1 001.

A completely colossal mountain stood proudly, even higher than the sky itself. The majestic mountain had an aura that could only be described as divine, which would make any thinking being who looked at it feel nothing but admiration for it.

At the top of the mountain and far from the sight of any mortal was a city so beautiful and magnificent that no other could even dream of comparing to it. Majestic temples and houses could be seen all around the city.

It only took a glance to see that the materials used in the city's constructions were of the highest quality. Even the materials of the humblest temple were something that even the Mortal King with the greatest wealth in the world could never get his hands on.

However, the most outstanding feature of the city was in its inhabitants, since all of them without any doubt were beautiful, both men and women had an appearance that could only cause envy and admiration. All of them, without exception, had an appearance that would captivate any mortal.

The attention of all the inhabitants was on a woman who had a sharp gaze as she scanned all her surroundings, a great intelligence could be seen through her beautiful gray eyes.

Her attire was different from the toga that the inhabitants of the city employed to cover their bodies. Since the clothing the woman used to cover her body consisted of an armor, a helmet and a spear in her right hand, anyone who looked at her would think she was ready for an imminent war.

Her brown hair with small reddish tones flowed like a waterfall until a little below her waist, her slender and athletic figure together made a scene that was beyond perfection.

The aura that surrounded her was heroic, but at the same time it was an aura of coldness and absolute indifference. This same aura caused the inhabitants of the city to only see her from afar, not daring to get too close to her.

The woman's beautiful eyes had never stopped to observe her surroundings, while the gears of her mind moved constantly analyzing the images and scenarios she saw.

Suddenly the woman felt a gaze directed towards her person, however, this was different from the gazes of the men and women who looked at her with respect and admiration.

This gaze contained a confusing amount of emotions, the most predominant being discussed and repulsion, along with hostility and anger. Quickly, she brought her own eyes to the direction from which the gaze was coming.

Only to realize that there was no one in that place and the gaze she had felt seconds before had completely disappeared without leaving any trace, almost as if there had never been anyone watching her.

A puzzled expression appeared on her beautiful face as she was unable to find a satisfactory answer to what had just happened.

…

In an area far away from the impeccable city, an area where most of the nature and mountain soil was still completely untouched, a woman could be observed who seemed to be lost in thought.

The woman was elegant and beautiful, but even such words did not do justice to the divine beauty she possessed. Long brunette hair fell from her back to her waist.

Her attire was simple, being a dress that combined the colors green, blue and white, as well as having gold ornaments and embroidery covering its surface, while a tiara of the same material adorned her hair.

Even in what seemed to be a chaotic state the woman had around her an aura that would command anyone to respect and admire her and even to fear her, no other kind of thought was allowed in her presence.

Her beautiful and fascinating blue eyes similar to the most precious jewels had various emotions present in them, from anger to loneliness and then to resignation.

The neat and elegant dress that covered her shapely body was exposed to the dirt after the majestic woman took a seat on a large rock. One who could observe such a scene would undoubtedly be incredulous at such an action coming from the woman.

The gaze that covered her beautiful face was a contemplative one as she observed the beauty of a sky covered by the stars and the moon, resulting in a fascinating scene.

That woman who was known as the Queen of Olympus was in that position for a long time, completely lost in her thoughts, remembering and analyzing all the events that had happened to her in her long life.

The first memory she had was not a happy one much less a pretty one, in fact it could be considered as a sad, disappointing and overwhelming one.

After all, as soon as she was born, she was swallowed by her own father as a consequence of a prophecy that had been made a long time before, one that he feared might come true.

She was imprisoned in her father's stomach along with her other siblings for a long time, so long that the hope she had had of being free began to fade until one day the youngest of them all managed to rescue them.

At that exact moment, a feeling, no matter how small, was born in her. Unfortunately, that same feeling would later turn into strong and great shackles from which she could not free herself even if she wanted to.

The truth is that from the first moment she saw Zeus she was blinded by his brilliance, in her mind he was a god among gods and no one, even her older brothers could dream of equaling him.

Even so, in those moments she did not give importance to such a matter, dismissing it as something irrelevant; however, such a feeling of admiration never disappeared and even slowly but surely began to grow and change.

Eventually, after a long time, her father and his allies were finally defeated, achieving a period of peace, one in which everyone could have a well-deserved rest from the horrible events that were happening in the war. It was at such moments that Zeus began to court her.

At this point, Hera had created a perfect and ideal image of Zeus in her mind, so she was afraid that such an image would slowly be shattered until it disappeared after all, reality is often disappointing.

It was because of that kind of thinking that she got an unexpected, but welcome surprise when she realized that Zeus fulfilled all her expectations, he was everything she had hoped for and even more.

Such a memory formed a self-deprecating smirk on Hera's beautiful face. Frankly, she should have known better, known that there was no one that good in the world, especially when that someone is a god.

Unfortunately, she let herself be fooled by false promises of love, though they might have been true in those moments. Anyway, it no longer mattered, such promises had been long forgotten.

The first year of their marriage went as Zeus had promised, each day was filled with love and care; however, that eternal love that Zeus had professed to her soon came to an end.

The first time her husband cheated on her, she used a thousand and one excuses to try to justify such an action coming from the man she loved. She even went so far as to think it was her fault.

She thought that Zeus' actions may have been due to the fact that she was not good enough, not loving enough, not beautiful enough. In her naive belief, she thought that if she showed Zeus how much she loved him, then he would never do anything like that again.

She tried, she really did, but despite changing and trying to please him at all times, Zeus never changed. In spite of everything, she continued to deny reality, and therefore as a consequence of her attempts to please Zeus, one day she became pregnant.

At that time, Hera naively thought that Zeus would change his behavior because she was expecting his child; however, her hopes were completely shattered in the worst possible way.

