Inside the temple, the food and wine, blending foreign flavors with local specialties, let everyone briefly forget the war before them as they ate to their hearts' content.
After surviving several crises together, the group had developed a certain rapport. Each gathered with those they knew best in groups of two or three, chatting casually between seats. The atmosphere was remarkably harmonious.
Once the wine had gone around and every dish had been tasted, the Nymphs and Valkyries serving outside the hall cleared away the messy cups and plates. Samael's expression then sharpened, and he opened the main topic.
"Everyone, the decisive battle is close. To make sure we understand our enemies as much as possible, the Academy of Athens has combined the warriors' descriptions with field observations and drawn portraits of the Persian heroes. I'll explain their most likely True Names, origins, and corresponding weaknesses."
Medea, attending at his side, raised the Staff of the Dark Moon and lightly waved it. Using the Ether floating in the air, she drew three rows of three-dimensional figures in midair and added written explanations beside them.
Mm. They're practically identical.
Samael glanced over and gave the Goddess of Witchcraft a teasing look in secret, the corner of his mouth lifting.
Looks like Medea has been working on her figurine-making hobby in private. Her grasp of three-dimensional composition is surprisingly thorough.
Then Samael gathered his thoughts and began briefly introducing and analyzing the Persian heroes in the upper, middle, and lower rows.
First were the figures in the top row: the two Persian kings, Darius I and Xerxes, the great hero Arash, the arcane mage Scheherazade, and Darius III, whose portrait had turned black to indicate that he had died in battle.
These were basically old acquaintances from the earlier Greco-Persian Wars. The Greek and Roman sides of the Pan-Hellenic Alliance already understood them fairly well, so Samael did not dwell on them for long.
However, the Ancient Serpent's intelligence was far more precise and thorough. Besides the information already known on the surface, he even listed each person's personality flaws, the foundational attributes that could restrain them, their skills, the divine words needed to activate their Noble Phantasms, and even some little-known negative effects that followed their use.
For example, Scheherazade's fear of death and easily shaken nature, the legend that Arash's body would shatter after firing his full-force arrow, and the internal struggle between the two Persian kings. Whether for pre-battle arrangements or combat itself, all of this information could be used as an advantage.
As the explanation proceeded in clear, simple terms, everyone present cast off any carelessness they had held and listened seriously, asking questions from time to time so they could prepare for different situations.
Still, information on Persia's veteran heroes had already been largely uncovered by the Greek and Roman intelligence organizations, and there was not much new that needed special emphasis. Combined with the defection of the Assassin Order, Samael quickly finished that section and turned his gaze to the three targets in the second row.
These were the three Indian deities, Karna, Rama, and Ganesha, who appeared as the second wave of Persian reinforcements after the old Persian heroes.
According to rumor, they had crossed the sea for some reason and been recruited by Xerxes.
What deserved even more attention was that all three possessed combat strength among the very top rank of demigod heroes.
Among them, Karna possessed golden armor that even gods could hardly violate, as well as a lightning spear capable of annihilating a god in a single strike.
The golden armor's especially troublesome feature was its ability to reduce all hostile interference, including physical attacks, Magecraft, curses, and other conceptual interference, nullifying ninety percent of their effect and leaving Karna with only one-tenth of the damage.
In addition, the armor not only had astonishing defensive power, but could also recover from damage suffered in ordinary combat through its self-healing function. Combined with Karna's own immortality, its effects were absurdly powerful.
However, the strongest fortress was often breached from within. This Divine Construct could not defend against attacks generated internally. But as the son of the Sun God, Karna could produce flames inside his own body to rapidly burn away and purify such threats.
Therefore, defeating this Indian cheat was extremely difficult.
For this, Samael's targeted strategy was either to counter Magic with Magic, using Achilles and several other cheats with similar immortality to hold Karna down and buy time, bypassing that problem first while attacking Persia's other supports. As long as they kept him occupied, it would work.
That was what the Thermopylae defenders had done before.
Or they could strike from within. The potent poison prepared by the God of Medicine and Scáthach's anti-Divinity specialty attacks should both produce decent results.
Or they could exploit a weakness of human nature by first capturing the little girl possessed by the elephant-headed god Ganesha and forcing him to submit.
After several rounds of discussion, everyone still decided to follow the usual plan. Achilles, who already had experience fighting him, would lure Karna toward the Sea of Chaos and hold him there. Taking a hostage to threaten him did not quite fit their heroism.
As for that little shut-in elephant-headed god, if the girl could step out of her tent, she would be left to Nero. With the True Form Machine God in hand, their own troublesome child would not suffer much.
"But compared to Karna, that boy named Rama is the truly terrifying one."
When the three Indian deities were mentioned, Kukulkan spun an empty wine cup in her hand. The smile on her face faded, and a trace of gravity appeared between her brows.
"Of course. He is the incarnation of Vishnu, God of Order and one of India's Trimurti. His rank is in no way inferior to the Four Sun Gods of the Maya who created the world."
Samael's eyes flickered as he nodded in agreement, revealing the true identity of the King of Kosala in a single sentence. He also roughly recounted the stories of Karna and Rama from India's two great epics, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana.
In those stories, Rama had a legend in India of destroying three thousand worlds with a single arrow.
Although there was no shortage of Indian self-exaggeration in that claim, as the supreme god of India who governed order, he was at least an equal opponent to Kukulkan. Because of that, their many clashes had always ended without a clear victor.
Since she had so much experience fighting him, the task of intercepting Rama fell to Kukulkan once again.
"Tch. That child is quite stubborn, and he has a strong sense of self-loathing too. He's the type big sister is bad at handling…"
Quetzalcoatl propped her cheek in her hand and sighed helplessly. But in the next instant, she looked up at Samael, her smile blooming as a faint blush spread across her face.
"But since it's Samael's request, there's no problem. After all, Samael, you're much sunnier and more to my taste…"
Sunny?
Everyone looked toward a certain Sage King who was coughing dryly while flipping through the materials, wearing a sinister smile as he clearly plotted in his head how to trick the enemy heroes. The corners of their mouths twitched slightly.
Do you have a problem with that?
Feeling the special favor coming from big sister Quetzalcoatl, the Ancient Serpent straightened his back and looked up boldly. His cross-star pupils opened and closed as he swept his gaze around the hall.
Fine. You're sunny, wise, and as pure as a lily. Happy now?
The friends and beauties who knew him inside and out all responded with teasing expressions, silently grumbling in their hearts.
The three Indian deities now had opponents. After discussion, Samael's decision for the battle strategy was to hold them back as much as possible. After all, their ties to Persia were not necessarily that deep. There was no need to force a deathmatch and fight them until both sides were destroyed.
Next came the final seven who had appeared.