Feeling the hand on her head, Athena froze momentarily.
That brief pause cost her the chance to escape.
With a mocking chuckle, Lucius unleashed the mana he'd been storing for who-knows-how-long in a sudden burst.
Most Campiones, transformed through Pandora's Ritual Disk, had mana far weaker than a Heretic God's.
Lucius, however, had directly absorbed a Heretic God's full power, no middleman skimming the profits.
Coupled with the power drawn from divine artifacts, his mana surpassed that of a typical Heretic God.
As it erupted—
Athena felt an irresistible force pressing down from her head, prompting an instinctive struggle.
But the hand on her head, showing no mercy, slammed her face into the ground.
Boom!
A deafening crash echoed as marble tiles within a hundred meters cracked densely.
Nearby buildings' windows shattered from the shockwave.
And Athena, at the epicenter…
Her head—no, half her body—was driven into the earth.
Fortunately, as a former queen of gods and Earth Mother, her form was resilient, her head especially tough.
Otherwise, after such a brutal slam, Lucius might've been looking for something to wipe his hand with in disgust.
Even so, Athena was left dazed, her mind blank.
In every way, she was too weak in her current state.
To think he'd calculated so cautiously against such a weakened Athena—Lucius didn't see his caution as excessive, only a reminder of his own weakness.
Dealing with an incomplete Athena by absorbing her power now would be like uprooting a barely sprouted leek to cook—a wasteful act that disgusted him.
Waste was one of Lucius's greatest pet peeves.
But returning the Gorgon Stone to her? That made him hesitate.
What if he couldn't beat her and got himself killed? That'd be mortifying.
So, he was torn.
The best approach was to deal with the two Heretic Gods possibly appearing on Sardinia, grow stronger, and then handle Athena.
With that in mind, Lucius grabbed her hair, expressionless, and yanked her up slightly.
Then—
Boom!
He slammed her down again.
"Ha! Is this the Greek virgin goddess? What a joke!" Lucius sneered.
He wasn't naturally this cruel.
But he was facing the Greek goddess of wisdom.
He didn't want to eliminate a weakened Athena, yet feared he couldn't defeat her at full strength.
Telling her, "Hey, I'm off to Sardinia; I'll deal with you later," was obviously unreliable. She'd never abandon her pursuit of the Gorgon Stone.
Worse, she might tail him to Sardinia and ambush him.
So, Lucius needed to ensure she couldn't interfere.
But he couldn't just beat her half to death.
If some lucky opportunist finished her off, it'd be his loss.
His goal was to keep Athena, with her combat strength intact, waiting in Rome for him to return and deal with her.
Lucius didn't delude himself into thinking his intellect matched hers.
To make her act as he wanted, he had to enrage her into losing all reason.
She was undeniably adorable.
Petite, with stunning silver hair, wearing a thin sweater, a mini skirt, black knee-high stockings, and a blue knit cap with cat ears.
But that meant nothing to him.
What wasn't his couldn't sway him.
Athena, slammed into the ground again, finally regained clarity.
What just happened?
As a virgin goddess, she'd tried to deliver a curse through a kiss, only to have her head grabbed, her face smashed into the ground, and be mocked.
"How dare you—how dare you!" Her face darkened, struggling fiercely.
Humiliation!
Utter humiliation!
In untainted myths, Athena was a mighty, majestic queen of gods.
Even in patriarchal times, she remained powerful and beautiful.
In modern times, she was among the most popular mythic figures.
Not just for her strength or benevolence, but for her aesthetically pleasing character and conduct.
Yet now, though weakened, to be toyed with so easily by another Heretic God—
By the way, her current pose had her waist-up buried, with her legs, clad in black stockings, flailing outside.
Through her efforts, upside-down as she was…
Her gravity-defying skirt began to obey physics, nearly revealing her choice of undergarments.
Seeing this, Lucius swiftly released her head, grabbed the skirt's edge, and pulled it back into place, preserving her modesty.
He gently adjusted her sweater to cover her exposed waist.
Then, he raised his hand and delivered a sharp smack to her backside.
"As a lady, you should maintain some dignity, got it?" He scolded.
"I'm ashamed for you!"
Against other Greek goddesses, such tactics might've been useless.
But Athena was unique.
And so, Lucius succeeded in making the wisdom goddess's composure explode.
***
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