When her son was born Zeus did not even show up for his birth, the loneliness she experienced at that moment was so overwhelming, not even the company and care of her sister provided her with any warmth.

It was at that moment that she had to accept the reality that she had been desperately denying for so many years. The absence of Zeus at the birth of her child had ended up being her breaking point.

For a long period of time, she had silently tolerated the infidelities and the various humiliations that Zeus had made towards their marriage, but she had simply had enough.

It was then that the feeling of revenge and anger spread throughout her mind and body like a wildfire, however, she knew perfectly well that she could never hurt Zeus.

So instead, she directed all her anger and aggravation built up over the years at every other woman her husband cheated on her with.

Inside herself, she knew that her way of reacting was not the best and might even be an unjustified one, but her mind was consumed by revenge and nothing else really mattered to her.

This time Zeus had begotten a new goddess, she was called by the name of Athena. And it was because of her birth that Olympus had adopted an atmosphere of happiness and rejoicing.

However, Hera could not find happiness in such an event. There were two main reasons for this. The first was that at the end of the day, Athena was still a bastard daughter of Zeus.

As for the second reason, this was much more special than the first. This reason was related to a prophecy told long ago by the Oracle of Gaea. It mentioned that the second son of the union of Zeus with Metis would have the power to dethrone his father.

In an attempt to change the destiny that had been told to him, Zeus swallowed Metis and as a consequence the prophecy could not be fulfilled. At least that is what Zeus and Hera herself thought. However, this belief was shaken with the birth of Athena.

After all, Athena's birth should have been an event that should not have been possible. No matter how wise and powerful Metis was, once Zeus took action against her, it was the end of her.

Added to that, Hera could sense that Athena was extremely powerful, not on her level or the level of her other siblings; however, even if she was reluctant to admit it, she was almost certain that there were few young gods who could be her equal.

Because of this, a question was floating in her mind, was the prophecy still valid? The birth of Athena had raised the alarms in the mind of the Queen of Olympus, alarms that could not be turned off or stopped.

No matter how many times she thought about it, it should have been impossible for the prophecy to come true, but at the same time it should also have been impossible for Athena to be born; however, an impossible event had happened once and as such it could happen again.

The more she thought about it, the harder it was for her to ignore it, at this point Hera didn't care that her thoughts were irrational or paranoid, that her judgment was being blinded by her anger, none of that matters to her.

All she cared about was the possibility that a son of Metis might dethrone Zeus from his throne. That simple thought caused a boiling rage to completely take over her body.

The anger she had was so much that she started to release some of her power and with this caused the surrounding earth to begin to crack while the rocks were destroyed.

The next instant, Hera completely retracted her power and tried to calm her mood, though she had little success. Her beautiful blue eyes moved in the direction of the Temple of Zeus.

After a short period of time, her gaze was removed, and she turned away. At the same time as she concealed as best she could her divine aura afterwards and without looking back, her presence disappeared completely from Mount Olympus.

…

As time went by, Athena's fame and prestige only continued to grow, no matter if it was a god, a nymph, a centaur or a simple mortal, everyone knew the name of the new daughter of Zeus.

The brilliance and excellence of the young goddess was so great that little by little she began to completely eclipse her peers. She was considered by many to be the leader of the new generation of gods.

Hera, for her part, had returned to Mount Olympus after a brief period of absence. Frankly, she didn't mind if anyone dared to question where she had been, after all there were few who dared to do it.

Her sudden disappearance was because she had made a decision about the implications that Athena's birth might bring. The truth was that he could not stand the mere thought of the prophecy being fulfilled someday.

And even if the prophecy related to Metis' second son ended up not being fulfilled, nothing prevented that a similar prophecy would be made in the future. After all, Zeus' behavior was less than appropriate.

In the end, she came to the conclusion that she could not support the idea that the one who would dethrone Zeus from his throne would be someone else's son. After all, she was the Queen of Olympus, second only to Zeus in authority and one of the most powerful goddesses in all of Olympus.

So if there had to be someone who could defeat and thus end Zeus' reign, then that someone had to be her son. The son of the legitimate Queen of Olympus and not the son of someone else.

However, she knew that Ares was not capable of doing so not to mention that he did not have enough power to match Zeus, even if he did, it was unlikely that he would go against his father.

Procreating a new son was completely out of the question, after all there was no way she could bear to have such intimacy with Zeus, plus she refused to let her son have the blood of that bastard.

Because of that, she could only think of one way to create a new life. Therefore, in her time away from Olympus, she had been on the hunt for clues to the one being who might have answers to the questions she had.

Of course, finding Gaea was an extremely difficult task, much more difficult than she could have imagined, since she was everywhere and at the same time nowhere to be found.

The truth is that Hera could not find her, in fact it would be more appropriate to say that it was Gaea herself who revealed to her just at the moment when she was about to give up. Such an action was something Hera had never anticipated.

Her surprise only grew because of the simplicity in which Gaea answered her questions. Throughout the entire process, Gaea never questioned why she was seeking such knowledge, this made Hera suspect that to a greater or lesser extent Gaea knew what she would attempt to do.

The knowledge she had received was an extremely archaic one; however, used well, it would be extremely powerful. It could be said that she had become even more familiar with the knowledge related to pregnancy and childbirth.

Though, things were not as simple as they might first appear. Gaea had told her the way to endow her son with talents he would not naturally possess, to make him powerful, beautiful or any other characteristic she could think of.

But in the case of making a mistake, no matter how small it was, it could result in devastating consequences for her future son. After all, any kind of power had a price to pay if it was wrongly employed.

Now she had to start preparing herself, as the process was a long and tedious one, plus if what Gaea said was true then it would also be an extremely difficult one and even her status as a goddess might not be of much help.

Still, she was completely determined, determined to have a perfect child.