AN: I fell asleep editing this chapter. Sorry.
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Athena hovered above the town, cloaked in mist and moonlight.
Her eyes gleamed beneath her crested helm as she watched the streets below, where torchlight flickered in the hands of mortals going about their nightly routines.
The roofs were made of thatch and clay, the walls of mud-brick and limestone, and yet—even in this simplicity—there was something stirring.
A presence.
A ripple in the air.
A pulse of fate.
There—walking down the main road like a lion among lambs—strode a man unlike any other in this era.
Towering. Muscled like a statue come to life.
He wore a lion's pelt across his shoulders, its fangs resting just above his brow.
In his hand was a sword, longer than a man's body, bound in a sheath of bronze and bloodstained leather.
Children whispered his name as he passed.
Women peeked from windows.
Men made way.
This man is Alcides.
Son of Zeus and a mortal queen.
A demigod.
