Athena, you're really dragging your feet.
Ares, controlling Perseus, flew alongside Athena, and looking at the goddess beside him, he couldn't help but think to himself.
Ares had already successfully swapped Hecate and the true Princess Andromeda, but Athena was still studying the remains of the demonized Medusa, contemplating how to use this Reinforcement Materials on her aegis.
Considering that the significance of lurking outweighed that of the aegis, Perseus ultimately returned this divine tool to Athena. The Goddess of Wisdom's strength wasn't in her power; Athena's displayed strength was only comparable to Poseidon's, and even if she had some trump cards, Ares had nothing to fear from her.
What Ares truly guarded against were the plans this woman secretly devised in her divine palace and the research she conducted, especially the two items she took from the Youxing Vanguard. Who knew what she used them for.
After regaining her aegis, Athena not only embedded Medusa's massive demonic eye into her shield but also extracted and preserved a large amount of fresh blood from the demonized Medusa's remains.
Ares paid attention to her actions. This woman extracted a large amount of fresh blood from Medusa. If it were all to be used by Dr. Asclepius for an elixir of immortality to curry favor, Ares would absolutely not believe it.
The amount she extracted was simply too great. If all of it were used for medicine, it would undoubtedly be a genuine "lethal dose," so this woman must have other uses for the blood.
Thinking of this, Ares couldn't help but recall Hydra. That Hydra was also drawn a tube of blood by Athena. For this tube of blood, Athena even went so far as to sell her charms, almost getting raped by Queen of the Underworld Persephone. This shows that Hydra's fresh blood was absolutely crucial to her.
However, no matter what Athena intended to do with this blood, her biggest trump card must still be the spiritual particles and the core extracted from the giant corpse of the Wandering Star starship. Regarding information about these things, Ares only needed to wait for the spiritual particle supercomputer in Tartarus to finish analyzing the starship core. He had a vague premonition that the day the spiritual particle supercomputer finished analyzing the information in the starship core was not far off.
Ares was deep in thought, which manifested on Perseus's face as a pensive silence. Noticing his expression, Athena thought Perseus was unwilling to marry a woman he had never met, so she gently advised him:
"Perseus, would you like to see what Princess Andromeda looks like first?"
"No, no need."
Perseus quickly replied:
"As long as it's the goddess's command, even if you ask me to marry a monster, I will."
"It won't come to that. You work for me, and I won't mistreat you." Athena said with a comforting smile, "Andromeda will definitely be a good wife, and you will surely live happily ever after."
"Mm." Perseus secretly glanced at the goddess's face, then lowered his head, a hint of unspeakable bitterness appearing on his face. Although Athena felt some pity for him, she did not soften her heart.
This was her final trial for Perseus. If Perseus truly married and had children, it would mean he wasn't the annoying brother she was wary of.
As they spoke, the goddess had already carried the demigod hero across the ocean, arriving on the land of Ethiopia. From afar, they could already see the clear and beautiful figure bound to the seaside rocks.
"Hey, hey, hey, Teacher, stop touching."
Upon seeing this scene, within the Underworld, in Hecate's room, Ares quickly informed Hecate, who was eating fruit and watching the show.
"Oh, oh."
Hecate nodded, mentally connecting to the doppelganger disguised as Princess Andromeda. Immediately, the princess, who had appeared to be swaying precariously on the reef, slowly lifted her head.
Seeing this, Athena also stopped in the clouds, lightly patted Perseus's back, and pointed to Andromeda, who was impersonated by Hecate, saying:
"Go, the princess is there."
Perseus somewhat reluctantly flew down from the clouds and approached the rocks where the princess was bound. In that brief moment, he had already adjusted his emotions, feigning the appearance of a passerby. Then, inadvertently, he "saw" the beautiful maiden bound to the rocks, was captivated by her beauty, and unconsciously approached the rocks.
Gazing at Andromeda, disguised by Hecate, Perseus asked, "Beautiful maiden, why are you bound here? What is your name, and where do you live?"
Hecate was silent for two seconds, trying hard to squeeze out some tears, but she realized that she truly had no talent for acting. Looking at her apprentice, who was feigning surprise in front of her, she only wanted to laugh.
Helpless, Hecate could only resort to Ares's pre-arranged plan. She secretly activated a certain magic attached near her nose, and instantly, a pungent smell surged from her nose. It was green mustard made by Ares using horseradish, an extremely effective tear gas.
After being stimulated by the pungent smell of mustard, Hecate's tear ducts immediately overflowed with tears. With tears in her eyes, she sniffled to avoid her nose running, and intermittently replied:
"I... I am Andromeda... the daughter of King Cepheus of Ethiopia. My mother, Queen Cassiopeia, once boasted that my beauty surpassed that of the fifty daughters of the sea god Nereus. Later, these words angered Poseidon's queen, Amphitrite, who was also a daughter of Nereus. So the sea god unleashed a great flood, submerging our country, and also sent a sea monster, devouring many people. Later, the people somehow received an oracle from Poseidon, saying that to save the country, I must be offered as a sacrifice to Poseidon. My father had no choice; under pressure, he had to lock me here."
Following the teleprompter Ares had provided, Hecate finally finished speaking the lines intermittently. As she finally breathed a sigh of relief, the calm waves suddenly surged, and a colossal dark shadow silently swam towards them from beneath the sea.
That was Poseidon's sea monster. After Athena and Perseus arrived, another one of Ares's clones, the prophet of Ethiopia, held a sacrifice to the sea god in the capital's temple and told Poseidon everything that had happened here.
Presumably, the sea god must have seen his enemies, Perseus and Athena, preparing to snatch his sacrifice, and thus hastily sent a sea monster to intercept Andromeda, who was his rightful offering.