shall not be removed." Zeus stated. "Now that you have awoken and your Divine Core is no longer exposded, the power to remove these curses is beyond all but yourself-and even then, you would require power which surpasses the sum of the whol of my pantheon. No, your curses shall last eternal." "Figures." The Goddess muttered, putting away her shield...but not her spear. That, she kept out. Just in case. "Why have you come then, deity?" "I stated it before; I have come to take you as my concubine." Zeus stated, expression unchanging. "Your appearance is pleasing; you shall come with me to Olympus and pleasure me for a thousand years as penance for trespassing upon these lands." "Strike two." The Goddess stated. "Not only do I prefer women, but I have done no wrong in travelling-in fact, it is you and your pantheon who have wronged I. Demanding compensation for sins that exist only in your mind only...step carefully, deity. I will not brook a third insult." Zeus snorted, and unleashed his Authority as a Chief God. Without hesitation the Goddess released her own Authority as a Goddess of Humanity and called upon her Enlightenment to supercede Zeus's Authority...yet Zeus's power still resonated with the curses resting inside of the Goddess's Divine Core. She did not change her expression, but merely increased the pressure of her own power to battle against Zeus's. "You will submit, Foreigner." Zeus stated, not angrily, but merely as a fact. "Never, and certainly not to you." The Goddess answered back. In the sky far above Greece, far above the atmosphere, far above the planet, a fist of solidified spacetime began to form. "Do not blame me for what I'm about to do; you are the one who struck first." Just before the fist formed from the Goddess's enlightenment began to descend upon the planet, a voice interrupted the two gods. "Wait, wait!" A female voice interrupted. In a burst of prismatic light a female goddess appeared between the two deities, pushing their Authorities back with a working of magic rather than her own Authority. "There's no need to fight here! Please, don't act so rashly!" Hecate pleaded. Zeus stopped, and breathed harshly out of his nose before turning away. "I grow bored of this." He stated simply, before disappearing in a flash of light. Hecate sighed a little bit at that, relieved. "So...who are you?" The Goddess asked, letting go of her Enlightenment-formed fist and at last putting her god-killing spear away. "I'm...I'm the Divine Spirit Hecate." Hecate introduced herself. "I'm sorry to say, but I'm one of the ones who cursed you-along with the other Olympians, our pantheon. I didn't want to, but..." The Goddess sighed, but nodded in understanding. "With such a Chief God, I suppose this sort of thing can be forgiven." In truth, she didn't really believe Hecate's excuses; it's probably just her trying to save her own ass...but truthfully the Goddess was a deeply forgiving person and would happily take this chance to begin befriending Hecate. It didn't hurt that the divine spirit was quite attractive. "So tell me-you know what that last curse was? It felt like some form of enslavement, mixed in with the Mystery of the land itself." Hecate nodded her head, and began to explain. "That is the Labours of Herakles; twelve feats so astounding in both their scope and accomplishment that they've been etched into the foundation of the Human Order. By calling upon those legends, we weaved a Curse of Trials upon you; the curse draws upon the power of the Human Order to enforce your servitude to the Olympians, as Herakles was commanded by the Olympians to fulfill his Labours. It also manifests the Labours themselves once again as binding pillars; so long as those pillars exist, the Curse of Trials will remain. That's both its strength and weakness; the Labours are basically impossible to accomplish, but if you accomplish all of them then not only will the curse of servitude break, but it will actively transform into a protective force that works to preserve your life to an incredible degree!" The Goddess nodded, following along and considering the curse. It was incredibly powerful, especially against divine beings considering the waning of the Age of Gods. Further, it drew upon the power of Humanity itself...considering that she was the Goddess of Humanity, it practically dug directly into her own Authority and turned its power against her. No wonder it was so hard to resist. "So, what are the Trials anyways?" She asked. Hecate began to explain, and the Goddess sighed to herself. Well, it PROBABLY wouldn't be as time-consuming as wandering across India for half a millennia. Eager to escape the grasp of the Olympians, the Goddess journeyed to Nemea to begin the first Labour. As she traveled, Hecate travelled alongside her, seemingly genuinely remorseful...if it wasn't for the fact that the Goddess could see through all illusions, she would even believe it. It helped that Hecate truly did feel guilt for her actions...that, and she was willing to give magic lessons while they travelled. Once the two arrived at Nemea, the real issue of the Labours revealed itself: the Olympians were not content with "merely" nigh-impossible tasks ensuring the Goddess's subjugation. No, they had to add even more challenge to it. Zeus had blessed the reborn Nemean Lion with a unique aura of lightning; all living things that came into contact with the Lion would be sapped of all strength, anything artificial would be continuously blasted by the lightning until it fell apart, and of course any mystical manipulations on it directly would be blasted apart similarly. Combined with the Lion's already invulnerable skin, and the trial seemed flat-out impossible. For two weeks the Goddess deliberated on how exactly to accomplish the task of slaying and then skinning the Lion...and it was as she was observing a spider that she attained inspiration. It took her a week of careful biomanipulation to her own body to generate the spinneretes and glands needed to enact her plan, but before a month had passed the Goddess was ready. Weaved between her fingers was a golden thread, produced from her