Mountain of the Immortals

The next day I woke with a banging headache on a pile of furs in a room I did not recognize. I pulled myself up, only to realize that the headache was far worse standing up straight than it had been in my horizontal position. Also, I realized that I was indeed in my room but hadn’t recognized it upside down with my head hanging over the edge of my bed.

I looked around, hoping to find Aphrodite, so I could ask her to cast a healing spell and rid me of the terrible side effects of partying. I hadn’t had to suffer such a devastating, self-induced headache since my younger days in my palace under Cronus's shadow. In those days, I always had a healer on standby and they would heal me of my drunkenness while I was asleep, resulting in me waking up as if nothing had happened the night before, which meant I’d be able to do it all over again the following night.

Not having engaged in any such activities on top of Mount Olympus before, I hadn’t prepared for such a situation. Thankfully, my guardian goddess of love had considered it before she left our home that morning, as evidenced by the greenish liquid next to my bed-stand.

* * *

Item: Greater Potion of Recovery

Type: Consumable - Potion

Durability: 50/50

Grade: B Grade

Weight: 4st.

Description: A magic potion, which—upon consumption—will instantly and completely remove any adverse effects caused by physical conditions such as poisoning and intoxication.

* * *

I grabbed the potion and downed it faster than Ares had drunk that bottle of wine I dared him to last night. The potion gave off a cooling feeling as it traveled down my throat, down to my stomach, and ultimately throughout my body. Any sense of dizziness I was feeling disappeared before I’d even placed the glass container back on the table. I had no idea how much these things cost, but I would have gladly paid bucketfuls of gold just to get my hands on one.

With the single biggest problem of my day out of the way, I was now ready to take over the world. And that started with making sure our town was operating smoothly again and that the people of Dion were happy with the repairs underway in their town.

My mind was always running to Hephaestus’ workshop because I was curious to see what marvels he would have crafted for us by now, but that would only serve to slow him down. Besides, I wanted to check on the rest of our buildings and their progress.

When I got outside, I saw that the town didn’t look like it had survived an attack of apocalyptic proportions at all. Children were running around just like they were two days ago while construction of new houses was in full force. And for all of this, we had the magical protective barrier to thank. All of the destruction and death on top of it, from the bodies of fallen warriors and monsters to pieces of equipment and literal mountainsides from the destroyed golems, was carefully removed from the mana barrier before it was deactivated, and slid down outside of the perimeter of the walls. The mountainsides of Olympus had definitely seen better days. Luckily, we had just the right people to clean up the mess.

I was never a vengeful god and I knew that all but the most fanatic warriors who had attacked us, did not desire this course of action themselves. Or if they did, they weren't hellbent on destroying me. The vast majority had been sent to fight a war they weren’t keen on fighting. Similarly, I had no intention of executing them after the battle was over. It was pretty clear from the four destroyed gigantic golems that they had lost.

Those warriors who were fast and not too hurt had managed to flee to the lands surrounding the mountain and away from Dion. The rest simply surrendered themselves to us, begging for forgiveness and the sacred right of asylum as prisoners of war. I wasn’t keen on taking prisoners though. Every man and woman on Mount Olympus had to pull their own weight, and I wasn't going to start housing and feeding people for free now. On the other hand, letting them all go after they’d attacked us would look like a sign of weakness to my people and the rest of the world. In essence, it was all in the way that I would package the offer I presented to them.

As a venerable and kind-hearted god, the exact opposite of my father, I announced to our prisoners of war that I held no grudge against them, for they were fooled by the falsehoods of my father and extorted into attacking our great people. I told them that they would not be killed in cold blood, as that wasn’t the way we did things around here. On the contrary, I would offer them the chance to make amends for their transgressions. I would allow them to clean up the mess they’d created and help rebuild the town of Dion which they had pillaged. And if their hearts were truly in the right place and they pledged their allegiance to me, I would even allow them to join the winning side in the Greek world.

