After a few moments Andy pulled back and beamed at Hestia as she said, "I'm proud of you."
...
Hestia smiled back even as she blushed slightly as Percy and Rhea nodded in agreement. However, the happy atmosphere was sadly pushed aside as Percy focused on Andy.
"How are Athena's kids?" he asked, watching as Andy's face fell.
"Not good," she answered. "The news about Annabeth passing hit them hard and now that they haven't seen their mother in a while, they're getting anxious and its starting to spread to the other demigods. It took sleeping spells to get some of them down."
Percy frowned as he heard that, his foot tapping as he thought about what to do. The simplest thing would be to let Athena out of Hestia's mindscape and let her visit her kids, but that wasn't safe at the moment. Athena still couldn't completely reign in her own new power and needed Hestia to suppress it, the very same reason that Cloelia would be staying in the mindscape for now as well.
'I could go and tell them myself what's going on. They deserve that at least and it might calm them down knowing their mother is okay,' he pondered as he scratched his chin before the sound of Andy clearing her throat drew his attention.
"Its worse for the demigods in the Olympian Army and New Rome, especially those that looked up to her. Now that her ties to 'The West' are broken, her throne fell apart and the news already reached the army," she said, her fingers tapping on her armrest. "It's getting bad Percy and I'm not just talking about the demigods. The gods within the army are getting more nervous and angrier. We can't leave them as they are for much longer or something will set them off to fight each other and the demigods will be pulled into it."
"It'll be a bloodbath," Hestia added, her eyes flashing as she looked over the Olympian Army herself.
Percy could only sigh as he rubbed the bridge of his nose. 'And it just keeps going,' he thought as he glanced out through one of the many windows lining the upper walls of the throne room. Seeing the captured moon only brought up thoughts on Selene and the other group he needed to monitor.
"Percy?" Rhea asked, getting his attention as all three of his wives looked at him.
"She attempted it again," he said, having already informed them of Selene's previous actions.
The only got a scowl and even a growl from Rhea as the other two frowned.
"We'll handle the bitch and her brother soon enough," his queen said to his agreeing nod.
Tapping his foot for a moment, he then stood up as the three looked to him.
"Well, for now it's too late to do anything but at least for tomorrow I'll tell Athena's kids myself what's going on."
"What about the demigods in the army or New Rome?" Andy asked as she got up from Hestia's lap with the other two following suite and standing as well.
"As far as New Rome is concerned, we should leave it be for now. In a roundabout way, the group of minor gods deserting that camp actually made it a little safer for the demigods there … sort of," he answered, pausing for a moment before adding, "Still, we should keep an eye open to see if any of the gods remaining are actually part of the sea forces too and just haven't made a move," he said while giving Rhea a pointed look.
She nodded in understanding as his gaze then returned to the hearth, his brow scrunching up in thought.
"The Olympian army is a different beast altogether. Almost a third of them are one more scare away from turning and routing but the rest are foaming at the mouth for blood and if pushed further, they won't care where that blood comes from," he said, grimacing at the thought of demigods turning on each other like that.
"And if we attacked now, it would all but guarantee them unleashing their divine forms right in the middle of the army," Hestia added, a scowl forming on her face as she looked into the flames of the hearth. "Even if every demigod managed to close their eyes in time and kept them closed, that much power and pressure would crush them."
"And if they survive that by some miracle, they'll still practically get cooked alive," Andromeda added, her nose scrunching up in distaste.
Percy almost mirrored her, knowing full well that it would happen if they attacked the Olympians and other gods while in the middle of the army. Normally gods were rather skittish about assuming their full divine forms for a variety of reasons, mainly because of the severity of the act. To even need to be pushed to that form, especially when fighting an opponent deemed 'unworthy' of it would cut into the ego many deities held onto, something they'd exploited in their first attack when they took Athena.
But more importantly, it was the sense of finality a battle in divine forms carried.
Being struck down in divine form meant true death for divine beings and even gods feared that. And, unlike what many would assume, going between godly and divine form wasn't like flipping a switch at will. The act of gathering all of one's essence and power into a single point to then push to an explosive transformation on themselves put even divine bodies and the world around them under tremendous stress and stepping down from that form was just as exhausting.
And when you considered domains into that equation, divine battles and their possible consequences went from dangerous to grave.
Even if multiple gods existed with a connection to a domain, the true death of one of those could throw the balance into disarray for the others. Sometimes a domain had aspects to it, variations and influences that made itself a distinction between seemingly similar gods. And then there was active versus passive gods within domains with several cases; Artemis and Selene, Apollo and Helios, Ares and Bellona, and many more.
While the Olympians were/are the active gods and majority controllers/influencers of their domains, they gained the lion's share of power and had the most severe effects upon death. Unless a deity sharing the domain was prepared to handle the fallout in the change of balance or powerful enough to counter the effects on their own, the striking down of certain gods in divine form would bring nothing but the devastation of wild domains.
There was a reason he took years to hunt down several of the more dangerous titans in Tartarus, and then picked of specific gods such as Ares before officially declaring war. After all, if he'd waited until later, Ares would have been practically juiced up with the conflict and the battle would have been just as destructive or worse than what happened with Artemis. In the end, cutting down Ares and his unchecked bloodlust before the war was preferred even if Bellona and other war deities became stronger thanks to it, not to mention the effects it had on humanity.
With all the risks involved, it was no wonder gods generally avoided divine form unless their opponent already assumed it first, the battle is that dire that they need the extra power, or it's a last-ditch effort and possibly a way to take their opponent down with them. Even the Big Three had hesitated to cut down Kronos during their last battle against him until he'd been exhausted and descended to godly form before cutting him to pieces.
But the way they now had the Olympians pushed further into a corner only upped the chances of the gods taking that last step, damning the consequences, even suffering true death.
'Or they might swallow their broken pride and turn tail,' he thought with a snort, knowing plenty of those gods would rather die than run. Glancing back at his wives, his thoughts ran with how to divide up the Olympians and other gods in their next battle. As much as they wanted to, they couldn't simply attack right now and cut down as many of the opposing gods as possible before they reacted … at least, not without signing off on the demigods as collateral losses.
He knew he was the most powerful of the council and only Rhea neared him in overall capacity with only some like Jason and Thalia dominating sole aspects like speed. However, in fields like stealth and assassination he had no equal by the sheer nature of his domains and the abilities granted to him.
Sneaking up and killing a god before said god even knew he was there? Almost sickeningly easy.
But, him sneaking into a camp full of ALERT gods looking out for him and then offing them without alerting the others? Maybe he could pull off two or three before an alarm went off or the others reacted but by then, it would be the exact scenario he wanted to avoid. More than a full cohort's worth of gods, both minor and major, assuming divine form in the middle of the demigod army.
...
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