Mountain of the Immortals

"How does this change our plans?" Aphrodite asked. "It just tells us why this is happening. You yourself just said that the place being busy would make our job easier."

"Our plans don't change," he said, "but we need to be extra careful. Modi himself is going to be here."

"What?" Aphrodite said, almost too loud for comfort. "How can you say our plans don't change? We're trying to frame one god in the eyes of another. Don't you think we should pull back when the god himself might catch us in the act?"

"You can see this as either an opportunity or a hurdle, sister," he said, and pointed one finger at his temple. "It's all in here."

"If they find out that you're behind this," Aphrodite said, bringing her hand down to point at her gut, "it's going to be in here as well."

"We made a promise," I said, tired of listening to them disagree over every little thing. "We're in. We're here and we're doing this, then Ares is coming back with us and joining our guild."

"A man of action," Ares said, and strutted forward.

We walked behind him, all four of us covering our heads with hoods to avoid passersby being able to scan us. I couldn't help but feel a tingle of excitement. This sort of work had never been my style--when I wanted to hurt someone, they would hear the thunder from miles away.

What Ares was doing was mainly centered on having his own fun, of course. Hurting others was just something that came along with it. And by the way he walked into the city, not stopping for a single moment and still not raising any suspicion, it looked like he had done this a million times before.

We avoided the carts and the main paths of the small town, making sure to keep to the shadows as much as possible. Luckily, because of the low temperature and humidity, covering our heads and faces didn't make us stand out. The majority of people were doing the same thing.

"That way," Ares said, and nodded gently toward the north. "That's where the temple is."

"Couldn't we just offload it onto one of the carts?" I asked. "You said these people are coming here in celebration of their god?"

"Do you trust merchants?" he asked, but continued without waiting for an answer. "Because I don't. And I'd rather throw the Knuckles of Magni in the lake than see them disappear from existence as a merchant sits on them for some time before selling them off to a realm I haven't even heard of."

"To the temple then," I said.

The temple itself was completely unlike what I was used to seeing in Greece. For starters, it wasn't made out of marble or stone but completely constructed from wood. It was essentially a magnified longhouse, with gigantic beams crossing over each other several dozen feet off the ground, creating a long, perfectly triangular building.

The procession of carts was heading straight for the temple too but at a much slower rate now. The closer we got to the entrance, the slower they moved, until the line completely stopped. The people waiting in the cold, damp air of the city didn't seem to care much though.

Pipers and fiddlers climbed up on the carts and the buildings surrounding the temple and started to play. Today was a festive day and they weren't going to let the light drizzle that had just started stand in the way of them enjoying themselves.

"How do we get in?" I asked. There didn't seem to be a way to cross the threshold of the temple without giving a cartload of gifts, or at least revealing ourselves. "Is there another entrance?"

"There is," he said, and we broke off from the main street. "One that's only for the priests."

"I see it," Artemis said. "It's guarded though."

"I guess you already know about that too?" Aphrodite asked.

"I have done my due diligence in examining the entrances to the temple," he said. "And I feel certain that you will be able to create a distraction worthy of the guards' attention."

"There's no point in arguing about it," I said. "Let's do this. But take note, that this shit won't be tolerated once you join our guild, Ares. No in-house manipulation."

"I would never manipulate you, Zeus," he said. "In fact, I want you to come with me. I'd love to see how you handle yourself in such a situation."

"Let's go, Artemis," Aphrodite said, pulled her away by her wrist. "I'm going to..."

I could no longer hear exactly what she said as they moved away, toward the side entrance of the temple. The two men standing guard, both with their arms crossed and a giant double-headed axe strapped on their back, continued to look straight ahead of them, but it was clear that they saw everything that was happening in the vicinity of the temple.

* * *

Name: Jagner Stoli

Race: Human

Class: Ulfhednar

Level: 47

* * *

Name: Koran Stoli

Race: Human

Class: Ulfhednar

Level: 46

* * *

We pressed ourselves up against the walls, just outside of the two hulking men's range of sight. But even if push came to shove and we had to fight our way out of this, they probably wouldn't have been a significant problem. Especially since they were both standing there topless for their god's followers to see their scarred torsos. One of Artemis's arrows would be enough.

But getting spotted now would only bring more problems our way. We needed to make sure that nobody saw us on our way in at least. Running out would always be an option, since we could run straight to the lake and make our escape, but I really wanted to give Ares' clean approach a try.

"Vierna!" I heard Aphrodite scream.

We both turned to look at her, as did the two guards.

"That money was my father's, you bitch!" Aphrodite then proceeded to slap Artemis across the face, and even though it wasn't clear to anyone else, I could tell that she had done in a carefully calculated way that wouldn't pull down Artemis's hood and let others scan her Dark Energy signature.

The attention of the two men was immediately drawn to the scuffle but neither of them moved an inch away from where they were standing.

If I was being honest with myself, I would have expected a slightly different approach from the goddess of beauty and seduction. Even with her face covered, I had no doubt that she would have managed to find a way to lure the men from the entrance with her charms.

"You father doesn't give a shit about you, Briza!" Artemis shouted back, and kicked her opponent in the stomach, sending her flying into the mud.

It was clear that Aphrodite wasn't expecting the kick, but she didn't let it stand in the way of her acting, much less allow her face to be revealed. The men were scoffing at the battle between the two hooded women, but still they didn't leave their post.

Seeing this, Aphrodite decided to step it up a notch. She pulled a knife from her inventory, which immediately prompted both men to move their hands to the handle of their weapons. It looked like they had probably seen similar fights before but weren't expecting an escalation of this sort.

Aphrodite sprang up and lunged at Artemis, pinning her to the ground and plunging the dagger into her chest. I gasped quietly. I wasn't expecting it to go this far, and neither were the two armed men who promptly ran over to the fighting women.

"Hey, cut it out, you crazy goats!" one man shouted, as he jogged toward the tangled mess of capes and screams.

"Now," Ares said.

We both sprinted for the entrance, keeping our heads low and trying to be as quiet as possible.

"Bitch!" Artemis screamed and pulled out a knife of her own, plunging it into Aphrodite's side.

"Hey, hey, hey! No deaths today!" the other guard said, accelerating toward them.

It was already too late though. Artemis had turned her back on them and had started running back toward the mass of people dancing and singing. Aphrodite, or rather the woman she was pretending to be, paid no heed to the two men coming up behind her and instead ran full pelt after Artemis.

"Come back here, you animal!" she screamed, escaping the guards' grasp with ease thanks to her speed buff.