3rd Person POV

The group ran across the endless expanse of white sand, their feet kicking up clouds of dust with every step. The landscape stretched on for miles, barren and devoid of life, save for the occasional rock formation that dotted the horizon. The heat of the desert sun bore down on them, though none complained. They had more pressing matters than the discomfort of the scorching air. After what felt like hours, they finally spotted a cave nestled between a cluster of jagged rocks. Leon signaled for the group to stop, his breath heavy but steady. They needed a break, and the cave would provide a temporary shelter.

"Let’s rest here," Leon suggested to which everyone agreed.

Everyone collapsed onto the ground. Lux sat at the entrance, watching the desert stretch endlessly before them.

"Lux, are you sure that the 3-day rule thing is true?" Leon asked

"For the last time, yes." Lux sighed in exasperation, "The gods are arrogant, Leon. They don’t think anyone can escape their precious prison. The way they see it, they’ll find us eventually, so they won’t bother organizing a proper search until things settle at the prison. It’ll take at least three days for them to set out a real manhunt.”

"I don’t know. That sounds like a gamble. Why wait?"

"How many times do I have to tell you? We think mortals are beneath us. We won’t rush. Trust me, we have a window. Three days, maybe four before they actually start looking."

Leon glanced at Artemis, who had been sitting quietly in the corner, still bound but no longer struggling. "Is that true?" he asked her directly.

"Do we really have three days?"

"It’s true," she confirmed, "Us gods won’t scramble to hunt you down immediately. They’re overconfident. They’ll think you’ll get caught by one of their systems. Three days is a safe assumption."

"See?" Lux snapped. "How many times do I have to explain it?"

"Alright, alright," Leon muttered, raising his hands in mock surrender. "Just making sure. Can't be too careful when you're trying to outrun a bunch of gods."

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Leon POV

I slept soundly, I checked the watch and saw that it was about 6 hours. Viper was on watch and I had him switch with me since he was tired too. Artemis was awake, but she wasn't resisting much, that net was compressing and constantly shifting to tighten around her, she couldn't escape. Her looks don't really change much, but she is a bit taller now, she's around 179cm tall and has the body of a woman in her athletic prime, toned, but not muscular, with brown wavy hair, and silver eyes.

The reason that our relationship didn't really last was because of her, she once disappeared for 3 months, and just came back and told me that she had broken up with me, we dated for over a year at that point, and I didn't really know what to say before she disappeared on me again, maybe her being a goddess had something to do with it, but...

"Should I call you Diana or Artemis?"

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

"Whatever you prefer." she replied.

"Ok, so...what happened? Why disappear from me for 3 months? And aren't you supposed to be a maiden goddess?"

"I'll answer the second one first. Eternity is quite a long time, and I was socially awkward, so I disguised myself, and enrolled in school, where I met another socially awkward weirdo that I somewhat liked and thought that dating might help me fit in."

"Wow, okay...I don't whether to be offended or well...slightly less offended. So my theory of you cheating on me during those 3 months with some drug dealer should-"

"Ew, why would you think that?"

"Of course, I would think that you were saying yes to practically everything to try and fit in, I was the only one saving you from those motherfuckers."

"Thank you, but I can't get addicted, I'm a god."

"That's the part you choose to stick on? I'm glad we broke up."

"Glad?"

"I have the moral high ground here, so don't even try it, I even submitted a missing person's report, heck, I was even called in as a suspect because of you, they thought I killed you, luckily you showed up again."

"Oh, so that's why I was approached by...anyway, the simple answer to the first question was that I was needed, and someone almost found out about...me and you, and I was ashamed of the so-called eternal maiden dating someone, so I left and erased my traces. I felt bad about leaving you without an explanation, so I got back to you and did all of that."

"...thanks for that, that's one less mystery that I need to solve."

"Can you free me?"

"No."

"Wow, no hesitation. I swear on the Styx that I won't help hunt you down or harm any of you, just help free me, I feel quite powerless."

"Yeah, not happening, you're more useful as a hostage."

"Do you not have any mercy?"

"...Artemis...you do know your own well-documented past, right?"

"I've changed, I've done my time and isolated myself in my own cell."

"That's not how forgiveness works. If you wanna do your time, you do it there, they have a good rehabilitation system going...just the wrong prisoners...I know that I shouldn't be down here, and I was sent down here by my own supposed sister no less."

"I'm not in charge of that."

"Aren't you an Olympian?"

"I didn't cast a vote for this system, ask the stupid council."

"...Council?"

"There's a council that is considered elites among the gods, they make the decisions, they're the ones who create the school for gods and teach the gods and turn them into the way they are, I just live on my own in my own private realm."

"That's how you do your time, sheesh, on behalf of your victims, you're clearly not forgiven of your previous crimes."

"...seriously, can you like, release me? I promise that I'll even help you, I just don't like being in this net."

"Sorry, but this is a group's decision, and I'm pretty sure that having a goddess as a hostage is more useful to us, Lux is also apparently framed...so she does have a bit of a grudge against the gods...you'll have no luck."

"Can you at least fashion this net into something else, just tie my hands, it's hard to breathe or move in here."

"I'll ask the group once everyone wakes up."

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"Woah, so you actually dated a goddess, this is hilarious news." Viper commented, "Evelyn, your competition is strong."

"Eh, he won't go back to an ex who does that, I'm good." Evelyn replied.

The group woke up and I let them know of Diana's plea earlier, Viper then asked me about our past since he heard that I dated her when we were talking with Hermes before beating the living crap out of him, so I just told him of our past and the group was amused that a goddess hater did not only have one as a sister, but also dated one in the past, which was...kinda funny.

"I mean, if she swears on the Styx that she'll help, we can use that." Lux suggested, "The Greeks are serious about their words and promises."

"She swore to be an eternal maiden, and then she dated your brother." Viper pointed out, "Based on how they broke up, he probably slept with a few women to replace the void she left in his cold unexisting heart."

"Wow, I slept with only one other woman...who I'm hoping isn't another goddess...and especially not related."

"Lies." Betsy interjected, "But we got no time for that, we got to go meet this Thoth, god of knowledge or whatever...we'll just make this goddess swear on not to do a lot of things and we can then force her to do all the work."

"Well, we can always vote on it, so free the goddess, hands up, please...damn."