own body by natural processes yet possessing no life once created. Not only was the thread that the Goddess created a truly absurd material, but the spinnerets in her arms weaved it in such a way that it massively enhanced the material's already ridiculous strength. Wielding these golden webs, the Goddess hunted down the Nemean Lion and proceeded to trap it in golden webs. The lightning was conducted safely through the webs, doing them no harm as they were perfectly natural and non-magical despite their fantastic origins-and the webs retained their ridiculous strength thanks to the fact that they were non-living. With ropes of golden thread weaved directly from her body, the Goddess strangled the Nemean Lion then cocooned it up, completing the First Labour as she brought it back to the Temple of Zeus in Nemea. Or at least, that's what she thought...but the Labour itself wasn't completed until the Lion had been sacrificed to the appropriate deity-in this case, Zeus. Out of pride and defiance, the Goddess simply outright refused to sacrifice anything to the Olympians, and so was seemingly stuck... Once more, inspiration struck. This curse ultimately drew upon the Human Order to manifest, and she was the Goddess of humanity. Harnessing her Authority-which had grown somewhat more mature from this adventure-she worked a great weaving of magic around herself and the temple of Zeus, and then proceeded to slowly and steadily consume the Nemean Lion. The Curse was fooled into believing that she was sacrificing the Lion to "a divinity", and thanks to her location believed that divinity to be "Zeus", when in truth she was taking the Lion's strength into herself to feed the curse and undo the first binding pillar. Thunder raged in the skies as Zeus realized the deception and the Goddess's escape from sacrificing to him, but the deed was already done: the Goddess had begun to escape from her Curse of Servitude, and had found a way out of sacrificing anything at all to the Olympians. Later on, Hecate asked the Goddess, "Why not just sacrifice to Zeus?" The Goddess's answer came swiftly. "Call me vain or arrogant, but the simple fact is that I refuse to bow to Zeus in any shape or form. And from him, the rest of the Olympians by proxy. In truth I'm not a particularly vengeful goddess, but even I have my limits; being forced to give thanks to deities who actively hindered and cursed me is far beyond those limits." Hecate nodded, pursing her lips but holding her tongue, and the two goddesses continued to journey across the land. As the two travelled next to Lerna, several different heroes and adventurers encountered them along the path. "The Lightning King's Consort!" They would exclaim as they spotted the Goddess-which, of course, ticked said Goddess off quite a bit. What sort of rumors had Zeus spread about her anyways?! Each of these ""heroes"" hunted her for different reasons; one man hunted her for the golden webs she spun, another hunted her as part of a quest to prove her valor, yet another hunted her...purely to bed her, as she was regaled as the most beautiful being in all of the Mediterranean. By and large the Goddess dealt with these heroes non-lethally; for some, she simply spun the into webs that would dissolve harmlessly later and left them be. Others she actively sat down (after capturing them) and worked her way through whatever it was that they needed to slay her for, and helped them find a different path. For those "heroes" who wished to bed her, she gave her own unique tasks and forged a mystical promise to agree to spend a night with them should they complete said tasks-nothing more. She would not marry them or become their consorts, but a single night with a transcendent beauty like the Goddess was enough to drive men mad regardless. And hey-after spending centuries with Kiara and Kama, she had a very free view of love and pleasure. Of course, she wouldn't simply give potentially lethal tasks to these "heroes" and then just send them on their way-she wasn't an Olympian, after all. To each such hero who undertook her trials in an attempt to bed her, the Goddess gave them a Favor-a unique trinket forged by her own hands, bound to the soul of the trial-taker. Into each Favor she granted unique traits and powers that suited the trial she would assign each "hero", as well as special defenses; a defense against mental manipulations came standard, a defense against mystical twisting of the body, and a barrier formed such that it would disperse attacks that were guaranteed to take the trial-taker's life and turn them into mystical force that would push the trial-taker far away instead. Each such trinket was a new exercise of the Goddess's creative abilities so she was happy to craft them, and each such trinket also held within it the mystical contract that guided and guaranteed the trial-taker's night with the Goddess if they completed their trial so they were happy to carry them. With such boons, the trial-takers felt as if they would be guaranteed to pass the Goddess's trials...at least up until the Goddess assigned the trials themselves. Just as the Goddess granted great boons at the drop of a hat, she also assigned horrendously grand trials-each tailored to the weaknesses of the trial-goers, and designed to help them grow and develop as people. Over the course of the next several years, exactly two people would complete the Goddess's trials, and both of them by pure accident. Returning to the present, the two deities arrived in Lerna where the Hydra Reborn was awaiting them. Just as with the Nemian Lion however, the Hydra had been blessed by the Olympians specifically to counter the Goddess's abilities; from its body dripped an acid that would consume any non-living solid, and the blessings of Apollo ensured that no amount of heat would so much as irritate the Hydra's skin. Its wounds could not be burned closed, and any form of tool-natural or not-was utterly useless against the beast. Unfortunately for the Olympians, the Goddess realized that they left a massive weakness in the Hydra-out of ignorance or arrogance, she couldn't be sure...but she would absolutely