CHAPTER 169: THE SHORES OF CRETE

The voyage to Crete was a silent, grim affair. Nox had commissioned a small fleet of fast, dark-sailed ships, built by the Dwarven smiths and crewed by his most loyal soldiers. They sailed under the cover of a magical fog woven by Vexia, a gray, silent fleet of ghosts moving across a storm-tossed sea.

Nox stood at the prow of the flagship, the ’Unspoken’, his gaze fixed on the horizon. He was not wearing his armor. He was just a boy in black, with the weight of a kingdom on his shoulders.

Serian stood beside him. "You have become a true king," she said softly.

"I’m just a guy who’s tired of being told what to do," he replied.

They made landfall on the shores of Crete at dawn on the seventh day. The island was not the idyllic paradise of myth. It was a fortress. Massive, bronze walls, etched with glowing Olympian runes, rose from the cliffs. Cyclopean sentries patrolled the battlements, and in the sky, griffons and harpies circled like vultures.

And at the very heart of the island, on the peak of the highest mountain, was the weapon. It was a massive, celestial bronze construct, a great cannon or lens, that was already gathering the light of the rising sun, a low, ominous hum vibrating through the very air.

"We do not have much time," Vexia stated, her scrying orb showing the weapon charging. "Once it fires, Portentia will be nothing but a crater."

Nox looked at his army, now gathered on the black, sandy beach. They were outnumbered, outgunned, and they were about to assault the fortress of a god.

"Elisa," he said. "You’re the vanguard. I need you to break their front gate. I don’t care how you do it."

Elisa just grinned, a wild, feral light in her eyes. "It will be my masterpiece."

"Vexia, Mela," he continued. "You two lead the main assault. Your objective is not to win. It is to cause as much chaos as possible. Draw their forces to the main gate. Keep them busy."

They both nodded, their faces grim.

"Serian," he said, turning to her. "You are our hope. You are the only one whose power can counter the divine fire of the weapon itself. You must get to the summit and destroy it."

"And you, Nox?" she asked, her voice tight with a fear she could not hide. "Where will you be?"

He just looked at the massive, bronze fortress. "I’m going to pay a visit to the landlord."

He turned to his army. He did not give a grand speech. He just raised his hand. "For Portentia," he said, his voice quiet but carrying across the silent beach.

"FOR PORTENTIA!" they roared back, their voices a single, defiant thunderclap.

The battle for Crete began.

Elisa was a natural disaster. She led the charge, a berserker queen at the head of a desperate army. She met the Olympian lines head-on, her warhammer a blur of motion as she smashed through bronze shields and armored hoplites.

The battle at the gates was a brutal, grinding meat grinder. Nox’s forces were dying, but for every soldier that fell, they took two of the Olympian host with them. They were fighting with the fury of a people who had nothing left to lose.

In the midst of the chaos, two smaller groups broke away. Serian, at the head of a small, elite squad of Sun Elf warriors, began a perilous climb up a hidden mountain path, a secret route that Mela’s spies had discovered.

And Nox... Nox just walked.

He walked away from the main battle, toward a sheer, unguarded section of the massive bronze cliffs. He placed a hand on the cold, divine metal.

’Liona,’ he thought. ’Phase me through.’

His body dissolved into a stream of pure, void data. He passed through the solid, bronze wall as if it were smoke, reforming on the other side, inside the fortress.

He was alone, deep in the heart of the enemy stronghold.

The halls of the Olympian fortress were a maze of gleaming white marble and golden colonnades. He moved through them like a ghost, his Shadow Weaving skill making him one with the darkness. He could hear the sounds of the main battle raging outside, a distant, muffled roar.

He was not heading for the weapon. He was heading for the throne room.

He found it at the very heart of the fortress. A massive, circular chamber, its ceiling a dome of pure starlight, its floor a mosaic depicting the victories of the gods.

And in the center of the room, on a simple, elegant throne of white marble, sat a woman.

She was clad in the simple, grey robes of a scholar, her face severe and intelligent, her grey eyes holding the wisdom of ages. In her hand, she held not a sword, but a simple, wooden staff.

It was Athena. The goddess of wisdom and strategy.

"I knew you would come," she said, her voice calm. "The direct path is always your way."

"Where is Zeus?" Nox demanded, his hand on his scepter.

"My father is... occupied," Athena replied. "He is overseeing the final charging of the Astrape. He left me to deal with you." She stood up, her staff held loosely in her hand. "He thinks you are a brute. A mindless force of destruction. But I have watched you, Nox. You are not a brute. You are a strategist. A king."

"I’m just a guy who’s tired of gods," he said.

"Then you and I have something in common," she said, a small, surprising smile touching her lips. "My father is an arrogant, tyrannical fool. His rule is absolute, but it is not wise. He would see this world burn just to prove his own strength."

She looked him right in the eye. "I do not wish to fight you, Void Monarch. I wish to offer you a different path. Help me overthrow my father. Help me bring a new order to Olympus, an order based on wisdom and justice, not on fear and power."

Nox just stared at her. ’A coup? She wants me to help her stage a coup in the middle of a battle?’

[Analysis: The entity ’Athena’ is presenting a genuine offer,] Liona reported. [Her strategic objectives align with the long-term survival of this world. Accepting her offer has a 72% probability of a favorable outcome.]

"You want me to help you become the new queen?" he asked.

"I want to bring balance," she corrected. "Zeus is a king of war. I would be a queen of peace."

"There’s no such thing as peace," Nox said. "Not anymore."

He raised his scepter. "I appreciate the offer. But I don’t trade one ruler for another."

Athena’s smile faded, replaced by a look of profound disappointment. "I see. You are not a king, after all. You are just another tyrant."

She raised her own staff. "Then you have left me no choice."

The floor of the throne room erupted with a blinding, silver light. A complex, multi-layered runic array, a cage of pure, conceptual logic, flared to life, trapping him.

"You cannot win with brute force here, Nox," Athena said, her voice cold. "This is not a battle of strength. It is a battle of wits. And you have just walked into my library."

The world dissolved around him, the marble throne room replaced by an endless, white space filled with floating, geometric shapes and streams of pure data.

He was trapped in the mind of the goddess of wisdom. And the battle for the fate of the world would be decided not with a sword, but with a thought.