Chapter 17

Argath motioned him to approach as he put the armor he was polishing down. “I am glad you chose to stay. You will realize how fortunate we are in meeting now, but before anything else, I have a promise to keep.” Motioning again, he brought him to a chest in the corner of his workshop. “You should know how few pieces of armor and weapon’s I create for others anymore. I have found that these weapons often come back to me in violence. Tell me, did the previous owner of that coin ever tell you the story of how it was obtained?”

Looking at the Cyclops, anom answered honestly. “I was told you were severely injured, blinded, and left to die on the mountain. However, the Gerion’s found you and brought you to their chief where you were healed.” Looking surprised, and grateful, the Cyclops sighed with sadness. “So, he didn’t tell you the whole story. He truly is honorable” “What he said was true, but there is more to the story ”

"Three days before I was rescued by my benefactor’s, I was traveling with my brothers, Steropes, and Brontis. We were traveling from our work with Hephaestus, and leaving the gods domain. Suddenly, we were beset by the light of the sun. Apollo had come, and he was looking for blood. Without warning, he shot sun fire onto my brothers and I with his bow, and sprinted into battle."

"He pulled out his spear and struck my two brothers down. As for me, he pierced my eye with his spear, and cut me down. Only stopping once he thought me mortally wounded. I begged and asked him, why? Why did you kill my family? But, he said nothing, and simply left. Leaving me to die, blind, and alone, suffering in my grief."

"It was not until after I returned and found my protégé, Hephaestus, that I found the cause of our undoing. Apollo’s son Asclepius was a famous and unnaturally gifted doctor. He was able to see almost any injury or disease and cure the patient allowing them to live. Zeus, feared that with such a gifted mortal, there would soon be no reason left to worship the gods."

"Zeus feared humanity may lose their respect for the gods and stop fearing even hades, and death. In his mind, this doctor was a threat to his rule. And so, he took his thunderbolt, and cast it down, to the mortal world, killing Apollo’s son. It did not take long for Apollo to notice the incident and come looking for Zeus. However, Zeus had a plan."

"The lightning bolt weapon was given to Zeus by me and my brothers, as an alliance gift, and for our gratitude for releasing us, from our imprisonment in Tartarus, many thousands of years ago. Zeus released my family, and tribe, as well as the Hecatoncaries, and we promised to help him overthrow his father, Cronus. We kept our promise and helped him overthrow our brothers. They had never tried to help us, or release us from our suffering, so we gave them the same familial care that we had received."

"Afterwards, we began to help Hephaestus and create divine objects and weapons for the new gods and for many years’ things seemed to be getting better for our kind. However, after Zeus betrayed Apollo he needed a scapegoat."

"He knew that besides the thunderbolt, the only beings able to create a power similar to it were me and my brothers. We were the ones who originally created it. It was from our power molded together that the bolt was given life. He told Apollo that it was us who struck his son down, still being secretly enraged at the death of my brothers during the war."

"After hearing this from the gods in Olympus, he took his chariot we created for him and without a word, found us, and killed my two brothers. He thought he killed me too. Luckily, just killing me outright was much too easy for our, "supposed sin."

"After discovering the truth, I knew from that moment forward that no matter what I did for the new gods, or however long I would do it for, they would never see me as one of them. I would always be seen as a lesser. Something expendable. Ever since coming out from that prison I had been teaching Hephaestus my craft."

"I thought we would be seen as equals. But tell me have you ever heard my name in history? What about my brothers? Strange right? Even though Zeus’s lightning bolt was created by me and my brothers, and Apollo’s chariot was made by me. Even hade’s helmet of invisibility was made from my brother’s but whose name resounds through the ages?"

"Hephaestus. My student was given all my, and my family’s glory, because he was one of the new gods, and no matter how useful we were, we were still old gods, and Titans." Putting his hands on my shoulders, Arges looked at me, straight in my eyes, and said, “Just like you brother.”

Shocked, anom stood there, stunned for a moment, until Arges began to speak again. “You do not have to worry here brother I know more about you, than even you do.” “I am not your enemy. In fact, I have been waiting for you for some time now.” Don’t you find it strange how I knew about your body growing in heat from battle? The lineage I spoke of was my own as well. I understand why you would choose to hide yourself as a regular giant, but you do not need to be wary of me. Here, this is for you."

