(3rd person POV in a mysterious location)
A dense magical mist obscured this place and for good reason. Within the center of this land a massive form lay curled in slumber with black scales the size of shields and claws like sharp wedges the size of a person on it's four powerful limbs. A long sturdy tail curled around from behind the beast covering it's reptilian snout and two sky covering black bat like wings lay neatly folded against it's back. On it's face otherwise unmarred one could see a single scarred over missing eye on it left side from an ancient foe that came close to ending it before failing.-
This was none other than the one eyed black dragon, an ancient and modern calamity all at once. Free until the Zeus and Hera familias tried to kill it and perished. Hera knowing none could withstand the beasts retaliation for the attempt sacrificed her mortal form to seal it in a deep slumber here. That seal was weakening as the beasts own massive power passively eroded it and the force a goddess could summon upon the mortal realm not enough to fully seal it away or kill it.-
It was on this day that the beast moved for the first time in over a decade, a single small twitch of an eyelid that was easily missed but heralded the start of it's awakening. The area seemed peaceful still but the spirits that stayed here to watch over the beast, not to suppress it but to warn the world upon it's awakening failed to notice it's twitch.-
(3rd person POV unknown location)
"You mean to tell me that we not only failed to cause much of a stir by releasing those two ancient monsters but made one of our biggest threats even more powerful!?" Thanatos demanded angrily after having just barely returned from being hunted by Artemis.
"Yeah, he even openly fought and defeated Ottar and that was with restrictions to his magics." Eris said helplessly.
"What about your pet? Could she kill him?" Thanatos asked one god in particular.
"Not likely. She is similar to Ottar in power and even he lost. We have to accept someone needs to take the fall and get rid of his goddess if we want a shot at killing him." The god in question said.
"Out of question! We have barely managed to recover to this point, if we kill a god now we'll be hunted back to near extinction again!" Eris hissed in disagreement.
"What about you Erebus? You've been silent until now about this?" Thanatos asked the dark clothed god who looked like a pale skinned grey haired old man.
"It's not so simple to kill that man. Killing the goddess would cut off his power by a large amount but don't forget the remnants of the Hera familia after she left the mortal realm. At that level some power is innate and no longer fully dependent on the falna. If we kill Hestia and he survives long enough to find a new god or goddess that man will not rest until we cease to exist. You think he's a threat now? Imagine how bad it would be if he was actively hunting us down." the god said sternly.
"So what? Do we just ignore him until he's untouchable?" Thanatos asked annoyed.
"I'm saying it's already too late." Erebus said calmly.
"You are all missing a key detail here, he might not try to stop us if it doesn't involve his people or some form of profit." the mysterious god in the shadows said casually.
"That.. actually makes sense. Whether it was the two calamities or the people I sent to kill him he only ever reacted when his people were touched or he was set to earn something." Eris said with a frown.
"You may as well have not said anything! We make any major moves at all and it will either effect his people or be something he could profit from stopping." Thanatos argued.
"Then we simply wait until he can't stop us, like say while he's deep in the dungeon." Erebus said calmly.
(Normal POV)
I sneezed while working on a brick for Ptah's commission ruining my progress. I sighed and started over again. I had chosen a fine mix of Almiraj, crystal mantis, dungeon stone and slime for these bricks. The first two were for their universally acknowledged beauty and the final two for the solidity and shifting natures. Normally these materials would just flat out not work but my technique spat in the face of conventional mixing and pulled it off without much trouble. The final bricks made after the refining and mixing looked like sandstone comprised of thousands of grains of shimmering rainbow colored sand.-
Just as is it was quite pleasant to look at but once I put the technique on it the thing changes to an awe inspiring gold and red color. Turns out that was merely my own idea of beauty taking form as it differed for Hestia and even Ptah when he came to get the first dozen bricks I'd cranked out. The trick to the technique was putting in restrictions on the transformations to only show one persons perceived idea of beauty at a time based on proximity.-
Whoever was closer got the highest priority for the technique which greatly lessened the load on the energy drain. And if two people or more were all equal distance away from the thing it chose at random to go between each persons idea. Not perfect by any means but it served it's purpose so Ptah didn't complain. I did warn Ptah that the actual physical transformation would be on a small scale since any more and the item simply couldn't be made.