take advantage of it. Shedding her clothing, the Goddess roared to the heavens and launched herself at the Hydra. With clawed hands she tore rents into its body...and Hecate gasped, watching as the Hydra failed to regenerate. With a mighty heave the Goddess ripped one of the Hydra's heads off, and nothing grew in its place-a seeming impossibility. Fighting like a mad beast, the Goddess tore the Hydra apart in a fierce battle until all the was left was a singular living decapitated head which lacked a concept of death-the Immortal Hydra Head. Pulling a series of rings off of her arms, the Goddess expanded the rings into golden loops of light that surrounded the head...and then proceeded to shred it in a twisting of mystical power that tore a hole right through the Texture and revealed Truth/Nonexistence to the head, ending that which lacked the capacity to end. The hole closed immediately afterwards and the Goddess replaced the rings back onto her arms, where they merged and became nothing but unique tattoos once again. "How...what...what was all of that?!" Hecate shouted, finally voicing her questions. The Goddess grinned. "I'm originally from Sumeria, you know?" She began. "And back there, we had a sect of assassins who studied Death so deeply that their leader was less of a human being and more of a humanoid incarnation of the very concept of Death. Had, because they decided my existence was blasphemy and decided to try and kill me. They failed of course, and I had to kill them all. I learned a lot from fighting them though!" Everything she said was true...but also a lie. She did not use assassination arts of the Hashshashin to slay the Hydra. She merely exploited the opening left by the Olympians in the Hydra's defense: it had no specific defenses against mystical attacks. By injecting her own mana into every attack, she was able to force slapdash alterations to the Hydra's biology as she fought it-forcibly keeping wounds from regenerating or heads from growing, for instance. She didn't say this to Hecate however, because she still didn't fully trust the Divine Spirit-and so instead, she shared some of her battles against the Hashshashin and their myriad strange and potent abilities. Unfortunately, the Goddess was right to distrust Hecate. It was no coincidence that the Hind of Ceryneia was blessed by Artemis to be immune to all manner of poisons, sympathetic manipulation magics, and even effects of music. The Goddess had never even displayed her Authority of Song in this land, only mentioning one of the strange abilities of the ancient Hashshashin-one of which was a unique song magic which could disorient or even kill with just a hum. Of course, these new defenses also included adaptations of older ones; special winds surrounded the deer that made anyything without both vital and magical energy imbued into it slip right off. Upon seeing these new defenses, the Goddess could only sigh. She had fully expected this, but she had still hoped... Under normal circumstances, capturing the Hind of Ceryneia without harming it would be a trial for the ages. Even without its current divine blessings the hind had supernatural stamina, able to run at blinding speeds for nearly a whole year without a single drop of water or mouthful of food. Only by continuously chasing it down for a full year could Herakles originally have managed to exhaust the beast enough to corner it, and even then was forced to shoot it at the last moment so that he could actually capture it. After several months of adventuring and her previous Labours, the Goddess had managed to refine her body enough that she felt that she could easily match that feat...but, she would not reduce herself to chasing a deer across the Mediterranean for a full year. No, she would end this in just a single night. She was still less than a tenth of her full power, perhaps less than a fifteenth...but she was still a Goddess from the earliest ages of the world. And the body that she had refined with mystical power, her own skills in magic, and all that she had experienced, allowed her to achieve this much with ease. The Goddess centered herself, calling upon her enlightenment, her knowledge of the world, the language that the world itself spoke, and her Authority of Song...and began to Sing. Mystical power flowed out of her like water from a river as she Sang, and the entirety of the entirety of Ceryneia seemed to twist and writhe under the Goddess's will. It wasn't the Song that was providing power-no, the Song was merely the communication and amplification of the power. This was the power of Authority, of commanding the World and forcing it to comply with one's will. This was the power of a truly primordial Deity, reduced though it was. Ripped through space and time, the Ceryneian Hind was forcibly manifested in front of the Goddess, shackled with chains formed from the night sky itself. No matter how the Hind struggled it could not escape; these chains were formed from the very essence of the World, and were filled with both the World's vitality and the Goddess's mana. With a final note a celestial leash was formed, connecting to the shackles on the Ceryneian Hind and held in the Goddess's hand. The Goddess wiped a few drops of sweat from her brow and allowed her power to fade as she held the captured Hind. Not only had she caught it in a single night, she caught it with just a single song. Not bad for a deity operating with less than seven percent of her power! Of course, such an expression of power couldn't go unanswered. Within moments Artemis had descended from the heavens, divine bow in her hand and a frown on her face. "So you're the source of that disturbance..." She murmured, before her eyes lit with understanding. "Ah, you're Zeus's latest consort!" Without even a millisecond's hesitation The Goddess launched a blast of divine power at Artemis, powerful enough to level a small village. Artemis panicked and deflected the blast with her bow, only managing to knock it into the sky where it exploded with enough force to briefly turn night into day. As if she hadn't attempted to kill a deity, The Goddess proceeded to