"Stop. I have something to say!"
"Do you want me to help you record your last words?"
Athena wiped the bright spearhead while smiling as she asked the question, slowly approaching her target.
Seeing the increasingly brilliant smile on her face, Lorne felt a chill run down his spine.
According to his understanding of this goddess of wisdom, the happier she smiled, the more ruthless her actions usually became.
Seeing Athena almost walking up to him, Lorne hardened his heart and hurriedly spoke.
"Themis. I just met the first-generation Goddess of Justice."
"Oh? Tell me about it."
As soon as those words were spoken, Athena's bright eyes flickered with interest.
A strong curiosity rose in her heart as she put down the Spear of Victory in her hand and beckoned to Lorne at the doorway.
Feeling the oppressive pressure surrounding him lessen slightly, Lorne glanced at the large expanse of divine light patterns outside the courtyard that formed a solid barrier like an iron wall.
With no other choice, he could only grit his teeth and walk into the courtyard.
There was no helping it.
In order to avoid being stabbed full of holes by Athena if she caught him in the act, he had no choice but to sell out the first-generation Goddess of Justice in advance.
After making up his mind and carefully considering his wording several times in his mind, Lorne began explaining the discoveries and suspicions he had about Astraea.
Athena listened carefully to the analysis from across the table, her bright eyes thoughtful.
"You mean that Themis used some unknown secret technique to project her consciousness and lodge it within the body of her disciple, Astraea.
The two consciousnesses can actively switch when necessary to deal with different situations."
"Exactly. Only that can explain the completely different behavioral logic she has shown several times before and after."
"Hmm. That explains it. No wonder I always felt that the way Astraea sometimes looked at me was a little strange."
Lorne subconsciously asked,
"Strange how?"
"Hmm. There was pity, helplessness, and a trace of guilt. Athena tried to describe it based on her memory before making a conclusion.
"Roughly speaking, it felt like the emotions of an elder caring for a junior."
After thinking for a moment, Lorne understood where Themis's complicated feelings came from.
After the first Goddess of Wisdom, Metis, was devoured by Zeus, the original Goddess of Justice strongly disliked it.
That was why she established the laws of marriage to restrict Zeus's authority before angrily leaving Olympus.
Combined with the background of the Titan War, when the two of them had worked together to build the new order of Olympus, Metis and Themis were most likely old acquaintances with a deep relationship.
They might even have been close friends.
And Athena, as the daughter of Metis, appearing before Themis would inevitably remind the Goddess of Justice of some painful past events, causing her true emotions to surface.
Looking at the expression on Lorne's face as if he had just learned some huge gossip, Athena sat leisurely at the table and sipped honeyed water.
Seeing this, the young man suddenly realized something.
"So, the reason you called me here this time?"
"Just chatting casually," Athena replied with a smiling expression.
"Then why were you squatting in my courtyard with a spear?"
Lorne raised his voice in disbelief, black lines appearing on his face.
"I am a battle goddess. "Isn't it perfectly reasonable for me to carry a spear?" Athena blinked innocently.
Then she casually tossed the Spear of Victory aside and pointed at a small blonde figure that materialized from it. Her expression looked completely harmless. "Besides, look. Nike. You know her too. What is there to be surprised about?"
The argument was solid, and the reasoning was detailed.
For a moment, Lorne found himself speechless.
However, when he saw the teasing expression that Athena could barely hide in her bright eyes, even someone as slow as Lorne realized that he had been tricked again by this black-hearted goddess.
She was not actually planning to chop him up.
She just wanted to vent her frustration along the way.
After understanding the key point, Lorne looked at her with a resentful expression and complained with a dark face.
"Goddess, I have been working hard to find helpers for you to strengthen the Athenian Academy, writing legal codes to educate the people of Athens. It would be fine if you were not grateful, but you even waited in my courtyard with a spear. That is too much."
"How could that be? I came specifically to give you a gift."
Athena smiled slightly, then raised her hand as if grasping something in the air, before a magnificent golden cup covered with dense magical runes instantly appeared in her palm.
Seeing that dazzling light and the obscure power contained within it, Lorne could not help feeling excited.
"The Holy Grail is finished?"
"Although I know you have your own plans, after spending so much time and effort, it turns out that it was only to forge a drinking vessel..."
Athena shook her head and casually tossed the golden cup over.
A trace of helplessness could be heard in her voice.
In an age of conflict and turmoil, using rare materials and a great amount of time to forge a drinking vessel as one's sacred relic clearly went against the traditional divine era concept of doing everything possible to strengthen one's power.
Even the Goddess of Wisdom, who was famous for her intelligence, could not fully understand Lorne's choice.
Faced with this doubt, the latter only smiled without answering.
