40 Terrible first meeting

"ZEUS HEPHAESTUS CHALLENGES YOU TO A DUEL!!!"

"Huh!!!"

Both gods sounded as they heard the goddess' words. She was already in close proximity and she quickly landed between the two followed by the others.

"Demeter What are you talking about?"

Demeter turned to Hephaestus, giving him a wink before answering Zeus's question.

"You see Hephaestus here wishes to take the throne for himself"

Lightning sparked off his body as heard such blasphemy coming from Demeter.

"what?!"

"According to the law…"

Themis suddenly spoke, pulling out a scroll from seemingly out of nowhere and began reading what was written.

"According to the law, Any member of the royal family be it brother, sisters. Aunt or child is eligible to challenge the king to a duel for the throne."

"Exactly, Hephaestus here had expressed his desire for the throne when Athena and I visited him in order to gain his help but he Refused saying he will challenge you to a duel for the throne"

Hera spoke while walking closer towards Zeus and show casing her bountiful breast to Zeus who did as expected and let his gaze linger on her a bit too long, the four arms were an addition he didn't think he liked but for some reason she seemed more erotic with them.

"hmm"

Zeus hummed as he stared deeply into Hephaestus , severing the connection Athena had with war wasn't completed at best he managed to disrupt it meaning a even if she wakes up she'll be powerless until she figures out what's wrong, so as of right now she's no threat and more importantly if Hephaestus truly wants his throne then it's a matter deserving of his attention.

"why should I accept such a duel? It has no merits for me"

He asked.

"why don't you humour him, I mean it's not like you will lose"

Demeter answered already having walked beside him and clasped his hand in a very suggestive way causing Zeus to stare at her a bit amused by her actions, however he remained unconvinced.

" again what exactly do I gain from this, it's obvious I'll win but I don't want to waste my time with this"

"You would back out of a duel my lord?"

Nike gave him a side eye as she questioned, feeling a bit disappointed in Zeus for his response to the request of a duel.

"no, I just don't see any merit in a duel without a prize, after should I lose he gains everything while if I win he loses nothing hardly seems fair, don't you think?"

He responded feeling a need to justify himself else Nike might think less of him or rather he didn't want the spell to break, it was important that his strength isn't doubted by any of the enforcers.

"Oh I have an idea you can have Aphrodite-"

"NO!!!"

Hera who saw that it was getting difficult to convince Zeus spoke offering Aphrodite as a prize but Hephaestus immediately stopped her before she could finish her sentence.

"Mother you seem to be dead set on me hating your very existence, don't make things worse. Aphrodite's has nothing to do with this and she will never be a prize for anything, Zeus can keep his throne"

Hephaestus spoke his body nearly smouldering as his blood quite literally boiled releasing steam, he wasn't about to have his wife be a prize on anything, she is no object plus he'll be damned if Zeus ever gets his hands on her, he was about to turn to leave when Zeus opened his mouth.

"excellent idea, Aphrodite would make an excellent prize"

"did you not hear what I said?"

"I heard you, or would you rather I take Athena from you, kill you right now and have Aphrodite anyways"

"if you think you can kill me, you're welcome to try"

A deafening silence felt on upon the room as Zeus and Hephaestus sized each other up both of them unwilling to back down, Hephaestus was feeling especially confident as he stared at Zeus.

"rather than fight right now why not agree to the duel then? I mean if you will fight anyway why not do it where both of you stand to gain something?"

Demeter said feeling oddly satisfied with the situation, bringing up Aphrodite was quite the happy accident now everything will go as everyone wants, although whether or Hephaestus can win against Zeus is something they'll have to deal with after both agree to fight.

"alright I'm fine with this I couldn't ask for a better prize than Aphrodite."

"Fine"

Hephaestus agreed after a few seconds of great deliberation, he just has to win and he won't lose Aphrodite so it should be fine, although he will have to confront Demeter for this whole ordeal plus it doesn't matter if Zeus wins he has a great place for Aphrodite to hide.

"excellent, how about we have the duel in 7 seven days to give everyone apt preparation time?"

Both gods gave a nod settling the matter, Nike on the other hand couldn't help but grin in excitement, watching a duel for the fate of Olympus would be nothing short of exciting, infarct she was convinced that many people needed to see it.

"alright then, Hephaestus you may leave we'll come to you when the duel is ready or when there's a matter to discuss regarding the duel."

With those words from Demeter Hephaestus departed from Olympus.

….

