Chapter 11

Family Gathering

“Good morning Athens!!!!!” An annoying voice echo through the sleepy city. Everyone that was for some reason awake during this unholy hour looks up at the blimp that hovers over the urban jungle.

“Today it’s going to be another beautiful day! So, rise and shine my little elflings, and remember, our goddess Athena is watching over us. Now, for the other news.”

“How can anyone be this hyper this earlier in the morning?” I became even more exhausted watching people happily leave their homes

“You wouldn’t be so tired if you went to bed earlier.”

“But the game was so good, I couldn’t stop playing," Athena let’s out a sigh and knelt next to me. She brushes her soft hand through my bed hair.

“You really need to take better care of yourself, Claire.”

I cast my gaze downwards to avoid looking at Athena and the curious onlookers that pass by us. I’m supposed to be Athena’s bodyguard, yet she treats me more like her child. Normally I would tell her to stop embarrassing me in public, but today, I simply couldn’t.

Athena’s trying her best to hide it, but I can tell under her happy and caring façade she’s was in a lot of pain. I'm guessing the Demon King meant a lot to her. She’s been depressed ever since she found out he was dead.

I still don’t fully understand why she’s upset over his death. The Demon King should be immortal just like Athena. I guess to the immortals hearing one of their own dies, is equivalent to us mortals finding out someone we care for was injured. Yea, they’ll eventually recover, but you still can’t help but worry.

“Hey, isn’t that Athena?”

My ears twitch from hearing her Athena’s name. Even though I was looking at the concrete, I could feel people gazing at us.

Just like I thought, the stupid sunhat wasn’t enough to hide her. Even if the hat hides her face, her golden blonde hair and flawless beauty is still easily noticeable.

With the Demon King dead, multiple countries are going to be sending assassins after Athena, thinking that she can be killed.

“Um, Lady Athena, isn’t about time for the meeting to start?”

Athena flinches slightly.

“Is it that late already? I was hoping we could walk a little more.” Athena forces a smile on her face. Realizing I wasn’t falling for it, she tilts her hat and looks away from me.

“Doesn’t today seem even more peaceful than usual?”

I follow Athena’s gaze and look at the city that was slowly waking up. Indeed, just as Athena said everyone seems livelier today. But that’s to be expected. The man who can easily throw the world into disorder is dead. I'm honestly surprised no one has thrown a party yet; I guess because everyone knows he’s immortal.

“It bothers me,” Athena whispers to herself. “He hasn’t done nothing for a thousand years yet, people still fear him. I’m sure once I tell the others he died, they’ll just shrug it off. It looks like he was right, he’ll never be able to fit in anywhere

“Athena…” I reach my hand to touch her, but she seemed so far away. I had no idea what to say to her. All I could do was stare at her lonely back.

“Claire, it’s time to go.” Athena took off her hat and tossed it into the air.

“It is Athena!” The crowd lets out a roar of excitement and rushes towards Athena I quickly jump in front of Athena to block them.

“Lady Athena, where’s is the meeting going to be held at?!

“It’s here.”

“What?” I turn around to see Athena, no both of us was standing in a flower field. The loud crowd, the tall buildings, and even the sun was gone.

“Where are we? I stare in disbelief at the bright blue world that was hanging in the purple color sky.

I always knew Athena was a summoner, but I didn’t think she could move us without me noticing. And to a different world no less.

“I call this place 'Sanctuary'; it’s a gateway that allows me to travel to different parts of the world.”

“Amazing. I heard summoner had access to a pocket dimension which allows to them store or moves things, but I didn’t think it was possible to transform it into a world.

“You plan on having the meeting, here aren’t you?” Since this is a pocket dimension, it’s impossible for anyone to sneak in here or spy on us. The only way someone can enter this space is if Athena herself brings them here. A sanctuary indeed.”

“Yes, I plan on holding the meeting but here, but bringing my family here isn’t going to be easy.”

