Amidst the crackling of burning firewood, the thirteen leaders of the Snake-Footed Giants sat in a circle in the center of the stockade, silently staring at the small creature confined in the tiny "birdcage" in the middle, most of their eyes filled with curiosity.
Soon after, Mimas the Imitator couldn't help but mutter,
"I never thought that by helping to catch a traitor, we'd find such a small thing in our own home. What kind of creature is this? It looks so weak; I've never seen anything like it on our island."
"Do you even need to think about it? It must be a spy sent by the Olympus to gather intelligence."
Pallas the Youth replied,
"Didn't Mother tell us thirteen recently? Our island is about to 'surface,' and we need to prepare for battle with the Olympus."
"Let them come, what's there to fear?" Enceladus the Trumpeter laughed wildly, "Those outsiders, if you really think about it, are our juniors. They just happened to be born better than us, and they dare to call themselves Olympus. We'll show them who truly rules the world when the time comes!"
"Don't underestimate them," Pallas the Youth warned. "The reason we were forced onto this island was precisely because of their fathers, those hateful Titans who came from beyond the heavens and stole our authority. But these Olympus defeated the former Titans to rise to power, so we cannot underestimate their strength."
"These problems are secondary; anyway, even if we can't win, we won't die." Porphyrion the Surging, the second-in-command of the Snake-Footed Giants, turned to Alcyoneus the Strongman, the most powerful leader among the Snake-Footed Giants, and asked, "Leader, how should we deal with this little thing?"
"Why don't we roast it and eat it?" Polybotes the Glutton, the most gluttonous, suggested, smacking his lips. "It'd be good to taste what creatures from the outside world are like."
"With so little meat, can you even taste anything?" Clytius the Magnificent, the most fastidious among the Snake-Footed Giants, couldn't help but sneer.
"You're right." Polybotes the Glutton sighed with some regret. "I wonder if the taste of a god is good."
"Alright, quiet down." At this moment, Alcyoneus the Strongman, who had been silent, finally spoke. He looked around at his compatriots and continued, "Since the Olympus have sent this spy, it means they have noticed the anomaly on our Pallene Peninsula. We must instruct our compatriots to prepare plenty of rocks and torches. Only by defeating the Olympus will we have the right to continue living."
"Yes." The twelve powerful Giants around him responded, but at that moment, a harsh burst of laughter suddenly reached their ears.
The thirteen Giants turned their gaze back to the small "birdcage" in the middle of Heroes. There, the strange creature they had captured, which resembled the Olympus but was much smaller in size, was looking at them, vigorously shaking the bars and letting out mocking laughter.
Before arriving at the Pallene Peninsula, Ares had already planned how to infiltrate the Snake-Footed Giants. The only question was whether he could understand the language of the Snake-Footed Giants.
However, after arriving here, he quietly listened to the conversations of the surrounding Snake-Footed Giants and discovered that they were using the same divine script that the Olympus had used in ancient times. He immediately burst into laughter, attracting the attention of these Snake-Footed Giants.
Once the gaze of the thirteen Snake-Footed Giants was drawn to him, Ares immediately stopped laughing and, controlling Ephialtes's body, looked at the Giants with a mocking gaze.
Enceladus the Trumpeter, with three parts strangeness and seven parts displeasure, asked Ares,
"Little thing, what are you laughing at?"
"I'm laughing at your lack of strategy, and at Gaia's lack of wisdom," Ares said disdainfully. "Do you primitive people really think you can overthrow the rule of us supreme Olympus?"
"Nonsense!" The thirteen Giants were furious. Several impulsive ones immediately raised their huge Snake-Footed or picked up mountain-sized stones, ready to smash this noisy little insect to smithereens. But just then, their leader, Alcyoneus the Strongman, shouted,
"Quiet!"
The other twelve Giants immediately quieted down. After they lowered their Snake-Footed or the stones in their hands, Alcyoneus the Strongman looked at Ares and slowly asked,
"What do you mean by that? We, the Giant Race, are protected by the earth. As long as we stand on the earth, we are immortal and indestructible. How can you Olympus fight against us?"
"Many enemies said the same thing in the past," Ares slowly said. "From Cronus, who sealed you, to later monsters like Typhon and Hydra, these things all possessed terrifying abilities or talents, but they all ultimately lost, defeated by the Olympus. The world still belongs to the Olympus. Do you know why?"
Alcyoneus the Strongman and his deputy exchanged glances, their hearts stirred, and then they showed curious expressions, asking,
"Why?"
Ares noticed the expressions of the two Snake-Footed Giants, smiled slightly in his heart, and then pretended to fall for it, pulling out an egg-sized gem from his embrace and throwing it outside the bars, pointing at it and saying,
"You can try crushing this gem."
Polybotes the Glutton narrowed his eyes, extended his index finger and thumb, and scraped on the ground for a long time before finally pinching the gem between his two fingers. He held the gem up, squinted one eye, looked at it for a while, and then said,
"You mean this is just a speck of dust?"
"Polybotes," Alcyoneus the Strongman commanded, "Do as he says."
"Alright." Polybotes the Glutton then applied a slight force with his two fingers, and the terrifying power instantly crushed the gem into powder.
Curiously, just as Polybotes the Glutton crushed the gem, a burst of light suddenly erupted from between his two fingers. Immediately after, a huge box suddenly appeared on the open ground in front of the thirteen Giants. The size and specifications of this box were comparable to the stature of these Snake-Footed Giants, astonishing the Giants present.
"What is this?" Alcyoneus the Strongman glanced at Polybotes the Glutton, then ordered, "Polybotes, open it."
Polybotes the Glutton followed his leader's words and immediately opened the box. The thirteen Giants gathered around him to look, and immediately took a deep breath.
"This is…" Enceladus the Trumpeter reached into the box and pulled out a huge axe, gripping it in his hand. He felt the axe blade, and then, with a casual swing, he chopped off a nearby mountaintop, startling the creatures that had originally lived on that mountain into a panicked scramble.
"These are excellent weapons."
Alcyoneus the Strongman gave the small creature in the birdcage a deep look, then asked,
"Is it with these things that the Olympus defeated the Titans?"
"That's right, this is what's called 'civilization'." Ares stood in the birdcage, controlling this body, and put his hands on his hips, saying, "You backward primitive people, no matter how strong a body you're given, you'll eventually be played to death by the Olympus!"