He patiently merged his divine power into the Holy Grail in his hands.
Seeing that she would not get any answer, Athena rolled her eyes at Lorne, casually reached into the rotating magic formation beside her, pulled out a square silver metal box, and tossed it toward him with a soft snort.
"Fortunately, I prepared something else for you."
Hearing the crisp sound of metal hitting the ground, Lorne put away the Holy Grail and curiously poked the silver metal box on the ground.
It was engraved with star patterns and a cluster of flame symbols.
"A cloth? Silver rank? Don't tell me you just gave me some unused one lying around."
But the moment his fingertip touched the surface of the silver metal box, the entire module instantly separated into hundreds of delicate components before flying up automatically and fusing with Lorne's body.
As the silver-white cloth fully formed around him, the young man felt a vast and ancient divine power surge into his body, pouring into the sixth empty slot of the golden wheel within him, faintly outlining the phantom of a flame.
His expression changed immediately.
"This is..."
"The Altar constellation. Aunt Hestia and I prepared it especially for you."
Athena rolled her eyes at him again and gave a proud answer.
After hearing the true name of the cloth he was wearing, Lorne suddenly understood.
In Greek mythology, the heavenly altar was the sacred platform in the heavens where the holy flame burned eternally.
Legend said that after the Titan War, the Olympian side established the Altar constellation in the sky to commemorate their hard-won victory and to proclaim that the glory of Olympus would burn eternally like fire.
The sacred flame was enshrined within it.
The one who originally lit and guarded this flame was the Goddess of the Hearth, Hestia.
Because of that, its meaning was extraordinary.
It marked the beginning of Olympus's glory and held the hidden significance of commanding the stars.
Similarly, among the eighty-eight cloths that Lorne and Athena had designed together, the altar cloth was one of the rare functional types.
Not only did the mirror on the chest, which resembled a protective heart mirror, store the sacred flame that had burned since the mythological age, but Athena had also granted this cloth a special authority. It could strip any saint of their right to use their cloth.
In other words, the Altar Cloth was effectively the future leader and commander of the entire saint army.
In a sense, it was the goddess's representative, sworn to guard the sacred flame brought down from the great altar of Olympus and ensure that it would never be extinguished.
"Are you crazy? You even dared to touch that thing!"
Lorne stared at Athena in shock, then pressed his hand against the mirror on his chest, sensing the flame inside that burned in rhythm with his heartbeat.
It immediately felt like something dangerously hot.
The original sacred flame.
The eternal glory of Olympus.
It granted civilization to the savage, light to darkness, and greatness to mortals.
Back then, the reason the golden humans were able to leave ignorance so quickly and build a prosperous civilization second only to the gods was not only because of the guidance of the prophet Prometheus, but also because of the sacred flame that Prometheus had stolen from the heavens.
However, the ending was tragic.
The golden humans and their civilization were completely annihilated under the wrath of the gods.
Even Prometheus was still hanging on Mount Caucasus, waiting to dry in the wind.
With such a miserable example before him, how could Lorne not feel uneasy?
However, Athena calmly spoke to reassure him, looking completely confident.
"Relax. Aunt Hestia has already decided to transfer the duty of guarding the sacred flame and the altar to you. From now on, this will simply be your normal work.
As the proper guardian of the Altar constellation, carrying a trace of the sacred flame's aura is perfectly natural. No one will suspect you."
"What if they do?"
Lorne looked suspiciously at Athena, who seemed so certain.
He felt that behind those bright eyes there might be something else hidden.
"There is no what if."
Athena repeated her firm promise, a confident and radiant smile appearing on her face.
"Because I will personally teach you how to control and hide this power."
"Teach?"
Lorne subconsciously murmured the word.
Then he saw Athena wave her hand and grasp the Spear of Victory formed by Nike, slowly polishing its spearhead.
Damn it.
In an instant, it felt as if a bolt of electricity shot through his mind.
Lorne suddenly understood everything as he shivered and immediately turned around and ran without hesitation.
He knew it.
This petty woman had never intended to let him go tonight.
"Humm..."
As the back of the Spear of Victory struck the ground, the surrounding space spun violently, transforming into a sealed labyrinth, pulling the rapidly escaping goat back into the base formation.
Class hasn't even started yet. Why are you running?"
The gentle voice behind him carried no anger at all.
Athena held a shield in her left hand and a spear in her right as she slowly approached with a smile.
Cornered in the courtyard, Lorne looked at the brilliant smile on her face and nearly burst into tears.
He knew that tonight's beating was absolutely unavoidable.
Since that was the case, there was nothing more to say.
'So what if she were the chief goddess? I'm not helpless either.'
Lorne let out a furious roar, activated the power within his body with all his strength, and charged forward with gritted teeth.
(End of Chapter)