Indeed. It requires a massive amount of energy to summon powerful beings and creature, not to mention each Entity live on a different side of the world

“Hey, do you think you can help me?” Athena knelt next to a beautiful white flower. “I know you’re there, you can come out hiding now.” She said gently like a mother would to a child.

Curious, I look over her shoulder to see a glowing little creature hiding inside the flower.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

“What is that?” The creature quickly hid inside the flower the moment I spoke.

“I call it a fairy. They’re the sole inhabitants of this world, although I have no idea where they came from or how they got here.”

“Wait, they?”

“It’s Athena! Athena is here!” One by one, the fairies jump out from their hiding spot pop.

“Greetings everyone does you think you can help me with my summoning?”

“Summoning?” The fairies’ eyes lit up with excitement.

“Yes, I plan on inviting my family over. So, I was hoping you guys would help me.”

“Family? Athena family is coming? They’re coming here?” The fairy-like creatures happily chanted as they dance in the air. Gold dust fell from wings and gently fell to the ground.

Athena slowly raises her hands towards the sky. Her body begins to glow as the gold dust gather around her. “Come, children of Gaia, let us gather once more.” The warm energy gathered around Athena disperse into the ground causing the entire garden to glow brightly.

I stood in the sea of light amaze by how much energy Athena was emitting. I seen her use her ability to summon people before, but not on such a vast scale. With this much energy, not only can see call the gods, but she can probably pull an entire country here.

“She really is a goddess,” I said to myself in awe.

Of course, I always knew this, but since Athena never use her power in front of others, I saw her more as a kind leader, now I can see why other countries are afraid of the Entities. If a pacifist like Athena is this strong, then how strong are the others? I guess I’ll be finding out soon.

My heart begins to pound at the thought of meeting the other three Entities. Before I knew it, I was nervously fixing my unkempt appearance.

I should’ve gone to bed early. There’s no way I have enough time to fix my bed hair or get rid of these dark rings under my eyes.

“She’s here; She’s here!” I jump slightly at the announcement. The fairies gather around a body envelop light rise from the golden sea. Athena grabs the person's hand and helps them to their feet. The light fades away revealing a beautiful woman with purple skin and long white hair. Her long devil-like tail wraps itself around her waist holding her towel in place.

“You pick a bad time to call me Athena, or perhaps you knew I was taking a bath and wanted to join me. With a mischievous grin, she wraps her arms Athena and pulls her in pucker her lips.

Ahh, are they going to kiss?! But they’re both girls and sisters too?! I felt my face become flush thinking about the perverted act. Embarrass, I cover my face.

“Venus…” Athena gently pushes her away” Your scar it still hasn’t healed.” Athena traces her finger down the large scar that stretches downward on Venus’ chest.

Why isn’t her body healing? Entities possess powerful bodies that can recover from any wound; even death can’t stop them. So, what’s preventing her from healing?

“Who cares!” Venus grabs Athena’s hand place it on her breast. “It’s been such a long time since we’ve been together, so let’s enjoy ourselves a little.” Venus’ tail unravels around her waist and coils around Athena body.

“Venus, I didn’t call you here for this.” Clearly uncomfortable, Athena tries to push Venus away, but she presses herself against Athena more.

I wanted to jump in and free Athena from the woman’s clutches, but for some reason, my body wouldn’t move. All I could do was helplessly watch as Venus toyed with Athena.

“C’mon, you seriously don’t expect me to believe, that right? Why else would you bring me here?”

“Obviously to discuss something important.” Venus was suddenly lift off the ground, by a towering dark skin man. His head was shaved completely, and various tribal markings were etched into his bare chest.

“What do you think you’re doing?” For a brief moment, Venus was shocked by the man’ appearance, but she quickly recovers.

“Why do you care? Can it be your jealous, Atlas? If you want I could…”

“Not a chance.” The man flings Venus high enough in the air that it looks like she became one with the stars.

So, this is Atlas. His intense presence makes him feel like a giant, but he’s surprisingly lean, and he’s about the same size as a human adult. I guess the tales of him be strong enough to lift worlds was a lie, then again, he did throw the "goddess of love" into space.