speak. "I am not Zeus's consort, and would much prefer if you avoid referring to me as such." She said, voice calm and face serene. Shaking her head very quickly, Artemis answered, "Alright, alright, miss scary foreign goddess! So...hey, why DID you release all that power earlier, anyways?" The goddess of the hunt looked around a bit-and finally noticed the semi-divine deer caught in celestial chains. "Oh hey-that's my pet deer! I thought she died centuries ago-oh, OH! I get it!" The Goddess nodded. "I'm currently completing the Labours to remove my curses." She confirmed. "And you decided to do my Labour first since it would be the easiest with divine powers, right?" Artemis asked. The Goddess shook her head, and a creeping suspicion began to prickle at her thoughts. Artemis hadn't even been aware that the Goddess had been completing the Labours-and considering she hadn't been aware that the previous Labours had been completed AT ALL, wouldn't have the knowledge to tailor her blessings to protect the Hind. It was apparently semi-common knowledge that Zeus sought to enslave her, but not that she was attempting to escape her chains...a new wave of disappointment washed over the Goddess. It was almost certain that Hecate was following her around exclusively to increase the difficulty of these Labours. Whether it was on Zeus's orders or the like was unclear, but it was disappointing nevertheless. The Goddess did not voice these thoughts and instead simply said "No; the Labours need to be done in order for the curse to unravel properly. With this I have completed a fourth of the Labours." Artemis nodded in understanding, but then frowned. "If this is the third Labour you completed, why did I only sense you now?" She asked. "This is the only Labour that I harnessed my Authority and divine power to pass so far; for the others, my physical abilities and mortal magics were enough. In truth, I probably didn't need to use my Authority for a task like this either, but..." The Goddess trailed off; it was mostly impatience that inspired such blatant actions, she had to admit. Artemis, however, took it an entirely different way. "The urge to flex your powers while you still can IS pretty tempting, I know. But the Age of Gods is winding down; we need to preserve our power as long as we can. If Atlantis had never been destroyed, things might be way different, but..." Artemis sighed, slumping. That...was another difference between The Goddess and other Divine Spirits. She had been born as a kind of Liminal Goddess, as one of her main Authorities was the very concept of Humanity itself. Through this Authority, and through her Authority of Artifice to rebuild her own Divine Core and body in her early years in an attempt to increase her own power, the Goddess was immune to the waning of the Age of Gods. In fact, she had only grown stronger-her Enlightenment and learning of the Sage Arts, her mastery of magic and growing crafting skills...each wasn't much on its own, but they were compounding such that her power was continuously growing as the ages passed. The "her" of this age, if she was at her full power, would effortlessly defeat the "her" of when she was born. And that simply went against the very nature of Deities. Deities had a set amount of power, set Authorities and capabilities. They could be swollen somewhat with human worship, but as the Age of Gods waned it was simply the natural order of things that the power of the Gods waned with it-in fact, it was the very nature of the world itself in many ways. As the ages passed, Mystery began to drain away and die out, and the world grew weaker. An average man from the city of Uruk would easily equal the physical prowess of the "heroes" of the modern era, and as time passed that weakness would only continue to grow. There existed just one exception to this rule: The Goddess of Humanity. Her power didn't rely on Mystery-instead, it drew from the Human Order. Her power at birth had been preserved and crystallized as a fundamental part of Humanity itself, and each time she "attuned" herself she gained even greater power-as she allowed more power from the Human Order to flow into her Divine Core and crystallize within. For this reason, the Goddess of Humanity was an abberation. She had always known she didn't belong amongst the Divine, and due to her existence as a Goddess she didn't belong amongst Humanity. It was a ditchotomy that plagued the Goddess for many centuries, but which she had come to terms with in India... Only to be suddenly reminded of the fact that this sort of angst was honestly the best possible result for her, compared to other Deities. She didn't have to worry about her powers waning as time passed and her possible dissolution back into Gaia, after all. In fact, once the Age of Gods ended, she would basically be the strongest being in existence and be able to enjoy herself without a care. That...was actually something she had never considered. At the very least, she wouldn't have to worry about her loved ones. Her Little Shadow was granted unique trinkets and blessings forged to the best of her abilities; they would stave off death and old age for all eternity and were connected to the very concept of death to do so, so as long as Death existed they would continue to operate just fine. To Kiara she had crafted an infinite jug of Soma, which would leave her youthful forever as well-and her power was innately human rather than divine, so it wouldn't wane with the ages. Kama actually seemed to operate on similar principles to the Goddess of Humanity herself; she manifested as "Humanity's Desires", and drew power that way. As long as humanity continue to desire things, she'd be just fine. So she wouldn't exactly be ALONE in her power as the ages passed, the Goddess considered. Pushing such thoughts aside, the Goddess was able to peacefully send Artemis away after giving her the Hind of Ceryneia-and thus completing the Labour. Though The Goddess was sympathetic to Artemis-and other Deity's-plights...well, the Olympians in particular had screwed The Goddess over pretty hard. She wasn't about to do something like extend