"You're lying! Those dispatches are forged! You liar! You traitor!"
Realizing she had fallen straight into his rhetorical trap, Gorgo flew into furious action. She lunged at the betrayer, clawing at him, spat right in his smug face, and tried to snatch the intelligence reports from the Athenian nobles' hands to verify them for herself.
But the moment the Queen of Sparta made her move, the god-blood guards outside the doors surged into the hall without hesitation and dragged her away.
The bearded man's tactic, retreating first only to seize the advantage, was masterful. In an instant, all of Gorgo's earlier efforts came to nothing.
That sudden turn of betrayal also shattered the composure of the usually poised and regal Queen of Sparta. Seeing her lose control only made the lofty god-blood nobles grow colder still, and with a dismissive wave, they ordered the two women expelled from the Areopagus.
"My lords, I have also heard that after the fall of the divine ancestor Romulus, the Roman Empire, weakened though it was, still managed to hold back the Persian invasion. Even the Hun Empire failed to break through the lines of a mere band of Celtic barbarians."
"Can it really be that we Athenians, who have defeated Persia twice, cannot do the same?
"In the end, the Persians are nothing more than a pile of sand, impressive from afar, hollow underneath. They cannot withstand the crashing waves of Oceanus and pose no true threat to Greece."
"What is more, the Egyptians have already changed sides, and Ramesses II will arrive in Athens before long. We can simply join hands with Egypt and act then. There is no need for us to bear responsibility for Leonidas's recklessness as a warmonger. And there is even less reason to let all Greece bleed and die just to forge glorious deeds for Sparta!"
"Glory belongs to Athens! Greece shall belong only to the Athenians!"
At that point, the bearded man pressed his advantage, step by step dismantling the sense of crisis Gorgo had built. His words fell very pleasantly on the ears of the god-blood nobles in the hall, and many of them nodded again and again.
"Athenians, you may doubt Gorgo's intentions, but you should listen to divine guidance and trust in the revelation of fate."
"Before coming here, I obtained a Delphic oracle concerning Athens's future:
[The seventh shall soon sound, the kingdom shall descend here, the olive shall burn in raging fire, the bell of calamity shall toll in lamentation. Let the unjust remain unjust, let the filthy remain filthy. Judgment shall surely come, and each shall be repaid according to what he has done!]
"The Persians will bring irreparable disaster upon Greece. You must treat this war with the utmost caution!"
Seeing that, Helen immediately raised the oracle from the Temple of Delphi high and shouted urgently.
"A Delphic oracle? Heh. So this is the trick you Spartans used to win over the northern city-states?"
The old man wearing the Gorgon emblem sneered in disdain.
"Put away that pitiful little trick. The gods of Olympus left for Roman lands long ago. And here, in the sacred domain of the Areopagus, you think you can order us around with stale old debts like these? Foolish. Free Athenians follow only the teachings of the Three Goddesses!"
Athena, Goddess of Wisdom and War. Themis, Goddess of Order and Justice. Medusa, Goddess of Earth and Vengeance. Three marble colossi a hundred meters tall, haloed in rotating rings of light, stood around the hall and made the old man at the center seem all the more imposing and proud.
"My lords, you all know full well that Sparta has always been Athens's steadfast ally."
"Our Spartan ancestor, Heracles the Great, once received the guidance of Athena, Goddess of Wisdom, broke his chains, and became a close friend of that king of Athens. My brothers, Castor and Pollux, were also fortunate enough to become warriors under the goddess and defend the sacred domain.
"In the war against the Titans, we fought side by side to preserve the flame of civilization and defeated Velber!"
"In the Trojan War, to decide the continuation of the Age of Gods, we answered the call together, brought war to Troy, and solidified the supreme authority of the Areopagus!"
"And now, in this Greco-Persian War, Leonidas is not defending Sparta's Thermopylae. He is preserving the water and soil of all Greece, for you and for your descendants!"
"Sparta has never betrayed Greece. Yet Athens, out of selfish desire, has cast aside its former ally and is tearing down its own walls with its own hands!"
Helen bit hard against her lip, trying to use cutting words to awaken the resolve of those decrepit god-blood nobles.
