Aphrodite cast her buffs on all of us as we climbed, starting with the movement speed one so the rest of them would be able to keep up with my sprint to the first stopping point on the way up. I wasn’t sure what more to expect from the ascent, but I was sure there would be nothing more painful than having to fight my own teacher.

My palace was around the base of the steps somewhere, but I hadn’t been able to see it during my fight with Isoples and I was glad about that. I didn’t want to see any of the horrors that had taken place there since I left.

Thinking that the worst was behind us, I continued to put one foot in front of the other, focusing on the top of the mountain that was lost inside the clouds as we climbed the steps.

"Zeus, are you okay?" Aphrodite asked.

"I will be, once Cronus is dead," I said, grinding my teeth.

The next enemy appeared just as I predicted, as soon as we stepped onto the two hundred and fiftieth step that expanded out into a large square of marble. The palace of Demeter was visible all around us. Demeter, being very connected to the earth and plant life, didn’t have many walls on what she called her palace. It was more about beautiful marble and hundreds of trees. But no one could say it was beautiful anymore.

The white marble had been painted red with blood, and the trees looked ready to die. Some of them had been hacked at with weapons, while others were shriveled as they hadn’t had any water for quite some time. The depressing background was not our enemy though. It was the lamia, that was headed for us and she was one who’d always had strong feelings about me.

* * *

Name: Lilian Gloag

Race: Lamia

Class: Enchantress of Mount Orthys

Level: 60

* * *

Lilian was one of my father's oldest allies, and she had always hated me for not being what she considered a good son should be. In essence, she didn't like that I didn’t absolutely adore the ground that Cronus walked on, and that I spent my time irresponsibly. Especially that last part.

For her, Hades was the shining example of the offspring of a king, obedient and focused on spreading his word. My regular partying and general disregard for behaving properly had never sat well with her. She saw me as nothing more than a thorn in her side.

"I knew you would one day betray us, Zeus!" she shouted as she slithered toward us.

"Betray you?" I said, a plan forming in my head. "My father tried to kill me multiple times before today. I don't see how I am betraying him."

Knowing her general distaste for me and her often explosive disposition, I thought it wouldn't be too hard to try to use it against her.

"And I do not understand why you say I betrayed you," I continued, before she had the chance to respond. "This is between Cronus and me. It has nothing to do with his lackeys."

Her expression instantly changed from disgust to anger.

"I'm moving around her," Ares said in the guild chat.

"Lackey?" she hissed, her scales shivering slightly. "I have been a faithful servant of the king of titans since long before you were born. Long before my master even became a king. I was there when he killed his own father."

"Too bad you won't be there to see me kill him," I said, still trying to goad her into charging in a fit of rage or at least keep her attention away from Ares, who was sneaking around her through some thick bushes.

"Your hubris knows no end, child," she said and chuckled. "Greater men than you have tried and failed to do that. Titans are invincible."

It seemed my last comment had the opposite effect on her from the one I’d been hoping for. Instead of infuriating her, it had actually amused her. But this was just the setup for my next move, and this one would definitely hold her attention and provoke a stronger reaction from her.

"None of them had this weapon," I said, and held my spear up for her to see.

The sight of the titan-killing weapon provoked a completely different reaction from the one in my centaur teacher. I saw fear in her eyes as she absorbed the information from the weapon's description. And this fear transformed into an explosive rage that seemed to propel her forward.

"You will die for your insolence, child!" she screamed and sprung toward me.

I barely had time to bring my spear up to my chest and avoid her bite. Despite being a powerful spellcaster, her most dangerous attack was still her bite, thanks to the fact that the paralytic poison that followed had a hundred percent chance of stunning its target for two whole minutes.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

As confident as I was in my allies being able to bring me back to life if I fell during that time, I didn’t want to give Lilian the satisfaction. Instead, I pushed the strong metal of my spear handle into her mouth, and one of her venomous fangs cracked under the force of the strike.

The lamia pulled herself back almost as quickly as she had reached me and brought her hand up to her now-broken tooth, which was already leaking poison.

"What have you done, you insolent fool?" she shouted. Her eyes flashed purple, signifying the start of another attack that I hoped she wouldn't have the chance to use against us. Thankfully, Ares had flanked her and was now silently running toward her from behind, swords in hand, ready to interrupt her strike.

Right as he was about to lunge at here, the lamia’s long tail flicked out and got hold of Ares's feet. He fell to the ground headfirst. His swords clung on to the marble but Lilian did not turn to attack him yet. Her eyes continued flashing purple, faster with every breath.

"Don't look at her eyes!" I shouted to the others, but it was too late.

Artemis had barely managed to loose two arrows, both of which hit the lamia's body without causing too much harm, before her arms fell limp at her sides. Aphrodite's mouth hung open, and I realized both of them had been mesmerized by the lamia's innate charming skill.