an offering to try and arrest the decline of their powers to them out of sympathy alone. Honestly the Goddess wasn't even sure that was entirely possible, and certainly not in her reduced state...but with her crafting skills and Authorities, well, she might manage SOMETHING. Maybe. Well, no point in thinking about it right now-she wasn't going to do it anyways. Despite that, the question of how she would go about preventing a normal Deity from weakening with the Age of Gods ticked away in the back of the Goddess's mind as she continued to work her way through her Labours. Each Labour was more complex and unfair than the last, and without fail any new tactic that Hecate witnessed was defended against by the next Labour. Of course, doing so only pushed the Goddess to develop even greater innovations and push her own capabilities even further, expediting her recovery and re-maturation in the process. Perhaps the most notable of the Labours was acquiring the Belt of Hippolyta and the final Labour. After her death at Herakles hands centuries ago, Hippolyta was called back from the underworld as a sort of empowered spirit-a Servant, she called herself-and charged with defending the belt against acquisition at all costs. But the question of allowing a deity to survive the end of the Age of Gods continued to tick in the back of the Goddess's mind, and she made a deal with Hippolyta. The Goddess would not seek to take the belt-instead, she would display her craftsmanship and create a new belt that was far superior to the one the Olympians had crafted her. Specifically in that it would allow her to exist in her Servant form without strain or loss for all time-essentially reviving her in truth. Initially Hippolyta actually accepted the challenge, and The Goddess began to work. Over the course of her Labours the Goddess had so far only shown bare hints of her true crafting capabilities, and both Hippolyta and Hecate thought it was mere boasting that the Goddess believe she could surpass a creation such as Hippolyta's sash. But for the second time in the Labours, the Goddess proceeded to call upon the true depths of her power-far, far grown in fact. If before she could access less than seven percent...now, she could call upon closer to thirty. And it truly made an incredible difference. Wielding the brilliance of a Goddess of Artifice who had learned magic from the Voice of the World and had the power to weave it into weapons of incredible might, the Goddess worked for nine days and nights as she slowly sung and weaved her creation into existence. The creation that the Goddess was weaving, without a doubt, held vastly greater power than anything invested into Hippolyta's sash by the Olympians. So naturally the Olympians couldn't allow the Goddess to so easily complete her creation. Hippolyta was commanded to slay the Goddess with a unique command spell, enforcing the orders directly onto the very core of her soul. The entirety of the revived Amazon Army was forced to join in, seeking to destroy the Goddess despite whatever wishes they might have had otherwise. It was almost certain to be a repeat of centuries ago; the Goddess would slaughter the Amazons and take belt, leaving behind broken dreams and corpses in her wake as Herakles did... But the Goddess defied that fate, that Tragedy. She had defied Tragedy after Tragedy since she had come to this land, spiting the Olympians and seeking a golden ending for all people-and this time, it was no different. As the Amazons and Hippolyta sought to attack the Goddess, they tripped across defenses that the Goddess had set around herself and were captured, one by one. Some in threads of gold and silver, some by strange snakelike beasts that lacked mouths, some by the very winds solidified into chains of pure white...the methods differed depending on the defenses the Amazons had, as the Olympians had simply grown utterly unfair in tossing whatever blessings they could about in order to counter the Goddess's capabilities. Hippolyta herself had nearly managed to make it through the whole gauntlet of trapped defenses, only to be trapped in a sphere of pure mana which worked to counteract any movement she made and absorb the energy of her efforts. A giant hamster ball, where her own strength was turned against her. Not a single Amazon died in any of these traps-in fact, the Goddess had ensured that they were all as comfortable as possible. Eventually the Goddess completed her work, and from her workshop emerged with two implements. The first was a strange hook-like dagger with a glass-like blade, and the second was what looked like two golden disks connected with a long string of silver. The Goddess traveled through her maze of defenses and pricked each and every Amazon with the hook-like blade; from each of them a strange weaving of light would appear, and with the hook of hte blade the Goddess would pull out specific strings, twist the blade, and cut them. When she did the same to Hippolyta, the Amazon Queen finally realized what exactly was happening: somehow, the hook-like dagger was able to cut right through mystical bindings, without removing anything else. Freed of her order to slay the Goddess, Hippolyta apologized for her and her army's actions and offered the belt freely...but the Goddess insisted that she maintain her original agreement, and gave the second item she had crafted to Hippolyta. As Hippolyta touched the strange disks they dissoved into motes of light, which gathered around her shoulders and reformed into beautiful-though not cumbersome-pauldrons. Along her back the string of silver manifested between the two pauldrons, and from that string unfurled a grand cape which twinkled and whirled with a living vision of the night sky. "What...is this?" Hippolyta asked of the Goddess. She could feel a warm power flowing from the cape into herself, and somehow instinctively KNEW that she no longer required the power of the Olympians to remain in this world. "I call it the Mantle of Ages; it is my answer as to how to support an empowered spirit-such as yourself-so they may continue to exist indefinitely. I couldn't figure out