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Pulling the chest open he could see a beautiful silver and blue breastplate with glittering fragments of metal implanted inside, making the armor look like a star lit night. The trims were gold and silver with a crest placed right above the heart. It was a massive tree, and a starry night. Inside the night sky was a comet that was blood red and resembled flesh, with a trail of blood following it, falling onto the tree. Looking at Arges I asked, “What is this?” Looking back at me he responded, “I am not the right one to ask this to.” “Put this on first and we will go ask your question together.”

Unsure how to respond, he began to disrobe and grab ahold of the blood red gambeson to put on. It was deep, blood red, and hot to the touch. The padded armor looked like a wool coat, with stitches of beautiful prismatic silver stitching and highly flexible red scales threaded on the outside.

“This gambeson is made from the wool of a chimera and the hide of a demon. It has the scales of a fire dragon mixed with the flames of Tarturus and sewn together with mythril and Arachnes webbing. This is without a doubt the best armor I have ever produced and I am glad it is going to one of my own."

Pulling out a chainmail anom was flabbergasted at its sight. "It’s so beautiful, it is strange though, like a ribbon tied together into the shape of chainmail." Hearing my confusion, Arges laughed lightly, as he explained. "This is the strongest chain that exists. It was created by the Norse gods and dwarves."

"The dwarves traded their knowledge of the creation of this chain in payment for them to join my guild and live here. This chain is the exact chain that is at this moment tying down Fenrir, the poor bastard. Their gods too are scared of things they can’t control, as well, it seems."

"They tricked him into willingly being chained up, and was told they wanted to see how strong he was as they were friends with him before their betrayal. He broke through every chain anyone could make, until this chain. It is made with the sound of a cat’s footprint, the beard of a lady, the breath of a fish, the roots of a mountain, and various other things that are almost impossible to attain."

"The dwarves called it a gleipnir chain. So this is a gleipnir chainmail. The only one in existence. Even after spending almost my whole fortune through the years I was only ever able to produce this single chainmail. Putting the chainmail on, it felt smooth like silk, but trying to pull it I could see how strong it truly was. The armor resembled golden chainmail. However, I had no doubts that it would stop almost anything I encountered all on its own."

Finally putting on the plate armor, he told me of the different types of metals used in its creation, and asked me if he could handle the weight. “This was put together with 14 types of mythological metals and bonded with the metal in the heart of a dead star. Putting the armor on, he could immediately feel the weight. This thing was exceptionally heavy. "It must weigh 20 tons easy. Even for me it’s uncomfortably heavy. I don’t know how long I could fight in this. With this on my weight will almost triple."

Seeing him straining with the weight, Arges looked a little uncomfortable. “This armor is extremely heavy. I’m sure you are the only one who can even wear it. Although it may be heavy now, with time you will continue to grow and become stronger. It also has multiple runes engraved in it for weight reduction but even this can only go so far even with my skill. It has a size balancer rune so it will grow with you."

"Once you grow strong enough to bear the weight you should come back to me and I will erase one of the weight rune and activate one of the true runes I put in. If you are able to fully release the true runes, the armor will be almost invincible. Even now, it is very hard to damage. However, even if it does somehow get damaged it has a true rune engraved and activated right now that repairs damage to the armor. Even if it is only left with a quarter of the armor it will repair itself over time."

Putting on the rest of the armor he felt like he was carrying a herd of whales. Handing him the silver and golden closed helmet he could immediately tell this was by far the best helmet he had ever worn. It had a fin sprouting from the top of the helmet and an angled forward facing visor which vaguely resembled a thick beak. It also had a collar piece going down from the helmet onto the breastplate.

The visor itself was decorated and engraved in silver and gold with beautiful Celtic symbols and runes. I could pull the whole visor up to see fully and when it was down I could see through the visor itself without any holes being present. No more arrow shots through the visor or eye slit.

He could feel the armor contrasting and expanding in different areas until he felt like he wasn’t even wearing an armor suite, I put my sword on my left hip and noticed on my right hip was a perfect spot to place my poleaxe if I simply shrunk it down. Shrinking it down it fit perfectly into the holster.

Arges then pulled out a thick tower shield from the chest and placed it on his back when he heard a click, and to my shock the massive shield shrank until it was around the size of a heater shield. However, despite how nice and comfortable it was, the weight was obviously going to be an issue for him."

"This armor has many abilities, but right now you are not strong enough to use them all. Despite this, the armor itself is almost indestructible. Even at the weakest spots are over a foot thick of composite metals, before even taking into account your chainmail, gambeson, and shield. I hope you can see my goodwill towards you. The armor was earned from your predecessors and yourself though, and I would like to give you a gift that you very much need right now. Come, let us meet my friend."