The crunch of Ares's bones was accompanied by the lamia's hysterical laughter. I’d always wondered how she was able to remain so loyal to my father even as he mistreated everyone around him. Seeing her switch from uncontrollable anger to laughter so quickly finally made it clear to me that my father her damaged her more than I thought.

"You think you're the first group of upstarts to try and attack me all at once?" She snickered and focused on the goddesses behind me. "You, spellcaster, heal me and you, bow-woman, kill him!"

I jumped back just in time to avoid one of Artemis's arrows, while Aphrodite started healing the lamia. I was running toward a group of trees to take cover from Artemis's arrows when I noticed something peculiar.

None of them hit me. Not a single one of the arrows was on target, and all of her attacks were simple strikes rather than damaging skills. I might have been able to evade one arrow aimed at me by sheer luck, but there was no way that Artemis was missing me over and over again. Unless, of course, she was doing it on purpose.

At the same time, Aphrodite was casting healing spells one after the other on the lamia, but I had rarely seen her use this particular version of her spell before. The light that showered Lilian was dim and I recognized it as an older healing spell that was particularly weak and slow, hence me only ever seeing her use it when we were resting during XP parties.

And that could only mean one thing. The goddesses were unaffected by the lamia's charm skill and were only pretending to have been turned. What I didn't know was what they were waiting for.

The answer came from above the moment the lamia sprung forward to bite me again, despite now missing one of her fangs.

A silent Hephaestus fell from the sky to land a blow, hammer first, on the lamia's head. So powerful was the strike that the stunning skill he used took effect instantly and Lilian stood in front of me, unable to move with her eyes wide open in shock. Without wasting a single breath, I unleashed all of my offensive skills on her snake-like body.

At the same time, Artemis shot the lamia's human neck with her charged arrows, refreshing the stunned effect timer, and Aphrodite healed her brother. Ares, who was finally able to free himself of the constricting tail of the lamia, picked up his swords and started hacking away at the scaly body that had imprisoned him.

With the aid of Hephaestus, who continued to deliver all of his powerful strikes one after the other, we managed to fell the lamia before she had the chance to recover. For a moment I thought of allowing her to live for a few more seconds in case she had some last words.

Then I saw the hate burning in her eyes as it became clear to her that she was no match for us, and I thought otherwise. There was nothing I could hope to talk with her about, and nothing she might have to say to us except for spewing more hatred. Artemis was the one to deliver the final blow as she landed a critical hit with one of her arrows, striking straight at Lilian’s heart.

Her scaly body started losing its vibrant color before it even hit the ground, and pretty soon she had curled up into a large ball of flesh and scales, breathing her last breath defending someone who wasn’t worth her loyalty. As much as I felt sympathy for her dying in the name of someone as disgusting as my father, she had always been a hateful person and I couldn't help but feel relieved that she was no longer alive.

"An interesting creature if I ever fought one," Hephaestus said, trying to clean off his hammer with some oversized leafs.

"That lamia really hated you, didn't she?" Artemis asked.

"She was always like that to me. My siblings too, except for Hades. But especially me." I looked at Aphrodite and Artemis. "For a moment I really thought you two had been charmed."

"I’m the goddess of the hunt," Artemis said with pride. "I’ve hunted beasts with much more powerful abilities than her. Besides, it was easy to see she was going to do something with her eyes."

"And I'm charm incarnate, dear," Aphrodite added. "I do the charming. Not the other way around."

"But you were looking straight at her."

"I forced myself to lose focus," Artemis replied. "You know how you can be looking toward something but not at it?"

"Like you're looking through it?" I asked, and she nodded so I looked at Aphrodite for her answer.

"What?” she said, and shrugged her shoulders. “I just told you. These things don't work on me."

"So was I the only one who got played?" Ares asked.

"She probably had her tail through the plants surrounding us and felt you moving back there," Hephaestus said. "But after she got hold of you, she wasn't able to sense me. That's what matters."

"Alright. I guess I'll take that as a win," Ares said, and then let out a gasp as he tried to stretch his arms up over his head. "Can I get some more healing?"

"Let's take a small break," I said. "Once our MP is full again, we’ll get a rebuff and continue."

We moved closer to the beginning of the next set of steps so we wouldn't have to sit too close to the lamia's body and took a quick rest. Artemis, whose MP was already mostly full, ran around my sister's palace, marveling at how many plants and trees had been brought so high up the mountain.

"You said your sister was fond of the earth?" she asked me, inspecting a large sequoia tree.

"Very much so," I confirmed. "She loved the earth and the woods, so she wanted to bring some nature back to her home."

"She must have been a great person," Artemis said.

"That she was." I turned my eyes to the ground.

"You never showed us your palace," Aphrodite said, rushing to change the subject away from my sister. "Did we already pass it?"

"Yes, mine was at the base of the steps, near where I fought my teacher. But there's probably nothing left there now."

"Maybe we can fix it once it's all over," Hephaestus suggested. "Maybe we can fix all of the palaces."

"Maybe," I said, standing up. "Alright, let’s get rebuffed and resume our ascent."