a way to ensure your spirit was simply self-sufficient...so the Mantle of Ages works to provide the mana you require to exist, and then some." Answered the Goddess. She had weaved tens of thousands of compressed Mana Loops into the Mantle and programmed it to generate more such spirals as necessary, allowing it to generate truly absurd amounts of mana ex-nihilo and on-demand. Most of that mana would be consumed simply counteracting the drain of a Servant's existence, but there would still be a great deal left over-both for things such as Noble Phantasms, and a wide variety of other features. "Draw upon the power of the Mantle; it will provide a boost in capability far superior to your Belt." Hippolyta focused her mystical senses on the cape, and after a few moments managed to do so. The night sky of the cape wrapped around the Amazon Queen's limbs, coating them in stars and leaving her with a strange sort of celestial armor. Spiral tattoos and designs flowed across the celestial armor, and by pure instinct Hippolyta formed a drill-like sword in her off-hand from the material of the Mantle. The Goddess smiled, seeing her creation work as intended. "This is the Celestial Armor; it not only increases both your various capabilities and mana generation, but also allows for flash-forging tools and weaponry directly out of the Mantle of Ages. You should also be able to release shaped blasts of power from the Mantle, though..." As the Goddess spoke, a gentle glow began to form around Hippolyta while sparkles formed within the glow-making her seem to be a sort of cosmic being sitting in the middle of a galaxy. The Goddess sighed. "Though I was only able to include so much energy storage in the Mantle. When you are passed a hundred percent storage, the Mantle will start venting energy in...THIS silly display. Utterly useless and gaudy, but it workes to vent energy safely." Hippolyta dismissed the Celestial Armor, remanifesting the Mantle of Ages...though the gentle glow and nebula around her didn't fade away. With a hand, she tugged at the cape. "While a truly incredible gift, Goddess...this cape, could it-" The Goddess was already nodding. "Only you are capable of actually physically interacting with the cape." The Goddess assured Hippolyta. "Further, even if some being did manage to grab it, it tears away with just a minor amount of force. You can't be caught, choked, or tripped with it, and any damage done to the cape is essentially entirely cosmetic. As long as the Mantle has energy, the cape will fully repair in an instant. And of course, the Mantle is directly bound to your spirit-the physical parts on you right now are mostly for show, and can be pulled directly into your soul whenever you wish." Hippolyta bowed to the Goddess, and without a moment's hesitation gave the deity her sash. "You have truly earned this, my Goddess." She said. "Not only did you spare us when we attacked you, but you have also crafted a replacement for it that is its superior in every regard. In every way, you have surpassed this Labour." The Goddess left, and Hippolyta was left alone-revived, on an island of undead Amazons and now given an immortal lease on life. She would go on to recreate the Isle of Amazons and rule it as its immortal queen, never forgetting the kindness of the Goddess who gave her this chance. Through trade and her own adventures she would learn more about the strange Goddess who had crafted her a mantle of the stars, and take the lessons she learned to heart as she applied them to the Amazons. With the help of the Mantle she was able to support many of her original army who were revived for the Labour-though quite a few chose to return to death-and they served to form the core of the Eternal Amazon Island. The last and greatest trial was infiltrating Hades and capturing the Cerberus. At this point the Goddess had recovered almost half her original power, and had grown into her new capabilities to an incredible degree. Despite the Olympians best efforts she felt that this final Labour would be effortless... That was, until she encountered Zeus standing in front of the cave to the Underworld that she had located, arms crossed and stern frown on his face. "This farce has gone on long enough." Zeus spoke. "You will come with me back to Olympus and serve me for a thousand years." "You're right, this farce has gone on long enough." The Goddess said, pulling out her golden spear once again. "Step aside. I will be free of you Olympians, whether you like it or not." Without a word, Zeus unleashed his Authority once again-trying to draw on the Curse of Trials embedded in the Goddess's Divine Core...only, things were much different now. For one, the Goddess had more than a single percentage of her power to call upon. For another, she had already completed eleven of the twelve Labours-massively weakening the Curse's hold on her. When the Goddess unleashed her own Authority, she did not release her Authority of Humanity-instead she drew upon her Authority as an Earth-Mother. This time she was able to effortlessly repel the draw of the Curse, shutting Zeus down hard. "Last chance." She warned. Zeus breathed harshly. "It has truly been too long since I've shown my power, that foreign upstarts believe they could match me." He stated. He drew forth his Thunder Bolt, and lightning crackled around his body. "Now." Spoke Zeus, and in an instant countless threads of magic suddenly appeared throughout the body and spear of the Goddess-a grand prismatic cocoon, all of which led right back...into Hecate's hands. With a wrench of Hecate's hands the Goddess's flesh was torn open across her chest, exposing a prismatic orb similarly suspended in mystical threads within. "Your Authorities will be put to good use. They will serve as fuel to maintain our functionality for several hundred more years." Zeus assured the Goddess-who, curiously, didn't seem to be panicking at all. With a mighty heave, Zeus threw his condensed lightning at the Goddess...where suddenly, it stopped just in front of her. "I had truly hoped otherwise...and gave every chance for you to turn back on this, Hecate." The Goddess