“Your still as soft as ever. Why didn’t you push her away?” Atlas took a step towards Athena, the intense pressure he gave, cause me to involuntary back away from him.

“I didn’t want to hurt her,” Athena said softly.

“She’s immortal Athena; you can’t hurt her even if you wanted to.”

“I know, but those scars on her body worries me.”

“She still has those scars huh?” Atlas looked up at the sky. After a moment of silence, he shrugs his shoulders. “Oh well, she’ll be fine, she does have wings after all.”

“Atlas!!” Venus screams at the top of her lungs. Wings sprout grew from her back as she dove towards us at high speed.

“See, told you she was fine,” Atlas spoke calmly as if he wasn’t the target for Venus’ rage, or simply didn’t care.

Venus slams into Atlas’ back despite dropping from the sky and putting all her strength into the attack; Atlas didn’t budge at all. Venus fell to the ground like she slammed into a wall. She clenches her teeth in frustration as she rubs a bruise on her arm that vanishes as fast as it appeared.

“Venus, you should know by now attacks like that don’t work on me.”

“Right, how could I forget you’re Invincible’” A mischievous smile forms on Venus’ face. “At least you were once until our little brother beat you.”

“Are you picking a fight with me, Venus?” Irritation seeps into Atlas’ voice.

“I’m not a huge fan of fighting, but if the reward is taking your pride down a few notches, then I’ll gladly enter the ring.”

“Then enter.” Venus steps into Atlas personal space, because of the height difference, Venus had to look up to look into Atlas’ eyes.

The fairies fled to their flowers afraid they might get caught in the fight. I doubt that will be enough to protect them. The determined look in their eyes tell me they’ll do whatever it takes to beat the other regardless of the collateral damage.

“Atlas, Venus that’s enough!”

I was both surprise and scare when I heard Athena snap. This is the first time I saw her angry. And it seems the two gods wasn’t used to it either. They both flinched when they heard her.

“I didn’t bring you two here so that you can fight. Now hurry up and makeup.” The bloodlust in their eyes soften. They awkwardly looked away from each other, like kids that didn’t want to admit they were wrong. I guess Athena is the mother of this weird family.

“It looks like some things never change.” A young yet confident voice broke the awkward silence. I quickly turn around to see a young pale skin boy with dark green hair and emerald eyes walking towards us. The kid wore suspenders over his white dress shirt and a clown mask dangle off his black trouser. “Whoa, everyone is here, something big must be going down.” The kid walks towards the Entities and stands confidently in the middle of the gods. “So, what’s up?”

“Umm, why is there a kid here?” Venus and Atlas both cover their mouth to try to hide their laughter.

“It’s fine; she doesn’t know any better.” The kid quietly mumbles to himself clearly annoyed by something.

“Umm am I missing something?” Athena kneels next to me.

“That kid is Loki.” She whispers to me.

“Eh?! You’re telling me this little kid is a god?” Veins budge from the kid’s forehead.

“Little girl, I’ll have you know I have lived thousands of your lifetimes.”

“Little?” I grind my teeth in anger. “I’m not little I’m over a hundred years old!”

“And I’m still thousands of years older than you!!” The kid snaps back at me. Venus begins to laugh hysterically at us.

“Just what you expect from kids, using their age as an argument.”

“Shut up!”

“Shut up!”

Both the boy and I snap at Venus at the same time. I quickly cover my mouth after I realize I was shouting at a goddess.

“I’m sorry Lady Venus.” I bow my head in shame.

“Quite the rude little elf we got here. Who is she by the way?” I could feel all the gods’ staring at me

“Her name is Claire. And she’s the captain of my royal guards, so please show her the respect she deserves.”

Athena pet my head which made feel even more embarrassed. This is the one time where I wish I were small to the point I was unnoticeable.

“Now, that everyone has been introduced, let’s begin the meeting.”