But what met her was only furious cursing and cold indifference. The young woman, who had come from an age when heroes still flourished, felt her heart slowly sink to the bottom. A strange sorrow rose in her mind, and in her fury, the words burst out unrestrained.
"You are unworthy to inherit your ancestors' blood, and even less worthy of the respect of the Greek people. I'll wait for the day the Persians cut off your heads!
"Athenians, Greece's future will not be destroyed by ignorance and weakness. It will be ruined by your arrogance and conceit!"
"How dare you!"
"Get out!"
In an instant, the old men who had been half asleep erupted into furious uproar, shouting angrily from all sides.
"She dares profane this sacred hall and speak such vicious curses! This is blasphemy against the gods. They should be executed!"
The bearded traitor kept fanning the flames, even going so far as to offer that venomous suggestion.
But just as he was about to act amid the chaos, his chest suddenly went cold. His eyes bulged, his throat let out a strangled gasp, and clutching at the abdomen now soaked red with filthy blood, he convulsed and collapsed to the floor.
"Pah! Traitor!"
At some point, the Queen of Sparta had snatched a short sword from the waist of one of the god-blood guards. Seizing the moment, she had driven it straight into the betrayer who had sold out their movements and bitten them hard just as they had been on the verge of persuading the Areopagus.
Those pampered old men had never seen such a savage scene. And the glaring blood spreading across the white marble made their faces turn green, then pale, their cheeks stinging as if they had been slapped hard.
"Guards! Guards!"
Shrill cries rose from dozens of seats at once. Receiving the order, a squad of god-blood guards filed into the chamber, threw down their shields, drew their short swords, and advanced, ready to subdue the two audacious Spartan women by force.
"Buzz! Buzz!"
But just as the guards charged forward, the ether in the air began to tremble violently. One flying Rune after another whirled around Gorgo and Helen, knocking away every suppression spell and every weapon hurled at them, while two dazzling pillars of light shot into the sky.
"Rebellion! Rebellion! They dare storm the council hall of the Areopagus! Seize them, dead or alive!"
The old man wearing the Gorgon emblem on his chest was beside himself with rage. Two more squads of guards, drawn by the commotion, formed up into battle lines and resonated their ether as they closed in on Gorgo and Helen at the center. Outside them, reinforcing Magi and priests continuously wore down the protective spell surrounding the two women.
The old men in the hall stared at the pair with icy eyes, their gazes full of contempt.
As the Runes around Helen and Gorgo shattered and dimmed one by one, and the outer film of light was almost gone, a sudden violent tremor raced from the foot of the mountain all the way to the summit.
Someone was assaulting the sacred domain of the Areopagus. Had they gone mad?
The entire assembly looked at one another, their expressions full of disbelief.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
In the blink of an eye, a terrifying red-black tide of ether tore through dozens of layered protective barriers, surged all the way to the mountainside, and became a baleful blaze that stained half the sky.
At that instant, the first six of the Twelve Zodiac Temples, Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, and Virgo, all collapsed in succession. The river of stars layered above the Areopagus burst one after another like bubbles being pricked.
Then came repeated sonic booms in the air and the brilliant patterns of magical formations breaking apart. With every step that red-black radiance advanced, the stars along its path dimmed and went out.
The eighty-eight constellations, powerful enough to contend with gods, lasted less than ten breaths before falling completely silent.
Under everyone's dumbstruck gaze, a languid figure walked leisurely toward the assembly hall, surrounded by six beautiful women as if out for a stroll.
Behind them, a group of dust-covered Saints followed cautiously.
Bang!
Just as the god-blood guards along the way were about to step forward and block him, a stone carving shaped like a city brick crashed heavily into the plaza. As the dust settled, the guards froze in alarm, standing there at a loss.
"Guards! Guards! And the warriors of the Twelve Zodiac Temples too, what are you all even for? Why didn't you stop that monster?!"
The old man bearing the Gorgon emblem suppressed his fear, grabbed a soldier who had lowered both sword and shield, and roared in fury.
"The City Builder... that is the emblem of the City Builder..."
The soldier stammered out his answer. As he instinctively stepped aside, the ancient warding stone, carved with the Gorgon and olive branch, was revealed in full, giving off an obscure, weighty presence.
The Builder of Athens. The Pandion family!