Andrew Bailey & The Eternal Maze

Chapter - 24

"War? What war? There wasn't any mention of a war at all! Not in books, not the lecturers, simply nothing and just what's this moving illustration?"

"This is why I cant stand the ignorant... Little miss, there has been a war between an unknown enemy and Olympus for a long while now. From what I've heard, they came out of nowhere and started attacking with strategies Olympus had never seen. Being overwhelemed by the enemy, Olympus brought out the big guns. Zeus the ruler of Olympus took to the battlefield with Ares and Athena who were both Gods of war. With Athena's quick witt and Ares's lets say policy for violence, the battle became a stalemate."

"What you are telling me is starting to sound like a fairy tale."

"Be that as it may, let me finish little miss, like I said before, I'm actually quite busy. So as I was saying, the war came to a stalemate but the enemy troops were well... Unusual."

"Unusual? What do you mean unusual?"

"They were... Different, unfeeling. Obviously in any war there would be prisoners of war. But no matter what they were put through, they wouldn't talk. Not about their organization, affiliations or even their names. Can you believe that? Talk about insane loyalty. That information turned into rumours among the Olympus army and that soon turned into fear as well. Knowing that morale would clearly be affected, Zeus began to express interests to lead battles at the frontlines but pioritizing his saftey, Ares and Athena led the army from the frontline instead."

"Did that help with the war?"

"With both of them personally leading the front, leaping into battle it did. Though the enemy wasn't twiddling their thumbs, there's no way to confirm this since the enemy rarely gives out any information about themselves but two heavy hitters were sent to be their opponents. During one of the battles, they were ambushed simultaneously and were badly injured and they had to retire from the war though their opponents weren't left unscathed either. Which left Olympus having to swallow a bitter pill along with making hard decisions."

After hearing that her mother Athena, Ethena was a little shocked. She may have never met her mother but still she was starting to get a little worried... 

After gulping down saliva, she tried to pretend nothing was wrong and asked if Athena and Ares was alright.

"I've heard they are still being treated even after this long. Can't be sure what actually happened to them since I've never seen them but it's either that their injuries are really bad thus taking so long to heal or....."

"Or?"

"Or they are actually gone and to prevent further morale from going down, their situation is being covered up."

Ethena couldn't mutter any other word. She's never met either of her parents and now her mother could be gone. She wasn't sure what this feeling was, it gripped her heart and it wasn't a pleasant feeling.

"Well the next thing that Olympus decided after the defeat of Ares and Athena was winning by any means necessary. Olympus knew that the enemy is strong, fearless and numerous in number.  They deployed many underhanded methods to win, even taunting on their honor during battles that required them to retreat."

"This really does not sound like the Olympus we've been studying about." 

"Welcome to reality, where things are never what it seems and what you study is just a dream. Sounds a little poetic doesn't it."

"So what did Olympus do?"

"I'm glad you ask, one of the things they did was actually bringing me over to Team Olympus. It might not be clear to you but I'm clearly not Olympian. You know those beasts you were fighting and the ones outside, are all my babies."

"Those were yours? Well I did guess after seeing you here with them, did you know how much trouble they gave us, how many injuries or deaths there were because of those things?" 

"Weren't they great? I would have loved to watch and gather data on what actually happened but I just had so much work to do, is that why you were sent here, to help me with my work? Aww, I did not know Hades was so sweet, I should send him a thank you note later. Not many can help me at all with my work though, they just never understand you know. Their intellect wasn't even near the required level and those who were always scream out about ethics and things like that. I mean this is war not a day care, just look around you. Your fellow Olympians going out there fighting an enemy they don't even know, no amount of ethics will help in this scenario. That's why Olympus brought me in, to produce results."

"So these creations of yours are supposedly going to help us. So why were we in the jungle filled with them? Weren't you on our side? Is it because you aren't one of us or something else."

"Okay, to explain, I have to explain quite abit but before that look who is on the show."

Ethena did not understand the meaning of show but looked at the moving pictures anyway. What she saw was Hades coming out to play, it probably was about to become very one sided.