Although Kroto, the youngest of the Goddess of Fate, felt indignant about Athena's words, she had to admit that Athena had a point.
Despite the Goddess of Fate appearing formidable as they control destiny, they are merely slaves to 'Fate' and the planet's inhibitory power. Their authority can only be applied to predetermined destinies. If they were to twist fate, they would suffer a backlash and die. As for directly confronting Ares, that is even more impossible. Therefore, they had to choose a representative.
In the current Greek World, there are indeed few gods who can contend with Ares. Hecate is a staunch supporter of Ares, Hades has withdrawn from disputes and is indifferent to worldly affairs, and Dionysus, the God of Wine, who was destined to succeed Zeus as the fourth-generation God King, died in the womb due to Ares. As for Sea King Poseidon, judging from recent encounters, if he were chosen as a representative, Poseidon would likely be severely tormented by Ares.
As for Zeus, the God King who is destined to be replaced, although his current combat power and authority are still sufficient to defeat Ares, it is impossible for the Three Goddesses to cooperate with him. After all, ever since Prometheus's prophecy, Zeus understood that he had been betrayed by the Three Goddesses. If the Three Goddesses were to ask him for help now, the arrogant Zeus would never agree.
Therefore, after much consideration, it seemed that only Athena in the Greek World could be called upon to help fight Ares, and this was why Athena dared to act in such an outwardly compliant but inwardly defiant manner. After all, for the Three Goddesses, this was a seller's market, and she had completely monopolized it.
Thus, upon hearing Athena's words, Kroto could only indignantly rush back to the Three Sisters' hidden temple and begin to modify the threads of Medusa and Poseidon's destinies, attempting to repair this event that had completely deviated from the historical trajectory.
After seeing the Fate Goddess leave, Athena gracefully walked back to her temple. Upon seeing Hestia appear and Poseidon subdued by Athena, Heracles and Perseus did not leave, but chose to remain in her temple.
After all, outside the temple was the Olympus Gods' family affair, and given their current status, they couldn't interject.
When Athena walked back to the temple, Heracles was helping Perseus clean up the statue of Athena that Ares had shattered, and Notos, God of the South Wind, whom she had previously called out to stop Heracles, was still tied up in place.
His mouth was still stuffed with a large stone, but after witnessing Heracles brutally beat Sea King Poseidon earlier, he had become much more obedient and no longer dared to act presumptuously in front of him.
Upon seeing Athena enter the temple, Heracles and Perseus also stopped their work. They approached the radiant Athena. Heracles merely nodded slightly to her in greeting, treating his enemy as an equal, as if just saying hello, while Perseus immediately knelt down.
"Athena, I am truly sorry! The destruction of your statue is all my fault. I never expected the God of War to be so vengeful."
"It's alright, I forgive you for this," Athena said with a smile, waving her hand and patting Perseus's shoulder. She gently told him, "It's not the first time he's done this to me; I'm pretty much used to it. Get up."
With Athena's help, Perseus stood up with a frown, though his face still showed an expression of disbelief. However, Athena didn't pay attention to him for the moment; instead, she looked at Heracles and smiled gently at him, "Thank you very much for your righteous assistance to my priest, my brother."
"You don't need to thank me. I saved that little girl not because she was your priest, but simply because I can't stand strong individuals bullying the weak with their power."
Heracles replied impolitely to Athena:
"Moreover, this matter should be your dereliction of duty. Being unable to protect your own followers within your own temple is a disgrace, whether for a king or a god."
"I accept your lesson."
Athena looked at Heracles with a smile, showing no anger at his disrespectful words. She continued:
"Even so, I still want to thank you, my brother. I happen to have a few items here that I would like to give to you."
With that, she retrieved two treasures from an underground room in the temple and placed them before Heracles.
One of the treasures was a bronze jar, and the other was a bronze chariot. Athena first pointed to the chariot and introduced it to Heracles:
"This chariot was forged by our brother, Hephaestus, the most versatile of the Olympus Gods. I have also blessed it. Riding it, you can soar through the sky like the gods."
Then, she pointed to the bronze jar and continued to introduce it to Heracles:
"As for this jar, it is even more powerful than the chariot. I have enchanted it, and it contains the hair of a goddess. When you encounter an enemy army, you only need to take out the hidden hair of the goddess and wave it three times without looking forward, and the enemy army will retreat without a fight."
After introducing these two treasures, Athena approached Heracles. She adopted a very humble posture before the great hero, extended her hand, and, blinking, said to him:
"I'm giving both of these treasures to you, Heracles, my dear brother. Can we put aside our past grievances and become friends?"
Heracles looked down at the beautiful goddess for a moment, then suddenly let out a disdainful snort from his nostrils.
"Noble, beautiful Athena, whether we can still be friends, you should be very clear about what you did before."
He walked to the two treasures Athena had given him, then pointed at them and said:
"Consider these my compensation for protecting your priest and repelling Poseidon today. From now on, we owe each other nothing, and it's best if we never meet again. Oh, and that person over there who calls himself 'God of the South Wind,' I originally intended to hand him over to you to deal with, but now it seems you're probably in league with him too."
"Heracles!"
Perseus, who was standing nearby, saw Heracles's disrespectful attitude and immediately went to his side, whispering to Heracles:
"Athena is a benevolent deity, no matter what. There is no better god in this world than her. Please show her some respect."
"If you want to show respect, then go ahead, Perseus." Heracles finally gave Athena a disdainful glance, then picked up the bronze jar, stepped onto the chariot, and without looking back, said to Perseus, "I still consider you a friend, so listen to my advice: sycophants will all come to a bad end. This is a truth that a wise deity told me."
With that, he drove the chariot into the clouds and headed towards the kingdom of his brother, Eurystheus.