said, a strange golden light emanating from her. With the suddenness of a pane of glass shattering, the countless threads that had entrapped and weaved through the Goddess's form shattered and her chest closed up, hiding her Divine Core within her once again. Likewise, Zeus's thunder bolt dissipated-shattering against the weight of the Goddess's enlightenment and vital energies. The Goddess turned her attention away from Hecate and to Zeus. "Had this been before the White Titan, you could have easily slain me. But you aren't what you were before, and I'm not as I was either. The Age of Gods is fading...but I'm only getting stronger." With a shout the Goddess shot her spear at Zeus, pouring truly divine levels of magical energy into it. With a burst of light that rent the skies and scoured life for miles around, Zeus's body and Divine Core were incinerated-completely and utterly, in an instant. In the same wave of energy-rather, the backwash of that energy-Hecate was similarly incinerated. Surprise and guilt were still on her face, but there was a trace of acceptance in her eyes as she faded into nothing. A few moments later it was over. The Goddess breathed heavily, put away Vasavi Shakti, and made her way into the Underworld at a walking pace. As she entered Hades, she found the Divine Beast Cerberus. It was missing the manifold blessings that Hecate had been casting on the previous Labours to make them more difficult, but was still a trily powerful beast...unfortunately, at this point, The Goddess simply utterly outclassed it. And today, she had reached the ends of her patience. A golden thread shot from her wrist, glinting beautifully...and with an almost graceful sway, lopped the legs of Cerberus right off. More golden threads weaved around the now quadriplegic hound to bind its wounds, and the Goddess carried the helpless hound behind her as she travelled further in. At last she entered Hades's throne room, where the God of the Dead sat waiting for her. "My trial is complete." She said simply. "Accept it." His face carved from stone, Hades simply nodded. With a neglegent toss the Goddess left Cerberus whimpering in Hades's throne room, and walked calmly out of the Underworld once more. As she walked through the Underworld she felt the remnants of the Curse of Trials finally being expunged from her Divine Core, then flowing back in-not as a curse, but as an empowerment. The God Hand of Herakles, which served as both incredible defense and extra lives. She thoughtlessly rejected the aesthetic changes, taking in only the power of the remade blessing. Finally, she emerged from the underworld. For several miles she wandered aimlessly, eventually getting out of the crater that Vasavi Shakti had left behind in its activation. Then, she found a tree stump. She sat down, sighed, and cradled her head in one hand. "This has been so utterly pointless..." She murmured. For several hours she sat there, still as a statue-not even breathing, for such a thing was trivial for a deity. "I think..." She finally said, the sun beginning to set. "I think I'm going to take up painting." And so the Goddess decided to take up painting... And several thousand years in the future, historians would prize these ancient paintings as the very first examples of post-post-post-modernist abstract surrealist art. Very few of such paintings would survive the Grand Goddess Burning of around 600 BCE, where all of Rome collectively united to hunt down the works and burn them from existence, but the few that did survive would trade for truly astronomical sums around the year of 2000 CE, give or take a few decades. One particular painting, said to be an original, even traded for half a billion dollars. Returning to the present, the Goddess decided to spend the next several centuries simply wandering, painting, learning magic, and exploring the Mediterranean. She never met another Olympian after her execution of Zeus and Hecate, but did find a great deal of satisfaction in simply painting and learning to her heart's content. She even made sure to give all of her trial-goers a free painting whenever they arrived-though they seemed to take this as an attack and many started wearing blindfolds when they sought her out. It would take her a few decades, but she would at last reach the peak of her power once again-and then some, as her powers were refined and increased through her new understandings of magic and artifice. And of course, there were many strange misadventures in her career of studying magic and new methods of artifice. In one attempt to see if she could perhaps stretch spirals across the Time Axis in order to generate infinite energy on-command, the Goddess ended up tearing open a small portal in spacetime. Just large enough for a single mortal soul to slip through...but as it passed thorugh, it twisted the energies crackling around it and remade its own body-empowered as if it was a Servant, like Hippolyta. "Where am I?!" The strange blond woman shouted. "Who are you?! Where is the nearest opera house?!" And that was how the Goddess met, befriended, and ""married"" Emperor Nero, a Roman Emperor from the future. It seems that her ideals of love and acceptance would spread greatly in time, and Nero was wholeheartedly into the idea of having a harem that spanned the world...that, or maybe it was just Nero. Her final companion in this land was found...in a grave, in the lands of Colchis. "Here lies Medea;" the weathered plaque on the gravestone read. "Daughter, Princess, Witch, Slave. My one true act: I dig my own grave." The Goddess closed her eyes and bowed her head, passing a moment in silence...and with her divine eyes, looked backwards in time. Many, many centuries ago now, there was once a princess. Enslaved by the gods through love magics, she was forced to leave her home and serve a truly horrible person with all her heart. She was thanked little for the task, and had all that thanks taken away by the "hero's" own greed. Betrayed, she betrayed in turn and became a witch. After a long and lonely life, she returned to her homeland-wrinkled, tired, and alone. She lived in a cabin for some