Of course this was only possible because we had taken no casualties. If even one of our people had died fighting them, inviting their killers to join us would have meant I was sowing discord around the leg of my own throne.

However, seeing the sheer amount of work that would be needed to get us back to the condition we were in before the attack, the people of Dion and our town were eager to give them this second chance. And so the cleaning of the mountainsides begun.

With a good overview of who was doing what in terms of repairs and constructions, I started my little tour of our buildings. Both fighting academies were empty, save for their headmasters and some of its best instructors, who were passionately discussing what had transpired during the battle, what lessons they’d learned, and how they would be able to prepare their warriors better in the future. This time, unlike the previous times I visited them, it was time for me to thank them for their work as well. The rigorous training of our people was a big part of why our victory had been flawless and I wanted them to feel pride in their achievements.

The warmage academy, which was of course named after Aphrodite now, was significantly more crowded than the academies, since the spellcasters didn’t see as much merit in offering their physical help to rebuild the cities. On the contrary, they were continuing their research, having happily switched their focus from wartime research topics back to their initial wondrous subjects that only merited investigation by civilizations who were thriving in peace.

Regardless, they were also very appreciative of me showing my gratitude for their contribution to the battle. This only lasted a few minutes though before our conversation topic shifted to requests to import magical artifacts that would amplify or accelerate their experiments.

Normally I was quite annoyed by their constant requests for more resources, but at this point I was just happy to see they had returned to their normal selves. And they were happy to see me in a good mood where I’d accept almost any request they threw at me—something I was sure would come back to bite me once Aphrodite found out.

The farms too were slowly coming back to life as the animals returned to them from their hiding place inside the mountain and more of them were brought in by merchants who had heard about our rapid expansion. The city was growing feverishly and the air smelled of hope and growth.

The mining camp and lumberyard looked as busy as ever but with the new people who had joined us, everything was running smoothly and effectively. Whereas before we’d had to employ people who had simply an interest in working there, now it was only experts, which greatly increased productivity. After making sure that I extended my gratitude for their efforts in preparing for the battle, I got out of their way so they could continue their work.

The Academics and Research Institution was in a similar state to the warmage academy, only their projects had simply been put on hold over the past couple of days instead of being changed, since they weren't dependent on our town being at peace or war.

The Intelligence Agency was the last building I stopped at before I headed up to the walls. As expected, none of our operatives were there, only a couple of people who took care of the relay of information and communications. Having finished the visit faster than I expected, I climbed the few steps up to the now lowered walls and walked around their length. The view wasn't as extensive as it was while they were in full-on battle mode, but the slopes surrounding us still gave me a good overview of the work being done.

The troops were only stationed on the walls just so that our citizens wouldn't be too worried by any of the “war prisoners” making a move against us, but I thanked them regardless. Many of them had been on the frontlines in the battle, fighting against our attackers. Of course, they hadn't really been in any danger behind the barrier and they were just firing the cannons or shooting their bows, but dismissing their efforts wouldn’t benefit anyone. So instead, I thanked them too, telling them how each strike of theirs brought us closer to our eventual victory.

Such praise from a god would definitely carry a long way down the drain of storytelling, and this effect would carry the news of our victory even further, bringing even more people to our town. This trickle effect was of the utmost importance, especially now that we would take over Mount Orthys as the shining capital of the Greek world.

I thought about this last fact as I made my way to Hephaestus' workshop. In a matter of a few months, I had gone from being the youngest son of King Cronus, a god who was only interested in having fun and avoiding his father as much as he could, to the spearhead of a massive shift in the Greek pantheon.

It would have been easy to let my head become bloated with self-importance when I was being praised and worshipped by thousands, but I wasn't going to be struck by the same foolishness as my father. I was blessed by having the right people in my guild. I would have been nothing but a refugee of my father's paranoid wrath had it not been for my guildmates. I may even have ended up just another victim, a god erased from history.

But that possibility would soon be closed off forever.