Exhausted after his combat training, Arthur took a shower and plopped down onto his bed, not even bothering to dry his hair.
Cattleya came to check on him and saw him sleeping with his damp hair, smiling wryly as she quickly used magic to dry it, then properly tucked him into his bed before teleporting out.
The moment Cattleya warped out of the room, the sleeping Arthur's eyes shot open. He looked around the room before looking at his hands.
Coming down from his bed, he walked over to the mirror to see his appearance. His usual dark obsidian eyes were now glowing a faint blue light. Noticing this, he heaved a sigh.
"I'm only a three-year-old. Oh well."
He then shaped his hand into a gun and pointed his index finger to his own temple before chanting in an emotionless voice, uncharacteristic of a three-year-old.
[c0^ↄ3 ¶ ⊥ [Time]—Release [r3qq@)E#omn: Memories]
[Invoke: Passive Personality Alteration]
His right hand shone with a blue light that shot into his head. His eyes went blank for a moment before regaining their vigour in the next.
Turning around, he climbed back into his bed and closed his eyes. The next second, Cattleya warped back in with glowing red eyes as she scanned the entire room.
She walked in front of the mirror and inspected it before speaking to herself as she walked out of the room once more.
"Maybe I sensed it wrong."
As she left, Arthur let out a yawn as he slept peacefully, as if nothing strange had just happened.
◇ ◇ ◇
Meanwhile, Zeus was currently fuming after an argument he had with Hades when he tried to stop the latter from going over to Hell.
Over the past three years, as news that Hades, an Olympian, was the father of the prophesied child of destruction, many eyes had turned towards Olympus.
Some gods were enraged that someone of high status, like Hades, fathered a child who could be a threat to them. Even those who were originally neutral joined in criticising Olympus after having their worst nightmares on the day of 'Black Sun'.
Most of them were reasonable and said that it would be in their best interest to make Hades teach the child in a way that he would not hold any animosity against the gods.
They believed this would deter the chances of the prophecy being fulfilled, as many reasoned that Arthur bringing an end to the gods was only a possibility, not a future that was set in stone.
Unfortunately, common sense was not common, even among gods.
Some pantheons banded together in an attempt to pressure Olympus into sanctioning Hades in some way. An attempt that enraged Zeus, as he felt that those gods were looking down on him and Olympus.
This fickle alliance broke up very quickly when Poseidon made a show of preparing his armies for war.
They were mainly greedy gods who were envious of Olympus' power and wanted to reduce it in any way possible; unfortunately, Olympus was not a force to be trifled with.
What made most pantheons fear Olympus was the feat accomplished by its eldest gods.
Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades, with the help of Hera, Demeter and Hestia, were able to defeat their father Kronos, who was the Master of their universe.
This was a feat never before heard of, as the differences in strength between the parties were just too much. However, they somehow accomplished this feat, and although they were not able to kill him, they succeeded in imprisoning him for eternity.
They also led the younger Olympians to defeat the giants and Titans that were headed by the Primordial goddess Gaia, and even succeeded in defeating Gaia herself! There were some strange circumstances behind that, but a defeat was a defeat.
Now, more than two hundred thousand years had passed, and the Olympians were even more of a force to be reckoned with. Although the bad blood between the three eldest brothers was known far and wide, it was also known that they would put aside their differences if it came to defending Olympus.
Regarding Arthur's matter, some ancient powers and stronger pantheons agreed with the idea of making him inclined to the gods to prevent the chances of him turning against them.
Although left unsaid, they really just wanted to keep Arthur under close watch so they could end him the moment he went out of line.
To all these, Hades released one statement in reply, shocking most of them.
"Go fuck off, deal with your own internal problems before telling me how to raise my kid."
Naturally, many were enraged by this as Hades' statement did not show any respect to them. Unfortunately, they could not do much.
At this point, Cattleya also spoke up to silence the voices of the gods who were of the mind that Arthur should be killed.
"You want to kill my son? Let me see you try.
It seems you need to be reminded why our devil race is not to be looked down upon."
Her statement was supported by the allies of the devils of Hell, for various reasons they only knew.
◇ ◇ ◇
Zeus thought about all these as he warped over to a random planet that was in a backwater galaxy in northern Olympus.
He appeared in a seemingly empty desert and placed his hand on the ground, pulling out a tiny object from the sand.
This tiny object was shaped like an archaic door.
Activating the authority he possessed as the Master of Olympus, the tiny door began vibrating as a frightening amount of energy poured out, an amount capable of seriously wounding the average god.
Zeus just watched this energy flow without doing a thing. He didn't need to, after all, he wasn't the average god.
He was completely unharmed by this energy flow and only watched as the tiny door enlarged itself to a size he could pass through after the energy stopped flowing, before entering it without a word.
As soon as he entered, it shrank back to its tiny size and flew over to another random uninhabited planet before settling down in a desert and burying itself in the sand.
Inside the door was a dark realm with very little light, in front of Zeus was a maze that he easily navigated himself through.
After a few twists and turns, he ended up in a small clearing with a giant orb about 4 feet in diameter flashing an iridescent light as it floated in the air. Walking up to the orb, he looked at a small part of it that was cracked and had no light coming from it.
His eyes glowed dangerously as he spoke to no one in particular.
"Just a few more years, not more than two decades, it should be enough by then."