years, until she felt the cold of death slowly coming to her. Then, with bony fingers, crooked back, and the will of a candle that refused to die, she took shovel to earth and quite literally dug her own grave. A few whispered words formed a stone plaque that would last centuries, and a few more allowed her to lay in the grave and die by her own will. Thus ended the story of Medea of Colchis. "But does have to end there?" A voice rang in Medea's mind. Medea sighed, ignoring the voice, the ache in her bones, the cold in her veins, and dug out what little dirt she could with a push. There was no strength in her arms, but she lifted all the same and proceeded to do it again. "Your story...it's too tragic for me. Do you have to end like this?" "What other end is there?" Medea asked what she was utterly sure was a curious deity. She'd dealt with the gods enough times to know the flavor of their meddling. "I refuse to be a slave to the divine ever again, so whatever you're offering-shove off. I have a grave to dig." "I offer only friendship." The voice stated. "The Olympians are no friends of mine, and I will not bind you to my will-all I ask is that you teach me some magic, and indulge me in conversation now and again." Medea sighed, the breath rattling her chest and making her cough for several moments. She gathered herself and spoke. "Defy the Olympians to their face, and I'll be your friend. Kill a god-any god, even Hecate-and I'll be your lover. Kill Zeus, and I'll be your wife for eternity-or however much longer this body of mine holds out." She didn't speak with any mana, or with Divine Words, but there was conviction in her voice regardless. The voice of the strange god was silent for several moments, and Medea began to turn back to her digging...until a bright prismatic light began to erupt around her. The power of an Authority that could twist the planet itself, concentrated through a strange mechanism to dig backwards through time and drag something into the future. Golden liquid flowed in the prismatic light, flowing through Medea's pores and filling her...and as it did, her age began to turn backwards. Her skin grew supple, her hair vital, her lifeforce reignited, even her very soul healed. Emerging from the swirling light and landing on grass in front of her, Medea took in a deep breath that she hadn't been able to in decades. She looked up... And before her was a vision of truly divine beauty, beauty to put Aphrodite to shame. In fact, comparing this goddess-for surely she must be a goddess-to Aphrodite was like comparing the radiance of a flint spark to the sun itself. Her heart wanted to both stop and keep going-surely, there was nothing greater in the world than to experience the sight before her, and so now life was meaningless. And yet surely, should she keep on living, she would be able to continue to gaze upon this vision of beauty, serving it for eternity. She stood before the meaning of life itself, and never had she been so sure- Medea blacked out for a moment, and found the last few moments of memory missing from her. She blinked, and found she was standing in front of an exceptionally beautiful, though oddly fat, woman. The woman smiled at her. "Hello Medea, good to meet you in the present." She said. Her voice was exactly the same as the mysterious voice that spoke to Medea as she was digging her grave. "Who are you?" Medea asked. "I'm the one who Olympus attempted to enslave, and escaped the enslavement." The Goddess said. "I killed both Hecate and Zeus in a single strike, and can show you." The Goddess offered her hand to Medea, and with gentle fingers the rejuvenated witch took it...and together, the two looked into the past and witnessed the trials that the Goddess had undergone-from her imprisonment in the Labyrinth all the way to Zeus's death and the completion of the Labours. Returning to the present, Medea stared at the Goddess. "Your words ring true..." She began, "But why me? Out of every dead woman in history, why a witch of betrayal such as I?" "Because Hecate loved you and felt guilty for your fate." The Goddess said. "And though she betrayed me in the end, I still owe her this much. We could call it an evening of the scales; a life for a life...but..." She sighed, closing her eyes. "I didn't want to kill her, but I can't control the release of Vasavi Shakti. The truth is you're a proof of concept, and someone to ease my guilt. I can reach through time, your revival proved that. But it's not precise enough yet. I can't reach past Vasavi Shakti's backburn to save Hecate yet...so I'll need to keep training and advancing myself. So, until then, you will be a reminder. When I'm strong enough, I'll turn back the clock and save Hecate from her own betrayal." Medea considered that for several moments, then finally nodded. "Thank you for answering...husband." She said. It wouldn't be an easy marriage-taking time to get Medea used to the idea of multiple partners, Nero's singing, Kama and Kiara occasionally dropping in, and wandering about aimlessly for centuries at a time. And also the fact that the Goddess was essentially a saint in comparison to the Olympians; she never forced herself on Medea, frequently gifted her with grand boons and even powers on pure whim, and actively stayed with Medea when the witch desired her company, even if that was for years or decades at a time. Though after around 600 BCE, that became a bit rarer. The Goddess would never learn that it was Medea who initiated the Grand Goddess Burning, and Medea would be taking that secret with her to the grave. After many centuries, the Goddess and Medea moved on from the Mediterranean. Nero wanted to stay, but was forced by Kama to leave-despite her best efforts, Nero simply wasn't the best ruler on her own without a moderating influence. Or, well, a guiding influence. And with Kiara and Kama's help, it would only take a few decades for New Roma to be founded in India. In the meanwhile, Medea and the Goddess journeyed north, towards the land of Ireland. The Age of Gods was nearly over, but there were still so many wonders to the world to explore! The year was 150 BCE.