Exhausted after his combat training, Arthur took a shower and dropped onto his bed without even bothering to dry his hair.
Some minutes later, Cattleya came to check on him and saw him sleeping with his damp hair, smiling wryly as she quickly used magic to dry it and then properly tucked him into his bed before teleporting out.
The moment Cattleya warped out of the room, the sleeping Arthur's eyes opened as he looked around the room before lowering his gaze to his hands.
Stepping down from his bed, he walked over to the mirror to study his appearance, and saw that his usual dark obsidian eyes were now glowing with a faint blue light.
Upon noticing this, he heaved a sigh.
"Still just a kid, huh?"
He shaped his hand like a gun and pointed his index finger toward his own temple while chanting in an emotionless voice that didn't suit a three-year-old.
[c0^ↄ3 ¶ ⊥ [Time] Release [r3qq@)E#omn: Memories]
[Invoke: Passive Personality Alteration]
His right hand shone with a blue light that streamed into his head, and his eyes went blank for a moment before their usual vigour returned.
Turning around, he climbed back into his bed and closed his eyes, and the next second, Cattleya warped back in with glowing red eyes as she scanned the entire room.
She walked up to the mirror and examined it before speaking to herself as she stepped out of the room once more.
"Maybe I sensed it wrong."
As she left, Arthur yawned as he slept peacefully, as if nothing unusual had just taken place.
◇ ◇ ◇
Meanwhile, Zeus was fuming after an argument he'd had with Hades when he tried to stop him from going over to Hell.
Over the past few years, as word spread that Hades, an Olympian, was the father of the prophesied child of destruction, many eyes had turned toward Olympus.
Some gods were enraged that someone of high status like Hades had fathered a child who could be a threat to them, and even those who'd been neutral joined in criticising Olympus after experiencing their worst nightmares on the day of the 'Black Sun'.
Most of them were reasonable and argued that it would be in their best interest to make Hades raise the child in a way that wouldn't make him hold any animosity toward the gods.
They believed this would lower the chances of the prophecy being fulfilled, since many reasoned that Arthur bringing an end to the gods was only a possibility rather than a future set in stone.
Unfortunately, common sense wasn't common, even among gods.
Some pantheons banded together in an attempt to pressure Olympus into sanctioning Hades in some way, an attempt that enraged Zeus as he felt those gods were looking down on him and Olympus.
This fickle alliance fell apart very quickly when Poseidon made a show of preparing his armies for war.
They were mostly greedy gods who were envious of Olympus' power and wanted to reduce it in any way possible.
Unfortunately, Olympus wasn't a force to be trifled with.
What made most pantheons fear Olympus was the feat accomplished by its current eldest gods.
Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades, with help from Hera, Demeter, and Hestia, managed to defeat their father Kronos, who was the Master of their universe.
This was something never heard of before, since the differences in strength between the parties were simply too large, but they somehow pulled it off, and although they couldn't kill him, they succeeded in imprisoning him for eternity.
They also led the younger Olympians in defeating the giants and Titans led by the Primordial goddess Gaia, and they even succeeded in defeating Gaia herself.
There were some strange circumstances behind that outcome, but a defeat was still a defeat.
Now, more than two hundred thousand years had passed, and the Olympians were even more of a force to be reckoned with. Although the bad blood between the three eldest brothers was known far and wide, it was also known that they could put aside their differences if it involved defending Olympus.
Regarding Arthur's matter, some stronger pantheons agreed with the idea of making him inclined toward the gods to reduce the chances of him turning against them.
Although none of them said it outright, they really just wanted to keep Arthur under close watch so they could end him the moment he stepped out of line.
To all this, Hades gave one statement in reply, shocking most of them.
"Go fuck off, deal with your own internal problems before telling me how to raise my kid."
Naturally, many were enraged by this since Hades' statement didn't show any respect toward them, but they couldn't do much.
At this point, Cattleya also spoke up to silence the gods who believed Arthur should be killed.
"You want to kill my son? Let me see you try."
It seems you need to be reminded why our devil race is not to be looked down upon."
Her declaration was backed by the universes allied with the devils of Hell, for reasons that couldn't be any more obvious.
◇ ◇ ◇
Zeus thought about all this as he warped to a random planet in a backwater galaxy in northern Olympus.
He appeared in a seemingly empty desert and placed his hand on the ground, pulling a tiny object out of the sand.
This tiny object was shaped like an archaic door.
Activating the Authority that he possessed as the Master of Olympus, the tiny door began vibrating as a frightening amount of energy poured out, an amount capable of seriously wounding the average Deity Realm existence.
Zeus simply watched the energy flow without doing anything, since he didn't need to, because he wasn't the average Deity.
He remained completely unharmed and only watched as the tiny door expanded to a size he could pass through once the energy stopped flowing, before stepping into it without a word.
As soon as he entered, it shrank back to its tiny size and flew to another random uninhabited planet before settling in a desert and burying itself in the sand.
Inside the door was a dark realm with very little light, and in front of Zeus was a maze that he navigated through with ease.
After a few twists and turns, he reached a small clearing with a giant orb about 4 feet in diameter, flashing an iridescent light as it floated in the air.
Walking up to the orb, he focused on a small section that was cracked and gave off no light.
His eyes glowed in a dangerous way as he spoke to no one in particular.
"Just a few more years, not more than two decades, it should be enough by then."