Chapter 60: Athena's Discoveries and the Olive Branch of...
Athena had a frown and a deep gaze as she sat staring at a cup of tea. She wouldn't usually drink tea, but it was the first thing she found after being brought back to the apartment after Chaos saved them from Percy's wrath. She was still shocked by the enormous power he wielded. She still remembered how space twisted, bent, and collapsed under that immense power.
And the killing intent... even having been in wars, she had never felt such insane killing intent. It was as if she had been sinking in a sea of blood as icy hands grabbed her ankles and pulled her into the darkest, most terrifying depths.
She also couldn't believe how easily Hades, one of the strongest Olympians, had died. Athena didn't even know how Persephone had died, but it couldn't have been easy given how Hades and his son had died.
"But there are also Lord Chaos' words…" Athena muttered as she looked at the liquid in the cup.
"Ten-dimensional multidimensional universe? But then that would mean that there are parallel universes that actually exist. And if so, then there should be other planes. Percy also mentioned something…"
"A mortal cannot harm a being from a higher dimension," she muttered as she recalled those words. At that time she had thought that Percy was simply referring to a higher level of power, but it seems that there was something more, was what she thought.
"Lord Chaos created the universe…" She frowned, then relaxed her brows, and then her forehead furrowed as she thought hard: "Ten dimensions, Chaos is a ten-dimensional being? If that's so, then it can be understood how he was able to create the multidimensional universe. Then, the gods should be lower-dimensional existences."
Athena was thinking and pondering hard. She knew that Chaos' words had a meaning. She hadn't taken it into account because of her disbelief and horror at Percy's power. But if Chaos thought of her as a parasite, he would have already completely extinguished her. And even if he had some kind of restraint, he would still be more proactive towards the destruction of the gods, he wouldn't have had to wait so long.
For that reason and with the intention of winning the war that was already beginning, Athena intended to decipher these secrets. She made a pencil and paper appear and began to write and draw.
"A line can be taken as a dimension since only one coordinate is needed to specify a point on it," she muttered as she drew a line with a dot in the middle and wrote 1-D on it.
"A surface, such as a plane or the surface of a cylinder or sphere, is two-dimensional, because two coordinates are needed to specify a point on it."
"The physical world we live in appears to be four perceptible dimensions. Traditionally, it is separated into three spatial dimensions and one temporal dimension. We can move up or down, north or south, east or west, and movements in any direction can be expressed in terms of these three movements. A downward movement is equivalent to an upward movement in the negative. A north-west movement is simply a combination of a northward movement and a westward movement. But even if it is said to be four-dimensional, and even though time appears perceptible, it is more abstract..."
Athena paused for a moment: "Indeed, mortals cannot really have access to 'true time'. Gods however... we can see the past from time to time, the present is almost always perceptible, and the future is simply blurry due to always being in motion and change..."
"I see, that's how it is then: A mortal is considered a three-dimensional being in the face of the 10-D multidimensional universe; a god, on the other hand, is already a 4-D being for being able to see and perceive time differently."
"But... then...", Athena had a look of confusion on her face: "Lord Chaos said that the universe is expanding and that the so-called Law of the Universe considers stagnation to be hostile, at least that was what he implied with his words when we saved Artemis."
"If that's so... Why would he accept the gods?", Athena bit her lower lip for a moment and thought: "The more higher-dimensional existences there are, then the more we will be able to see and perceive time." the universe would end up collapsing due to an accumulation of space"
"Wait... Artemis and Percy were three-dimensional beings. How was Zeus able to do that? And even more importantly, how did those two evolve their existences to higher dimensions?"
"Damn... this is annoying. I love studying and discovering new things, but this is a whole other level, especially when my existence and that of other members of my family are at stake"
"You're trying really hard..."
"Artemis," Athena recognized the voice immediately and turned to see the goddess behind her. Artemis looked at her for a moment before sighing a little and walking over before sitting in front of her. Silver eyes looked at Athena's blade and smiled a little.
"Well, as expected of you, you've discovered several things"
"What are your goals?" the goddess of wisdom asked without beating around the bush.