[2 days later]

"I see, so this is the reason she was getting stronger by the minute"

Zeus spoke as he sat on his throne inside a destroyed throne room. The royal castle was in complete shambles; the whole roof was gone, sections of the walls were destroyed, and there was a lot of rubble and debris in the room. The enforcers—with the exception of Nike—each stood below the throne, kneeling to Zeus, who was holding an object, or rather, it was floating in his hands.

Floating on his hands was a piece of the apple of discord. The apple of discord isn't a naturally growing fruit; in fact, it shouldn't exist, but due to Eris' nature as the titan of discord, she is able to make one. It seems that the pieces from the apple were the cause of the miasma in the air; luckily, Bia was able to locate them and bring them to Olympus.

"A fruit imbued with a tiny piece of chaos is quite a dangerous thing."

He commented as the pieces floated on his hands that, unlike humans, the mere presence of the pieces isn't enough to cause anything to them; it only becomes a problem once you touch it, hence why Zeus was letting the pieces float on his hands. Magic was useful in situations like this.

"What do we do, my lord? Surely this would be considered an attack on us by the residence of Erebus."

"Not necessarily Bia; this could have been a trade between Athena and Eris, not to mention I highly doubt Nyx is aware of something like this."

Zeus said, however, that it doesn't matter whether or not Nyx knew being hostile with her would not be in his favor, plus it's imperative he keeps his enforcers here, or rather, it would be great if they didn't see Nyx ever again.

"So are you just going to let this go?"

"No, but we have things to deal with now, and once we have everything, I'll personally go to Erebus and confront Nyx about this; I'm sure a suitable punishment will be given."

With the pieces floating in his hand, Zeus used his lightning to quickly vaporize the pieces and let the tiny bit of chaos held within dissipate into the air. With that done, he dusted off his hands and looked at his enforcers.

"Well, since you saved me the trouble of dealing with another problem, Bia, you can state your reward later. Right now, I need to see some of my wives."

He said this as he stood on the throne with a wide grin on his face.

"My lord, shouldn't you be preparing for the duel with Hephaestus?"

"There's no need, or do you doubt the king of Olympus?"

He didn't wait for any of them to respond as he exited the throne room. It was important that he keep the image of a strong and undefeated king.

....

[Years ago]

It was a warm summer day, with the sun shining as brightly as ever. For the humans, it was quite the hellish summer afternoon, as the heat may have been unbearable for them, but for Athena, it was a mildly warm afternoon, and she could feel a light breeze as she leisurely made her way off Olympus.

It was curiosity that got the best of her, as she heard there was a great forge master in the world below, and she wished to see him and perhaps get a weapon. As such, she went down to visit this forge master. Her journey was relatively short after all; she knew his location and place of residence.

Arriving on the mountain range, she gracefully landed near it and was greeted by a relatively average house made from stone; however, despite its averageness, she could see a sense of aesthetic to it, like it was intentionally made to look as it does.

"I thought it would be grander."

The young goddess commented as she moved closer to the house. As she neared it, she heard a faint sound of iron smashing iron. She was quite close to the house when she landed, and by itself, it doesn't look to have more than a single room, but for some reason, she only just started to hear the sound of someone forging iron.

Making it close, she arrived at the wooden door and gave it a slight knock, but unfortunately neither did the door open nor did the sound of forging stop. She waited a few seconds, but nothing changed. Feeling a bit miffed at the lack of reception, she put a bit of strength on her nock with the full intention of breaking it, but surprisingly enough, the door withstood her nock, and an impressed smile was in her face.

"as expected of a forge master"

Incidentally, that knock shocked the entire building and caused the sound of metals clashing to stop. Moments later, just as Athena was about to knock again, the door opened to reveal an unsightly creature.

"What do you want?

Athena recoiled in disgust, staggering back a few steps before uttering unflattering words.

"By Tartarus, you're hideous!"

Her words caused the creature to touch its face before its eyes opened wide, and it quickly slammed the door shut in Athena's face.

….

*BOOM*

There was a sudden explosion that shook the whole palace, rousing Athena. She opened her eyes and once again saw an unfamiliar ceiling. She flashed back to the dream she just had and palmed her face.

"Terrible first meeting"

She said she felt a bit remorseful for saying such words to Hephaestus. She did apologize for it, but that didn't make her feel any less remorseful.

"So I lost, huh?"

........

A/N: I wanted to flesh out Athena and Hephaestus's friendship before moving forward with the romance, I should have done that before this point but I guess that my failure as writter, I also didn't want the flash back to be too long as I hate flash backs myself.

I also used AI for the grammar and spelling, however it was trash it kept changing things and adding sentences it pissed me off, so sorry if you see sentences that don't makes I tried my best to remove them.

Appreciate all of you and thank you for the support