"Save the earth and its inhabitants; At least most of them."
"Why?"
"Because that way Percy could kill the ones he hates while helping the planet; it's two birds with one stone."
"How?"
"By creating a kingdom of gods so that beings like us don't interfere in mortal affairs and humans take a step forward in evolution."
Athena frowned, "You answer easily, why?"
Artemis shrugged as she closed her eyes for a few seconds and said, "An olive branch; a peace offering. I admire you and you're not bad, Athena; at least you haven't harmed Percy or anyone else close to me. And honestly, I don't want you to die."
"But, still, my daughter... my children could die by Percy's hands."
"Don't think yourself too important, Athena. Percy had no intentions of laying a hand on you. In fact, all these years he's been a lot calmer than when I saw him again. But upon hearing Annabeth's words, he remembered what had happened and got angry, very angry."
Athena groaned a little, but nodded anyway, deciding to believe her half-sister.
"What is a God Realm?" she asked.
"You can see it as a sphere, a very, very large one. The Law of the universe does not admit beings of dimensions higher than the fourth dimension. Therefore, they must be anchored to a god realm in order to exist without problems. The so-called god realm is a five-dimensional or higher space that contains an infinite amount of lower dimensions, such as the third and fourth dimensional spaces, to form the fifth dimension. Each god realm is also considered a higher dimensional plane, but its physical appearance is that of a planet clinging to the multidimensional universe. The realm is able to grow stronger and become a larger universe by absorbing higher dimensional spaces."
"How much does it span?"
"Enough to house several galaxies."
"Do planets that large exist?"
"You take it too literally. That is just an appearance, you can call it a kind of core where gods would live, but the influence of the dimensional space would span several galaxies."
"Are we…" Athena paused in her question as her throat blocked. She asked him what he was about to do, and it pained her. Throughout her immortal life, she was praised and hated, but most of all, revered. Now, however, she was told that she was a flawed existence. That hurt her more than she imagined.
"Are we really parasites?"
Artemis tilted her head slightly, confused by the question. But looking at her sister's expression, she let out a sigh before answering, "The gods of planet Earth are unlike any other, Athena. They have too many domains/authorities. This causes a huge imbalance in their existences. The evidence is that they need a vessel body to hide their divine forms."
"Look at me, I don't need such a thing. I can use and control my power without killing people when they see me. Furthermore, that great power causes the energy of heaven and earth or you can call it the energy of the universe, to stagnate in continuous absorption for the planet to sustain itself. Simply put, their existences cause the mortal inhabitants of this planet to be unable to have a spiritual awakening. Spiritual awakening is what it refers to when a mortal is able to manipulate this energy to a certain extent in order to begin an evolution: they become stronger, faster, awaken higher spiritual abilities, can use the elements, etc. So, if you look at it from that point, they are parasites."
"So you became a goddess? "Because of this energy?"
"Right..."
Athena just nodded and was about to ask something else, but she noticed Artemis' expression cooling at an alarming rate.
"Artemis?"
"Sorry, I have to go."
"Did something happen?"
"Nothing too important, I just got word that someone I was looking for was found," Artemis replied before disappearing from the apartment.
Athena just leaned back in her chair as she breathed tiredly. She had received a lot of information and needed to digest it, but now she felt too tired. Much more tired than ever.
Elsewhere, on top of a building in the city, Percy looked to his side as Artemis appeared on the scene.
"Did you tell her?"
"Yeah..." Artemis nodded as she looked emotionless at the ground where a drunken blonde man walked with two beautiful women, one on each arm.
"Good. That'll make me think about things for a while," Percy nodded and then looked at the man.
"Will you do it alone?"
"Yes."
"Then be careful."
"I don't need it against him," Artemis clenched her fists tightly.
"You always need to be careful Artemis, always. Especially when your life is no longer just yours," Percy's words managed to make Artemis smile a little.
"I know. But your life is not just yours either, Percy. You need to be careful too."
He nodded before leaving the place, leaving the goddess completely alone as he moved across the rooftops towards an alley. He knew what the man usually did when he was with women.
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